Archive for September, 2007
What Documents Do You Need On The Road?
Living as a LIP and not having a cosy little home office complete with filing cabinets or in some cases piles of paperwork strewn across your desk, requires you to carry all your important documents with you.
Some of the key, one-off documents we leave at ‘home’ with relatives or locked away in our storage room. [...]
Living as a LIP and not having a cosy little home office complete with filing cabinets or in some cases piles of paperwork strewn across your desk, requires you to carry all your important documents with you.
Some of the key, one-off documents we leave at ‘home’ with relatives or locked away in our storage room. The following ones however, come with us, both as hard documents & scanned copies on our laptops…
Travel-related documents - passports, tickets, boarding passes, a print-out of all our itineraries, a print-out of our travel insurance, driving licences and photocopies of everything.
Business-related documents - such as the bearer shares for our corporation and a copy of the certificate of incorporation.
Property & Possessions-related documents - like receipts for our laptops, Camcorder, Ipod, Camera and anything else of value so we can prove we don’t need to pay duty on anything whenever we return to the UK for a visit.
I’ll be listing a whole lot more in the Facebook group, Lip Living, so join me there for the full list…
LIP vs Traveller: Friends or Foes?
“So, when do you start your year travelling around the world?” is a question I’ve been asked quite often by the select few who know about our LIP plans.
I’ve been quick to point out (sometimes too hastily) that we’re not just travelling to places such as New Zealand and Brazil but we’re also creating a [...]
“So, when do you start your year travelling around the world?” is a question I’ve been asked quite often by the select few who know about our LIP plans.
I’ve been quick to point out (sometimes too hastily) that we’re not just travelling to places such as New Zealand and Brazil but we’re also creating a viable and sustainable online business that will give us the monthly income to enjoy more than just a backpacker lifestyle but a LIP lifestyle!
It’s not that we have anything against travelling in itself or the image of a traveller. Indeed, being able to afford to travel the world without having to work sounds like bliss to me! My perception is that even travelling in itself is short term in nature…perhaps ranging from 4 weeks to 18 months. Traditional thinking dictates that it’s something you do in between school and university or in between jobs. It means that “normal” life will always be somthing that you come back to after your travels have been completed.
Claudia and I are aiming to make living in fantastic locations and working on projects we love doing at our own pace our “normal” lives. Which means that there are no “promotion-risking career breaks” or “must-do travelling before the kids arrive” or “I wish I had the time to go there but…”.
On the face of it, what I’m writing may seem like wishful thinking, even fool hardy, to those who aren’t aware that a LIP lifestyle is not only possible but sustainable as a life choice.
However, I do believe that when people hear about and see with their own eyes that friends, colleagues and family members are choosing to live their own personalised LIP dreams mindsets may change!
More Unexpected Benefits of LIP Living
I posted 2 months ago when we were last in Grenada about some of the unexpected benefits of LIP living.
Here are a couple more with a bit of a housekeeping slant…
Never having to clean again!
The fully furnished places we rent usually come complete with cleaning included. As a former ‘clean freak’ the cleaning is rarely [...]
I posted 2 months ago when we were last in Grenada about some of the unexpected benefits of LIP living.
Here are a couple more with a bit of a housekeeping slant…
Never having to clean again!
The fully furnished places we rent usually come complete with cleaning included. As a former ‘clean freak’ the cleaning is rarely up to my high standards <grin> but I can think of plenty of things I’d rather be doing than cleaning our apartment, especially whilst living in the Caribbean. This is just one more example of how cost effective LIP living can be…compare £500-£1000 per month for a fully furnished, 1-2 bedroom apartment with all utilities including internet & weekly cleaning with your monthly mortgage/rent in somewhere like London or New York which can top £1,000 excluding utilities & additional extras like a weekly cleaner.
Clothes dry really, really quickly.
Living in somewhere hot & breezy like Grenada means clothes dry in about 20 minutes of being hung up on the line. Not only does it save on electricity with no need for a dryer, but it means the pain of doing the laundry is over and done with in about an hour tops - no rotating your laundry, turning things over & over to make sure everything dries properly and no waiting several days for it all to dry…or if you have a dryer, no static-y clothes sticking together when you try & fold them.
How about those for even more inspiring reasons to become a LIP?!?
LIP Health Tips
As a former health coach, staying fit & healthy is something that is often at the forefront of my mind. Fortunately that doesn’t stop me from enjoying the local beer, fried plantain chips and knock ‘em dead spicy rum punches here in Grenada once in a while!!!
These are some of my top tips for staying [...]
As a former health coach, staying fit & healthy is something that is often at the forefront of my mind. Fortunately that doesn’t stop me from enjoying the local beer, fried plantain chips and knock ‘em dead spicy rum punches here in Grenada once in a while!!!
These are some of my top tips for staying fit & healthy on your LIP journey:
1) Take a small first aid kit with you which includes pain killers, antihistamines, any prescription medication you require, small ice packs, assortment of plasters, stretchy bandage, some duct tape/medical tape and if you are going to remote locations where the facilities are less than ideal, you might like to consider packing more ‘hard core’ equipment like a sterile scalpel and some needles.
2) When it comes to trying out the local delicacies give your system a few days, perhaps a week or two to acclimatise to all the other changes you’ve thrown at it (stress of travel, different climate, etc.) before you guzzle down the new & strange foods available to you (this is expecially important if you already have digestive issues such as IBS, frequent bloating or the like).
3) If you do have chronic health issues such as IBS, back pain, allergies, migraines, PMS or anything else which you suffer through usually but can foresee it being challenging to continue to suffer as a LIP, I would recommend working with someone to get rid of any chronic health issues before you leave (or even whilst you’re away). If you want any recommendations for good ones, leave me a comment I know plenty… I coach them!
4) Supplement your diet with high quality nutritional supplements. Whilst one of the benefits of LIP living is that you may get to eat a very varied diet in different locations, taking good quality supplements will help ensure you always get the full range of nutrients your body needs throughout.
5) Be aware of falling into that "holiday feeling" whilst you’re living the LIP life…you know the one, where you allow yourself to indulge in things you wouldn’t necessarily do normally because you feel in the holiday spirit. This goes for exercise too…try & maintain your typical exercise routine wherever you are in the world - an active life is truly one of the most effective ways to maintain your health.
6) Give your body time to relax & recover from stress. The LIP life is not always an easy one and the stress of moving, travelling and planning can catch up with you if you let it. Listen to your body and if it gives you any warning signs, take notice and take some time out to recharge & re-energise.
