How to Escape the Cold Winter: Budget and Preparations

How to Escape the Cold Winter: Budget and Preparations

There is a trend in cold countries of Europe to escape winter and to go somewhere warmer it’s easier done if you’re a digital normad but what if you have a nof a job that ties you to a specific location how would that work then how to organize it and how much

Money would you spend I live in the Netherlands an awesome place to be great quality of life amazing education very safe but there is a big butt the weather around November and it last approximately until March it’s so gloomy and gray that you’re just like okay

Shoot me now for this reason Some people prefer to leave the Netherlands during this time and I don’t blame them I’m actually one of them I just got back from Southeast Asia where I spent two months to amazing month it’s the first time in my life that I did something

Like this that I escaped the cold winter and just like you I had a lot of questions so let me share my experience starting with how to prepare and organize it the first thing I did is I started researching destinations I considered everything starting with Madagascar to South

America for the Dutch one of the popular destinations is the Caribbean but we decided to go to Indonesia and the Philippines actually during our winter it’s a rainy season there and that’s a very important factor to consider what kind of climate and weather going to be

There for when you want want to go another important thing to keep in mind is the time zone I personally prefer to wake up and have some time to myself to have a quiet morning which is possible when you’re in the Philippines or Indonesia but if you are in the

Caribbeans for example you wake up and the Netherlands has already been waiting for you so you really need to get to work immediately here it’s important to understand what type of Rhythm works for you and what it’s like in the place you want to go so for example in the

Philippines and or in the India it gets light very early and at 7:00 a.m. it feels like the sun is just burning but then it gets dark early as well so at 5:00 p.m. it’s going to be already dark I know that for a lot of people it’s

Important to have a long evening and they want to have some sun during the evening and for some people it’s not that important so what lifestyle would fit you your work is a big decisive factor in the Netherlands you’re not allowed to work from the outside of the

Netherlands for more than 6 months plus there are some companies rules for example some Dutch companies don’t allow to work from outside of the Netherlands at all for whatever reason basically at this stage you need to understand your company’s policy regarding this and discuss with your manager about what’s

Possible personally I just had an honest conversation with my boss explaining that the Dutch winter just doesn’t do me well it really affects my mental health my well-being my productivity and I want to be out in a warmer country during the winter month once it’s sorted out with

Your employer I suggest you start with booking the tickets as much in advance as possible because it’s just going to be cheaper this way when looking to book a place to stay make sure that it has a good internet one way to check this is to read through reviews and also reach

To your host asking them if this place is suitable for work one last thing about preparation and organization is that it’s going to get very hectic before you go just couple of weeks before you go going to be very very hectic does it get hectic for you when

You go on a usual vacation here multiply it by 100 or well maybe by 10 but it’s going to get very very stressful you need to think about everything before you go and one two 3 weeks before you leave your place is going to get so messy it’s going to look like an

Explosion of the nuclear bomb when we were leaving through this this mass for the past couple of weeks I was thinking to myself this is exactly the reason why not everyone does it now let’s move to the part two which is what it’s really like to work from abroad we see all this

Instagram images and videos working from a swimming pool and dreaming and living the dream life but what it’s really like to work from abroad I want to paint a very realistic picture I think it’s important to start with understanding your why why you’re doing it and what are your goals because otherwise it

Might lead to disappointment let me explain we laugh the Netherlands because of the winter and it’s not like oh it’s cold just not comfortable no I feel the winter in every cell of my body I’m literally getting depressed I lose my usual drive I’m not as jubilant and

Radiant anymore I’m not as productive so it really messes up with my mental health I’m fine with working not no problem at all but I just want to be somewhere where the sun is so for me it was really important to have a routine that is somewhat related to being

Outside so I would wake up every day and before my day starts I would go swim in the ocean read stretch swim in the swimming pool potentially again and then start my day in the Netherlands let’s be honest it’s not very possible now I’m back I was working yesterday from home

And whenever I finished my task I would look through the window hoping to go for a walk and I saw it was just raining raining raining and it was so gray so you end up being stuck at your place for the whole day not seeing the Sun and not

Even going outside this is really not good for me and for my mental health in the Philippines I had a completely different routine and even if I had to stay a little bit longer in the evening to compensate for the time difference it really wasn’t an issue for me and that’s

Something that you should also probably have in mind that if you go to a remote location where the time difference is huge maybe you should be prepared to be a little bit flexible I digressed a little bit but coming back to the goals why it’s important to set goals at the

Beginning because there is a flip side to this whole story which is you’re coming to a new location imagine you’re excited you’ve never been here and you want to check it out you want to see what it has to offer but but you end up being locked at your hotel or at where

Wherever you’re staying for 8 hours a day you’ll basically have only weekends to explore which is by the way super fun to spend a weekend on an island completely nature versus for example how we do it in the Netherlands is just we go out for a party or go to the gym so

Spending your the nature somewhere on the beach completely recharges you it’s it’s it’s really it cannot be compared to anything else where I’m going with this is that you might be experiencing fer and that’s why it’s so important to set goals at the beginning and understand why you’re escaping the the

European winter and if you like me if you’re doing this to improve your mental health and to be somewhere Sunny you know from the beginning that you’re going to miss out on a lot of things but what you’re gaining from this experience is completely worth the hustle now let’s

Talk about the burning question which is how much would you spend it’s very hard for me to say because it ultimately depends on where you’re going and how you want to spend your time but very rough estimate would be expect to spend around €1,000 for two people for two

Month it could be a couple of thousands EUR more if you want to treat yourself and do something a bit more luxurious or it could be a couple of thousands EUR less if you want to go on a budget anyways whatever you are thinking of spending at 10 15% send to it because

Plans get changed and even if you’re thinking that my plans are solid I PL everything in advance trust me you likely having a blind spot what happened to us is that we were in pangl the Philippines and we were planning to go to sikor soon and the host canceled on

Us because of the recent storm and the the storm damaged some roof or something like that and basically he could not host us anymore so we had to cancel our tickets buy new tickets and book a new place everything very last minutes so I strongly suggest mentally and financially prepare yourself for

Situations like this and don’t treat them as oh Jesus it’s a disaster what I’m going to do but more like oh yeah that’s part of the deal it just comes as a package two more tips before living on your vation check with your landlord if you can sublot your current place

Because it’s going to save you a lot of money and tip number two is often on platforms such as nbnb you get a discount for a long stay so if money is an issue perhaps consider staying in one place for 3 to 5 weeks instead of splitting your stay between several

Places this is the first video of this nature so let me know if this is interesting or if you have any questions I will be making more videos about my travels where I will share the mistakes I’ve made what went really well and some beautiful locations that you might

Consider for your next trip so hit that notification button subscribe to my channel and I will see you in the next video Bye

↓ Open for more!

Thinking about escaping winter and working overseas? In this video, I’ll cover how to budget, prepare, and navigate life when working abroad during the winter months. From finding affordable accommodation to packing essentials, I’ll help make your winter abroad a success!

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Contents:
00:00 Intro
01:02 Preparations
04:08 Working from abroad
07:27 Financials
09:17 Ontro

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