Imagine leaving behind your nine-to-five desk job and setting out on a journey around the world with no end date. Now imagine being able to afford this fanciful adventure by working remotely the entire time. This has to be too good to be true, right? For one couple from San Francisco, it’s not.
Eric and Allison Bieller have been travelling for almost nine months now. The married couple had been living in San Francisco for the past five years working at different start-up companies when they realized something was missing.
“A little more adventure was what we needed,” Allison, 29, told CTV News Channel from Kankakee, Illinois. “We thought about it for the better part of a year and we were just like, ‘let’s do it.’”
Eric, 30, says the pair was bit by the “travel bug” a few years ago. He said they realized they were going to have to do this trip whether they liked it or not because it was in their blood now.
The Biellers have been able to sustain their nomadic lifestyle by working on the internet. Eric teaches a course online and does some freelance projects. Allison manages the couple’s blog, which they hope to monetize soon. She is also working on acquiring some paid writing jobs. Eric said he came up with the idea to do this from the company he started back in San Francisco that helped connect people working remotely.
“I started to see all these other people that were living this digital nomad lifestyle working from anywhere,” he said. “I was like, ‘Wow. That’s exactly what I want to do with my life.’”
According to their blog, the Biellers have visited 17 countries so far, including China, France, Sweden and Mexico. Allison said the most “epic” place they’ve been to was Iceland.
“We did what’s called the Golden Circle where we saw geysers, hot springs and glaciers,” she said. “It was amazing.”
Allison said their other favourite places were Mexico City, which she said was the opposite of Iceland, and Austria.
When asked if they ever get homesick, the couple said they do miss their home and families sometimes but they try to not think about it too much and focus on where they are at that moment. Allison did admit she misses baking, however.
“We stay in a lot of Airbnbs and they never have baking equipment,” she said. “That’s what I miss most.”
As for how long they can keep this up, the Biellers said they intend to keep travelling for as long as they can.
“It’s kind of open-ended right now,” Eric said. “We really don’t like planning. We’ve found that’s what really gives us excitement in life.”
