Use Mobility to Win Back Your Time + The Real Cost of Living in Bali
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Way back in 2007, when I was putting in 60+ hour weeks in the office, 20+ hours behind the wheel of my car, and checking emails 24 hours a day, it was the idea of winning back my time that struck me the most while reading the 4 Hour Work Week.
Considering cash, mobility, and time as an interrelated system was incredibly powerful for me. As an employee, I thought I was working purely for cash. Post 4HWW I realized I could trade time for more mobility and cash, or trade my mobility for more cash and time, etc…
I knew immediately the currency I wanted to maximize was time.
One of the most popular trades people make after reading the book is trading in their time and cash for mobility– or “traveling.”
Trading mobility and time for cash is “hustling.”
Trading mobility and cash for time is “building.”
If you are an aspiring entrepreneur, travel is a dangerous (but seductive) choice.
4HWWers who respond to reading the book by jumping off on a round the world trip are generally delaying entrepreneurial ambitions.
If you choose to travel before you’ve built a scalable source of cash flow, you might have a few years having the time of your life– but when your bank account bottoms out, you will likely find yourself back in a job.
By squandering your time and cash, you could be giving up and a once in a lifetime opportunity to develop skills that could give you a great deal of personal freedom for decades to come.
Something else bothers me about the travel choice. It has a lot in common with a consumer mindset. Since you have enough cash to go out and see the whole world, you’ll go do it now, rather than building a lifestyle and a business that would make that kind of spending– in both time and cash– sustainable.
Not altogether a bad thing– just not my bag.
If I had to make a bet, I’d say it’s the people who value their time, and it’s very close cousin, their work, who are most successful at making the lifestyle work.
That’s why I’ve always been interested in the concept of baselining.
Baselining = Building
Baselining is moving to a controlled cost environment where you have a fairly clear idea of how long your cash runway is. Your runway in months is your savings, minus your emergency fund, divided by your monthly expenses. For example– since it costs about $1000 a month to live in Bali, if you have $6000.00 in savings, your cash runway is about 6 months.
I love having debates about the tradeoffs of baselining in different locations. Me and the TMBA boys are currently having it out about Bali vs. Philippines– you can see my earlier post here about baselining in Puerto Galera, Philippines at Badladz resort.
So without any more blabbing… here’s what I think it could cost for an internet marketer to come live here in Bali. Prices are quoted monthly. You could be way more hardcore than what I’ve listed below, and I know people who do it. I didn’t go this way with the budget– the reason is that most internet lifestyle guys I’ve met just don’t go hardcore. They spend too much time drinking coffee at cafes and blowing off steam in clubs in the evening.
To reflect that, I’ve built a lot of fluff in to the budget below, with the exception of your international travel outside of affordable Singapore visa runs. If you’ve got the freakin’ eye of the tiger you can do way better than this. Getting bare bottom prices on stuff (reducing your cash outlay) generally takes a lot of time. No shit!? :)
How Much Does it Cost to Live in Bali? (see video of affordable apartment below)
Basic monthly expenses, with a lot of fluff and luxuries built in:
Centrally located apartment: $150.00 USD (if you live in the southern peninsula, half the price, but not much to do…)
Electricity bill for apartment: $30.00 USD (if you install an A/C, if not $10.00 USD)
Wireless 3G internet FOB: $60.00 USD (Max3, unlimited service @ 768mps down… faster speeds available at limited usage)
The inevitable WIFI cafe camp-out sessions: $180.00 USD
3 Local Meals a Day: $264.00 USD
Your caffeine addiction: $141.00 USD
Honda Automatic Motorbike $60.00 USD (note you could always get a push bike)
Your lush party lifestyle: $150.00 USD
Fuel: $17.00 USD
Visa: $30.00 USD (Get a 6 month social visa before hand, you’ll need to run to Singapore every 6 months).
Run to Singapore every 6 months (amortized): $35.00 USD
TOTAL: $1,117.00 USD
Video example of an affordable apartment in a top location.
I started making this video for the folks in my mastermind group, but I figured I’d throw it up on the blog after so much interest in my last post about Bali. The type of apartment shown on the video is called a “Kos.” They are primarily marketed to Indonesians which is why the rates are so good and the shower water is so cold.
In the video you can see some brief shots of our house here in Bali. If you’d like to see a detailed home tour, and what you can get for $1500 USD monthly here in Bali, check out this post. I’m experimenting with doing more video stuff here at the blog, which is why there is all the over the top stuff. I’m basically just toying around with iMovie. I even got Final Cut Pro X now, but I’m a little intimidated to start using it.
Some auxiliary expenses / prices to consider:
Large Bintang beer at store: $2.50 USD
Large Bintang beer at bar: $3.00 USD
Cocktail at jet-set style bar: $10.00 USD
2 liters of Diet Coke: $2.00 USD
High speed wired internet service to house or apartment: $150.00USD, 1.5MEG down, 12 month contract.
Rack of Pork Ribs at Naughty Nuri’s: $14.00 USD
Bottle of wine at restaurant: $35.00 USD+ (spirits are heavily taxed in Bali)
High quality cup of coffee: $2.25 USD
Western style gourmet burger / fries meal or similar: $8.00 USD
2 Veg, 2 Protein Rice Lunch at local restaurant: $1.50 USD
1 hour professional massage: $6.00 USD
Taxi ride to airport: $3.00 USD
Round trip flight to Singapore: $120 USD.
Monthly rent on 3BR villa in central area: $1300 USD (paid in advance annually).
Full time cleaning maid: $110 USD monthly.
Average round trip air faire to the US: $1400.00
Sure, those are hypotheticals… what about you?
Our estimated running costs for the TMBA compound in Seminyak, Bali, is $25,000 USD annually. That includes all of the expenses for the interns like meals, household stuff, and the help. The house itself was 150,000,000 Rupiah for annual rental + daily gardening staff. I pull $900 USD from the company monthly to cover my local expenses, which basically consist of Diet Coke, Bintang, good coffee, and local food.
I’m interested to hear your favorite baselining locations.
Cheers from the compound,
Dan
PS, we’ve got 2 new interns selected and moving in to the house as we speak. Congrats to Simon Stock and Aamir Chistie. I’m looking forward to big things from both of these guys.