3 years away from home
3 Years Away from Home
Dateline — Somewhere Over Europe.

So on the 10th of August I officially left home to further my personal development and ventures — if you’re not yet familiar with that article, you can check it out here.
- 721 Uber/Grab drives
- over 150 flights
- over 130 different bookings via booking.com
a quick overview of places visited so far.

What was the benefit of living for 3 years abroad?
The main thing you learn in a time away like this is to be patient and use your time more effectively, because you are constantly pushed outside of your comfort zone, especially in those times you are visiting new places.
Make sure to check your health
What do I mean by this? Well, I mean to pay attention to where you eat and what you eat, especially in Asian countries; there are many times where it might not be so clean. The last thing you need is to be knocked out for 3–7 days because of a bacterial infection!. By simply staying attentive and using some caution, I was able to reduce sick time and the number of occurrences down to 2–3 per year — in the first few years, it was more common for this to happen up to 4–6 times.
Travel in style, top value and always minimalistic
This one was the most important one for me. The minimalist part resulted in a stressless travel, but also in realising what you really need throughout your day, week, month, and year. I have cut my regular habit of consumption of the things I need down from 70% (2014–2015) to 20% (2017–2018). It wasn’t easy, but trust me — it can be done!
What was important before?
- fancy cars, fancy things, stuff I don’t need
- abandoned any intentional attention to health
What is important now?
- increase zeros on your bank account
- build your assets
- stay healthy
When I am talking about travel in style, I’m referring to suiting up for your flights. Trust me! It can be a real deal maker or breaker to help you get upgraded for free from time to time.
Next most important thing — nearly as important as travelling in style: become a minimalist. It works out as well as finding a good deal on flights and will satisfy your sales heart.
How do you stay productive?
I have recognised that depending on your travel rhythm and pace, it’s important to make sure you eliminate as many time wasters as possible.
- hydrate right after you wake up, with a minimum of 0.5–1L water
- rituals (check out Anna if you want to know more about for example morning rituals)
- what do I wear today?
- what do I eat today?
- how to do/organize laundry
- where to work today (fast and stable Internet)?
- hydration throughout the day
- workout schedule
- off-time / breaks
Working with this as your bare bones guide will give you a good outline; you’ll have balance to get shit done on a daily basis. If you also want to monitor how productive you were and where you tend to waste time, try using a time tracking service such as toggl.com. It can be quite eye-opening.
P.S. Personally, I’m still waiting for toggl to offer some cool reporting dashboard to identify patterns (i.e. when are you most productive, how many times a task was stopped close to 1 hour — as this is my usual break time per focused task — or many other cool intelligence data, which they would have already based on collection methods)
Best flying experiences during the year
Bali — Singapore KLM Business class upgrade 100 Euro (this is especially worth it if you do Singapore — Bali)
Scoot Biz Singapore to Athens (If you are lucky and good you can scoot in style with Scootbiz on a cheap ticket)
Oman Air Economy Kuala Lumpur — Zurich
Air Asia is always a good deal if you upgrade to Emergency Seats
And of course, all other Gulf airlines (Emirates, Etihad, Qatar) are always fun to fly with.
Worst experiences
Turkish Airlines — Singapore to Munich
VietJet — Singapore to Ho Chi Minh
Spending
Based on n26 the most things I have spent money on have been:
Thanks to n26 reporting tool
- Travel
- Accommodation
- Food
- Insurance
- Others
P.S. I moved to n26 being my primary bank in 2017, along with Transferwise and Revolut.
How to keep up with the fam and friends?
Of course, this is always a priority,t but these days with iMessage, WhatsApp, FaceTime and your mom following you on Instagram, it’s easy to maintain daily interaction with your inner circle. Make sure they know you think of them every day, ensuring you can enjoy the time with them when you visit back home as much as possible.
Would I recommend it to others?
Yes. In the end, it’s still a good thing to do while you’re young and single, so you can fully focus on building your team and empire. Mind you, if you don’t want to invest a minimum of 3 years towards it, don’t do it. It takes a lot of time and patience to build a business. But when I look back since 2010, it’s always been a 3-year cycle; it’s always brought good things, but also a few negative things. But to be honest, that’s standard in an entrepreneurs life.
This article was typed during my Norwegian flight from Singapore to London. Big thanks to the cool crew who made the cheap Premium Upgrade a really enjoyable flight of about 12 hours. (DI7408)
If you want to check it out what we are building, do it here.
