YFP Bonus Episode: How A Couple Left Their Careers to Travel the World
On this Bonus Episode of the Your Financial Pharmacist Podcast, Tim Ulbrich, founder of Your Financial Pharmacist, interviews Matt and Nikki Javit from Passport Joy about their journey of walking away from their successful careers to travel the world full-time. Matt and Nikki talk about what inspired their journey, how they are managing to do this financially and travel tips and hacks they have learned along the way.
Summary of Episode
Matt and Nikki knew that they wanted to travel full-time before retirement and had been dreaming about the day they could do so. They took several exotic international trips together through Matt’s career as a technology services sales professional and met so many others traveling the world. This inspiration eventually sparked Matt to purchase a one-way ticket to Santiago, Chile turning their dreams into a reality.
Prior to their departure 18 months ago, Nikki worked as a clinical pharmacist for a number of years. She realized that she was solely identifying herself by her pharmacy career and came to the understanding that there was more to life than her job. Although she invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into her pharmacy career, she knows she will be able to step back into it if and when she feels ready. She hasn’t stopped reading and learning even though she isn’t practicing. Matt also left behind a successful sales career and is confident of an easy transition when he’s ready to return to the workforce.
Matt and Nikki worked diligently to pay off their student loan debt, as well as other debt they had accumulated, and saved so they could travel without thinking about any financial burdens. They travel with a set budget which allows them to explore places all around the world while connecting with different cultures, volunteering their time and, of course, making forever memories.
About Today’s Guests
Matt and Nikki Javit are currently traveling the world full-time with just a single backpack each after leaving the US in February 2017. They have been to places like Machu Picchu, the Galapagos Islands, and The Taj Mahal and amazing cities like Hong Kong, Venice, and Cape Town. During their travels, they find creative ways to keep down their costs, get involved in the communities, and network with locals while having a great time.
Before they left to travel full-time, they loved their careers in Indianapolis Indiana where Nikki was a clinical pharmacist and Matt was a Technology Services Sales Professional. They enjoyed hanging out with friends, spending quality time with family, and volunteering in the community but they loved to travel. So after dreaming about it for a while, they decided to take the leap of faith. They document all of their adventures and share travel tips to save time & money on their podcast and blog at PassportJoy.com.
Mentioned on the Show
- Real Estate RPH
- Passport Joy
- Passport Joy Podcast
- Pharmacy Leaders Podcast with Tony Guerra, PharmD
- The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy
- Workaway
- Trusted Housesitters
- Airbnb
Episode Transcript
Tim Ulbrich: Matt and Nikki, welcome to the Your Financial Pharmacist podcast, excited to have you and thank you for joining me while you’re in and traveling in Osaka, Japan. So thanks for coming on.
Nikki Javit: Thanks for having us.
Matt Javit: Thanks so much.
Tim Ulbrich: Well, I am so excited. And as I shared with you all before we jumped on the call today, I am inspired by your journey, following your podcast and your blog. And when I heard a little about your journey, what you’re doing, and I found out Nikki is a pharmacist, I said, ‘We have got to have them on the show to learn a little bit more about their journey.’ And also, shoutout to Tony Guerra who interviewed you recently who brought your journey to my attention. So as we get started here, I’m going to read a brief bio of who you are, your journey and what you’ve been doing. And then I’m going to have you introduce yourselves, and we’ll kick off the conversation from there. So Matt and Nikki Javit had stress-free lives in Indianapolis. They love hanging out with their friends, spending quality time with their family and making new connections in their vast network. They were both considered very successful in their careers, and they loved their bosses and coworkers. But the desire to travel full-time was already on their mind, and they knew the window would be soon closing to turn a dream into reality. So on February 21, 2017, with a single backpack each, they flew to Santiago, Chile with a one-way ticket that would start their journey around the world, checking off the bucket list locations like Machu Picchu and the Galapagos Islands, the Sistine Chapel and the Taj Majal, creating new and exciting lists every week on where they want to explore next. So again, thanks for joining. And Nikki, I just have to know — as I listened to your first episode and I heard you launch that background to tell the story, coming downstairs and you found out Matt had booked that one-way ticket, which became the fulfillment of a dream you had been talking about for a long period of time. What were your thoughts and your emotions when that day happened?
Nikki Javit: Well, the first time he came down, I thought to myself, we can reverse this situation. We had talked about this, and it was — I mean, it’s always been a dream of ours. We probably, prior to him purchasing that one-way ticket, had talked about it for at least 3-5 years. But it was always just a dream. It was something that was like, we would meet someone on vacation or meet someone well younger than us, and they were doing something like that, traveling the world, they’d left everything behind. And you know, for me, it was, wow, that would be so fun and amazing to be able to do something like that. And so Matt and I, while we were out amongst each other over dinner or at home in the privacy of our home, we had these conversations and say, ‘Oh my gosh, how cool would that be to travel around the world?’ Like get our affairs in order, figure out what we need to figure out at home, and then go travel for an extended period of time. And then when he told me that he purchased that one-way ticket, I kind of — it all just became like a reality for me, but I still in the back of my mind was like, holy crap. I’m working, we haven’t really laid out any solid plans for this. We’ve just been talking about it for so long. And not that I didn’t think he was serious, but I was just like, wow, now is the time. So yeah, it was kind of scary.
Tim Ulbrich: So Matt, I have to give you credit. That’s a bold husband move. I mean, I feel like in my household, I probably would get kicked out the door if I did that. So props to you. Obviously, you guys had been talking about, and we’ll get to that a little later. What I want to start with is for the audience and our community here, a little bit more about your background. Because I think for both of you, your background is very interesting in terms of your careers and the success that you had and obviously leaning to the decision to pick up and travel for several years. So Matt, share a little bit about your background, you know, I heard on the podcast, growing up in a military family and then some of the positions you’ve had since then. Share with our audience a little bit more about you.
Matt Javit: Yeah, thank you. So at a high level, moved around a bunch as a kid, went to three high schools. But I played basketball throughout that, so it was great and easy to get friends and meet new people. And it was a lot of fun. Played Division I basketball, so I had a Division I basketball scholarship out of high school but then ended up bouncing around, just because of playing time and situational stuff. Ended up going to four different undergrad colleges and finished at University of North Carolina Greensboro where I’m proud to say that I did graduate on time, though, and went to a fifth university to get my MBA and coached junior college basketball for two years. And then from there, started a clothing line, moved from Texas back to Indianapolis to do that with my brother. And at that time, I bartended at night and hustled during the day. And towards the end of that bartending, kind of running that bar for three years, met Nikki, and that changed the course of my life, obviously. Decided to get what was deemed a ‘real job’ in the mortgage industry and then did that for three years when I got a promotion to go out to Las Vegas to run an office for about a year of that while Nikki was finishing up her doctorate degree at Butler. And then I ended up coming back home because that’s when the recession hit. Came back home to Las Vegas after we’d lived apart for about a year. And was very fortunate and blessed to get hired by a technology company, a technology services, international technology services company, to do sales in that field, which was all brand new for me. I didn’t know anything about technology, but I did know how to sell at some level and then just cut my teeth, grinded really hard for two years, put in a ton of time and effort, and then finally hit my stride probably two and a half years in, and turned that into a wonderful run of nine years at that company, ending in five straight international sales achievement awards, which also fueled our love for travel because at the time, that took us to different parts of the world because those incentive trips were in exotic places like Chiang Mai, Thailand; Goa, India; Cape Town, South Africa; and Istanbul, Turkey.
Tim Ulbrich: Yeah, I love that part of your story and the success you had at work and incentive trips that helped fuel your passion for travel. These weren’t Disney World trips, right? These were obviously seeing different parts of the world, which helped fuel that passion, which is cool. And Nikki, your background as a pharmacist and, you know, doing undergrad and then making that decision to go into pharmacy school — lay that background for us because I think that’s going to be important for our listeners to hear as we talk a little bit more about your decision to pick up and leave the profession of pharmacy. So how did you get into pharmacy? And then tell us a little bit about the work you did after graduating from Butler.
Nikki Javit: Yeah, so I grew up in Chicago. And then I went to undergraduate school at Indiana University Bloomington. And I studied biology. And I wasn’t sure if I was going to go to medical school or not, so I kind of just took a limbo year, so to speak, off. And in that limbo year, after I had graduated from undergrad, I moved from Bloomington to Indianapolis with a girlfriend I had lived with in school. And she was going to nursing school at IPUI, and I had to get a job to pay the bills. So I applied at a pharmacy, and I started working at a long-term care pharmacy with my biology degree, and I helped manage a long-term care pharmacy. And I knew at the time that I wasn’t done with school, and I had met a really wonderful mentor who I still talk to to this day, who was the pharmacist in charge of that long-term care pharmacy. And he really had great conversations with my about just my career path and what I wanted to do. He noticed that I really took an interest in my current situation, and he was the one that suggested to me that I apply to pharmacy school. I honestly had never even thought about it before. And my biggest concern was is that I had moved from Chicago to Bloomington then to Indianapolis, and I was like, I really don’t want to move to Lafayette and not know anyone. And he was like, why don’t you just apply to Butler? So I didn’t know that Butler had a pharmacy school, so I applied to Butler Pharmacy School, and I was accepted in as a transfer student. So that’s where, essentially, my journey began as a pharmacy student. During school, I worked, I got a job. I switched from the long-term care pharmacy and a lot of my friends that I met at Butler were working in retail pharmacy settings, and I just felt like I could learn a lot more that way. And so I got an intern job at CVS. So I interned throughout pharmacy school at CVS and then upon graduating Butler, I was a staff pharmacist for about a year and then transitioned into a pharmacy manager role for about two years before moving onto a hospital pharmacy position. I was just a little burnt out, I had a couple things happen to me during my time at my retail pharmacy, and I just felt that it was time for me to move on. So I started working at Indiana University, and I started at just basically a staff pharmacist, verifying orders, etc. And their program there is awesome and unique in the fact that it’s a teaching university. And they pair you up with clinical pharmacists and you can specialize in basically a patient population that you like. So they have ICU, they have organ transplant and then they’re associated with the Simon Cancer Center. And I really liked working with oncology patients, so I worked with oncology patients for two years solely. And then I was presented with an opportunity where IU Health was opening up a startup company. And they were having a brand-new specialty pharmacy. And I was asked if I would want to try to apply for the position because there was several other people that were interested in it. And so I interviewed for that, and I got that role. And I helped manage these specialty pharmacy and oncology patients, MS patients, and CF patients and a couple other subsets of patients, but essentially, prior to me living on this journey, my last role as a pharmacist was in an outpatient setting as a specialty pharmacist.
Tim Ulbrich: Got it. So you’ve got a successful career, you’ve got your doctorate degree, you’ve worked in community practice, you’ve worked in obviously you mentioned the long-term care connection initially, you end up in the specialty world. So I think the one thing our listeners are going to want to know that I want to know was you spend all this time, money, invest in the doctorate degree — and we’ll obviously talk a little bit more about your journey of traveling and what you’re doing now — but tell us about that decision, when you made that decision that I’m willing to pick up and leave this career, how hard was that decision? And what fears were you facing, if any, when you made that decision?
Nikki Javit: The decision, for me, was actually a very difficult one. I think it was more difficult for me than it was for Matt. I think I defined myself by my profession, and you know, for awhile, I think that I let that get the best of me. I remember having conversations with Matt and saying, you know, ‘I really do want to travel. I want to go around the world, and I know that now is the time. But I just fear if I walk away from my profession right now after everything that I’ve worked so hard, this is the ideal position that I want to be in, you know, that it’s just not a good thing.’ And you know, the conversations between Matt and I were, well, what makes you happy? It’s just like, does your job make you happy? Well yeah, it makes me happy. But what would make me happier would be is to travel the world with someone who also wants to travel the world with me. And the more I thought about it was is that no matter how long I step away from my profession, I’m always going to have my degree. Like no one can take that away from me. No one can take away from me that I went to school, that I have my doctorate in pharmacy. And yeah, there’s going to be people that are going to say, ‘You haven’t practiced pharmacy for x amount of years.’ But I still think that they can’t take away the fact that I’ve had, you know, 10 years of experience prior to that or I still do continuing education. And it’s not like I’m done reading. It’s not that the knowledge just goes away. And of course when I go back, I’ll be rusty if I choose to go back to that profession, but I think what happened was that I just let my career solely define who I was as a person when I don’t think that’s necessarily a healthy thing to do. There’s so much more to life than just what you do for a job. And once I got to that point and I was OK with that and letting go of that and realizing I can always come back, and I can always be a pharmacist or do something in healthcare, then I was OK with leaving.
Tim Ulbrich: That’s great, and that was part of what inspired me as I was listening and following your journey is seeing you be able to make that decision and obviously not that you don’t value what you’ve done education-wise because obviously, you do, but what I heard through the podcast is that your desire to enter pharmacy was a passion out of helping people. And as I was listening to the journey and what you’ve done, you’re finding a way to fill that bucket of helping people as you’re on this journey of traveling the world, right?
Nikki Javit: Exactly.
Tim Ulbrich: So Matt, talk me through — one thing that stuck out to me on the first episode of the Passport Joy podcast, which I’d highly recommend our audience and listeners check out, you talked about a trip to Cape Town where you met a couple from the Netherlands that were engaged in some long-term travel and that that interaction and that conversation had a profound impact on both of you in terms of the impact that it had on the journey that you’re taking today. So tell us a little bit more about that story and impact that it had for you and Nikki in deciding to take this journey of traveling the world for several years.
Matt Javit: Yeah, so we were in Cape Town, South Africa for one of the incentive trips, my final incentive trip. This would have been March of 2016. And there was a couple there — so essentially, there’s about 15 different executives, about 30 different sales professionals from around the world go to these incentive trips with our spouses. And part of that time is you get a great chance to interact with the people. And one of the couples there were from the Netherlands, and he was actually 30-31 years old. And we ended up hooking up one night and just having conversations over drinks, and they were telling us an amazing story of how they had traveled from — they actually did it a different way. They got a Land Cruiser, put a bed in the back, and drove from the Netherlands to I believe it was South Korea and then shipped the truck from South Korea to Vancouver, Canada and drove down to Patagonia, Chile. And over three or four hours listening to this guy tell the story and all the amazing tales along the way of these two years of traveling, it was just, it was so inspiring and it just moved me in a certain way. And prior to this, Nikki and I, we actually had written down goals of traveling the world. I’m a big goal-setter, I believe if you write things down, they become real and they can become achievable. So we had actually written down the goal of traveling the world probably for the last, I don’t know, 3.5-4 years as a far-reaching, in-the-future goal. But we were — at that point, we were getting closer and closer of financially being able to achieve it. So we come back from just having those drinks that night with that couple, and we got back to that room, and it was just one of those situations where we just looked at each other like, what else, what other signs do we need that this is possible and this is something that we should do? And then I took that and on the flight home, we probably had another week in Cape Town, and we enjoyed our time. And the flights home were always the hardest for me. Every time that we’d fly home from a week or two-week vacation that we were taking, or during these incentive trips from exotic places where the flights are anywhere from 8-12 hours long, that’s when I’m always grabbing the back of the seat where they have the map of all the locations around the world, and I’m just looking at that thing, thinking, OK, where are we going next? And this trip was just different. I just, I was just so moved by what I had heard, and I’m looking at that map, and I’m just saying like, let’s do this. Let’s see if we can pull this thing off. And like Nikki said, within six or eight weeks, that’s when I came down and told her I had booked that first trip because in my mind and looking at all our financial stuff, that we could do it. If we had a lot of things line up over the next 10 months, we could pull it off and feel confident when we left that we could do the journey right. So it was amazing, it felt really good that we could pull it off. And that was — I have since had a chance to circle back with him and tell him that he was the motivation of it. And it’s really cool to know that it was that one deciding thing that put us over the edge.
Tim Ulbrich: That’s awesome. And let’s go there and talk about your financial house and how getting that in order prior to your departure — you mentioned having a runway of time when you were making that decision before you actually left, and I think it’s important because I know as I was listening to your journey, in my mind, questions were swirling about student loans and just practically saving up for the move and how you’re making it work month-to-month and what about retirement and all the questions that I think sometimes are the barriers that can get in the way to us taking bold moves. So let’s talk through some of those, and let’s first talk about student loans. So Nikki, I heard you got through undergrad debt-free, but obviously I’m assuming a PharmD brought some student loans into the equation, so talk us through for both of you where student loans played a role and how you were able to manage those and get those to a point where you felt comfortable that they weren’t going to impede your ability to take this journey that you wanted to take.
Matt Javit: Yeah, so — I’m sorry, Tim, I’ll jump in on this — but it was a situation where it was an early — so where we got engaged, Nikki started school, and within our first year, she was in school, of marriage. And she had done four years in front of that.
Nikki Javit: Five.
Matt Javit: Five years in front of that. And I tell you what, man. It was one of those things where the financial loan system in America is just flawed. It’s so flawed.
Tim Ulbrich: Yes.
Matt Javit: We would just look at these bills coming in, and this was a time where I had gone from making money and then the recession hit, housing crisis is what it is, so I wasn’t making any money. Then I started a new field where I was making severely underpaid. And Nikki was doing her part-time gig, she was amazing in that where she was going to school full-time and working 30 hours a week, which was unbelievable. So we really struggled for probably 2.5 years. We really haven’t talked about that at all to anybody. But it was a very difficult time for us. We stayed extremely minimal, we had a condo that we continue to live in for 15 years now. And at the time, we were paying her father rent on the condo. And we lived extremely, an extremely minimal lifestyle. So much that Nikki drove the same Toyota Corolla for 10 years. I drove a Ford Escape for at least 9 or 10 years.
Nikki Javit: At least 9, yeah.
Matt Javit: And I was in this new profession, and the student loans kept growing and growing and growing. And those things are unbelievable because the interest is what kills you.
Tim Ulbrich: Yes.
Matt Javit: And what was (inaudible) was because I come from a financial background, I understand all this stuff, and I could break it all down, so I would work with Sallie Mae, and I would say, split all these loans up. I want them itemized, I want them split up, and I want to know where I should attack. And when you do that and you see that some of the loans are like 14% and 12%, it’s just unbelievable. So for any of your listeners, when it comes to financial freedom, that is — and I know you guys have spoken about this on your podcast — that’s the main thing is you’ve got to itemize those things. I’m not sure if they do it that way today, but you’ve got to understand where your biggest pains are coming from. And so that’s what we did. So we itemized those things. And I’m talking to an audience that understands all this. We walked out of that with I think it was $289,000.
Nikki Javit: Yeah, so I think it was $287,000 was the total. But we started paying back on my loans about two years into —
Matt Javit: We were doing the bare minimum.
Nikki Javit: The minimum, the bare minimum, just to make a dent.
Matt Javit: Yeah, because we got all of our other stuff out of the way as far as — like I said, the car payments were gone, we were living minimal. Like I said, we did travel much early in that phase. We were doing mostly like U.S.-based vacation trips until I hit my stride in my job. And then —
Nikki Javit: But we don’t, we never lived on credit cards. And I think that’s really important. Like if we went on a vacation, we had that money, and we paid that vacation off then, at the time that we did it. So if we were going to go to let’s say — I’m just going to pick a random place — San Diego, California, for a week, we would go to San Diego, and if it cost us $5,000 to take that, that $5,000 was already saved up. So we never, we never purchased things on credit cards ever. And if we did, we paid that off at the end of the month. And it was just to get travel points, it wasn’t because we needed to use credit cards, it was strictly just to get travel points. So when he says we lived minimal, it was really, we were only paying our bills. I was working to pay bills, and him the same way.
Matt Javit: Yeah, so we went through this cycle where, like I said, I was with that job for nine years. The first two years was extremely difficult, but everything began to line up for us because I hit my stride so I started making money. And my job, in full transparency, was a base commission and bonus. So I’m very much in the sales world where there’s not a ceiling when you’re doing technology service sales, so I could make nice pay. And then Nikki got a chance, she hit the workforce full-time, so then she was making great money at CVS. And then we just went about it, and we attacked it. And like I said, the breaking down, the itemizing of the loans, I think that because we did that the way we did, we could get rid of those the fastest way we could because if we kept them clumped up, those things are going to stick around forever. So we would just break these all down, and we would just attack them. When we paid off a loan, we would celebrate together. And it would be a big thing because I think at one point, there was maybe 14 different —
Nikki Javit: I had 14 different loans.
Matt Javit: 14 loans, so we would pay off the high one, and then we would celebrate, and we would just zone in on that next loan and we’d just keep going, keep going, keep going. And finally, we got them paid off, and then we could start working on our other things to help us get financially free. And then at that point obviously, Nikki was deeper in her career, I was in a situation where I was deep with my clients and making great money doing what I was doing. And it continued to just, we continued to accelerate and set bigger goals and work on skills. I’m real big on you build skills for yourself and not for your job. Just continue to get better as a human, whether it’s personally, spiritually or for whatever profession you’re focused on. So that’s how we spent a lot of time doing that stuff. And we just continued to grow and get better, and the compensation followed.
Tim Ulbrich: I don’t know if either of you have read “The Compound Effect” by Darren Hardy, but what you were just saying, Matt and Nikki there, you know, your discipline but your cumulative hard effort and work and goal-setting and, you know, even the steps of itemizing loans. You know, I hate to throw Sallie Mae under the bus, but I’m going to since they inflicted a lot of pain on my life is that they, you know — I think that business, obviously there’s that effect where when everything is in one lump thing, and you can’t necessarily see all the details, it’s hard to get the motivation behind having a plan to take care of them. When you itemize them and you see how that interest is accruing, you see the different interest rates, like you all did, you then start to say, ‘OK, let’s put a plan together to pay off this $287,000 of debt. Let’s pay off one of these, let’s celebrate. Let’s pay off another, let’s celebrate it. And let’s keep moving on.’ And I think that, to me, is the essence of “The Compound Effect,” that it’s easy to look at a number like $287,000 and say, forget about it. It’s so big, I can’t even do anything about it. Whereas what I heard you did and your journey is say, let’s break this down. Let’s work together, let’s celebrate. And let’s get after this. And obviously, be appreciative of the income that you have and the ability to do that along the way. And so the question I have to ask here is that if you would have had that debt hanging around, if you would have not been able to live a minimalist lifestyle, if you would have chosen to buy a half a million dollar home, if you would have taken a different route, how would that have impacted your decision in terms of making this bold move to go on this journey to travel the world?
Matt Javit: It would have delayed it. We would have never left if we wouldn’t have gotten in a situation. Because the reality is is I was probably ready almost a year before.
Nikki Javit: Yeah.
Matt Javit: But Nikki wanted a number. She wanted a certain number that we had to have in our assets and our savings in order for us to go. Nikki’s a lot more conservative than I am. Because I’m in a mindset where I worked for — when I did the mortgages, I had zero-based payment. I was 100% commission. I’ve lived in a world where there’s nothing guaranteed. And so I’m comfortable with that. I’m comfortable with that mindset of, hey, if we don’t have any money in the bank, I’m alright with that. We can figure this thing out. Where she’s a lot more conservative and she gets really nervous about money and things like that. So we have a lot of these conversations, and we just got to a point where I got her to commit to a number, and I showed her how we could get to that number and put it all on paper so she could understand it, so she could be comfortable with us leaving. And then that’s when we made the decision. Without that, there was no way. We would have never left with loans and debt hanging over our head because it wouldn’t have been enjoyable. It would just be a different situation. So for me, I’m 42 now. And for us, I felt like it was my window was closing on the opportunity, but I still think we had room. If it would have took two or three more years to make it happen, we still would have been OK because this is definitely a dream and a goal of ours. We would have made it happen, but luckily we made it happen at the time where we’re enjoying it now, and I can get back into the workforce when I’m 44, 45. And I think that I’ll still have that value when I reenter out of the market for three years or so.
Tim Ulbrich: So month-to-month for you guys — I think you’re 18 months into this journey, correct?
Matt Javit: Yes.
Tim Ulbrich: OK. So month-to-month, what is your strategy for month-to-month, just making it, covering your expenses? Obviously, you’re living a minimalist lifestyle. I’m sure it sounds like you’ve got some good budgeting behaviors and practices, but are you finding, you know, work? I heard you reference workaways on the podcast. Are you purely living off savings? Are you getting creative with how you’re funding things? What does that look like month-to-month in terms of paying the expenses as you’re on the road?
Matt Javit: So yeah, we’re absolutely budgeting month-to-month. We’ve done a lot of creative things from Workaway that you described — that’s essentially volunteering our services to places — Workaway’s a website that has hosted certain places that you can stay at by volunteering your services, and they’ll give you a free place to stay and sometimes food as well. We’ve done house-sits with a website called Trusted Housesitters where we watched two cats in Zurich, Switzerland. They gave us, the owners of the home gave us a free place to stay. It ended up being a gorgeous house for three weeks while we just watched their cats.
Tim Ulbrich: That’s awesome.
Matt Javit: We’ve done extremely cheap Airbnb’s, hostels.
Nikki Javit: We have a budget when it comes to the places that we stay. And we know what we should be spending per month. And then when we search for Airbnb, we typically only stay in an Airbnb. In Asia, you can find budget hotels and not have to stay in a hostel. But we know what our budget is for an Airbnb, so we don’t really want to spend more than $50 a night. So when we scroll on the Airbnb website, we just look for places like that. And it’s funny because you can actually, when you’re in Asia, like if you go to Vietnam or Indonesia or, you know, other places in southeast Asia, there’s places that are $10 a night, and they’re absolutely amazing, like gorgeous, places that you wouldn’t even think would be that nice. But they are that price point, so we’ve saved by going to even just different areas of the world, by traveling —
Matt Javit: I mean, we were Paracas, Peru. We stayed there near the coastal place. But we stayed in a campsite. It was like a little cabin for like $12 a night. And we did that consciously, knowing that we’ve got to save money, we’ve got to — there’s going to be peaks and valleys. We knew Europe would be really expensive. So that was the whole mindset is, OK, some months we’re going to spend more, other months we’re not. And then be as smart as we can with the flights because those can really hit into the budget. And then dips and valleys when we’re thinking about going out certain nights. Like we’re in Japan, we’ve been eating at 7-11. You’d be surprised how amazing 7-11 is in Japan. It’s so good.
Nikki Javit: Yeah, that sounds absolutely disgusting.
Matt Javit: LIke nobody would think 7-11, but the good thing is I’ve watched enough foodie shows that they talk about the 7-11 all the time in Japan, that coming here, we were very open-minded. And now that we’re here, we’re like, OK, I get it now. It’s the whole culture, it’s amazing.
Nikki Javit: They make fresh sushi and fresh fruit salads and stuff. They have edamame in 7-11’s. It’s not like a 7-11.
Tim Ulbrich: Is it the same brand we know, 7-11? Or is it a different company?
Matt Javit: It’s the same brand, but I think it’s treated a little bit differently here. It is amazing. So doing things like that when we know that Japan is really expensive. But there’s things you have to cut back on in order for us not to crush our budget. But at the same time, getting a chance to get involved with the culture and see things, experience it, experience the realness of it and have a great time. And that’s the thing is when you do some of these alternative housing situations like a shared space on Airbnb, like where the host is there, and you’re just basically living in one of their rooms, but that also gives you the chance to talk to somebody, understand their culture a little bit better, see how they’re going about their day. And you come away with a different experience than staying in a hotel. And that’s what we set out to do. We didn’t want to travel for two years and just say, yeah, we went to hotels around the world, and it was great, we saw these sights and we saw the Taj Mahal. We wanted to come back changed, in a way. Like we loved who we were in our life in America, but it’s like, it’s an opportunity to put a chapter in our life that maybe changes the next chapter. And that’s what we were hoping to get out of it by all these different experiences and different cultures and get to know people and how they interact on the subway and just all the different things. I mean, I went to a baseball game this weekend in Osaka, and my mind was blown. I mean, I grew up an athlete, and just being around those people at a baseball game is — it just changed how I looked at their culture. So yeah, that’s our hope and that’s when it comes to budget, all of that plays together because it’s hard to month-by-month because now we just set out our plans for the next three months. So we had to book stuff in advance, we had to book a ton of little flights. And so it’s going to hit our budget in September, but then hopefully October and November are easier on the budget if that makes sense.
Tim Ulbrich: Right. Absolutely. So you’re 18 months into this journey, and as I was following along on the podcast, it seems like you’ve seen some of the most beautiful and incredible places in the world. So I want to know from both of you, what’s been your favorite stop so far, I guess if you had to choose one?
Nikki Javit: It’s so hard. So many people ask me this question, and I hate like just saying one. But my go-to is San Pedro de Atacama in Chile. So it’s in the middle of the dryest desert of the world, the Atacama Desert. And it’s like no other place I’ve ever been. The landscape changes just from a couple miles away. You can see geysers that are shooting out steam from the earth, you can see mountains and snow-capped volcanoes, there’s hot springs that you can swim in. I mean, it’s just neverending. There’s red rocks and lagoons and all types of things. It’s like an outdoor — like if you’re an outdoor person, and you just love nature in general, it is paradise. There’s salt flats that you can walk on that look like you’re walking on clear glass. It’s just, it’s phenomenal. They have some of the best stargazing — it’s actually the best stargazing in the entire world. And we were just able to do so many different things in four days. Like we were hiking, we were swimming in hot springs, we were climbing up mountains, we were spelunking in caves. I guess it was the first time I’d ever been to a place like that. I’ve been to California before and Colorado where you see the mountains, and you’re like, OK, I can go on a hike. But you can’t go on a hike and then take a half an hour car ride away and go swim in a hot spring and then drive an hour away from that and then go climb in some caves and walk on salt flats. So for me, it was just like mind-blowing. I just had never seen anything like it before.
Tim Ulbrich: What about for you, Matt?
Matt Javit: For me, it’s tough. So man, I loved Lisbon, Portugal. It might just be because of the people there and the time — we’ve gone now twice in the middle of June, and I just loved Lisbon. But India is just — India is just a different place on this planet. And it’s just, it’s so raw. And 1.3, 1.4 billion, it’s crazy, it’s chaotic, it’s definitely third-world in parts. But the love and just the kindness of the people and how amazing they are. It’s just like nothing else on the planet. And I’m just so intrigued by how people act and how they interact and how they view us and their thoughts and just the chances you get to really look at a part of the world that is so different. So that probably stands out the most to me is when it comes to travel and getting into a different culture, India really, it hits me because I had a lot of fun there. Vietnam is also one of those things that we talk about all the time that we just love. And we’re excited to get a chance to go back there. We’ve got some friends that are going to visit us there. So that’s, Vietnam is an absolute highlight. But it’s hard. Tim, it’s such a hard question because everything is just, has its own uniqueness. Now we’re in Japan. And oh my God, this is amazing. It is just so amazing. And we’ve got four more weeks here, and I could just see it turning into a place that we love. The language barrier is massive, but I think that with some studying or whatnot, you could figure out the phrases to get through the daily life. But yeah, it’s a hard question. But those are probably my highlights.
Tim Ulbrich: So I just have to know, you know, how is being together, traveling the world, sharing this journey — No. 1, do you guys ever get sick of each other and No. 2, how has this strengthened your marriage? Because obviously, I’m assuming it has, being on this journey together.
Nikki Javit: Yeah, so in the beginning, I think it was difficult for us just to figure out like a flow to our day because, you know, prior to us leaving, I had worked my job, I was gone during the day. And Matt was similar, I mean, he had a different schedule. He’d work during the day, and at night, sometimes he’d have to take out clients or he had conference calls. And we pretty much lived separate lives during the week. And on the weekends was our together time, time that we would spend to hang out and do whatever. And you know, I guess our extracurricular time was spent with me, if I wasn’t doing something with Matt, you know, hanging out doing girl stuff with my girlfriends or, you know, working out at my gym that we had at our home or just doing things that I guess kept me busy. And then now, all of a sudden you are with this person 24/7 365, and you’re in tight quarters in an unfamiliar space. And you heavily rely on each other because, you know, it’s like, I don’t know anyone here. So it’s not like I could call up a friend and be like, OK, I’m going to go hang out with this person tonight and go to dinner. But at the same time, you don’t always want to make your significant other think that, well, I need to hang out with you 24/7. So I don’t know. At first, it was hard. And we did, we fought — I mean, full disclosure, we would get in just like tiffs over dumb things. But I think it really stemmed from being frustrated I think from having to be in a tiny, tiny space. And by no means do we live in some huge mansion back at home, but at least we had separate quarters that we could go to. Like I could retreat to the living room and go watch Netflix. And Matt could go to his office and do his own thing. But now, it’s like sometimes, we are legit in something that just one room, and then there’s the bathroom. And so where do you go? So we found ways to, you know, kind of zen out, even if we have to be in the same room. So I’ll throw some headphones in, and I’ll listen to music or I’ll read a book. And even if I’m sitting in a different corner of a room and he’s still there, I’ll try just to get in my own little world. And sometimes I’ll go out and walk around and go for a walk or just go to the grocery store or just have that be my alone time. And then other times, you know, Matt, he’s real big on going on hikes by himself. And he likes to find a gym membership wherever we go or some sort of park where he can work out and do — he does this thing called Foundation training for his back, and so he’ll go and do that just to have some sort of alone time because I don’t really think that it’s healthy to be with someone 24/7, so that has definitely helped us. And I think it’s gotten a lot, it’s just gotten a lot better.
Matt Javit: Yeah, no, it is. It’s a long time, and most people don’t, most married couples — so we’re 13 years married now — don’t get to do what we’re doing until a later stage in life.
Tim Ulbrich: Right.
Matt Javit: And so then they don’t spend that much time together until they’re in their 60s or 70s. But so we’re definitely doing something that’s not, it’s pretty unique in the fact that we’re around each other 24/7. And I would be, Tim, back in my former life in Indianapolis, I would probably be considered a guy’s guy. So I had a lot of my buddies that I would hang around with, I’m a big sports nut, I like drinking bourbons with my buddies and just talking about stuff. But I definitely miss that. But I still text my buddies, call them, and I get a chance to interact with them. It’s not always easy, but it’s been amazing. To be able to see the world with somebody that I love and to be able to share those moments together and knowing that we’re going to be able to reflect on this at some point and understand how lucky and fortunate we are to be able to live this life, that all the positives outweigh any negatives. Yeah, it’s been a blast.
Tim Ulbrich: So what does the future hold? I mean, what’s the plan? You probably hate this question, maybe, but what’s the plan for, you know, I heard kind of a multi-year travel plan, you’re 18 months in, so I interpreted that to mean there’s a desired end date where you may come back stateside, reenter the workforce, you both alluded to that. But is there a chance that may not happen? Or have you kind of set a definitive end date? What’s the game plan going forward?
Matt Javit: As of now, May 2020 is the end date on paper as far as budget goes. What that means is we’re still working through some things. We both have some creative things we’re working on. We’re doing the podcast, we’re doing the blog site. If any of those outlets can turn into revenue streams, could that make the journey longer? Not sure. Are there things that could take us off the road personally? Probably, but we don’t like to think about those things.
Nikki Javit: Yeah.
Matt Javit: Because they’d be extremely negative. But so as of now, yeah, we’re 18 months in, we’re going to come back to the United States in May of 2019 and spend the summer visiting with friends and family and get a chance to explore the U.S. a little bit like we’ve been doing on the road and get a chance to hang out with different people in the States and accelerate some important milestones in some of our family’s lives and stuff like that. And then the hope is to go back out in September of 2019, see more of the world, explore some places that we thought we’d get a chance to see on our first trip out, but we didn’t. And then come back in May of 2020. And at that point, obviously we’re not going to get back to the States and decide what we’re going to do. We’ll understand. A lot of this will happen organically over the next 12 months or so that we’ll know that, OK, we’re going to reenter the workforce. And then we’ll start to line things up the four, five, six months prior to because that’s who we are. I mean, we’re both very career-focused, we love — and I’ll tell you something, that’s why we’re doing the podcast. That’s why we’re doing the blog. There’s something that’s built into humans that makes us want to give back. Either give back in a positive way either to inspire people or just the knowledge and hopefully to help people in some capacity or just give back to other humankind, you know what I mean? We’re just built that way. You can’t just cruise around the world and sit on beaches in Bali and hang out and drink cocktails all day and think that you’re going to improve as a human. It’s just not who we are. And I think Nikki and I are even at a — we didn’t grow up that way to do that. So even when we’re trying to relax, we always have massive “To Do” lists.
Nikki Javit: Yeah.
Matt Javit: The “To Do” lists are growing and growing. But the coolest part about it is is these creative projects we’re working on, we’re excited about them. It’s one of those things where we wake up every day, and we’re like, hey we’re going to do this and hey, let’s make sure we document that. Let’s go walk through the market and check out all these things. So it’s an amazing journey, and it’s a fun phase or a fun chapter. And we’re not really sure what that next chapter is yet. But no matter what, I think we’re going to really prepared for it, mentally, spiritually, physically. I think we’re going to be ready for that next chapter.
Tim Ulbrich: Well, you guys have done an awesome job with the podcast. So first of all, congratulations. I think the content that you’re bringing is awesome. I’ve enjoyed it. And I would just urge our community, check out PassportJoy.com to follow their journey on the blog, listen to the podcasts on whatever podcast subscription service that you use. And I think one of the things, Matt and Nikki, that I really enjoyed about the podcast is obviously, I’m not somebody who’s going to necessarily pick up for a year or two or three and travel, but what you’re talking about is applicable for long weekend getaways, a week vacation, you have an episode around financial security when you’re traveling that I really found interesting. And so I think for all of our audience, make sure you check out PassportJoy.com, listen to the podcast, check out the blog. You’ll hear their latest travel stories, tips to have amazing trips on a budget, hot locations you may not have heard of and how you can get involved and volunteer on the road. And I really appreciate, I would love to meet both of you when you get back stateside in Indianapolis, I’ll be in Columbus. So we’re not that far away. And you’ve inspire me personally and my wife to be thinking about, you know, traveling and how that can impact us as individuals and our family. So thank you for taking time to come on the show and to share your journey with the YFP community. We really appreciate it.
Nikki Javit: Thanks for having us so much.
Matt Javit: Thank you so much.
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