We had an online shop and physical store in children’ clothing and toys. We worked hard and made it into a successful business, but wanted more out of life. And most of all, wanted to get more quality time with our kids. Experiences over material stuff as they say. So we got out of that business and decided to travel for a year. My husband already started to build websites and online shops, because we needed an online income to make the travel part happening (we didn’t win the lottery ;-)). And I would start our Instagram and blog to make an income out of that, and because we just wanted to share our adventures and inspire others.
We left and loved it! It wasn’t always easy: working, homeschooling, traveling, and being together 24/7. But we felt alive! After a year we returned, but we weren’t ready at all! After a few hard months, emotionally and financially, we have now decided to sell our house (it actually just sold yesterday) and leave for full-time travel again later this year when the pandemic is over. This time for a couple of years.
We want our kids to see the world, learn how beautiful it is, get them to respect nature and all cultures. We want to have wonderful experiences together. Life now, in the moment, together with our kids! We’re still working on our online blog, IG business and photography. It’s a lot of hard work, but I want to make it succeed! It has to! It’s what we love to do and what makes this lifestyle possible.
It is hard at times, given the financial instability and the hard decisions we have been making. We have had almost two years now of very low income. Because starting out, you work long hours without immediately earning a lot. But I hope and am convinced it will be worth it! To live the life we’re dreaming of and doing something we love as a job! I hope my kids will learn so much, that it will shape their personalities!
Q – Global Wizards, that’s an interesting name. Care to share how you came about that identity?
Jurgen (daddy) always wanted a name with ‘wizards’ in it. First, he started his own web development company The Wizards. When we were looking for a name for our blog and Instagram, we tried to come up with something that was related to that. Because we travel so much, we soon thought of the name The Global Wizards. We love to see ourselves as wizards, discovering all the magic the world has to offer, transferring that magic into our pictures and stories.
Q – That’s Brilliant! What is the story behind your love for travel and how have you been able to inculcate this passion in your daughters, Yuna and Hanne?
For me it was obvious I would love to travel. My mother used to work internationally, so I traveled a lot as a kid and heard many inspiring stories from all over the world. Jurgen’s family didn’t travel at all, but from the moment he was old enough, he took off on his own. When we met, travel was immediately a common interest for us. We started to travel from the moment we were together and never stopped, not even when the kids arrived.
They have been on the road with us since they were born. And it’s amazing to see how the wanderlust and the passion for travel is slowly taking its grip on them too. They talk about the countries they want to visit and the adventures they want to have. We are in this for the long run!
Q – That’s amazing. Travel for your family is, no doubt, like second nature. How does the regular day play out for you?
When we are traveling, we also have to homeschool and work online to sustain our lifestyle. So a regular day would most likely be me homeschooling the kids and working in the morning, while Jurgen is working on his business. In the afternoon we’d do a trip and when the kids are asleep in the evening, we both work again.
This being said, we are quite flexible. Some days we are exploring the entire day, other days we work or homeschool more. If we travel to a region we want to explore extensively, we might as well skip homeschooling for a week. Other times, if we’re going slow we will homeschool for two weeks in a row, with a lot of working hours in between.
I’ve also learned if it’s not a good day for homeschooling the kids because they can’t focus, I better stop trying and continue the next day. This way we have fewer arguments and in the end, we get the same amount of work done.
Q – Selling your home to tour the world’, does that not present with a bit of uncertainty? How have you been able to build stability around that?
There is definitely a lot of uncertainty. We didn’t make this decision lightly and sometimes wonder if it will be the right one in the end. But we want the freedom and flexibility. If we wouldn’t travel that much, we would have probably sold the house anyway to move to the countryside. So why keep it now if we actually want to travel full time.
Fortunately, we have the possibility to stay with my parents when we are back in the country for a few weeks. We’re also considering buying a converted bus or van, or maybe a tiny house. That way we do have our own place, without all the costs that come with a regular house. And living van life has been a dream for the entire family, so it’s something that definitely will happen in the future!
With the current pandemic, we’ll have to stay with my parents for a long time until travel is possible again. Not the ideal situation, but there was no way in foreseeing this. We might buy that van or bus a bit sooner and travel more local through Europe in the near future.
Q – How do you pick the next destination? And what do you look out for in prospective tourist sites?
Of course, we have our family travel bucket list, but the budget is also a factor to take in consideration. We didn’t win the lottery. We work hard and travel low budget most of the times. So when we need to decide on our next destination, it’s often a mix between the countries we want to see and the most affordable ones.
For example, we chose Asia as our first destination, because it is so cheap. When we have to decide on our next country in that region, we often look for plane tickets online and see which destinations come out most affordable at that time. In Skyscanner, there is this great feature where you can search for tickets from your current location to anywhere. That way, you find the cheapest tickets.
Australia and New Zealand on the other hand, weren’t cheap at all, but with the right tactics, you don’t have to spend loads of money either. We bought a car (and sold it at the end of our trip), cooked ourselves, explored by our own instead of taking lots of guided tours, …
Budget, however, isn’t our only deciding factor. To us, every country has its own assets and we are open to everything, the whole world is waiting for us. We love nature, authentic experiences or cultures and aren’t afraid to go off the beaten track. In our travels, we love to connect with the local people and take our time in every country to really get to know it. There are a lot of destinations on our bucket list that are less known, such as Mongolia, Kazachstan, Tibet, …
Q – Family and friends must find your decision quite unconventional, how do you hold your ground in that regard?
They know us by now and aren’t too surprised anymore when we make life-changing decisions. That doesn’t mean they always understand or think we’re taking the right steps. We get mixed reactions. Some say they wish they would have the guts to take the same decisions, others say they would never like to live like that. But overall, we get a lot of support. Some think we are heroes, others think we’re irresponsible.
But we believe everyone has to find its own way in life, look for their own happiness. Ours isn’t the conventional way of living. We don’t want to work all the time just to maintain high society standards without having any quality time together. We want to live now, seize the day. See our kids grow up, discover the world together and live more simple.
Q – Being exposed to so many cultures would mean that your lives are far from the average person’s experience. How would you say that this has helped refine and inform your world view?
We absolutely believe travelling together as a family and exploring the world brings us lots of wisdom and insights we otherwise wouldn’t have. We want to step away from the rat race and value experiences over material stuff. Show our kids how fortunate we are here in the western world. Learn how to love the small things in life and not wanting to have more and more. Teach them to respect the earth and take care of it. And by spending all that time together, respect and enjoy each others company.
After traveling for a while with them, we absolutely have the feeling our kids have learned a lot. They became very social, having to talk to everybody in a language that is not their own and playing with kids from other cultures they never saw before. Living out of a suitcase with almost no toys made them realize we don’t need to have that much stuff to be happy. Seeing other kids have way less than us, made them gain perspective on what is important and what isn’t. And experiencing the effects of global warming with their own eyes made them very conscious about the need to protect our planet, nature, and all living beings. I hope they will keep these values when they grow up and turn into responsible, caring, and confident young ladies.
Follow their journey on Instagram @globawizard and website.
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