Before You Go… Tying up Loose Ends

House For Sale You may think that you’ve thought of everything before leaving.. but I guarantee you haven’t. There are a million things on everyones “to do” list before they go, but I will tell you my mistakes and how I addressed them so you can learn from me. Stick with me, even though some may appear stupid (and in hindsight they are) at the time it seemed as though I was making the best decision.

Telephone Mail Service Remaining Bills Car(s) Storage

For now, I am going to breeze through these points so you get the general idea of what to be aware of. As you see to the left in the sidebar there are links dealing with some of the important points here more in depth. I am breaking it up like this so you can directly bookmark the section you need to focus on.

Telephone – This is a biggie, but with an easy solution. I urge you in every ways possible to dump the cell phone if your able to get out of your “contract”. Even in some cases if you are not able to get out.. get out anyways. This is one of the NUMBER ONE ways that service providers in the US take advantage of you. I won’t mention At&t’s name, but be careful. Almost all phones (99.9995%) in the US that are sold through a service provider with a contract (sometimes even pre paids) are “locked”, meaning they will only work via that carrier. You can’t just switch out the sim card and be done with it. Won’t work. Forget about it. Don’t waste your time trying to get your phone unlocked…yet. WARNING: DO NOT FALL INTO THE WORLD PHONE TRAP… IT IS A SCAM. Yes, before everyone jumps on me here, the world phone does work, sometimes, some places. EVERYONE I know personally that has had a world phone has NOT had it function properly. What happens is hours and dollars going out the window attempting to get it “set up” properly with the service provider, only to find out it won’t work anyways. If you’re newer to the service, or have had a late bill, then you’ll have a 3 month probation time typically before they’ll initiate any international features for you anyways. Let’s say it does work overseas miraculously… how does $2.00 – $4.00 per minute sound to you? Yeah… thought so. Better and possibly the best choice: SKYPE. Here’s my 30 second elevator pitch…lol… Skype literally saved me thousands of dollars a month on phone bills. When I first started traveling, I was full time in the real estate development business. I thought I needed my phone surgically attached to my ear. My phone bills were between 1,500 and 3,000 per month. Yep. You heard that right. At the time I could afford it. I couldn’t justify it (other than in my mind though). I finally gave in and got Skype.. the talk over the internet program. Look guys… its cheaper to get an internet connection in a teepee in Uganda than it is to pay my old phone bills. Don’t be stupid like me. Click on the Skype logo at the very bottom of the page. If you don’t see it, then refresh the page until you do and download the FREE platform now please. We’ll go into more detail on calling later in the site. There is virtually no effective and practical way to make this work. To big a monopoly to fight in the US. Not my war. Save your phone, maybe toss it in your suitcase and bring it with you.

Mail Service – Forward your mail to a local P.O. Box. Make sure you forward.. not a change of address. As I found out, a lot of companies have a conniption fit if you don’t have a physical address. So just have your mail forwarded to a post office box, where it is convenient for a friend, assistant, or family member to collect your mail for you. There are also mail services that will open, scan, and send your mail to you via the net (a lot of countries don’t have the “effective” (I’m laughing to myself a bit when I say that) Postal Service that we have in the US. In the resources section I’ll recommend some services you can use. What tends to happen is that a company may send you a document that requires your attention and response. If you don’t give it your “attention and response” you will suffer in the worst possible way. Mostly by chinese water torture. I have had many an insurance policy cancelled because I did not respond to a questionnaire that was sent to me (actually one of my rental properties) without “me” actually knowing about it for … ummm… 60-ish days. Sooooo…. again, I am the best teacher for ALL YOUR TRAVELING NEEDS, as I was pre-stupid so you won’t have to be. Get your mail forwarded, find someone to collect it for you. Period.

Remaining bills - Here’s a biggie. Call the companies currently sending you bills. I originally thought you shouldn’t be telling people you’re going out of the country for a while, but again in hindsight, it didn’t really matter. In some cases the only way you’ll accomplish my point here is by telling them. Just be careful who you tell. You’ll want to make sure you will not be getting any surprise bills, or adjustments that require your attention (see text about the mail service). Your goal with ALL your bills, should be to get set up with online payment. Nowadays paying online the correct way, via Paypal, or most large US companies’ secure payment sites is about as safe as anything. Just as many people can steal your identity out of a mailbox at home or trash can, as can steal your identity online. So sorry to the newscasters and doomsday prophesiers that wish you to believe otherwise. So get set up with a username and password with your bill companies to take care of this. Most companies allow or have this feature. If they don’t make 100 percent sure (by testing) that their phone payment systems work effectively and will provide you adequate proof that your payment was made. If you feel you are not comfortable paying by phone (I’m not) then switch to a company with online payment.

Cars - How many of these things do you have? Well I had one. I thought it made sense to continue making payments on it (it was financed) but it just DIDNT! I sold the car and now have no car in the states. Why? Well, here’s the reason. First of all I lived in a state where I had to keep insurance current on the car (full coverage) or they suspend my license if I lapse with a registered vehicle. Well, this was getting expensive. Insurance and payments were just over $400 per month… or almost $5k a year. Yep.. you’ve figured it out… enough money to buy a decent used car when and if I need to return (which I don’t and I won’t except to visit). So between that and the fact that I could rent a car for $40-50 a day or less… I think I was just “attached” to my car. There is the lesson! Use logic and the calculator when weighing your options on maintaining such a liability.

Storage - Simple answer… climate-controlled long term storage. Pre-pay for as long as you can. Beyond that, make sure they take online payments. Put your stuff in storage. All of it. Thats it!

On to banking… where I fell down by learning the hard way…so you won’t have to!