In October 2013, the Garlottas were out to drinks in San Francisco when Chris turned to Danika and said: "Let's take a sabbatical."
Three cocktails later, Danika remembers, the couple had decided to quit their jobs to travel abroad for six months. "Chris can pretty much get me to say anything when he bribes me with good food and cocktails!" she said laughing.
From there, it was a whirlwind. The plan was originally to spend one year getting things in order, then spend about six months traveling, but as the pair started listing places they wanted to visit, they realized they'd need more time to travel — say, a year. Then, Chris found a cheap $300 airfare to Rome that offered only one departure day in March, so they moved up their schedule by six months.
While Chris had traveled extensively before settling down in San Francisco, Danika's travel was mostly limited to a yearly trip to Mexico. Chris, who worked for tech companies doing graphic design and website development, and Danika, who was the head of marketing for a group of boutique hotels, felt their desire to experience new cultures and see new things was sorely limited by their work schedule.
"It's always difficult to get away from work," Chris explains. "We liked to do frequent trips, so we would do two one-week trips a year. But then we started to realize that at two weeks a year, we would never see all the places we wanted to go."
The Garlottas are now nearly a year into their trip, with no immediate plans to return to the States.
Here, they've shared some of the photos from their Instagram and website, as well as answers to our burning questions: How do they make it work? Which credit cards and bank accounts work best for long-term travelers? What advice do they have for others? And, most importantly, how do they afford it?
They sold everything and rented their home.
Before leaving San Francisco, the Garlottas sold all of their furniture and most of their possessions.
"We didn't sell our stuff so much to raise money for the trip as to not have the expense of keeping it any longer," Chris says. "When we realized we were going to be gone for a while, and weren't sure where we'd end up, why pay every month to keep stuff in storage and then realize later that we don't want it anymore?"
The money from selling their possessions went in the bank to finance furnishing a home at the end of their adventure, if needed.
They've continued earning as they travel.
The Garlottas didn't make any extra effort to save for their trip, because they've both continued freelancing abroad: Chris for tech companies, and Danika for social media and online marketing clients.
Chris says that the logistics aren't that different from working stateside, where he mostly dealt with clients through emails and calls. "Most of the time I never met or saw clients. The fact that I'm sitting here in Berlin dealing with a client is exactly the same as being down the street. A lot of the people I work with have been clients for years, and they're aware that we're traveling. They don't see a difference, but we feel it."
They changed their work schedule to fit their travel schedule.
The Garlottas have banished the 9-5 workday.
"We found that we work more efficiently because we don't want to sit around and stare at the internet," Danika says. "We get it done, and then we can spend the day going out and exploring."
See the rest of the story at Business Insider