Guest Bio
Bianca Rappaport is the founder of Wanderwell Club and a full-time nomad who has spent nearly a decade house and pet sitting across more than 20 countries on five continents. Since 2016, she has crafted a lifestyle that fuses financial freedom with meaningful travel—saving over $300,000 in rent, leveraging travel hacks for low-cost flights, and building a multi-six-figure investment portfolio. Remarkably, she reached Coast FI by age 34 without ever earning a six-figure salary.
Her approach combines intentional, slow travel with smart financial strategies, values-based spending, and a commitment to community. Whether she’s volunteering with locals or supporting small businesses, Bianca believes in giving back to the places she visits.
Through Wanderwell Club, Bianca empowers digital nomads and remote workers to build a sustainable lifestyle that balances exploration, financial independence, and positive social impact.
Show Summary
In this episode of the Big World Made Small Adventure Travel Podcast, host Jason Elkins speaks with Bianca Rappaport, founder of the Wanderwell Club and long-time global nomad. Bianca shares how her multicultural background and early desire to see the world led her to a lifestyle rooted in slow, intentional travel and personal freedom.
The conversation explores how Bianca built a financially sustainable life on the road through house sitting, frugal living, and long-term investing. She emphasizes the importance of community, mindfulness, and reciprocity in travel—encouraging listeners to slow down, build local connections, and make a positive impact along the way. Her journey is a compelling example of how travel and financial wellness can go hand in hand.
Key Takeaways
- ✓ Sustainable travel and financial freedom can go hand in hand with the right strategy.
- ✓ Bianca embraces the term “digital slow mad” to describe her intentional travel style.
- ✓ Slowing down allows for deeper relationships and a stronger sense of place.
- ✓ A powerful passport is a privilege that opens doors to global mobility.
- ✓ Even challenging moments—like crashing on a friend’s couch—can lead to transformation.
- ✓ House sitting offers a cost-effective, immersive way to travel long-term.
- ✓ Financial literacy is key to sustaining a nomadic lifestyle and planning for retirement.
- ✓ Wanderwell Club provides a supportive space for community, growth, and guidance.
- ✓ Mindful travel creates ripple effects that benefit local communities.
- ✓ Saying yes to new opportunities often leads to unexpected, life-changing adventures.
What You’ll Find on Wanderwell Club
- Resources for slow, sustainable, and values-aligned travel
- Financial education tailored for nomads and remote workers
- Community support for building a purpose-driven life on the road
- Guides on house sitting, travel hacking, and intentional living
- Encouragement to create positive impact while exploring the world
Learn more about Wanderwell Club and connect with Bianca at:
https://wanderwellclub.mykajabi.com/a/2148169031/4QLHtFmD
The link to Bianca’s website is an affiliate link. If you make a purchase using the link, I may receive a commission.
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Podcast Transcript
This transcript is auto-generated on recording, and has not been edited by a human. It may contain lots of mistakes, crazy words, and stuff that makes no sense. The host and the guest are not responsible for the accuracy of the transcript.
Jason Elkins (00:01.25)
Welcome back everybody to another episode of the Big World Made Small podcast for the adventure traveler. So happy to have each and every one of you back to join us today. And I’m super excited because I’ve got a fascinating guest here with us as well. We’ve got Bianca Rappaport She is a creator and she owns the Wanderwell Club. Bianca, welcome to the show. Happy to have you here.
Bianca Rappaport (00:22.178)
Thanks so much for having me, Jason. I’m really excited to be here and have a chat.
Jason Elkins (00:26.616)
It’s gonna be fun. I did get that right. You’re the owner of the Wanderwill Club as well, right? I mean, that’s your thing.
Bianca Rappaport (00:32.238)
Yes, it is. I sustainably, sorry, I help people to travel around the world sustainably while achieving financial freedom.
Jason Elkins (00:45.1)
I was going to ask you, you give me the 30 second elevator pitch? You gave me the 10 second. was, it was very concise, well thought out. Congratulations. Sometimes if people ask me for the elevator pitch, mine lasts about four minutes and it gets a little too long. well done. or can I discuss that a little bit? Let me ask you this. Actually, the first question I want to ask you is about your title. You put, you know, we spoke before and you, you just, when I gave you the opportunity to tell me what title you want me to use, you said creator.
Bianca Rappaport (00:53.262)
Ha ha ha!
Jason Elkins (01:14.372)
And that’s a little unique for most of the guests that have come on the show. I hear a lot of people toss around founder, CEO, owner, director, president, this and that. I really like your title is where I’m going with this. So was that a conscious choice to just use that word as creator? Cause you are, but tell me more about that.
Bianca Rappaport (01:36.366)
Yeah, absolutely. I would say creator, curator, I would like to bring together a community of people who are remote workers, digital nomads, long-term travelers, all of these people who would like to travel long-term on a long-term basis, but make it make sense financially and environmentally and socially responsibly. So by working at the intersection of sustainable travel and
personal finance and investing. I love to bring people who are looking to live an unconventional lifestyle that allows them to be able to explore the world now, have incredible experiences now, while also setting them up for a very comfortable retirement and even an early one.
Jason Elkins (02:22.968)
Very cool. think that that’s something a lot of our listeners should hear, could hear, maybe need to hear, probably myself included as far as the sustainable part. I’ve been going four years and no plans for retirement. So you and I probably need to talk more after the show, but we’ll pick up something here. I want to really get into your history and kind of figure out how you got from where you were to where you are. But before we do that, you mentioned the term digital nomad.
And I actually, I’ve been traveling around, I tend to identify with that term. I’ve been traveling around full time for about four years and it just came up in conversation with someone the other day that’s living a very similar lifestyle, but they really did not like the word digital nomad. They had some, and we didn’t go too deep into it, but I’m curious, do you use that term? Do you identify with that term? Do you have any thoughts on that term? And I’m just kind of curious.
Bianca Rappaport (03:19.542)
say that I identify with a version of that term like digital slow mad or a slow mad because I do I do travel for long periods of time and I try to travel as slowly as possible so I can really get to know the people and the places that I’m visiting and this really helps me to have a more regulated nervous system follow a routine and just travel more deeply.
Jason Elkins (03:25.112)
yeah, yeah, yep.
Jason Elkins (03:44.842)
It sounds like you’ve had a little bit of time doing the fast mad, I don’t know what you would call it, rapid mad process as well because I can identify when you talk about regulating routine, consistency. Over the four years I’ve been doing it, there’s periods where I just totally really kind of go into a spiral because I’m moving too fast. And the more I slow down, the longer I stay in one place.
Bianca Rappaport (03:52.558)
Flashpacker.
Jason Elkins (04:13.964)
All of a sudden my finances start to look better. My work ethic improves dramatically. I actually get things done. And I think it’s part of it’s just a decision fatigue. You know, when you’re traveling too fast, it’s that constant, where am I going to stay? Maybe tomorrow. Where am I going to stay next week? Where am I going to get my laundry done? Where am I going to find an ATM?
that doesn’t charge the higher rates and is just constantly trying to figure things out that you almost have no energy left for work or relationships or anything like that. Have you experienced that as well?
Bianca Rappaport (04:52.322)
Yes, definitely. just a little bit of backstory. Nearly 10 years ago, my partner and I… well, it’s relevant to this.
Jason Elkins (04:57.314)
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I know it is. And you also know that we’re going to go back a lot further than 10 years. So let’s start there. Let’s start with what you’re going to share now. And then we’re going to go even further back.
Bianca Rappaport (05:07.598)
For sure.
Bianca Rappaport (05:13.624)
Sure, I definitely have experienced that in the past where I have traveled too fast. I felt like I was bopping around from one country to the next every week or so. And I realized that it wasn’t necessarily benefiting the communities that I was visiting. Like what type of relationships was I really building? Not to say that it’s impossible, but if you’re looking to have deeper relationships and you…
do have the privilege of being location independent and being able to move around. I find it personally to be very rewarding when I’m able to have the slower experiences.
Jason Elkins (05:51.168)
I’m, I suspect that you’ve had similar situations where if you show up in a place and you just know you’re only going to be there for a week or, maybe even less, you just approach the place so much differently. You approach, I find myself thinking, what’s the point in trying to meet anybody or make any connections or have any conversations? Part of it’s so part of that’s in my head. And part of why I’ve built that story in my head is when you meet people, they tend to ask you.
Where are you from? Where do you live? How long have you been here? How long will you be here? And so I’ve created the story in my head that if I say, I’ve been here one day and I’m leaving this weekend to go to the next place, it’s like, they’re not going to want to invest in having a conversation with me. So I’ve just decided, well, nobody’s going to want to talk to me because I expect those questions. And they can be hard to answer with someone that’s not traveling. What do you?
This is the number one question. People say, where do you live? Well, how do you answer that question?
Bianca Rappaport (06:58.796)
global citizen. I’m very lucky to have a strong passport, which I know is a privilege that not everyone has. But I have really set up my life to be as global as possible and to give me that flexibility. And even when I think about my relationships over the years of traveling as a slow mad, I’ve really developed
a global network of friends who I just happen to see when I’m passing through various cities or they will come to visit me. So everything about my lifestyle is pretty global. But when I’m visiting a place, I try to act as locally as possible in the way that I’m shopping or engaging with nonprofit organizations, choosing tour operators, all those types of things.
Jason Elkins (07:44.514)
Very cool. And that’s a super awesome answer that people that get travel or that are doing it themselves are going to resonate with completely. What do you tell the Uber driver or the taxi driver or the person at the laundry when they ask you where you live? Because they’re not going to process what you just said. Oftentimes, I’m not saying they’re not smart, but oftentimes there’s a language barrier or just culturally.
It’s hard to get, I think for some people it’s hard to get their head around.
Bianca Rappaport (08:17.89)
Yeah, well, since I’ve been house and pet sitting around the world for nearly 10 years, I find it’s easy for me to say, I’m taking care of a friend’s cat or dog while they’re away and that I’m able to spend a couple of months in each place. And then it usually will start a conversation. what neighborhood? How interesting. That’s so nice. How does that work? When we’re able to, and then we’re able to connect a little bit.
Jason Elkins (08:43.128)
Probably that’s probably much more open to connection than I live in an Airbnb. You know, or I live in a guest house, you know, so I love that. That’s a, that’s really cool. All right. Let’s go back in time. Cause I want to figure out much further than 10 years. We’re going to come back to that and discuss a lot of that, but help, help me understand how did, how did this all come about for you? What was going on when you were a kid that
that influenced your choices to be here having this conversation with me today.
Bianca Rappaport (09:19.202)
Yeah, well, I grew up in a multicultural household. My father was Ashkenazi Jewish and my mother was Puerto Rican, so like completely different worlds. And I’ve always had one foot in each, but not really fully quote unquote belonging to each, know, never Jewish enough, never Puerto Rican enough, kind of somewhere in the middle. And it took me a long time to navigate that. I’ve always been very, very proud of having a multicultural background.
Jason Elkins (09:30.21)
Wow.
Bianca Rappaport (09:49.106)
and from both sides of my family. for me, I just knew that there were so many different ways of living and perspectives around the world, including from my own culture, just seeing that within my own family, but also outside of it. And so it always just gave me a natural sense of curiosity and a baseline level of respect for humanity, other cultures as well.
Jason Elkins (10:17.688)
Bianca, I’m never afraid to ask a question if it pops into my head. probably, I don’t have a bunch of a filter sometimes, but this is just a question. You said your father was, think the word was Ashkenazi Jewish. Did I say it right? Ashkenazi. So I’m not really sure what that means, but you specifically use that word. You didn’t just say Jewish. So help me understand maybe some of our listeners that are like, I’m not quite sure what that means.
Bianca Rappaport (10:29.922)
Yes, Ashkenazi
Bianca Rappaport (10:44.878)
Ashkenazi Jews have origins from Eastern Europe. that is like, if you look on my DNA test, you’re able to see that it shows up as like 49 point something percent Ashkenazi Jewish specifically from that area. So my grandparents were born in Poland. I don’t have a very clear story entirely from that background, but yeah, so in terms of my heritage, I identify with that, although not religiously.
Jason Elkins (10:57.825)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (11:15.784)
Okay. And then I guess the next obvious, I was sitting there having a beer with you or something, I’d say, how did your parents meet? Because that does, it’s quite different. Puerto Rican, you know, well, did they, did they live in New York? I know I was just, as I was asking the question, I was like, no, actually, there’s one place I can think of if I were, if I wanted to find a Jewish person and a Puerto Rican person that liked each other, you probably would go to New York and there’s probably a higher chance there than any, any.
Bianca Rappaport (11:26.55)
New York. New York. I’m from New York.
Jason Elkins (11:45.013)
So alright.
Bianca Rappaport (11:45.794)
To be fair, was upstate New York in the Catskill Mountains, not New York City, but still New York.
Jason Elkins (11:49.118)
Well, there’s only one New York. I lived in upstate New York for quite a while and people often as I was young, I grew up in Syracuse for several years. And yeah, when you tell people outside, did you really? very, very cool. Very cool. I have some fond memories. It was cold at times, but at my, I was living there because my mom was going to school at upstate the medical school there.
Bianca Rappaport (12:02.252)
No way, I went to Syracuse.
Jason Elkins (12:17.632)
in Syracuse, so yeah, I have some fond memories of that. But I also recognize that when I was back home where I came from, Wyoming or other places, I traveled a fair amount when I was younger. And you tell people New York and you’ve got one picture of what that means and that’s New York City. Whether it’s whether you’re in Syracuse, Oswego, Buffalo, is it Plattsville, Plattsburg up north? Yeah, so.
Anyway, so you did you grow up in the city then when you were younger? Or in the Catskills in the Catskills in the Catskills you just said that yeah.
Bianca Rappaport (12:49.806)
No, I actually grew up in the Catskills, yes, about an hour and a half outside of, I grew up about an hour and a half outside of New York.
Jason Elkins (12:57.176)
All right, very cool. And then let’s go from there. You’re growing up in the Catskills. What were you doing? Did you have interest in outdoor stuff as well? just give me a better idea. I mean, obviously the cultural differences with the family, stuff like that has a big influence, but what else was going on when you were young?
Bianca Rappaport (13:16.974)
Well, I grew up in a pretty rural, small town and there weren’t so many opportunities there and I was really determined to go and experience the world. I started working when I was 14 years old. I started taking classes from my local community college at night on the weekends and in the summer because I wanted to get out as quickly as I possibly could. So I graduated early from high school. I graduated early from
Syracuse, I was able to enter Syracuse as a junior because I had already completed a couple of years of college by the time that I could and saved like hundred grand in tuition. So that was also quite helpful and strategic. But really I saw education as my key to getting out of my small town and being able to open myself up to more opportunities than my family was able to financially support me with.
So yes, that was my way of getting out of the Catskills. Nothing wrong with them. It’s absolutely beautiful there. And I do go back and I have wonderful friends there. But that just leaving that area was the catalyst for me to be able to take on the world.
Jason Elkins (14:26.872)
Let me ask you this. Something tells me that anywhere you grew up, if let’s say you’d grown up in, I don’t want to say that I’m not disparaging any place, but let’s say you grew up in North Dakota or Northern California or pretty much anywhere. I have a sneaking suspicion that there’s something inside of you, kind of that wanderlust thing that, so do you think that it was?
Do you think the fact that you grew up in the Catskills made really any big difference for your desire to go explore the world? Or you think you would have wanted to do that regardless of where you grew up? I don’t know if that’s a weird question, but I’m going to ask it.
Bianca Rappaport (15:09.07)
You know, I think it’s a combination of the two things. I think that, you know, my father was, you know, a hippie. He hitchhiked multiple times across the US several times. So he kind of already had that adventurous spirit. I also was partially raised by my grandparents who came from Puerto Rico and without even knowing a word of English and they moved to New York and built a life for themselves. So yes, from my background, no doubt about it, we have people who have been
They’ve had mobility in their lives as both out of leisure, but also out of necessity. So for me, I’ve just seen it as a really big privilege to be able to do that. Now, in terms of my own spirit, also think a lot of things, yes, I definitely had the spirit, but because I didn’t necessarily have…
a lot of financial literacy and a lot of financial support from my family. I really needed to figure things out on my own. for me, I had no intention of spending my life traveling the world, really. I was very like type A, straight A student. And as you can see, I was trying to finish school as quickly as possible. And everyone just kept telling me,
Bianca, you’re going to be like, you know, the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, you know, you need to go to New York, you need to do all of these things. So I was very much on the track to climb up the corporate ladder. And I didn’t really see much beyond my bubble of, know, living in New York City at that point. But once I started traveling through a study abroad program through Syracuse, I studied for a semester in Florence. Once
I went there for a semester, it completely changed everything for me. And I was like, okay, forget about the corporate track. I am 100 % going to work my way around the system to make it so that I can travel as much as possible.
Jason Elkins (17:09.132)
What was your major when you went to school?
Bianca Rappaport (17:11.914)
I majored in public relations.
Jason Elkins (17:14.05)
public relations and then you had the full semester abroad.
Bianca Rappaport (17:19.24)
Yeah, about four months. So one semester in Florence and I had the opportunity to travel to lots of different countries in Europe on the weekends and whenever I wasn’t studying.
Jason Elkins (17:29.57)
So immediately before that, maybe when you first decided to go do this semester abroad.
Was, I mean, what was your thought process? Cause what I heard you say was it sounds like until I took that trip, was kind of corporate track, maybe live in the city, work in a big corporate environment. And then it shifted quickly. Do you think it started shifting right before the trip? mean, had you, well, let me ask you this. Had you left the country before that trip?
Bianca Rappaport (17:59.138)
left the country on shorter trips. So that was my first time living abroad for a more extended period of time where I had enough time to learn the language and really immerse myself more. Yes, I was very much on the trip and no, I hadn’t really had the change. Literally the night before the deadline to apply for studying abroad, my two best friends from college who were going to study abroad in Florence, they were like, Bianca, just come, just come.
hadn’t even considered it because I was like, don’t have the money. There’s no way that I’m going to be able to afford a semester abroad. you know, the currency exchange rate, the tuition, everything just seemed out of reach. But they managed to convince me to submit my application on the very last day. And then I applied for so many scholarships that I was actually paid to go and study abroad for the semester. So it worked out quite well for me.
Jason Elkins (18:53.462)
Nice. you remember what, so I heard you say there were some financial, you felt like there were some financial barriers that would keep you from doing it. I’m also wondering if, if at any moment you felt like, geez, if I go do that, it might take me off course. It’s not going to help me get where I want to go. So, or was it just like, you thought, yeah, I’d love to go. I think it would be great for my career, my business, whatever, but I don’t have the finances. Do you remember if there was a mix of those emotions?
Bianca Rappaport (19:24.844)
definitely remember putting in time to see if it would put me off my schedule at all, but really because I had doubled up on all of my classes and I went into Syracuse as a junior, I had already completed, like I was already graduating two semesters, sorry, two years earlier. So I completed my bachelor’s degree in two years, but instead just by studying abroad for a semester, I actually just postponed my graduation date by one semester. So it didn’t really affect me that.
I was still graduating within a two and a half year period instead of four.
Jason Elkins (19:57.912)
Okay, do you remember the day on this trip? Do you remember the day when it all just kind of clicked for you? Because it sounds like it happened on that trip or was it after, when did it click?
Bianca Rappaport (20:13.026)
think it’s just one moment. think that that would simplify the experience too much. No, no, I think it was more like unfolding. I was living with a host family, an Italian host family at the time, and I just saw their way of living and it just felt more, you know, more relaxed, more wholesome. And you know, it’s kind of that whole like work to live or live to work debate. And I saw that that contrast and
Jason Elkins (20:15.008)
Well, yeah, I know, I know, but come on.
Jason Elkins (20:36.46)
Mm-hmm.
Bianca Rappaport (20:39.862)
I just loved it. I loved being in Europe and being able to experience all these different cultures by just hopping on a train or a short flight. I just loved everything about the experience. So from there, you know, I did have the opportunity to, you know, volunteer with a nonprofit organization while I was there. Sorry, I did an internship with a nonprofit organization that was all about like communication and cultural.
exchanges and I also did some volunteering working in some schools throughout Italy teaching English. So those experiences were amazing for me and when I went back to Syracuse I ended up applying for an internship with Southwest Airlines in their community relations and charitable giving department. So I was really able to combine my desire to give back, volunteer through the corporate social responsibility route but
The internship program also offered unlimited free flights, so I was able to get around the United States that way quite a bit whenever I wasn’t working.
Jason Elkins (21:41.57)
You
Jason Elkins (21:47.032)
Nice, nice. I remember at one point seriously thinking, I’ll just go get a job working at the airport, like a ramp agent, whatever, for an airline, just like get free tickets. was like, man, I was a tough spot in my life and I just wanted to be able to get on a plane and go anytime. So that’s very, very cool. So you did that right? You did the internship.
after you graduate or right before? I’m sure it was right after, right? Based on the timeline I’m following so far. Is it? I don’t know much about internships and stuff like that. Generally, they do a lot of internships in between the school year, so getting an internship afterwards, is that unusual or can you tell I didn’t finish university?
Bianca Rappaport (22:20.43)
Right after, right after.
Bianca Rappaport (22:38.19)
think it’s… I mean, this was like 15 years ago, so I don’t know how things are now, but I do remember it being an option when I was in school, particularly for larger companies.
Jason Elkins (22:45.964)
Yeah, all right, just.
Jason Elkins (22:54.904)
Right? So, but at that point you’d already decided you really wanted to be able to travel. What types of jobs were you, like after your trip or during your trip, and you started imagining like a different route other than, you know, working in the city, doing the corporate stuff and climbing the ladder. What types of jobs were you imagining? How did you imagine that that would take you?
connected to travel.
Bianca Rappaport (23:28.206)
you’re giving me too much credit for how much I was thinking through things versus just trying to survive. I know that you’re laughing, but it was a very real thing for me. I didn’t have anyone to fall back on. There was no financial safety net. So really when I was doing things, I was just finding creative ways to hustle.
Jason Elkins (23:34.668)
Hahaha!
Jason Elkins (23:40.481)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (23:45.835)
Okay.
Bianca Rappaport (23:54.05)
make as much money as I possibly could just to like pay the bills by the end of the month. But I always found a way to combine both the, you know, the resourcefulness and savviness and interest in travel with my job. So I did do that internship for a semester with Southwest Airlines and it was wonderful, but Dallas wasn’t really for me. So I moved back to New York and
Jason Elkins (23:58.817)
Okay, gotcha.
Bianca Rappaport (24:20.27)
Everyone thought I was crazy. I this was at like the height of like the global financial crisis and I turned down the job with Southwest and I just knew that it wasn’t for me. So I went to New York without much savings, but I just did random, you know, gigs and did the New York hustle thing until I got an internship that was with a travel magazine startup company called Off Track Planet.
And I was working on their PR and communications. And this magazine was all about kind of encouraging Americans and young people to take gap years and teaching them how to do it in a financially stable way. Their whole schtick was travel for the young, sexy, and broke. So they tried to be edgy at their time. And I was all about it. I was super into it. And it was definitely like, I loved being part of that mission and encouraging people to travel and see things differently.
And while I was doing that, I was on a startup salary. So I was working, doing marketing surveys and being a brand ambassador as a model and just doing whatever I could just to get by in New York. But it was a really cool experience and ended up changing.
Jason Elkins (25:40.48)
It’s a, it’s very cool. And, and I do want to mention that, yeah, I get that there’s like, sometimes you do what you got to do to create the opportunities in the future. And you’re not even sure what those opportunities are. just like, I just got to get through today. I’m sick of eating ramen noodles, you know, but, but I also remember too, when I’ve had some of those moments that, that, that fantasy, that thinking about, wouldn’t it be great? I, I would love to be on a crew on a yacht sailing in the Mediterranean.
Or whatever. So that was, I was just curious if you had any kind of those, those fantasy type things rolling around in your head, but just.
Bianca Rappaport (26:17.846)
No, not really, but what I had like the internship with off track planet, I ended up getting hired as their PR and community manager. So I took on that role. So all of these opportunities just like one unfolded into the next. And I was able to work with them for a while to.
to build up these types of projects. And that also allowed me to travel. And that was my first taste of remote working. I mean, this was before remote work was a thing. This is before the pandemic. Like it was very unusual, but they did have an office in Brooklyn, but we always had the flexibility to work from home or really from anywhere in the world. And it was very strange for people at the time, but it was definitely ahead of its time.
This gave me the taste of flexibility of not working the traditional nine to five in an office. And I loved having that freedom and flexibility. And yeah, just very grateful that it worked out that way.
Jason Elkins (27:12.93)
Did you, did that job also provide, it sounds like it provided for the travel opportunities as well, not just working remotely, giving you the opportunity to work from anywhere. It’s a travel job. So I mean, would they send you on assignment? you, was there a legitimate case to be made that they should fly you to where you wanted to be working remotely or was that just kind of more on your own?
Bianca Rappaport (27:37.536)
No, I mean, it was a startup, like on startup funds. like there was no way that they were able to fly me out to different locations. But I did have the opportunity to go on some press trips and some different like travel conferences and whatnot, like trade shows and things along those lines. I did get to travel to Mexico.
Jason Elkins (27:40.01)
Okay.
Bianca Rappaport (27:58.99)
through like a press trip, which was wonderful opportunity for me. But as the PR and community manager, I primarily help facilitate press trips for all of the other writers that were on our team that we’re putting together, the digital and print travel magazine.
Jason Elkins (28:15.768)
Very, very cool. So what, so walk me from there to, mean, is you were working remotely from wherever you wanted to work at that point. Has it always, has it continued that way up until today, or did you ever go back into an office?
Bianca Rappaport (28:32.374)
I never went back into an office in the traditional sense, I would say, but I did spend a couple of years teaching English in Sardinia in Italy. And there, of course, I was able to, you know, I was teaching in person, but a full-time contract for English teachers there is about like 23 hours per week, more or less, of actual teaching time. So not a traditional nine to five, but there was a period where I taught in person.
But then once I started traveling on my trip around the world, I just transitioned that into teaching English.
Jason Elkins (29:07.512)
All right. I feel like I’ve kind of got myself bouncing or bouncing around. I want to make sure I’ve got a clear path. So let’s go back to you. We’re good for the PR. You’re doing PR office in Brooklyn, but you don’t have to work there. And then we got to teaching kind of what happened between. I want to make sure we don’t miss anything. Germaine to the conversation.
Bianca Rappaport (29:29.1)
Yeah, no, not missing too much. The magazine eventually folded. No pun intended. But the magazine eventually folded and I found myself, know, at that point I was living month to month and there was a point that I was spending, I wasn’t able to pay for rent essentially. And there was a point that I was living on my friend’s couch and I had like,
Jason Elkins (29:39.896)
You
Bianca Rappaport (29:57.122)
you know, like $13 to my name and things were pretty rough and I didn’t really know what to do. But I remember thinking about the article, one of the articles that was in the magazine and it was like how to travel the world for free or very low cost. And it mentioned a few different options and one of them was being an au pair. So I applied to be an au pair immediately that week and had the opportunity to interview, to meet with a family and I went to Sardinia.
Just a month later, you know, I sold my laptop I just went with a backpack full of clothes and like $500 to my name and just like was hoping to figure it out from there with the intention of continuing my journey on to Teach English in different places around the world since that seemed like a really viable path for me But I ended up meeting my now husband like a couple of weeks after I arrived. So, you know that happens
Jason Elkins (30:55.244)
That does happen. And was he traveling as well? he from there? I’m just curious. okay. All right.
Bianca Rappaport (31:01.186)
Yeah, he’s from there. He’s from there. So I was able to integrate myself as much as possible into Sardinian society. Like we got together and when he proposed to me, I said yes, but you know, I really, really want to travel around the world. So I have the idea of us taking a trip around the world for a year. But if you don’t want to go, if you just want to stay at your job, like I completely understand that, but.
I need to like get this quote unquote out of my system. So you can either come with me or you can stay behind. And I was very lucky that he agreed to come with me. And then we just spent all of our time trying to save up as much money as we possibly could so that we could travel around the world together for like a one year sabbatical. So that was like our main goal at the time. And then we left in 2016 and have been traveling since.
Jason Elkins (31:56.642)
Was he working a more traditional job that he could not do remotely when this all started? Most people work at a job that doesn’t allow them to travel around the world and continue to work anyway. So what kind of work was he doing?
Bianca Rappaport (32:13.386)
He always worked in hospitality. He has a pretty strong background in that, but he had lived in other places around the world, like in the UK and in Spain and France, a different period. So he’s open to traveling. yeah, we originally were planning to go for one year, but like kind of like wink, wink, nod, nod. I like wanted it to be longer than that, but he says that it was originally only supposed to be one year.
Jason Elkins (32:28.45)
So.
Jason Elkins (32:40.952)
Do you, I’m just curious and maybe it’s, none of my business. So we don’t, can talk about other people who can say it this way, but I think sometimes we’ve got a traveler that really just kind of wants to go and maybe they’re in a relationship or they meet somebody or it could just be anybody. You just meet anybody and sometimes you, don’t know, I’m going to talk about myself. Sometimes I think I tamp my desire a little bit because I don’t want to come across as too crazy.
So if I meet somebody, I might say, I love traveling. I want to travel probably at least for another year before I settle down. But then I start to wonder, I’m like, is that really true? Or am I just afraid to say, I want to just keep going forever because they will think I’m totally crazy, unapproachable. they’re just like, they just write me off. Do you think you did that at all?
Bianca Rappaport (33:37.068)
I think he’s used to my craziness. My special brand of crazy. think that he knows that I’m adventurous. We also have a 10 year age gap and I was in my early 20s at the time. for me to, I think that I really said before I settled down, I really need to have this type of adventure. Before I met you, I had the intention of going around the world. So this is something that’s really important.
for me and I’m very lucky that I have a partner who was, you know, respected my decision and also was really supportive of it and decided to come along with me.
Jason Elkins (34:16.578)
Well, you know, maybe I’m a little bit biased, if I was him, I’d look at that. There’s a lot of, there’s a lot of other things that a woman in her young twenties could say that she needs to get out of her system before she, before she commits to settling down with somebody. So meet a young woman and she says, yeah, I want to go travel the world. That’s pretty cool.
Right? That’s a, well, I mean, I’m biased because I like to travel, but I’m just, did he seem enthusiastic? I mean, let’s talk about now. Let’s, you guys are still traveling.
Bianca Rappaport (34:57.588)
Mm-hmm. 10 years in April.
Jason Elkins (34:59.288)
And he’s not trying to get you to go home. He might listen to this, though. We can edit this out if you need me to later. But you guys both enjoying it.
Bianca Rappaport (35:09.794)
Yeah, absolutely. you know, I think that he was a bit skeptical at first because he didn’t understand how we were going to make it work financially. I was also like, okay, we need to do backpacking. I don’t want to spend money on checking in my luggage all the time. We’re just going to have 40 liter carry-on backpacks. And for him, that was completely beyond his…
know, comprehension. you know, we were spending a couple of years, we spent a couple of years where we were saving up money and we talked through these things and like all of our concerns and worries and any doubts that surfaced. And I think that it was like a gradual thing where he just became more and more open to the idea. And since I spend so much time like diving down rabbit holes and doing lots of research and kind of presenting him with the ideas, I did that hard work.
He saw what I was presenting him with about how we could make it viable, how much we would need to be able to support ourselves on the one year sabbatical. And because of that, he felt confident and trusted me with all of the evidence and the research that I’d presented to him.
Jason Elkins (36:26.572)
very cool. Some reason that brings up the question of like, what about his parents, your parents, friends, family? What kind of response do you get from them?
Bianca Rappaport (36:39.022)
So I’ve been out of the house since I was 17, like a month after turning 17, I left the house. So you could even say late 16, early 17, but like I’ve been out of the house since then. So my family is very used to me just like being somewhere around the world. They don’t always know exactly where I am. It’s just kind of like, where in the world is Bianca? I have no idea. So they’re pretty used to that. You know, my father,
Unfortunately, he passed away a month before we got married, but he always encouraged me to travel. He loved the fact that I was living outside of the US, that I had opted for a slower pace of life in Sardinia. He loved that I had this curiosity for the world and that he was able to live vicariously through me anytime that I shared my stories. And the same thing for my grandparents as well.
They, you know, I was always able to, I mean, still to this day with my grandmother, you know, three days a week, I FaceTime with them just so that I’m able to show them wherever I am around the world and make sure that they’re not lonely, you know, back home. So for me, it’s, I think that my friends and my family are totally used to it. In terms of my in-laws, they’re definitely like a traditional Italian family. And they were like, what the?
Jason Elkins (37:52.502)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Bianca Rappaport (38:06.318)
doing? You’re kind of throwing away your life. What do you mean? You have a permanent contract that you can keep for the rest of your lives, but you guys are just choosing to not have a home and just travel indefinitely. So they found it very difficult to understand at first because they were just concerned about us, of course. They’re just out of love. They were just being skeptical.
Jason Elkins (38:08.056)
you
Bianca Rappaport (38:36.17)
Now, know, 10 years down the line, they completely understand our lifestyle and support us as long as we’re happy.
Jason Elkins (38:44.216)
for cool. Are there places that you’re not off limits because you’re adults, you get to decide where you’re going to go. But are there some places that you get a little bit more pushback than others? If you say I want to go, you know, I’ve been going to, I don’t know, Columbia, Tajikistan, Georgia, Ukraine, whatever. mean, are there places that you you just kind of know, like, geez, I’m gonna have to explain that one.
Bianca Rappaport (39:14.862)
I make the decision and then I go and then I tell them afterward. No, not after the trip, but I mean, if I’ve applied for a house set, I’ve accepted the house set. But once I’ve actually already decided that I’m going somewhere with my partner, then we’ve already made the decision. If we feel good about it, then we just kind of inform.
Jason Elkins (39:18.232)
that’s smart.
Bianca Rappaport (39:40.184)
people and we hope that they’re excited about it and perhaps they’ll come and visit us wherever we are. So we kind of take it from that approach. Although there have been instances, for example, like where we’ve dealt with natural disasters or other things while traveling and we have told Paolo’s parents after the fact so that they weren’t worried and we just let them know when we were safe and sound.
Jason Elkins (40:03.672)
I remember one time I went back to visit my mom in Arizona and I took an Uber from the airport and the driver was fascinating. He was a Kurdish guy that grew up in Northern Iraq and he was there during the war and worked as an interpreter and it was just a fascinating story and he’s telling me all about Kurdistan and how I should go and what I’m gonna see and I…
I was so excited by the time the 30 minute ride to my mom’s house. I gave him a big hug at the end. ran inside. Hi mom. I’m going to, I’m going to Iraq. I’m going to Kurdistan. And she just had, had a meltdown right there in the living room. So I just, you know, sometimes people that don’t travel as much or maybe aren’t quite as adventurous, don’t always get my enthusiasm. So, um,
Probably should have thought that out more. didn’t need to greet her with that as soon as I walked in the house. anyway, so tell us, I think what everybody’s dying to know is how do you make it work? I heard you being planner and meticulous figuring things out, but I also know that now you’re in a position that you’re helping other people figure it out. So let’s discuss that. Let’s kind of dig into that, unpack some of that. yeah, how are you doing it and how are you helping other people do it?
Bianca Rappaport (41:29.742)
been traveling as a house and pet sitter for the past nine and a half years since 2016. And this has been an absolute game changer for me. For those who aren’t familiar with house sitting, it means that I am able to stay in people’s homes in exchange for taking care of their pets, their plants and their properties. So that means that I’m not paying for rent, for bills, sometimes a car is included. And
I’m able to live a very high quality lifestyle. I’m able to travel more slowly and sustainably while having the comforts of a real home, not just like a sterile Airbnb or hotel room and have all the amenities of a home. So as I mentioned before, the beginning of our trip around the world, the one year sabbatical that we were supposed to go on, we were on a very strict budget and we knew how much we were allowed to spend each day.
That was just with the idea of staying in Airbnbs, hostels, and couch surfing. So we spent the first three months couch surfing throughout Croatia, Hungary, Japan, and South Korea. And it was wonderful. We met amazing people, absolutely loved them, and are still in touch with many of them to this day. But we were getting burnt out with the speed that we were traveling at, and we just wanted to have our own space as well.
And that’s when we switched over to house sitting. And I had known about house sitting because of that article that included au pairings as well, back from the travel magazine. So I kind of always had that like up my sleeve, in my back pocket, just thinking that that could be a possibility. So I switched to that and it was amazing because we realized that our one year trip around the world was able to be extended because we were able to make our money last longer.
Jason Elkins (42:57.505)
Yeah, yeah,
Jason Elkins (43:04.628)
Hmm?
Bianca Rappaport (43:26.094)
from the money that we had set aside. And that definitely was a shift in the way that we traveled. We started staying in really beautiful homes and we had the company of pets. If you’re taking care of dogs, you’re walking the dogs and get to meet other people. So it’s just a completely different dynamic. You’re building relationships with the homeowners, you’re getting to know them, they’re kind of plugging you into their community. They’ll introduce you to their neighbors and bring you to their favorite local joints.
Jason Elkins (43:34.007)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (43:53.527)
Mmm.
Bianca Rappaport (43:56.14)
It’s just, it’s a really nice type of relational exchange. And, yeah.
Jason Elkins (44:01.164)
That sounds cool. Do you mind Bianca? Do you mind if I ask you a little bit about the couch surfing? Cause I know a little bit about it, but I’m sure some of our listeners are not quite sure what that’s about. So what should people know about couch surfing? What is couch surfing?
Bianca Rappaport (44:15.97)
Couchsurfing, it’s a website, couchsurfing.com, and it’s a community of people around the world that will allow you to stay in their home for free. And it could be on a couch, like literally on a couch, but they might have an extra bedroom. It just depends on the property. So people create their own profiles, either as a guest or a host. And if people are interested in hosting, they will put up their availability, or if you’re a guest, you can contact them to see if they’re willing to host you.
It’s really nice. We’ve met, made wonderful friends that, you know, they introduce us to their families or brought us to their favorite parks or, you know, to their favorite restaurants. And we just had unique experiences that we wouldn’t have had otherwise. And yeah, so it’s a great opportunity and it has a review system. So if you’re concerned about safety or anything like that, you are able to look at verified reviews through the platform just to make sure that you feel comfortable about the arrangement.
Jason Elkins (45:15.106)
think a lot of people might ask and I’m close enough to it that I think I already kind of know the answer, but I think I the answer. But why do the hosts do it? I’m like, cause some people are going to be like, well, why would somebody invite you to come stay at their place for free? That’s weird. But maybe they’re not travelers like you and I, if they’re thinking that, I don’t know. But why did the hosts do it?
Bianca Rappaport (45:43.096)
Well, first off, I would like to live in a world where we have so much trust in other people that we’re willing to host them. And I think that you see that as a common place in some other cultures where people are just welcoming and willing to share what they have with you. So I definitely think that it can be a cultural aspect. Some people are interested in learning languages. Maybe they’re able to practice their English. Some people are curious about the world.
And some people do it from a sustainability standpoint, like, why don’t we participate in the sharing economy? I have these resources available, so why not make travel a little bit more accessible for people who are looking for these types of exchanges, but might not necessarily be able to afford them? So lots of different reasons.
Jason Elkins (46:32.234)
In your experience, do a lot of the couch, couch surfing hosts also travel and use the app as a guest?
Did you see much of that? I’m just curious if there’s a little bit of a kind of feels like a trade thing. You can stay at my house and then I’ll go. I’m going to go stay at somebody else’s place when I travel.
Bianca Rappaport (46:53.602)
them will do both, but it’s not necessarily a requirement. Exchanges don’t have to be reciprocal or simultaneous or anything like that. So I think that it’s probably a good mix of both.
Jason Elkins (47:06.423)
But it’s, but I imagine, it sounds like you kind of touched on the downside is you’re probably not going to stay for a month. I mean, I’m sure you could maybe sometimes, but where you’re probably going on a faster pace and you don’t really kind of feel like you have your space. And I mean, I’m just kind of mentioning some of the things I heard you say. there any other downsides or things that people should be aware of before they, mean, just curious.
Bianca Rappaport (47:37.752)
think it’s the approach that you’re taking. When I first Couchsurfed, I did it in Mexico and I went by myself as a solo female traveler. So of course I was looking for a opportunity to Couchsurf with someone, but to make sure that I was doing it with someone that had lots of reviews. So that’s just an extra concern when you’re a woman that’s traveling.
to honest, it just depends if you’re trying to do this just for like a one week vacation type of deal, or if you’re trying to do this as like your lifestyle. I think it’s ambitious and I love the idea of it, but I wasn’t able to do that as like a full time lifestyle, although we did it for three months and it was wonderful.
There were periods where we did spend even up to two weeks with people if they had an extra bedroom. There was a time in Okinawa that one of our couchsurfing hosts introduced us to another friend who happened to be on couchsurfing and he left the island for two weeks, literally just handed us the keys and then just left. it kind of depends on what type of situations you find yourself in. You know.
Jason Elkins (48:49.602)
I’ve got the app on my phone. I’ve not stayed with anybody, but what I did find really interesting and useful was the opportunity just to connect. It wasn’t just, hey, I have a bed, you can come stay at my place. was get together, just go out and hang out. Just go out to dinner, go to a beer festival or something. And I met some really cool people through doing that. And so I thought that’s pretty cool.
All right. So yeah, yeah. And, and I thought that was, and I only knew cause there was a, I was staying at guest house in Columbia and one of the guests there is like, I’m going to meet some of my couch surfing friends and you want to go. I’m like, that sounds interesting. And I met all these people and then I got invited to these big groups and they introduced me to all their friends. was like, a great way to meet people. And, and I’m, and then I considered maybe,
Bianca Rappaport (49:19.138)
Yeah, there’s a Hangouts feature.
Jason Elkins (49:46.678)
you know, being a guest, I looked at a few things. I don’t know. There, I’m sure there’s some funny prof. I don’t know if it’s funny, but there’s some profiles you read that kind of got me like, I’m not sure about this guy, but you just kind of avoid those if you’re not comfortable. Yeah, let’s life. Yes, you do. And, and I think fortunately, when I see somebody like, that’s really kind of strange. I am, I’m at least.
Bianca Rappaport (50:00.334)
That’s life, right? You have to use your intuition. You have to read between the lines sometimes. mean, you have to be head smart.
Jason Elkins (50:15.99)
happy that people are honest enough to share what they’re looking for before you get there. sure. anyway, all right. So you mentioned, I know that you’re going to have people are going to listen to this, that you’ve house at four or will be housing for at some point. I still wanted to ask you, did you like pets? Were you attracted to had you had pets in the past? So when you’re going and visiting people’s home and helping take care of their pets was that
a challenge to get used to.
definitely not a problem whatsoever. And I feel honored that all of these homeowners are willing to have me in their homes and that they trust me enough to take care of their pets and their property. So it’s a really nice way to travel. So I started off with the house sitting. It was able to extend my budget. And I also spent some time working as a professional travel hacker. So it was my job to find error fares, mistake fares, great travel deals, use points and miles.
to be able to travel for very low cost or nearly free. So I was combining house sitting with travel hacking to absolutely reduce my costs and eliminate many of them. And this was wonderful because I was working online, teaching English, and this allowed me to save and save significantly. And I was doing that for a few years, just living my life, house sitting around the world.
But there was a point where I was like, I’m not really planning for the future. I hear all my friends talking about 401ks and IRAs and all of that, but I don’t know what that means. I’m very intimidated by that language, but I realized that all of my savings are getting eaten away by inflation. So I kind of need to get over this fear and just sit down and learn about it. And that’s exactly what I did.
know, dove head in head first and learned all about investing and being able to make my money work for me and not in like a get rich quick schemey type of way, but in like a long term investments, like, you know, safe for retirement, just to make sure that I’m able to take care of like the senior citizen version of myself. And
Jason Elkins (55:31.96)
Mm-hmm.
Bianca Rappaport (55:33.387)
By putting all of those elements together, I just have been able to build a very comfortable and adventurous lifestyle for myself. And I have saved over $300,000 living this type of lifestyle. So I’ve put myself into a very good situation and that’s without working full-time, grinding my life away because by being able to travel through house sitting, I’m reducing all of the expenses that are traditionally considered to be
fixed expenses, you know, so I am able to save more and I’m on track to retire by the time that I’m 45. Retire slash be work optional, you know, of course I would have the option to continue working. So I’ve literally reclaimed a couple decades of my work life just by being able to live this lifestyle while still traveling through all of my my 20s and early 30s. So that’s why I’m helping other people do the same.
Jason Elkins (56:31.946)
I think it’s important to just in case anybody didn’t hear exactly what you said, expenses are lower than if you lived back home somewhere or wherever that is, right? Because that’s the thing that people have our time. Like how do you afford to travel? How can you, my gosh, it’s so expensive. they’re looking at a lot of people are looking at it through the lens of
Bianca Rappaport (56:45.899)
Yes.
Jason Elkins (56:57.42)
They still have their house payment, their car payment, their this, their that, whatever. So when they go travel, it’s spending additional money into what they’re on top of what they’re already spending. But when you’re not spending, when you don’t have that car payment, the mortgage, the insurance, the power bills, all that stuff, then you can live cheaper, stay in nice houses, different places around the world, hanging out with dogs.
meeting nice neighbors and just enjoying your life and taking the difference and putting that into your retirement or into getting to where your work is optional at, you said 45, right? That’s great.
Bianca Rappaport (57:27.531)
Yeah.
Bianca Rappaport (57:40.737)
Yeah, absolutely. And it’s both giving me more financial flexibility, but also more time flexibility. I, of course, could continue to work full-time hours and really try to amass as much money as I possibly can, but that’s not really my vibe. I would rather have more time to just enjoy my travels. Of course, I am thinking about the future and preparing for the future, but I also would prefer to downshift and just kind of be semi-retired.
Jason Elkins (57:57.976)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Bianca Rappaport (58:09.707)
for my entire life, essentially, by living this lifestyle. So it gives me a lot more time to be able to have slow mornings, to be able to volunteer wherever I go around the world, which is really important to me. I’ve done guerrilla gardening and gone to protests and organized workshops and skillshares and beach cleanups. I’ve done this all around the world. And it’s a really important aspect of the way that I travel because I,
Jason Elkins (58:37.752)
Mm-hmm.
Bianca Rappaport (58:39.317)
I think that returning to our discussion about digital nomads, a lot of times just digital nomads get a really bad rep around the world. like that because of valid reasons, like from over tourism and gentrification and all of these other aspects that, you know, like in some ways, digital nomads can really like increase the price and make things difficult for locals in some place, but not.
That’s only one part of the picture. I think that there are ways to travel sustainably, more mindfully, and in a way that is ensuring that the money that we have and that we’re spending in communities actually stays in the communities, just versus going to multinational corporations. And I think that when you have more time and energy to do that type of research, you could be more mindful about your choices. So I think that…
With Wander Well Club, that is a core part of the way that we’re sustainably traveling our way to financial freedom. Like we want to be able to travel the world now, but also give back and have our souls intact while we’re doing it.
Jason Elkins (59:45.794)
So what’s the one, let’s take the stereotypical digital nomad that we kind of just touched on about some of the things that maybe aren’t really benefiting the communities they’re visiting in that stereotypical nomad way. What’s like the biggest thing that somebody that’s living that life can do today, tomorrow or the next day to make an impact or change?
Bianca Rappaport (01:00:17.441)
Well, like we’ve mentioned many times, join Wanderwell. Of course I’ll say that, but I wasn’t trying to plug myself so much. yes, absolutely, that’s one option for you if you’re looking for extra support, but also just like slowing your role a little bit. Like that is the number one tip. When we are slowing down our travels and we’re not just kind of ping-ponging all over the place, like we are able to build deeper relationships. We’re able to understand like what…
Jason Elkins (01:00:18.476)
Join Wanderwell.
Bianca Rappaport (01:00:46.113)
composting systems a city might have. We might be able to actually spend time regularly volunteering with the same organizations. We might be able to visit our local farmers market versus an international supermarket. just by slowing down, we’re able to reflect, observe, listen, and give back in a more mindful way. So I think that…
just by doing that, by slowing your pace, you are automatically reducing the number of flights that you’re taking, which is going to have an environmental benefit. I don’t want to come from a point where I want, I don’t want to degrade anyone in any way. I don’t want to just bash them. I want to educate and say, okay, what you’re doing is one way, but we do have this other way that
you might feel really great about and it could actually benefit the local communities that we’re visiting. So that we’re not hated.
Jason Elkins (01:01:43.85)
Right. Well, that sounds, that sounds a lot more meaningful and impactful than, you know, someone might say, well, the problem is Airbnb. So as long as you don’t use Airbnb, then keep doing everything else you’re doing, but just don’t use Airbnb and that solves the problem. That’s not going to solve the problem. It’s, but what you’re saying has so many different avenues that it can change things. And like, I think.
Just that connection with the locals because if they never get a chance to connect with a nomad or somebody that’s traveling through because, because the nomad shows up, Hey, I’m only here for three days. So I’m not going to even try. And they just see the churn and the churn and burn or whatever people come, people go, people come, people go. They never see them at the community center. They never see them working on these projects. They never see them at.
outings other than just beer crawls or pub crawls or whatever. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. You mentioned a term that I don’t think I’ve heard. Maybe I have. Gorilla gardening. Is that what you said? Gorilla gardening. What is gorilla gardening?
Bianca Rappaport (01:02:44.865)
Yeah, and sorry, go ahead.
Bianca Rappaport (01:02:52.671)
Yes, gorilla. Gorilla gardening is when you will just kind of throw local native seeds around in different places so that flowers will come up and it will help with the pollinators. Yeah, so.
Jason Elkins (01:03:10.208)
Okay. That’s cool. So you just walk around with a pocket full of seeds and drop them around every once in a while. Or is this a conscious like, yeah.
Bianca Rappaport (01:03:15.615)
You can do that, you can do that. But the way that I’ve done it has been organized with the organization Fridays for Future in Granada in Spain. So they actually organized an event where they were actually doing that where in the area, the little square, I don’t know what they’re called, but the little square is where trees are in different cities. So they just tried to make those spaces a little bit more green.
Jason Elkins (01:03:40.61)
Parks. I heard you say those squares they have in cities with trees in them. Sounds like a park, but I understand. know what you mean now. Okay. Like on the sidewalk, like, okay. Little, little squares, not like, okay. I got it. I just envisioned a park when you said that. was like,
Bianca Rappaport (01:03:42.719)
No, like in the streets where there’s like the square you have a tree, but just like…
Bianca Rappaport (01:03:53.258)
Yeah. Yeah. I don’t know the word.
Yeah, little squares, not big squares.
Jason Elkins (01:04:06.252)
Maybe you’re just, okay. All right. Gorilla gardening. All right. Appreciate you sharing that with us. so a little bit more on Wanderwell clubs, cause I really want our listeners to get a feel for what it is you do. mean, I think we’ve kind of touched on it. Here’s, I know you’re not here to self promote, but I really want to know. So what members they joined the club? What did they get out of it?
Bianca Rappaport (01:04:07.659)
Valid.
Bianca Rappaport (01:04:33.835)
Yeah, within it, it’s part community and part coaching program. So within the community, you have people that are like minded, that are on the same type of travel and financial journeys where they are looking to be able to have more like location, time and financial freedom. And within the community, we have different areas where you’re learning how to house it and house sitting can be pretty competitive. You know, you have to be
very fast, have to have a strong application. If you’ve never housed that before, we work on helping you to build your profile so that you’re able to really stand out from the crowd and be able to hit the ground running. One of our members who joined earlier this year, we met, we worked on a personalized profile for her and she was able to book her first sit within a week.
was hitting the ground running and has spent about half of the year house sitting while still maintaining her home base. So it is both for part-time travelers and full-time travelers. And we look to not just say house sitting is the only way to travel, but how can we integrate traveling into your lifestyle, whether you want to be a full-time nomad or just a part-time traveler, and do it in a way that puts you financially ahead? How can we be more strategic about things?
We also work on the personal finance side of things. like making sure that you have your account buffers and emergency funds in place and that you are reducing your expenses as much as we possibly can in a way that is not depriving your life whatsoever. You know, that you’re really just trying to align your spending with your values as much as possible and ruthlessly cut out everything else that isn’t aligning with that. And being able to
Jason Elkins (01:06:12.322)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (01:06:20.472)
Yeah.
Bianca Rappaport (01:06:22.675)
from there just being able to reroute all of those money into a strategic way through your investment accounts and the idea is to have your finances set up on autopilot so that you don’t have to be thinking too much about them. You don’t need to be stressed about them when you’re traveling and set them up in a way that you’re able to enjoy your travels but you know that your money is working for you in the background because we’ve set that system.
And within the community, we meet twice a month just to talk about any like questions, concerns, share our wins, our challenges and get to connect with each other. We have monthly challenges that work on different areas of like finance, sustainability and travel. We have, you know, different weekly journal prompts just to have reflection periods as we’re traveling. I post travel hacking deals,
We have travel hacking deals, we have challenges, we have the prompts, we have like areas when you can talk about any like house sitting issues that might come up for you if you’re kind of debating whether you should accept a sit or not or find yourself in a little bit of a precarious situation and many other things along those lines. So we’re constantly developing it to benefit the members in each way. There is the option to add on one on
coaching if you’re looking for more personalized support as well, and that we can create a more like customized plan for you so that you’re really set up both on the travel and the financial side of things.
Jason Elkins (01:07:54.466)
Very cool. You’re not, you don’t sell any sort of investments or crypto packages or any of that stuff, right?
Bianca Rappaport (01:08:03.063)
Nope, nope, nope, nope. No, it’s financial. It’s financial education.
Jason Elkins (01:08:05.368)
already knew the answer to that, I want to make sure people, yes, exactly. I want people listening to this. I don’t want anybody to think, because there’s, you know, if you go on social media or YouTube or whatever, there’s a lot of, I’m living this lifestyle and I’ll show you how to do it as well. And then it turns into something completely different. That’s, you know, not what you and I are talking about.
Bianca Rappaport (01:08:31.147)
Yeah, I’m not trying to be some like influencer like that turning to the story of creator and curator. I want to cultivate this space where people feel safe talking about these interests. know, money can be very, you know, an uncomfortable topic for some people, especially when you’re diving into your personal finances for the first time. But I know that there are lots of people out there who
Jason Elkins (01:08:39.234)
Yeah.
Bianca Rappaport (01:08:53.931)
have a deep desire to travel right now, but they feel like they might be sacrificing their financial futures and they feel like they need to do the quote unquote responsible thing right now. And I don’t think that traveling now and having like a safe retirement for the future are mutually exclusive, but like how can we design our lives in a way that you can kind of have your cake and eat it too and get the best of everything.
Jason Elkins (01:09:19.03)
Right, and there’s probably a couple different polar, I don’t know how to say polar opposites, whatever, but you’ve got some people that are holding back from traveling because of how can I do both? And then you’ve got other people that are just, I’m going traveling whether I can afford it or not, and I have no plan whatsoever, I’m just going. And then at some point there, you know.
couch surfing and they’ve got $3 left in their pocket and they’re like, Oh my goodness. And you know, um, because the travel is more important than the money, but they got it. They kind of probably use some support as well. If they want to keep traveling and not traveling, you know, sleeping on the streets, I would think so. I’m sure, I’m sure you’ve got clients do both right for both sides.
Bianca Rappaport (01:10:02.551)
Absolutely, that’s what we’re trying to do. You know, from an ethical standpoint, I don’t want to take anyone’s money if they don’t have an emergency fund set in place. Like I want people to have their basic needs met. That’s something that’s very, very important to me. But I do want people to be able to have a high quality of life while they’re traveling and setting themselves up for the future. if I think about
Jason Elkins (01:10:13.248)
Well, yeah.
Bianca Rappaport (01:10:26.647)
When I first started traveling and I was couch surfing and I really was penny pinching because I was on a very strict budget for each day based on my one year of travel that I was planning to do, really what was I giving back to the community? I was definitely guilty of just haggling and trying to get the absolute cheapest price possible and not thinking about the quality of products or my environmental impact. So I think that
when we are giving ourselves more financial footing and foundation to stand strongly on, then we’re able to also make sure that our money is kind of having a ripple effect in the community. we have members that are all around the world. I want to, the whole point of creating Wanderwell Club is that I kind of feel like I’ve put together all of these different life hacks in a way that really works for me and that I know a lot of other people.
Jason Elkins (01:11:09.613)
Right.
Bianca Rappaport (01:11:26.379)
would love to have and I want people to be able to do that and create their own ripple effects around the world. So beyond just what I’m doing right now in Lisbon, Portugal, where I’m house sitting, like how can this be helping our members who are in Vancouver and Hong Kong and, know, Asturias in Spain, all over the world. So yeah, it’s really, it’s a deep honor to be able to do this type of work with people and I’m really excited to see Wonderworld.
Jason Elkins (01:11:55.48)
Very cool. Well, I don’t want to say it sounds like a great place to end, but that’s a pretty great message. So, and we’ve, we’ve chatted a bunch of, bunch of things. That was really good. Thank you. And what did I forget to ask you? What do you wish I would have asked you? Or is there anything else you want to make sure that our listeners know about you? Wanderwell club life in general, the universe, anything like that you want to share before we wrap up?
Bianca Rappaport (01:12:25.623)
would ask people to say yes to more opportunities. Like, of course, it’s important to know when to say no to things. But when you become more open to all of the random, spectacular scenarios that you can find yourself in in the world, you know, never in million years I would have imagined that my life would have unfolded to be where I am right now. But I’m
But it’s really because I just saw opportunities. I was willing to live in an unconventional way. wasn’t willing to to settle down in a way that wasn’t in line with what I wanted for myself. And I hope that other people will find the courage within themselves just to say yes and have these types of opportunities and to know that.
they’re not alone in thinking this way, that there are other people who have these really, really deep desires, that they want a financially stable future, they wanna have an adventurous life, and they really want to give back and do good while they’re here on this earth.
Jason Elkins (01:13:34.2)
Very cool. Beautifully said. Thank you so much. Appreciate what you’re doing. Not just, not just for coming on the show, but what you’re, what you’re doing, your mission is important and it definitely resonates with me and other folks. I’m sure resonates with them as well. So we’re going to have a linked, right to your website and the show notes or anybody, you know, that, is so inspired, by anything you just say, cause there’s quite a few things going on there. click the link, go check it out. And when you get there.
Bianca Rappaport (01:13:36.055)
Thanks.
Jason Elkins (01:14:03.732)
Say hi to Bianca for me. Tell her that you heard us on the show. Bianca, thank you so much. Appreciate you joining us.
Bianca Rappaport (01:14:11.863)
Thanks so much, Jason.
Jason Elkins (01:14:13.804)
I’ll chat with you again soon. Yeah.
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