The Extraordinary Life of a Digital Nomad Family with Marissa Dingler

Jennifer Norman [00:00:08]:

Hello, beautiful humans. Welcome to the Human Beauty Movement Podcast, Life Lessons from Beautiful humans. I appreciate you being with me today, wherever you're tuning in from. And speaking of that, I think it's pretty incredible that through the power of digital technology and the shift of offices to remote work, that more and more people around the world are choosing to live life untethered. At the time of this recording, there are an estimated 35 million digital nomads in the world. And if the global digital nomad movement was a country, it would rank 41st in the world in terms of population. The US alone accounts for more than 51% of digital nomads on the planet. Now, my next guest is one who has chosen to live the life nomadic.

Jennifer Norman [00:00:57]:

Marissa Dingler and her husband have four kids. After adopting her latest two kids, they learned how much they love showing their kids this amazing world. So she's here to talk about her experience. Welcome, Marissa. I'm so happy that you're here on the show.

Marissa Dingler [00:01:14]:

Of course. Thank you so much. I'm excited.

Jennifer Norman [00:01:16]:

Now, you've been doing this for 16 months or so, and you like to say that you're an ordinary family that's living an extraordinary life. But I have to tell you, this is so brave and so daring. I mean, I think about myself and whether or not I would be able to uproot a family of six and live a nomadic life. How did you come to this decision with your husband and your family?

Marissa Dingler [00:01:39]:

Yeah, it's so funny, because everyone expects that we had some big epiphany, and I wish we did wish we had some big, wonderful moment, really. It came out of a morning walk that my husband had after our two oldest kids came home from being adopted internationally. COVID happened, and that shut down. Our kids came home February 2020, and we were in Virginia at the time, and Virginia shut down March 2020. And so we had been homebound like everybody, right?

Jennifer Norman [00:02:04]:

Right.

Marissa Dingler [00:02:05]:

And so my husband, Eric, one morning just goes on a morning walk. And by this time, COVID restrictions had started to lift. Our kids had just done one season of some fall soccer, so normalcy was kind of coming back. We had talked about traveling again, because while we were actually adopting, we had the chance to show our two biological kids from a couple countries while we were traveling to go visit our adopted kids that weren't legally ours and they weren't allowed to travel with us yet. And so we loved that. We were like, oh, man, we want to show our kids as much of this as we can. So then Eric goes on a walk, and he's like, hey, I had this thought. We've been saying, we want to show the kids more of the world.

Marissa Dingler [00:02:41]:

Who doesn't want to show their kids the Eiffel Tower and take them to all places, right? And so I was like, yeah, of course I want to do that, but what are we going to do? And he's like, I was thinking, this winter, we don't have anything going on, really. Our kids have always been homeschooled. My two bio kids were homeschooled since they started their school careers. And then as soon as my other two came home, they started being homeschooled. And so we weren't tethered to a school calendar. And he goes, since we have this winter time period of nothing going on, what if we leave the United States? What if we just go and do something? And I was like, I love that idea. Let's explore it. And so we started talking with some people, where could we go? What could we do? And it did not start off as what we now refer to as a test trip.

Marissa Dingler [00:03:27]:

By the time we got on the airplane for that trip, it had become a test trip to become digital nomads. But when we first started, it was just this idea to go on a vacation, really like a long vacation. And so we talked to our landlord, and we said, hey, we want to do this. We're going to be gone about three and a half months. We are totally fine taking all of our stuff out. You can rent the house to someone else, or we'll pay 50% of the rent. My husband has a lot of sayings in his life, and one of them is, don't say someone's no for them. And he goes, what's the worst that can happen? If we ask our landlord this question, he's going to say, no, get all your stuff out so I can put another family in.

Marissa Dingler [00:03:59]:

He happened to say, yes. He said, yeah, I'll take 50%. So we winterized the house as much as possible, so we didn't have lots of electric bills and that kind of stuff. Put things on vacation mode. And we left for Istanbul, Turkey, and we traveled in Europe a bit on some trains, and that was amazing. And then we got back to the United States. We said, this is the life we want. We want to live this life of not 100% knowing where the next location is going to be, totally immersed in the culture that you're in at that moment, but also knowing it's so different from the one you were previously in and different from the one you're about to head into.

Marissa Dingler [00:04:34]:

It's madness. But what I tell people is the culture shock is not a shock to us. It's almost like a comfort blanket. We love it so much. And so that's kind of how it all started. It started with my husband going on a morning walk and just having an idea of extended vacation.

Jennifer Norman [00:04:49]:

That's incredible. And I can imagine going through the adoption process and having your kids experience that, get bitten by the travel bug, and then, oh, my gosh, the world shuts down. And I can see that it's almost like this backlash of, yeah, we got to get out of here. We need to expand and we have international kids. Let's be international.

Marissa Dingler [00:05:07]:

Yeah, we felt that.

Jennifer Norman [00:05:09]:

You can see the reality show bubbling up. I know one of yours is, Someone Feed Phil. I love that show, too. It's like, oh, my God, I want to go to that restaurant to eat that food. Wherever he is, I want to be.

Marissa Dingler [00:05:26]:

I watch that show with my Google Maps open. I search the restaurants we just watched the other day, the Madrid one. And so I have Madrid open on my Google Maps, and then I'm searching the restaurants, and I'm favoriting them to save. So when we get there, I just open it up, and I'm like, okay, let's go to this. We're going.

Jennifer Norman [00:05:41]:

By the way, everyone, Marissa is in Costa Rica, so she's nowhere near Madrid.

Marissa Dingler [00:05:46]:

But that'll be one day. We'll get there.

Jennifer Norman [00:05:51]:

Now, some people who are thinking of this, because more and more people are like, why just stay in one place? My gosh, mortgages are crazy these days. It's like everything is just so tremendously expensive. So why not? If you can make a living off of your computer, doing something that doesn't tie you down to one single location. I know that in your situation, you were already homeschooling, so that's not such a big departure. I know that for a lot of people, the kids are the anchor. You can't do anything until the kids go to college or they're out of the home, and then you can go and do your cruises or what have you. But, yeah, if you're interested in doing something like this, it's nice to start a little bit smaller, a little bit closer in. Try it on for size.

Marissa Dingler [00:06:31]:

Yeah, we encourage people all the time. Do a test trip, whatever you need to do to get ready for that. That's my biggest piece of advice for people that are considering this lifestyle, because then you're going to be able to have a conversation as a family about what happened. Hey, we really like this, but we want to stay in places longer. So for our trust trip, we tried to do a mix of time periods in different places. And so we did about two months in Istanbul, and then we did two weeks in Prague, and then we did one month in Poland. And we were able to look at that and go, okay, well, the two weeks was too fast. You just get settled in and then you're packing your bag again.

Marissa Dingler [00:07:10]:

Like, not for us. People love that. Just didn't work for the Dinglers.

Jennifer Norman [00:07:14]:

Right.

Marissa Dingler [00:07:14]:

And so we said one month was nice. If you're able to do a lot of stuff, like, if you want to do a lot of stuff really fast, one month is a good amount of time, too. But if you want to get settled into a place and meet your neighbors and kind of get involved in the local community, we all agreed that two months is the minimum. And so we got back to have these conversations as a family. And then as you're getting ready to take that test trip, you can really think about your schedule and you can go, okay, well, here are some things that we need to have realistic conversations about, like bills, like cell phones, like school, like kids as extracurricular activities. How are our kids going to stay in communication with their current friends? That's huge. A place doesn't mean your kids are going to leave their best friend, like my 16 year old son FaceTimes his best friend back in the United States almost daily. That's important to him, and that's okay.

Marissa Dingler [00:08:02]:

But if you have young kids that maybe you don't want them to have technology, which I understand, how are you going to navigate that? Like, if your six year old is used to seeing their best little buddy three days a week, that's going to be a big change for them. And so figuring out, like, okay, maybe their mom will let them use their phone a couple times a week, they can have supervised phone calls, but these are the things that you can set up as you're getting ready to go on that test trip so that your kids can actually see what this lifestyle is going to be like. Now, the big caveat in our family, our kids don't make major decisions. We are not a democracy in our family. My husband and I make the decisions. However, we take our kids’ opinions heavily into the decisions we're making.

Jennifer Norman [00:08:43]:

Sure.

Marissa Dingler [00:08:43]:

So if one of our kids were to look at us even after the test trip and have gone, I don't want to do that, I'm anti digital nomad, we wouldn't have said, okay, then none of us are going to do it. We would have said, what are you nervous about? What part of you enjoy? What are you resisting? Have a deeper conversation about it. And no one can really picture this lifestyle unless you're living, it's really hard to picture it. And so that test trip is going to give you guys all the same experiences and the same language to have a conversation when you get home. Okay, what worked, what didn't? What do we need to do before we sell it all and say goodbye? Your test trip is not going to be perfect, but it's going to highlight that you can work on so that when you make the decision to leave, your success rate is going to be so much higher, and everyone's going to enjoy this lifestyle so much more.

Jennifer Norman [00:09:28]:

I think about some of the families that I know, and even my own experiences growing up, where people get attached to home or they get attached to their things, their bikes, their little play cars, their things like that. And so certainly this is not necessarily a lifestyle for everyone, that doing a test is a great idea and important, and also knowing what your comforts are and what gives you a sense of security and safety. I remember going to a weeklong summer camp where kids were just terribly homesick after day one or day two and could not bear to be away from whether it was home or whether it was mom and dad or whatnot. Having mom and dad there may be all that they needed. And so, hey, going on a test trip, figuring that out, seeing what the comfort level is, could be helpful. There was this other interesting story with some family friends of ours when one of their children was only, like, three months old and they had another child who was a toddler, decided to charter a yacht and go from California to the Far East. And I was like, wouldn't you be scared to have a child on a boat? And they're like, No! They loved it!
Oh, so and so was bitten by a monkey once we got there, but it turned out okay.

But, yeah, collecting those experiences and just having those moments together is a very special thing, because a lot of times, families these days, Johnny might be in his room on his phone, and Sally might be in her room on her computer, and nobody really talks to each other anymore. And so being able to have this space where you're discovering things together is quite a beautiful thing.

Marissa Dingler [00:11:07]:

Yeah. And I think that that's a huge priority to us. It was a big priority even before we transitioned to a nomad family. Side note, even if you're a nomadic family, guys, it is so easy to still do that separation. We're right now in Costa Rica, and each of my kids have their own bedroom for the first time ever. We've always done boys’ room, girls’ room, and now they have their own rooms, and I'm noticing it, and I'm, like, freaking out. I'm like, this is a new challenge for me. What do we do? I don't know how to navigate this. This is new for me.

Marissa Dingler [00:11:34]:

Years ago, I had this thought in my head of, am I making the most of my life? It came from a book. And in the book, he talks about how on your tombstone, we have our birthday and then a dash and then our death day, and all of us are living that dash, and that's what represents our life. Like, that little dash on that tombstone is what you did. If you think about the dash as a continuum, like, with years, you don't know where you are. I'm almost 35. If I live to be 40, I'm a very old woman. If I live to be 90, I'm middle aged, but I don't know how many years I have.

Marissa Dingler [00:12:10]:

And so every single day, it's kind of like carpe diem, if you will. And so that message in that book just really stuck with me. And so much so that my husband and I actually have dash tattoos on our hands to remind us constantly that we are living that dash of our life. And that's why, if you ever see us on social media, we're the Family of Dashes. That's where that’s from. Every single person has their own dash that's going to represent their life on a tombstone one day, and what are you doing with it? And so I think whether or not you become a nomadic family, the question is, are you living your life intentionally? All of us have something that we're supposed to be doing if part of it is being a nomadic family. Awesome. Do it.

Marissa Dingler [00:12:49]:

Like, stop finding excuses. But if it's not a nomadic family, then that's okay, too. I just think it's a beautiful thing that people can have different lifestyles as long as we're all living intentionally.

Jennifer Norman [00:12:59]:

A couple of years ago, I came across a poem called The Dash by Linda Ellis, and I actually did a TikTok where I was reading the poem, and I set it to music, and I was amazed because at the time, I didn't have very many followers. I still don't. Frankly, I'm a lousy TikToker. But the actual woman, Linda, who wrote the poem, responded and said, thank you so much. I've never heard it read that way I usually hear it at funerals. I loved the way that you did it. So if you go on my TikTok, you'll see it. But I wanted to take a few minutes now, for those of you who aren't familiar, because it is such a powerful poem and it's very suitable, given Marissa's dash and the Family of Dashes, to read this so that you can also contemplate the words for yourself. And it goes like this.

I read of a man who stood to speak at the funeral of a friend.

He referred to the dates on the tombstone from the beginning to the end.

He noted that first came the date of birth and spoke the following date with tears.

But he said, what mattered most of all was the dash between those years.

For that dash represents all the time that they spent alive on earth.

And now only those who loved them know what that little line is worth.

Jennifer Norman [00:14:11]:

For it matters not how much we own the cars, the house, the cash.

What matters is how we live and love and how we spend our dash.

So think about this long and hard. Are there things you'd like to change?

For you never know how much time is left that still can be rearranged.

If we could just slow down enough to consider what's true and real

And always try to understand the way other people feel

And be less quick to anger and show appreciation more

And love the people in our lives like we've never loved before.

If we treat each other with respect and more often wear a smile, Remembering this special dash might only last a little while.

So when your eulogy is being read with your life's actions to rehash,

Would you be proud of the things they say and how you spent your dash?

Beautiful. Huh?

Marissa Dingler [00:15:05]:

Oh, my gosh. That is amazing.

Jennifer Norman [00:15:08]:

Now you can have it printed out and bring it wherever you go, Miss Family of Dashes

Marissa Dingler [00:15:10]:

I’m in love with that. That is gorgeous.

Jennifer Norman [00:15:16]:

And I think that it's so profound. Like, those little things that we see as symbols mean so much, they get distilled down to a line, a little blip. And truly, the time that we have here on earth is not that much. And so it is a reminder. Are we making the most of it for ourselves? Are we living the way that we want to? Are we doing everything that we can to get the most and juice everything out of the present moment? If that means doing more of what you love, dancing a little more, seeing the sunshine a little bit more, petting your cat a little bit more. No matter what it is, if you feel that you can really be in the present moment, and living the life as you want to, then that's your dash. Own that dash. I love that.

Marissa Dingler [00:16:03]:

That's amazing. You're so right.

Jennifer Norman [00:16:05]:

So, Marissa, I think that people are very interested in hearing some of your stories. You have to tell us what you think was one of the more special moments on your travels.

Marissa Dingler [00:16:16]:

Sure. There's been a lot of different special things. I would say for me personally, anytime my kids get to celebrate a birthday in a different culture is really cool.

Jennifer Norman [00:16:27]:

Yeah.

Marissa Dingler [00:16:27]:

For two of my kids, we were in the Amazon rainforest last year. We went to a very small eco lodge because we like to do smaller things and make sure that we are conscious of the carbon footprint. It was fantastic. The staff was so great, and we loved it because we had our own two guides for the six of us the entire time we were there. So we weren't with other people. It was just the six of us, and it was perfect. And so it was Ryan's birthday, and our one guide was named Segundo. And Segundo spoke no English, but he was amazing.

Marissa Dingler [00:17:00]:

He was like, everything that my boys idolize is what Segundo is like. This man can hunt, he can fish, he can boat. He plays instruments. He's a pastor at a church. He lives in the jungle. He plays. He just gets in the water and plays with the kids, puts mud all over him, throws mud at them. That is Segundo.

Marissa Dingler [00:17:20]:

And so on Ryan's birthday, Segundo invited us to his home, which was very near the lodge. And so we walk over to Segundo's home, and while we're there, he pulls out a harmonica and plays happy birthday to Ryan on his harmonica. On his birthday, as we're standing in his home. It was just so great. I think as a parent, watching other people from other cultures love on your kids in those ways, you're just, like, standing there and your heart's overflowing. Like, oh, my gosh. If you would have told me that on my son's 9th birthday, you're going to be in an eco lodge in the middle of nowhere, Peru, and this man who speaks no English is going to play Happy Birthday on his harmonica, and that's going to be the cherry on top of your day. I'd have been like, what's wrong with you? But it was just so awesome.

Marissa Dingler [00:18:01]:

And we've had multiple birthdays now in other cultures, but that one really stands out as special.

Jennifer Norman [00:18:07]:

That's gorgeous. What a beautiful story.

Marissa Dingler [00:18:09]:

Yeah, it was just really sweet. And then, for me, probably my favorite. People laugh at me when I say this, because it is so weird and it's not magical whatsoever. Okay, my favorite place. If I could just sit somewhere all day. I'm going to go to London and go to Kensington Garden. I'm going to sit at the Peter Pan statue. That's where you will find me.

Marissa Dingler [00:18:27]:

If I could just teleport anywhere. It's the Peter Pan statue. Every single time I go there, I cry. And my kids just laugh at me, and they're like, why are you crying? It's just Peter Pan. I'm looking at Peter Pan, the boy who didn't want to grow up. And I'm living these amazing experiences with my kids, and I'm like, I don't want you to grow up. I want you to stay this little, but at the same time, want you to grow up and have your own life and your own wonderful experience yourself. Peter Pan always makes me cry, and my kids don't understand it.

Marissa Dingler [00:18:51]:

So they'd be like, yeah, Mom's weird. Mom's weird in London.

Jennifer Norman [00:18:58]:

That is very interesting. But you never know what's going to evoke those emotions in anyone. It could be anything. But that's very special for you. That's wonderful. Now, I'm sure that a lot of people are questioning, okay, well, what if something happens and someone gets hurt? What about the health? What about hospital? Like, how do I know that my kids and my family are going to be safe? What if we get some rare infectious disease? What are some of the things that you've had to battle? Or what kind of tips might you be able to give to others that might be a little bit gun shy about that?

Marissa Dingler [00:19:28]:

Totally. So we actually, for the first time in our lives, had our ER visit. So first ER visit ever was six weeks ago now. One of our kids had been sick, but we just thought it was kind of like a flu. And we're like, oh, we're just going to let it run its course. You just keep an eye on it, like I would have done if I was in the States. My other kid, a few days later, walks out and is swollen, like, big time. They say, hey, Mom, I think something's wrong.

Marissa Dingler [00:19:53]:

I'm sitting at the table with my computer and my coffee, and I just look up and go, yes, something is wrong.

Jennifer Norman [00:19:59]:

And what country were you in at that time?

Marissa Dingler [00:20:01]:

We were in San Salvador. El Salvador. So we were in Big City, San Salvador. We go to the hospital, they do blood work and an ultrasound. We find out this child has mumps.

Jennifer Norman [00:20:12]:

Oh.

Marissa Dingler [00:20:13]:

Later on, we figure out, okay, mumps, is actually kind of like the flu. You are vaccinated for a certain strain. So my kids, against the mumps that is present in the United States. Apparently San Salvador has different mumps. We had to do all the things to help them take care of the mumps. I say this because everyone thinks, oh, my gosh, what if the worst happens? Right? Your kid's going to get hurt. The nice thing is there are things you can do to prepare for that. So anytime we get into a country, I tell people for us, we contact the US Embassy.

Marissa Dingler [00:20:44]:

If you're listening to this in Australia and England, wherever, you need to contact your embassy and ask them, just flat out, if something bad happens, what ER am I going to. They'll tell you, those are citizens from your passport country that live there. They have families there too. They know where they're going to go. They know which is the one, so just shoot them a message. We always stay in big cities, with the exception of going out on activities. So, like, when we went Amazon, we were nowhere near a hospital. So I was just very much like, you can't get hurt.

Marissa Dingler [00:21:14]:

Or like, that's just not an option because if you do, we have a two hour boat ride and then about an hour bus ride to a hospital, so it's not an option. There are definitely moments like that you're going to feel, but when you prepare and you know which hospital to go to, you can figure out, okay, which medication is my kid going to take? You need to know the local name for ibuprofen or Tylenol. That's pretty easy to just Google. And getting medication in other countries is actually way easier than getting it even in the United States because most pharmacies are not super regulated. More casual. You just walk in and you're like, I need an antibiotic. And they're like, great. Know if you're allergic to something, like, me and one of my kids are allergic to penicillin, to know that, because they're not going to ask you, like, not at a pharmacy.

Marissa Dingler [00:22:02]:

If you have to go to the hospital, they will. But know what you're allergic to. And then people are like, okay, what about insurance? So me and my family, we don't carry travel insurance. We always pay out of pocket. The reason I told you about my kid going to the ER, I hadn't asked a thing about money up to this point. I'm like, my kid. Ultrasound. My kid needs the blood work.

Marissa Dingler [00:22:21]:

My kid needs these things. As a parent, you're not sitting there calculating, right? Like, well, we can only afford blood work. Like, no, whatever you need to do, figure out what's wrong. I say a prayer, I'm like, okay, God, you know what's wrong with her? You know what I can afford in my budget? Just help us out. And we walk up to the treasurer area where you pay, like, the registers and all up, and it was $96 flat for everything, for an ER visit, for the ultrasound, for the blood work, for the doctor, $96. I'm not going to even worry about submitting that to my insurance. We do carry insurance in the United States just because of things that have happened, like, legally in the United States. They like it when you have insurance, but it's literally like the lowest of the low insurance.

Marissa Dingler [00:23:02]:

So the insurance we carry through the United States does cover foreign ER visits, but it's kind of a pain in the butt to go through submitting it all because ER visits are fast and they're in a hurry and they feel like an emergency. They feel like a crisis, right. We're not just going to stop in that moment when my kid had a swollen jaw, I wasn't going to call the insurance company and go, so can we talk about this? I'm just going to go, right? And so what we do is we just budget a little bit every month, and we basically create our own health savings account. And we just know, okay, this is how much we have in our personal HSA, and we just pull it from there anytime our kids are sick or hurt. Thankfully, our kids are not unhealthy kids. Like, we've been very blessed in the health of our children. Now, as far as getting hurt, that's going to happen. The one thing I will tell parents, don't let that be the thing that keeps you from traveling, because your kid's going to get hurt at the local playground, your kid's going to get hurt coming down the stairs in your own house, your kid's going to get hurt.

Marissa Dingler [00:23:59]:

And all we can do is be prepared for it. So we actually had a friend in El Salvador. Their kid broke their arm. And with the X rays, with the cast, with all the things, I think they were sitting at about $250 for all, like, not bad. So, thankfully, in many other parts of the world, now, Western Europe is a little trickier. They're a little more similar to a US, expensive as the US, but a little bit more. But if you're in a place like Asia, a lot of African countries, Eastern European, we've done doctors in Eastern European and then Central South America, we've done Doc, blood work and all that kind of stuff. The standards might be a little different.

Marissa Dingler [00:24:33]:

One time I needed blood work and we were in Peru and you know, like what you blow a ball up with, like, you put it on the pump. It's like the needle that you put on the pump to blow a ball up.

Jennifer Norman [00:24:43]:

Yes.

Marissa Dingler [00:24:43]:

I am pretty sure that is what they used to get the blood out of my arm. There was no tube, there was no nothing. They honestly took a ball, pump, sharpened it up, and that'll work. And so they just stuck it in my arm and it just dripped into a vial. And I'm like, this is how we're doing this, people? And so you have to make sure it's clean, make sure it's hygienic. If they're going to prick you with anything, make sure that it's new. And you know what I mean? Is that clean? If you feel uncomfortable, ask them to get a new one so you can see them open it.

Marissa Dingler [00:25:10]:

Like certain little things like that. Speak up for yourself. As far as your kids getting preventable diseases, definitely talk to an international doctor. And a lot of hospitals have these. They have like a special even department. And so just find out, hey, we're going to this part of the world. Are there any special vaccines that my kids should get before we go? Some countries you're required to have certain vaccines.

Marissa Dingler [00:25:32]:

A lot of countries you're not, but that doesn't mean that you can't still take the medicine. So here in Central America, there are some places, and in South America, there are some places with malaria, right? You do need to ask those questions. And thankfully, malaria drugs have come really far. And now there's a couple ones that have no side effects. And so to take that medication, to have your kids take that medication, you're not harming yourself. Now, if you are, like, you really don't want to take medicine, then this could be a little tricky for you. But if you're comfortable taking some preventative meds like that, then just do it. Talk to your doctor before you leave or talk to a doctor in a larger, like here in San Jose, where we are right now.

Marissa Dingler [00:26:11]:

I could go and get some malaria medication. Like, if I knew the next place we're going is malaria heavy, I could get malaria medication here. But if we were to go to a small town in Costa Rica, that'd be a little tricky. Think ahead in your planning and go, okay, we're going to be in this country. It does have XYZ, and so we need to get vaccinated against that. When do we need to get vaccinated? How long do you have to, like some malaria meds? You have to take two weeks prior to being there. Some you don't. So there are some questions that you need to ask as far as those preventable tropical diseases, but as far as the sniffles or your kid getting hurt, I would say just know where the local hospital is because that's going to happen.

Marissa Dingler [00:26:49]:

But I would tell someone that if they were moving to a new town in the United States, like what hospital, you got to know the hospital, you got to know your doctor, you need to know these. And then as far as teeth go, we've been to so many dentists all over the world at this point, and they rock, I'll tell you that.

Jennifer Norman [00:27:03]:

Okay.

Marissa Dingler [00:27:04]:

Yeah. Like, it's cheap and they're good. Love it.

Jennifer Norman [00:27:07]:

Really good to know.

Marissa Dingler [00:27:08]:

Yeah. So much better than any dental experience we've had in the United States. So Mexico City is actually, so medical tourism, I don't know if you've heard of that, is a thing. And Mexico City is a medical tourism hub for teeth. So anyone needs dental work, why don't we go to Mexico City? The food's great, the weather rocks. The Coca Cola is delicious.

Jennifer Norman [00:27:26]:

It is! Mexican Coke!

Marissa Dingler [00:27:29]:

Mexican Coke just rocks. Like, it just does. It lives up to the hype. Yeah.

Jennifer Norman [00:27:33]:

And I just found out that Mexico is actually the most popular digital nomad destination in the world. Thailand is the second most popular. Very interestingly enough, for those of you who need to know those tips.

Marissa Dingler [00:27:45]:

Mexico City is working with Airbnb and UNESCO to figure out how they make Mexico City, like, the hub for digital nomads. I totally understand why it rocks.

Jennifer Norman [00:27:55]:

Interesting. And a lot of people wouldn't know that I think who are not digital nomads. So I know that you consider yourself slow digital nomads and that you go minimum, two months, three, maybe a little bit more. But how do you decide where you're going to go next? Like, how far out are you planning?

Marissa Dingler [00:28:12]:

That is a great question. We didn't know we were coming to Costa Rica until two weeks before we came to Costa Rica.

Jennifer Norman [00:28:19]:

Oh, okay.

Marissa Dingler [00:28:20]:

Sometimes we know really far in advance, other times we don't. And that is a big difference between single or couple digital nomads and digital nomads. Because as a family, you do need to do certain things more in advance because we have to buy six plane tickets. Like, if I was a single woman, I could just wake up and go, yeah. I need six. That's a lot, it's a lot of plane tickets. It's a lot for my budget. It's just a lot. And so we do try to have the next country.

Marissa Dingler [00:28:51]:

So we were planning to stay in Costa Rica until end of November. We've decided to. I'm in a language school here, and I was going to do two six-week courses, but we've decided to extend it a little bit into December. And then the plan was to go straight to Madrid, Spain. Now we're, well, like, we really want to do Christmas markets in Germany because that's like, why not? And so we're like, well, maybe since we're staying here till December, maybe we'll just go to Germany and do Christmas markets and then make our way down to Spain. The hard thing is when you're thinking about where you want to go next. When we're thinking about where we want to go next, we take a few things into consideration. One, time zone.

Marissa Dingler [00:29:25]:

My husband owns his own company and the majority of clients are in the United States. And we're not to the point yet where he can stop taking meetings. It's in a beautiful transition to where it is becoming, where he doesn't have to be so hands on. I would say it's like a toddler at this point, like, need to be involved, but maybe someone else can babysit for a little while versus that newborn. That's like only one. So we're in a transition, but we really need to take into consideration time zone. And so for us, that's why we've been in Central and South America, because the time zone is just perfect. But we feel like come December, we can get a little bit more of a difference in that time zone.

Marissa Dingler [00:30:02]:

Also, Spanish culture is very late night.

Jennifer Norman [00:30:05]:

Yes.

Marissa Dingler [00:30:06]:

And he has to work until like seven, eight o'clock. And then we go hang out with friends. That's normal. So that would work. And so then something else we take into consideration is what is available for the kids. Are there sports teams that are starting up that we want them to be involved in? Are there any groups, anything like that? So we take that into consideration as well. And then price. I do not love to hang out

Marissa Dingler [00:30:26]:

I know I just said we're going to Madrid. I don't love to hang out in Europe. It's expensive. Like, it just is. Like, restaurants are expensive, rent is expensive, transportation, pretty expensive. It's just an expensive place of the world. It's gorgeous and I love it. And if I had an unlimited amount of money, I would totally just hang out in Western Europe my entire life. We definitely take cost into consideration. And so those are kind of all of our factors that we think we just go, okay, what do we need right now and what kind of takes a higher priority? If our budget is feeling a little tight, then we put that at the highest priority. If Eric is in a really busy season of work, we put time zone at a high priority. And so for us, it shifts what we're looking for. So that's why we've never been to Southeast Asia and we cannot wait to get to. We know people that live in Southeast Asia. We have friends that lived in Southeast Asia for almost two years, and they fell in love with it and they came back just raving about it, wait to spend time there.

Marissa Dingler [00:31:26]:

But the time zone is just too significant right now. And I think that as a family, you do need to really think about that kind of stuff.

Jennifer Norman [00:31:33]:

True. And do you think that you'll be doing this lifestyle forever? Is this something that you think, okay, maybe for a few years, and then I'll come back to Norfolk, Virginia, or is this something that you think is sustainable?

Marissa Dingler [00:31:47]:

I do think it's sustainable. My biggest thing is, now we are nowhere near -- so, like, if my kids listen to this, don't get any ideas -- I get grandbabies, I will be with them. I plan to be the most involved grandmother that the world has ever seen. Now we're 16, so we're nowhere near. That's what I'm saying.

Marissa Dingler [00:32:08]:

We're nowhere near it. But I'm very comfortable doing this lifestyle as long as we feel like it's sustainable. As long as we feel like, hey, it's working for us. We don't have an end date. Most of our kids, we have one kid that might do the college thing, but we definitely don't fall into the traditional viewpoint of, you need to attend, like, a four-year college type family. We have one kid that at the moment, the career they're thinking about would require a college degree. But even then, we would probably do something like online university or like a university in Europe, because they're just so much cheaper in Europe and the education is amazing.

Jennifer Norman [00:32:48]:

Right.

Marissa Dingler [00:32:49]:

And so once our kids get to that, maybe like 18-year-old, like 18 to 25 year old age range, we'll start like, hey, what's best? What do they need? A couple of our kids are going to need Eric and I to support them a little bit longer than maybe people are used to supporting their kids. They're going to live with us a little bit longer, and we're totally fine with that. And so that's kind of our thing. But we definitely have some exit, like forced exits, if you will.

Jennifer Norman [00:33:18]:

Sure.

Marissa Dingler [00:33:18]:

And we've said anything happens with, as our parents get older and we feel like we need to be there for them, that takes.

Jennifer Norman [00:33:25]:

Good point.

Marissa Dingler [00:33:25]:

If we feel like it's doing lasting damage to our kids. So our kids are being raised as what's called third culture kids, TCKs. It's a term that's becoming a lot more popular. You might hear it a little bit more. If we feel like that's doing lasting damage to them, we'll stop. At the moment, we don't. At the moment, we feel like being in different cultures is enriching their lives and is versus taking away from it. But if for some reason we feel like, oh, no, this is not good for, like, in a long mental health way, then Eric and I might consider we need to stop.

Marissa Dingler [00:33:57]:

We need to do something else. That doesn't mean we're going to stay in the United States, like move back to Norfolk. A big reason we're going to Madrid is because Spain has created the first digital nomad family visa. A lot of countries have digital visas, but Spain is the first one that allows you to add on immediate family members that aren't the actual digital nomad themselves. So it would be really easy for Eric to get a digital nomad visa in any country that has a digital visa. But I couldn't because I'm not making any money. I'm a stay-at-home mom and I take care of my kids and I teach them. I mean, I work, but I don't get paid for it.

Marissa Dingler [00:34:34]:

And so I can't get a digital Nomad visa. My kids can't get digital nomad visas because they're not digital nomads on paper, but has said, okay, we want the families to come because family digital nomads is really increasing in the past few years.

Jennifer Norman [00:34:49]:

Yeah.

Marissa Dingler [00:34:50]:

And so with this visa, the nomad, the digital nomad, so Eric will apply for it, and then they just say, how many independents do you have? And then you have to pay, like, an additional fee for each one. So we'll just tack the five of us on. That will allow us to stay in Spain for a year and we can renew it up to five times. The doing that is because that's going to give our kids a little more stability. Not that we feel like anything's been unstable. It's going to allow them to explore some interests. So we have one kid that loves art, and so we have art school that they can be in and just explore these interests a little bit deeper as they're starting to get older now. But since it's Madrid, we can jump on a train and be in Belgium, like, right, right.

Marissa Dingler [00:35:33]:

Budget airlines are so cheap in Europe. You just jump on a iron or a whiz air and you're in a new country. And so we'll have that stability in Madrid, but still with the adventure element, where do we want to go? And then after a year, we'll evaluate, like, hey, are we in a place where we feel like the time zone is going to allow us to maybe go somewhere else, maybe deeper into Asia? Do we feel like, financially we can afford a different place? We can evaluate in a year then. And so while we don't have an end time that I see us going back to Norfolk, for us, this idea of being a digital nomad family is always evolving. And so we might go through a period of fast travel, like, we're in these places for just a couple weeks each location. Or when we get to Madrid, it's going to be this very different type of lifestyle. And I think that that's kind of what you have to be open to when you're living this life is just the fluidity of it.

Jennifer Norman [00:36:27]:

I love that you give the recommendation to almost have this attitude of, instead of like, what's the worst that can happen, think about what's the best that can happen, like, really look at the glass half full and then be pragmatic about it along the way. Do your planning, do your homework, do your research, have your Google translate there.

Marissa Dingler [00:36:46]:
Google translate has come a long way. And it's so helpful, so helpful.

Jennifer Norman [00:36:54]:

So very helpful. So very helpful. Well, Marissa, thank you so much for all of these valuable tips. And it's so fascinating to hear about how you're doing it because it helps other people really see themselves potentially getting into this lifestyle as well. And you're helping others to recognize that it's not as know, putting 1ft in front of the other is what life is all about. And why not do a little bit of exploring while you've got your dash in play?

Marissa Dingler [00:37:19]:

Exactly.

Jennifer Norman [00:37:21]:

Well, much love to Eric and the family and best wishes there in Costa Rica. I hope that it is just a wonderful, wonderful time there. And wherever you may roam next, can't wait to follow along on your own podcast and your blog to see where you.

Marissa Dingler [00:37:36]:

Yes. Yeah, we have a lot of fun with the.

Jennifer Norman [00:37:45]:

So for those of you who want to have another look at what Eric and Marissa are doing, go over to the Digital Nomad Podcast, which is available wherever you stream podcasts as well. Do take a look at achieveadoption.org. As well as Intransit Studios, which is Eric's business. For those of you who are interested in some marketing assistance. Marissa, thanks very much and we'll be seeing you.

Marissa Dingler [00:38:09]:

of course. Thanks.

Jennifer Norman [00:38:11]:

Thank you for listening to The Human Beauty Movement Podcast. Be sure to follow, rate, and review us wherever you stream podcasts. The Human Beauty movement is a community based platform that cultivates the beauty of humankind. Check out our workshops, find us on social media, and share our inspiration with all the beautiful humans in your life. Learn more at thehumanbeautymovement.com. Thank you so much for being a beautiful human.