This report is being published late for a couple of reasons. The first is because we’ve been really busy. The second is because, for the first time since we started publishing these reports over a year and a half ago, it feels to me like we’re bragging by publishing this report.
Up until this point, we’ve been scraping by financially. We spent the majority of our savings during the first year of travel (2016), and we were still “losing” money up until Q4 of last year. These past reports were easy for me to publish because they showed that we were making sacrifices to pursue our dreams. This felt admirable to me, and I was proud of the financial risk we were taking to turn our dream into a reality.
I hesitated to hit publish on this report because I didn’t want people to get the wrong impression. However, when we first started publishing them, we said our goal was to inspire others to go after their big dreams. It wouldn’t be fair to share the struggle (financially) without sharing the success!
So, here it is… In Q1 of this year, we brought in over $36,000 from our YouTube channel and other related income streams! The numbers in the report feel completely crazy to us, but it hasn’t always been this way. If this is your first time ever reading one of our income and expense reports, I suggest starting with the first one we ever published in July of 2016. Spoiler alert, our total income was $603.26.
So, now more than ever, I feel like it’s important to tell you why we started writing these reports in the first place. It is NOT to brag about how much money we’re making. Trust me, when we first started sending out these reports, we were actually losing a lot of money!
There are three major reasons we started sending out these income and expense reports:
1. I (Nate) am a business nerd! I always wonder how much money people are making and exactly how they’re making it. I wish more people would transparently share their entrepreneurial journey; so that’s why I do it! When other people do it, I find it inspiring and incredibly interesting! So I hope you’re inspired or at least entertained when you read these.
2. When Kara and I tell people that we travel full-time, the response we get the majority of the time is, “I wish I could do that.” At this point in the conversation I usually just bite my tongue. I realize that, for some, full-time travel truly isn’t possible. But for most of the people who say “I wish I could do that,” they could if they really wanted to. Yes, some people would have to work harder than others, but most people could make it happen if they were willing to make travel a priority.
A couple years ago, Kara and I made travel our top priority. We saved up money for over a year, we moved out of our apartment, we sold our cars, and we quit our jobs. Now we put in the work (almost) every day to be able to afford to continue traveling. We hope that by sharing this report each month, it will inspire some of you to go from “I wish I could” to “How could I.”
3. We’re not special, and we want you to remember that no matter where this journey takes us. I feel like once people become “successful” it’s easy to think they’re “special,” and that’s why they were able to achieve success. At this point in our lives, Kara and I are pursuing this crazy dream of turning our passion for travel into a sustainable business, and we’re starting to see some level of success. Our hope is that by sharing this journey from the beginning you’ll be able to see that two regular people had a crazy dream and worked hard to make it a reality. In turn, we hope this will inspire you to dream a big dream and go after it.
Thoughts on Quarter 1 of 2018
Wow! I never thought we’d publish a Q1 income report that put us on track to earn over 6 figures in a year while traveling full-time. It’s crazy to look back at just how far we’ve come in the last 2 years. The first income and expense report we ever published was a monthly report of July of 2016. We made a grand total of $603.26.
I remember being really excited when we made $8,792 the first quarter of last year, and we almost broke even on our income and expenses. Here we are one year later, we’ve quadrupled our income, and it’s looking like we may be able to put some money in the bank for the first time since we started traveling.
In the beginning, we never thought we’d earn enough ad revenue from YouTube to pay the bills. So, we’ve focused on creating multiple income streams that are complements to our channel. Now that our channel is growing faster than ever other revenue streams are growing along with it.
To give you some perspective on the unexpected growth we’re experiencing, the majority of last year our channel received 75 to 100 new subscribers per day. This year, our channel is growing between 750 – 1,000 new subscribers per day. As more people discover our channel, there are more opportunities for them to buy our courses, sign up to become patrons, and buy stuff from our affiliate links.
So, our channel growth has resulted in a huge jump in our income this quarter, which I’ll break down for you now.
Income Report
1. YouTube Ad Revenue – $14,184.58 (Change from Q4 +$5,966)
Honestly, this is more money than I ever thought we’d make from YouTube ad revenue. We’ve worked hard to create multiple income streams because I didn’t think it would ever be possible to cover the expenses of traveling full time with YouTube ad revenue alone. It turns out I was wrong! Our ad revenue this quarter more than covered our expenses, and there was even a bit left over.
Out of the 8 million views that received in Q1, almost 50% of those videos were monetized (This means YouTube showed an ad on the video and we split that ad revenue with YouTube). Our monetization rate has been closer to 30% in the past. So, the major jump in ad revenue was due to a combination of increased views and a higher monetization rate.
2. Patreon & PayPal – $6,501 (Change from Q4 +$2,656)
It’s scary to build a business on top of a platform that you don’t own. So much of our success/failure is tied to the growth of our YouTube channel, and we have very little control over that growth. At the moment, YouTube is being very kind to us and showering us with new subscribers. But in the back of my mind I know that things could change at any moment, and we could be right back where we were last year (barely scraping by).
This is why we’re so grateful for our patrons! Thanks to their support, we know that no matter what YouTube decides, this is one consistent source of income that we can count on every month!
For those of you who aren’t familiar with Patreon, it’s an online platform that allows you to support the work of your favorite creators giving them a chance to continue working on their creations without having to worry about where their next meal is going to come from!
CLICK HERE to learn more about becoming a patron!
3. 30 Days To Becoming A Travel Hacker Course – $8,675 (Change from Q4 +$3,590.20)
30 Days to Becoming a Travel Hacker is a course I created to teach others the strategies I use to save thousands of dollars on flights and hotels.
This is a great example of our channel’s growth impacting other revenue streams we’ve created. In the description of every video, we promote a free guide I wrote called the “Ultimate Guide to Lounge Access.” When someone downloads this guide, they are added to our email list. Over the following week, I send them a lot of free and useful information about how they can reduce the cost of travel by implementing my favorite travel hacking strategies. At the end of the week, I give them the option to buy “30 Days to Becoming a Travel Hacker” where they’ll get access to all of my best travel hacking strategies in an easy to follow online course.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with the world of online marketing, this is called a sales funnel. If your funnel is good, the more people you put in the funnel, the more people end up purchasing your product in the end.
Now that our channel is receiving over 3 million views per month, more than 50 people are downloading my guide and entering the funnel every single day. This means 50 new people per day learn about my course, and a small percentage end up purchasing it.
If you’re interested in learning how to earn and redeem frequent flyer miles to travel around the world for pennies on the dollar, check out 30 Days to Becoming a Travel Hacker!
6. Affiliate Income – $4,979 (Change from Q4 +3,590)
- Amazon – $1036
- Epidemic Sound – $1,800
- Ultimate Photography Bundle- $1,978
- Other – $165
Last year we purchased a bunch of online photography resources at a crazy discount during a one week sale called the “Ultimate Photography Bundle.” Kara used these resources to improve her photo editing and level up our Instagram game. This year we had the opportunity to promote the bundle and earn a commission for each bundle we sold. I sent out an email to our list, and Kara made an Instagram story promoting it. It obviously resonated with our audience because we were able to make almost $2,000 with just those two posts.
Our most consistent source of affiliate income is Epidemic Sound. We get all the music for our YouTube videos through this service. It’s hard to find good music for YouTube videos. Kara used to waste hours of her life searching for music, now she has a huge library of royalty-free songs to choose from! She loves this service, promotes it at the end of all of our videos, and we get paid anytime someone signs up for a free trial.
If you need music for YouTube videos, click here to check out Epidemic Sound!
As usual, Amazon also brought in a decent amount of affiliate income. It’s pretty awesome that we made over $1,000 just by recommending products we use and love. The majority of our Amazon affiliate income is generated by people who visit the following pages.
Our Vlogging Gear
Our Packing List
Keep Us on the Road
5. Video Licensing – $500 (Change from Q4 -$1,000)
We aren’t proactive about seeking out sponsored videos or video licensing deals. However, sometimes they come to us. This quarter we granted non-exclusive licensing rights to our footage from the Bolivian Salt Flats to a company for $500.
5. Sponsored Content – $1,500 (Change from Q4 +1,500)
In the past we have done very little sponsored content, but as our channel grows we’re getting more and more opportunities. We turn down 90% of the opportunities that come our way because they aren’t a good fit for our channel, but this quarter we got an opportunity to work with DJI to review their new mobile gimbal.
The video we did for DJI was less about the money and more about (hopefully) creating a long-term relationship with a company that makes awesome products! The mobile gimbal was a good starting point, but we’re hoping we’ll have the opportunity to review one of their new drones at some point in the future!
Total Q1 Income – $36,339 (Change from Q4 +15,815)
The pie chart above gives you a quick breakdown of how each revenue stream is contributing to our total income.
Expense Report
Transportation Expenses – $3,949.49
We started the year off by going on a cruise through the middle east. The cruise wasn’t cheap, but it was a great way to see 4 middle eastern countries in the limited amount of time we had during the month of January. Cruises are a little tricky to categorize in this report because I track transportation and accommodations separately, and a cruise falls into both categories. So to keep things simple I just included all of the cruise expenses here in the transportation category.
Had it not been for the cruise, our transportation expenses would have looked crazy low for all of the travel that we did this quarter. We basically flew around the world 1.5 times for less than $2,000 thanks to miles and points!
| Origin | Destination | Transport | USD | Misc. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 3,949.49 | |||
| Nashville | Oman | Plane | $44 | 85,000 UA Miles |
| Oman | Oman | Rental Car | $306.56 | |
| Oman | Dubai | Bus | $42.20 | |
| Dubai | Dubai | Cruise | $2,302.91 | |
| Dubai | Nashville | Plane | $201.42 | 80,000 AA Miles |
| Nashville | Aruba | Plane | $31.20 | 30,000 AA Miles |
| Aruba | Delhi | Plane | $184.82 | 100,000 UA Miles |
| Delhi | Vrindavan | Train | $40 | |
| Vrindavan | Delhi | Taxi | $60 | |
| Delhi | Varanasi | Plane | $297 | |
| Varanasi | Agra | Train | $80 | |
| Agra | Jaipur | Train | $100 | |
| Jaipur | Mumbai | Train | $140 | |
| Mumbai | Bangkok | Plane | $0 | 33,824 Citi Points |
| Bangkok | Yangon | Plane | $119.38 |
Accommodation Expenses – $1,082.88
Thanks to Airbnb credits we receive from referrals, hotel points, and a couple sponsored trips, we were able to keep our accommodation expenses crazy low this quarter!
| City | Accommodations | Nights | Cost | Misc. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | $1,082.88 | |||
| Nashville | Home | 10 | $0 | Thanks Mom & Dad |
| Muscat | Oman | 4 | $246.26 | |
| Dubai | Airbnb | 1 | $0 | Airbnb Credits |
| Dubai | Hotel | 2 | $0 | Partnership |
| Nashville | Home | 4 | $0 | Thanks Mom & Dad |
| Aruba | Airbnb | 7 | $248.50 | Airbnb Credits |
| Delhi | Hotel | 10 | $67 | Marriott Points |
| Vrindavan | Hotel | 3 | $79.11 | |
| Varanasi | Hotel | 4 | $96.52 | |
| Agra | Hotel | 2 | $31.28 | |
| Jaipur | Hotel | 2 | $45.55 | |
| Mumbai | Hotel | 3 | $156.36 | |
| Bangkok | Airbnb | 7 | $0 | Airbnb Credits |
| Yangon | Hotel | 2 | 68.80 | |
| Mandalay | Hotel | 2 | 43.50 |
Destination Expenses – $2,424.86
This category is the money we spent while on the ground in each destination. This includes things like food, local transportation, and entertainment. Let’s be honest though, most of this spending probably went towards delicious local food.
| Destination | Dates | Expenses |
|---|---|---|
| Total | $2,424.86 | |
| Nashville | Jan. 1 - 11 | $233.24 |
| Oman | Jan. 12 - 19 | $161.26 |
| Dubai | Jan. 19 - 29 | $114.91 |
| Nashville | Jan. 30 - Feb. 5 | |
| Aruba | Feb. 5 - 12 | $99.51 |
| India | Feb. 12 - March 12 | $827.77 |
| Bangkok | Mar. 12 - 20 | 331.57 |
| Myanmar | March 20 - 31 | 656.60 |
Business Expenses – $3,219.88
Each month we pay for several online subscriptions and other things to keep the vlog, blog, online courses, and email list running smoothly. I look at most of these expenses as “investments” instead of expenses because most of them are tools that enable us to make money.
Partnerships Manager – $1,425
This quarter we gave Benji some additional responsibility. In addition to being our Strategic Partnerships Manager, he’s also started managing our private travel hacking Facebook group for people who purchase my travel hacking course. Now that we have over 200 members, it was getting hard for me to keep up with it. So I was very excited to get some help from a fellow travel hacking expert.
Travel Hustle Editor – $200
This quarter Claire finished up her final two posts in the Travel Hustle interview series she was writing for the blog!
Convert Kit – $323.54
The great email platform that we use to send emails to our email list of 25,000+ people
Teachable – $297
The platform where I host my course “30 Days to Becoming a Travel Hacker” and “The Mistake Fare Manual”
Premiere Pro – $98.28
The program Kara uses to edit our episodes
Google Service – $47.22
This is the money we pay Google for our email address every month so that we can look semi-professional.
Touchnote Postcard – $238.66
This is the service we’re using to send postcards to our patrons!
Epidemic Sound – $45
This is where we get all of our royalty free music for our YouTube videos!
TubeBuddy – $57
This service allows us to bulk edit the cards and end cards across all of our videos on YouTube. Basically, we pay $19 to avoid spending hours of our lives monotonously changing cards on our channel.
Gleam – $39
This is the service we used to host our 100k Giveaway.
Motion Array – $57
We bought some cool new transitions for videos from this service.
Express VPN – $12.95
We had to buy a VPN so we could access YouTube on our river cruise and upload our videos.
Fixed Costs – $1,157
T-Mobile Phone Plan – $371.13
Health Insurance – $558
Car Insurance – $210
Google Fi – $49.53
It would be irresponsible to travel without health insurance, so we pay what feels like too much money for an international health insurance plan every month. We’ve been really happy with our T-Mobile Unlimited International plan for the past 18 months. However, this quarter I decided to switch to a Google phone and try out Google’s phone service called Project Fi. It’s still early, but so far it’s far superior to T-Mobile’s international service.
Miscellaneous – $2,143,20
This category is made up of expenses that didn’t fit into any of the categories above. Normally, it’s made up a few small purchases we’ve made here and there, but this quarter we had a couple of the big expenses included in this category.
Chase Sapphire Reserve Membership Fee – $450
Google Pixel 2 XL – $948
Total Q2 Expenses – $13,959.44
Summary
| Total Profit | $22,379.55 | |
|---|---|---|
| Income | ||
| YouTube Ad Revenue | $14,184 | |
| Patreon | $6,501 | |
| Course | $8,675 | |
| Affiliate Income | $4,979 | |
| Video Licensing | $500 | |
| Video Sponsorship | $1,500 | |
| Total Income | $36,339 | |
| Expenses | ||
| Transportation | -$3,949.49 | |
| Accommodations | -$1,082.88 | |
| Destination | -$2,424.86 | |
| Business Expenses | -$3,219.88 | |
| Fixed Cost | -$1,139.13 | |
| Miscellaneous | -$2,143.00 | |
| Total Expenses | -$13,959.44 |
“Savings”
This is how much money we saved this month thanks to partnerships, frequent flyer miles, and referrals. This is just a fun vanity metric to calculate. If you love numbers like me, it’s fun to look at how much money this quarter “should have” cost us.
Frequent Flyer Miles – $5,500
Before Kara and I left to travel full-time, we saved up almost 2 million miles and points! We’ve used these miles and points to save over $25,000 on travel expenses. If you want to learn how to do the same check out my course 30 Days to Becoming a Travel Hacker!
Nashville to Oman – $1,800
We redeemed 85,000 United Airlines frequent flyer miles to fly from Nashville to Oman for only $44! It’s still crazy to me that frequent flyer miles give you the ability to book two tickets to the other side of the world for the same price that you’d pay for a nice dinner.
Dubai to Nashville – $1,600
These flights should have cost around $800 a piece. Instead, we redeemed 80,000 American Airlines miles, and we just paid $100 each in taxes and fees.
Nashville to Aruba – $600
We had to head straight from a wedding in Nashville to a wedding in Aruba. Thankfully, the flights didn’t break the bank. Instead of paying $600 for flights we redeemed 30,000 American Airlines miles and paid a grand total of $31.20 to fly to Aruba.
Aruba to Delhi – $1,500
It is not cheap to get from Aruba to Delhi, India. The cheapest tickets we could find would have cost us $1,500. Instead, we redeemed 100,000 United miles and only paid $184.82 for both tickets!
Partnerships – $8,160
Every month our YouTube channel gets over 3,000,000 views, which gives us opportunities to partner with companies for free experiences/accommodations in return for featuring them in our videos. Below are partnership exchanges we participated in this quarter.
Oman Desert Camp (2 nights) – $400
Visit Dubai (Hotel & Activities) – $1,610
Delhi Food Tour – $150
Myanmar River Cruise – $6,000
Airbnb Credits – $1,202.93
When someone signs up for Airbnb using our link, they save $40 off their stay. Plus, we get between $20 – $40 when that person completes their first stay!
It’s a win-win, and we wanted to say thank you to everyone who has signed up and taken a trip using our link!
If you want to save $40 on your first Airbnb stay, click the link below to create an account!
CLICK HERE to save $40 on your first Airbnb
Total “Savings” – $14,862
That wraps up our Quarter 1 income report. It’s still hard for me to believe what I just finished writing! We just made over $20,000 traveling the world. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!
You have no idea how inspiring this is! Keep it up guys
Yeah, I second this.
Well, as it turns out, this is the first of your expense reports I have read, and it tells a story of a journey as inspiring as your travel videos. If only everything in life were this transparent… for reasons good and not so good, that’s not the case of course. Continued success to you both. I’ve only seen the vlogs on India so far so I see more binge watching in my future… 🙂
Congratulations!!! I’m so happy that your hard work is paying off! The content you create in everything you do is high quality and everyone can tell how much work you put into it which is why you’re seeing all this success now. Than you so much for sharing this and being so transaparent. You guys are the best and your videos always put a smile in my face, you’re definitely an example to follow when it comes to chasing your dreams. Congrats again!!
Love from Buenos Aires, Argentina 🙂
Awesome! You guys deserve it. Hard working, humble people.
Your videos helped me when I was in a dark spot. I can see the light now!
This! This! This ! You two should be so proud! What you have done is amazing and makes me want to work harder with my partner to figure out how to reach this level of success with our travels! Keep keeping ass! Wish you all the best?
Superb insight, thaks guys.
Paul
This is fantastic!!! Loved reading all of the details and how much y’all are growing. 1000 new subscribers a day is just crazy!
Hope you keep doing these Nate. We love reading about the hard work paying off!
First, congrats on the great report and on your success. The two of you are very charming and engaging to watch. I hope that as your success increases that you continuingly evaluate what brings viewers to your channel. I stopped watching a few channels because success seemed to change the attitude of the channel.
Christian LeBlanc is one such example. I was a religious viewer of his at first, but his success changed his lifestyle and his channel reflected it. He went from an adventurous backpacker to staying and promoting luxury villas. Many viewers can afford something better than a backpacker lifestyle, but very few of us can afford to spend $400 or more every night on accommodation. Just because a creator is getting a deal to promote a property doesn’t mean I will get the same deal when I travel.
I like you guys because you make hard choices when you travel and you show the viewers your decision making process. Street food vs fancy restaurants. To pay that admission fee or pass it up. Transportation choices, hotels, etc. While I don’t always agree with your choices, you present a nice mix. The majority of us have to do the same thing when we travel. Always remember that most of us don’t travel for a living — we only get one crack when we travel. Help us to make good travel decisions.
Also, when you finish up your initial 100-country goal (happy about your decision to extend the deadline), don’t be afraid to go back to favorite places and re-explore. Maybe to update or maybe to more deeply explore a destination that you only briefly touched. Again, real life decisions that we normal viewers have to make.
I watch you guys along with Endlessadventure, Wayaway, Sam and Audrey and even Mark Wiens. You all present a nice mix of travel experience that engage and inspire the rest of us to travel.
Wishing you continued success.
I second that
You are an inspiration Kara and Nate, I totally love your videos and I must say your editing gets better and better every day. I know why you feel shy sharing your success, you are actually having fun, following your dream and getting paid for just that.
Keep travelling, keep inspiring us and keep entertaining us.
Love your videos guys! Great job and all the very best!
Thank you for sharing your struggles and your success. You guys are doing a wonderful job. I really appreciate you opening up and inspiring so many people to travel!
Very interesting. Thanks for sharing. I love the transparency. I have a friend who is a budget nerd and always ask me how you are able to travel. I send him all your reports. I drive everyone crazy at my work talking about karaandnate but secretly they are listening. Two of my friends did the Vespa tour in Paris this May. They loved it and couldn’t stop talking about it. Keep up the great work you do.
AB
Congrats!!! Be proud of your success and living your dream!!!
You should not at all feel like you are bragging. You two clearly work very very hard, in unpredictable locations, and maintain consistency with your content and outreach to make your dreams come true. I bet you work a lot harder than most of your peers. Thanks for sharing – it is really interesting to see what costs and expenses you have in making your content and also a reminder that there is a lot of hard work behind your beautiful instagram photos.
Also – I owe you guys a thank you, had it not been for your video of Oktoberfest, I would have never brought an umbrella and rain jacket, thank goodness I had those. Being in SoCal you forget other places have “weather.”
Wow! This is truly inspiring thank you for sharing your Finacial info I have always been curious how YouTube works. You defiantly deserve it you’re so smart. Happy travels !
WoW! You guys deserved it. This is Incredible Growth. So Inspiring, wish I had 50% of talent what you gys have to make my living while traveling. So now you are close to complete ? countries target ? next goal make it 150. Cheers ?
Nah, the goal should be 1000 cities.
Yes you two be proud of what you have accomplished but always remember the gifts that you have been given and where they come from. Thanks for all time and effort that you have put into sharing with us pieces of the world that most will never see and inspiring us to go to places we thought we would never get to.
Amazing! Such an inspiration!
First, I love the transparency, but it’s such a southern thing to think of success as “bragging.” The reason I dutifully sit through every advertisement on your YouTube channel is so that you financially benefit from them, so yea!
Keep making good choices, finding interesting and off-the-grid places, and generally being your positive and charming selves.
Congratulations Kara and Nate. This is truly inspiring and amazing to see your hard work get paid off! Kudos to you guys and please continue inspiring us! A huge thank you for what you share and do!
-Sayantan from Mumbai, India
You guys are both incredibly intelligent and humble. Keep blessing us with your content. Y’all are my favorite youtubers!
God bless you
Congrats!! It’s been a pleasure watching you guys grow!!
Keep sharing your life with us, you might think it sounds like bragging but it is inspiration for us to follow in your footsteps
I purchased both Kara’s vlog course and to be even, Nate’s Travel Hack Course. We are now heading out for 3-weeks to Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England using United Points, with lounge access. I know my video will come out better with the hints and tips (especially drone footage editing).
I love your equipment descriptions, especially the camera backpack.
Can you do a course on how you shoot the videos? Your content is what makes the editing possible.
You two are wonderful example of wanting to have adventures and willing to work for it.
With appreciation I’m now a Patreon supporter. Keep up the travel. You inspired me.
P. W – San Mateo, CA
Thank you for sharing. I am very interested in how your trip is funded. You’re open- ness is appreciated! Don’t stop with these quarterly reports. Everyone can do some level of travel but only a minority can make money at it. You have your age, your looks, your personality all working together make you extremely likable vloggers and successful. You will have a lot of doors open for you when you are done with your full-time travel.
You guys are so inspiring! I have always wondered how people travel full time and how do they afford it. This is so helpful. You guys are pretty amazing! You deserve every bit of it! Keep doing what you are doing! Don’t stop on just 100 countries!
We also found you during your Siberian train series. And we just took our first cruise in April!!! Travel is now a priority for us. We admire and respect your transparency. Please don’t loose sight of how we all love and support you as your visibility may attract naysayers and trolls. We adore you. Take in the good positive feedback. Block out all the rest.
Thank you so much for sharing all of this! You do such an awesome job and people, including myself, really appreciate you putting the time and effort to share it. Plus good for you for being willing to share what lots of people are unwilling to openly discuss. It’s definitely inspiring!
No need to be scared about ‘bragging’. Having read all the previous reports, it is so inspiring To read how much has changed for you guys. Everyone can clearly see that you have been working your asses off and you definitely deserve this!!!
You two present an excellent product. I feel I am with you when you publish the vlogs. You are showing me places in the world that I always wanted to see but couldn’t imagine how to get there. This is your job and now that you are in the positive show me more
Yayyyyyy!!! Congrats Nate & Kara. But really, what about taxes? Do you have to pay any anywhere!? We love you!
This is very inspiring and I agree, I wish more people were open about sharing the entrepreneurial process.
Hi Nate loved your Q1 report as always.
I would like to ask about taxation though. Mari Johnson on her channel explained that (like you) while traveling she had travel insurance, however as she was domeciled in US she still had to file a tax return to IRS.
This is not mentioned in your cost break down though everything else is. Thus it would be interesting to see how much Dollars you have in your pocket after tax dues.
22k (11k each) is a great income, yet if after tax it is say 7-8k then I feel this will help others make informed decisions.
Love Da Bard
Hi Kara and Nate!
I just traveled with my mom, daughter and a friend. We were in Paris and London and I could not even imagine videoing, editing and publishing while on vacation!! Thank you for your wonderful videoing and editing!! Keep it up!
Incredible guys.
We’re pleased you decided to keep doing these even though you’re so clearly in the green now – the hard work pays off and your transparency is clear. Doesn’t come across as bragging at all!
D&S
We find this so interesting to read each quarter, I know you say you feel like you’re bragging, but you’ve built a decent business you should be proud of – so keep doing it, it’s an inspiration to everyone!
First, a huge congrats on all your recent success and may it continue!
Second, thanks as always for the transparency in these reports. You should feel proud to share these because they’re inspiring for others that are beginning this journey, myself included.
Cheers!
Nate and Kara,
Your humble authenticiy; the fact that you care so much about sharing your experiences and INSPIRING those of us who are on the side-lines wishing we had the guts to step out into the world. Cheering you on; thank you! Mom and Dad must be so proud!!!
Been following your channel for some time and I must say this is some truly inspiring stuff! You guys deserve every bit of this success and you’ve certainly earned it!
Despite your success, it’s admirable that you keep things low key with your
accommodation and economy travel but would love to see you indulge from time to time so that we as viewers can at least enjoy it in third person 😉
Keep up the good work. You two are absolute champions!
A new level of respect for you guys for sharing thid with us… The community!
This is very inspiring Kara & Nate. Wish you guys good luck! Keep those videos and these reports coming, inspiring us more 🙂
If you don’t have a tax person, now is a great time to get one! This is a big leap in income and on the off chance you are still filing on a schedule C making the switch to an S-Corp could save you some taxes. Also a great option to think of retirement savings. I highly recommend working with a tax professional from your home town that you find from a personal referral.
Please please continue posting these!! I love seeing that two completely normal people can follow their dreams and make a living doing so. thank you 🙂
Hi y’all! I’m curious…have you found any correlation between YouTube viewers viewing the full ad and skipping the ad in relation to ad revenue? Thanks!
Congrats Kara and Nate! So neat to see your hard work pay off and God blessing you on your endeavors! Keep up the awesome content!
NICE!!! thanks for publishing this it really is inspiring not just from a travel budget and income standpoint but from a transparency with incomes in general. Ya’ll keep it up!
Thanks for being so transparent! I don’t think it seems braggy at all…rather I think it shows the hard work and sacrifice that you both have put in to build your following. Is your income pre-tax? How do taxes work when you are getting paid by international companies for sponsorships or video licensing?
congrats Nate! I had no idea that you publish these detail P&Ls! I love it! I am trying to incorporate more of the financial aspects of travel into my channel as I would also like to inspire others to travel more. Thanks for sharing!
Do you guys have to do self-employment tax? I know my brother is a freelancer and he has to pay quarterly taxes since he has 1099 income. Is that accounted for in one of your expense categories already? Do you prepare your own tax returns? Just curious!
I have enjoyed watching your newest videos and congratulate you on winning the vlog award! I noticed that you were offered and received complimentary flights (Turkish Airlines) and resort stays. Is this considered income and how do you manage taxes?
P.S.
Even though I am not a detail enthusiastic person, I really appreciate your income reports. I find your graphs easy to understand and your commentary to be very clear. Congratulations on finding some income success.
This is wonderful. I remember checking out your income reports sometime last year and wondering how you guys were going to keep going! I’m glad that you’re making a profit now. You deserve it.
I am so happy that you guys are prospering! You both have lovely personalities and I enjoy the quality content. Thanks for taking the time to break down the expenses. I am a business nerd and find it fascinating as well.
I love seeing the real break down of all the numbers. So inspiring thank you for sharing!
Thank you for sharing this information. It’s very inspiring. You have a viewer for life.
Also, please come to Pakistan. It would be my pleasure to host you. 🙂
The best thing I can say is “THANK YOU”.
I can feel that you’re doing what you LOVE and it really shows in every single thing you share with us.
You inspire me and bring joy to my life.
I love this number part!
I’m a business nerd too so I definitely can appreciate the transparency! I agree that more people should be this way. I’ve been binge watching the YouTube Channel like crazy lately. It makes me want to grab my husband and hop on a plane tonight! Asia has been my favorite to watch so far! I will pray that you both are safe traveling. Thank you both for the hard work that you do so you can share the wonderful experiences with all of us!! Cheers!!
Really happy to see things going so well! It’s really shows that all the hard work in the end is worth it. Not many people in this profession are so open and transparent with their expenses and profits. Really happy you guys do this.