Living The Dream: What About The Kids?

Dan & Clair certainly claim to be Living The Dream, but how has their decision affected their children, and the kids education most importantly. Read more to discover how their biggest worry, became their truest validation.

The Prince Family

What was the first country you visited? Who with and why did you choose it?

Our first port of call was the beautiful Thai island of Koh Samui, we are lucky enough to own a property there which we now use to home swap our way around the globe. It was an awesome base to start our travels, we really needed a few weeks to decompress from our hectic lives in Singapore, especially after all the madness with the run up to leaving. Clair’s parents were also in tow as they were visiting at the time, so they came along with us for our first week of travel and freedom!

When did you start a travel lifestyle? What inspired that change?

We started in March 2014, the inspiration was the brilliant book called ‘The Four Hour Work Week’ by Tim Ferriss. Dan had lunch with a friend who recommend he read it, he was hooked from page one, everything in the book seemed to make so much sense, he was really over being at work all day and missing the kids and Clair was just shuttling the kids around all day from school to activities instead of spending quality time with them. As a family we were fragmented, stressed and not living. We were on the treadmill of life, it had to change.

Do you have a base you travel from? Or is it continuous travel? And why do you choose that style?

We are lucky to consider Koh Samui, England and Singapore as bases. In Samui we have the house, in England we have family and friends and in Singapore we have many friends, lots of which are able and more importantly willing to put us up if needed! We choose to try and incorporate the bases into our travels, that way we can catch up with loved ones along the way!

How do you fund your travel lifestyle? Is it something you do when travelling or are you a saver?

We were both perennial savers, both sets of parents taught us the value of the pound from an early age and we were always hoarding, we have some rental income that helps. We save tons on accommodation, we have become quite the home swappers, so much so in fact that we have been invited to be ambassadors for the home swap site we use. Our dream is to somehow make money from a laptop, in any country, freeing us from desk jobs and the rat race forever!

If you could tell yourself one tip before you started your travel lifestyle, what would it be?

Our biggest and most stressful decision that we agonised over for so long before making our leap of faith, was naturally the kids education and taking them away from their ‘comfort zone’.

WHAT A LOAD OF NONSENSE!

It is amazing that the biggest worry has turned out to be the biggest validation. The kids have thrived, they love learning new cultures and the life of travel. You needn’t pack so many damn toys either, we survived 2 weeks in Croatia with them playing with nothing but stones on the beach. Kids are way more adaptive than you think!

Don’t hide behind the excuse of ‘she is so settled at school’ or ‘ he just got into the 1st team’. If you really are considering a year out travelling do it, no time is the right time.

DO IT!

What does "Living The Dream" mean to you?

Not being tied to a desk, not having targets to meet, not having an unappreciative boss, not getting on a train everyday, not plodding the same streets on the same route to work, not listening to customers berate you, not getting stuck in traffic on your way to an important meeting, not falling into your designated couch hollow at 8.30 pm with a microwave meal to watch an episode of some dire TV show whilst internally fearing your alarm clock going off in the morning, not feeling utterly exhausted.

You can find Dan, Clair & Kids here -

Website: The Prince Family

Twitter:  @princey1976

The Prince family are Dan and Clair 38, Kaitlyn 9, Sophia 7 with twins Lauren and Samuel 3, they are home swapping their way around the globe.