Category Archives: Passive Income

My International dream life and the blow that led to New Zealand marriage asylum: Search for Passive Income.

After working my tail off for the last two years I got back home and found myself broke again. Sure I had had loads of legendary experiences. My Australian work was one huge crazy adventure. I picked fruit, mustered cattle on horseback, refit ships and learned to surf. I paid my passage to South Africa where I worked an internship program in Cape Town for the FIFA World Cup where I got to watch seven games from the box seats. When I got back to the land down under met a beautiful Australian girl. We went on a month long surf trip down the east coast of Australia with her. We worked for a while in the Gold Coast and then flew to Bali. After an epic month in Bali we flew to Hawaii. After five months working and living in Hawaii we had a beautiful wedding on the north shore of O’ahu. We surprised our family and friends by riding horses down the beach to the ceremony. Life was a dream.

Then everything went wrong.

My wife flew to Australia to be a brides maid at her friends wedding. I went back to California for my family reunion. We had made excellent plans for our reunion at the end of the month. She was going to meet me in my hometown of Reno, Nevada. I wanted to take her out to visit my ailing grandfather. I wanted to show her my old home turf in Northern Nevada. Then we planned to have a big week at the BurningMan festival in the Black Rock Desert. After all of this, we would fly back to Hawaii where my wife could run the campground and I could continue my work developing a waste to fuel company. Everything was going to be great.

Then she skyped me crying. Her b-2 tourist visa was denied by the United States Customs and Immigration Service (USCIS). Our month apart was essentially a chase game to figure out how to get her into the country. All that terrible effort was in vain. The paperwork takes 6-8 months for them to process and grant her entrance to the united states as my wife.

This was unacceptable so I decided to leave the country; I’d go into love asylum. I told my boss in Hawaii that we weren’t coming back. We donated all our stuff and our car to the park. It was partially because we loved the park, it was partially because we wouldn’t be able to return to look after the park. Then we had to decide where to go.

I couldn’t live and work legally in Australia (I already used my working holiday visa (WHV)). She couldn’t come to the USA. We couldn’t even go to Costa Rica like we really wanted to because my wife would have to travel through the USA. It would cost to much to go live in Chile or Peru, like I really wanted to. So we ended up going to New Zealand.

New Zealand is the only place where we can both live and work legally without having to spend a few months apart. I can’t spend months away from my wife while the immigration departments of the USA or Australia process our paperwork! It’s preposterous.

So now we are in cold New Zealand. The job market isn’t great here. I don’t want to start a career here because I know I’ll be leaving in 3-9 months. We are in limbo. I need to do something to lead towards my financial independence. One day I want to have a surf camp in some exotic tropical location. I can’t keep living month to month forever if I am ever to get there.

All my reading of Robert Kiyosake tells me that I need to build passive income. How am I going to do this without any money to start? I can’t get into real estate or start a business here because I don’t want to live in New Zealand forever. The solution came to me while reading Tim Ferris. I need a way to work in which my physical presence isn’t required.

After doing some research online, I found one of Pat Flynn’s websites (smartpassiveincome.com). His podcast is what really captured my attention. I’m going to give online marketing a go. Lets see what happens!

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Listening to “A Pirate looks at 40″ Cover by Jack Johnson.
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