Over the next few entries, I’m going to post some practical advice about how living more internationally can be not just a rewarding experience, but fun, safe, and financially worth your while.

At this point some of you reading this may be thinking, “Sounds like fun but I can’t do it because of my family/mortgage/career/age or whatever.” Also there’s the issue of money — how do you support yourself?

None of these factors are insurmountable. In fact they can be opportunities.

Let´s start with kids. Maybe your kids are in the midst of school.

By now I´ve been in about 100 countries and circled the Earth quite a few times. For one thing, circling the globe makes for a good trip since there’s no need to backtrack. In one of my favorite around-the-world trips, I left America with my wife and one-year-old son, Jacques. Six and a half years later, we arrived home with more money than when we left. By the age of seven, my son was up to speed for entering the 2nd grade. In addition, he’d gotten to know 40 cultures. He could tell you about the birds of Kenya, rug designs in Turkey, Hindu deities, Chinese ink drawing and a million other things. Raising children on the road is so much easier than at home. I know this sounds funny to anyone who’s taken a 2-week vacation with their kids in America and found it an exhausting exercise. Let me explain.

First an observation. People in the third world are crazy about kids. They can’t get enough of them. Whenever economists look at the size of families in the third world, they always look at it in economic terms — more helping hands, support in one’s old age, etc. This may have some validity, but in my opinion the main reason they have so many kids is because they like them. Besides, children aren’t so burdensome since everyone shares in childrearing. The whole village raises a kid.

For several months on the trip I was referring to, my family and I lived on the tiny island of Lamu off the coast of Kenya. For 2 or 3 hours in the morning my wife and I went through Jacques´ formal school lessons. Then he’d take off on his donkey Suzy for the rest of the day and hang out with his pals. Sometimes they’d be at our house, but more likely they’d be fishing, swimming or whatever. Walking through our little village, I found that I knew relatively few people by name, but my son knew everyone — they loved him, and he was welcomed everywhere.

When kids are real young, nannies are a tremendous help. The girls have had so much experience taking care of their little brothers and sisters that they’re experts. It just takes the strain out of having kids, which is so much a part of parenting in the US and Europe.

Let’s talk about schooling for a bit. Home schooling is not as difficult and time-consuming as you might think. I’ve used The Calvert School in Baltimore, also a secondary school program operated by Indiana University. One time I just coordinated with Jacques’ regular school in Indiana. All this requires lugging a lot of books around and sending lessons back by mail to be graded by a teacher. These are then returned with grades and comments. This was 10 years ago. By now there must be dozens of internet possibilities which would make everything much simpler.

Traveling with kids means traveling slower and seeing things in far greater depth. Children will connect you with the locals in a way that nothing else will.