NORA DUNNProfessional Hobo

BY DONNIE RUST

“I love just about everywhere in the world.”

Nora Dunn introduces herself as a professional hobo, a

woman who has travelled the world, visiting some of

the most sublime and breathtaking locations in the

world and has been doing so since 2007. An intrepid spirit of the

sort that H. Rider Haggard would have leapt at the opportunity

to write about Nora is the sort of adventurer and horizon seeker

that you cannot come into contact with and not feel inspired.

Proof, in many ways, that you can achieve absolutely

anything you want in life Nora has been on the move for over

seven years. Travelling across Canada where she lived in the

Rocky Mountains for seven months, Hawaii where she lived

for six months, Australia and New Zealand for over two years,

Grenada, Switzerland, Panama and Peru and to fly in the face of

everyone’s first excuse as to why they don’t travel, she has been

managing to do so in a financial stable manner.

Originally from Canada the thirty seven year old has no

fixed address and has been blogging since 2006. In addition to

the locations mentioned above she’s also travelled extensively

through and spent up to a month in various European

destinations, ranging from Spain to Denmark, Ireland to Russia

and many Asian destinations such as Thailand, Malaysia and

Nepal.

Renowned for travelling professionally in a financial

sustainable fashion, Nora has single handedly become an icon for

travel bloggers across the planet seeking to emulate her simple

approach to hitting the horizon.

“I was a certified financial planner in a former life,” she

explains, “In 2006 I sold everything I owned, which included

my practice and combined my experience in personal finance

and the skills I had learnt in lifestyle design with a deep passion

and experience in travelling to develop a location independent

career as a freelance writer.”

Nora explains that this created a perfect niche for her

writing, since you do need money to travel and now she writes

about travel for many financial publications such as Wise Bread,

Credit Walk, Care One, Amex, Capital One, and others.

“I write about finance for many travel publications such as

Transitions Abroad, Flight Network, Vagabondish, and many

more,” she adds, “I cover topics such as how to travel with credit

cards, how to travel indefinitely with carry-on luggage only, and

how to maximize frequent flyer miles.”

On her site www.theprofessionalhobo.com, Nora combines

two main routes to travelling sustainably. Firstly, showing people

how to travel full-time in a financially sustainable way both

through travelling creatively and inexpensively with techniques

such as getting free accommodation by volunteering or house-

sitting, using frequent flyer miles and exploring slow travel and

secondly highlighting ways to earn money on the road such

as with a location independent career, working holiday visas,

teaching English.

To help others achieve this Nora features regular Financial

Travel Tips, where she offers a free 2-week e-course on how

to travel full-time in a financially sustainable way and she’s

also written a few books, including one on How to Get Free

Accommodation Around the

World.

Nora testifies to having

an insatiable appetite for

travelling, “I love just about

everywhere in the world, but

I like experiencing the world

at a slower pace than just

another holiday maker. So

instead of throwing a dart at a

map and travelling as a tourist

I’ll travel to a location for an

opportunity,”

Most often Nora finds

there’s an opportunity to live in

a place for a while through free

accommodation, such as house

sitting or volunteering and this

allows her to sample the local

life in many destinations over

time, travelling slowly and

understanding the daily life

and local culture rather than

simply passing through and

experiencing somewhere just

as a surface level.

This is also Nora’s

profession, “I’ve been doing

this fulltime since 2007 and it’s

another reason I like to travel

slowly, it gives me more time

to experience the local culture

and also to help me get my

work done.”

Professional Hobo“I run my business as

The Professional Hobo and

international freelance writer,

on my own,” Nora explains,

“Although I do outsource

some jobs on a one-off basis

whenever I can.”

Nora is very honest when

speaking about how Time

management and life balance

while travelling has been

one of her biggest challenges

on the road and continues to be. She goes on to highlight that

there is a big different between travelling on a holiday where, as

a tourist, you hit all the attractions in a set period of time and

being a professional traveller who has to work.

“Although my location independent career is very freeing,”

she continues, “it also requires time and energy and nowadays

WiFi. Social media and answering emails in particular is a

somewhat relentless task that requires almost daily attention.

It’s rewarding, but something that can suck a day away if I’m not

careful.

I try to do my social media work in one spurt each day (taking

about half an hour) and then log out of all my accounts. Emails

are tackled on more of an as-and-when basis, taking up to a few

hours daily I also try to do this in one spurt and not pay too much

attention to new emails until the next day,”

This leaves time for her writing, much of which needs to

be done online as well and for researching or creating links.

However, despite this between managing her Triberr accounts

and responding to tweets, Nora spend probably about 15

minutes per day on Twitter.

“Social networking is very important to my career,” Nora tells

us, “Since it’s a platform for not only engaging with readers and

colleagues, but also a way to promote the articles I write for my

site and other publications. Editors pay me well for my ability

to promote content through my extensive social networks, and

sponsors and PR reps require strong social networks.”

Some Of The Professional Hobo’s Best Places

A traveller through and through, Nora has a unique

perspective on the places she visits and lives brought about

by venturing to a place not

only to visit, but to learn and

be changed by that place so

the question as to where her

favourite or least favourite

places are, is not as simple to

answer as one might think:

“Travel is very contextual;

the most beautiful sunset in

the world could be lost on you

if your heart was just broken,”

she explains, “So my favourite

places might not be another

person’s. Having said that,

there are a few destinations

I’m continually drawn back to,

including New Zealand, Switzerland, France, and most recently,

Peru.”

However, “Russia did nothing for me, and Norway was a little

expensive for my taste,” she laments, “The Caribbean island of

Grenada, which was a former favourite probably won’t be on

my hit list again either, since leaving there also meant leaving a

relationship and I’m not sure I could see myself living there on

my own again.”

And Where Will The Professional Hobo Be Going In The Future

“I’m waiting for the next opportunity to come knocking,” she

says when speaking about where her next destination will be,

“I expect that I’ll be spending a chunk of this summer in Europe

– possibly house-sitting in Switzerland, visiting some friends in

Italy, and or maybe renting a place in Amsterdam or Corsica.”

Once the weather starts

getting chilly in the northern

hemisphere’s autumn, you can

expect to see Nora hopping

back down to the southern

hemisphere either to Peru,

Colombia, or New Zealand

to enjoy the sunshine and

warmth.

“But that’s all far too much

planning for The Professional

Hobo; let’s see what happens!”

she concludes happily.