Living Aboard a Trawler: How to Make Money
Making money living aboard a trawler in the Caribbean is a life goal most can only dream about, but what if we told you we met someone doing exactly that? And what if we told you that he is now putting his efforts into teaching other people to make money from anywhere in the world too!
We got the low down from lifelong adventurer, trader, and family man Pat Schulte who has been living aboard boats and motorhomes for nearly twenty years.
From a catamaran sailing around the world, to vintage VWs and RVs crisscrossing much of it, on to a monohull sailboat in Mexico, and eventually to where he is today, at anchor in Aruba aboard his 42’ Grand Banks trawler.
The trawler has been his family’s home for five years now. They’ve circled the Caribbean in it. All the while, from one ideal island to another, he has maintained his income and run his business. Read on to learn from Pat how you can do the same!
How Pat Makes Money Living On A Trawler
Making money from anywhere is a trick just about everyone would like to learn. When I first took off to travel, I left behind my work as a self-employed commodities trader in Chicago.
In just a few years as a trader, I had made enough to go off, have an epic adventure, and return to normal life to pick up where I’d left off.
The problem with that plan? After traveling for a bit, my wife and I had zero desire to return to “normal” life. After the freedom of sailing the world’s oceans, answering to nobody, and constantly heading off towards new horizons, we simply couldn’t imagine our previous life any longer.
It’s easy enough to dream of an indefinite life of travel and adventure, but there remains the question of how to pay for it.
Coincidentally for me, my previous life of standing shoulder-to-shoulder with hundreds of other screaming traders, in a sweaty trading pit encircled by a windowless room full of price monitors, had gone the way of the dinosaurs about the same time I was deciding never to return.
Trading stocks and commodities, like so many other things in life, was moving online. Gradually, as I traveled, so did I.
After sailing around the world I drove around most of it in a VW bus. Then moved aboard another boat and had children. I wrote a couple of books and traded stocks (and stock options) whenever opportunities arose. Life went on this way for quite a few years.
Gradually, people that followed my travels on my website, and read my book Live on the Margin, began to reach out to me with more and more financial questions. I eventually decided to offer to teach others how to trade and invest in order to earn money anywhere.
My business, Wanderer Financial, grew and grew as I continued my wandering ways. A few years living on boats, a few years of motorhomes, and back to boats again.
Over the last five years in the Caribbean, especially, the world has changed dramatically for us digital nomads. Cellular data prices have dropped sharply, and coverage in the islands has become excellent.
Just a couple of years ago I could expect to pay five dollars per gigabyte of data, while today I have excellent speeds, good coverage, and unlimited data on the boat for just $50 per month (currently in Aruba).
I’m able to join my subscribers live each day to talk about the markets, make trades, and discuss our travels or whatever else is going on in our lives. Trading with a community like this has made work both fun and profitable. After so many years as an independent trader, running a business at the same time has been both challenging and rewarding.
A Work Day From The Trawler
Typically, my day looks like this. Wake up with the sun, have coffee out on the top deck with my wife and discuss our day ahead, get online and take a look at the weather (making sure we’re still anchored in a safe spot) as well as what overnight markets have been doing around the world, then log in to Wanderer Financial to say good morning and run down the market outlook for the day.
In our Basecamp chat, people will post pictures of where they’re logging in from that day. It’s a diverse group spread all around the globe, so there are plenty of beautiful sunrises and beaches to be found.
For the next couple of hours we’ll watch the markets, maybe make a couple of trades, and discuss our current positions, or whatever else comes up that day.
By around noon I’m logging off and ready to spend the afternoon with my kids, swimming, diving in Aruba, playing on the beach, or walking around a new town in search of ice cream.
For me, the lifestyle of living and working from a boat is one that a normal life on land just can’t compare to.
How Can You Make Money Living On A Trawler?
My advice for aspiring world wanderers these days is always the same—take what you are an expert at, and offer it out to the world.
For years I didn’t realize how my expertise as a trader would be beneficial to others. It took time for me to discover that sharing that knowledge could be profitable and that I could do it without ever putting down roots. Best of all, I could help others achieve this lifestyle that so many dream of.
Trading from a boat, and running a business while at anchor, can be challenging at times, but technology seems to make it easier with each passing year.
Think long and hard about how you could share your knowledge online, and give it a shot. We’ve all got some skill, some expertise, that we can use to our advantage, and for the advantage of others. Put yourself out there in the world, and maybe you can circle that world, too.
Meet author Pat Schulte
Pat has been traveling the world for twenty years. He has blogged about his adventures since day one and he also runs Wanderer Financial where he teaches others how to trade and invest so that they can earn from anywhere.
If you’re interested in learning how to trade then Pat has some great tips for beginners on Wanderer Financial, and he really does know his stuff! If you found this post useful then follow us for more travel and boat life tips and inspiration. We’d love to have you along for the ride!
