Each person’s unique vision of Nomadtopia is a reminder that there is no one way to create your ideal life, no right or wrong approach. Many people just like you—or in even more complicated circumstances—have made it happen, or are working to get there. Hearing others’ stories keeps us all inspired, and reminds us to dream big!

Marianne Manthey is a corporate web designer by day and on a mission, by night, to help bloggers beautify their blogs on a budget. She shares design trends and blog design tutorials for free at Design Your Own Blog.

Tell us a little bit about your current life/lifestyle.

I live in Denver, Colorado, and I am a full-time working mom of a 2-year-old. I am the primary breadwinner of the house and my husband stays at home with our son while working on his personal training certification and our “Costa Rica Retreat Project” when he can.

At night and on weekends, and sometimes early mornings, I work on my blog/website where I am currently just sharing free information and tutorials about blog design and building up an audience and email list.

What does your Nomadtopia look like?

Our Nomadtopia looks like this: We plan to move to Costa Rica in about 2.5 years.

I will be contributing to our household from my blog business (working on future products at the moment) and staying home with my son. I want the freedom to be able to work when I want, not when someone else wants me to.

My husband will be running our business in Costa Rica, which consists of managing camps and retreats for yoga, surf, Nomadtopia ;) etc.

We want a slower pace of life where we can choose when we want to work and where we want to live.

We would like to have a home base in Denver that we can use as a corporate rental while we are gone for extended periods of time. Ideally, we’d like to move somewhere new every couple of years.

What’s the biggest challenge in making your Nomadtopia a reality, and how will you overcome that challenge?

Our biggest challenge is my husband’s older son. He is almost 16 and while he lives mostly with his mother, we don’t want to “abandon” him by leaving before he is 18.

But that’s okay; our other challenge is because we have a young child and health insurance to worry about, we don’t feel that I can quit my job as long as we live here in the US.

Another challenge is that we are currently looking for an investor in our Costa Rica Retreat.

Our plan to overcome those challenges is to keep working on our dream businesses to the point that they can support us so we can live comfortably in or out of the US.

My goal this year is to launch a product to sell by end of second quarter and then launch a new e-course in early 2015.

When you think about your Nomadtopia, what are you most excited about?

I am MOST excited about being in charge of my time. I know that I will still have to spend a lot of time on my business, but I love working on it and I get to choose when I want to work on it.

I am excited to spend more time with my family, go to the beach and hike the jungles and just explore the world together!

What are you most nervous or scared about?

I am most nervous about being stressed about where the money will come from. I am nervous that when it comes to taking the leap, I will get scared, look for excuses why I can’t and back out.

I am also nervous about how we will raise our son and educate him. I know we won’t have the time to home-school him and to be honest I don’t really have the desire to. So finding a good school for him where we choose to live will be a challenge for sure. I know that I will always wonder if I am doing the right thing or doing him a disservice by not having him in a “normal” US school environment.

It sounds silly when I write that; it’s not like our school system is so great. But I can’t help it, it still makes me nervous.

How soon do you plan to be living your Nomadtopia?

TWO AND A HALF YEARS!!
ACK!!!!

On one hand it seems so far away, but on the other it’s really right there around the corner.

What advice do you have for others who want to create their own Nomadtopia?

Define your dream and talk about it with any significant others in your life who might be affected by it. See what kind of compromises you can come to.

Then search search search for that one thing that you would love to do anywhere and anytime and work towards sharing that with the world.

Set a date for accomplishing your dream. Then work work work. I work with my end goal always on my mind and that’s what keeps me going.

Just for fun: Would you rather spend one month in a place you’ve been to before, or 24 hours somewhere new?

One month in a place I’ve been to before. Whenever I go on vacation somewhere and don’t have time to see everything I want to see, I always have it in the back of my mind that I’ll be back to explore it more next time.

Don’t know where that comes from but it’s always there, so I HAVE to go back! LOL

Thanks for sharing your story, Marianne!

UPDATE: By 2017, Marianne’s Nomadtopia had become a reality and she joined me from Costa Rica to talk about it on Nomadtopia Radio! Click here to check it out.