Welcome Back to Breakfast with Lisa & Josh!

Soundtrack for this newsletter: Please Mr. Postman - The Marvelettes

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Quick note: We have a new video podcast called Travel Support Thursday! The 4th episode is out, check it out here!  

https://youtu.be/ELVA951-gXE

It’s also available anywhere you normally get podcasts -https://podcast.lisaandjosh.com

Solving the bane of every traveler.

Today we’re going to talk about the bane of every traveler, the deliverer of bad news, the unceasing annoyance of nomads everywhere - and how to solve it.

Here’s a hint, it’s a tiny, rectangular piece of paper that has writing on it, delivered by a tried and trued antiquated system, and 99% of the time the thing that was delivered contains no actual value or useful information.

Yes, we’re talking about physical mail, and how to deal with it while you’re traveling.

It turns out that all of the systems of the entire world are built around one concept - you having a single physical address that you live at, where all of your tax documents, bills, letters from friends or family, ads for your local dentist, overdue notices for an important service you forgot to pay this month, and sales flyers for a local inflatable party supply business must be able to be sent to.

All of which, for some reason, receives equal importance by the company delivering it.

This company also does not provide you any mechanism to prevent any of these making it all the way to your mailbox - junk mail or not.

How mail feels 99% of the time

Seriously, when’s the last time you got something good in your mailbox? It’s always bills and taxes, right? Still, I am always a bit excited to go check the mail every day. Hope is not all lost, don’t worry.

No matter how many places I check off “sign up for electronic delivery only”, there are still so many letters we get delivered physically. It’s the world we live in, and the rules that we need to abide by. It is what it is.

So, how do we solve this mail problem, when, instead of having of having a single “home” address we’re flying from place to place every few days, without a clear plan or timeline of when we’re returning home?

How do we make sure that, once in a blue moon, when that actual important piece of mail hits our mailbox that’s 10,000 miles from where we currently are, that we have access to it and can take action?

That’s the problem we’re solving today.

I just thought this picture was funny and tangentially related.

I think that there are 3 levels of solving this problem, and at one time or another we’ve used all of them.

Level 1: Hold and Pray

This is what I did when I left for my first trip around the world. I was going to be gone for a whole year, and figured - “what’s the worst that could happen?”

I literally said that to myself. Out loud. Am I the only that does that? Mutter to myself when I’m thinking through a problem? I can’t be the only one, right??

My plan was basically to have no plan. I just told the post office to hold my mail for as long as they would (3 months, I found out later, although it’s only 30 days now) and hope that nothing important came along in that time.

I updated my mailing address via the USPS to my parents place in the meantime, had the post office hold any mail that came to my old address.

I had moved out of my apartment, and new people had moved in, and I thought that was that.

If you’re gone for more than 30 days, you need another address to forward to.

I mean, how much mail would I really get? 

Nobody ever sent me anything important. They would just stop sending stuff.

So, I left for my trip, thinking it was all handled. My mail would just magically stop coming, and the post office would hold on to it forever, and I would never have to think about paper ever again.

It was, indeed, not handled.

3 months later, I got a call from the new tenants that had moved into my old apartment. The resident manager had given them my phone number because the post office had unexpectedly dropped off 3 shoebox size boxes stuffed to the brim with my mail at their doorstep.

It turns out that the post office won’t just hold onto your mail forever.

The new residents were very confused, but were also very nice about it (midwest nice is a real thing), and told me that most of the 100+ pieces were junk mail, but that strewn within it was some very important-looking and concerning items of mail, all addressed to me, that I had ignored for far too long.

So I had them send all these hundreds of letters to a friend of mine, and paid the new tenants for their troubles that I caused.

My friend then opened up these letters for me, and gave me all the bad news, which was, to say the least, of significant quantity.

Whoopsies.

I had accidentally forgotten to attach some very important tax documents to my tax return for the previous year, and the IRS had reached out multiple times, with increasing ferocity, reminding me that I needed to do so or else there would be substantial penalties.

The timeline for me to comply had long, long passed by the time my friend read the letter to me, and I had now accrued over a thousand dollars of unpaid tax liability due to my lack of action.

Also, I had missed a credit card payment, my last month’s electric bill before I moved (which had the unintended consequence of the electric company cutting off the electricity for a few days for the new tenants that moved in), my last month’s internet bill before I moved, and bunch of birthday cards that I never said thank you for.

Worst of all, I missed not only a dear friend’s wedding invitation, but also the entire actual wedding due to me not having a good plan for my mail.

This was a very, very expensive lesson to learn. I paid the $1,317.64 overdue tax fee. I sent in the correct paperwork to the IRS. I paid my overdue bills, which added up to $400+ due to how many months had passed.

I apologized once again to the tenants that took over my apartment after I left, and sent them a gift certificate to the fanciest restaurant in Wisconsin - Applebee’s.

Just kidding, it was much fancier than that. It was a gift certificate to Culver’s.

I called my friend and his now-wife and apologized profusely for over an hour.

I needed a system. I needed a plan for my mail while I was gone.

I needed to not miss my friend’s weddings. 

I couldn’t let this happen again.

I needed to level up.

Sad Josh.

Level 2: The Friends and Family Discount

To help solve this problem, I needed to ask a big favor. I didn’t realize at the time how big of an ask it would be, but I knew I needed help.

So before I left for my 2nd round the world trip I asked my parents if they would be willing to be my personal mail-receiving-and-scanning service while I was away.

They agreed, but I could tell that they were a bit hesitant.

I think they knew how much work it would end up being, but I certainly did not.

I mean, here I was, their adult son, asking them to take care of my mail again like I was a kid again.

So I went through every single thing that could potentially send me mail in my life.

I updated my address with the postal service, I changed all my credit cards mailing addresses, updated my bank address, made sure all my bills and potential-and-time-critical IRS documents could make their way to my parents house.

I changed my address in every single place that it could be changed, just to make sure that I wouldn’t miss something expensive this time.

I left on that 2nd trip around the world - and all was well. Every time I would call my parents we would catch up, and they would pop open my mail and send me pictures of it, and I could make a decision to keep it or toss it.

It was perfect.

But then, the inevitable happened.

A package showed up on their doorstep from a friend who did not know I was out traveling.

A thing sent as a joke, of the practical kind.

A thing that I didn’t even want in the first place. A thing I did not ask to be sent.

A thing that made my parents gasp upon opening.

Not gasp in a good way. It was disappointed faces all around.

I could not let this happen again.

It was time, once again to level up.

No more using my parents as my personal mail service.

Mail is temporary.

Embarrassment lasts forever.

Don’t make the same mistake I did.

Level 3: The Right Way

It was time to solve this problem like an adult.

I sat down at ye olde google machine, and started digging for answers.

It turns out that there were dozens of services out there that you could pay a nominal monthly fee and they would open, scan, shred and discard your mail for you.

They all had cheesy post-office-adjacent names like:

Earth Class Mail

Post Scan Mail

Anytime Mailbox

iPostal1

Mailbox Deluxe

Traveling Mailbox

Virtual Post Mail

One of these is fake - can you guess which one?

They all worked basically the same way - they had small offices scattered around the United States that would accept your mail for you, scan in the front of the envelope, email that scan to you, and then ask if you wanted them to open the letter and scan it, or just toss it.

If you opted to open and scan the mail, they would charge you a little for that service.

It was basically $9.99 per month to rent a mailbox that someone else was stationed at who would open my mail, scan and email it to me if I needed them to.

So I decided on iPostal1 (one of the not fake ones) after a bit more googling, and signed up.

I picked out an address at one of their offices that was kinda-near where my family lives, in case I needed them to physically get the mail that had arrived, which has never happened yet.

This was my 3rd trip around the world, so I was a pro at redirecting my mail at this point.

I furiously logged into every one of the 300+ online services that I have an account with and changed the address in all of them to this new address I had just bought.

It felt like I had purchased a home for $9.99 per month.

Keys to a very different kind of home… but with the same mail problem.

Since then, a few hiccups outstanding (like one time them “accidentally” shredding a VERY important tax document that came through from YouTube), the service has been wonderful.

It’s run out of a small office supply store in the middle of nowhere Wisconsin, and is staffed by wonderfully friendly people.

Most importantly, no more missing important mail, or forcing literal hundreds of envelopes on my parents or the unwitting couple that happened to move in where I moved last, that ends up costing me thousands in overdue fees.

No more missing friends’ weddings.

No more “surprises” in package form that my parents have to open for me.

No more embarrassment. Well, at least none mail-related.

It was the perfect solution, and still the best one I’ve found to this day.

That’s how you solve the mail problem while traveling. 

P.S. - The fake one was ”Mailbox Deluxe” - you get one free high five if I see you and you guessed it right.

Today

A quick stop in one of our favorite cities, Sydney!!

And another episode of Travel (Support) Thursday, this time with the Sydney Harbour Bridge as our backdrop.

The (Near) Future

More “3 days in…” videos coming your way soon! And in the very near future—3 Weeks in New Zealand on a Budget. Can’t wait!

Our Latest Videos

Travel (Support) Thursday from Sydney!! In this episode, we answer your questions about eSIMs, how to go to Europe using miles alone, and what it’s like to travel with our YouTuber friends.

3 Days in Busan. What a wonderland.

Tattoos for travel?

24 hours in Seoul never feels enough, but we sure tried to do it all.

See you next week…ish :)

- josh (and lisa)

Oh, and if you want to learn how we afford to take all these trips after quitting our jobs 3 years ago, you’ll likely be interested in our Skillshare course on Travel Hacking and Frequent Flier Miles.

It’s been really taking off lately, but we still have a few uses of this link left for those of you who want to see the class for free. It comes with a free month of Skillshare, which is more than enough to watch our class and any of the other great courses on there!

Check it out here: https://skl.sh/lisaandjosh02221

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