It’s week one of Wealthy Retirement’s free Retirement Coaching Series. And the top item on viewers’ minds? Getting paid to travel.
Over the next few minutes, Steve McDonald interviews Barbara Perriello, who has made a lifelong career of traveling and getting paid for it. Barbara has several ideas as well as organizations that anyone can use to get involved in and to start living their retirement dreams.
Steve McDonald: Hi everybody. I’m Steve McDonald. This is your Two Minute Retirement Solution. Well, as promised, we’re kicking off our retirement coaching series here on the Two Minute this week with the topic everybody listed as their first pick, getting paid to travel. Our guest is Barbara Perriello, and she’s been traveling and getting paid for it for 25 years.
Barbara Perriello: Yes.
Steve McDonald: And you’re going to tell us how you did that?
Barbara Perriello: I will.
Steve McDonald: All right. The first question is, how’d you do this?
Barbara Perriello: Well, I run a travel agency.
Steve McDonald: Okay.
Barbara Perriello: So that’s the first step.
Steve McDonald: That’s the most obvious thing to do.
Barbara Perriello: Yes.
Steve McDonald: Okay.
Barbara Perriello: But my specialty is event planning, and specifically what I do is plan conferences and investment tours.
Steve McDonald: What’s an investment tour?
Barbara Perriello: An investment tour is working with a financial editor or publisher – like Steve – who is interested in learning about global investments.
Steve McDonald: Okay.
Barbara Perriello: So we might take a trip to Turkey to learn about the oil and gas markets, or we might go to the Far East in China to see what’s happening there. We’ll do investment tours all around the world.
Steve McDonald: Interesting. What do you have coming up? Anything interesting?
Barbara Perriello: I have Argentina and Uruguay in March, and what we traditionally look for there is Uruguay has always been one of the tax havens and a place for second residencies, and Argentina, historically, when they devalue, they become a really good country to invest in –
Steve McDonald: Okay.
Barbara Perriello: – because prices are substantially lower, so you’re looking at real estate markets being very, very affordable, cost of building very affordable. We’re also looking at agricultural funds. Again, both Uruguay and Argentina are countries that produce a lot and they have a lot of farms, so looking at agricultural funds or –
Steve McDonald: Okay. So you plan these things?
Barbara Perriello: Uh-huh.
Steve McDonald: Somebody advertises them?
Barbara Perriello: Yes.
Steve McDonald: People sign up and then you get to go with them?
Barbara Perriello: Yes.
Steve McDonald: That’s not a bad job.
Barbara Perriello: No. It’s a good job.
Steve McDonald: Actually, when I first started reading, everybody was writing in going I want to learn how to travel and get paid. I’m thinking, yeah, well, who wouldn’t want to work on traveling and get paid? All right. How do our people get started to do this?
Barbara Perriello: Well, if you want to get started doing it, look for something you like. You might want to work for a law firm, for instance, or maybe something in your field, but if it’s for retirement you might want to do something a little more leisurely. So you might want to work for one company and plan one event for them. Pharmaceutical companies hire meeting planners for all of their incentive groups for their travel, so you could be as involved or not involved. Do as much as you want.
Steve McDonald: Okay. Is this viable for a person who has had a career? I mean, if a person has had a successful career and they’re retired, is that something that people want to see them bring to the table?
Barbara Perriello: Oh, absolutely. I think so. Again, just follow your passion, whatever it is. If you’re really detailed and really good at coordinating things, you would be perfect for this job. And as I say there are a lot of different companies out there looking for planners. And look at wedding planners. You could go to a small little island somewhere and be a wedding planner, for instance.
Steve McDonald: For destination weddings?
Barbara Perriello: Yes, for destination weddings.
Steve McDonald: So you live on the island and they come to you?
Barbara Perriello: Exactly, or you could specialize in destination weddings and still live wherever you want to live and just work with people. But as long as you know where you’re going to put them –
Steve McDonald: Let me jump in. What about training? Let’s suppose people watching this think they like the idea. What about training or certification or education? Is there anything you have to do to prep for this?
Barbara Perriello: There are all kinds of organizations for meeting planners. There’s MPI [Meeting Professionals International]. You could just Google “meeting planner associations” and you’ll find probably a dozen of them out there. There are groups called Smart Meetings that put publications out, so, yes, you could learn all about meeting planning and event planning –
Steve McDonald: Interesting.
Barbara Perriello: – just by Googling “meeting planners.”
Steve McDonald: Well, this is obviously the first of many segments we’ve got to do on this topic to do it real justice. It’s just too big for one Two Minute. Barbara, will you come back, because I also want to talk about travel writing, travel blogs –
Barbara Perriello: Yes.
Steve McDonald: – and something else you suggested a moment ago.
Barbara Perriello: Well, International Living is one of our groups that takes people –
Steve McDonald: No sales pitches.
Barbara Perriello: No. They actually take people to countries to learn about lifestyle and living and most people that go on those trips, they’re not ready to retire –
Steve McDonald: Right.
Barbara Perriello: – but they may want to go live in that country –
Steve McDonald: Right.
Barbara Perriello: – part time, and they like to get involved whether it’s – even if it’s a retired doctor or nurse, they can go to a clinic once a week or something.
Steve McDonald: Right. Yes, something like that.
Barbara Perriello: So people like to stay busy.
Steve McDonald: That’s interesting.
Barbara Perriello: Nobody really likes to retire.
Steve McDonald: Thanks for taking the time.
Barbara Perriello: Yes.
Steve McDonald: I really appreciate it.
Barbara Perriello: No problem.
Steve McDonald: We’ll get you back, definitely.
Barbara Perriello: Okay. Good.
Steve McDonald: And that’s it for everybody here. That’s your first chapter on your retirement coaching. I hope you enjoyed it. Make sure you post down below. Leave us some feedback or questions. If you have some specifically for Barb ,I will make sure she gets them, and thank you so much for being a part of this. I’ll see you next week – but you’re not going to be here.
Barbara Perriello: Okay.
Steve McDonald: Okay. Thanks guys. We’ll see you next week.