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June 2019: Travel, Expenses, and Income from Vilnius, Lithuania

Another month, and working out of another new country. This time it was a combination of Kharkiv in Ukraine which I wrote about in previous blog posts, but also Vilnius which was new for me. Even though June and July is normally the start of summer for most people. For me, my only winter for the year was for a few weeks in April as I had come from Asia, and by the end of the month it was warm again. But Lithuania was also strange as there was 19 hours of daylight with the sun setting at 10pm and not actually getting dark until an hour later.

Going to Vilnius was also going to a strange mix of the Western EU culture and currency, while still keeping some of the former Soviet ties and lower costs of living. It's much cheaper than other big cities such as SF, NY, Barcelona or London, but at the same time, I've been ultra spoiled by living in Kharkiv these past two months which may be one of the cheapest big cities in the world, especially for the quality of life I've been having. In this monthly update, I'm going to share exactly how much I spend, earned, and the lessons learned from this month. I'm also including a video that shares all 14 sources of income that I generate every month and how much each of those earn me. Keep reading for all of the info.






Where I Traveled



It was really nice having two full months in Kharkiv to settle in a home base and develop a solid routine. During that time I learned how to order food and drinks in Russian, pay the bill, as well as some other basic conversation starters and ways to communicate. I also developed a really good gym routine and went from being seriously out of shape to developing a solid foundation to build off of again. Best all of all, Kharkiv was a great place just to mentally reset, go for a lot of walks, and keep my costs low as you'll see in the expenses portion of this blog post. 

But during my last week of June, I decided to break up the routine a bit for some adventure by taking the overnight train to Kiev, then flying to Lithuania to meetup my buddy and Invest Like a Boss cohost Sam Marks. I'll be writing a full blog post about Vilnius, Kanus, Traki and everything we did in Lithuania soon, but as for this post, it was a fun week meeting up with old friends including Kristin who came out to visit as well. She happened to be in Paris and instead of flying straight home, she flew out to Vilnius to meetup instead. For all of us, visas were easy as Lithuania being part of the EU is in the Schengen Zone giving us 90 days every 180 days free. The downside however is being part of the EU zone, it cuts into my total days here which I've already used 30 of visiting Lisbon and Spain this summer, and plan to use more of when I go to Prague. That's another big reason why I spend so much time in Ukraine, they are in their own separate visa free zone.  

At the end of the month, I actually flew back to Kiev, Ukraine where I'm currently writing this, so more on that in a future blog post, but as for June 1st-29th, it was all Kharkiv and Lithuania. Travel route was overnight train from Kharkiv to Kiev, two nights in a hostel there so I could leave my main luggage there while I flew with the smallest bag ever to Vilnius for a week, then back to the hostel in Kiev for another two nights to pick up my bag before checking into a proper Airbnb for July. 


Street Musicians in Vilnius

Lithuanian food with Sam and Podcast Listener Aidas


Travel and Living Expenses




As you might have already read in my previous blog posts about my guide to Kharkiv as well as my May: Kharkiv Report, things are super cheap in this country and especially in this 2nd tier city. The reason why Ukraine is such an amazing value right now and the reason why I've come back every summer for the past three years is because their currency took a huge hit back in 2015 and still hasn't fully recovered yet. That means that for every dollar, we get especially 4X buying power. However, even that is slowly changing as with 8% or higher inflation, things here are getting more and more expensive every year. 

The funny thing is, since Kharkiv is 30% cheaper than the other big cities in Ukraine such as Kiev and Odessa, the prices seemed the same as I remembered back in 2016 when I first arrived. So if you're interested in visiting Ukraine, do it now as it'll only get more expensive the longer you wait. 

That being said, life in Kharkiv was super cheap for a European style quality of life. One can argue that many things in Chiang Mai, Thailand are cheaper, such as rent and food, but if you like to take Ubers everywhere, drink craft beer, have nice wine and cheese, and go out for steaks, then life is actually cheaper in Ukraine.  


Rent: $480 (City Center via Airbnb)
Airbnb in Vilnius: $74.50 (5 nights)
Overnight Train: $18.33 (482uah)
Round Trip Flight: $28.16 (Wizz Air)
Hostels in Kiev: $65 
Hotels in Trakai/Kaunas: $55

Utilities: $0 (Included)
Wifi: $0 (Included)
Data/SIM card: $4 (10gb of 4G + calling) + $5 in Vilnius 
Gym Membership: $12 (monthly, 7am-4pm) + TrainAway in Vilnius 
Massages: $100 (650uah each)

Coffee/Tea: $50 ($1 each)
Food/Groceries: $460 (12,000uah)
Uber/Taxi: $93 (50 rides)
Metro/Train: $3 (10 rides)
Misc/Other: $100 (random stuff)
Gift to my parents: $1,000 (for their retirement)

Wordpress Website Hosting: $6 (Siteground)
Ecommerce Stores Hosting: $29 (Shopify)
VPN: $4 (WiTopia)
Email Autoresponder: $50 (Aweber / GetResponse)


Total Expenses for the Month: $1,547.99

*Increase from last month's $1,401.93 (not including donations and gifts)


The cheapest flight ever! 740uah = $28.16



My ultra cheap Uber ride receipts 



Income for June




It's another strange month for me as even though I only worked 2-3 hours a day during June, and took a bunch of complete days off, especially while in Lithuania, I actually had a pretty good month. The strange part though is since a lot of my income streams only pay quarterly and many others haven't paid out yet and will be included in next month's income report.

Another one of my dropshipping partner stores that we build following Anton's course is starting to do extremely well with $14,954.80 in sales this month! We're still at a 1% conversion rate, which is pretty standard, but if we can get it up to 2%, which I know we can, then the actual net profit will actually triple even after ad spend. Also, great news, my dropshipping mentor Anton Kraly finally finished writing and publishing his book! If you can't afford the $1,500 to join the course but want to learn from the guy who taught me everything I know about finding great niches and starting successful dropshipping stores, you can buy his book for just $7 including shipping. Without his help and guidance, I would have wasted months if not years reading crap info online, or chasing things that don't actually work. I highly recomend anyone interested in drop shipping to learn from him, as even 5 years later, I still do exactly what he taught me with success.

The total profit for the month does not include earnings not yet paid out, such as the profit from my dropshipping stores that we're holding until the stores are sold, or the gains I technically earned through Vanguard but didn't cash out yet, as paper gains fluctuate up and down. Watch my video below, I filmed it on my last day in Vilnius explaining and going into detail on all 14 sources of income that I make and how much each earns per month.


Total Profit for June: $4,158.51

*decrease from $4,306.75 last month. 





Dropshipping Store built with AntonMethod.com

Some of the affiliate commissions I received this month.


Some of my interest collected from PeerStreet.


Dividends collected and gains on Index Funds.


Fitness Goals June



I'm really happy that I hit all of my goals for the month of June. They were pretty simple and focused mainly on going to the gym daily and making it my priority. I was also able to get on a good routine of intermittent fasting without the aid of bulletproof coffee, so black coffee and zero calories until usually around 2pm everyday. That allowed me to fast for around 18 hours a day and gave me a 6 hour eating window from 2pm-8pm. It was hard to do in the beginning as things like eating sugar the day before or drinking alcohol would through it off and make it hard not to have headaches or blood sugar dips, but by midway through, I was able to sometimes not eat until 5pm and just have an amazing steak and salad for dinner. This not only saved me a ton of time by not eating breakfast and lunch, but it gave me mental clarity and energy to work, study the Russian language, and great workouts.

Even though weight wise I'm about the same, I gained a ton of muscle this month and visibly leaned out a bit. I plan to continue the same intermittent fasting and workout schedule as I did last month throughout July. Even though limiting carbs would lean me out quicker, I've decided to allow myself to enjoy the food, bread, potatoes, and occasional beer in both Lithuania and Ukraine and just make slower gains. I really do feel like this is an eating and fitness routine I can do for the rest of my life, no matter where I am. Below is a screenshot of my fitness tracker Stronglifts 5x5 with the weights I started with at the beginning of the month to what I was lifting by the end.






Monthly Wrap Up



As for work and income, my plan is to take the time to finally create the video tutorials that I know have been in huge demand. So keep an eye out for those on my youtube channel by subscribing there and to the email list here on the blog.

Watch the video below for more details on this month's goals, travels, income and expenses.








Warm Regards,


Johnny FD


Leave a comment below so I know you read this far!



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Income Report 6199002065349966640

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  1. Where did you work from this month and what were the goals? Hits or misses!

    ReplyDelete
  2. are those weights on your workout chart for the bench press, including the bar weight, or just the plates? totally comparing haha.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Those are total. With the Stronglifts program, you start at the bar only (20kg) and slowly add weight every session. The goal is to constantly add weight (a little at a time), not to lift as much as possible.

      Delete
  3. Very nice! I plan to visit Lithuania later this year!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nice, enjoy it! However it might not be that different from Poland. =D

      Delete
  4. Are you doing leangains weightlifting method?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, not leangains specifically. But yes to a combination of intermediate fasting and Stronglifts 5x5 weightlifting.

      Delete
  5. Greetings Johnny FD
    I noticed a VPN. Wondering if you are happy with the service or considering a change. I'm interested in acquiring one. A great recommendation would seal the deal. BTW... How is that Hypath working out? Recommend? Great vids! I rang the bell!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm happy with WiTopia, it's worked well in all countries, even in China. Use my link above if you join it. But they're great, recommended.

      For Hypath, I actually miss having it, but I gave away my set to a friend as I was trying to go even lighter without the rollers. Info here: https://www.johnnyfd.com/2019/05/carry-on-only-travel-for-digital-nomads.html

      Delete
  6. Hi Johnny

    You only explained 13 income stream. Your headline say 14.
    Did you miss out on the number 14?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good catch, #14 was "other" which I explained near the end of the video, but I didn't make a slide for it as it was a few random things.

      Delete
  7. Congratulations, for your success in this industry. You are a role model to me any many others beginners.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Your witopia affiliate link is not working for me.

    ReplyDelete

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