We’ve all done it. Work’s been more tiresome than normal, it’s getting cold outside, the routine that once motivated you is starting to feel tedious. You reach over to your phone, scroll through your Instagram and there it is. Your old highschool classmate has posted yet another photo of themselves working on a beachfront. Full of FOMO, you look over at your suitcase and think “how about it?” But wait, bills, bank accounts, bureaucracy. It’s too complicated.

Well my little daydreamer, we’re here to tell you that it isn’t. We created the Wise card with one major goal in mind; to help people live an international life separate from borders and boundaries.

Don’t believe us? We sat down with two Aussies who packed up their lives down under to embrace a borderless lifestyle. Here’s how the Wise card helped them do it.

To the card!

Chrissy’s story

Originally from Western Australia, Chrissy decided to move to Latvia with her partner Ed. Being the Latvian, you’d assume Ed was the mastermind behind the move but, in order to get the white Christmas she’d always dreamed of, Chrissy had to bribe him with a dog (genius).

The couple wanted to come to Europe so that they could travel and thanks to its location, affordability and Ed’s nationality, Latvia seemed like the perfect homebase. They now have a pretty idyllic setup complete with lakes, cafe culture, berry picking in the forest and of course, the notorious dog. But it can’t be all play and no work.

Initially, they decided to move purely for travel but in order to make this happen one of them had to find a job. After looking through an expat page on Facebook Chrissy found a job as a personal assistant working mainly in sales and marketing and alongside a large group of investors based out of Singapore, which means a lot of travelling. She works from home 80% of the time and heads into the Latvian capital of Riga for the remaining 20%.

“I think the future is online and it's going to be a lot easier for people, particularly our generation. It gives us the flexibility to work while living anywhere we want in the world. Some people have the drama of working in a hammock in Bali but I chose Europe instead.”

It all sounds great, but to make her nomadic dreams happen, Chrissy needed a partner in crime. And we’re not talking about you Ed (sorry). In comes Wise…

“When I first started using Wise we were looking at different ways to reduce the fees in bringing all of our savings from Australia over to Europe. Moving money internationally with my bank was really slow and really expensive.”

So she did a lot of research on freelancers and digital nomads to see what they were using and decided to go for Wise. She now uses the Wise business account for her own company in Latvia as it was free to set up and the easiest solution as a non-Latvian citizen. Business aside, using Wise helped her to send and receive money across borders and having a physical card that she could use abroad and receive for free within two days of ordering it helped her keep things flexible. Her advice? Look at your bank. The average fees that you’re going to pay with them is way more expensive, sometimes charging you up to four times the price that Wise does.

Gabriel’s story

“I don’t think I can classify anything as home. Home is where I currently am as opposed to a specific location.”

Gabriel used to call Sydney, Australia home but now, based out of Lisbon, he believes that home is wherever you make it. He works as a Freelance designer giving his two cents on everything from video to graphic and motion design.

Having grown up somewhere where it took at least 7 hours to experience a culture outside of Australia, he knew he wanted to take advantage of a cross-border lifestyle when given the opportunity. So, he packed up his bags and moved to London where he began freelancing for clients in New York, Germany, Australia and all over the world.

The freelance life isn’t for everyone but Gabriel was drawn in by the freedom and mobility of being able to work the hours he wanted, wherever he wanted.

“I definitely see myself living internationally and not being locked down by countries and borders and really trying to pursue a life where I get to travel and see the world as much as I can and not really trying to settle down.”

As a freelancer with global clients he’d dabbled in other providers to get paid not realising how much he was going to be charged.

“When you receive money and you don’t get all of it...and you get charged with fees you don’t get control over, it's the worst feeling in the world because you’ve just put all of that time into a project and all of a sudden you’re not actually getting all of the money that you’ve been paid.”

Using the Wise borderless account and card Gabariel can now get paid by his global clients as if he were a local, with all the funds going directly to that trusty piece of plastic in his wallet .

“For my clients around the world it's so much easier to give them my local bank account details through transfer wise because it means that for both of us it's an easy transaction and I’m able to get the money I’m owed and they’re able to pay me without paying any fees.”

Are you looking to live a life without borders? Get acquainted with our Wise card.