Reduce Your Travel Anxiety: Protecting Expensive Tech Abroad (AFTER Losing My Bag in Greece) - Nomad Notes - EP 45

What do you really do when your bag doesn’t show up at the airport, your card gets skimmed, or you’re stuck wondering if that Airbnb safe is actually safe?

Ryan shares what rules digital nomads should live by to protect their gear and their money on the road. The underrated travel accessory that eases airport anxiety and the surprising way he keeps hackers out of his accounts.

If you’ve ever fear leaving your laptop behind at a cafe or that nervous wait at the baggage carousel, this conversation is for you.

Listen and you’ll walk away with simple habits and tools that make a world of difference.

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DISCLAIMER:
Listening to stories of beachside zoom calls, mountainside work views, and island-hopping entrepreneurs may cause severe wanderlust and an irresistible urge to turn your laptop into a passport to freedom. Side effects include daydreaming about tropical co-working spaces, working with Ryan to learn how you can start working and traveling and buying a one-way ticket to Bali. Get ready to start living your dream life today!

Transcript

 [00:00:00] Marvin Athey: So Ryan, what is your best tip for keeping laptops, cameras, your iPhone safe when you're in Airbnb's coworking, or if you're staying at somebody's house when you're traveling?

[00:00:10] Ryan Mellon: Yeah, I would say the best tip is always put. Everything you can in a safe, if there is one, especially at the Airbnb, um, when you're not using it. I usually put, like, if I have an extra phone or an iPad or my global hotspot, any tech that's not being used, while I'm gone definitely goes in the safe, um, when I'm out and about.

[00:00:30] Ryan Mellon: like I, I keep all my. Expensive electronic equipment in my backpack and not in any, not in my actual luggage, like my roller suitcase. Uh, and that backpack is always with me. It's like it's on my back or under the seat of, in front of me on the plane or the bus or wherever. So it's like always with me. It's the least likely to get stolen, hopefully. And as far as coworking, I've never felt like I had to really, keep [00:01:00] things safe. You know, it's usually generally a pretty good group of people that all have expensive equipment and everyone is, keeping an eye out for. For people's stuff. So I, I've never really felt like I had to do much other than, you know, if I, if I want to go to lunch or something, I just throw my laptop back in my backpack and then just off, off I go and take all, all my gear with me out to lunch and then come back, to the cowork.

[00:01:27] Gotcha. And I've been to Coworkings that have like lockers and stuff. Do you recommend using them or have you ever used them?

[00:01:33] Ryan Mellon: I've never used a coworking locker, but, when, usually when I go to coworking, I'll go for like half a day. You know, I don't spend a lot of time there, so I just kind of show up. Do the most important work. 'cause I really can focus and bust out four hours and then kind of pack up and go. So I've never really been, I've never really been like a member to co-working where I'm spending days and like real long days there or anything [00:02:00] like that. But I would suggest if you, if you are spending really long days where you're remembering or there every day and and they have that available, that's a really good. A place to, keep some tech and, always have a, a lock with you with it, whether it's like a, a luggage style lock that you can still put on a locker. Or even like an old school, like master lock. back in my hostel days, I, I used to carry the, the old locker combination, like high school lock around with me. I don't, I don't do that anymore, but they were definitely needed for the hostels. 'cause you, you wanted to lock your stuff up then.

[00:02:38] Marvin Athey: I gave, uh, those zipper locks a try for your backpack, but, to, to, less success over time. 'cause after a while it just gets kind of annoying. Have to un unlock everything. Do you ever that feeling where, when you don't have your stuff, like if you go to the beach or it just feels a little bit off?

[00:02:55] Marvin Athey: Like, 'cause I, I'm always carrying a lot of my stuff around with me as well.

[00:02:58] Ryan Mellon: Yeah, so when I go to the [00:03:00] beach, um, I, I, I just take the minimum stuff with me. Everything's in the safe. If I can fit my laptop in the safe, I do, but that's not always the case. You know, how small some of these safes are. in general, you know, I'm just there with my iPad and my backpack for reading and, And maybe my global hotspot, which acts as a backup, like battery bank as well. So

[00:03:22] Marvin Athey: And do you, have you invested in getting it like an air tag or a tile or is that something that you, you think people should consider ?

[00:03:29] I think definitely, um, it doesn't hurt, especially if you check bags. I'm on team, carry-on, so my stuff's always with me. I did lose a bag once in Greece, on a plane due to my own id Idiocracy. but that's the only time that's happened and it was my fault. And here's what happened. We landed and we were in the middle of the plane and they started to deplane from the front and the back, and my bag was a couple rows. [00:04:00] Ahead. And so I always exit through the front of the plane. So I would've grabbed my bag on the way out. Well, this threw me way off 'cause it was way closer to go out the back. So I just had one bag and not my other. And then we got down on the tarmac and I was with my nieces and it was a family trip. And they're like, where's your other bag?

[00:04:21] Ryan Mellon: And I'm like, oh shit. And it's still on the plane. And then I missed my next plane to the islands because of that. They were like, just go on, we will get it there. And I'm like, no, this is like only a hundred dollars flight to the islands. I'm like, I'm waiting here till I get my bag. Uh, and it would've been nice to have an air tag then, but it took like two hours and then I got my bag and then I bought another ticket to the island.

[00:04:46] Ryan Mellon: And that was that.

[00:04:47] Marvin Athey: What island?

[00:04:48] Ryan Mellon: Um, Mykonos.

[00:04:49] Marvin Athey: Nice. Nice. Yeah, I, I have an air tag 'cause I'm on team check-in And I actually, when I landed, when I landed here in Da Nang, it took, or actually in Hanoi, it actually took [00:05:00] a really, really long time for my bag to show up on the conveyor. And I was like, thank God I had an air tag.

[00:05:06] Marvin Athey: 'cause I, it was, it was so long, it was making me nervous. Somebody had taken it. So luckily it did show up, but yeah, I 

[00:05:12] Ryan Mellon: yeah, I mean if I was checking bags, I would definitely have air tags on everything. 'cause just the, you know, it does like kind of, help you with your anxiety and stress of like, if it's taking too long to get your bag. I totally get that. And I have friends that do the air tag thing too. I think it's a great idea.

[00:05:30] Marvin Athey: I've heard some airlines are now letting you share it with them, in 

[00:05:33] Ryan Mellon: Oh, okay. That helps. 'cause they don't know where it is.

[00:05:36] Marvin Athey: and everybody's luggage, is black sometimes, so it gets hard to find. So, in terms of protection, when you, when we're talking about cybersecurity, your passwords, all of this, I've been a victim of people stealing my credit cards, and stuff like that, or just the copying it or something using it.

[00:05:54] Marvin Athey: what do you do to protect yourself from that?

[00:05:56] Ryan Mellon: Um, as far as. I, I, I travel with [00:06:00] credit cards, and I only use them for all the purchases. So they, if they do come, get compromised, it's not my money. It's Chase's money. It's Capital One's money. Right. It's a lot easier to deal with. and then, so I do have my one debit card to get cash outta the ATM, but I'm like super, like careful with it.

[00:06:19] Ryan Mellon: I, uh, keep it in the safe at all times. I only take it out when I'm going to the ATM. I get as much money out as, as, I can, and then it goes back in the safe. I can even toggle it on and off from the app on my phone. I have had like card compromise where people were, I was in like Thailand and people were. Spending money in the States with my card. And I don't know how that happened, but it was, not my bank card, thankfully it was my credit card. Uh, so I was able to shut that down and get all that resolved fairly easily. And I always travel with backup cards. so. That, that's a, that's a big deal, is just having [00:07:00] backup cards and own and using credit cards instead of your bank cards. plus it saves on the foreign transaction fees as long as you're traveling with a card that doesn't have foreign transaction fees. So there's multiple reasons to only use your debit card for the ATM, and that's it. And then keeping it locked up at all times elsewhere.

[00:07:18] Marvin Athey: do you recommend VPNs or password managers or anything like that?

[00:07:21] Ryan Mellon: Yeah, absolutely. For, for like on the computer security, I have a VPN called VPN Unlimited. I got, and I've been using that for about 10 years. This is when VPNs had just come out and my buddy was like. You know, kind of like, tech guy, and he's like, you definitely need one of these. And I'm like, I don't know that I do, but he was like, they're doing like a black, black Friday sale.

[00:07:46] Ryan Mellon: It was like $20 for a, lifetime subscription. I still I 

[00:07:51] Marvin Athey: going. Okay.

[00:07:52] Ryan Mellon: it's still going for it for the past 10 years. It's a very reliable VPN. And it has servers all [00:08:00] over the world. So that $20 I spent was like the best $20 I probably ever spent. 'cause I don't, I, I never make payments. 'cause they're expensive now. 

[00:08:10] Marvin Athey: They, they are. They are.

[00:08:11] Ryan Mellon: Yeah.

[00:08:12] Ryan Mellon: But it's a must. As a digital nomad, you have to have one. 

[00:08:15] Ryan Mellon: it's not just for security, it's so you can watch, uh. Movies on Netflix 

[00:08:20] Ryan Mellon: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. You go to another part of the world and, and whatever series you're in the middle of disappears because you're now on their, the wifi, Airbnb. So yeah, just switching back to the states, now you can get back on your series. So that's, that's also important.

[00:08:37] Marvin Athey: and passwords.

[00:08:37] Ryan Mellon: So, yeah, about the passwords. I do have a password keeper. it's encrypted. I'm weird about like, putting the actual name of the site that the password goes to. So I

[00:08:47] Ryan Mellon: actually like abr, I abbreviate it, you know, like they have a space where you put like amazon.com and you can link to it, and then there's your password.

[00:08:56] Ryan Mellon: Well, if that password keeper ever gets [00:09:00] compromised. They just can click and put. They have the key to everything. So I make it at least hard for them where they would have to actually like really think about what site it is. I know what site it is 'cause it's like super abbreviated and what my sites are, but I don't put the links in there.

[00:09:17] Ryan Mellon: I don't spell out the whole, website so that if my password keeper does get compromised, at least they're gonna have to put in somewhere.

[00:09:25] Marvin Athey: Definitely, definitely. I've thought about that too. Putting things in backwards. you know, renaming things like taxes, things like that. So it doesn't, it looks, it doesn't, it's not very clear. So that definitely makes sense. have you ever experienced anything getting stolen?

[00:09:40] Marvin Athey: So I've never had anything stolen. I think I've had some cash stolen actually in Indonesia this last time. Some US dollars 'cause they just kind of disappeared. but that happened without me knowing anything about it, just like over time. but like if I were to lose something like my laptop, first thing I would do [00:10:00] would be like, get on, find my iPhone, lock it down, try and track it, file a police report.

[00:10:06] Ryan Mellon: I would just be then in the market for a new laptop at that point to the next, to the next store, uh, that I could find to hopefully buy a MacBook. But if not, I, I could do without, because then, you know, it's gonna have, everything's in the cloud, it's gonna be backed up. But I also use Dropbox for like, all my files.

[00:10:25] Ryan Mellon: So like, I would still have all my files on my phone. I do have an external hard drive too now because. I have some high, some of my videos can't be stored on,on my, uh, Mac anymore, but, um, having services like Dropbox or everything in the cloud just makes it so much easier 'cause I can get a brand new laptop tomorrow and just start working as normal 'cause I haven't lost anything.

[00:10:50] Marvin Athey: Okay, so what I'm hearing is your advice is make sure that whatever you have on either your phone or your laptop is backed up somewhere in the cloud.

[00:10:58] Ryan Mellon: Absolutely. Yeah, [00:11:00] because then you can get a new device and you just log into your Dropbox or iCloud or whatever, and you just, you keep rolling like nothing happened.

[00:11:07] Marvin Athey: with your credit cards, and I don't, you know, difference insurance, would anything be able to be reimbursed to you from your position? Is that something people should consider?

[00:11:18] Ryan Mellon: Yeah, absolutely. Always check your credit cards. especially if you have travel credit cards. Some of them, will reimburse you for things lost or stolen during transit. Also, if you have traveler's insurance,that will generally, most of the travel insurance will, help out with some theft and stuff like that.

[00:11:36] Marvin Athey: That does it for today's episode.

[00:11:38] Ryan Mellon: Awesome. Thank you, for, uh, meeting with me today.

[00:11:41] Ryan Mellon: Thanks for listening to another episode of Digital Nomad Nation. I hope today's stories have inspired you to take the next step towards location independence. If you've enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend and leave a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app. Your support [00:12:00] fuels our mission to inspire the digital nomad lifestyle.

[00:12:03] Ryan Mellon: Before you go, don't forget to grab your free copy of my guide, Seven Ways to Become a Digital Nomad. It's packed with practical tips to kickstart your nomadic journey. You can find the link in the episode description. And remember, the life you've always dreamed of is just one bold decision away. Until next time, this is the Digital Nomad Coach, Ryan Mellon, signing off.

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