I'm a millennial mom who's visited 57 countries with my kids thanks to many income streams, including $4,000 a month blogging and extra cash from flipping homes

14.03.2024 - 15:36 / insider.com

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Karen Edwards, who blogs about her family's life abroad. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I'm originally from Dublin. I left when I was 18 and moved to London. I attended university in the country and stayed there for a long time after graduating.

In 2010, I met my husband, and by 2014 we had our first child. Today, we have four in total, and they're all under the age of 10.

Before we had kids, we traveled a lot. It's something that we wanted to continue doing with our children. To date, I've visited 93 countries — and 57 of them have been with my kids.

I've always had this idea in my mind that I need to have a really diversified financial situation.

I am a nurse by background, but I have been blogging about traveling with my family since 2014. I have also set up a media company in Abu Dhabi. My husband and I still own property that is being rented out in London, and we are also opening a villa in Sri Lanka.

At this point in our lives, we have three revenue streams coming in from different places. It's been a long game — over 10 years — to get where we are today.

On our family travel blog, I share practical tips for parents about traveling with children, whether it's on a plane, in a car, or on a train. I also provide information and itineraries for different family-friendly destinations.

I make money from the blog through ad and affiliate revenue. We earn anywhere between $4,000 to $8,000 a month. It's usually closer to $4,000, but during Christmas and Thanksgiving, it goes up because companies spend a lot of money on ads.

After leaving the UK in 2021, we thought moving to the Middle East would be a great opportunity to save money.

My husband intended to set up another blog about Abu Dhabi. But we realized that we couldn't earn money in the country the same way we could with our other blog. We instead pivoted and positioned ourselves as a media company there.

My brother, who we co-own the media company with, is on the ground in Abu Dhabi. We make money from that website by listing outlets such as restaurants and hotels in listing-style posts. For example, the best brunches in Abu Dhabi — and seasonal posts like the best things to do on Valentine's Day in Abu Dhabi.

My husband is a builder, and in the UK, flipping properties is quite a big thing.

In 2013, we began buying real estate in London. We would live in the property, renovate it to a high standard, sell it, and then move on to another one. We did three of those in total.

The first home we bought cost us £193,000 ($247,376) and we spent £20,000 ($25,635) renovating the home. It was a two-bedroom, but we converted it to a three-bedroom by completely changing the footprint