Post on the Go: How to Catch Up and Keep Up

It’s rough when you travel and can’t get your post. You have to find a friend or send it to your parents house, have them open it and let you know of anything important. This is not ideal. I definitely get mail I don’t want people to see, whether it be a bill I missed and feel guilty about, or a promotional flyer from a store I don’t want anyone to know I frequent (usually Victoria’s Secret advertising a scandalous new free panty. Definitely not something I want my Dad opening).

Fortunately, there’s an awesome company called Traveling Mailbox. For $15 USD a month, I have what looks like an email inbox online where all my mail is scanned as pdfs and uploaded. I receive an email every time a new piece of mail arrives, where I can decide to scan all the pages within the piece of mail, shred it, or forward to another address. Doing my taxes while out of the country this year has been a breeze. I forwarded one of my W2s to my accountant when I was in Ethiopia, and a 1099 while I was in South Africa. If I need a copy of the piece of mail, I can download a pdf of the scanned pages and send it anywhere I need.

It’s really easy to setup— there’s just a form that needs to be submitted to the post office forwarding all mail to the address in the city of your choice (Traveling Mailbox provides the address). It’s one of the best things I’ve done for travel (a close second being my online number, blog post to follow). You won’t regret it! Instead of waiting for your Mom to call and let you know about a wedding invitation, you can see it online in your shiny new post email account. Scumps to being up to date while you travel!