Travel More. You Can Afford It.
When Karolina and Patryk realized that they wanted to spend their lives traveling, they agreed that there was only one way for them to do it: start an online business and earn money online.
They were so confident in their plan that Patryk dropped out of college to pursue it. And it worked! They’re now digital nomads traveling the world as they run their Internet business.
More details in this interview!
Sofie has quit her job to travel and blog full time. Sofie’s case is a little different from other travelers I’ve interviewed because she still lives in the same city as before, but she has freed up her schedule so she could take off to travel any time she wants. In this interview, find out how Sofie prepared herself before quitting her 9-to-5 and becoming her own boss.
Click here to read the interview.
Jo of The Blond Travels grew up in Poland and lived in the UK for 10 years. Then, without having done much planning, Jo quit her job in London and moved to Thailand. Find out how she fell in love with travel and created her new lifestyle in this interview!
You caught the travel bug the first time you went to Thailand. What was it about this trip that made you want to travel more?
The sights, smells and tastes of Thailand stole my heart, but I was also taken away by the freedom I felt while travelling. We didn’t really have a schedule. We went to Bangkok first and then decided where to go next on a whim. I didn’t know that you could travel like that.
Some of my friends in the UK did backpacking and I had no idea how they could afford travelling so much. During that trip I realized that countries like Thailand are really cheap. Plus, you could stay in hostels and dorms and still have a wonderful holiday.
I finally felt like doing something else rather than being stuck behind a desk. At 30, I understood that in my 20s I should have lived my life in a completely different way, that I took life too seriously when I really should have done more travelling, have fun more.
Click here to read the rest of the interview.
How long does it take to be financially ready to travel full time?
The answer, of course, depends on your personal situation.
For Aileen, it didn’t take long at all. Once she recognized what she wanted, she took action to make it come true. In a matter of months, she started earning money online.
And quitting a stable job to travel doesn’t have to be a huge, scary leap into the unknown either. Aileen took small steps and reached her goals gradually.
Just as working full time sucks the life out of people who are more suited to a life of travel, traveling full time exhausts those who prefer to have a place to call home. Fortunately, there are lots of different alternatives in between.
For example, you can choose to live as an expat in another country and work there, using your days off to explore the surrounding areas. Once you feel like it’s time to move on, you can live in another country. Rinse and repeat as much as you like.
That’s what Yeison and Samantha of Mytanfeet are doing.
Yeison and Samantha met during a volunteer trip in Central America. After 2 years of being in a long-distance relationship, Samantha moved from the U.S. to Costa Rica to be with Yeison.
Samantha started out living as an expat who worked at local establishments and they’ve now managed to build location-independent income sources.
Click here to check out how they did it in this interview!
Traveling full time usually also means quitting conventional, secure jobs.
That’s a scary thing to do, especially if you’ve always had conventional, secure jobs all your adult life. So there’s a big puzzle you feel you have to solve before you jump: How can you not run out of money when you always travel and don’t have a “real” job?
Over the years, Nick and Dariece of Goats on the Road have been RTW-ers, full-time travelers, expats and digital nomads. But it seems to me like they’ve maintained the same approach when it comes to their finances: plan for about a year or two into the future and see what happens.
If you want to travel full time, there’s a temptation to figure out every single thing before you start. I hope this interview can show that it’s okay to take it one step at a time.
To read the interview, click here.
If you want to travel but you’re broke and all you have is your body, what do you do? Work that body, that’s what.
Free travel accommodation with work exchangeI’m talking about work exchange, of course. (What did you have in mind?)
Work exchange is an arrangement whereby a traveler provides labor to get a free bed and some free food. It’s a great way to minimize your travel expenses and meet new people. (“Work exchange” and “volunteering” are pretty much interchangeable when we’re talking about this kind of arrangement, although “volunteering” always makes me think of charities.)
I interviewed Trisha Velarmino from P.S. I’m on My Way to find out more about work exchange / volunteering as a way to afford extended travel. Originally from the Philippines, Trisha is currently making her way across Latin America by volunteering.
To read the interview, click here.
Meet Agness and Cez — a couple of friends (really, they’re just friends!) from Poland who have been traveling the world together for a few years.
They travel the world on a bare-bones budget of $25 per day and feature their cheap travel tips on their website, eTramping. For them, budget travel isn’t just a necessity, but a choice. “For us traveling isn’t that addictive, unpredictable and fun when you feel financially secure,” they said.
These two aren’t just travelers; they’re tramps — which, they say, “is about being temporarily homeless with perspectives”.
To read the interview, click here.
The average cost of a wedding seems to hover between $27,000 and $32,000, depending on who crunches the numbers. And while a more accurate median cost is a lot lower, it’s still about $18,000. That’s enough for an extended trip!
And that’s what Kayci and Joe are doing. Like everybody else, they saved up before their wedding, but then they allocated most of that money for a year-long, round-the-world honeymoon. Read on for my chat with Kayci about saving, budgeting and planning to work on the road.
To read the interview, click here.
Today, I’m interviewing Nora Dunn, The Professional Hobo. Nora used to be a financial planner, but she said goodbye to her six-figure income to embrace a life of travel. She has traveled full-time for 6 years and has only recently decided to make Grenada her home base.
Nora managed to create this lifestyle by saving up before traveling and slowly building a freelance writing career over the years. She also uses a variety of tools so she can travel full time for less. Her accommodation and transport expenses are ridiculously low! She has just finished writing her e-book How to Get Free Accommodation Around the World; it’s a great resource for anyone who wants to try free accommodation options.
Read on to discover her secrets! Click here.
