I’m one of those who work 5 days a week to earn a living. We have our vacation days to enjoy whatever we want to do in life, but we still need to go back to work because people like me will struggle in life if we lose our job.
So I’m curious how some people like the guy in the video can travel around the world for almost a year without working. There are also other vloggers out there who left home to go on a travel and they are still young. Do they already have savings enough to support until they retire?
At least two of the YouTube lads I follow are in maritime jobs. They work for a few months on a ship, then have a bunch of time off. If you just keep an inexpensive apartment somewhere, you can make a lot of travel happen with that sort of schedule. Some oilfield workers can pull similar arrangements.
An alternate answer to “trust fund baby.” My job covered half of the costs for me and my family to work from an office in another country. The half we covered was still expensive, but we managed to cover our part without dipping much into savings. We couldn’t have done it without my employer covering some of it.
I’m American and of the Americans I know who traveled longterm or lived abroad, or traveled for free or on a budget:
They were part.of a student exchange in High School and.lived in Europe.for half a year(program was competitive and free)
They were part of a program in college that included an annual international trip (program was free)
They went.to college or university abroad and would travel during breaks (had to pay for school and for the travel, but traveled on a broke student budget)
They were a nanny for a wealthy family in Europe
They taught English as a second language in countries like India, Thailand, South Korea and China, usually living there from 1.month (very short cultural.program when hey were in college) or several years (working FT in private ESL schools), which allowed for a lot of inexpensive travel.in Asia
They perform on cruise ships full time and visit the locations where they stop
They live frugally,.save a bunch of.money and vacation days, then travel to the places with the cheapest airfare and COL, also typically not during the busiest tourists times (off season or.shoulder season)
They go where they have friends and can crash on their couch, or travel.with friends and split the costs
They are “digital nomads” and work remotely while they travel
They are vloggers and their travel is a part of their content; they make.money on YouTube etc. (this also can include digital nomads - they may work their FT gig and.do the content creation on the side)
They are retirees, some relatively young (military or nonprofit/governmental pensions,.money saved in Roth IRAs or.other retirement accounts that they can tap early), traveling for.months at a time or living abroad and doing a lot of traveling from that jumping off point)
Of the above, if they have student loans that they are paying off, they usually don’t travel longterm anywhere. The lifestyle requires little to no debt.
ETA: Thinking of a few more, one already mentioned by PP:
They saved up summer job money and backpacked in between High School and college
They visited family abroad periodically throughout their childhoods over the summer
They work for companies that had branches in foreign countries, or for the State Dept., or for NGOs, or are in the Peace Corp
Ding ding ding. In the American work culture the only way to travel a lot is to be ok with not having a job and travel very frugally, or start out with enough money it doesn’t matter.
If you’re the former, one tip I would give is to pick somewhere to go where the USD is very strong like northern Africa or parts of South America.
Without exception, whenever people have told me that they can afford to travel a lot because their job is trading crypto or vlogging or some shit, the reality is that they inherited heaps of money or sold the family farm or whatever.
I’m sure there are a few vloggers who make enough to just keep travelling but those are extraordinarily few.
I guess things have changed in the last several years - being a digital nomad is actually pretty viable now for a number of professions. That said you tend to stay in the same place for a year or so at a time just because that keeps costs down. Also even digital nomads need a work environment - internet and a desk big enough for more than a cup of coffee. These things can be harder to find than you’d realise.
I’ve seldom met travellers with a trust fund. And I don’t have a trust fund myself, nor have received loads of money from parents to fund my travels. This is just such a bullshit answer that always pops up.
It’s rich kids living off of daddy’s money i.e. trust fund babies (trust funds are their own separate thing but you can look that up). It’s not like these people were working as a food server then one day decided to travel the world and make videos about it. They needed a nice financial cushion in order to do that. There are exceptions, but it takes a lot of capital to start your own brand, promote it, pay for the traveling expenses, and somehow get a return.
Born into wealth. This is honestly the most likely answer
Beneficial living situation (e.g living with parents) that allows them to save up a significant amount while having minimal expenses. Eventually, they can just take all that money and travel for months on end.
A job that travels with them. Successful vloggers make money through their vlogging, for example
Besides the “rich” answers here, there are some others as well — some people save up to afford a round trip ticket and then work where they go.
And I know one guy who had a call center job that let him work from home… so he used his air miles credit card to save up miles, and then “lived” in cheap hotels in tourist destinations around the world — anywhere with a dependable Internet connection.
And then of course the YouTube vloggers get sponsors who pay for their travel expenses. The videos ARE what they’re being paid for.
Not everyone is American with 1 week PTO and horrendous health care debts or student loans to pay off. In Sweden at least, it’s customary for younger people to take a gap year between high school and university for example, and backpack around the world. With some proper budgeting and staying at hostels, or doing things like Worldpackers where you volunteer at hostels for room and sometimes food, you can travel the world for $10-15k per year easily. If you only do half a year or whatever, it’s really not that much money if you prioritize travelling and saving up before other stuff.
Even in America most people don’t have it that bad. Internet forums skew young so you hear about it more, but older Americans generally (not always) have things pretty good.
Indeed. I’m Australian and my partner and I did a round-the-world cruise for three months in 2018. We’re not rich, I used my long-service leave to take the time off work. It wasn’t cheap but no regrets, would do it again in a heartbeat.
A friend of my wife won a scholarship for a top European university, got her masters degree and then came back. With that masters, she got a 6 figures job, worked 2 years while living with her parents and spending a little as possible. Quit her job, traveled the entire world for 2 years using that saved money, converted to Buddhism or some or other of those oriental religions. Nowdays is married with a really talented artist she knew from her religion (the guy have illustrated Magic cards, and hit big on the first wave of NFTs) and they both keep traveling the world with his money. Hope she returns to the labor market before Stable Diffusion take her husband job away.
Being rich is often the answer, but also, it is possible to travel much more inexpensively than most tourists do if you don’t care so much about comfort and predictability. Go in off seasons. Ride the cheapest class of public transport to get around. Couchsurf or stay in sketchy hostels. Cook your own food or eat where the locals eat instead of at the places where the staff speaks perfect English.
Do they already have savings enough to support until they retire?
No reason to assume they won’t get jobs after they’re done traveling.
It really depends on a lot of factors.
I just came back from 10 month overland travel of South America. It is cheap over there - much cheaper than back home most of the time. We saved with my girlfriend for couple of years, rented our house and went for it.
On the road we met all kinds of people. A LOT of European retirees. You can live quiet the life over there with the couple thousand euro western European pensions. Some of them go for a few months each year, some have been traveling for years already.
Lots of younger people just did what we did - saved for some time and then went for it. Average salary in countries like Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Brazil, etc can be just a few hundred dollars a month, so not that hard to do better than that.
It’s similar on other continents - Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam in Asia; Kenya, Morocco, etc in Africa - popular destination with lower standards of living that makes them easy to travel to for longer.
When you travel for weeks and months it also gets cheaper per day compared to when you go on a vacation for 7-10 days - you cook, you can find deals, you travel a lot - not just to the tourist hotspots and traps. Bali can be just as expensive as a western country, but the Indonesian country side is cheap as hell.
Having an own house also helps immensely - you do not pay rent in the months and years prior to leaving and after that you collect rent.
Then there are of course people with inheritance, daddy money, trust funds, etc. In all my travels I have not met any yet. They do not tend to go on the longer trips usually.
You can pretty much forget about making it solely through vlogging, blogging and writing for magazines and websites. It can add something every now and the , but there are single digits few normal people that have made it work full time.
People here are all saying rich or trustfund or something. But in my experience people who do that are often still young and living with their parents, which allows them to save a lot of money and have no rent to pay.
And where I’m from many of them travel to backpack countries like Thailand or Indonesia. Plane tickets to those countries are not cheap but once you’re there you can live really cheap if you want to. You can get pretty decent hotels for 10-20 euros a night in those countries (can be even cheaper if you’re willing to sleep in hostels. And food and activities can also be really cheap. So if you save up a couple thousand bucks you can live/travel in these kinds of countries for quite a while.
I have travelled for very little money in the past, hitchhiking my way around, sleeping behind gas stations or in nature, or utilizing sites like Couchsurfing where people can host you for free (in exchange for cultural exchange). I’ve crossed all of Europe and into the Balkans this way, as well as went up and around the western states in the US. While I realize this isn’t the most fun way to travel for many (but for me it is!), travelling is still doable on a very low budget if you know how to travel and prioritize the concept of travel before your own comfort. I’ve done a lot of regular backpacking as well. Of course, the situation complicates itself if you’re from the US, have a family, lots of student loans or health care debt to pay off, and have very little PTO. In Sweden at least, as with many other countries in Europe, we have a minimum of 5 weeks PTO. And either way, it’s customary for people between high school and university to go on a gap year travelling the world.
With some proper budgeting and staying at hostels, or doing things like Worldpackers where you volunteer at hostels for room and sometimes food, you can travel the world for $10-15k per year easily. If you only do half a year or whatever, it’s really not that much money if you prioritize travelling and saving up before other stuff. For some it might still be a lot of money, but it must cost something if you want to go for such a length of time. Otherwise you’ll just have to become a busker and a vagabond, hitchhiking around. Australia even has a working holiday-visa for 1-3 years up til the age of 31 that is very popular for people to go on, where people work odd jobs in agriculture and what not, often with accommodation included and very good pay (even if the work can be tough), which then is used to continue travelling.
For the guy in the video, biking around is quite cheap compared to flying and whatnot. If you’re camping by yourself, your only expense is food, if you’ve done off with all the other obligations in life like rent and loans. This means you can do it very, very cheap as well. I don’t know his situation, but he probably sold off everything else, gave up his place or rented it out. Travelling that way inherently means some risk-taking. And for many people it’s worth it.
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At least two of the YouTube lads I follow are in maritime jobs. They work for a few months on a ship, then have a bunch of time off. If you just keep an inexpensive apartment somewhere, you can make a lot of travel happen with that sort of schedule. Some oilfield workers can pull similar arrangements.
An alternate answer to “trust fund baby.” My job covered half of the costs for me and my family to work from an office in another country. The half we covered was still expensive, but we managed to cover our part without dipping much into savings. We couldn’t have done it without my employer covering some of it.
I’m American and of the Americans I know who traveled longterm or lived abroad, or traveled for free or on a budget:
Of the above, if they have student loans that they are paying off, they usually don’t travel longterm anywhere. The lifestyle requires little to no debt.
ETA: Thinking of a few more, one already mentioned by PP:
Most people I’ve met that travel a lot are just wealthy.
Ding ding ding. In the American work culture the only way to travel a lot is to be ok with not having a job and travel very frugally, or start out with enough money it doesn’t matter.
If you’re the former, one tip I would give is to pick somewhere to go where the USD is very strong like northern Africa or parts of South America.
Without exception, whenever people have told me that they can afford to travel a lot because their job is trading crypto or vlogging or some shit, the reality is that they inherited heaps of money or sold the family farm or whatever.
I’m sure there are a few vloggers who make enough to just keep travelling but those are extraordinarily few.
I guess things have changed in the last several years - being a digital nomad is actually pretty viable now for a number of professions. That said you tend to stay in the same place for a year or so at a time just because that keeps costs down. Also even digital nomads need a work environment - internet and a desk big enough for more than a cup of coffee. These things can be harder to find than you’d realise.
Either rich or Only Fans models.
Think it’s called a trust fund
I’ve seldom met travellers with a trust fund. And I don’t have a trust fund myself, nor have received loads of money from parents to fund my travels. This is just such a bullshit answer that always pops up.
+1
Ok. I believe you.
wow fast reply. thanks. hmm ok that’s a term i heard but not fully understand. i’ll check it out
Yeah sorry, luck of the draw—be born into a family that has money. Else, make that money, retire early, and let your kids have a better life.
Think the actual term is “trust fund baby”
I like ‘trustifarians’
They mean that they came from money.
On the other hand, come join us at [email protected] and learn about financial independence.
subscribed
Is it just:
Step 1) get a tech job in California Step 2) FIRE!
I mean, that definitely helps, but it’s more: 1) Spend less than you make. 2) Invest the rest. 3) FIRE!
Investing the £10 I have spare every month doesn’t go far to retire early
It’s rich kids living off of daddy’s money i.e. trust fund babies (trust funds are their own separate thing but you can look that up). It’s not like these people were working as a food server then one day decided to travel the world and make videos about it. They needed a nice financial cushion in order to do that. There are exceptions, but it takes a lot of capital to start your own brand, promote it, pay for the traveling expenses, and somehow get a return.
Not necessarily. If you have a good job and you save up money you can go travelling quite a bit. Jumping to extremes is not the way to go here
Your right, rich people are just fabrications of the poor…
My landlord remortgaged the house to pay for a year-long trip around the world.
I guess it’s good he’s enjoying my money.
Yeah, sometimes the trust funds runneth low.
Born into wealth. This is honestly the most likely answer
Beneficial living situation (e.g living with parents) that allows them to save up a significant amount while having minimal expenses. Eventually, they can just take all that money and travel for months on end.
A job that travels with them. Successful vloggers make money through their vlogging, for example
Besides the “rich” answers here, there are some others as well — some people save up to afford a round trip ticket and then work where they go.
And I know one guy who had a call center job that let him work from home… so he used his air miles credit card to save up miles, and then “lived” in cheap hotels in tourist destinations around the world — anywhere with a dependable Internet connection.
And then of course the YouTube vloggers get sponsors who pay for their travel expenses. The videos ARE what they’re being paid for.
Trust fund, wealthy parents, etc. The average person can’t afford to travel like that.
Not everyone is American with 1 week PTO and horrendous health care debts or student loans to pay off. In Sweden at least, it’s customary for younger people to take a gap year between high school and university for example, and backpack around the world. With some proper budgeting and staying at hostels, or doing things like Worldpackers where you volunteer at hostels for room and sometimes food, you can travel the world for $10-15k per year easily. If you only do half a year or whatever, it’s really not that much money if you prioritize travelling and saving up before other stuff.
Even in America most people don’t have it that bad. Internet forums skew young so you hear about it more, but older Americans generally (not always) have things pretty good.
Indeed. I’m Australian and my partner and I did a round-the-world cruise for three months in 2018. We’re not rich, I used my long-service leave to take the time off work. It wasn’t cheap but no regrets, would do it again in a heartbeat.
Lucky spawn point
A friend of my wife won a scholarship for a top European university, got her masters degree and then came back. With that masters, she got a 6 figures job, worked 2 years while living with her parents and spending a little as possible. Quit her job, traveled the entire world for 2 years using that saved money, converted to Buddhism or some or other of those oriental religions. Nowdays is married with a really talented artist she knew from her religion (the guy have illustrated Magic cards, and hit big on the first wave of NFTs) and they both keep traveling the world with his money. Hope she returns to the labor market before Stable Diffusion take her husband job away.
Being rich is often the answer, but also, it is possible to travel much more inexpensively than most tourists do if you don’t care so much about comfort and predictability. Go in off seasons. Ride the cheapest class of public transport to get around. Couchsurf or stay in sketchy hostels. Cook your own food or eat where the locals eat instead of at the places where the staff speaks perfect English.
No reason to assume they won’t get jobs after they’re done traveling.
I have known some people who worked as a teacher. During the summer, they would take off traveling and not come back until the school was nearly open.
I guess it depends on how much money you need to live day to day too.
Teachers definitely don’t make enough to do that lol
No, but they can get jobs teaching English in other countries all over the world. Had a cousin bounce around the world doing that.
It really depends on a lot of factors. I just came back from 10 month overland travel of South America. It is cheap over there - much cheaper than back home most of the time. We saved with my girlfriend for couple of years, rented our house and went for it. On the road we met all kinds of people. A LOT of European retirees. You can live quiet the life over there with the couple thousand euro western European pensions. Some of them go for a few months each year, some have been traveling for years already. Lots of younger people just did what we did - saved for some time and then went for it. Average salary in countries like Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Brazil, etc can be just a few hundred dollars a month, so not that hard to do better than that. It’s similar on other continents - Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam in Asia; Kenya, Morocco, etc in Africa - popular destination with lower standards of living that makes them easy to travel to for longer. When you travel for weeks and months it also gets cheaper per day compared to when you go on a vacation for 7-10 days - you cook, you can find deals, you travel a lot - not just to the tourist hotspots and traps. Bali can be just as expensive as a western country, but the Indonesian country side is cheap as hell. Having an own house also helps immensely - you do not pay rent in the months and years prior to leaving and after that you collect rent.
Then there are of course people with inheritance, daddy money, trust funds, etc. In all my travels I have not met any yet. They do not tend to go on the longer trips usually.
You can pretty much forget about making it solely through vlogging, blogging and writing for magazines and websites. It can add something every now and the , but there are single digits few normal people that have made it work full time.
My wife and I are saving up to do something similar in about 5 years. Any recommendations/things you’ve learnt you’d like to share?
People here are all saying rich or trustfund or something. But in my experience people who do that are often still young and living with their parents, which allows them to save a lot of money and have no rent to pay.
And where I’m from many of them travel to backpack countries like Thailand or Indonesia. Plane tickets to those countries are not cheap but once you’re there you can live really cheap if you want to. You can get pretty decent hotels for 10-20 euros a night in those countries (can be even cheaper if you’re willing to sleep in hostels. And food and activities can also be really cheap. So if you save up a couple thousand bucks you can live/travel in these kinds of countries for quite a while.
I have travelled for very little money in the past, hitchhiking my way around, sleeping behind gas stations or in nature, or utilizing sites like Couchsurfing where people can host you for free (in exchange for cultural exchange). I’ve crossed all of Europe and into the Balkans this way, as well as went up and around the western states in the US. While I realize this isn’t the most fun way to travel for many (but for me it is!), travelling is still doable on a very low budget if you know how to travel and prioritize the concept of travel before your own comfort. I’ve done a lot of regular backpacking as well. Of course, the situation complicates itself if you’re from the US, have a family, lots of student loans or health care debt to pay off, and have very little PTO. In Sweden at least, as with many other countries in Europe, we have a minimum of 5 weeks PTO. And either way, it’s customary for people between high school and university to go on a gap year travelling the world.
With some proper budgeting and staying at hostels, or doing things like Worldpackers where you volunteer at hostels for room and sometimes food, you can travel the world for $10-15k per year easily. If you only do half a year or whatever, it’s really not that much money if you prioritize travelling and saving up before other stuff. For some it might still be a lot of money, but it must cost something if you want to go for such a length of time. Otherwise you’ll just have to become a busker and a vagabond, hitchhiking around. Australia even has a working holiday-visa for 1-3 years up til the age of 31 that is very popular for people to go on, where people work odd jobs in agriculture and what not, often with accommodation included and very good pay (even if the work can be tough), which then is used to continue travelling.
For the guy in the video, biking around is quite cheap compared to flying and whatnot. If you’re camping by yourself, your only expense is food, if you’ve done off with all the other obligations in life like rent and loans. This means you can do it very, very cheap as well. I don’t know his situation, but he probably sold off everything else, gave up his place or rented it out. Travelling that way inherently means some risk-taking. And for many people it’s worth it.