The last thing you want is the stress of money issues to ruin your travel experience! You will freak out Also,budget time and money to re-enter society when you are done. Lesson: Save up more money than you think you will need to travel. If you want to travel the world on your terms, be ready for a major hit to your wallet unless you plan to spend most of the time living in a hostel and eating beans and rice in a developing country. Then there were other significant expenses, like boarding our dogs while abroad (we found an epic doggy retreat and caretaker to watch Duke and Spike for 6 months), joining a two-week guided tour of Rajasthan in northern India and preparing our house as a rental while we were traveling (a bunch of unplanned repairs were needed). Even without airline tickets, the rest of the travel costs would have remained and been sizable. Besides, I’ve never seen a genuinely wealthy and happy person “travel hack” their way tobliss, so we didn’t pursue that strategy. We also weren’t spending a lot using our credit cards, so accumulating miles that way wouldn’t work for us. We didn’t want to game credit cards just for points. Some may say that you could “travel hack” your way to low-cost travel, but this mindset was anathema to our personal values. Volunteering at a street dog and elephant rescue sanctuary in Thailand. There were several stretches of travel where we lived like kings on $20 a day (Thailand) and others where we were price gouged (island hopping the Fijian Mamanuka and Yasawa islands, staying at the overpriced resorts along the way). No doubt we could have traveled for less, but we were pursuing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do something great, and optimizing for the experience (instead of cost) was the priority. You might think it absurd to spend this much money on a year of travel for two people. I traveled a bit during 20 as well, but that estimate is just for the year 2014. However, I would estimate that it was around $60K. I’m not sure how much it cost my wife and I travel during the entire year 2014 (6 months internationally and then another 6 months throughout the USA). Next, let’s face some of the harsh realities of quitting your job to travel the world. Like me, you might even rediscover your fitness (I lost 40 pounds in 18 months of travel without dieting or “working out”). Your health will probably improve, unless you spend the entire time sampling cheese and wine in the south of France. Tramping around New Zealand with Alison (my lovely and talented wife). Overcoming resistance makes you stronger, and dealing with and surmounting the downsides of quitting your job can do the same.Knowing the potential obstacles increases the likelihood of your success. If you think quitting your job to travel the world is all goodness, this post might have you thinking twice.įor those of you who are aware of the challenges and decide to do it anyway, you’ll be more likely to come away from the experience a bigger person (…and I don’t mean that literally, you will probably be more physically fit!). It’s way more enticing to tell people to “take the leap”, but few talk about the perils of doing so. Our travels ended just over a year ago, but the memories are fresh. My experience is based on spending well over a year traveling through 8 countries with my wife, living out of backpacks and in truly nomadic style. I even went so far as to give a talk a couple years ago, to about 400 people, about why you should quit your job to travel the world. I’m guilty of perpetuating the one-sided story of the merits of extended travel myself.
What sounds like kittens and rainbows, will be buttressed by the glorious stories of others who followed the same path. You are leaving a perfectly good job on your own terms, as I did a few years ago, to live life intentionally and like a vagabond.
Imagine walking into your office, meeting with your boss and telling him that you have had a good ride, but it’s time to go. “Live, travel, adventure, bless, and don’t be sorry.” My wife watching the sun go down, from a small island in the South Pacific (near Fiji).