Ok, this is a question for those of you who spend your life traveling and don't work for a living... How do you do it??

I often find myself daydreaming about coming into enough money that I don't have to work anymore, then riding slowly around the world on a 250cc bike, staying in a different place every night, no commitments, no attachments.

... But then I pull myself back to reality. What would I do for money? My savings would run out sooner or later. I've worked hard on my career, I would be throwing that away. What about my pension for when I'm older? I don't make vast sums of money, but I make a comfortable living and am used to being able to afford to live reasonably comfortably. How would I cope with thinking "no, you ate restaurant food yesterday, you'll go over budget if you eat at a restaurant again today."

Then again, there are plenty of people living that life, so it must be possible. My question is how do you do it? A rude question I know, but are you privately wealthy? If not, do you worry about what will happen when the money runs out? Maybe you have the kinds of skills where you know you'll just be able to walk straight back into a job when you need to?

I'm just interested really. Maybe it just comes down to having the balls to put all the middle aged worries about savings, pensions and mortgages to one side and just doing it. Maybe I'll never be adventurous enough to actually do that, but I'm still interested in how people made the transition from a normal 9-5 life to a life traveling.

Sad but true. It is the reality of long duration travels. You can't sleep every night in an hotel, or have every meal in a restaurant. You could, for sure, if you travel for a week, maybe four. But leave for several months and you just quadrupled or quintupled your budget. What do you prefer to do on the same amount of money? One month of travel, or six months?

My rules are simple. Cheap hotels when I travel late... No choice. Otherwise stop riding earlier and find a camping spot. Camping can be free and as much enjoyable as an hotel room. Of course, in some countries, the delta is much less. Two dollars for camping in Morocco (or free in the boons) vs $5 or $6 in a cheap hotel, sharing room with ticks.

People who leave for a long time are usually free spirits. Not necessarely rich people. Perhaps they don't think about their pension funds and their taxes. Life matters more. Do the riding while your body can do it. Not in 10 years. Do the riding when political conditions allow it. I should have ridden the Middle East 6 years ago. Sadly, I missed the opportunity. I should have ridden Lybia before France and The US invaded Lybia and killed Khadafi. My bad, again.

If you are young or at least healthy, now is the time. You'll get another job later, next year. I have my own race parts company. I work alone. If I decide I leave for 4 months, I have the freedom to tell my customers I will be away and to order now. I am lucky I am not missing sales as I get them back when I return from travel. I did 20,000km thru France, Spain, Morocco, Corsica, Sardania, Sicily Tunisia, Albania, Montenegro, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, Belgium and Germany a few months ago. ;-)

My next strip is awaiting "pacification" in the Middle East. I have to go there before I die. And I am only 54... ;-)

Take whatever I wrote with a grain of salt. ;-)

Lee

PS Travelling will make you meet great people and will expand your mind. This is worth all the world's gold.



Yup. Mohamed is a Moroccan shepherd with only one leg. Got bitten by a snake. Leg had to be cut. Met him in the middle of dry nowhere. The dude was brilliant.

Unless you are independently wealthy it is not possible to spend your life travelling and not work, those of us who travel a lot usually return home for periods of work or sometimes manage to find casual work where we are. The people who travel indefinitely are either digital nomads or good writers and photographers who actually work quite hard to make a living selling articles and photos and giving talks while on the road.
If you want to travel long term on a limited budget you would have to cope with not eating in a restaurant everyday or every week for that matter unless you are in a developing country where a meal is only a dollar or two.
I find having a trade fits in well with travel, I am a toolmaker and find it easy to come and go with employment as it is a job rather than a career, my employers don't care that I have been away for six months or have worked at five different places in the last ten years only that I can get on and do the job when I turn up for work.

So there's no magic secret, and it's back to either hoping for a lottery win or take the plunge and quit my job, hoping I can find another good one when the money runs out...

Who knows, maybe someday I will. In the meantime, I'm living vicariously through this forum!

Live simply and save your money for a year or two. When you have all your money saved, explain your employer you have this great project. Ask him if you can have your job back after the journey. Maybe he will hire you back.

Work for 40 years and then spend 20 traveling.

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Tony
Click here for Travel Photos & Travel Map

I think many fear it'll end up as work for 40 years and then spend 20 travelling to the local hospital and back.

If only life were simple and we could just fire up the bike and head off without money (or any other) worries. Wouldn't we all do it? Well, no, I don't think the vast majority of people would. Maybe those of us frequenting this site might be closer to doing it than most but how many here have gone off with an open ended commitment to life on the road - without any secondary consideration such as write a book, reassess my life, rite of passage / prove a point etc. Even if you've gone RTW (as a number have) you eventually end up back at your starting point (in all senses).

I suppose that as the longest trip I've done is about three months I'm not really qualified to judge anyone's desire to travel endlessly as a lifestyle choice but I've been at those junctions a few times over the last four or five decades. I could do it right now if I chose. I probably have enough money to sustain myself for years, particularly if it was out of high cost areas like the EU / US. My wife and I have looked at a number of lifestyle change alternatives that we could afford to do, with travel being one of them. The reason it probably won't happen is not for practical reasons but because when you dig a little deeper there's (for us anyway) a fundamental flaw at the heart of hedonistic travel.

You have to ask yourself why am I, or would I do this? "Because I enjoy it" isn't really good enough as an answer because what happens when you stop enjoying it - and, if you travel for long enough, you will eventually stop enjoying it. It'll become routine. The adrenaline fuelled uncertainty of some bribe laden 3rd world border will just become another depressing rip-off, the colourful locals you meet in a waterfront bar will be just another bunch of half wit chancers and the endless sun that seemed so desirable when you left the UK will start you wondering about those new brown marks on your shoulders. Paradise will turn out to have feet of clay. If a travelling lifestyle is the answer to your current situation what will you do when it, in its turn, becomes the problem.

Expanding on that will have to wait until some future point as my lifestyle today is telling me I have other things to do, deadlines to meet etc. And that of course, in a somewhat nihilistic way, () is where we came in ...

Bravo! Well said Stuart.

You've nailed it.

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Right Way Round ...

backofbeyond - very insightful post! Of course, you're right, not only is traveling forever hard to achieve practically without a lottery win, what happens when it loses its magic and you tire of that lifestyle. I was actually thinking along these lines myself last night... One of the thing I do in my spare time is play drums in a local band, and I love it. Wouldn't I miss that if I spent my life on the road traveling? Maybe there are a whole load of other things I'd miss about my current life too.

So you're right, for most people traveling indefinitely is either a bad idea or at least an impractical one. I think what is more realistic is planning a career break for a couple of years to do the RTW trip. Certainly I'm starting to think more in that direction now.

There are worse than that, the whining Daily Mail reading/Fox news watching ex-pats who complain that (insert country of origin) is not like it used to be and is full of bloody foreigners and the locals here are just a bunch of.........

Apart from that I agree more or less with what you say.

Great post, thepinproject! I found it very interesting, because I suppose my dream is traveling around the world with what people call 'passive income,' so the sort of thing you're doing by renting out your apartment. Still, I always thought you'd need at least $1000 a month minimum (after tax) to do something like that. So it is inspiring to hear that the two of you are achieving it on half that.

I will have to check out your blog and learn more!

A good insight into life as a long term traveller and how much you can manage on.

I am not familiar with the tax regime in other countries but in the UK you would not pay tax on an income of $1,000 a month, our tax free allowance is £11,000 or $14,300 a year.

Back in the last century, I came into some one time money. i was 29, no wife, no kids, no dog, no mortgage. I had owned bikes, never had a car, never really traveled. The mature thing to do, I was told, was to put the money as a down on house with attached rentals, use those to pay off the mortgage, and lead an normal life. I had dreamed of travel all my life, realized if I did the adult thing I would never have another chance in my life. Bought a used bike(did't know how to change the oil!), got a National Geographic map of South America(if things went really sour I could always walk home), took a left hand turn at Houston, followed my nose, and shot for Tierra del Fuego. Ran out of money in Bolivia, went to Lima, worked 1 1/2 years teaching English. Even tho I didn't reach my goal, I had a great time and when I returned I was able to get good jobs, a wife, kids, a mortgage and occasional pets. Did I do the right thing, IMNTBEMFHO yes. If I had waited for 40 years to travel, I would have been past the point where I could go. Your choice, travel or buy vinyl siding for your home.

Nah, vinyl siding looks crap anyway

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My memory is becoming that good, I should be able to organise my own surprise party soon

Hi

Been following this debate and cannot recommend a right or wrong path. I can just give my story.

I retired early at 58 because I believed at 60 you have 10 good years - both physically and mentally. I realised at that time I had devoted my life to others be it work, family and yes keeping up with the Jones's. Now I have limited my reponsibility to enjoying life and doing what the hell I want to do. I still satisfy my community membership when I am home by volunteering as a first responder, firefighter and manning the rescue boat.

I am now 67 and I acknowledge I belong to a lucky generation in many ways with full employment, work and state pensions and inflation increasing the value of our biggest asset .

Looking back I believe the stress of corporate life , with artificial deadlines , pressure from above and below to have the biggest impact on my health. For the three months after I finished work I could feel and sense that stress easing away. Since I finished work I haven't had a cold and the back pain I suffered for years has gone, despite a more physically active lifestyle.

Two of my best mates settled down much later than me with limited career options. They are still working and would love to put their feet up but just cannot afford to -but they do have some wonderful memories. By working I did have options. As you age you have less options but with some financial resources and owned assets you can make things happen.

After 9 retirement years of travelling on bikes, motorbikes and motorhomes I am still ready for more. Next month I am heading to Peru and Ecuador for a three month ride on a second hand Chinese bike. I will be solo but you soon meet people and a strong reason you go is to meet the locals and experience the culture and that often is a lot easier with individual travel .

My point is it can still be done if you want to when you are older , if the desire is there. You will be slower, get up more times in the night and look at the sights through thicker glasses but you can still be doing it.

Ride safe

Peter