https://piped.video/watch?v=V-yO1DcdUFQ
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?
Think it’s called a trust fund
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.
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.
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
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.
They mean that they came from money.
On the other hand, come join us at [email protected] and learn about financial independence.
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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
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’
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
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.
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I met a vagabond recently, and he does as you say.
He saved money for a while before starting, and does pick up odd jobs on the way.
He visit cheap places. He’s been in Asia, Africa, and South America.
Also, he saves money doing couch surfing.
So many interesting people and conversations have happened from hosting couch surfers over the years for me.
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.
I kinda did this with my wife a very long time ago, so long ago I doubt any of my experience is still relevant. And we had saved up considerable money before we left and still had a nest egg to return to. So, not exactly low budget but not trust fund either.
I met a lot of people who had almost no money however. The principal I learned is that if you have a) enough money or b) enough time, you can get to almost anyplace you want to go to. The people with no money had enough time. They would often stay in one place and work for two or three months to earn enough money to move on to their next destination. These people were pretty chill, except for the ultra minimalists who had like one pair of underwear and would ask to “borrow” yours. Those people sucked.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
Here in Germany we have a concept called “sabbatical year”. I think it actually comes from the US, where it was/is a thing for university professors.
Rare in the private sector, but I think civil servants that work for the government have a right to it, if they so chose. Especially “Beamte”, which is a special form of lifetime appointment. That for example also includes teachers in some states, which is one of the professions where it is more common.
One model how it may be structured is that the person either works more or takes a pay cut for a number of years and then has 1 year free. For example taking a pay cut of 1/7 for 6 years and then have 1 year free at the same pay. That also means that you take a pay cut during the whole period. But that is definitely doable.
The upside of this structure is that you have a job to go back to. And since you also count as employed during the sabbatical year it doesn’t mess with things like health insurance
If you’re genuinely interested in an anecdotal reply, I’d be more than happy to share my experiences that started with: buying a ticket to Frankfurt on a whim (Xmas bonus check) and that led to years of travel throughout Europe. I’m not sure how much of the details will help in this day & age, but LMK if you’d get some benefit from my perspective and I’ll write it up tomorrow, certainly. 🤓🙌🏽
I backpacked around the world twenty years ago. No house, girlfriend or other commitments. Found a well paid job and saved everything I could. Picked places that were interesting but also where the currency exchange was favourable i.e. not Europe. Stayed in hostels and the occasional guest house, never hotels. Travelled overland rather than flying. Cooked my own food. I didn’t want to work while I travelled but met many that did.
I’ve been doing side jobs since I was 13. I never spent any of my own money while living with my parents. After finishing school, worked for some years and then traveled for a few years. While traveling, I also worked (for free food/accommodation mostly). You really don’t have to be rich, just be frugal.
how’s your savings? do you also have pension or some kind of investment that will support you once you’ve retired?
No, none of that. I don’t think I’ll ever own a home or retire so when I save up a little, I’d rather spend it on traveling.
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.
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.
Lucky spawn point
