Travellers day job or

Hi,

I just wonder, how do travellers that spend years out there and afford it? rich folks? I mean, what job allows to save the quantity of money needed? I'm a programmer in Copenhagen/Malmo that just wants to go, but the budget one must have is the difficult part. Anyone intrested in telling the stories? URLs or just mail me with ideas. Any budgets ideas would be gratelly appreciated.

The journey would be India-SriLanka-Nepal-China-Laos-Thailand. All by land or sea. India-Sri Lanka has a new ferry running since this month.

I've done my share of travelling, very low budget, but always just for a month so. I'd like to be out there for a year or more.

Thanks alot, / jorge

Simply put you must WANT TO GO! Everything else is just details.

I can only speak for Thailand and Indonesia, but travel there is dirt cheap. You could prolly live on a min of $3000 USD a year, so you don't have to save all that much to travel for quite awhile.

I just got back from 8 months in Guatemala, and only spent about $2,500 there.

Hi Jorge,

If you really want to go - do as us - sell everything you have and quit your job. That is what me and two of my friends are doing!

We are all from Copenhagen and work in IT/media too.

Read more about it on our site: http://www.HorizonExplorers.com

DDay Horizon Explorer

Hello Soren,

When do you expect to go?

Goodluck,

philippe

When you do not adopt a very different attitude, you will neither have many nice experiences, nor will you learn much, nor will you travel for long.

From your diary I infer that you are extreme-consumers, and very naive ones at that. I have done what you did, travelled for 7 years nonstop (but contrary to you, without almost any money), and let me tell you, with this mindset you're in for merely a long tourist holiday, but I understand that you want more than that...

Just my 2 cents, don't want to start a flamewar.

I am 36 now and I had absolutely no problems at all getting back into programming, 3 years ago. The only reason I stopped travelling was very severe health problems. (No 'shots' are going to prevent that, but then again, when you travel like tourists, you're probably not going to run a great risk of getting sick either)

Frank

In the beginning of October but we might extend that for a few weeks in order to be able to sell all our stuff (read: apartments).

DDay Horizon Explorers

Out of curiosity, what do you plan for retirement funds in the future, if any? I now very well that I would have the motivation and interest to 'survive', learn, and travel about the world on a low budget. However, unless one decides that this is what they want to do their entire live, it is not likely going to be the conditions that you want to die in. So, is a retirement fund any concern for people who decide to 'pick up an leave it all'? I'm still young (approaching 30), but now very well that when you get older money talks for comfort, medication, and relaxation when you are too old to work and not as healthy as your early years. Making a decision to pack up an leave before I have even got a career started seems like the big decision for my case because I would not have anything to come back too. I know that many who do this already had careers to come back to.

If you can manage to put away about $1000/year (in inflation-adjusted 2002 dollars) by the time you're 65 you'll have enough to retire in style on an island paradise in Southeast Asia. I am guessing that this amount would be fairly easy for almost anyone in the developed world with a little discipline.

The reason I had to stop traveling was because I got chronically ill. I need a well-paying job now, to pay for the best treatment I can get, otherwise I can't work at all soon.

You could stop wandering around at 40 and then decide what you want to do. Of course you will learn many new trades, so you will have a wider choice. I for example became an experienced divemaster, so if I wanted, I could pack up and leave and be a diving instructor (1 more course). Jobs enough when you speak some languages.

But of course, you are right, the world is a tough place. You better save for a rainy day, or make sure you have a good profession, or end up in a country with high social standards, or marry and have 21 kids to take care of you... But hey, live fast, die young... It's not the quantity, it's the quality.

Frank

This is the same Frank Andreas de Groot who yesterday posted in rec.travel.europe that he wants to go to Poland and shoot a police officer in the head. Connected? Maybe. To what? I don't think I want to know.