Success Stories: This Couple Quit the Cubicle to Travel

Greetings from somewhere still in Africa! I haven’t been eaten by a lion yet (thankfully). This week I am sharing stories of readers who used my tips and advice to realize their travel dreams. If you’ve been wondering how easy it is to replicate my advice, let these stories inspire and show you that the advice on this site can work for anyone!

Manny and Olivia are two 33-year-olds who lived the corporate lifestyle working as marketing managers for two of the biggest media/telecom conglomerates in Canada. In half a year, they saved $40,000 and quit their cubicle jobs to follow their passion for travel, writing, and photography. I wanted to interview these two because I believe it is important to show that even though I’m American, the money-saving advice I talk about is universal.

Nomadic Matt: Tell everyone about yourselves.
Manny and Olivia: We are both 33 years old and from Toronto, Canada. In half a year, we saved $40,000 and, on July 25, 2012, left Canada to start our trip around the world. We plan to be on the road for 14-18 months.

How did you find this website? I’m always curious.
Olivia: We first considered doing an around-the-world trip in October 2011. I mentioned it to a few close friends, and one of them, a big travel buff, mentioned that Nomadic Matt was a great resource. One look at the site and we understood why. It was really encouraging to see that we weren’t alone facing this choice and that other people out there such as you have successfully followed their passion. It became easier to plan everything and hesitation gave in to excitement.

What kind of trip did you plan?
Manny: We were planning a full around-the-world trip (with the exception of South America). Starting with Europe we would work our way west to east; Great Britain and Iceland to Western Europe, then Eastern Europe, Africa, India, Southeast Asia, Asia then Australia and New Zealand and finally the Trans-Siberian Railway through Russia. Hopefully we will end the tour with a trip to the Scandinavian countries, followed by Denmark and the Netherlands. We weren’t exactly sure how long it would take, but our initial calculations came in at just under two years.

Were you afraid or nervous before you went on your trip? I was terrified.
Olivia: Planning a world trip is very overwhelming, and it’s hard to anticipate issues that you may face and prepare for them in advance. Reading your experiences and “traveling” with you provides a bit of reassurance that things will work out, even if they don’t always work out exactly as you planned.

How did my site help you with your trip?
Olivia: When planning a big trip, especially one for over a year, you really need to budget, see what you can and cannot do. It’s hard to find good resources online that tell you what to expect to pay for simple things like food and local transportation. Your website saved us a lot of time and money, allowing us to budget properly using your Travel Guides and Travel Tips. We have recently become virtually addicted to your newsletter as we move forward in our journey.

Manny: When we decided to do a world trip we weren’t sure what to do with our stuff. Should we keep it? Store it? What about our house? A reality check came when we read your article on “How to Save Money for Your World Trip.” So to save money, not be stressed, and really live out our world experience, we sold our stuff, including our house and car, and took off.

You saved a lot of money for your trip. How did you do it?
Manny: We created a spreadsheet that outlined average daily living expenses for each country and multiplied it by the number of days we would spend in each country. We factored in when we would be staying with family or friends, as well as transportation costs. We then added a 15% buffer, knowing full well that it’s next to impossible to stay right on budget. After averaging out the entire trip, we came to a daily expenditure amount: $100 CDN a day. We made sure to have very realistic expectations, knowing we would blow our budget in Western Europe and make up for it in Asia. While we were working on budgets, we began to tighten up on our spending, especially dinners and nights out. We did try to live off of one salary and bank the other. We put some money away in a high-yielding interest account and are using $40,000 of it for the trip.

Olivia: I also took on a number of different event-planning contracts on the side, working 18 hour days quite often. It wasn’t that easy, but it was manageable because we had a clear goal in mind. We made it a point to not dip into our overall savings or any money we made from the sale of our home or cars. This way we have no hesitation or regrets spending the money on our adventure and can actually enjoy it stress free. Within six months we were able to raise about $40,000. This allows us about 600 days of travel.

That’s a lot of travel! What about life on the road has surprised you the most?
Manny and Olivia: We are really surprised at how comfortable we can get in foreign locations and different beds every night. Another surprise is language barriers. This is often the worry of many travelers, but it becomes nonexistent when you actually start traveling. Sign language and different translator apps are actually more fun and add a new, funny dimension to common interactions.

Staying on budget can be a problem for a lot of people. How do you two stay on budget?
Manny: We have a spreadsheet where we keep track of every single expense. On one page we have categories such as restaurant, grocery, transport, entrance fees, gas, car, etc. One the next sheet we have totals for each category and then we average out the expenditures by days to see where we are at and if we need to start cutting back. We often share meals since general portions are gluttonously large. We gave up our home addictions to sweets and alcohol and thus cut another huge chunk of expenses. We don’t spend frivolously and actually rent fully equipped rooms for a little extra cost and buy groceries, thus saving a lot of money on food. We eat a lot less and healthier, since a lot of the foods we buy are fresh and we cook them ourselves.

What one thing that you thought would be a challenge has turned out not to be?
Olivia: I thought it would be a challenge to survive off such little clothing. It turns out I don’t even need all the things I brought. It’s easier to get by on fewer things so that repacking is fast and the backpack is lighter. I’m actually going to be ditching some clothing soon.

Manny: I thought it would be a struggle not to have a phone that keeps me connected with the outside world at all hours of the day and night the way I got used to in Canada. I’ve realized now, I prefer to be off the grid and connect with my inner self while discovering the beauty of nature on a daily basis instead.

Any parting words of advice to inspire others to follow in your footsteps?
Manny and Olivia: Since we started telling people about our trip we have encountered the exact same reactions — and these reactions have not changed throughout our trip. No matter what stage in life they are at, how rich or poor they may be, they all say “I wish I could do this, but I can’t because…” The “because” is usually followed by “I just bought a condo” or “ we are saving for a new car” or “I’m scared to leave my job.” It’s understandable that we all need money to survive, but there is no point in surviving if you aren’t going to live. Our one piece of advice is that once you are on a real trip, you will realize just how little you need, not just to survive, but to be truly happy. And that all of those possessions you keep amassing are just baggage. Anyone can do what we are doing, you have to just really want it and take a chance.

Become the Next Success Story

One of my favorite parts about this job is hearing people’s travel stories. They inspire me, but more importantly, they also inspire you. I travel a certain way but there are many ways to fund your trips and travel the world and I hope these stories show you that there is more than one way to travel and that is within your grasp to reach your travel goals. Here are more examples of people who gave up living a typical life to explore the world:

We all come from different places, but we all have one thing in common: we all want to travel more.

Success Stories: Two San Diegans Overcome Fear of Travel

Greetings from Africa! Somewhere right now, I’m trying to snap a photo of a lion without being eaten. In the meantime, this week I want to share stories of readers who used my tips and advice to realize their travel dreams. If you’ve been thinking about traveling for a while, let these reader stories inspire you and show you that the advice here can work for anyone!

Continuing my new series on travel success stories, today we’re going to meet Katie and Steve Nauman, a 30-year-old couple from San Diego. Katie and Steve spent a year saving up for their 11-month trip before they quit their jobs and headed out into the world for the majority of 2012.

Nomadic Matt: Tell everyone about yourselves.
Katie and Steve: We are two 30-year-olds from San Diego, California. Katie had some overseas travel experience prior to our trip, and Steve essentially had none, but we really wanted to get out into the world before we have kids, so this past January we quit our corporate jobs, rented out our condo, and took off for a year around the world.

What kind of trip were you planning on doing?
We were planning an 11-month trip around the world. We left on February 1, 2012, and have been to South America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia. We plan to return home just in time for Christmas.

Did you have any fears when you decided to do this trip?
Yes! We typically make conservative decisions, but we took a massive leap of faith when we pulled the trigger on this trip. We read articles on your site that gave us general reassurance, and it also helped to hear encouragement from friends and family who know us personally.

We have an entire blog post about how our feelings changed as we got closer to our travel date.

How did this site help you overcome those fears and plan your trip?
Your insights and advice helped us during our planning phase as we dove into what RTW meant and how to do it. We spent at least six months researching everything from weather patterns and itineraries to budgets and how to pack our backpacks. There is so much that goes into planning a trip like this: insurance, visas, flights, immunizations, and on and on. It can be massively overwhelming when you’re already nervous about the whole undertaking. Your articles gave us solace that it’s possible.

There have been other ways you’ve helped, too. From your $50/day book, we used the coupons to save money on multi-destination flights with Airtreks. And we chose our scuba diving certification shop (Master Divers) in Koh Tao, Thailand, based on a discount in the same book. The dive shop told us we were the only people who have ever redeemed the coupon! We also purchased a Tiger Airways domestic flight in Australia based on one of the travel deal links in your newsletter.

How did you save for your trip?
Each month we put a portion of our paychecks into a travel fund, so that we had enough for our trip and also for a cushion when we get back. We rented out our condo, which helped us break even on our mortgage. And, money that used to go toward expenses like car insurance are now used for bus, train, and plane tickets.

When we announced our trip to our friends, we were really surprised that nearly everyone’s first reaction had something to do with money. But it’s not as expensive to travel as everyone thinks. We read a lot of blogs about traveling on a budget and did our research to find the right airline tickets, tour operators, hostels, and discount cards to make everything possible. It takes more work, but it does pay off.

What about life on the road has surprised you the most?
We have been surprised at how much we identify with the word “traveler.” There is a funny but clear designation between “traveling” and “vacationing.” Before this trip we had never distinguished between the two, but now we are absolutely certain that we are traveling. Vacationers get to stay in nice places and spend money on trendy dinners and bottles of wine. Travelers nit-pick every expense… and many times end up with the more genuine experience. No doubt, it is harder to travel than it is to vacation. But we also think the challenges make it more rewarding.

How do you stay on budget when you travel?
We travel as cheap as possible. We stay in hostels, usually dorms unless we’re in a country where private rooms are just as affordable. We do a lot of research on our activities to make sure that our dollar is going as far as possible. We take public transportation. Traveling closer to the street is better anyway because you get more interaction with locals and have a more genuine experience.

We also use the Cash Trails app to log every penny we spend. We tag our entries by country and by type (lodging, food, nightlife, activities, transportation, etc.) so that we can keep good track of our budget.

What one thing that you thought would be a challenge has turned out not to be?
Traveling through countries where we don’t speak the language hasn’t been as impossible as we initially worried about. Sure, it can be challenging at times when the language is very different (i.e., character based), but for the most part we haven’t found this to be too big of a stumbling block. People are generally patient when communicating. Hand motions and a smile go a long way.

What advice would you have for other people who want to travel but might not think they can?
We were those people. We talked about a trip like this for years and wondered if we could ever do it. But if you only ever wonder, you’ll never do.

When we broke the news of our trip to our family, friends, and coworkers, the response was always the same: “I wish I had done that.” We didn’t want to look back in 20 years and say to ourselves those dreaded words: “We wish we had done that.”

The hardest part will be making the initial commitment. We know it’s the hardest part because hardly anyone does it. At first you will commit to it in your own mind. But then you will be forced to commit to it in a more tangible way — be it a deposit or plane ticket. Once you pull that trigger, there’s no turning back and you have no choice but to go all in. It’s the most exciting gift you’ll ever give yourself.

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What I loved about Katie and Steve’s story is that it echoes many concerns I hear from potential travelers. The Naumans didn’t have a lot of travel experience and weren’t really risk takers but took the leap anyway and were amazed at how easy everything turned out to be. A lot of people have this fear — I did! But you realize once you start traveling that the hardest part isn’t the travel, it is getting the courage to go. I hope this article helped give you some of that courage.

Become the Next Success Story

One of my favorite parts about this job is hearing people’s travel stories. They inspire me, but more importantly, they also inspire you. I travel a certain way, but there are many ways to fund your trips and travel the world. I hope these stories show you that there is more than one way to travel and that it is within your grasp to reach your travel goals. Here are more examples of people who gave up living a typical life to explore the world:

We all come from different places, but we all have one thing in common: we all want to travel more.

Success Stories: Why Trish Sold Everything to Travel

Greetings from Africa! Somewhere right now, I’m trying to snap a photo of a lion without being eaten. In the meantime, this week I want to share stories of readers who used my tips and advice to realize their travel dreams. If you’ve been thinking about traveling for a while, let these reader stories inspire you and show you that the advice here can work for anyone!

Finishing off the week of reader stories, we head across the pond to England and meet Trish, a 35-year-old teacher. Not happy with her life in England, she sold everything she owned, gave herself a budget of 10,000 GBP ($16,000 USD), and set off traveling the world with only her backpack to her name.

Nomadic Matt: Tell me about yourself.
Trish: I originally come from Ipswich, a small town in East Anglia about an hour’s drive from London. I have been traveling now for about five months through Australia and Asia.

I was living a typical London life. I had a lovely job teaching gorgeous five-year-olds in a respected private school in East London. I got paid well and rented a modern two-bed apartment 10 minutes’ walk from work. I tried to settle for five years, but I rarely had money left at the end of the month and so the dream of more traveling became more and more distant. Life was good…just not GREAT. So after much procrastination, I decided to sell my house, give up my job, and sell all my possessions at car boot [trunk] sales. I gave myself a budget of 10,000 pounds. After five months of traveling, I still have nearly a third of my original budget left. I’m now traveling in Thailand, and my backpack is all I have to my name.

Did you plan any specific trip or just wanted to travel?
I just knew I wanted something different from life, but I had no clear idea about the type of trip I was planning. I love learning about different cultures and so I looked into countries I had always dreamed of visiting. I looked into buying a round-the-world ticket, but the cost and the enormity of the research and planning scared me. I got bogged down by the minute details, and then it became too big a task so I decided to start with Australasia. I had been invited to visit an Australian friend and her family in Queensland, so I decided to book a return flight to Brisbane and then stop off on the way back in Singapore and work my way up through Asia. I also knew I wanted to travel differently than the normal backpacker once I got into Asia by doing some couchsurfing, volunteering, and house-sitting so that I could get a feel for the country I was visiting.

How did you research your trip?
First, I wanted to know what you had packed and the sorts of items that would be handy to carry around. Then I became interested in how you budgeted for your trips. My budget didn’t seem that big until I started to look into ways in which you could travel for cheaper. I researched how I could use HelpX to volunteer my labor in return for a bed and food. As a teacher, there are many opportunities across the world for someone like me to teach English, so I thought I could make my money stretch that way. I liked reading your stories about what you’d learnt while traveling. They inspired me to write about my own feelings.

Were you afraid before you went on your trip?
I was afraid and excited at the same time. It took me a long time to actually just book the flight and make it real! Once I did that, life got hectic and I had “to do” lists coming out my ears! I think this is because I decided to go the whole way and detach myself from my old life. It wasn’t just about traveling for a few months or taking a sabbatical and returning to my life — it was about starting over and having a different view about being a permanent traveler. Through your website, I recognized you as someone who had made a success of traveling indefinitely. I wanted to be able to do the same. I have lots of ideas about how to, but I haven’t actually had enough time to put plans into action as I’ve been traveling and doing stuff every day since I started in August!

How did you save for your trip?
I sold my house and belongings so that I was debt free. I’m using that money for traveling. I put a budget aside for my traveling and once it’s gone, it’s gone.

What about life on the road has surprised you the most?
Lots of things! I’ve found you can live with a lot less clothes and things than you thought you could. You always make friends and meet people wherever you are. You rarely, if ever, feel lonely because of all the people around. Lastly, the goodness and kindness of the people in the country in which you’re traveling. Never underestimate the power of a smile and hand gestures! Everyone has been really friendly and helpful.

With such limited funds, how do you stay on budget when you travel?
I always research accommodation and compare prices. I usually use hostel sites as well; I look on Tripadvisor to compare reviews and ratings. I work out how much I’m willing to pay for a room, bed, and comfort. So far, this approach has not let me down, and I’ve stayed in some really lovely and affordable places. I try to choose places with free Wi-Fi, a common area, and good security for my stuff. The same goes for food. I find out where the best street/market food is and watch to see where the locals go. I hardly ever eat in restaurants now as they are three times the amount you pay for freshly cooked local food. I don’t drink very much, but if I do go out for a drink, I usually stick to local beer as it’s the cheapest.

What one thing that you thought would be a challenge has turned out not to be?
I wondered how I would cope if things go wrong while traveling to different destinations and I can’t speak the language, e.g., the bus breaks down or the train doesn’t come. I have learned that I can cope and it’s not the end of the world. Everything turns out all right in the end, and there is always someone who wants to help. I also thought I’d be lonely but I haven’t been at all. There’s always someone going your way.

What advice would you have for people who want to going away but might not think they can?
DO IT! I have had more awe-inspiring moments in the last few months than I have had in my entire life because of the decision I made to travel! Let go of all the excuses: money, time, job, people’s limiting beliefs and narrow-minded views, etc. You get to do what you want, when you want, with no compromises.

Become the Next Success Story

One of my favorite parts about this job is hearing people’s travel stories. They inspire me, but more importantly, they also inspire you. I travel a certain way, but there are many ways to fund your trips and travel the world. I hope these stories show you that there is more than one way to travel, and that it is within your grasp to reach your travel goals. Here are more examples of people who found a way to pay for their adventure around the world:

We all come from different places, but we all have one thing in common: we all want to travel more.