'Quit your job and travel the world!': A travel blogger confesses the grim financial reality behind the Instagram dream (2024)

• Travel bloggers are always telling people to "quit your job and travel the world!" But they rarely highlight the financial issues and personal hardships associated with long-term travel.
• It isn't as easy as it sounds, according to travel writer Matthew Lubin.
• He travelled for a year with stops in Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Taiwan, South Korea and Italy.
• Here, Lubin breaks down his budget and reveals how he paid for it all.
• Be warned.The dream vacation is not all it’s cracked up to be, he says.

Quit your job and travel the world!

That’s the dream so many of us have. And there are dozens of articles and blog posts on how to do it. But those same articles rarely highlight the potential financial issues and personal hardships associated with long-term travel.

Far too often, after seeing such articles, readers feel as though they can drop the 9 to 5 and find an easy online job that will support them for years as they see the world. If you talk to enough people who have tried this, you’ll find that it isn’t as easy as it sounds. I did it myself, and travelled through South Korea, Vietnam and Taiwan.

I was able to travel for a year because I already had a full-time, 50-hour-per-week job that allowed me to work from home. It wasn’t as exciting as it sounds — I had little time after work to explore, which only left weekends for actually seeing the places I travelled to. I also had to ensure that I had a comfortable workspace with reliable internet as I had to be online during the hours of 8 pm and 6 am EST.

But hey, I got to live and work in cramped apartments around East Asia while having little to no human interaction during the workweek!

Adam Groffman, anothertravel blogger who writesTravels of Adam, told me he originally saved $20,000 to travel the world. He ran out of money after 15 months. “I knew I wanted to keep travelling, so that's when I started to hustle for freelance work,” he says. He took a digital marketing internship in Berlin to help build his freelance writing career.

Of course, these are just two anecdotal experiences. There are other ways to travel long-term without going broke, but they all involve working, often full-time,unless you have saved enough money to live on for a year or more.

"The dream vacation is not all it’s cracked up to be"

Some people will make the process of becoming a digital nomad sound easy. They’ll say you just need to find one of these plentiful jobs that will pay more than enough for you to afford all the travel you want, as long as you maintain a low-budget lifestyle while living in hostels or couch surfing. Those little details reveal that the dream vacation is not all it’s cracked up to be.

The most plentiful remote jobs, such as SEO content writing, tend to pay low wages and the work itself can be inconsistent. There are other options that include teaching English online, which can pay about $15 per hour through a company but can also take time to build a consistent student base. There are a variety of other remote jobs that don’t require significant experience, but they also won’t pay much.

Online teaching tends to be a popular option as it pays better than some of the other jobs. Teaching through a company will require regular set hours, which diminishes the amount of time you can travel. It also requires a private space with a reliable internet connection, which can be difficult to find if you’re hopping around the world and staying in hostel dorms.

Most people who make a living while travelling have technical skills, such as web design and coding. Those technical skills not only allow travellers to earn a higher wage but also provide more flexible hours, though the hours depend on the particular job. But as with any freelance work, it can be difficult to deal with clients, particularly if those clients live in different time zones.

And, while it is possible to make money while travelling, there are additional, long-term financial considerations to think about.

Unless you’re earning a significant income, it may be difficult to save much while travelling. Groffman notes, “Saving wasn't a big part of the goal at that time (I was still young), and I do regret that a little bit, but the travel lifestyle was too hard to pass up … It would've made sense to maintain a savings account for emergencies and to continue saving while making an income as a nomad.”

It is possible to build up savings if you stay in countries with lower costs of living, but not everyone wants to stay in those places long-term.

And then there are the taxes ...

For American citizens, it is still a requirement to file taxes every year. In 2018, the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (FEIE) for expatriates increased to $104,100. This means that if you are not a resident of the U.S., you do not have to pay taxes on income up to that amount. But you still have to report any income to the IRS.

In addition, if you claim the FEIE on your taxes, you cannot contribute to any retirement accounts during the tax year. That means there’s no new money flowing into an IRA or 401(k). If you travel full-time for multiple years, you will miss out on those retirement savings and have to make up for it in later years. For those who do not claim the FEIE, it is still possible to contribute to retirement accounts, but it means paying U.S. resident taxes.

Those who take the FEIE on their annual taxes will not contribute to social security insurance, which will affect the amount that can be claimed upon retirement. For most young travellers, this may not be much of a concern, but it can be for older travellers.

There’s also student loan debt to consider. If you’re fortunate enough to not have any, travelling full time is less burdensome. But filing taxes as an expatriate does not relieve you of debt payments.

Here is my work and travel budget

Here’s a breakdown of my income and expenses while travelling for a year with stops in Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Taiwan, South Korea and Italy:

• Income: $3,300 per month before taxes (I continued having payroll taxes deducted until I claimed the FEIE on annual taxes; my employer-paid health insurance premiums).
• Rent: $400-800 per month with no utilities, depending on the city and whether I stayed in an apartment or hotel. Minimum stay in any one place was 20 days and I mostly used Airbnb. Not all apartments had a kitchen.
• Phone service: This varies. In Tokyo, my apartment came with pocket Wi-Fi. I only purchased a SIM card in South Korea and Taiwan. In both places service was less than $15 per month. Everywhere else I relied on Wi-Fi.
• Food: Groceries were generally equal to what I spent in the U.S. at about $200 per month. I ate out more in Ho Chi Minh City and Taipei because I didn’t have a kitchen. Overall food costs were slightly higher because I ate out on weekends, sometimes treating myself to nicer meals that cost between $20 and $50.
• Transportation: This varied greatly. In Tokyo, it was $3 each way from my apartment to Shinjuku station. The average trip in Seoul was $1, while an average metro ride in Taipei was $0.60. Weekend transportation costs generally increased as late nights required taxis.
• Flights: Most flights were less than $300 one way. The exception was the flight from Seoul to Rome and then Venice to Tokyo. As flights were infrequent, this was a manageable expense. Some flights could’ve been less expensive had I booked further in advance, but most flights were booked 30-50 days ahead, sometimes less. The first flight from Newark to Tokyo was purchased with airline miles that I had saved for many years.
• Weekend excursions: About $100 each day, including tours, taxis, meals, etc.
• Healthcare: I had a supply of medication before departing the U.S. Vaccinations prior to the trip were a few hundred dollars as insurance sees travel-related shots, such as typhoid and Japanese encephalitis, as elective procedures. In Taiwan, I got a routine checkup that cost about $70 without insurance. Refilling my medication in Taiwan cost about $10 per month, which is a few dollars cheaper than in the U.S. Anti-malarial pills, which I did not actually need, were cheap in Vietnam but completely unavailable without local health insurance in Japan.
• Paid Time Off: I took two vacations during the year. The first was nine days in Cambodia, which cost about $500 including flights and visa. The other was a week in Italy with my parents, which was much cheaper as my parents took care of everything other than the flight and some of the wine.

Health insurance adds another fee for those travelling full-time

It should be noted that during that year of travelling, I had no debt or financial responsibilities back home, unless you count a Netflix account that I was able to use with a VPN (before the service expanded outside the U.S. and a select few countries).

In comparison to life in the U.S., specifically living across the Hudson River from Manhattan, travelling while working was slightly less expensive. After factoring in the flights, the savings on rent evened out and I was able to save a similar amount as I had while living in New Jersey.

One aspect of long-term travel that is almost never covered is healthcare. While travelling abroad long term, you are not eligible for local health insurance. In some countries, travellers may be covered under universal healthcare systems, but that doesn’t happen often. It may also not be possible to pay out of pocket to see a doctor in a foreign country — in Tokyo, doctors refused to even see me without local insurance. And not all travel insurance covers all your medical needs — most will cover emergencies and provide assistance with evacuation back home.

Travel health insurance may be a separate option for travellers that can add another fee to that plan of travelling full time. Travel insurance plans vary depending on the country and amount of time a traveller spends there. It can get complicated as you have to ensure that the plan is updated with the itinerary.

Medical insurance plans for long-term travel can cost a little under $2 per day, but can cost much more for travel outside the U.S. A quote from Seven Corners for a 38-year-old traveller for one year started at $200 for the year. However, each trip must be less than 30 days and you must return home between each trip. Blue Cross Blue Shield Travel insurance provided a quote of $100 for its Trekker Essential policy and $175 for its Trekker Choice policy. Their expat insurance, which requires a primary destination, was quoted at $229 per month.

While medical travel insurance is recommended, I never bought for any of my travels. That is irresponsible, and I recognize that I was fortunate.

Future employers may see you as unreliable or a potential flight risk

Once you’ve fulfilled the feelings of wanderlust, there’s the consideration of returning home. For some fortunate travellers, it’s possible to move in with friends or family upon return. For others, it’s necessary to find housing and employment immediately.

Travellers who have quit their jobs to travel the world will have to explain the gap in employment to potential employers. This is an easier task for younger travellers, but it can be more difficult for older ones as employers may see the applicant as unreliable or a potential flight risk.

Of course, the repatriation process mainly depends on skills and timing. As a writer and editor, it can be difficult to find work after a time abroad — it was especially difficult to move back to the US in 2009, during the financial crisis, after my first time as an expat; a month before I was set to return, thousands of editors and proofreaders were laid off.

In many cases of applying for jobs upon returning home, it’s important to explain how the experience has prepared you for a new career in an office. It’s a way to reassure a potential employer that you plan to stay in the country and contribute to the company.

Travelling the world long term isn’t all sunshine and excitement, but it also isn’t all about financial worries. There is a balance that those considering taking the jump need to understand beforehand. It is not a move that everyone can or should take, and those who really want that dream-like life should not be discouraged by the potential pitfalls but rather remain realistic in their expectations. There is a travel experience for everyone, and finding the right travel situation is important.

Matthew Lubin is a two-time expat and writer of Booze, Food, Travel. He tweets at @ChinaMatt.