Cross the world four times
sivers.org
sivers.org
Then I worked for a bit again to save money, and quit again and just got back this year from 3 years driving all the way around Africa. [2]
The people I met, the places I saw and the lessons I learned will stay with me for the rest of my life, and I personally love the life.
I've decided I want to be a travel writer and photographer, because it makes me happy. I have way less money, but I'm happier than I've ever been. I have written a couple of books about my adventures, and I write for a slew of magazines now too.
Do what makes you happy.
[1] The Road Chose Me Volume 1 - https://amzn.to/2wkxceX
[2] 999 Days Around Africa - https://amzn.to/2H93IUH
And the winter is coming...again. :-(
;-)
P.S. Will definitely buy your book, so I can daydream with you.
For me, it all starts with savings. If you really, really want to break out of your current lifestyle, you have to start putting money away, and you have to start now. It might take 5+ years, but if you want it badly enough, you will find a way.
Keep in mind it's a lot (A LOT) cheaper than you think. Most people spend around $1500/mo for absolutely all expenses to drive around the entire world. [1] If you already have a place to live, it's really common to air b n b it out and live off the income from that while you're on the road.
We only get one life. Make sure you're doing what you want with it.
Good luck!
Also starting to get a more serious about planning the next big one!
Videos from all over Africa too - getting bribed in Nigeria, getting stuck in the Congo mud, rolling the Jeep in Uganda -
West Africa has a group of countries that use one kind of insurance (called Carte Brune) and East Africa have a bunch of countries that use one kind (called COMESA)
For central America you buy it for every country that need it (about $15/mo) and South America you can get it for multiple countries, or buy it separate.
Really interesting countries like South Africa the insurance is automatically included in the price of gas.
The benefits of travel are numerous. They were there before our understanding of global heating and pollution. Times have changed since sentiments like in this post.
We have to factor our new understanding into our models for a good life. Seeing as how billions of people before flying led happy lives, flying around the world four times isn't necessary.
(To clarify, Derek didn't say you have to fly around the world four times. He wrote it generally enough that you could interpret it several ways, but I expect many people will interpret him to mean fly around the world four times.)
Don't do it just for "the climate". There's something magic about sail and rail. Traveling this way makes the world feel immense. And it is. We just mostly miss it now riding in sky-cans from one Starbucks to the next.
We've also discovered far, far more nationally, and a lot of jewels off the beaten track away from the famous and touristy.
We'd miss that if we started going by air again. We mostly don't want to.
Will never forget the owner of a small camp in rural Spain who didn’t spoke a word of English and was sooo excited to see foreigners that he fed us homemade grappa basically until we dropped. His treat of course.
Or the random village on the border of France and Belgium where we had a flat and had to ride our longboards into town and mime to people that we need help. They got us a tow truck from 2 villages over on a Sunday. All without us knowing a word of French or them a word of English.
Don’t waste travel time folks. It’s the best part of a vacation.
Sure beats 2 hrs in departures. :)
Crossing the world is exploring businesses, people, trends, culture. If you live in a big city, you can go around the world 10 times in a few miles.
Edit in response to replies: Going on vacation with kids is not the same as traveling the world and doing that with the family only works if you're upper class and have no worries about mortgage payments or job security so it's definitely not an option for most people.
Way too often we think about kids as limiting factor. We try to tell them what they should do, while all we need to do is to show them.
Is it easy? Absolutely not. It's difficult and at times frustrating, but absolutely worth it.
I’m Australian, married with three young kids. Earlier this year, we flew to the US, bought an old bus, renovated it cheaply in Walmart carparks and drove across the continent twice. 20+ states over three months, including a lunch in Mexico. Slept in the bus, in motels, etc. Kids are 1, 4 and 6. It was brilliant.
3 people can live like kings in most of the western hemisphere, thailand, etc. on $20K a year, or live decently on $10K a year. you won't be moving locations often since that tends to be more expensive than just "living" but you can definitely do a stint abroad on a few thousand.
if you need to work, get a remote setup either via contract or remote company, understanding you'll probably need to work a lot less given your necessary expenses.
Arriving in India with a six-week-old child after an overnight flight taught me something about travelling with children: Problems evaporate.
Everyone was queuing for passport control — our whole flight and several others, probably close to a thousand people queuing in a very large room. One of the minders saw me carrying the baby and waved us out of the queue at once. Would we please go over to the VIP&Diplomat queue. So we did, and another minder waved us out of the queue again. No, we should not queue with the VIPs&Diplomats, we should go straight past that queue and be processed immediately. The whole thing took about a minute.
That was how the trip started and that was how the rest was, too. 10/10 would do again.
If having no problems in a place like this: http://yris.yira.org/essays/1150 is the exception, then what's the rule?
For me, I lived in London for a few years. I hated most all about it. If I never live in London again it'll be too soon. But the experience – warts and all – taught me so much, that I don't think I'd ever learn "at home" so to speak. I grew as a person for it, and for that I'm ever grateful.
The British call it a Gap Year, but it's common in many cultures (Australia, New Zealand, South Africa) to live abroad and travel for an extended period of time.
very nicely written, but i disagree with it because i believe that we have to look more inward than outward in order to be able to die (not sure how to express that correctly, but i hope you know what i mean).
The real trick is not keeping your apartment while you go travel for a long time.
But anywhere you are, foregoing a home base makes travel a lot more affordable.
That line almost made me cry.
I'd actually change it to 20s, 40s, 60s, and 80s.
Does the author believe most people can afford to quit working for a period of time, let alone afford to travel around the world? Does this author look down upon those who aren't so well traveled, view them as lesser or less deserving?
It's a metaphor.
edit: Just realised Derek will probably read this. Sorry dude, I think you're a good guy, but you can do better than this
If this is intended as advice, I stand by my judgement that it's just not good. But I also think others would see that it's not good, we all generally understand travel as another form of consumerism and something available only to the wealthy. So it probably isn't advice.
But if this is a metaphor, then there is meaning that I don't understand and I withdraw my judgement.