
Why I Quit My Job to Travel the World - kawera
http://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/why-i-quit-my-job-to-travel-the-world
======
sankyo
Traveling around the world for 6-?? months is really eye opening and gives you
a lot to think about. Solving puzzles about getting money, how to get to
places, crossing language barriers, trying to tap into the underground, cool
scene, not being limited to the tourist kitsch, learning how things are done
in ways you had never thought of, these all require creativity and are
rewarding. There are also many hardships on the road too, and sometimes you
wish you could teleport home, if there is such a place.

But after a while, the places all start looking the same, and every place
gives you the same experiences, more or less. There are buses or subways,
hotels, or hostels, interesting people who like meeting foreigners, museums,
parks, points of interest, foods, drinks, restaurants, bars. Something starts
growing inside you saying "I want to build something, I want to belong to
something." That something could be a tech company, a school, a network of
friends, a business, a non-profit, a family, or anything else.

When you get to that point, your traveling days are limited, and you start
making plans for how satiate your new appetite. You will probably travel again
someday, but with a new objective, and with more experience guiding where you
go and how you spend your time in the places.

~~~
Cakez0r
In your experience, is it not possible to build something whilst on the road?
I will be travelling soon and fully intend to hit the ground running with
trying to grow some ideas. Perhaps you have some tips?

~~~
hoodwink
I quit my job to travel. Working on projects was one of my main motivations.
That and learning.

After 11 months on the road, I've found it _very_ difficult to do project
work. Too much of your day is devoted to figuring out the basics of living --
lodging, food, and transportation. Then of course you want to experience some
of the destination you worked so hard to visit. Then you spend time figuring
out where you're going to go next. Not to mention the work itself is often
hindered by lack of Internet or electricity.

Because of this, I changed my mode of travel to stay in places for at least
one month. You won't cross as many destinations off your bucket list or have
as many adventures, but I find the depth of experience more than makes up for
the breadth.

Tips: \- use nomadlist for city ideas \- book 3 or 4 days short term in the
spot to confirm you like it, get adjusted, and figure things out \- use this
trial period to scout real estate for the month+

One advantage of this approach is it can often be cheaper. Monthly contracts
and cooking.

------
stevecalifornia
Why do we let people sell us cynicism? What benefit is it to us? Does it make
you feel better for not pursuing your dream of travelling? Maybe the problem
is you and not your lack of trust fund.

For about $5000 a person, my friends and I bought a car in California, shipped
it to London and drove to China. I was poor at the time and put most of it on
a credit card. I also kept my job-- I saved up 3.5 weeks of vacation and
lobbied my boss to give me a few extra days on top to give me a full month
out. It was one of the best times of my life and something I always love to
reflect on.

I guess what I'm upset about is, along with this article, no matter what you
say there will be people trying to convince all of us that we can't have a
happy life without a trust fund. Not Madison Ave... people on these forums.
'Not everybody has $XXX', 'Not everbody is as lucky..'. Shut up. Either start
pursuing your dreams or shut up. Stop bringing everybody down with you.
Travelling the world is a series of small easy steps that anyone can do. It's
vile to try and convince people otherwise.

~~~
unprepare
>Maybe the problem is you and not your lack of trust fund.

says the guy who took a 4 week paid vacation.

most americans dont get ANY paid vacation, those who do often cannot accrue it
over time.

you got to return to a job you kept, a home you likely kept, health care
coverage that never ended, etc etc.

this is simply not possible for the vast majority of people, your pull
yourself up by your bootstraps argument mightve held weight if you werent an
outlier.

~~~
thatfrenchguy
How do you think other countries got paid vacation ? Mostly by electing nice
politicians and going out in the street.

But American people prefer Clinton and Trump, lol.

~~~
advantark
Americans really do not prefer either candidate. Our political system is
deeply screwed up. Saying something like "Just vote for the right people and
everything will be better!" doesn't help us Americans because the system is
both a two-party system and is heavily influenced by the rich. The two
problems combined has really made our country less of a democracy and more of
an oligarchy.

------
mladenkovacevic
This line killed me:

 _As a citizen of the world, I rarely get lonely. Everywhere I go, I meet such
diverse groups of people. In hostels, I’ve shared beers with friendly British
and Australian twenty-somethings. In hotels, I’ve sipped wine with friendly
British and Australian forty-somethings. We all became lifelong friends,
despite the language barriers._

~~~
nibs
Soul-crushing truth to this statement.

------
acabal
This is pretty unfair. I basically did just what this satire describes, minus
the trust fund and eye-gouging. I did it by working hard and saving my modest
salary for a pretty long time, finally having saved enough to take 6 months to
a year off.

People are always mystified at how I managed to do it. They think traveling
the world is expensive beyond their wildest dreams. But the truth is, for much
of the world the most expensive part is the plane ticket. You can live
shockingly well on $10 a day in some parts of Asia, for example. It ruins you
for when you return home: "Wait, a burger at a sit down restaurant costs
$12?!? That's crazy!" Meanwhile you're meeting fascinating people and
observing different and sometimes surprising cultures.

The time I spent traveling became the most significant and formative part of
my life. What this satire portrays cynically, I experienced joyfully, and with
a profound impact on my sense of place in the world, in society, and in
history.

For Americans in particular, travel is one of the most important things we can
do to get some perspective on the insularity and self-satisfied back-slapping
that goes on at home. Suddenly you realize how homogeneous American culture
can be, and, for all the praise we love to heap on ourselves, how far we have
left to go to catch up to the rest of the world in so many aspects.

I spent many years traveling the world alone. If you have any questions, or if
you're interested in doing it yourself, I'd be happy to give guidance.

~~~
notlefthanded
"San Francisco isn’t in the same country as Lakeside anymore than New Orleans
is in the same country as New York or Miami is in the same country as
Minneapolis ... They may share certain cultural signifiers—money, a federal
government, entertainment—it’s the same land, obviously—but the only things
that give it the illusion of being one country are the greenback, The Tonight
Show, and McDonald’s." _American Gods - Neil Gaiman_

Other side of the coin

------
xapata
> sent a quick text message to my girlfriend telling her that I was leaving
> the country forever, and was off.

A friend of mine once showed up at my house to tell me, "I'm leaving for
China. If my girlfriend asks... tell her I'm at my parents'". I stared at him
for a moment, then said, "Ok," and he left. They made up some time later, but
he's still over there.

~~~
kafkaesq
That's some "friend" you have there. Life is short, you know.

~~~
xapata
We had some good times. I try not to judge, though I get your point.

------
conorh
Hah. It is true that a lot of the people traveling are 'privileged', but
probably not with 60k a month trust funds :) They are just privileged by where
they were born, the value of their currency and the support they might have
from family. A lot of the people I met when I did my traveling had little
savings, had worked their asses off to save up for the trip and didn't have
any employment lined up for when they get back. As software developers we are
doubly lucky to have jobs that are portable worldwide and in demand, I did a
little consulting on the way to help pay for things.

btw if you have an urge to do this do it before you have kids - after that,
well, not going to happen probably.

------
xbeta
How about with kids? With a family? With aging parents that needed help while
you are the only child? With a H-1B visa on the edge of being kick out because
I'm heading to the 6 yrs limit?

I felt this way because that's exactly where I'm in now and I don't seem to
find a way out. Need some advice here.

~~~
darkmouth
Many might be jealous you got selected for an H1B visa.

Moral of the story - if its bad for you, its always worse for someone else.
Not something that may make you feel better, but its important to try not to
lose some perspective.

~~~
rdtsc
Agreed. I always try to keep things in perspective. Most problems I end up
complaining about are really first world problems. The thing is I remember
growing poor in a different country, so I should know better. But after all
this years I find myself complaining my internet is slow, my water heater
doesn't heat enough water, I had to wait in line getting a plane etc. My
younger poor self would slap me on the head and laugh at me for complaining.

------
joslin01
> and my enormous trust fund.

Almost lost my shit until I read further and realized it was satire. What a
great line.

------
avalexandrov
> As I left town, I cast one final glance back at Greebo. One of his friends
> playfully tossed him to the ground and thumbed his eyes as the others
> snatched all the money I had given him. I couldn’t help but smile. It felt
> good to make a difference in the lives of these simple people.

This is hilarious!

------
gnarcoregrizz
Its possible if you have a remote job, even if you don't have a lot of money.
I ditched the apartment, bought an RV and have been traveling across the US
for a bit. Its cheaper than flying and hotels, and the RV cost about a year of
rent where I lived, and older used RVs depreciate about 6% a year. So,
overall, I'll come out ahead financially from where I was (incl travel and gas
costs)

Most people probably can't do it (spouses, kids, non-remote work, drawbacks to
living in an RV), but its possible on a budget and if you're in the right
situation. I'm sure it'll get old soon, but so far its fun, albeit stressful.
I've seen more in a few weeks than I've seen in almost my whole life.

------
Xcelerate
I've read too many real articles like this that I actually didn't realize it
was satire.

~~~
joesmo
That's probably simply because terrible satire. I read the whole thing and had
to come to the comments to verify. I actually thought the author was just an
asshole. That's just bad writing.

~~~
wavefunction
Ah, it seemed quite obvious to me from a sentence or two in.

Perhaps it was better satire than you realized?

~~~
joesmo
Only if your definition of good satire (or any writing) is one that fails to
get its point and meaning across.

~~~
jrockway
I think the point of satire is that it doesn't try too hard to get the point
across.

One could have easily written this article:

"People with trust funds are the worst. All they do is travel the world, not
really talking to anyone, and posting pictures of ice cream on Instagram. Man
I hate those people. They're the worst."

The author took a different approach and let you decide whether or not you
hate that type of person.

------
botswana99
My wife and I did a six month round the world trip. No trust fund, just saved
the money over several years from our jobs. We were a software engineer and
teacher saving up for a house down payment -- then my wife got laid off, we
had too much Sushi and beer one night, and decided to blow the down payment
money on the trip.

Should we have taken that money and bought that house in Palo Alto?
Financially the answer is yes. But 20 years later we are still very, very glad
we took the trip. You can always make money.

------
maxxxxx
"So I decided to quit and travel the world, bringing only my passport, a small
backpack, and my enormous trust fund."

I love that. Reminds me of all the "minimalist" ex-entrepreneurs who only have
a laptop and a credit card to pay for taxis and restaurants.

------
55555
I fled from USA to the third world with very little money because I was so
poor I couldn't really afford to move to anywhere else I wanted to be within
the USA. I continued to be poor and lived on rice and chicken for several
years before starting to make decent money and was able to return to the USA.
I also really enjoyed this satire and just shared it on my Facebook.. lol.

~~~
55555
I guess my point is that many of the people you meet abroad, like myself, are
absolutely not trust fund babies. You obviously don't need money to travel to
third-world countries where most people have less money than USA. At the same
time, a lot of the people you meet traveling absolutely are trust fund babies
and they are pretty insufferable.

------
cm2012
The most worldly people I know are the most well-read, not the most well-
traveled.

Good books are essentially empathy writ in text. It's easy to travel a lot and
still have a shallow view of human nature.

------
joeguilmette
I have spent the last 7-8 years traveling regularly. The past 5 years I've
been traveling more than I have been at home, especially the last 2. I am not
paid an exporbitant salary, although working remote helps with travel.

My parents are financially modest. My parents did their best to help me and
I'm sure I got more help than many - but after the handful of years after HS I
received no help whatsoever and in fact have lent both of my parents money
over the years.

There are two big secrets:

1: Make it a priority. 2: Find a job that lets you travel.

It's easier now that I work remote, but I used to travel for extended periods
of time back when I worked in restaurants. For a couple years I worked summers
and would take the winter off to travel.

If travel is a priority, you can make it happen, and you don't need a trust
fund.

------
bitL
Don't quit your job and travel the world. Hint: look for "REMOTE" keyword @HN.
Stay 1-2 months at one place at a time via AirBnB to get cheaper rates and use
Hipmunk's chained flights to avoid returns. Did that for >1 year, best time of
my life!

~~~
sjclemmy
I'm in my 40s, I've got a kid in college and another about to go, and I'm
considering doing this with my wife. We have a bit of a joke that we'll write
a book titled: 5 years, 5 cities.

~~~
partisan
Lucky you. I'll be in my 50's when my kids head off to college. I have no clue
how I am going to pay that off!

------
faebi
Its not that hard if you are living in Europe, USA or some other County with a
decent economy and currency. It might take a little longer depending on the
county. For me it started easy, after backpacking for a month through Europe
as European I could feel this desire to travel more. So 2013 I set my lifegoal
to travel arround the world. One year later I specified it to travel for one
year till end of 2018. I googled a little and found a Worldtrip costs
10'000-30'000 Fr.- per year. So when starting my first real Job I knew how
much I need to save to make my lifegoal become true. So I addapted my life
standards to this income. Fast forward, its 2016, I got a poor russian
Girlfriend in Russia which I can't leave for a year. So know it means to save
a little more and divide that through 2. So the base question, can you save
200$ a month? Then do it for 5 years. Can you save 400$ a month? Then do it
for 2.5 years. Can you save 1000$ month? Do it for two years, because you can
easily afford a nice world trip. Maybe its because most Swiss get raised to
save money but its not that hard. Split the income as follows: 1/3 renting,
1/3 living, 1/3 saving. Put the money to save (automatically) on another
account the day you get your salary. Its easier to save money you never had.
So if a worldtrip is desires, set the goal of your near future life and live
with the consequences to save those 200$.

------
eric001
"Then I reserved a business-class seat, sent a quick text message to my
girlfriend telling her that I was leaving the country forever, and was off."

Brilliant.

------
beatpanda
I'm really tired of writers like this who project their resentment and
dissatisfaction with their own lives onto people they're jealous of. See also:
every article written in the mainstream press about how annoying Burning Man
is, every article trashing people for being on Ashley Madison, or last year's
shit storm of hate against that couple that spends their life LARPing the
Victorian Era.

The default mode of our economy and society is not at all defensible. Going to
work 5 days a week to make somebody else rich is entirely, completely
inhumane. Articles like this are supposed to make you feel smug about being
stuck in what is, objectively, a complete nightmare of a life. And I am tired
of reading this crap.

Also, as other commenters have pointed out, it's entirely possible to travel
the world with savings of sub $5000 without a trust fund (or sleeping
outside), but I imagine whatever terrified little baby wrote this article
wouldn't be able to handle the level of trust you have to put in your fellow
humans to pull it off.

------
vonklaus
Vast majority of comments here are arguing that a satirical article that
lampoons a subset of wealthy travelers does not encapsulate 100% of their own
travel experience. Its a satirical article poking fun at a population that is
both wealth AND critically unaware of how much of a benefit is.

what next, argue with john swift about eating babies?

------
return0
Oh the unbearable boredom of middle class youth. Now they even sneer at their
former dreams.

------
obelix150
Has no one seen the parallels and thinly veiled references to Anthony
Bourdain's TV shows here? In fact its referenced directly but in quotes with
the "no reservations" quip. Bourdain was frequently criticized for the fact
that in extremely poor areas of the world he threw money around and caused
unintended consequences for the locals. Take for instance his Haiti visit
after the earthquake, when he tried to buy a meal for starving kids but then
couldn't feed all of them when the word got out.

------
dendory
I'm not sure I get the point of this article. Travel nomads are a real thing,
and more and more numerous. They typically don't have a lot of money and often
work at local menial jobs or by doing freelance gigs online, but then again
it's no coincidence that Tailand is the world's digital nomad capital. When
your cost of living is ridiculously low, it's not impossible to work from the
beach and spend your time traveling.

------
jonstewart
I don't really think this should hit the front page of Hacker News since it's
obvious, and not even particularly clever, satire. That said, I also don't
think any of the articles that this one skewers should ever be on the front
page of HN, either, and they still pop up regularly.

------
gorm
If you want to experience real travel on a budget, cycling is the way to go.
You would be surprised how many people cycle the silk road between Europe and
Asia. I know some guys who has been doing this for many years, just going home
to work a year in Europe when money runs out.

~~~
kawera
My daughter is doing that right now. Left Paris in March and hopes to be in
Hanoi by October - she's having a blast!

------
ausjke
Do whatever before you have a family and kids. And hopefully pay some due
taxes to wherever you live while you're travelling, after all if young-work-
age people do not contribute some taxes the only hope to sustain the society
is to keep printing paper money.

------
temarsden
Was at first disgusted then highly amused once I realized it was satire. Well
done!

------
randevu
Have trust fund - will travel

------
nolepointer
_" As I left town, I cast one final glance back at Greebo. One of his friends
playfully tossed him to the ground and thumbed his eyes as the others snatched
all the money I had given him. I couldn’t help but smile. It felt good to make
a difference in the lives of these simple people."_

I'm ashamed to admit I didn't recognize this as satire until I reached this
point and burst out laughing. I failed to notice the URL, too. This kind of
article is so common, I just figured it was yet another. I hate the apparent
trend of titling articles "Why I [insert activity here]," which made this all
the more amusing.

~~~
return0
To be fair, they could have made it a lot more humorous. this is a juicy
subject.

------
cloudjacker
This really discredits people who opened credit cards with a $2,000 limit and
went off to work on a farm in Australia

There isn't really anything glamorous necessary, aside from having some
resolve to do what you want, some resolve to make sacrifices, and the fortune
of being born somewhere globally relevant

------
Apreche
_" On paper, my life seemed great. I had a dream job, a swanky apartment, and
a loving girlfriend. But something was off. I couldn’t bear being chained to
my desk in a stuffy office any longer. "_

Yes yes, this is sounds just like me!

 _" So I decided to quit and travel the world, bringing only my passport, a
small backpack, ..."_

Yes yes! This is what I dream of doing. How did you do it? I'll leave
tomorrow.

 _"... and my enormous trust fund."_

GO FUCK YOURSELF

Yes, I recognize that this is satire. But there are real people out there for
whom this is their real life. That is who I am waving my finger at.

~~~
coldtea
The thing is, this satire misses the point.

Everybody (author of the satire included) always jumps to conclusions that
people doing such acts always have some massive fortune or cushion in the bank
to wait them.

That's far from the truth. Thousands of people do the same thing every year
without anything in the bank (and no sure job awaiting them when they get
back).

Some have meagre savings (like $5.000 - $10.000) and use all of them to fund
the trip (like year-long).

Others just go at it with nothing, and survive on the kindness of strangers
and odd gigs here and there.

I know a few personally doing the latter, but many more doing the first.

Heck, if you have $10,000 in the bank, and are a decent programmer that can
manage to find work when he gets back from the trip) you can quit your job,
spend 3-4 months in Asia and Africa for dirt cheap, and still have like
$2-$3.000 spare to get you through a month before finding some new gig.

~~~
konschubert
For a big part of the population, savings of 5000 to 10000 are not meagre.

~~~
gostars
I have a friend who saved $15,000 in 1 year selling cars and low quality
marijuana (he made $1000/month from it).

He traveled to 50+ countries and slept outside everywhere except poor
countries where it was cheap to get a bed.

When he returned to the US, he sold cars and was homeless. Literally he slept
outside but still worked out and ate well. When he got a car, he still slept
outside.

He recently just made $60,000 driving for Lyft/Uber in 6 months and saved
$30,000 (assuming a lot went to taxes).

He then moved and slept in hus car for 1+ month while having 30k and perfect
credit, and still driving. Now he's taken a month off to pursue creative and
side projects.

If you don't have a family, then anything is possible.

~~~
sillysaurus3
How is it possible to make $60,000 driving for Lyft/Uber in 6 months? Can
someone do a rundown on the numbers for this?

Can you really earn $120k/yr driving?

~~~
beachstartup
i could believe it if he slept in his car and drove 18h/7d for 6 months.

nobody would do that for more than a few months but i'm sure it's possible if
you're really dedicated to raising some money in an unsustainable way.

------
Overtonwindow
Yep, like others, I quit reading at the moment I saw the words "trust fund".

------
aurelianito
It is satire. But a guy just like the one portrayed in the story is now the
president of my country. It is really sad. Do you want to guess where am I
from?

------
zippy786
> Maybe I’m just a crazy dreamer who also gets a monthly no-strings-attached
> sixty-thousand dollars deposited into my checking account, but I won’t be
> tied down so easily.

Wow!!! Why is it a "why" question. A bit greedy to keep working if you already
have 60k per month coming in your checking account. Why would anyone want be a
slave ? I just have few grand in bank, 0 income and I recently quit my job to
travel around until I run out of money.

------
humbleMouse
This is a garbage fluff piece that borders on being a satire. Maybe it is?
Either way the New Yorker should be ashamed for publishing this.

>>That life style isn’t for me. Maybe I’m just a crazy dreamer who also gets a
monthly no-strings-attached sixty-thousand dollars deposited into my checking
account, but I won’t be tied down so easily.

edit: Realize this is satire now - still think the piece sucks.

~~~
warfangle
Daily Shouts is a humor column... it's definitely satire.

