Traveling the rest of my life?

Published on by LostViivi

Today we are going to talk about how I plan to travel around the world for the rest of my life. My dreams may be stupid and some of them impossible but I’m just not a person who can stand in one place for too long. Until the end, I will always be a traveler or wanderer who just can’t live life without adventures! (Be prepared for long and boring writings by me. For those who don’t have the patience to read check out just the bold sentences.)

Two weeks ago I talked about my plans for the future and how I would like to travel the world rather than live the life others call normal. ‘Hasan asked on that post:

I have a question though, you mentioned about deciding to take university or not cause it might get stuck in the way of your travels, how do you manage everything? Like I think if I start going around the world I will HAVE TO abandon the work and everything and if I do that, there is no way I can earn enough to be able to travel around the world or at least some places which I intend to.
I will love to get your thoughts and suggestions about it, thanks.

After I started to think how to respond I realized one life-changing fault in my own travel dreams. I have never written down what is my plan and how could I keep traveling full time for years. It’s quite funny because I am usually the person who scribbles her every thought in whatever paper she finds. That’s why I’m a writer, blogger and well dreamer.

So today I am going to tell you my plan. (I am making this up right now so let’s see how it goes…) Maybe this will help other travelers reading this, maybe not. I think everyone has their own path of coming nomad and this is just how I have planned to do it. There is no wrong way of coming traveler or so I hope…

1. Save Money to Travel

The harsh reality is that you can’t start traveling if you don’t have money. For me, this is the easy part. I don’t drink alcohol (no offense to those who do but it just tastes terrible for me) so I can save the money I would hypothetically spend to drinks. What are you ready to give up to achieve your travel dreams?

I’m cutting down the costs of doing fun things when not traveling. For example, I spend extra time to answer panels that reward you with movie tickets. Earlier this year I started doing mystery shopping which rewards me with present cards. So basically try to spend as little money as possible to the not essential things. It’s good to make a habit of saving money because you have to continue to save money while traveling.

2. Make Money If You Don’t Have Any

I have of course thought possibilities to start traveling even if I don’t have any savings at the moment when I decide to go. How to travel for free? I have many plans but my favorite ones are these two…

Working Holiday. Growing your amount of money to spend traveling seems so boring to do at home, right? So why not do it in Australia or New Zealand? I can’t come up any negative answers for that. So one year working and experiencing a new country with the benefits of being able to start your lifelong travels afterward. Not so bad deal.

Work on a cruise ship. Who wouldn’t love waking up every morning in a new place? Even if cruise workers’ life sounds like a dream it is hard work and long hours with not so good pay. However, you get free housing, food, etc. and get to see the world. For me, this sounds the perfect way to raise my travel savings. And it’s basically a way to travel for free!

Funny fact: Both of those are on my bucket list.

3. Save in Travel Expenses

I don’t need business class flights or fast trains. It’s okay to take a cheap night bus or walk around cities. Planning your route from city to city through the cheapest route is important.

For example, flying from Finland to London would cost me over 80 euros but is there a way to travel cheaper? I can start by taking 20 euros flight to Gdansk, Poland. From there it only costs 10 euros to get in Berlin by bus and from Berlin pay 8 euros to get Cologne from where it would take 8 euros to get in Brussels. And in the end from Brussels to London 14 euros. You still with me? After counting everything together it would take 60 euros from Finland to London and I can stop in many places on my way! It’s not easy to travel with almost no costs.

4. Travel & Save in Living Expenses

Work to get free accommodation. After working in a hostel I found from Helpx I was totally hooked to this way of traveling. If you are not familiar with the site let me shortly introduce the idea for you. You work for the place (usually hostel) for 3-5 hours per day and they give you free accommodation. Travelers can easily find free accommodation!

Last year I stayed two months in Kyoto, Japan and didn’t pay anything for the hostel I was staying in. Traveling and living in Kyoto for two months would have cost me almost one thousand euros if I had rented a place or stayed in hostels. For addition to the free stay I got some food, tickets to museums/events and insider tips to the city.

I, however, didn’t fall in love with this way of traveling because all the money I saved on my travels. Every night I met new people in the hostel’s common room. Listening to their stories was one of the best things that has ever happened to me. And their reaction when they heard I was working in the hostel made me realize I was living the life of travel I had been dreaming for: the cool person who works and lives in the hostel and knows all the secrets floating around the city.

5. Find Your Thing

Now when I have theoretically cut down my travel expenses and saved some money I need to find the job I can do while adventuring in the faraway places.

How do I want to spend the rest of my life? What things do I want to do to get money? What am I good at or better than others? Let’s make that your job. As list lover, my way to approach this question was to write down all my skills. Here is part of the list:

-Writing. I attended many years to a creative writing course.
-Solving other people’s problems.
-Making travel plans, finding interesting places from the internet
-Doing web searches and finding the answer to any question
-Reading tarot cards (btw anyone needing their future predicted? :D)
-Taking decent photographs
-Traveling and writing a travel blog about the places I have seen.

6. Work, work, work

Time to make my list sound more like real working opportunities. There are two ways for that: what I hope I can do in future and what I am ready to do. You see, I have always had two dreams. If you have read my travel blog, you know the first one is to adventure around the world. And maybe you can guess that the second dream is to make living by writing.

Writing is something I am going to do even if no one would read my writings. There, however, is almost no change for that to be my income. So what is the real plan?

In the best case scenario I would be able to get some money from this blog, maybe start a youtube channel and review products/holidays/travels from brands I love. In addition that little money I will get from those things a freelancer writing is my keyword. Translating from English to Finnish (after I master my language skills also from Finnish to English). Writing articles, blog posts and whatever. Want someone to write you travel blog post? Feel free to ask!

Making my own writing course is also in a planning stage. I know millions of writing practices and prompts. Maybe selling my problem-solving skills or tarot card readings in Fiverr? People sell crazy stuff there so I would come up with more. Every cent counts.

Writing to Finnish travel magazines is also a big dream with no guarantee to never happen. But girl can hope and dream as much as she likes… Someone, please hire me? (I’m not desperate but millionaire husband would be also a good idea?)

7. Just Travel and Believe in Yourself

Sounds stupid but if I don’t leave because of being scared of not succeeding there is no way of living the life making me happy. I may return back home crying after traveling for a few months but it’s not stopping me from trying. This is the way I want to spend the rest of my life.

EXTRA… Survey Sites

Did I already mention these? Oh, yes in the first point. Before you call me stupid or something I will reveal to you that I am totally hooked to survey sites. And if you pick right ones you will (slowly) collect points towards travel gift cards! So it’s a good way to get some extra spending credit for your adventures.

Just as an example I have been on this site (sorry everyone I think it is only in Finland) starting from the year I turned eighteen. So soon three years. I have had long periods when I haven’t done any surveys so maybe approximately survey once a month during that three years. Guess how many 20 euros gift cards have I received? Six. So if I had used those to get travel gift card I would have enjoyed holiday costing 120 euros.

.    .    .

I hope you enjoyed today’s travel blog post and hearing about my “dream” plan. And like always I would be more than happy to hear your opinions. Do you have any tips for me? Or what kind of plans do you have?

I am now leaving towards Helsinki (Finland’s capital) and boarding a cruise ship towards Sweden. I will see you soon with more travel stories!

With adventurous mind,
Lost Viivi

137 thoughts on “Traveling the rest of my life?”

  2. Hey Viivi, thanks for the Like in my blog worldtravellerin.wordpress.com!
    Your looks so nice, interesting thought I already thought about a lot but I have to admit that the German structure is getting me after some months of travelling – I am always happy to go back in “structured life” again haha and youu? 🙂
    Lisa

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    1. Hello Lisa! I really liked your blog. You have travelled to so many interesting destinations. I have to say that for me if I could decide I would always live freely without any plans. But I can see why some people like structured life style, it has its own good points. 🙂

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  7. I enjoyed reading your article! It’s true that to travel you need miney bt yiu seem to have come up with a solution! Also, tarot readers are needed anywhere in the world right??😊

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    1. Thank you! And I think tarot card reader is totally legit profession I should definitely consider (or maybe not..) And I think if you want something enough you can always find the solution 🙂

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  9. At the end of the day it is the things you have not done you regret over things you tried, loved, hated or were indifferent too (all good is a learning experience). Your list was full of good ideas and it will be so worth it. Just read a book on gratitude and research said we are more grateful for experiences than material items (which fade as soon as we get them home). Experiences we carry forever.

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    1. So inspiring words and I totally agree with you! You can’t know if you will like something or if it’s the right path for you if you haven’t tried it. I hope all good for you and thanks for commenting.

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  11. I have been living your dream for decades now, you share some great ideas but there are more. Woofing is work on organic farms around the world in return for accom/food. Relocation vans is a cheaper way of travel, you usually pay $1 rent per day to cover their insurance. They provide some of your fuel money while you drive the van back to where the tourist started from. In Europe I used to get a Euro-pass for the trains, easier to sleep on overnight, arrive at your destination fresh and walk around. Many many ways it can be done, trading, sharing rides, etc. Once you are comfortable about being on the road more opportunities open up.

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    1. I’m really envious for your life then! 🙂 Thanks for these tips. My first time of hearing about the van thing but I should research it more now. Maybe I can someday live like you do…

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    1. Well travelling with kids is possible too and even if you have to had home base it doesn’t mean your adventures will not be as fun and amazing as if you would just travel freely. I hope safe travels for you! 🙂

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  14. Was it scary for you the first time you started traveling? I’ve been traveling for a while now, and looking back now I remember being so freaked out when I first left home. What was leaving for the first time like for you?

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    1. I’m still scared every time I leave! But the first time I left alone (I was going to Japan for three months) I was thinking the whole flight that it was bad idea to leave and that I would not survive alone. Now I know I will survive no matter what so I don’t need to be scared about that anymore.

      I think it’s natural to feel scared when leaving for the first time. 🙂

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  15. Pursue your dreams and adjust life as you proceed; otherwise you’ll look back years from now and wonder about the decision. If you need to ease up on the schedule then do so. Then regroup and pursue again.

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  16. It’s definitely not impossible. There are actually a lot of options out there to help anybody travel, like teaching English. That’s what I do, and so far, it’s paid off.

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  17. I too seek adventure through travel! 🙂

    I just moved countries and will be moving relatively soon again. You can make this your reality too if you work hard, save harder and have the courage to just go!

    Best of luck on your adventures.

    Keep up the good work and don’t be a stranger.

    Eli

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  20. Having done just that (spent my life traveling) I just wanted to encourage you that yes, it can be done (though it can be tough, even a little scary at times lol!) The more you do it the easier it becomes.
    My husband and I mostly utilized English teaching – good teachers always seemed to be in demand and its often that needed cash in hand either through a school or as a private teacher. (Getting a TEFL qualification can be very useful and it’s fast and easy to get). As you mentioned there are other options but most tend to take a while before you get income coming in. My suggestion would be to go work somewhere for a while to get acclimatized/ learn the ropes etc. It’s a good first step and you can often save more easily as your salary in many places tends to be much higher than the cost of living there. Live like the natives. It’s cheaper and you learn more (be safe though). Once you’ve got it down you can become your own master. Good luck!

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    1. Thank you for your motivating words! I needed them right now. 🙂

      I wish I can live one day in the future like you do. Traveling really is amazing life style.

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        1. Definitely a great way to get started. I’m not sure what my future career will be, but I have to admit that I didn’t think I’d enjoy teaching this much. You never know, I suppose.

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  21. Your dreams belong to YOU! There is no wrong way to chase YOUR dreams. You’ll learn along the way, which is the beautiful thing called life. Don’t fall victim to trying to do a “normal” schedule/ job to save. I work for the airlines and make MY schedule MY way. I fly practically free and can take off when I want. Next month I’m gone for 12 days. I’ve already worked enough hours to not worry about bills.

    If there’s a will there’s a way. Find YOUR way!

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  22. It all sounds so easy but over my many years traveling I have met many drop-outs from the world of work who are living the traveling lifestyle but in the process they seem to have lost something. And I think you need to have a cap on when you will stop, nothing is worse than old hippies who are living in the past – just go to Goa or even Haight Ashbury where a few hang around begging. Best, I think, to save hard each year and maybe take 6 months off to go traveling, then back to work. Work gives a discipline to time, and somehow, call me a reactionary if you like, but I feel this is necessary to a happy and successful life. Plus, the release from the 9-5 job is so fantastic that taking off each time gives a real lift.

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    1. You may be right but in my case the situation is a little bit different. I have always known 9-5 job isn’t something I’m going to do. My parents both have their own companies and I have never lived in environment where my parents would have 9-5 jobs.

      When I was child they were home a lot but they also worked more than my friends’ parents did. I have always known 9-5 job would not be for me but rather I want to be like my parents. I’m only 21 but I have already had two small businesses. One of them made money quite well.

      So for me traveling and making money on my own terms is something I think I can do. I will find a way to earn money and keep traveling. Maybe not forever but until I will get bored to it. 🙂

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  23. I think saving money on drinks is the easiest thing to do. So many of my friends dump more than $100 per week just at bars and liquor stores. You’re the only other person I know who doesn’t care for drinks! That is seriously so rare! High five!

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    1. I’m sure that you can do the traveling even if you have a family! Of course if you want to travel full time with kids you have to teach them yourself because they can’t attend to school. But the traveling part probably isn’t that hard. Kids love new countries as much as adults 🙂 I’m sorry I can’t help you in this matter but I really hope you can do it!

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      1. I hope so, too! I just remember moving every other year growing up and never maintaining the same friendships so I think part of me longs for stability for my future children. But who knows… Life is unpredictable!

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        1. You can always travel a lot on the children’s holidays! Or I have some friends who did spend one year abroad with their families when they were younger. I think you will be good parent because you think like that 🙂

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  27. Thanks for telling us about Helpx! I am from the US and always dreamed of working at a B&B out of the country…I finally found a good way to do it! I share your dream and right now, what I am doing is working on a 6 month contract on the island of Bonaire so that I can go diving on my days off, make money, and live abroad! Just keep going from contract to contract and make a list of your top ten countries to work in over 5 years!

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    1. I’m happy to be helpful. There is other sites like helpx too (for example workaway). Working six months abroad sounds like a dream! I hope I can do that too someday. Thanks for commenting 🙂

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    1. Your twins are lucky! If I told my parents about these plans I would probably be told that my plans are not realistic 😀

      Thanks for commenting and I will check out your blog 🙂

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  35. Hey! You want to work as a translator? That is pretty cool. Anything with english, just ask me straight up. If I ever learn Finnish, I will come running right to you (Wink)

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    1. Thanks! One of my dreams was to go and study translating but I’m not good enough in English to do that 😀 I can translate anything from English to Finnish but not good enough the other way around. You are welcome to ask any Finnish words you ever need 😛

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          1. I think your English is really good, nearly sounds native. And the more you blog the better it’ll get. I can’t even read children’s books in my second language without having to look words up, and I’m often too shy to try speaking because I think I’m not good enough, which means I don’t learn! Don’t beat yourself up, you’re doing great!

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            1. What’s your second language? You should just try to read and speak as much as you can so you will get better at it. I can write English but can’t really pronounce the words or talk 😀

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    1. I’m glad you found my article useful 🙂 For the survey sites you should use google and do a lot of research because it depends where are you from. I can mostly recommend sites for Finns because it’s my nationality.

      Toluna is one site that works in many countries and I use. It takes a lot of time so I prefer other sites…

      I’m sorry I couldn’t be more helpful! Thanks for commenting 🙂

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  40. This is a great post, I would absolutely love to be able to travel for the rest of my life. Unfortunately, I dont think it is as easy as you have written it above but you can definitely do it. If you are capable to have an online business which you can manage anywhere in the world and still make enough money. I think that this would be the perfect situation and hopefully where I will be in the future. I hope that you find the perfect situation and can travel for the rest of your life. Evangeline Laurel.

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  41. Dear Neidotta,
    Thank you for stopping by my blog. I really enjoyed your beautiful country and I hope I can make it back there someday for a longer stay. Your travel plans are impressive. Are you familiar with couchsurfing.com? That is one way to find free accommodation and friendly hosts. In some places, like India, you can often stay for free in Hindu dharamshalas (pilgrim accommodation) and eat free food in the “langars” of Sikh temples. I wish you lots of success in realizing your dream!

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    1. Hello! I’m glad you enjoyed your time in Finland. I really liked your post about Helsinki. I have heard about couchsurfing but haven’t yet tried it. I may be too shy to sleep in strangers home.

      Thanks for the tips about visiting India. It’s on my list of places to go in future. I hope all good for you and thank you for commenting. 🙂

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      1. You should try couchsurfing, it’s great! Just try a short stay of one or two nights first, and try to find somebody with similar interests and who speaks your language(s), so you have plenty to talk about. It’s probably best to stay with an experienced host for your first time, then you can be confident it’s safe, and they’ll know what works best with guests and it wont be awkward.

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  42. I have a few tips for you. One is the website Workaway.info – it is pretty much the same as helpx – but I have done both and I prefer workaway. I think it has a better variety of projects on it.

    The other thing is to look up EVS. European Voluntary Service. It is an EU funded volunteer project for all European citizens between the age of 18-31. They have a huge database of projects in all different kinds of sectors (animals, children, disabilities, arts, history, torture victims) and in pretty much every country in Europe. I did it for a year working with stray cats and dogs in the Republic of Moldova and it is amazing – I also met several Finns who have done it. I really recommend that you look it up as it is up to a year of potentially life changing travelling experience.

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    1. I decided Helpx over Workaway because it had more places to volunteer in Japan. But now when I am looking the site again Workaway has more interesting projects in Europe.:)

      This is my first time hearing about EVS. It sounds interesting and thing I would like. Thank you for telling me! I will definitely take closer look to it 🙂

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  43. A dream is a dream. It’s a passion, a desire, it’s what eating inside of you. A dream is a dream. Obviously, you gonna have to work on it. There really isn’t questions to be asked. Raising questions on how feasible it is just gonna drives you away from your dream. I know traveling is a dream that doesn’t make money but the other way around. But think about artists, models, singers, and dancers, those kind of dreams, that make money, takes a lot of risks, hardship, time, and effort. To dream to travel is totally a feasible dream. You sound like you had a solid plan. Good luck! I LOVE your spirit.

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    1. Thank you for your words! Really inspiring 🙂 And you are true when you talk about artists, models, etc. I just need to go towards my dreams bravely. I hope all good for you too.

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  48. Your plan on saving money when travelling is great, but will you need accommodation on the way? If so, it may work out more expensive in the end. If not, you may not be able to have a shower! Regardless this is a great read and I wish you all the best…

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    1. Yes I know I need accommodation but even if I lived in one place I would need place to live so any way I need to find job that pays enough. And if I want to save money I will try to find free accommodations. Thanks for commenting! 🙂

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      1. Sorry if my comment sounded rude, I was talking specifically about saving money when travelling, from example getting somewhere via several different places. You have to factor in accommodation expense can mean that it’s not worth it. If you can get free accommodation though that’s great!

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        1. No it wasn’t rude I just understood it wrongly 🙂 Yes, it may be more expensive after you have to pay for accommodation but I think it will be cheaper on long run. If you are traveling for long time you get to see more places on the way and it’s cheaper than visit them some other time. And for one night stay it is quite easy to get free accommodation by couchsurfing for example.

          Thanks for the insight and commenting. And sorry if my answer sounded rude. 🙂

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        2. We are on a round the world trip and are spending much less each month than we did at home, even though in the UK we were living as frugally as possible because of saving up. This is partly because we are visiting countries where things are cheaper because of exchange rates. But even in expensive countries it’s possible if you use couchsurfing, or work in exchange for accommodation for a few weeks at a time, and maybe hitchhike. Staying in one place can be really expensive too – you get bored and spend money to entertain yourself (I do anyway!), and usually have a lot of expenses from having your own place.

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