How to Quit Your Job and Travel the World

A question that I'm ALWAYS asked, is "Where do you have the money to travel so much, like did you win the lottery? Are you a trust fund baby?" The answer to both of these questions is NO. After I posted about travel tips, a friend of mine asked me about how to finance taking a year off, so I thought I would share some of my thoughts and experiences. Everyone has a different comfort level in terms of how much money we need to feel secure, but maybe what I have to say can help some of you make some plans. I do have to admit, however, one I don't have student loans, and two that I know my parents are in a position to help me if I get into a jam, so knowing that in the background gives me a level of security. However, you can make it work! You probably should just make a little fund that you absolutely do not touch! Only in case of an emergency.

First of all, you have to be ready to quit your job. This freaks a lot of people out. And for those of you who have loans, I can understand that. And unfortunately, I don't have a really great answer for that, except you just have to save more money. However, you can either think about living for the present, or living for the maybe one day distant future where you may not have enough money to pay for your kid's college education. I guess my answer to this is, well, I have the rest of my life to save. With this time off, it's true that I'm spending my savings, but it didn't take me that long to earn them in the first place, and really, you only live life once. It makes sense that it's especially hard to think about doing this in this economy, where people are having a hard time re-entering the work force. For some reason though, and maybe I'm being extremely naive, I'm not too worried about it. I'm not afraid to work in a coffee shop, or to cut back on my spending, or to even hide out on a farm for another year. But I'm at peace with my decision to be jobless because I have faith that things will work out in the end. I guess you can check back with me in few years to see where this philosophy goes!


Once you are comfortable with the idea of being jobless, you have to decide what kind of traveler you are. This is going to determine the amount of money that you need to save in order to travel. I am NOT the kind of traveler who sleeps in hotels, instead, I think of friends that I can stay with in different places around the world. If you are a capoeirista, it's EASY. Just find a group that you want to train with, get in touch with them and go. Chances are, someone will adopt you as a new member of the family and show you the ropes. If you don't play capoeira, then simply think of friends that you can stay with, and offer to pay a bit of rent. That will still be a cheaper option then staying in a hostel or hotel for any length of time. Also, craigslist exists in most cities of the world nowadays, and it's possible to find a reasonable apartment to rent for a few months. In Argentina, I found a studio in the middle of Palermo for $540 a month, which wasn't the cheapest option for Latin America, but kind of amazing to have my own cute little space for a bit and be in the heart of the city. Of course my friend wanted me to stay with her and her family for the entire time, bless her heart. (You are amazing Silvina!) I feel that this attitude is super common of Latin American families; to offer up their homes for long periods of time. Anyway, having a place to stay is key, because most of the money that you spend traveling is to cover housing. Once that is out of the way, your only expenses are food, transportation, and taking your hosts out to dinner!

So, quitting your job and traveling really does take some forethought and some time to SAVE SOME MONEY. I am going to say here, that I am not a huge consumer in normal life. I don't drink, and I spend most of my money on rent, food, capoeira, and my car. It took two years, living in North Carolina (where my rent was about $450 a month) to save enough money to feel comfortable in taking at least a year off, which currently is now about 15 months. The first time I took a year to travel, from fall 2006-spring 2007, it took me about 3 years to save about $10,000. (If you live in a big city it's possible! I was living in New York at the time, and making not that much as a teacher) It didn't quite last me an entire year, and foreign exchange rates were more favorable at that time, so I would suggest saving at least $15,000.

Basically what I'm saying is that you do have to consciously save. Try to cook more at home, cut down on your shopping (although thrift stores are a great way to save money AND be green.... no extra energy expended on making new clothes!), take the public transportation instead of taking a cab, or make your coffee at home with a reusable mug instead of going to Starbucks. If you saved an extra $300 a month, that's $3600 a year, and in 3 years you could have $10,200....that's good at least for 9 months.

The cost of essentials...

1) Health Insurance: This is probably the number one thing that people worry about when you are unemployed. But to make yourself feel better, and what I have, is a high deductible insurance plan. I pay about $70 a month for a $5000 yearly deductible. I really don't want to be out $5000, but if anything major happened, I wouldn't be in huge debt. You can also buy international travel insurance, which about 5 years ago I paid about $130 for 3 months. I would highly recommend this, I have a friend who fell off a balcony recently in Mexico, which included an airlift, who if it weren't for travel insurance would have had to pay out a huge sum of money.

You can also find sliding scale health clinics in the US, although you usually have to wait the whole day! If you are a woman, then check out Planned Parenthood.... they are amazing and usually offer free woman visits for people that have no income!

*Another note about High Deductible Health Insurance plans, make sure to get one where you get open an HSA, and Health Savings Plan. The IRS allows you to put in a little more than $3000 a year tax deductible to pay for medical expenses. It will come in handy at some point.

2) Jump on a friend or family's phone plan. Instead of paying $50-$60 a month for my own phone bill, my father added my line onto his plan, and I only have to pay about $15 a month. Plus, I didn't have to change my number.

3) Phones abroad. I have Verizon Wireless, so I don't have a CIM card. But if you do have another carrier, you can apparently get a new CIM card in whatever country you are in and use your phone there.... I have never done this, and I think there is some type of unlocking that has to happen. Ask someone else! What I have done though, is ask around if anyone has an old cellphone, and then buy a new CIM card, which is usually like $10, and then I have a cell phone to use while I'm there. Super helpful when making plans.

Ways to stretch your money

1) Work on a farm! When you work on farm, you usually don't get paid a lot, if anything at all, but room and board are free and the food is of course, the best you can get. There are a lot of ways to do this, one is through WWOOFING, which stands for Willing Workers on Organic Farms. Choose which country you want to go to, you pay about $25 dollars to access a list of farms, and then you just contact the farms and set up visits on your own. I have never actually done this, but I have friends who have and have had great experiences.

I found a farm in California through the ATTRA website: http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/internships/

2) Do language exchanges when you are abroad. Instead of paying for language lessons, put ads on craigslist that you are interested in doing a language exchange. You can usually find some new friends this way, and you don't have to pay for language lessons.


For me, my travels are soon to end, and I will have to get a job! But throughout the year, something that I had to keep reminding myself was that money comes and goes. I usually tried to be as economical as possible without being cheap! It's hard sometimes not to get caught up in the feeling that you are spending a lot of money, while not making that money back. But it's just part of traveling. Experiences cost money. If you want to eat that amazing meal, or stay in a comfortable place, or go to that capoeira event, there is a cost to that. Either you are willing to pay that expense or you are not, but it's better just to accept it and let that feeling go. It's especially important when it comes to treating friends who have helped you out along the way. It is all extremely worth it in the end.

Happy Travels!

Papa Chang's Brief History of Taiwan

Read and inform yourself about the History of Taiwan, in my father's words (although a few of them are mine!)

Taiwan has been ruled by foreign powers for much of its existence; from Spain to the Dutch, to China, to Japan (50 years), and then now to the Kuomintang Chinese (55 years and counting). When the Chinese started to immigrate to Taiwan over 500 years ago, it was all single young males. They intermarried with native women. Therefore, Taiwanese, (not including the 2 million Chinese who came with Chiang in 1949) have a very high percentage of local aboriginal blood.

In 1895, China lost in the Sino-Japan war. As a result, China gave Korea and Taiwan to Japan as colonies. Taiwan spent 50 years as a colony of Japan, who while a strict ruler, allowed Taiwanese elite to be educated and assimilate into Japanese culture. During this period, the Japanese implemented much of the infrastructure that exists in Taiwan today, including railways and city sewage systems. In 1945 following Japan's loss in World War II, people in Taiwan were glad to return to the “Mother Land." However, the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) and Chiang Kai-Shek were extremely corrupt, and they ruled Taiwan with the same brutality that they had ruled China. In 1947, on February 28, the infamous “2-28 Incident” began. Here the native Taiwanese rebelled against the KMT. It is said the KMT massacred approximately 20,000 Taiwanese in several months time, mostly educated and political elite. It was the Taiwanese against the Chinese. The 2-28 Incident had a profound effect on Taiwan and it continues to influence the relationship between Chinese mainlanders (who came to the island with the KMT) and Taiwanese natives to this day, similar to the the sentiments that the Chinese had against the Japanese regarding the Nanking massacre. (A great book about this is called The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang)

In 1949, the KMT were driven out of China by the communists and they fled to Taiwan. KMT then declared a martial law which lasted 38 years finally ending in 1987 (it was the longest period of martial law in any history). The KMT ruled by force and secret police, who were as ruthless as the Nazis. In 1950 the Korean War broke out and Truman decided to protect Taiwan from the Chinese communists. This saved the corrupted KMT government in Taiwan. However, the native Taiwanese were treated as 2nd class citizens and even today this mentality still exists in Taiwan.

The Chang family realizes that our history and blood line are different from the Chinese. Most of us now consider ourselves as Taiwanese. It might sound strange, but when I (my father) grew up, it was considered taboo to intermarry between Taiwanese and Chinese.

Today, Taiwan is a separate, democratic country. Whatever democracy we enjoy in Taiwan today was fought for long and hard by people who considered themselves none other than Taiwanese. Due to China's influence, we are NOT recognized as a country, do not have a seat in the United Nations, or membership in the WHO, the World Health Organization. Today, we just want the freedom to say who we are, and be proud of our own separate country and the freedom to say that we are a separate people.