IamA Digital Nomad and Traveller, 5 years ago I quit my job to travel. 5 Continents, 30+ countries and counting. AMA!

I've always wanted to travel arround the world like this, making websites and writting a guide but there was always this little voice in my head telling me "no, you can't do this, it will be hard to survive and find some work".

How do you find work ? Do you make enought money to live well ? Is there some time you can't move because flight were too expensives, or sometime you were about to stop travelling ?

A lot of people don't believe me when I first say this but we actually save more money travelling than we would living in either of our home countries (UK & Canada) Because we generally live in countries with a lower cost of living, still ean pounds and dollars, are generally frugal and travel slow we have been able to save up a decent safety net so money should not stop us doing anything we really want to do. (not that we are millionaires, I am in a $20 a night hostel right now) EDIT: How find work? Online mostly, I have quite a lot on my plate right now which is a very fortunate position to be in. When I started I was practically working for free.

Favorite memory? Best memory? favorite place? favorite food? favorite food? eye color? name ;)

Tough one to start.

Favourite Memory - Have to say living in Napier Prison, New Zealand. An old prison which is now a tourist attraction. I got work as a tour guide and lived in the cells. It was just creepy but cool at the same time. I also met my girlfriend there.

Best Memory - Same Question? I'll just shoot another. Never experienced anything like a Newfoundland winter before. I picked up work at FutureShop which was like a 3 hour walk from where I lived. One morning the buses were cancelled because of a heeavy snowfall. I decided to walk to work and it took me 4.5 hours but was my best ever hike. I felt like an arctic explorer.

Favourite Place - Never have a favourite. Besties include Cambodia- Sad history, great people. Malaysia - food and culture and Sri Lanka - just cool.

Favourite Food - That guy who made 1RM (30 cents) Samosas in Georgetown Penang is my hero.

Eye Colour - Blue

Name - Lee

People don't appreciate Newfoundland winters until they've lived through one!

I feel like I should get a badge.

Which country had the most beautiful women? (obvious brownie points for saying your gf's country of origin not withstanding)

There have been a few countries where I have noted the woman are a notch above. Serbia was one of them, the Philippines was another. Of course every place has beautiful women though.

EDIT: I still want the Canada Brownie points

How do you deal with an internet connection? If you need to contact your clients, but don't have internet or a phone signal, how do you handle this situation? Thanks for the AMA.

Internet connection is huge. I always have a local sim with data that I can tether and internet at hostel/hotel if possible. If we are going somewhere without any connectivity I let my clients know I'll be uncontactable for a few days. I'm open with my clients about my lifestyle so everyone understands.

I understand, awesome. Thanks for the reply. Another question I have, a bit more specific: what carrier do you use for traveling internationally and does the cost add up quickly? What sort of data plan do you use and is there a carrier you can recommend?

He has a GSM phone. So he has the ability to just use a local carrier everywhere he goes. I would imagine he uses a 3rd party service like Google voice to keep the same phone number internationally.

True but don't bother having an international number. People contact me through facebook/email/skype.

Hi! I am a guitarist who plans to move out to USA/Europe for building my music career. I'm from india and i've heard that USA can be quite strict in letting in immigrants who dont have a work/education purpose.

Is that true? And is it easier getting a permanent residency in europe? How is the music scene for rock guitarists in european countries? (I do have a useless bachelors in computer engineering degree if it helps, but i mostly rotelearned and dont know shit about coding):)

I am not an immigration expert. I generally never settle anywhere. These countries are probably the hardest to settle permanently. I am also not sure about the rock scene, I just drink and listen to the music. Good luck though.

Okay thanks :)

"These countries are probably the hardest to settle permanently."

What makes you say that?

The USA are cautious to about letting in people to work and make money which makes settling there very hard. Europe is less cautious but because an EU passport grants you the right to settling anywhere in the EU they tend to make it difficult to get one.

What kind of laptop do you prefer to do your work?

I use a little HP - this one http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/search-keywords/703_7006_70006_xx_xx/hp/xx-criteria.html

Its small and just about powerful enough to do what I need but cheap enough to replace in an emergency.

Will you ever return to one country? If yes, to witch one ?

Without a doubt. I have unfinished business in New Zealand. Most of Europe I have only been to capitals and the US seems endless.

Were you able to pick up a basic knowledge base of the native language(s) in each country you visited? How difficult were the language barriers for you at first?

Very basic. In this sense I am an awful traveller, its not that I don't try. I am just useless at languages. I have an app to learn Spanish (Duolingo) and I fail the tests 90% of the time :) Luckily people are very patient and tend to want to help despite barriers, google translate helps a lot too. Lots of English speakers around too which helps. My girlfriend is better at languages.

What's a piece of advice that changed the way you travel?

A friend pointed out that I always asked what was the cheapest, not the best, or the best value. A great lesson in South East Asia where the difference between a decent hotel room and one that's falling apart can be $3.

What's the scariest thing that's happened to you?

Luckily nothing of note. I broke both my wrists in Canada falling off my bike. Not scary just a pain. Cost my travel insurance $4000!

Wow, only 4k! Three weeks ago I shattered my right wrist, with surgery and hospital bill it came out to 27k. I do live in the states though!

Wow, just wow.

Do you sometimes take extra jobs (e.g. berry picking, windows washing, etc)?

Used to, don't need to anymore as my freelance work generally pays better.

I generally worked in my skill set though, I used to pick up Christmas work in electrical stores. Commission can be really good that time of year and they want all the good staff they can get.

What is the most disturbing thing you have seen ?

We went to the killing fields in Cambodia. Genocide is just horrific. The poverty of a lot of the countries we visit can be eye opening. Child labour and begging can be a source of confliction.

Aside from the serious stuff, people eating what appeared to be fish head curry for breakfast n Sri Lanka was pretty disturbing.

Fish head curry is tasty. I love it. Why is it disturbing? Are you a vegetarian?

No, but breakfast? I don't eat fish is why it might be more disturbing to me.

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Thank you. We kind of chose Sri Lanka by accident (cheap flight) but loved it and so glad we did.

30 countries in 5 years? you don't get an yearning to stay somewhere and experience it more intimately? if you did where would it be?

what sort of stuff does your gf write? any links?

Yes, I have come to the opinion that its better to spend 3 months in one country than 1 month in 3. But I have the luxury of knowing I will get to the places I want to go. It was a bit of a rush through Europe that racked up the tally.

Kelly writes a variety of things, I made her a simple portfolio website http://kdunning.com .

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The word proof is now in the sidebar, though I'm not nearly famous enough to have copycats

Did anyone give you grief for quitting your job to travel? Do you ever regret it or was it the best thing you ever did?

To be honest it was mostly supportive. A lot of people questioned how I would get by as I did not have a freelance career at that point. Because I was willing to work I knew I would get by anywhere I was allowed to.

What has to be the weirdest thing you saw in a country?

There's a few. A few weeks ago we were in a Church in Lima, Peru and they had a huge last supper painting with Jesus eating Guinea Pig. (It's a delicacy here, called Cuy)

Tell me about your work... How is the workflow? Do you design the site, buy a template and modify it, or something else? What about the hosting, how do you handle that, something like wpengine?

Doing something like this has been my dream for a long time, and now that there is someone with something that looks like the same skillset that I have, I wanna know how you handle the work aspect :)

Also, have you had some clientsfromhell while travelling?

I buy good quality premium themes and edit as needed. I do a little on Photoshop for asthetics. I honestly just use godaddy to host at the moment but will be switching shortly as everything everyone says is true. I usually get on with my clients. Kelly has had a few who are hard work with her writing but most my clients know so little about websites are just happy I'm not screwing them over and give them a good site, pretty cheap.

Thanks for doing this!

What led you to this point in your life and what have you learned most from it?

Not a problem, I am really enjoying it. I was raised in small town UK. I decided not to further my education after high school and I applied to join the Royal Navy. I was accepted but it took over a year to get a start date, which was six months after. Between the ages of 16-17 I had really changed, I worked, I drank and moved out of home. I was truly independent and the thought of losing my newly gained independence scared me. I called my Navy guy and cancelled. The two biggest decisions of my life were not to do things at that point (go to college/navy). I always wanted to travel and live ikn a different country, when I heard about working holiday visas it was only a matter of time before I was heading away. Then I just loved it, met a wonderful person to share my life with and worked hard at building our life. The thing I have learned most is how incredibly fortunate I am to be able to do what I do.

What country you have travelled but like to visit again?

There are so many. I always think the world gets bigger the more you travel, you realise there is so much more to the places you visit and I always leave thinking I should have done more. A country that stands out to me in this regard is the USA, its just massive.

what do you figure is your average cost per day or another way to look at it ,your cost per mile traveled .......thanks

I would hate to work out per mile travelled and cost per day really depends on country. I would average it out though at a guess of around $30-$50 for the two of us per day. (excluding big expense like flights of course)

What is the most amazing thing you have seen on your travels?

A parrot riding a bicycle in the Algarve, Portugal. We were at Machu Picchu last week, thats up there. The world is full of natural beauty. It's hard to pick from so many.

Do you miss not regularly meeting up with friends?

Yes, my favourite football team are playing in a few hours and I would just love to be there. I see meet ups on Facebook and wish I could transport myself back. Its a small price though.

Which team??

Accrington Stanley

Accrington Stanley, one if not the eldest team in English Football.

Thank's for the IAMA, and kudos for travelling around!

For some strange reason they have Saamid Eatnan which is a Norwegian Grand-Prix song as a theme song.

Sad to say none of my friends would go with me when I visited England the last time. For some reason, football in the lower division isn't for everyone..

We have a group of Norwegians that come over at least once a season. They proceed to get hammered for the weekend but are genuinely nice blokes.

As for the song, our lot will sing anything catchy.

Travelling sounds nice, but what if one's skillset doesn't lend itself towards freelance work or digital-only? Or even worse, what if you can do something anywhere, but cannot find customers willing to work with you travelling? Are these valid concerns? have you encountered issues like these?

Absolutely valid concerns. The best thing I ever did was (my girlfriend did the same) build up a client base while in one place and working full time.

The first time I left I just did regular jobs on a working holiday visa in New Zealand. It was later I slowly built up the freelance work. There are many different ways to work and travel, I use a cruise ship analogy, these things are floating cities so need people of every skillset and all these people get to work and travel and do very different jobs.

How much did it cost you so far? What are your Top 5 Countries so far? What are your worst?

I don't dare add it up! If we earned less I could travel a lot cheaper. Never more than $2000 per month for the 2 of us. (excluding flights etc)

Don't have a top 5 but will throw 5 out I love - Malaysia, Sri Lanka, USA, Peru, Cambodia.

What has been the greatest internal shift in your cultural awareness? How has this journey changed the way you perceive your life and impact on the world you live in?

I used to think because I was brought up in working class UK I was poor and that we didn't have a lot growing up. Comparatively I am so rich relative to so much of the world. Massive shift, I now think about this a lot.

Cultural awareness - a country is not there to entertain me, I am a guest.

Oh god. My fiance and I also build and host WP blogs for a side-job which we do quite well on, and I've been trying to convince him to come with me and just go... He's a real career-minded person though, so isn't ready to take that step yet.

Q: Does your business come from referral mostly, or do you have some other form of marketing strategy to keep those jobs coming in.

Maybe you do this already, but I can really recommend MAMP, localserver, so you don't always have to rely on internet connection to do the actual build of the site. Goooood luck on your future travels, and know that I am jelly! :)

Thanks for the recommendation, I'll check it out. I am self taught so there are some real gaps in the things I can do. I try make up for it with effort and perseverance.

A: Mainly referral, once my friends group found out what I did there was always someone who wanted a website from me. I have thought about sending a few emails to businesses without or with crappy websites. Not happened yet!

I see. Most of the sites we do are in the $10K range and up... We design and build them from scratch, and it's really a great side-income for us. Referral mostly, but it doesn't hurt to get your name out there, either! I'm really, really jealous of you :) Have fun!

You charge way more than me! but are probably much more skilled. Thanks for your kind words.

So, uh, what do you charge for developing wordpress sites? Specifically, one that would need membership management, a calendar, the ability to email members about meeting events on the calendar, etc?

Case by case basis anything from £200-£1000 depending on need. I tend to research the specifics before setting a price. I had one client (a good friend of mine) claim he wanted a simple website, blog, pages etc just that it look nice He ended up with a very cheap eCommerce site with a load of functionality (Not complaining hes not a bad person to have owe you a favour) . Your request seems simple enough. Message me if you want to talk.

Have you been to Austria? :) If so, what do you think of Vienna?

Yes. Vienna is beautiful but a little overpriced when coming in from Bratislava. Not my favourite place in the world based on value but I met some really friendly people there.

How much money did you have in the bank when you left your job?

And what was the biggest hurdle you had to overcome while you were getting your freelance career up and running?

First time when I went to NZ i had $3000 for the year. That meant I had to work hard. After I met my girlfriend we save up around $6000 before we went full on working online only.

How is UK income tax a headache if you are out of the country for (I assume) more than 6 months in a year?

Sorry I miswrote the whole thing - taxes is a headache. My girlfriend is Canadian, its mainly from her side. I have paid a lot in the UK and got a lot back as I shouldnt of paid. I paid taxes in New Zealand, got some back, then they asked for more. I'm pretty sure the accountant I got for this year knows what he is doing.

Any advice for a young traveler?

I'm 20 years old and travelling is something that intrests me! I'll be headed to Africa in March and I think it will be a start to a glorious life!

Do what you want to do, not what others say you should do. I can't really elaborate on that advice without telling you what you should do :)

How much do you earn per months to allow you to travel that much ?

Travelling is cheaper than living in one place for us. We make £&$ and spend Thai Baht or Peruvian Soles. When we started I calculated we needed to make $2500 pcm between us to sustain our travels and save. We generally make more.

Ok then it's totally enough. Which country you didn't visit and you want to go ?

And is there a country that you will never try to go, or might be impossible ?

I want to go India, Argentina, Japan, Fiji, Barbados, Mexico and so many others. I tend not to bother trying to travel in inherently dangerous or war torn countries. I like my life.

Hi, first of all thanks for doing this.

So me and my girlfriend are planning later this year to travel from Europe to Central America/Caribbean and then down to Argentina taking things in on the way. Only thing is we plan to do all this without flying. Any tips?

I try not to fly, usually only fly if we pretty much have to. Not done this sort of thing across the atlantic though! Only tips, stay safe, have fun, take your chances.

Do you live solely on the money you make or did you have a large savings or trust fund when you started out? r

Before I travelled I pretty much lived payday to payday. I started saving to learn to drive and this became my travel fund. My girlfriend actually makes a lot more money than me with her writing but we set the whole business up together and all are savings are from this.

Hey there. Very inspired by this ... I'm towards the end of a 14 month trip in the Americas (mostly south, central). I always planned to do some work like you (I am a web developer) but never slowed down enough to get around to it - travel is time consuming! We had an income from renting out our house and a limited amount of time so it wasn't quite so important.

But now I'm keen to head home for a while and do some freelancing rather than more permanent jobs, then rent the house out again and slow travel whilst working.

I know you said you use elance, freelancer etc ... Do you have any tips to get started with zero history and profile? Most of the contacts I have would be for large, long term contracts that require physical presence, not really suitable.

Slow travel is important to having time to work. For starting out without history you just need to slash prices and do some graft. Kelly worked on oDesk on some crappy jobs just to build up some credibility. It's really an investment.

What do you mean work online? What is your exact skillset? Programming? Web Design? Writing? Etc?

I have gone into detail below. I am not specifically skilled. I make wordpress websites for small businesses. Kind of more of a website assembler for people who do not know how.

How do you get the work for this companies? What is your professional website? What skills do you posses? E.g HTML/CSS/Javascript?

Answered a lot more detail below. My own website isnt finished but has a little of what I do. http://leescarter.co.uk/ .

We have this word in German to describe what you probably feel: fernweh.
The world is what you make of it. Godspeed.

Thank you! A new German word to go with prost!

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Was in Instanbul 6 months ago! Great city, now I can never un-know the taste of tear gas! As for meeting people, hostels are like speed dating for travel buddies, especially in Europe.

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Was only there like 5 days so just saw the obvious sites. Blue Mosque, Grand Bazaar, Taksim Square fights etc It's a great city to just walk around in, you are never 3 feet away from a kebab.

How did you have money to start this journey? How do you make money (without GF's help)?

I make money making websites as detailed. She makes more than me writing. We are "in it togther" though, I used to make more than her, then we threw everything at her work because we thought it had more earning potential. We are much better as a team.

What's your ethnicity? I'm assuming since you're from a small town in the UK you're white? Do you think being white has given you advantages/opportunities abroad that you may not have enjoyed if you were a different skin tone?

Yes I'm white. All I can say is almost definitely.

How did you travel around? The means of transportation I mean. Did you have a general idea of where you were going? Or did you just go where you felt would be "best" in this case? Lastly, what was the general order of where you went and what were the means of transportation to get there?

We tend to just hop from one place to another, its mainly public transport. Countries like Canada were easy, we just went west to east, most countries we have to make a decision.

Hey. Since you're so much used to travel, i've got a question for you. I'm a french (and not very good in english, but I try to improve it) med student and I always wanted to be a traveller.

Do you think there's room for that kind of person ? Do you think that they would let a foreigner physician help them (for not much money) ? I always wondered if being part of an international association was absolutly needed. I'm maybe a little naive, though.

(I speak about third world countries, obviously. I'm pretty sure americans wouldn't like that :p)

You would actually be better doing it in America with their healthcare costs, obviously not be allowed to work there and be open to lawsuits etc.

As a general rule I would say people who are sick will go for the best doctor available, foreign or not. I have literally 0 experience in this though.

Where are you now?

Cusco, Peru. Sunny day and I'm on reddit! go figure.

That's awesome, man! A few more you don't mind... Your lifestyle is exactly what I'd like to do for the rest of my 20s.

• What finally "made" you pack up and leave?
• How much cash did you start with?
• How often do you make it back home?

// edit: formatting

Thank you!

A long sleepless night made me finally decide I had to go. I can get very emo if I'm not doing what I want to be doing.

Around $6000 when we finally went online work only full time travellers.

Been home twice, so about every 2 years.

What annoys you the most about your own life?

I have no complaints. I'm a little lazy and tend to procrastinate but I can kick myself out of that most days.

What country has the best brothels?

Nice try Dad.

What's in your pocket?

Pocket knife, wallet, phone and cough sweets. They are minging.

How do you approach people for work in a new country that you are unfamiliar with or where you don't speak the language? Or do you work exclusively online in a sector that you are already established in?

I now work exclusively online. I have only really worked offline in English speaking roles.

How did you get the initial skill set that enabled you to make this decision?

Full credit to my parents, never discouraged me from taking any risks, made me work for practically everything and always supported my decisions.

If you don't mind, what do you do exactly foot work, and how did you get into it. I have designed some websites and would like to supplement my income while I travel

I just host websites on my webspace. A lot of my friends run businesses and got me to make them very basic websites which I created and manage for a small fee. My name gets passed around a lot because I keep things simple but give them what they want at a fair price.

Any tips on getting started. Any sites or ways to find clients

peopleperhour.com/odesk.com/elance.com

These sites are highly competetive though. If you can find work through other ways (emailing potential clients etc) to get started you may have more luck.

Have you ever been to India?

No, really looking forward to going there though. Very high on the list.

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I can't drive. Its amazing I have got anywhere. We tend to travel whichever is best for the budget, I do have a preference of trains, If its within a price range I will take a train every time. In practice the budget option is usually a bus.

Have you ever been countries such as Japan and South Korea? If so what was it like? (Food, entertainment, hotels etc) Am planning to go visit one of those countries one day.

Not yet! Been to a lot of South East Asia but not that high up yet. The girlfriend really wants to go Japan so I can see ourselves there in the future.

Nicest people?

Best food?

Hottest place?

Coldest place?

Places you would return to?

Places you wouldn't ever go back to?

Place you want to go the most?

Ok, few generalisations here, my mind probably changes on this daily but here goes.

Nicest people? Malaysia Best food? Malaysia Hottest place? Sri Lanka Coldest place? Canada Places you would return to? New Zealand Places you wouldn't ever go back to? None really. Place you want to go the most? Argentina (Because I am in touching distance)

If you come to Argentina, and if you visit Mar del Plata (500 km. from Buenos Aires city) I would totally invite you to have some beers.

...I'm serious!

Thank you, beers are always a good idea.Will let you know if I'm in the area!

I've been looking into trying to do this! What types of jobs are most travel-friendly? ALSO: from what I've read, US citizens are not allowed to work in the UK while visiting. How do you recommend I stay alive when I eventually visit there? (Other than saving ALL THE MONEY before heading over?)

Best advice, if you can. Work online. Nobody really cares if you do a bit of freelance work while you travel in the UK on your laptop. They would care if you took up employment.

What kind of freelance writing does your girlfriend do? I write myself and travel a lot but never considered I could travel AND work. That would be awesome to know!

Lots and lots, her website is http://kdunning.com took a while to build up her clients but now shes busier than ever.

If someone where to want to do what you do, what would they need to do to start off?

Create a reliable income online. Not as simple as it sounds but thats the trick.

Since you like Malaysian cuisine so much. Does your tongue can withstand hot and spicy food? Did you encounter any stereotypes when travelling?

Edit: Several questions more. What's the most important thing to be a writer. Do you like to read and what's your favourite book?

Love hot food, there's not much common food that is too hot for me.

You encounter every stereotype travelling and also you encounter lots of reasons you should not stereotype. I have me lots of horrible, arrogant, American tourists but so many more great ones.

My girlfriend is the writer but I think her most important asset is that she genuinely enjoys writing, its not a chore. She reads a lot, she likes Tom Robbins.

What do you do about health and travel insurance? Also, what's a good site to find Sim cards for when you are moving from one place to another? I envy your lifestyle. Thanks for doing this ama.

No problem. I buy local sim cards and switch out. I just generally google what the best one is for data in whatever country I am going to.

Travel insureance we just use worldnomads.com. They let us extend while we are travelling which is very important.

That is so amazing! I am currently planning something similar, as I can't see myself stay in just one place. I've already traveled a lot, can't stop now :).

So, question time :

1. How do you deal with mail and administrative things? What if someone needs to send you a letter, things like that?

2. What is your primary means of moving around? I love cars and bikes, I would just love one of those big car you can live in.

3. Maybe you could share your budget or hindsight on budget? I plan to work online and minimize my expense as much as possible but have no idea of how much I would need to make a month.

4. Is there any thing you regret not having the time to do?

5. Do you plan to stop traveling one day?

Good Luck!

1. My parents address is used for letters. We usually don't get sent physical mail to where we are.
2. Public transport. 3.I figured for me and Kelly to do this permanently we would need to jointly bring in a minimum of $2500 per month. That's a high figure for some countries but I wanted some wiggle.
3. I don't nearly see my nieces enough.
4. I'm sure it will happen but no plans are in place.

How do you do money wise? Not talking exact amounts but after my first 9 month trip I'm desperately trying to figure out how to make money while traveling. I started learning programming so eventually I can get there. I know how cheap traveling can be in most places but I was wondering if you're more making ends meet or actually saving while out there.

We save around half we make a month. It's growing!

What advice would you give a 20 something year old who had plans to travel and live in any odd place for the next 10 years or so experiencing life and soul searching sort of speaking? I really like the idea of this but could I realistically accomplish such a feat by myself?

I call that a Gap decade. There is no substitute for hard work. I know my lifestyle exists because of the hard work of my girlfriend and myself. The work is really high in the priority list but it can never take over. Not really advice but hope you can take something from it. (+ Can you do it- Ask yourself why can't you do it and break down them obstacles.)

I always wondered where/how/does a "digital nomad" report his taxes? And it's probably quite the "grey" area but do you just use a tourist visa/ ever had any problems with immigration?

Tourist visa mainly. I report to my home country (UK) unless I am on a work visa doing employed work which I pay to the country I am in. Massive grey area by the way, huge headache.

I want to do this. How can I do this?

And, how does tax work regarding your income?

You have to find your own way but building an income online is the key that worked for us. Tax is the same, no avoiding it, just file it at the end of the year as self employed.

Do you have any sort of past debts? Like a credit card or student loan? Or did you make it a point to pay these off before you did this? Or maybe you didnt even accrue any! Always been a question of mine for world travelers. Thanks!

Never used debt. Very lucky to be able to say that.

Firstly, you are living my dream, I truly envy you.

How did you get started?

Do you ever have trouble with so many languages?

And I know this might be a hard one, but has there ever been something that made you think about turning back?

Thank you for your words. I started by just getting a working holiday visa and spending 9 months working hard and travelling New Zealand. This is when I knew it was possible. I was going to do every working holiday visa I could. Then I met my girlfriend and we came up with an even better idea. Work online. Not wanted to turn back yet, a few of my relatives have died while have been away though, very tough.

Me and my gf are going on a trip through central America next month. We are starting in cancun, Mexico and ending somewhere in Costa Rica. Travelling on a shoe string... Do you have any pointers?

Not for them places, currently in Peru but never been to central America. General travel on a shoestring pointers is cut down the 3 biggest costs as much as possible. That's transport, accommodation and food. If you can trade some comfort for cost you will save a lot but if you really want to do something, try not let cost get in the way, you may regret it.

When you first started out how did you have the money for this

Just saved every penny I could for a flight/work visa and safety net. Then went.

I am currently a college student and plan on traveling after I graduate. Growing up I traveled all over the U.S. I moved seven times before the age of 14. I was wondering if you had any tips for traveling abroad and how much money should I save before taking off on a worldwide endeavor?

They way we do things is that we always have money coming in so its hard for me to figure how it would be done just on savings. I would say if you wanted to do it for extend lengths to find an income.

Thank you for the response. Sorry I should of clarified. What would be a good amount of savings to begin traveling? Just something to get me started traveling. I would try and find work while traveling.

I would say a good rule of thumb is 3 months worth of money for the place you plan to travel. Give you plenty of time to find work. So i guess this could be anywhere between $3000-$8000 depending on cost of living

How do you fund your travels? What are your finances like? Spending/month, etc...

Read above and below I have gone into some detail. We do have a good amount of savings through working online and living in cheaper countries.

How do you start? Where your courage cone from?

Went into further detail below. Always had supportive people around me, very lucky in that regard, makes everything easier.