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Travel or Meet Your Demise Trying

I’m looking for three or four guinea pigs for a project. I want to demonstrate how someone could step out of the rat race, liquidate their assets, and set off traveling the world. I’m looking for a reader who has already decided to dump it all and go, but who needs a little kick in [...]

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I’m looking for three or four guinea pigs for a project. I want to demonstrate how someone could step out of the rat race, liquidate their assets, and set off traveling the world. I’m looking for a reader who has already decided to dump it all and go, but who needs a little kick in the pants or some guidance. I want them to go public on this blog with their questions, needs, wants, fears, and confusion to be guided by me and our community of readers. I’m looking for someone with guts enough to ask questions, get advice, follow it, and send in status updates. We will help you step by step all the way through until you are set on your way or you decide to give it up.

I’ve said many times before that any person with a class-A passport can travel the world regardless of most any other factor. Now I want to prove it.

I tried to prove it myself back in 2009. I returned to the USA with virtually no money to my name and I saved enough to travel from a few months of manual, no-experience-or-education-required, work while drastically cutting the cost of my living expenses. I completed this project and said, “There, I showed you, anybody can do it.” But I don’t think anyone believed me. To be honest, I think I have too much experience with this lifestyle and mastered the project a little too easily for people who are just starting out have been adequately inspired.

I’m looking for a small group of people who are ready to either step into the traveler life or meet their demise trying live on this blog. We will document your progress step by step and offer advice and suggestions all along the way. We will coach you if you’re willing to play.

But I am going to say right now that it may not work out, this is an experiment, but I think we could all learn something from trying.

So if you’re interested in starting out traveling (not as a vacation but a lifestyle) and would like the guidance of this community, either comment on this page or send me an email through the form in the sidebar.



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Filed under: Letter From The Editor

About the Author:

I am the founder and editor of Vagabond Journey. I’ve been traveling the world since 1999, through 91 countries. I am the author of the book, Ghost Cities of China and have written for The Guardian, Forbes, Bloomberg, The Diplomat, the South China Morning Post, and other publications. has written 3692 posts on Vagabond Journey. Contact the author.

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VBJ is currently in: New York City

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  • Vagabond Journey January 23, 2013, 2:34 am

    This is a test of our new comment system.

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  • RootLeaf January 23, 2013, 3:26 am

    I want! To travel, as a lifestyle, indefinitely! But: I have a Kazakhstan passport, which is really not good at all. I am thinking of getting a property in Latvia for the sole purpose of getting an EU passport. My job, a valued senior translator-coordinator, is totally tele-commutable, and in the course of 2013 I will transition to location-independence – this has been discussed with our director, it’s happening. Simply the access to our agency’s mailbox is enough to sustain me beautifully in freelance mode. Thus, with a pretty solid backdrop, my plan is to transition gradually, keeping my rather privileged access to paid work. The idea of location independence matured in my mind especially in the course of 2012, as I more and more realized that it is possible. I read lots of blogs. Starting any kind of business is not really my thing for various reasons, but I tend to come up with great optimization solutions to all kinds of computer workflows, so frankly if I can get my foot in a good door, I can perform. Actually I can’t even say that I even want to travel – I just want to not sit in the same place all the time! And also I want to bicycle down to Patagonia as a sort of introspective trip. But of course I want to see all these places with quirky names and stuff. And write about it! I like writing! But my writing is more subjective, philosophical, sometimes analytic and sometimes reality becomes suspended in favor of poetic flow. I will blog but I don’t expect much attention. So, I am in, I am following, and I will check in from time to time. Thank you!

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    • Vagabond Journey January 23, 2013, 4:07 am

      @RootLeaf Wow, it doesn’t even seem like you need our help. You have everything set and ready to go! Sweet strategy going for the Latvian Real Estate Investment scheme. Just be aware that there is a rather high amount limit of money that you have to invest for this to work (over 70,000 Euro). Man, if you have this kind of money why are you talking to me? haha.
       
      If you ever have any questions, feel free to send them over and we’ll answer them live on the blog.

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      • RootLeaf January 23, 2013, 5:24 am

        @Vagabond Journey  Thank you! The thing is that instead of being dependent on one job, it would be nice to explore other options. Frankly sometimes I think I would rather give massages than do computer stuff, so I am definitely looking for possibilities. So, sorry if my introduction is a bit like “I got, thanks”, but I do want to participate, learn and hopefully share options which will work for other people too. Thanks again!

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        • Vagabond Journey January 23, 2013, 6:08 am

          @RootLeaf Hey, you’re Dmitri! Didn’t recognize you behind your new avatar. Sounds excellent, man. Lets get started. We’ll introduce you to the community and then start working out any questions you may have. If you can send me an email that has your bio, your previous travels, your work skills etc . . .  we can start answering questions and working out problems.

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    • Vagabond Journey January 29, 2013, 7:36 pm

      @RootLeaf Hello Dmitri, 
      Do you want to get started this week? Just email me an outline of your situation and some questions you have about traveling full time, and I’ll answer them on the site so the community can contribute advice as well.

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  • AlfredoAvalos January 23, 2013, 7:56 am

    Aw, one year too late! However, I have not managed to get the grasp of it: I am still living off the sale of the house and stuff back home, I have worked at two hostels for accommodation and I am doing a website for accommodation as well, but money goes out and none has come in so far, I only seem to slow down expenses to a few coins a day, which is an achievement in itself.
     
    My Costa Rican passsport has worked fine, only needing paperwork done beforehand for  Albania, some CIS countries, Iran and USA. In some countries I am even allowed to work on a tourist visa, and in some I get very long stays easily.
     
    I have a couple initiatives rolling out this year to see if I manage to stay off the rat race longer.
     
    That being said, I will be looking forward as I may learn from this experiment, and will be happy to contribute with my own experience so far.

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    • Vagabond Journey January 29, 2013, 7:34 pm

      @AlfredoAvalos Hello Alf, 
      this would be excellent. Your situation is pretty classic: the traveler who’s running out of money that needs to find a good way to make a living on the road and staying out of the rat race. So just email me an outline of your travels so far, your background information (age, whatever, a photo would be good), and your questions and description of the challenges you’re facing and we can get started.

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  • amanda January 28, 2013, 5:22 pm

    I think you are talking about me here.   🙂  Currently-not in school, working for minimum wage and back in the hometown.

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    • Vagabond Journey January 28, 2013, 7:37 pm

      How much more school do you have to do? Not much, right?

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      • amanda January 29, 2013, 4:29 pm

        @Vagabond Journey I have 80credit hrs. as it stands. So at least another year and a half of school left.

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        • Vagabond Journey January 29, 2013, 7:30 pm

          That’s still a bit. Sure, you would be excellent for this “experiment” if you want to do it. I think you should finish school, as the advantages of just having that degree mean A LOT when trying to find work abroad. But maybe we can focus on this decision. If you want to send me an email outlining your situation, what you want to do, and the obstacles you’re having I’ll put it up here and we’ll all provide whatever advice, help, information we can 🙂

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