This is How You’ll Feel Once You Quit Your Job to Travel

After a bit of a break, I’m back into writing more content! About a week ago, I had to hand in my computer for work and was temporarily without a laptop until I could buy one while I was back in the U.S. for a few days.

I’ve been officially unemployed for about a week now, and I’m not going to lie, it feels great.

But first some backstory on that….

How I’ve Become an Unemployed Nomad

It was almost 3 years now that my partner Lauren and I decided to move across the world to live and work in Sydney, Australia for a few years to experience more of the world and get away from cold and snowy Chicago.

Then it was just a little over a year ago that we decided that once our time in Sydney was over, we were going to quit our jobs and travel the world for 6 months before we returned to the United States.

Over the last few years, I’ve learned how cheaply and fairly comfortably you can travel the world long-term. If you’re not paying for an apartment, food, car and other bills in expensive city (or country in many cases), you can actually live on as little as $30/day in the case of Southeast Asia and $100/day in much of Europe.

So over the last few years, we’ve prioritized mindful spending and saving money in order to be able to finance a 6 month trip around the world with a budget of about $20,000. And just one week ago, I officially quit my job to being a 6-month adventure as an unemployed nomad.

The Stages of Emotion Once the Day Actually Comes

Over the last few months, and even more so in the last week, I’ve gone through a variety of different emotions with the thought of quitting my job and selling all of our belongings to live out of a backpack on my mind.

The main emotions I’ve felt are:

• Excitement: for adventure, new opportunities and freedom from much of the responsibility I’ve had over the past few years.
• Nervousness: about having no homebase, daily/weekly plan or how we will feel about living on the road long-term
• Fear: about having the right budget, getting robbed/ripped off/sick/injured, or wondering what we will do when we get back to the U.S.

I put “fear” on here because going through experiences that make you fearful are a sign that you are about to go through a growth experience that will teach you new skills and give you great life experience. So some might think that fear is a bad thing, but I actually see fear as a good thing.

Taking new jobs, moving to a new city, getting married or having children are all experience that make us somewhat fearful, but they are all great life experienes.

One Week In – What’s Happened

So it’s been one week since my last day of work as a Technical Sales Manager for a building products company, and it’s been quite the whirlwind so far, to the point that I probably haven’t quite had the chance to let it all sink in.

Over the past week, the following has happened:

• Packed up all of my personal belongings in our apartment that we weren’t giving away or selling
• Flew across the world from Sydney to Indianapolis for a wedding, bringing with me only 3 suitcases and one small dufflebag carrying all of Lauren and my personal possessions
• Attended one of my best friend’s wedding, which was a complete blur due to jetlag and too much alcohol/caffiene
• Lauren moved us out of our apartment in Sydney and sold most of our possessions to the new tenants
• Got stuck at the Indianapolis airport for the night when a flight was cancelled
• Flew all the way back to Sydney after only spending 4 days in the U.S.

So  to say the least it’s been an exhausting start to a time period that is supposed to be relaxing and renergizing experience.

During my time back in the U.S visiting friends and family, I’ve also had the opportunity to talk to people (some who I haven’t seen in years) about what I’m doing with my life, and I’ve seen a lot of blank stares of disbelief, or many people just don’t know what to think except being excited for us.

And I get it. It’s not something that many people are used to hearing about, walking away from a stable career to travel the world with no plan beyond that. But hopefully my experience will inspire others to think differently and try new things.

To Sum It Up, Alternating Between Excitement and Nerves

So over all, I’m excited to not have the responsibility of full-time work and the need to be in one place. Then there are all the great people I’m hoping to meet along the way while experiencing new cultures and locations around the world.

Then who knows what new opportunities for work or business I’ll come across with my new-found mental energy. There’s an endless amount of new ideas to explore and books to read.

But of course, I’m nervous about leaving behind the comforts of domestic life in a first-world country. We will likely be uncomfortable in new countries where we might not know the language. What will I eat? How will I get around? I’ll probably wonder if the money we budgeted will last us for 6 months and allow us to live the way we want.

Luckily, I still a few chunks of money coming in over the next month from my old job and the Australian tax office, but I know that will be done by the end of June. After this time, I don’t plan on having any income in the foreseeable future. But that’s going to part of the adventure that will challenge me and adapt to a new way of life.

Question for you: Have you made any big changes to your way of life recently that have affected your personal finances? How have you adapted and what strategies have you used?

Leave a comment or send me an email!

NYPFGuy