Post: #1

In six months, after i save some money, i plan to quit my corporate job and travel for as long as i can afford it. I read a lot, but would love some recommendations on good places to live short term and not spend a ton. What im looking for is below. Just to note im white, late 30s. Only speak english. just read the latest Lima trip, so that's on my radar. So is Philippines. I'll have around 18k to blow and credit cards for emergency. I'm thinking i have 6 or 7 months tops.
-Women (i like them all)
-cheap monthly rental, but nice enough for girls
-good food
-good internet

Post: #2

Other than the 18K you are planning on saving, what else do you have as a "safety buffer"? Can you stay with your family if you run out of money? Can you go back to your current job if push comes to shove? Can you easily find another job?

18K is not nearly enough to quit your job and travel. Even 10X that is not enough unless you are planning to work or start your own business.

Perhaps you should consider teaching English somewhere in SEA if you really hate your current job. If your job is ok, you should probably keep it for awhile and save more money.

Post: #3

I'd certainly check out Vietnam. Very low cost of living, great food, women are solid. Philippines is fine, more English spoken there than Vietnam. If you head to Europe, go off the beaten path and checkout Croatia and Serbia. Both have fairly low costs of living and decent culture.

Post: #4

(01-30-2017 09:00 PM)Brodiaga Wrote:  Other than the 18K you are planning on saving, what else do you have as a "safety buffer"? Can you stay with your family if you run out of money? Can you go back to your current job if push comes to shove? Can you easily find another job?

18K is not nearly enough to quit your job and travel. Even 10X that is not enough unless you are planning to work or start your own business.

Perhaps you should consider teaching English somewhere in SEA if you really hate your current job. If your job is ok, you should probably keep it for awhile and save more money.

Yes, i can stay with family if push comes to shove. no to my current job. My plan is to make it easy in the coming months (read, get certs) to find a job when i come back. Maybe im being naive, but i thought i could get by with 2 thousand/3 tops, a month.

Post: #5

(01-30-2017 09:06 PM)John Michael Kane Wrote:  I'd certainly check out Vietnam. Very low cost of living, great food, women are solid. Philippines is fine, more English spoken there than Vietnam. If you head to Europe, go off the beaten path and checkout Croatia and Serbia. Both have fairly low costs of living and decent culture.

JMK, which parts of vietnam would you recommend? HCMC?

Post: #6

Nha Trang and Da Nang seem to be the winners according to forum members have posted. They aren't as big as Saigon or Hanoi, but are more laid back and livable. The traffic in the larger cities, especially Saigon is brutal. I haven't been there myself, but it is top on my to visit list next time I'm in Asia. Use the forum search function for "Vietnam" there's quite a bit written on the different cities and what to expect. I'm sure it is worth a look over and see if it appeals to you.

Post: #7

(01-30-2017 09:00 PM)Brodiaga Wrote:  18K is not nearly enough to quit your job and travel.

you can make 18k last years in any south american or SEA country. not like a king, but enough to sustain

Post: #8

(01-30-2017 11:02 PM)brazilsurftours Wrote:  

(01-30-2017 09:00 PM)Brodiaga Wrote:  18K is not nearly enough to quit your job and travel.

you can make 18k last years in any south american or SEA country. not like a king, but enough to sustain

how many of those SA or SEA have you been to ?

Years? Like 3 years? What is years? 3 years would be 6K per year or $500 a month.

Are you getting adopted by a family in the jungle in Guyana? maybe $500 a month would work then. Or perhaps Venezuela but you won't live to see the 3 years.

You said ANY south america country. Explain to me how you would do this in Uruguay or Chile?

OP, some repped members who have actually done what you are wanting will answer you. The comment above about supplementing with a job is correct if you want to settle somewhere for a while. It's difficult to move around on the type of money you are talking about but if you are willing to go somewhere really poor and live poor you may make some progress.

Maybe take a suggestion from me, have your goal be to NOT use your 18K, rather use 3K only to travel and get set up, and find a way to make each place self sustaining. You cannot rely on lines on credit cards to be there in emergencies, this is foolish.

What is it you hope to achieve you haven't been too specific.

Post: #9

I traveled in south America for 4 months and didn't cut corners at all but I timed and booked my flights so they were very inexpensive. I spent about $3k a month on average. I would have spent 18k in 6 months and wouldn't have a penny left. You can do it cheaper but $500 a month not a chance in the world.

Post: #10

18k would get you a fairly comfortable 12 months in SEA at 1.5k a month. Not much more, not much less, unless you want to struggle through it like a local but where's the fun in that.

Post: #11

18K is enough to travel. Lots of 20 yr old Europeans travel 1,5 years on this kind of money and then return home to find a job. Alternatively, you could focus some on your time of making money online. (for example, by getting an online job) I left with less then 5K in my bank account at the end of '15, and I did just fine.

(that being said: having a safety net back home makes a lot of sense. especially from the US, since it might be more difficult there to pick your life up again)

Anyway:

If you are going to travel, why not ask yourself what countries you really want to see?

You can bang girls anywhere, if you got game. Assuming you don't, I still recommend you to think about what your dream trip looks like.

Looking back, the visits to the tropical islands from my dreams were a lot more meaningful then fucking myself through an army of scandily clad Asians with questionable morals.

It was fun. I like blowing my load on some girls face just as much as the next guy. But meaningful? Not really.

So before you listen to my advice on which countries I'd recommend, make your own list and knock those countries off.

Now, here some suggestions based on your criteria:

Philipines: + for women and cheapness, - for internet and food. Can get boring.
Thailand: OK food and possible to find good internet. Prices are also OK
Don't go to Mexico

Having said this: your criteria are so broad that they are pretty useless. If you read the forum, you know where the easy women and cheap places to live are. Datasheets all over the place.

Keep us posted on your adventures.

Post: #12

Congrats on deciding to quit your job OP!
18K can be a lot or nothing depending on your style and way of living.

Here's a suggestion:
Go to a place like Chiang Mai, in Thailand, where you can bootstrap for about 1K a month, enjoy a great quality of life in a great city with clean air, amazing variety of healthy, delicious and super cheap food. Most importantly, the networking opportunities present in CM are incredible as it's a major hub for entrepreneurs getting their online businesses off the ground. Oh and the cost of living is pretty cheap too while the quality is very high.

I've been here for 2 weeks and loving it, making great contacts, meeting tons of cool people doing great things, enjoying delicious Thai and international foods at a fraction of the cost most anywhere. In 2 weeks, I've yet to see rain. Most days, it's been clear beautiful blue skies. Mind you, it's the high and dry season, but it's just fantastic here. Oh and the girls are not too shabby neither!

Instead of just traveling and blowing money, use your time wisely and build something that can not only sustain you but ultimately free you from the shackles of a J.O.B. Some food for thought...

Cheers.

Post: #13

To parrot what some of the repped members have said, I would set a goal to have some sort of recurring income while you travel. That money you have saved up should stay saved for the most part. Relying on it as your income will likely lead to you being back where you started, miserable in your corporate job.

Post: #14

Cheap, safe, hot girls:

I'd recommend Greece, Serbia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Belarus.

You can rent an fully furnished apt for around €350 a month in these countries. Girls are hot too, especially in Baltic states.

Post: #15

Post: #16

So you still only want to quit your jobs in six month time. Here is what I did and I would do again:

- Tomorrow start a niche research. Find a sub niche within a big niche which you can monetize with advertising, affiliate offers and your own products. Once you found this niche check the competition. To do this just make a research on Google and some forums for backlink checkers. If you are serious you will figure out how to check competitors. A niche you could check for example would be penis enlargement. This is a niche within the health niche and is still big enough to monetize. There are plenty of pills, machines etc who have affiliate offers. However I have not checked the competition on that niche so it is likely that this example is already more than saturated.

- Next step: Get a domain, hosting and setup a Wordpress blog. Again if you are serious you can figure this out within a day.

- Month 1 - 3: Add about 3000 words to your blog everyday. Parallel to this you can start building a Facebook Page or and Instagram Profile but the main goal is to add content every single day.
Also spend some time in studying how to build a private blog network. And also study some basic SEO backlinking techniques. Also learn how to focus on specific keywords.

- Month 4-6: Keep adding 3000 words of content everyday. And at the same time start building your Private Blog Network. From month 4 you will see that search engine traffic is coming through and you might start generating a few Dollars.

If you follow these steps this website should give you at least $700 from month seven onwards. But more important during this journey you would have learned so much about online marketing that you know what it takes to generate money online.

Of course this plan requires a lot of discipline. I know from myself how hard it is to get back from 8 hours of work and still have to work another 3 or 4 hours on your website. But if you push through these six months you will have an income generating asset and will have a ton of knowledge to start your next project. Also important: For the first three months you will hardly see any traffic to your website. You can't give up at this point you need to keep going.

There is no point to go to Chiang Mai without any idea what to do. The successful guys there would not present a business idea on a silver plate and the wannabes will just waste your time. Better go to Chiang Mai or wherever you want with a small working business and expand from there.

I know that was not the answer to your initial question but since you have six months time, rather start now and develop something bigger than just traveling for a few months and burn through your savings.

Post: #17

(02-01-2017 06:53 AM)superschalk Wrote:  So you still only want to quit your jobs in six month time. Here is what I did and I would do again:

- Tomorrow start a niche research. Find a sub niche within a big niche which you can monetize with advertising, affiliate offers and your own products. Once you found this niche check the competition. To do this just make a research on Google and some forums for backlink checkers. If you are serious you will figure out how to check competitors. A niche you could check for example would be penis enlargement. This is a niche within the health niche and is still big enough to monetize. There are plenty of pills, machines etc who have affiliate offers. However I have not checked the competition on that niche so it is likely that this example is already more than saturated.

- Next step: Get a domain, hosting and setup a Wordpress blog. Again if you are serious you can figure this out within a day.

- Month 1 - 3: Add about 3000 words to your blog everyday. Parallel to this you can start building a Facebook Page or and Instagram Profile but the main goal is to add content every single day.
Also spend some time in studying how to build a private blog network. And also study some basic SEO backlinking techniques. Also learn how to focus on specific keywords.

- Month 4-6: Keep adding 3000 words of content everyday. And at the same time start building your Private Blog Network. From month 4 you will see that search engine traffic is coming through and you might start generating a few Dollars.

If you follow these steps this website should give you at least $700 from month seven onwards. But more important during this journey you would have learned so much about online marketing that you know what it takes to generate money online.

Of course this plan requires a lot of discipline. I know from myself how hard it is to get back from 8 hours of work and still have to work another 3 or 4 hours on your website. But if you push through these six months you will have an income generating asset and will have a ton of knowledge to start your next project. Also important: For the first three months you will hardly see any traffic to your website. You can't give up at this point you need to keep going.

There is no point to go to Chiang Mai without any idea what to do. The successful guys there would not present a business idea on a silver plate and the wannabes will just waste your time. Better go to Chiang Mai or wherever you want with a small working business and expand from there.

I know that was not the answer to your initial question but since you have six months time, rather start now and develop something bigger than just traveling for a few months and burn through your savings.

I appreciate the response, and i like it alot. Im open to suggestions like this. I can't stand the thought of getting out of bed and going to work anymore. I need a change, and I'm not really sure what the right thing to do is. I'm starting to rethink my original plan.

Post: #18

(01-30-2017 09:06 PM)John Michael Kane Wrote:  If you head to Europe, go off the beaten path and checkout Croatia and Serbia. Both have fairly low costs of living and decent culture.

While I definitely do agree with you about the culture part, Croatia is definitely neither off the beaten path nor does it have low costs of living.

Croatia is among the most popular beach vacation destinations for Germans, Austrians and Czechs, simply due to the fact that the country is reachable by car from those nations in an acceptable frame of time, being the only Mediterranean country besides Italy where you can pack your family or friends and actually drive to your beach vacation without even staying overnight on the way. Thus making it extremely popular with those families or couples who rather drive to the sea than flying there.

Also, Dubrovnik is ridiculously overpriced and overcrowded with tourists, in summer high season reaching a price level and congestion that makes New York City look like a cheap and sleepy farmers town in comparison.

Split and the other coastal towns such as Trogir, Sibenik etc are a little less pricey than Dubrovnik, but still flooded with tourists during the summer season.

16,3 million tourists visited Croatia last year, a country of 4,3 million inhabitants. In comparison: Italy had 48,6 million tourists last year, having 60,5 million inhabitants, which gives you an idea of ratios.

The only thing that's at the moment keeping even more tourists from flooding Croatia is the simple fact that their hotel industry can't even remotely keep the pace of building and opening new hotels according to the rising demand. Which in turn keeps potential visitors out due to either prohibitive prices or the simple fact that there are no rooms available anymore. Actually, most Western budget or mid-level hotel chains are totally unheard of in Croatia. And also, especially alongside the mostly very mountaineous coastline and in the narrow historic cities like Dubrovnik, there is simply no room anymore to build more hotels big-style.

It might be the case that Croatia is not widely visited by US travelers, since they don't even show up in the top 10 list of arrival numbers by country of origin, but that definitely doesn't mean that Croatia is off the beaten path for everyone else as well. As a matter of fact, Croatia as part of former Yugoslavia was highly popular as a beach vacation destinations as far back as in the 1980s, before the Yugoslavian wars started, an event that lead to the total collapse of tourism in Croatia between 1991 and 1995. Howver starting 1996, tourism slowly returned back, with tourist numbers in 2006 reaching pre-war levels again and since 2006 rised by a further 60%.

Post: #19

^ this.

Croatia is great, but not a hidden gem. When I went a few years ago it wasnt cheap either.

Maybe White Russia is a hidden gem but I havent been.

Post: #20

If you just want to travel and have fun, then go for it. Find a job when you get back again. I did a trip back in 2011-2012. Started in Moscow and ended my trip one year later in Bali. Visited 13 countries. Spent about 20K (euros), including some start up costs. Some countries are more expensive then others. Japan was more expensive then say Cambodia or Vietnam. Still it can be done and with about 1200 - 1500 a month you can have a nice time. I did however had the benefit of taking unpaid leave from my job. Got back in after my trip like nothing happened. It was a true backpacking trip though. Budget of about 30-40 a day. Guesthouses, hostels etc. but would only stay in those places when on a long trip. On shorter trips I'd prefer some more luxury.

Post: #21

OP, (or for anyone wanting to get out and hit the road) are you willing to get your hands dirty and work while you're traveling? Enjoy the women for sure, but take advantage of your adventure as much as can. There's programs like WWOOF or HelpX where you can work anywhere from hostels to farms to ranches all over the world. There's a few other websites also, just google around. You won't get paid, but you'll have your room and board covered, and you are provided food. So you won't have expenses if you just sit and park yourself for a month or so and break a sweat. But it's a good way to take a break, learn some new things, new skills, meet some new people, visit pretty off the beaten path places which make for unique adventures. You can save what cash you have while you're working to keep going for as long as you can. Great fun way to troll backpacker hippies too. Doesn't matter if you're late 30's or not. Check them out. It's a good way to give back, and makes you appreciate your next pleasure pit stop in some city all the more.

Good luck.

Post: #22

My only concern here is a guy in his late 30s going back with zero savings / net worth.

He really should be working at something to sustain himself rather than spending his small basket. He doesn't have the time that people in their 20s do to start over.

Post: #23

You used the word DECIDED.

What did you DO?

Post: #24

I'm pretty much contemplating the same thing, i'm in my mid 30's too.

Not to hijack the thread but if i only had $15-20k AUD coming in every year which places would be ok to live in? Most of you guys are on USD or EUR. I'm thinking i may struggle with only that coming in each year, i'd have to look at some sort of job, i'm guessing bar work or teaching english, is this hard to get in Eastern Europe or South America?

Post: #25

(03-20-2017 09:40 PM)benji Wrote:  I'm pretty much contemplating the same thing, i'm in my mid 30's too.

Not to hijack the thread but if i only had $15-20k AUD coming in every year which places would be ok to live in? Most of you guys are on USD or EUR. I'm thinking i may struggle with only that coming in each year, i'd have to look at some sort of job, i'm guessing bar work or teaching english, is this hard to get in Eastern Europe or South America?

Check out this web site to find cities that would fit your budget.

https://www.theearthawaits.com/

I am not affiliated with it, just find it useful.

One caveat is that their budgets are made for a retired couple living boring lives. If you are a single traveler, adjust the number of people from 2 to 1, multiply your drinking/going out/partying budget by 3-5 or more depending on your needs, probably adjust your housing budget to get a nice pad in the center. Also add health insurance and visa runs.

To answer your question directly, you can survive or even live reasonably well in many places in SEA, for example Chiang Mai or Bali.