3 Types of People Who Travel Long-Term: How You Can Do the Same

3 Types of People Who Travel Long-Term: How You Can Do the Same

I met all kinds of people when I traveled: crazy, funny, boring, eccentric, normal, young, old, black, white , brown… However, the long-term travelers all tend of fall into three categories.

If you want to travel long-term, let say at least 6 months, you need to  become one of them.

1 Stingy Saver Spender

Sound like a fender-bender (minor car accident) isn’t it ? Sorry for the name as I couldn’t come up with anything more elegant. This term is self-explanatory. If you are a saver-spender, you saved, saved and saved to spend, spend, and spend. You are probably conservative in how you use money, thus a saver, in order to prepare for the more fulfilling life as a spender :-). You don’t generate income while traveling, therefore need a bigger saving account and spend as little as possible on the road, sniffing for deals, cheaper and free alternatives.

Everybody can become this type. How hard is it to save and spend right? One biggest concern I’ve gathered regarding traveling let alone long-term traveling is money. People usually think that I am rich and that they can’t afford it. Believe me, traveling is not expensive as you think, in fact it can be much cheaper than leading the life you have now.

This type is the most common among long-term travelers whom I met for the obvious reason that it is the easiest way to do, compared to the next two types of travelers.

By the way, if you wait until your retirement, you will be automatically eligible for this category once you set off around the world.

The Pros of Being a Saver-Spender

• You have no worry about the money on the road because you already set aside a budget for it.
• You don’t have to work nor feel obligated to find work, thus enjoy your traveling experience.
• You don’t need extra planning and making arrangements other than organizing the trip.

The Cons of Being a Saver-Spender

• Your travel is limited to your saving account. As soon as the money runs out, the traveling stops.
• Your options are limited due to your restricted budget.
• You need discipline with saving and spending money before and during your trip.
• You feel motivated and worried sometimes because you keep spending money and not earning any of it back.

2 Long-Distance Job Hopper

Long gone are the days when you saddled the horses and rode into to the wild wild west digging gold, building railroad tracks or settled down on a farm milking cows, moving from places to places to find jobs. However, If you fall into this group category, you probably do something similar. During your lifetime, you probably work, volunteer and/or study in different cities, states and countries. The difference between these modern job hoppers from past migrant workers is that the latter was forced to do it for economical or political reasons.

Mild examples of this type are people who study abroad, travel while studying abroad, volunteer, teach English or another language in a foreign country, work in a foreign country and then travel during or afterward. They do it more than once with no or small break in between.

The more extravagant, carefree approach of this type are people who move to a new place and find work. Some have prior arrangement while others go with the flow. Most jobs are seasonal ranging from fruit picking, fishing, farming to reindeer herding (I’ll introduce you to him in a future post), circuit performers, models, etc.

People in this group are the most diverse. Some are well organized, disciplined and goal-oriented while others can be extremely flaky, directionless and naive.

Another group of people comes to mind: visiting university professors, soldiers, government contractors/workers who move to different places as part of their job assignments. The movement of this group ties more to the jobs than to traveling itself.

The Pros of Being a Nomadic Worker

• You connect more with the place and the culture where you work/volunteer/study.
• You are the resident of the place you’re staying and not only the traveler.
• You can develop your career and professional path if you mange to find suitable study/volunteer/work opportunity.
• You usually have longer stay.
• You have the income to supplement your travel during or afterward.

The Cons of Being a Nomadic Worker

• You need to be organized, have connection to arrange for a work/study assignment.
• You need skills and attitude to approach strangers/local people for a job.
• You might end up at a new place and not able to find any thing to do and any support while your money runs out.

Respectable and famous nomadic workers

My favorite is Daniel Seddiqui, the guy who worked 50 different jobs in 50 states of America in 50 weeks. He tried to work in the industry which most represented the state, like being a cheesemaker in Wisconsin, a border patrol agent in Arizona, and a meatpacker in Kansas to a lobsterman in Maine, a surfing instructor in Hawaii. He’s one the person who does something that makes me say “Man, I should have done it.” I thought of something similar but at the time, I didn’t have the ball to go through with it.

Christopher McCandless from the book and movie “Into the Wild”. I hope citing an example of a dead guy won’t deter you from doing so. He was organized, planned things through and he would have made it if he wasn’t too extreme in pursuing his dream.3 Digital Nomads

3 Work-without-Office (WWO) Digital Nomad

Being a digital nomad means you can work from anywhere. Your job does not tie to a physical location. The work all have something to do with computers and the internet, e.g programming, graphic design, web design, writing, investing, etc or any job which doesn’t require your physical presence, and your business transactions can be done over the internet or simple phone calls and/or mailing.

Because of the limited nature in the line of work, this type is least popular among long-term travelers I met.

If you want to be a digital nomad, you’d better choose the kind of work you’re doing. While I admit that it might be difficult to get to the stage which you can go and work anytime, anywhere, it’s not entirely impossible. This has more to do with attitude than ability. I had lots of friends in IT/programming, but I don’t know anyone who attempted this. A friend of mine practically never has to go to work. He is a software engineer, works from home and submit the work via the internet, communicated with his colleagues via email and sometimes calls. He is well-trusted by his boss, thus can do whatever he wants. He even returned to his birth country for an extended time to run a family errand. Yet he hasn’t remotely the intention to flirt into this route.

The Pros of Being a Digital Nomads

• You are flexible with your travel. You can go anywhere which has the proper environment for you to work. Given today’s advanced and available technology, this means almost everywhere.
• You can travel while continue working on assignments of your choice.
• You can develop your career and professional path if you mange to find projects suitable with your career aspiration.
• You have the income to supplement your travel

The Cons of Being a Digital Nomads

• You might experiece loneliness with working alone in foreign places and moving from place to place for an extended time.
• You might have difficulty with arrange meetings and calls with your clients or team members due to the different time-zone.
• You need to find projects unless already have a stable line of work or stream of projects

Famous Digital Nomads

Tim Ferris, the guy who started the 4-Hour movement: 4-hour-work week.

Request to readers

If you know any other type or think of better names for the one chosen, feel free to drop me a line or put it in the comment. “Saver-Spender” sounds silly and “Jop Hopper” doesn’t feel right b/c it doesn’t include people who only study or people who move but not necessary a nomads. “Digital Nomad” isn’t invented by me. Please suggest people who attemtped 1, 2 and 3. I’d like to interview them. 

photo credit: 1-matthewferrara.com; 2. ecophily.com; 3 – johnnyvagabond.com (another digital nomad)