How To Quit Your Job And Travel The World

For someone who loved their job. The word: ‘Yes’ came surprisingly easy when I agreed to quit my job and travel the world by bicycle with my boyfriend (now husband), Stew. We’d been together for just one month when we decided to commit one year to saving before leaving home to travel around the world.

I was 28, career-driven, and steadily climbing the ranks, months away from a promotion to the management team in a leading digital agency.

I was worried about three things:

• Would the digital world carry on without me?
• Would I have to build my career from the ground up when I returned home?
• Would travel fulfil me as much as work did (I know, as if).

Plus, I worried that something terrible might happen on the road.

None of my worries were justified; the opposite came true in every case.

• I returned home after a year on the road when all travel ceased in 2020. During lockdown, I built up a profitable business online within 12 weeks.
• The last three years at work post-trip have been the most successful and financially rewarding.
• Stew and I moved to Scotland and worked remotely until we could travel again.
• My career changed so positively that I can now travel and work. We make £8,000/mo as we travel. We’re travelling the world and saving for a house.
• After visiting 21 countries between 2019 and 2020 and a second cycling adventure from Vietnam to the UK, I can confirm with certainty that travel is ultimately fulfilling.

And nothing terrible happened on the road (just one scary dog!).

If my worries didn’t come true, (probably) neither will yours!

So, how do you do it?

Don’t you need to be rich to quit your job and travel for a year? (spoiler alert: no).

This article gives you realistic and practical steps anyone can take to quit their job and travel the world. I’m digging into the tried and tested methods we used to save and make more money, Plus the simple ways that you can change your mindset and build confidence in your adventure.

After reading this, you will see that you don’t need to be rich. And, honestly, it’s pretty easy to save money to quit your job for a year (or more). Especially if you’re willing to cut costs, travel light, choose your attractions, and eat cheap.

In this article

• How to save money and quit your job to travel
• Easy ways to earn more money
• Work on your mindset
• Reasons to take a year off and travel
• The most important thing to remember

How to save money and quit your job to travel.

Understandably, when it comes to quitting your 9-5 and travelling the world, your first questions are likely about money. How can you save enough to live work-free for an entire year (or more)?

Honestly, saving money does not equal a lifeless existence! You do not have to work every waking hour. You can earn money by spending less money and balance life beautifully!

Below, I’ve shared all the small but mighty ways we saved money by not spending, so Stew and I didn’t have to do a ton of extra work!

Do not poo-poo these ideas! For our one year of travel through 21 countries, saving was more impactful than earning.

For those who need an extra revenue stream, I’ve got you – see the section below – we did a little extra, manageable work, too!

Look after the pennies.

Saving alters your lifestyle, and you must sacrifice to save money.

We had to save enough to live without a job for two years, and that takes a lot of self-control and willpower, but I promise, you get used to it, and it does get easier!

To look after your pennies, you must decide what you can live without.

We decided that we could live without:

• Fancy food and drink daily
• Nights out without celebrations
• Random coffees out
• Food out without good reason
• New clothes

What’s utmost important is that you also decide what you can’t live without.

For Stew and I, this included:

• One fancy date night/month; we’d been together for one month, and we needed to date.
• Celebrating occasions with friends and family, such as birthdays, weddings, or nights out that were attached to a life milestone.
• Our own home. Our relationship moved fast; we wanted to stay in our home together for as long as possible.

For us, that was it! Everything else was saved.

Think about your own life now, what you’d really like to keep. Consider that life is going to change a bit, too. Saving is hard, and it can be demoralising. You’re going to say ‘no’ to yourself a lot. It’s important you keep enough joy in your life so that saving doesn’t make you miserable or burn you out.

Go through your bills and see what you can cut.

Pennies saved over time make the most significant difference.

We saved a shocking  £24/month on the internet! We swapped from BT £42.99/month to Plusnet £18.99/month on an introductory offer. It was cheaper to switch to Plusnet, even with their cancellation fee for cancelling the internet before the year was out.

I was furious at myself for not doing this sooner. There was no downtime, and speed changes were negligible.

You should do this for all of your bills. This is a practice that I’ve continued. Nowadays, I always check for the cheapest supplier, and I check it annually, too!

Check all of these bills and think about other bills you pay:

• Gas
• Electricity
• Water
• Mobile phones (usually you can reduce your contract after so many months. Contact your supplier and see what you can do.)
• Phones and broadband
• Car insurance (sometimes it’s worth cancelling your insurance part way through the year for a cheaper deal.)

Be more economical.

Make what you have go further.

In our old house, Stew and I had an immersion heater with some crappy functionality; it boiled water constantly when it was on. The heating could go onto a timer, but the water couldn’t. As a result, we were boiling a tank full of water all day, every day…for nothing!

Switching the immersion off at the wall saved £30/month.

Our estate agents requested that we didn’t do this because the switch broke with us turning it on and off throughout the day. I kindly proposed that I keep the switch on, providing they covered the excess bills. They also did not want the extra bill, interesting!

You can get smart metres to see exactly what you’re spending, and I recommend closely monitoring what you’re doing at home.

Yep, it’s boring, and the gains are generally small, but they all count.

Other ways you can be more economical:

• Switch off lights when you don’t need them
• Take a shower instead of a bath
• Walk/cycle instead of taking the car (surprisingly impactful)
• Throw on some more layers instead of cranking up the heating
• Turn off the radiators in rooms that don’t need to be warm
• Don’t throw food – every time you eat leftovers for lunch, you’re saving the cost of a meal

Change or lower your phone contract.

Way too many people pay way over what they need for their phones.

When it comes to phones and contracts, Stew and I are pretty low-maintenance. We don’t upgrade annually, Stew is on a pay-as-you-go, and I take out a no-commitment goody bag with giffgaff, and I LOVE them!

I pay £7.50/month (unlimited texts, 250 minutes and 2GB data). This is just enough for me. The £10 goody bag is better for my needs, but with some self-control, I saved an extra £2.50/month.

When I ran out of data, I just lived without it.

For those of you in a long contract, call your provider and see how much you’re using and if/when it can be reduced. DO THIS. I can’t bear the thought of paying companies for services you are not using. It’s painful. The sooner you make the call, the sooner you can get your money back in your pocket.

When your contract runs out, stick with your old phone, if you need to replace it, don’t go for the newest model. Unless it’s one of your ‘can’t live without’ items, you must let go of the latest devices and items if you’re serious about saving and travelling.

You don’t really want to take a super-expensive phone cycle touring or travelling anyway – anything could happen to it.

Move in with your parents or get a housemate.

Totally self-explanatory, but this saves a tonne – well, if your parents are as generous as Stew’s mum, who cleared out the attic, bought us a bed and let us live with her for 2-3 months. Cheers Ju!

We really didn’t want to do this straight away. We lived together in a home we loved, and we really loved having space and freedom, so we chose to move in with family for just 2-3 months before we left the U.K. The longer you stay with family (or live with a housemate to split the bills), the more you’ll save, obviously.

Shop smart

I think this might be the best tip out there. If you’re buying your own food, you can shop when your local supermarket discounts the stock.

Each day supermarkets discount near-date stock. Usually, discounts start the night before the item goes out of date with a small discount. Any stock still hanging around in the evening gets sold off for pennies.

Most supermarkets will discount in increments such as 25% off, 50% off, 75% off, and 80%+ off.

In cheaper supermarkets, such as Aldi, they do one discount the evening before at 30% off, then 50%. Sometimes you’ll get lucky and spot 75% off in the evening. We used to save a fortune at Aldi, back when we were saving hard, discounts were a flat 50% all day, and up to 75% later on.

We tested different times and found that 7 pm in our local stores was the sweet spot.

Freeze anything you buy, and you can eat cheap for days!

I promise, you can freeze meat on-date, defrost it when you’re ready and eat it within 24 hours. Stew and I have been doing that for years, and we even do it now when we’re not saving particularly hard because why wouldn’t we?

Lower your standards

In addition to shopping cheaply, you can lower your standards where food and drink is concerned. Leave the premium products on the shelf and go for a store brand. Stop eating what you fancy and eat what’s cheap.  You do get used to it.

I hate pork chops, I think it’s the worst cut of meat in the world, but when Aldi reduced pork in bulk, guess what we ate for every meal…for actual weeks. I was sick of it, but at less than 50p/head for a plate of nutritious food, what’re you going to do?

On the same tangent, think about portion control; overeating is kinda expensive! Don’t have extra snacks throughout the day unless you need them, of course. Don’t waste food, and don’t throw anything away; instead, save the leftovers and have them for a meal the next day.

Let go of the latest fashion items.

The year before we set off on tour, I wore the same items constantly. You don’t need a new dress for every occasion.

I had one French Connection dress that fit like a glove. It was stylish, it looked good and fit well. I wore it to every occasion for a year (and more) – weddings, christenings, birthday parties – the lot!

To be honest, you get used to it. Plus – why do we put ourselves through the rigmarole of a new dress for each occasion? Get yourself a good ol’ reliable number that you feel great in and wear it all the time!

This is actually something I’ve continued since I got back home. I found it really freeing; there was no pressure to buy something new, and I didn’t have to go through the shopping process that I didn’t enjoy anyway.

One thing I was not so proud of was the state of my running shoes when I left. They were literally falling apart, but I wore them until the bitter end. The trainers had holes in the toes, so my big toe poked out the top. I still ran a half marathon in them. I would understand if this is pushing your limits!

Easy ways to earn more money

I tried several ways to make money without getting a standard second job. That said, there are plenty of times when I’ve worked two jobs, from fish ‘n’ chip shops to bartending and waitressing. I do recommend these as options, and artwork can be quite fun anyway! It’s really social, and it won’t feel like work if your customers and team are nice.

But, if you want some more out-of-the-box ideas, here are the three ways I made money while saving to travel. And you can start these right now.

Start UserTesting

A friend of mine recommended User Testing. She’d already made some money, so at her recommendation, I entered this world.

User Testing is pretty cool! If you sign up, you will get paid to help influence some of the world’s biggest brands on their website changes, user experience and app design.

User Testing sends tasks where you explore a website or app in beta testing. You’re expected to complete a short and simple task with a screen record. As you use the app or website taking actions as the task requests, you speak about your experience answering basic questions about what you found easy to do, what you found difficult and your general opinions on the process.

Examples of User Testing tasks might include

• booking a room on Airbnb.com and dicsussing ease of use
• booking a flight on booking.co
• creating an avatar on a game.

These are three examples that I have completed and was paid $10/test for.

Tests last around five minutes to 35 minutes, averaging 10 – 20 minutes per test. For each test, you can earn a minimum $10.

When I was most active on UserTesting, in 11 weeks, I made $280 (£210) Not bad for collectively a few hours work!

Upsides of UserTesting

• You can do it anywhere, you just need a quiet space
• It’s easy to sign up, and you receive test opportunities frequently
• Payment is made one week after the test and is paid directly to your PayPal account – it’s totally painless!
• You’re probably going to be on your phone in the evening anyway, might as well make it productive!
• Anyone can do it

Downsides of UserTesting

User Testing has a questionnaire at the beginning of each test to make sure you’re the target audience the company is looking for. You must fill this out to see if you’re suitable for the task.

You do get screened out quite a lot.  I’m not sure what the stats are, but it was never enough to put me off, but I can see why others would find this very frustrating.

When using UserTesting, I just kept the website running as I pottered around the house and while I was making dinner or watching TV and simply tried every opportunity until I was successful.

Try Deliveroo or another delivery company.

Stew and I did Deliveroo for a short while! I loved it, Stew, not so much! You get fit while working, get paid and get cycling miles in. What’s not to love?

Upsides of Deliveroo

• Payment is quick and painless
• You pick your own hours
• Get fit and get cycling miles in
• Learn your way around your hometown (if you don’t already, I didn’t!)

Downsides of Deliveroo

• The downtime waiting at restaurants isn’t paid. You get paid to drop off deliveries only, so if the restaurant is late preparing food, you’re not getting paid. Also if the app breaks (sometimes happens) or you can’t find the home (rarely happens) you don’t get paid for that lost time.
• You can’t guarantee work
• It’s outdoors which is a little miserable in Winter

Freelance online

Okay, so, a confession: I did not do this before the trip, but I am now a very happy, lucrative freelancer. I started freelancing on the first phase of the trip, and I loved it! Now remote working/freelancing is my full-time job, and I do it while travelling.

If I had known how amazing and lucrative freelancing is, I would’ve started YEARS AGO!

I will write another entire article about freelancing, but for now, here are the upsides and downsides.

Upsides of freelancing online

• You pick your own hours.
• It doesn’t cost anything to try
• You don’t need any formal qualifications
• You’ll be refining or learning a useful skill.
• If it goes well, and you want to, you can freelance and travel.
• In 12 weeks of freelancing, I went full-time and could pay all my bills.
• Earnings can be huge! Some freelancers earn thousands in month one.
• You can do it alongside your 9-5, then quit when freelancing is inevitably better.

Downsides of freelancing online

• ummm…..
• uuhhhh….
• *shrugs*

It helps if you know how to handle clients and deliver a good service, but you can learn on the go.

Start the selling process early…then do it again…and again…and again

Whatever you can sell, sell it.

Start the selling process early because it takes ages to get through everything you own!

Also, we found that some items we couldn’t let go of straight away, then after a month or two, we decided we could. You become less attached to things as you start this process, so you can do another round with the items you couldn’t quite let go of.

Get yourself to a car boot or garden sale, use Facebook sales, and have no shame! Get it sold and sell it for 50p if you have to.

The chances are, when you leave to travel, you’ll have limited storage space, so the alternative is the bin, so you might as well get whatever you can for it.

Just before we left our home, it looked like an indoor market. I had items in the house, price marked. People who came to collect one item sold via Facebook would look around and buy all sorts.

My favourite upsell was the kitchen table. We sold an assortment of drinking glasses to one man who came to pick them up and left with the kitchen table as well.

One thing to think about when it comes to selling your items is that storing them might be more expensive than the item itself, so you might as well sell it, and then buy it back later.

The only exception would be sentimental items. When it comes to this process, be careful not to do anything you’ll regret. Some items, no matter how silly it might seem, carry great sentimental value, and that really matters.

Once you’ve got your saving for travel plan sorted, you might want to work on your mindset. It will help keep you foucused and motivated.

Work on your mindset.

When you’re thinking about quitting your 9-5 to travel the world, you’ll question it a lot.

If you’re like me, you’ll worry about finances or getting back into work. You might worry about safety when visiting new places or about your family, your age, and whether you can quit your job.

The thing is, the list of worries could go on forever!

There are a million reasons not to do something, but nothing truly great ever happened without a challenge, did it?

In my experience, when you embark on something new, you wonder if you can do it as if the best things in life are reserved for others. I felt this way before I travelled and before I started my own business.

I find that once I start embracing change and working toward my goals, even in small ways, things begin to unfold around me.

And I want you to have this experience, too.

With a few small steps (and altering your mindset counts as a step) you will start to step into a new comfort zone. You’ll turn what seems impossible into possible, then easily obtainable – yes – even for you!

The fact that you are even reading this suggests to me that you are at the start of your journey.

Now, all we’ve got to do is get you from point A to point B.

Surround yourself with positive people

The people you surround yourself with will impact your mindset the most. If you’re around pessimistic people who have nothing positive to say about your goals, you might start to question them, too.

But, don’t.

Whether you like it or not, some people are going to think you are full of rubbish and won’t be able to see the world by bike.

There is something to say about ignoring the nay-sayers or nonbelievers and having the courage to believe in your goals.

When Stew started this trip, he was going solo and was met with many disbelievers but he stood strong in his ambition. He empowered himself with knowledge (like you are now) and eventually met me (lucky devil), who fully supported the trip and was all-in for completing it.

My family and friends were really positive about our trip – even my parents, who learned that I was off to cycle the world with a man I’d been dating for all of one month! Perhaps it’s because I was going along with someone else where, as Stew was originally going alone, I had such a positive reaction. Either way, this is the sort of positivity you need in your life.

There’s something to be said for being selective about who you let into your plans in the early days. If you know certain people might be negative, then hold off on telling them for a while. You might’ve heard the saying: ‘Don’t throw your pearls to pigs!’ In other words – some people will rain on your parade – and nobody needs that, especially during the planning and saving stages of a big adventure.

You need to protect yourself and keep yourself motivated and not demoralised.

You might be the first person to embark on a big trip like a year of travel, and if that’s the case, friends and family might be apprehensive, or you might not have anyone to help plan or to get excited with.

If this is the case, I’ve got a solution for that, too: get online.

Follow travellers online

If you don’t already have a circle of friends or family who have done what you want to do, it can be tricky to surround yourself with like-minded people.

We found solace on Instagram and through blogs.

Many of the blogs we loved were written by cycle tourists since we were travelling by bicycle.

Examples of amazing travellers who quit their 9-5 to travel the world include Diary of a Cycle Path Tara helped us plan our Chinese visa. The Pedalling Prescotts were a massive inspiration.

Of course, you can check out our blog and Instagram.

We made friends on Instagram and connected with travellers who were doing exactly what we were doing. You can find your own online network of people doing exactly what you want to do. You’ll likely find that they will love to share tips and ideas with you, so don’t be shy, drop them a message and see what happens!

Ask questions to people who have done what you want to do

When you’re doing something new for the first time, it’s scary! When you’re thinking about leaving your 9-5 job to travel, it’s super scary!

You need to connect with people who can help you soothe your anxieties through knowledge, experience, and exciting stories to keep you motivated until it’s your turn to write your own.

You’re looking to understand more about what makes you nervous so that you can be empowered and excited. Knowledge and understanding create a sense of safety and security.

Asking questions is the best way to open your mind to the limitless possibilities out in the world. What you might find is that you’ve got a mental block, or you keep finding a reason not to do what you want to do, even though others before you have done it.

I say, challenge the thought. Aim to prove yourself wrong. Find a reason to do something instead of a reason not to.

Reach out to someone online and ask them about your worry and whether or not it’s valid, and what you might be able to do to resolve it. Chances are, they had the same thoughts as you.

Our Insta is always open and so are the emails. Feel free to contact me and Stew if you’re considering quitting your job to travel but you have a question or worry that’s stopping you from moving forward with your plans.

Tell yourself you can do it

This is simple but effective.

If you catch yourself saying you can’t do it, flip the narrative. Of course, you can! You are capable of cycling around the world. And you’re capable of organising it.

The only question mark should be around time and planning, which is what we’re going to tackle together in the next section of this book.

Pursue The Dream Daily

Before I met Stew I was an awful saver. I did not save money I just spent it, yet as soon as we started taking the trip seriously I saved thousands.

You can do anything you want to do – just keep taking small steps.

It’s worth remembering that even planning your trip is moving towards the goal. As soon as you start taking your goal of travelling seriously, you’re living it, planning and saving is phase one. You can’t travel without this crucial step.

I think pursuing the dream daily is a really effective mindset change. Don’t think too far ahead. Wherever you are, you’re pursuing your dream now. Just keep making small decisions that support the objective of quitting your job and travelling.

What might this look like:

• If you love your job and colleagues like I did, you can start preparing your work space for your notice. 12 months’ time comes around fast, and you want to leave your colleagues in a decent place for when you leave.
• Organise your admin, and start writing your work handover if you’re a part of a large project. Tidy up the CRM, file your emails so someone else can find them, try and close any projects before you leave.
• Make good decisions with money. Skip the coffee, take a packed lunch to work etc.
• Spend a bit of time planning each day. Research a place you want to visit, and learn about cultures and laws that you might need to follow. Read up on visas and start to build your mental map of what is actually possible for you.

These little steps will help cement the goal of travelling in your mind. This little bit of research will start building an idea of what you want to do and where you want to go.

Reasons to take a year off and travel

In case you still need convincing, here are six reasons to quit your nice to five job and start travelling now.

• • You can always earn more money. Stew once said to me that the reason he wanted to travel now was because it’s likely that he will always be able to work. He can work aged 70, but he probably won’t be able to ride a bike 24,000 miles by then. He argued that how we live is backwards, we work when we’re young then by the time that’s done, we’re too old to do anything.
  • Other people are already living the life you’re dreaming of. Just because long-term travel isn’t being done by your circle of friends/family does not mean it’s off-limits to you.
  • If you don’t like your job or lifestyle then you literally have nothing to lose! You might as well try it, what’s the worst that can happen?

• Tomorrow never comes. Instead of putting your dreams on hold, live them now. We’re all guilty of putting things off until tomorrow, but tomorrow never comes. What’s even scarier than quitting your job is the thought that tomorrow is not a promise. You have to live for now.

• Travelling will change your life. There’s no doubt in my mind: travelling is life-changing. You’ll have a completely different perspective and a new sense of what it is to be human. Travelling will benefit all facets of your life for the better.
• You can restructure your career and your life. When Stew and I left the U.K., he was 30, and I was 28. We had established careers and I was honestly scared of losing mine. The total opposite thing happened. I was able to down tools and figure out what Zoe wanted to do when she got back. It was pretty amazing to just press pause on life and restructure life in a way that made life better, to be honest! Thanks to my travels, I returned home and now have the most enjoyable job ever. I work remo,tely and I’ve been able to make more money than ever before.

Now, I travel as I work. Life is so good and I find I have to pinch myself sometimes.

The most important thing to remember

Keep yourselves sane and happy when saving for a big trip.

My best advice is to choose something that gets your time and your money. Spending money is fun, it adds value to life – and guess what, it does bring happiness.

We made a lot of cutbacks, but we kept a nice balance, so we had things to look forward to. We weren’t drained or miserable when we saved.

Spending money on one date night/month was a no-brainer for us. We went out to a nice restaurant once a month after all our relationship was still very young, and these nights were really valuable and important.

We spent money without question to spend time with friends and family – this included meals, celebrations like weddings and birthday weekends away.