Key Takeaways
- Our first success story comes from Lauren, a 22-year-old native of Dallas, Texas. Before leaving America to travel, Lauren worked for a company that h
- Nomadic Matt: Tell everyone your story! Lauren: I’ve always had my eye on the map. I started traveling in my early teens because my aunt and uncle we
- Those first few trips changed the way I saw the world and approached my future. I always knew I wanted to return to the big world and wander around un
Our first success story comes from Lauren, a 22-year-old native of Dallas, Texas. Before leaving America to travel, Lauren worked for a company that helped students prepare for college entrance exams. On the road for seven?months already, she spent a year saving up the $18,000 USD she wanted for her trip. We wanted to interview Lauren to show that (a) you can save substantial sums of money even if you are young and (b)?young, solo women need not be afraid to travel alone.
Route for Less: Tell everyone your story! Lauren: I’ve always had my eye on the map. I started traveling in my early teens because my aunt and uncle were generous enough to assent to the absurd demands of a 13-year-old (“I want to go to Rome! Let’s go!”).
Those first few trips changed the way I saw the world and approached my future. I always knew I wanted to return to the big world and wander around until my feet couldn’t take it anymore.
I put off leaving, though. There was never a right time. There was never enough money.
I don’t know what made me finally decide to go, or when I made that decision. I think it was caused by something close to desperation. I was just ready to break. I couldn’t drive down the same highway every day anymore. I knew there was a big world waiting out there, because I had seen it.
But once you make the decision, everything kind of falls into place. The only thing I regret is not doing it years earlier.
I’m always curious —?how did you stumble across this site? I actually found routeforless.com through the flight deals post you did on Lifehacker about a year ago. It was just what I was looking for at the time, and when I clicked the link to your website, it opened up a whole new world. Here was someone who did exactly what I wanted to do and was still doing it.
He didn’t fall off the face of the planet for leaving his job and flying across the world.
He says that I can do it…so maybe I can.
What kind of trip were you planning at the time? At that time, this was all just a dream. I was saving for a trip, but I still didn’t believe it was possible. I’d mention it to family or friends, and it just didn’t seem real. The hope, though, was to leave my job and, after traveling around cheaply for a while, find somewhere that I really loved and stay there for a few months to restore my funds.
It seemed crazy at the time, you know, almost like an inside joke with myself, something that I was planning but that could never actually happen. And then I saw your website and I realized it was something that could happen.
I believe anyone can do this! What did you see in this site that really helped you? You helped me understand how to deal with the little stuff that can really seem like a barrier at first:?deciding on a travel credit card, choosing a destination, creating a budget for different regions of the world, visas, understanding different kinds of flights and how to book them cheaply.
I think you explain this stuff really well and are very efficient at it?—?after all, it’s what brought me to your site in the first place.
But what’s most important, and what kept me coming back, is that you proved that even though you left your job?—?and this is a crazy American fear?—?you did not fall off the face of the planet. In fact, you’re still alive! You figured out how to make money doing something else and you didn’t become homeless (well…) or destitute in the process.
I think that’s what most of us fear when we start thinking about doing something like this.
A lot of people will call you crazy when you say you want to try something different, and it’s just not true. I really loved when you showed us how it all started?—?I think that’s what people like to see the most, or at least that’s what I held on to. About you going to Thailand and meeting those people and deciding that was it, you were going.
Reading every last page of the guidebook and making the decision and sticking to it. Really cool. Practical information can go a long way for people who are considering long-term travel, but I think what most of us are looking for is a confirmation that we’re not crazy and that we can have what we want if we’ll just take the first step toward it.
Were you afraid of anything before you went on your trip? I want to say that I wasn’t afraid, but I guess that would be a lie. I know I was seriously anxious about the little details. Credit cards, packing stuff, travel insurance, getting from point A to point B.
I remember spending hours and hours trying to figure out how credit card points work, and then how foreign transaction fees and stuff like that work, trying to choose the best bank and applying and all of that. That’s when I really started to scour your website for the practical information and you really came through.
Then there’s the stuff I mentioned earlier, being afraid that I was screwing up my life and trying not to listen to the people who told me I was doing so. It was really good to have a kind of virtual community to come home to just to remind me that I wasn’t crazy.
I remember when you said one of the most brilliant things ever: “Everyone says I’m running away.” If only they knew, right? Yeah, you’re running away from fear and absurdity, but unlike the people who tell you this, you’re the one embracing your life.
That thought really stuck with me and helped me get through the times when I was bombarded with questions about my (n
