Girls on the go know that travel isn’t free, and that sooner or later they’ll have to figure out how to pay for all of these Parisian shopping sprees and Southeast Asia backpacking ventures. While some might be able to make it happen through savings or taking shorter trips, one alternative solution is to find a job that you can keep doing while abroad. Another option is to find fulfilling career options abroad and settle down temporarily (or even permanently!) in the country of your choosing. Thinking outside of the box like this makes extended holidays and round-the-world trips infinitely more feasible.
The most basic option is to work online. On the internet, there are both get-rich-quick schemes that never pan out, and ways to make reliable wages that will support your travels. As long as you can differentiate between them, you have a good chance of making enough to keep you on the road for longer. As a freelancer, there are a lot of options. Are you a great photographer? An inspired writer? A talented graphic designer? If you have any of these skills and a well-placed contact or two, you might find it surprisingly easy to sell your work while you travel. Spending time abroad is a perfect source of inspiration when it comes to photos or stories, and there is always demand for both if you know where to look. All of these industries can be difficult to break into, but once you do they become significantly easier. Depending on what level you’re working at, there can be serious money to be made.
If you haven’t yet developed skills that can be marketed for working outside of an office, or you would rather have the security of a more reliable job, another option is to settle down and work temporarily in one place. Because you likely lack contacts and may even suffer from some linguistic barriers, a great resource for this decision is to use search websites and placement services. You can find accounting, IT, NGO, public sector, marketing and hr jobs through several quality websites that will let you specify if you’re looking for full or part time work, and if you’re only envisioning a temporary position or are hoping to stay for longer. This will open up a lot of opportunities for you, and all it takes is one acceptance to totally change the way you travel. Living and working abroad can give you a totally different outlook on a place, and allow you to immerse in a language, culture, and lifestyle in a way that transitory travelers just can’t replicate. At the same time, you might even be making enough money to save some to use once you get back home—how’s that for a worthwhile vacation?
Whatever you choose to do, you’ll find that making money while you travel will pave the way for an incredible range of adventures. Rather than relying on summer jobs in your hometown, borrowing money from family, or draining all of your accounts and crawling home penniless, working online or abroad can allow you to travel longer and to more places, and leave you in infinitely better financial shape than you would otherwise be. Try it out!