[NN3] My Nomad Story (Briefly) » Just Gone Wandering

Originally sent to newsletter subscribers on October 8, 2024. If you’d like to get these issues a week before they’re posted here, be sure to sign up! New issues come out every Tuesday.

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Hey, Wanderers!

I’m always interested in hearing about why people decided to start traveling full-time, so in fairness I thought I’d share my own story.

I’ve always been interested in travel, but I wasn’t interested in long-term international travel until I read Tales of a Female Nomad by Rita Golden Gelman in high school. If you’ve never read it, it’s about an older woman leaving everything behind to travel the world, and her experiences meeting locals, exploring the world, and learning more about herself during her adventures.

Before this book, I’d never heard of anyone traveling for years, with no home to come back to. I didn’t even know it was possible! Rita’s story inspired me, and I started making my own plans to travel long-term.

It took nearly 20 years, but eventually I did it! I saved as much money as I could, did a lot of reading of where to go and how to get there, and made plans of my own.

Eventually, in 2022, I quit my job, sold almost everything I owned, put the rest into storage and took off. I was 34 years old and had never gone international before, nor gone on a longer trip than a few days.

It was scary, but I decided it’d be better to just jump head-first into long-term travel.

Originally, I planned on being gone for 9 months.

I’m now in my 3rd year of travel!

Over the last three years I went to the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Barbados, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia! (Read all about that here.)

Obviously I enjoyed traveling so much that I wanted to keep going, but I needed to start working again.

So in 2024 I decided to try out digital nomad life! And also dip my toes into seasonal work and housesitting, which comes with free housing (score!).

Working while traveling gave me a bit of a shock. It’s way harder than I thought it’d be, and I had to adjust my travel style so I could focus on working.

I’m now traveling at a WAY slower pace, doing less overall sightseeing, and spending lots of time on the computer. And now I know lots of people who travel long-term, and we meet up all over the world.

If you aren’t traveling full-time yet, but want to be, just know that it can happen for you!

Everyone does it differently, but the main thing is to a) believe you can do it, b) set up a support system that’ll let you do it, c) do what works best for YOU and your budget, and not worry about what other people are doing.

I’ll write more about that next week. For now…

Happy wandering, and see you again soon!

Anastasia Finch

What's In This Post

New Adventures on the Blog

Here’s what’s new and updated on Just Gone Wandering this week!

Da Nang Grocery Store Food Prices 2024 – For folks who want some hard numbers to help their budget planning, here’s some prices for what I spent on groceries in Vientam this year.
How to Mail a Package Home from Japan – If you can’t or won’t take souvenirs in your suitcase, try mailing them home! The Japanese post office is easy to use and very trustworthy.
All About Packing Cubes – Do you need them or are they just one more thing to worry about?
UPDATED Resources page – Added recommended tour companies, blog tech websites and some travel clothing companies.
UPDATED The Best WhatsApp Travel Group Chats – Added a new group chat for Da Nang digital nomads and expats!

Wanderlust Finds from Around the Web

Looking for more wanderlust inspiration? Check out these awesome reads from fellow travelers:

Traveler’s Company is doing a few events in the US next month! You can snag special-edition goodies if you go to their shows.
Amtrak launched the Floridian line this month which connects Chicago and Miami.
Digital Roamads put together a guide for travel reward credit cards for Canadians.

Podcast of the Week

I’m a big fan of The Adventure Zone, an actual-play Dungeons & Dragons podcast starring 3 brothers and their dad that’s been running for about 10 years. They just wrapped up their newest storyline, Versus Dracula, about a group of monster hunters trying to kill Dracula.

It made good use of public domain characters, had a great setting and fun characters, and made me laugh so hard. TAZ is a good mix of humor, action, and fun storytelling– and I really enjoyed listening to it. Recommended!

Listen to the first episode here and the whole Versus Dracula arc is here.

Quote of the Week

If life is not an adventure it’s a sad venture, and drear at the price. After all life is after all; it is not what you make it, but what it makes you.

– Kenneth Alfred Evelyn Alexander (c.1890–1953), “Live Wires and Dead Marines,” in The New Zealand Railways Magazine, 1931

(Thank you, Quote Garden.)