David Black Social Masters Blog

If you’ve ever wondered how you could find the time to travel the globe, meet exotic foreign women, and have a bunch of awesome stories to tell your mates, then you might want to take a look at the latest article on my blog, written by a friend of mine Steve Scott, who is somewhat of an expert, seeing as he is touring around Europe as you read this. Check his site out here: Steve Scott Site

He’ll explain how you can have this lifestyle by sharing some killer tips & insights as to how he can travel for most of the year without worrying about money or other problems back home.

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A few years back, I heard an interview with David Deangelo about the importance of traveling the world. Here he said that traveling not only makes you attractive to women, it also provides you with a broader spectrum of experiences. Whereas some guys can only talk about what happened at work, a traveler has plenty of interesting stories that captivate the imagination of women.

What’s funny is most guys understand the importance of traveling, yet many don’t lift a finger to get started. Most give excuses like, ‘I don’t have the time’, ‘I can’t afford it’, or ‘what do I do if it goes wrong. It does happen.’

So in this guest post, I’d like to discuss these obstacles and let you know that traveling is a lot simpler than you might think…

What if I’m a student with no money?

If you’re a student, then there’s really no excuse. Every summer you have at least 3 months off. And you have a month off during the wintertime. Bottom line is you have at least four months off each year.

Furthermore, you could travel during that period between the graduation and ‘the real world.’ Don’t be in a rush to go get that 9 to 5 job you’ll probably hate. Instead take some to live a little and see the world.

The money part? Well…we’ll get to that in a bit.

What if I have a job?

Okay, now let’s talk about those guys who have a job. In my opinion, you basically have two decisions here. First, you could try negotiating time off from your job. The second is you create a passive income stream that lets you fund your travel dreams. Let me talk about both.

Before I talk about a J-O-B, let me be clear with something. I haven’t had a real job in seven years. So I’m not exactly an authority on what the real world is like. What I do know is we live in age where we have an incredible amount of flexibility with the work we do.

Everywhere you go in the world, there’s Internet access, Skype, web conferencing, and other fancy electronic devices are available almost everywhere. My point is work can be done from any location. With most jobs you can do a little creative negotiation and find a way to walk away for a few months.

How do you negotiate with your job? Well instead of answering that, I’m going to give you a homework assignment. Go out and pick up a copy of Tim Ferriss’s “The 4-Hour Workweek.” In this book he gives a step-by-step process for negotiating time off from work.

How can I earn money while traveling?

Instead of having a job, many people use passive income as a means to fund their traveling. In my opinion, this is the best way to go. You work really hard and set up a system that basically runs itself, then you travel while things run on autopilot.

It’s pretty cool to meet people while traveling and describe how I only work about fifteen hours each week and I can travel indefinitely. Usually the first question I get is, “How can I do that?”

So how do you do this? To be honest, there are hundreds of different options for passive income. My choice is affiliate marketing and information products. Both require a lot of work in the beginning. But if you put your mind to it, you could create a passive stream of income after a few months. (If you want to know more about this, I go into detail about online passive income on my blog).

How to afford travel

Unfortunately, I’m only able to scratch the surface of how you can afford to travel. If you’re willing to rough it a little, then traveling can be surprisingly affordable.

Here are a few tips for saving money and extending your world travels:

• Travel during the shoulder season when things are less expensive

• If you’re comfortable sleeping with strangers, take advantage of the low rates that hostels provide

• Many hostels provide free room and board if you’re willing to work a few hours. Plus they are also a great resource for finding a paying job.

• Try volunteering in different places. Use a site like HelpX to locate interesting volunteer opportunities throughout the world. Many of these jobs only require a few hours of work each day, which leaves plenty of time to see local sites.

• Grab a buddy. Besides having companionship on your journey, having a friend along will help you save money. A lot of your expenses can be split two ways instead of forcing you to incur all the costs

In the last five months of traveling, I’ve met a lot of people who found unique ways to afford travel. The common denominator in all of them is they set a goal and simply found a way to do it! Trust me, if you’re serious about traveling, you WILL find a way to afford it.

What if it goes wrong?

I find this to be the most interesting obstacle. A lot of guys have money and time to travel, yet they don’t because of fear. They’re scared because they don’t speak the language. Or they worry about getting mugged. Or how they might run out of money. To be honest, I could write an entire article about all the fears people have when it comes to traveling.

My advice? Don’t worry about these things. Besides being mugged, I’ve had almost every bad experience you could name while traveling. And you know what? I’m still here, living my dream.

You have to accept the fact that some things will go wrong. It’s a natural part of life. Just roll with the punches. If you can walk away from a bad situation, then consider yourself lucky and figure out what you would do differently in the future.

Get started now…

Don’t sit there and daydream about traveling. Make a commitment right now. Even if you don’t have the money or time, mark a date and location on your calendar. Then start figuring out how you can achieve this goal. You’d be surprised at quickly you can find the means to do it.
Good luck…I know you can do it.

Steve Scott talks about his travels and personal development experiences on his lifestyle design blog, Steve Scott Site. If you want to get more out of life, be sure to check out his site.

image: pedrosimoes7