Funding Your Wanderlust

It’s every traveller’s fear: you’ve planned and saved for the trip of a lifetime, only to have run your bank account into the ground. As dire as the situation may seem, running out of money doesn’t have to spell out a premature, sorry ending to your trip. Many a traveller has been there, done that, and still managed to pay for the t-shirt. Whatever your skill set, there are plenty of ways to save and make money on the road. Have you run out of funds travelling? Here are seven ways to make some more.

Seasonal Work

Seasonal work is popular and easy to find at the right time of year. Traveling Australia in the summer season? The minimum wage for harvest work in Australia is $21.60 AUD ( 12.29) per hour. If your travels take you to Europe, why not take advantage of the French grape picking season, or the olive harvest which lasts as late as November? The website www.seasonworkers.com provides job listings for a range of seasonal work opportunities across the world, searchable by location and job type.

Volunteer

Whilst volunteering will not pay you a wage, you can count on food, a bed, and often a host family in return for your time. Willing Workers On Organic Farms (WWOOF) links volunteers with host families in over one hundred countries across the world. Organic farming’s not for you? Then take a look at www.workaway.info and www.helpx.net, and apply to the host families or jobs in your preferred locations with work requirements suitable to your skills. When you’ve hit those dreaded – figures, volunteering can cut your outgoings while you search for paid work, with the added bonus of immersing yourself in the local culture.

Work As An Au Pair

Do you want to work with children? Consider paid work as an au pair. If you have previous childcare experience and a driving license, then it might be easy to register with US agencies like Go Au Pair. Working as au pair often means that your accommodation and food will be covered, saving you even more money as you earn!

Work Remotely

Working remotely is a flexible option on your travels; you get flexibility in your location as well as the hours you are willing to give. Creating a profile on fiverr.com enables you to offer your services in your field for $5. Services range from proof reading to photography and art work; translation services to music production. Simply use your skills, and set up small, manageable ‘gigs’ charged at $5 each – every little helps! The more skills you advertise, the more business you will receive.

Other remote working options include Online trading if you were a good business or maths student at school by keeping upto date with the market you can trade CFDs and investing smartly by doing your research (tracking the price movement of a financial market) with CMC Markets, Skype tutoring and taking online surveys with companies such as YouGov (YouGov.co.uk).

Write Articles Online

If you have good English language and grammar skills, consider working remotely on copy writing work. Websites such as textbroker.com and greatcontent.com regularly post assignments and pay out per word. You will need a paypal account, and will usually be asked to complete a short written sample to assess the quality of your writing.

Keeping a blog can mean making extra income too, the affiliate business is booming at the moment and you can make some real money by writing affiliate articles. If this sounds like something you don’t have time for while you’re on your travels and seeing the world, you might want to consider outsourcing articles with content creation services. Just because you didn’t write the article doesn’t mean you can’t profit from it!

Casual Work

Looking for a few casual hours to help you get by, rather than the commitment of longer-term employment? Gumtree.com and craigslist.com post hundreds of casual job vacancies, searchable by location and skills. Creating an account on both web sites is free, and you can choose to set job alerts to save time while you are out exploring.

Teach English As A Foreign Language

Teaching English As A Foreign Language (TEFL)can be rewarding both culturally and financially. Your salary will depend on where you teach; it is possible to earn up to 2000 per month in Japan, Korea and Taiwan due to high demand, compared with approximately 600 per month in Thailand (or 10-16 per hour if you take on additional private tutoring). Higher salaries are usually possible if you have teaching experience or qualifications. For instance, if you are looking to settle down in Thailand, you might want to consider looking at sites like RECRUITdee, that can help with your recruitment prospects in Thailand.

Whatever your location or situation, there are plenty of traveller-friendly opportunities out there. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

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