How to Travel the World on a 'STEEM Budget' (In-Depth Guide)
Follow the steps below if your dream is to get out of your bubble and see the world.
The ‘quit your job and travel’ is overhyped by the media these days, particularly by people from the same areas of the world who seemed not to have any legitimate worries. I do understand perfectly that travel is a privilege to most people, especially if you’re part of a culture where you were brought up to be a ‘slave to your parents’, and life doesn’t seem to give you any choice. Some people from other culture don’t have this kind of responsibility, thanks to the social benefits and their people’s advanced mentality. Parents should allow their kids to be free and be whoever they want to be, instead of enforcing this obligation to help them out in return.
I understand both sides but I will always go for make yourself happy first, ‘given the choices’ you have in life. It is important to invest in yourself first because how can you help others if you cannot help yourself? It is your life anyway, and you should not live for the others. The society conditioned you to sacrifice yourself for the sake of other people, and that it is evil to do what you want. You have the freedom to have the kind of life you deserve.
If you back your desire with persistence, then anything is possible. The world is big for a reason, and life is short, simple as that. Follow the steps below and you’re on your way to living the dream.
LEARN HOW TO MAKE MONEY ON STEEMIT
This is what unites everyone. And it’s very, very hard to earn here.
You are free to post whatever that makes you happy, but if you want to make money seriously, then ask yourself everytime you post - does it deserve 100% upvote?
You already know that the key to making money here on steemit is to write good quality content, and not just quality but unique. Like really good that it deserves attention. There are already too many good quality contents here that are just getting drowned every day. You need to have a different style, a category or niche, and you need to stick to it no matter what. Write something that you really know, something you are passionate about. Just enjoy what you are doing and lower your expectations. Because if you expect a lot from every post you’ve written for hours, then you’ll only be disappointed when it didn’t make any money.
In my case, I just stick to what I know and write within the category I chose, which is travel. Because people follow me for this reason, and I can’t just write something out of the blue. Sometimes though, I might sway from the topic, but I make sure I limit it.
If there are big guys who are already attracted to your content and are following you now, then you have to stick to writing quality content no matter what. Especially if your goal is to make money, because people join here in hopes of getting paid to do what they love. It is a big responsibility because it’s like you have to live up to the expectations of your followers. The most important thing is that you write consistently and passionately, stop comparing yourself to others, whining about other people’s success or checking other people’s wallets. Instead, focus on improving yourself every day.
It might make sense to have your personal blog or other topics on a separate account, however, multiple accounts strategy is widely abused these days.
Travel, unique experiences, technical posts, art, and design are heavily rewarded here. People with hot skills and unique talent are often rewarded. They also attract attention, so they don’t need to beg for upvotes. It is a sign of desperation and also annoying as hell. People who are confident in their writing ability don’t do this, as people just follow them naturally.
Focus on writing quality content to attract followers and to increase your reputation score. People will read your posts more if you have a high reputation score.
I believe everyone is creative, some people just need to develop it. It is important to invest in yourself if you are thinking about the long-term reward. Invest in yourself in terms of dedicating time and some money to study, learn, read or anything that will improve your skills and abilities.
I’m more of a learn-it-all instead of a know-it-all, so instead of being discouraged when my posts didn’t make it to the top of the trending page or worse, didn’t make any money at all, I see this as a sign to become better at writing every day. I devote some time to learn more about steemit, the ‘tricks of the trade’, topics about travel and other things that can give me more knowledge.
I will also not worry if some of my posts will not make any money now. Steemit is my portfolio, and I keep track of all the posts worth rewriting in a couple of months or so. I am confident in my writing ability now as through Steemit I get to practice and improve every day. I have the power to rewrite my post and turn it into a totally unique content in the future.
Steemit pays off in money only after a person refused to quit. You cannot simply enjoy achievement if you don’t pass the persistence test.
MAXIMIZE YOUR EARNINGS
Now that you already know how to make money on steemit, you should also know how to maximize your earnings. Equip yourself with knowledge and devote some time to learn about the system and the trade. Take some time to read the FAQ, then read it again and again.
I learned this the hard way, at the beginning steemit was overwhelming. I started off with little knowledge about the platform and I didn’t want information overload. So every day I try to learn something new, and I do my own research to help me increase my earnings.
(For the news ones)
Are you still using the ‘Convert to Steem?’, it is already written that there is no guarantee on the amount of STEEM you will get. You will most likely lose STEEM when you use this feature. Use the INTERNAL MARKET instead. It’s there for a reason. It looks unfriendly at first, but it is really easy. Changing your SBD to the current market price would still be better.
Just go to the BUY STEEM part and don’t look at the rest, as this will only intimidate you. You can click the first price if you want a quick exchange. But you can also click any of the lower prices if you are willing to wait. Then click the available, if you want to change all your available balance to STEEM. You can also change the amount. Then click anywhere or until you see the BUY STEEM option.
People are free to do whatever they want with their money, it is theirs anyway.
Instead of panicking when the STEEM price is low, use this to your advantage. It means it is time to buy, invest in Steem Power and STEEM. Then wait until it gets high again. Sell your STEEM when the price goes up, and buy when the price is low. It’s just the basics of the trade, and you can profit from this depending on your patience and knowledge.
BUILD YOUR OWN NETWORK
As the number of your followers grow, you are also building a sub-community within a big steemit community. It’s like your own network. Support each other, upvote those who deserve your upvote, and everyone will do the same to you, especially if they see that your content provides value. You know how it feels to write for hours and bleed your brain right? So if you see a good content written by someone you’re following back, and you felt like some serious time and effort have been put to write the article, then that deserves your 100% upvote and resteem. By upvoting with your 100% whalepower, you help boost the deserving post to the top of the trending page, or to the ‘hot’ tab at least where it can be seen for a moment. You’ll get some curation reward if upvoted within 30 minutes from the time it was posted. By having more upvotes, the content will also be visible on the trending page of some tags for a couple of days.
In case you don't know, your voting power diminishes as you use more steem power. Your voting power will recharge by 20% each day. It’s like the sp in a computer game, you need to rest and recover your power. So try to limit your upvote to 10 per day. (I also learned this the hard way).
You can use this tool to monitor your voting strength and also the impact of those who upvoted your post - STEEMNOW.
However, you can’t help but come across some posts that really deserve some upvote. If you have some extra SBD, you can send some randowhale upvote to that post. It’s only 1 SBD (updated) anyway. You can do this to your own post too. You can also help by commenting or resteeming the post.
You can give wholeheartedly without expecting. You will be rewarded anyway for helping and doing something good for the others. It’s a basic thing in life.
SIMPLIFY YOUR LIFE
Simplifying your life is probably the hardest thing to do in the world, as people can’t just let go of their attachment to things. If you are planning to quit your job and travel, this is the first thing that you should need to apply in your life. It would be hard anyway to bring a lot of valuable stuff with you as it can be really stressful when you lose these things. Removing all the clutter in your life will help you save more money, especially now that you will traveling and living off steemit.
Aside from reducing stress, simplifying your life will give you peace of mind, better finances and most importantly - more space. More space for what’s more important in your life. Imagine having the freedom to travel anywhere and not having to worry about owning a lot of things.
Most people are a slave to consumerism. The society conditioned you to have more in order to be happy, more of a “go, go, go, and get, get, get” mentality. So it is pretty understandable that it is difficult to unlearn some of the things you have been taught. However, as you go travel and search for the real meaning in life, you’ll learn that a simple life is the life of the free.
Less is more.
Simplifying your life is possible, though not magically overnight. Just take it slow, and learn from experience. Do things with effort and determination.
MINIMIZE YOUR TRAVEL EXPENSES
Now that you have removed the clutter in your life, you should know how to adapt the lifestyle of budget travelers. This does mean that you will be depriving yourself of the good things in life. It’s more of redirecting you expenses to things that matter most. Invest in experiences because those cannot be taken away from you. Travel is not just a one time purchase, unlike most things. Travel is the only thing you buy that can give you the biggest return.
I detailed in my previous below the top 3 ways that can help you minimize your travel expenses
The Top 3 Ways To Travel For a Long Time With Less Money - Turn Your Dream Into a Reality
Minimizing your travel expenses is possible nowadays thanks to the internet. There are online platforms like couchsurfing and workaway that can help you get free accommodation by staying with the locals or by volunteering in a community. Though it’s more of a work and cultural exchange than having a free stay. Through these communities, you will also be able to expand your network of friends across the world.
Backpacking has gone mainstream nowadays, it’s like anyone can just travel now. These travelers will go write their experiences just like everyone else. It’s nice to think of a different style of traveling, like cycling around the world, meeting steemians in every country you travel to, or staying with a steemian through the new SteemBNB. By sharing these unique experiences, you’ll even have more chances of earning STEEM through your posts.
Traveling on a STEEM budget is possible if you try to keep your expenses low. This will also be possible if you travel to cheap countries, where the cost of living is low. These countries benefit from tourism anyway.
There are a lot of online resources and travel guides nowadays that teach you how to travel on a shoestring budget. It would be difficult at first especially if you haven’t even traveled before. But as you go through your journey, you’ll learn that having meaningful experiences will be all worth it.
TAKE A LEAP OF FAITH
You may have a lot of STEEM to travel and you may have the best passport in the world, but if you lack the courage to take the big step, then you won’t be able to go anywhere. It is hard to just take the plunge and leave everything behind, you may sometimes think that I make it sound so easy in my posts. But anyone who has traveled has gone through it all. It is just normal to feel scared at the beginning. You are leaving your comfort zone, the things you own, the life you have gotten used to, so the feeling is pretty understandable.
Fear is the only thing that holds people back from achieving anything in life. The fear of poverty, fear of criticism, fear of failure and fear of death. Without risks, life is not really worth living. You must conquer your fear in order to experience how it is to feel alive. And instead of running away from it, move towards it. Feel the fear but do whatever you have to do anyway.
Fear is nothing more than a state of mind, it is under your control and direction. Worry and doubt are its symptoms. If you really want to see the world and experience how it is to really live, then you must back this desire with a proper mindset. Be assured that everything is going to be fine and that the universe will conspire to make anything happen.
Success won’t come to anyone who does not have the courage to take the risks. If you actually know what you really want in life, then you have already gone a long way in achieving it.
hi i have selected your post on the PAL discord upvote room and upvoted it =D
Wow, thanks @gwapology! :)
Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by faithykins from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, theprophet0, and someguy123. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows and creating a social network. Please find us in the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.
If you like what we're doing please upvote this comment so we can continue to build the community account that's supporting all members.
Great post, love it!
Thanks! :)
This is so on point! You really did your research here and your own experience also add a lot of value to your post!
Actually I am doing that myself, I´ve been traveling for what it is now 2 months with just my steemit earnings. Of course I am doing it in one of the cheapest spots on earth to do it. If you do it in Central America, Northern South America or South East Asia you are good to go; if you try this in the US, Western Europe or Southern South this strategy might not work for everyone.
You have my upvote, I started following you and the best part is:
This gem of a post was discovered by the OCD Team!
Reply to this comment if you accept, and are willing to let us share your gem of a post! By accepting this, you have a chance to receive extra rewards and one of your photos in this article may be used in our compilation post!
You can follow @ocd – learn more about the project and see other Gems! We strive for transparency.
Wow, yey! This is the second time I got discovered by the OCD team. I hope they will feature this! :)
I know! I agree with those countries, at least I can buy food with my steemit earnings haha! or beer.
Thanks! Following you back @anomadsoul :)
I will nominate it over the weekend so don´t think it didn´t get picked :) Thanks for replying so fast! Keep the good content coming and of course you´ll get picked more often or better yet, you won´t even need nominations as your content will start getting noticed more and more! Which is some of your posts you are already killing it! :D
Read you around fellow nomad.
Ok, I will be checking your posts in a bit. No worries! :)
Great post Followed
Thanks!!
Interesting... I'm not here to earn money but it is good to learn how to help others to get funded.
Exactly. Thanks!
Now tell me, after this how can i not follow you? :)
Haha thanks. ;)
I like to add that it can woth checking out Bittrex and even Changelly if you want to buy steem with your SBD. It sometimes can differ a lot.
Great post.
Thanks for the input @flipstar, I've never used it. Now I'll check it out as well.
I soooo want to escape the UK with my family and go travelling indefinately but it is the fear of the unknown (as well as the fear that travelling with two young children might not be as enjoyable as I think) that stops me as well as the obvious concern about how I am going to fund it. I've got a reasonably good job which importantly for me isn't stressful at all and allows my girlfriend to be at home and not have to work a shitty stressful job herself but I'm 39 now and my kids are 6 an 8 and if I don't do something soon I'm probably destined to remain static until I am allowed to retire (68 in the UK for now).
We travelled around South East Asia, Australia, New Zealand,India, South and North America before kids so sort of know what to expect but things are so different now that we have kids, a house and responsibilities. My kids are in state school getting brainwashed and I want to get them out and what better education than to travel and see different cultures and meet different people. Anyway, I only meant to say thanks for the post. Even if I can't live the dream, it's nice to read about people who are.
Take it easy. Happy travels
@jimbobbill, I understand that the situation would be different when you have kids....There's a family traveling by rv btw, like @soulsavers.
But it's nice that you are already well-traveled, perhaps you just need some 'little escapes' with the family.
No worries, thanks for sharing your life! :)
Great post!! Thank you!!
Thank you ! :)
I really enjoyed reading through this post, high quality content, I can tell it took a very long time. Glad I found your account, I look forward to reading more from you in the future!
No worries, thanks for dropping by!