Frequently Asked Questions
Here are some of my most frequently asked questions, including the personal stuff about me and how I make money while traveling full-time.
I was working in tech, and in this space, getting ahead would mean working for the top companies (Amazon, Facebook, Google) or going for higher and higher roles. After 10 years at my company, I realized that neither of these options was for me.
If you’re thinking about this question, I think you need to look at the trajectory of your career path. If you don’t like the trajectory you see yourself on, you’ll want to pivot. You’re the only one who can make and accept changes in your life.
I was born in 1987, so you do the math! 🤗 I left my corporate job and started traveling full-time when I was 33.
Since we’re on the personal stuff, here are a few more things about me:
- I have 2 passports (US & EU) and love them so much. They represent freedom to me.
- Favorite Food: Mexican, Japanese, and more recently, French cuisine.
- Favorite Shows: 30 Rock, Will & Grace, Game of Thrones, Family Guy.
- Favorite souvenirs to buy: earrings and postcards.
- I dream of owning a house in Spain, Portugal, or the South of France. And one in Hawaii. I love island life!
- I don’t want kids.
- My Love Languages: quality time & acts of service.
- I have always been indecisive and afraid to step outside of the norm. Traveling & blogging has given me more courage and belief in myself. I also trust my gut more these days.
- Because of my travel life in the last few years, I have few close friends. But those I have are gems – and I cherish them deeply!
- My favorite holiday is Christmas. And I love to go all out and decorate.
- I have a motorcycle license but hardly ride.
- I’m all over the place with music, here are some of my fave songs.
- I worked for the same company for 10 years (Sales, Operations, HR) before becoming a blogger.
- I love hiking and long walks.
- I play tennis and beach volleyball!
- I was born in Romania, but since immigrating in 1995, I consider America my home.
- I’ve lived 4 years in Chicago, 6 years in Houston, 14 years in Austin.
- I used to have panic attacks due to stress. Now, they are rare, even though I travel solo.
- I studied at the University of Texas in Austin and studied abroad in Barcelona for a semester – it’s why I love that city!
- I have a brother who lives in San Francisco and he is fabulous.
- My parents are even cooler than I am and are avid RV travelers.
- I love fresh flowers – especially peonies. They are my favorite.
- I love being scrappy with my suitcase fashion, and love wearing dresses.
- My favorite gelato is currently pistachio and amarena.
- I love my morning coffee and spend about an hour sipping and thinking through the day.
- I hate the cold. A snowy vacation once in a while is great, but I will never live somewhere with heavy winters and clouds.
- My therapy is journaling and getting my ass in nature.
- I want to live in Europe for the next few years – and thinking of settling in Lisbon.
I thought about quitting about a year before I did. From that time, I started budgeting and saving as much as I could every month. This meant not going out to fancy dinners or shopping like I used to in order to help relieve the stress when I did leave corporate.
After I quit, it took about two years to fully transition into travel blogging. I traveled on my savings and kept some amazing travel notes. Those notes became some of my first blog posts when I launched this site.
Now, I am a full-time travel blogger, SEO expert, and planner of trips for people who want to visit Europe.
I try not to think too hard about the past and ‘what if‘, to be honest. Any work can be a learning experience, and even in my blogging business, I use my corporate knowledge of L&D, change management, and operations to stand out. So I don’t regret not changing sooner. Also, I traveled the world with my corporate job, was a public speaker (which I loved), and worked with some really good people who became my friends.
What I do look back on with saltiness (and distaste) is the education system and our society in the US asking kids to major in something at 18 years old and then dumping them into a societal checklist of to-do’s – get a promotion, get married, adopt a dog, buy a house, have a kid, get more things, etc.
I think if I were to go back to school, I’d major in journalism or some history degree. I would also take a gap year before and after college and backpack my ass through South America and Asia.
Absolutely! Going from the safety of corporate money to starting your own business is a hell of a rollercoaster.
At my corporate job, I was making about $130K a year towards the end and putting in an average of 60 hours a week. Today, I’m working towards replacing that income but only putting 30 hours a week into the blog.
The tough thing about travel blogs is that cash flow can be seasonal. One month, I can be making $5K, and another month, only $500. So, I have to budget, save, and plan ahead as best I can.
I lived on my savings in my first year out of corporate as I slowly built up my content. When my savings were running thin and my blog hadn’t kicked off just yet, I started working as an SEO consultant and picked up some copywriting gigs. I also started planning trips for people and even thought about bartending or working at a local cafe!
I love this, and it’s awesome that you’re happy with your career. Now, it’s about finding the balance that’s right for you! Look into your company’s benefits and PTO. I know a lot of big tech companies offer unlimited time off and sabbatical programs – take advantage of these, as they are a huge benefit.
Also, during your next pay raise, maybe negotiate for additional PTO or better remote working conditions instead of extra money.
There are many steps, but I think the most important is to learn SEO as it applies to your field – in my case, travel.
When I started the blog, statistics showed it would take about three years to be profitable! 🥲 I got myself an SEO blogging coach, worked my ass off writing content, and within 1.5 years, my baby was making enough money to support my lifestyle of leisure (on a budget)!
Here are a few articles I wrote on the topic that deep-dive into the good, the bad, and the ugly – including revenue and budgets I keep.
One last thing – if you want to learn from someone or to pick their brain, nothing will happen if you don’t put yourself out there and ask.
No. Social media is a whole other space filled with influencers and paid partnerships. It’s a full-time job on its own to create content and make money on TikTok or Instagram, and so I decided it’s not for me.
Yes, I have thought about YouTube, but not yet. I learned it’s best to focus on one thing at a time. Plus, I’m naturally more of a writer, and I hate the way I sound on camera.
Ha! Hardly retired. Before I left my corporate job, I planned and saved for almost a year to give myself financial peace of mind. Then, I learned SEO and started blogging. After 1.5 years, my blog started making money in the following ways:
- Affiliate marketing – products I love and recommend on my site.
- Travel planning service – I really excel at planning trips for people.
- SEO Consulting – I help other blogs and small websites apply SEO to their business.
I think there is a misconception, especially in the US, that travel is expensive and you can’t do it for long periods of time before you’re retired. That is not true! Just look at all the Europeans taking gap years and finding themselves on epic backpacking trips – and I’ll tell you, they make less money than us Americans.
If you truly love a place and want to go, there are tons of ways to make money through service & hospitality jobs, working online, copywriting, teaching English, or whatever it takes. Also, most countries have visa programs and welcome foreigners and their skill sets.
I budget about $3-4K a month. The breakdown usually comes down to this:
- $1.5K for rent
- $1K for food & drink
- $400 for rental car/transport
- Remainder for random things – shopping, experiences, savings, a Michelin restaurant splurge, etc.
I like to stay in cute little AirBBs with a view and a kitchen. I also rent for a month or two in a spot because it helps me slow travel, and it’s more budget-friendly.
The brutal and honest truth is that, yes, it’s super hard to have and keep a long-term relationship when I travel like I do. But while relationships are hard to keep, they do happen.
When I started my sabbatical, I fell for a tall, dark, and handsome German, and we dated for about a year, meeting each other all over Europe. After months of “destination dating” and missing each other all the time, we went our separate ways. Then, there was a wonderful man I met in Portugal. We ended up traveling together for a couple of months, and thanks to him, I fell in love with the Algarve and Portuguese culture. In the end, the timing was off, and we said our goodbyes. And after that, there was the wonderfully romantic French professor I fell for in Provence and a few others.
If you’re following my Instagram, you’ll see that I find destination dating both exciting and frustrating. Finding love on the road is not the hard part. Finding a long-term relationship is a different story.
I think what makes a relationship work, especially for someone like me, is if someone changes their life to accommodate the other. Someone at some point needs to say, “Ok, I’ll move for you” or “Ok, I’ll travel with you full-time.” But even then – it’s a big step to change your whole world around because of someone else.
In the end, I believe that if things are meant to be, they will work out. Maybe not right now, but in the future because change is a constant. I’d love to have a travel partner to explore the world with. And maybe one day, that will happen. Until then, I find love in travel.
I love traveling by myself as much as I love traveling with friends and family. As a self-diagnosed maximizer, this is my constant struggle – how to balance spontaneity with a detailed travel plan.
Here are some travel tips I’ve learned over the years:
- Plan ahead & make reservations for great places that are raved about. Fly by the seat of your pants for everything else.
- On your first day, walk around and explore the place on your own. I usually end up discovering spots I wouldn’t have known about if I was relying only on research. And ask the locals – this is how I found out about a few of these cute little French villages.
- Keep one day completely free. I know it feels like a waste, but hear me out!
- These are the days you get to live like a local.
- When you head over to the cute corner cafe to people-watch.
- When you go back to a favorite spot for a little impromptu photo shoot.
- These are the days when it’s rainy, and you’re lazy!
- Take yourself on one fancy date out. Dress up, get cute, make a reservation to a show afterward, and focus on truly seeing, tasting, smelling, and hearing everything to its fullest – the goal is to engage with your senses, treat yourself, and step out of autopilot traveler mode. Also, bring a book – trust me, it will help, and it will make you look more interesting.
In a world of hype and people selling you bullshit, it’s really important to find people who have actually done what you want to do and can teach you what you need to be successful.
People who don’t waste your time, show you the nitty gritty, and support you when you want to quit at the first hurdle. My coach and blogging community are the only reasons my blog is profitable when 90% fail in an oversaturated travel industry.
I also think you should stay true to what you’re passionate about—if you are thinking about starting a side hustle blog, I encourage you to really find your niche. I know engineers who are now successful food bloggers, new moms who turned their experience into a profitable mommy blog, and quite a few people who burned out in corporate and are now RV, photography, and hiking bloggers. And get you a coach like I did – speed up the learning!