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career break ideas

Career Break Ideas: How To Afford To Travel The World

I’d dreamed to travel the world at a slow pace my whole life. Having my own interim management business made it even more difficult as it was not just quitting a job to be able to take a break. I studied career break ideas and lept into the adventure in spite of the uncertainties. I learned how to be a nomad with no money to spare for luxury and how to afford a sabbatical. Read further if you’d like to learn how taking a career break at 40 + and how to afford to travel the world.

Career Break Ideas

Quitting Job To Take A Break

I started to read blogs of world travelers.

Most of the authors of these blogs were backpackers – young women and men – in between or after studying and before starting a career. Staying in bunk beds with bedbug-ridden mattresses in dorms with another seven buddies – no problem at that age!

Other bloggers were young women or men doing short trips in their holidays or families managing to travel with a bunch of lively kids like a bag of fleas without going nuts. Both categories weren’t quite at my stage of life with 40+, keen for a major change of lifestyle.

Only later I learned about world travelers which started their new life as world nomads during or after their careers.

How To Be A Nomad With No Money?

After bringing up four children there was not much money left to make my dream of indefinite travels come true. We rented our house and mainly lived on this revenue which didn’t allow for any bigger expenses.

In this post, I focus on how we skipped the costs of accommodation. After a year of traveling in Southern Africa, South America and the United States in 2013 and 2014 we were tired of living on campgrounds and laying in cheap beds of hostels.

My book recommendations for your sabbatical travel adventure!

How Can I Afford A Sabbatical Anyway?

In the United States, we met friends who asked us to care for their dog during their holidays. Soon after my uncle asked us to care for a dog and country home in the Netherlands, as he planned to travel to Iran. This was the best of all career break ideas so far and our solution how to afford a sabbatical in some of our favorite countries in Europe.

How can i afford a sabbatical. Career Break Ideas. quitting job to take a break.

How can I afford a Sabbatical?

How To Afford A Sabbatical: House Sitting!

Well, this is great! How can we get more house sits like this?

I set up a website Animal Carers but that didn’t do the trick. Who is going to find our website when looking for a house sitter anyway? And jeez! it’s a lot of work to write articles of a certain quality every week to get some readers all over the world. That wasn’t going to work!

Choose your T-Shirt here!

Taking A Career Break At 40 + As Time Out Sitters

I combine the love for animals and traveling!

As I started to google for blogs of world nomads in a later period of life after family, kids, and careers or early retired travelers, I learned that there are plenty time out sitters which often travel luxury around the world.

That’s when I stumbled over a few websites dedicated to connecting house owners mostly with animals to care for during their holidays with travelers like us.

Most successful as for its most professional website, search, profile setup, helpline with live chat and reference system we found TrustedHousesitters.

Career Break Ideas. house sitting experiences. quitting job to take a break.

Time Out Sitters for a labrador in Scotland

House Sitting Experiences: Sabbatical Homes Europe

How to start out as TrustedHousesitter without references?

We had a problem to get house sits when we put our profile on TrustedHousesitters initially. Why should a homeowner trust us with their precious animals and house if we didn’t have any references?!

There wasn’t a way around it as to do some house sits for friends and family which gave us their first note on our profile of TrustedHousesitters. But that wasn’t enough.

We couldn’t be too choosy about our first house sits!

We went to the birthplace of the house sitting-concept, where it seems that everybody is totally comfortable and used to having house sitters in their homes every year over and over again – Great Britain. It was easy enough to find house sits from a few days to several weeks all over the British island, sometimes somewhat challenging with unruly animals or in not so nice suburbs and other times it was a treat.

All in all, we spent six months in the United Kingdom have to pay only for five nights in hotels with the pleasant side effect of plenty references as TrustedHousesitters, handy for the future house sit – hunts with large numbers of applicants from all over the world. It’s easy enough to find Sabbatical Homes. Europe and the rest of the world await you!

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Sabbatical Homes Europe

Now we can choose and pick our house sits!

Thanks to the house owners which took the time to write us great references, we get new assignments more easily. We were able to meet up with the expectations and spent a wonderful time making two and four-legged friends in many parts of the world.

After having lived in so many houses slept in many beds and used all kind of kitchens, we are probably home experts of best living space, most comfortable mattresses and where to find anything in someone else’s kitchen.

Try it for two weeks, a month or longer – live as a local in somebody else’s home.

You see, it’s not too hard to start off as a house sitter. Choose the continent, country or region where you’d like to stay for some time and you’ll most probably see some open house sitting announcements.

You can even signup for emails to get new house sits real time in your inbox. If you want to apply for a house sit, do it immediately. The longer you wait, the bigger the chance to lose out, as many applicants apply on the first day.

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Cat sitting in Scotland.

Career Break Ideas: How To Afford To Travel The World?

What?! You are traveling since 2012 continuously? You must be filthy rich! 

That’s what we heard from many people who long for a time out of their daily routine and wanted to explore the world as we do. But it’s not that we swim in money and can spend indefinite luxury vacations. We found a way to live and travel with very little money. That’s the whole trick basically.

Get in touch with us if you want to know more about house sitting, our experiences and the tasks which come with it.

Good luck and have a good time house sitting around the world!

More house sitting articles:
House Sitting and House Swap – Explore a country from a citizen’s perspective
House Sit in North-West Scotland
House Sitting Checklist

Learn how to be a nomad with no money and how to afford a sabbatical. The secret of taking a career break at 40 + and how to afford to travel the world. career break travel quit job - career break inspiration - sabbatical ideas travel tips - sabbatical ideas things to do in - sabbatical ideas life.

 

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