Simply not true.

When I first started traveling for long durations, I quickly realized that my biggest expense was keeping my life in the USA alive. Once I ditched the apartment/car payment, I found that I could live substantially cheaper on the road than I could back home.

As an example, living and climbing on the beach in Thailand, I could pay for my monthly rent/food/beer expenses with a single day of billable work. I had a laptop along for exactly that purpose, and as a result I ended up padding out the savings quite a bit by living in a tin shack on the beach.

You think travel is expensive because vacations are expensive and that's your only experience with travelling. A week in Hawaii costs about $10k for your family all in, so naturally it must cost me ~$500k a year on the road, right? I'll leave it to you to do the math on what you actually end up spending when you're paying local rates for accommodation and travel in 3rd world countries, but the answer you're working toward is $500-$1000/month.

I do see your point, and agree to a certain extent. Having spent some time in south-east asia, I have experienced first hand how cheap life can be compared to what I'm used to (a factor of 10, for a comparable lifestyle). In fact at one point I would consider that I pretty much ran out of money but still managed to get by.

However, I still see this type of travelling as a luxury. I would not fly off to another country for 6 months or longer, without a significant amount of savings.

Not everyone can necessarily do a bit of freelance work when they are abroad. As a former freelancer who who's spent several years now working full-time in an office, I have lost a lot of my freelance network of clients and contacts. Furthermore, if we're looking outside of the Hacker News community, not everyone has a skill that can be as easily marketable from a distance.

Trying to establish a freelance network back in your native country, once you're abroad could be an option for me, although not one I would rely on for my survival. I would also not rely on acquiring work visas, either. Especially if I couldn't prove to the relevant authorities that I had enough existing savings to not be a burden.

So unless you're a person in a particular situation in life, with a specific skill set, you will still be spending a reasonable amount of money during your months or years abroad. Add to that flights, insurance (maybe you're not too keen on cheap surgery in a third world country), vaccinations, the loss of maybe a few years contributions to your retirement savings, the cost of reintegrating yourself into your country when you return. Things get expensive. Although I previously did not think so, I would now definitely consider long-term travelling (with the intent of returning) a luxury.

Edit: That's not to say it's not a good idea. Or that it's impossible. As far as luxuries go, it's a very good one to go for.

You're arguing against an Existence Disproof here. Right this minute, there are tens of thousands of people travelling the world slowly from a backpack, picking up casual work as needed to get them to the next place. No special skills needed. Most of them you'd consider unskilled, which is just fine for waiting tables or running the front desk at a hostel.

It's less common to see Americans doing this, but you'll be hard pressed to find a Brit or Aussie who didn't take a Gap Year at some point.

As a brit who has had a gap year, and worked for it. I don't deny the existence of gap years, or people working on the road, by all means. But taking my past travels, for example, I now realise that I was fortunate to be at a particular point in my life (still living at home) and had parents which were not rich, but well enough off to be a viable backup should a problem arise. I also worked hard for it.

Gap years aside, I'm referring to sustainability when trying to do the work you want to, travelling and living frugally. Perhaps the author of the blog post was waiting tables for 8 years, in which case I apologise. But I'm assuming that, like me, they're a person who might have a bit of savings, and has a skill set in an industry that is location-independent. As such, doing work we are qualified in, on the road, is an option that is available to us. However, I acknowledge that doing so is a luxury. I do not believe I would be able to do so if I was penniless and didn't have a fair amount of work experience.

I didn't mean to be a killjoy. Doing what the author of the blog post did is something that I aspire to do. And as someone working hard towards that goal (work fulfillment + location and financial independence + guaranteed retirement income), I feel that presenting the bigger picture is important.

"...you'll be hard pressed to find a Brit... who didn't take a Gap Year at some point."

Not true. Sure, it's common enough for young people to take a gap year before or after university, but not everyone does - I certainly didn't. Among those who don't go to university, taking a gap year would be the exception rather than the rule.

As a Brit... might I suggest that the more accurate answer is that you'd be hard pressed to find an ex-pat in your current country of residence who didn't do that at some point?

You don't need to limit yourself to freelancing work either. I've done odd jobs that got me enough money for another week of travel with a few days works. One was laying concrete in a 3rd world country after drinking with a local farmer. It is very easy to get by if you have a varied skillset. Learn how to weld and you will never go hungry anywhere (until they invent cheap, intelligent welding robots).

I've been working abroad for over a year now. Make it happen and go where you want. Kids are easy to travel with in most countries too.

Sure you can. Travel needs not be expensive. If you don't stay in expensive hotels and eat out all the time, don't go drinking/partying every night its not difficult to travel on very little money. Move to a new country with a work permit, get a short term job, maybe working in your hostel, or at a bar, or even as general labour and save up enough to make your next hop.

I think you'll find it's not that easy to move to a new country with a work permit, unless you have a lot of money in your bank account (which is one of the first checks the embassies do), or you're of the wrong nationality (try entering europe being african). Yeah, try telling a starving child labourer in Honduras or South Africa that money will not solve any of their problems. Maybe you can travel hitch-hiking and getting to stay in people's places… I've done that in some parts of europe, but there's nothing like a pillow of cash to help you through the day.

If you're young and from the right countries it's very simple. It's called a working holiday visa. Usually gives you around a year to work and live in the destination country.

I am being downvoted above but isn't travel expensive? It has to be simply because of the fuel costs involved.

In my eyes, 8 years of constant travel would be expensive. Compare that to 8 years of working on the same spot.

Travel can be very expensive. It can also be very cheap. It might be nicer to fly from point A to B but odds are there is a cheaper bus ticket available. A 4 star hotel is very nice to stay at but a 0 star hostel will often cost you less than $15 a day. Working in a bar will easily cover that, your food(buying cheap from local sources and cooking for yourself), and allow you to save for your next bus/boat ticket or where absolutely needed a short haul flight.

You see, that's my point, as soon as you have to cut the costs of other parts of your life you've clearly started doing something which requires large amount of money...

What costs are you cutting? No, vacationing in 5-star hotels for 8 years would not be cheap but that's not a necessity for travelling. You probably don't rent a 5-star apartment at home.

People are talking about buying less stuff, and going out for drinks and nice food less often.

These are costs that would be decreased.

My thought was that: you have to make concessions beyond what you would normally have in your life and that, to me, is proof that you are undertaking in a luxury which you can not easily afford.

Which brings me to my original point: when it's clear that the ability to travel requires money can somebody then genuinely advise others that more money doesn't solve a problem?

You're also often lowering your level of income by getting rid of steady employment which is where the cutting down on things comes from.

From what I've heard, travel costs are shockingly cheaper once you get out of the US.

The author addresses that exact point in his article. Take a look -- apparently he has no money.