So you might be thinking, what the hell is Move Work Travel Live? It’s basically how we started travelling the world and what we believe to be the best way for anyone to start realising their travel dream. 

Put simply, MOVE away from home, find WORK abroad, use the money you save to TRAVEL and finally LIVE the lifestyle you have been dying to live.

Obviously it’s not as simple as that so read on and find out everything you need to know to get your journey started.

MOVE – WORK

The very first thing you’re going to have to decide is whether you want to work and make money in another country to fund your travels, or if you’re going to use savings from home and jump straight into the world. If you haven’t already started saving then we strongly advise looking for a job abroad.

I don’t think there is any point staying in your home country to save up when you can get a job in another country, experience that country fully and then travel after you’ve saved. It really becomes a no brainer when you realise that there are some countries around the world where you can easily make more money than back home and start your adventure straight away.

For example, Jade and I moved to China in our first year of travelling to teach English. We both got a substantial pay rise as well as working significantly less hours than back home. We got to see the incredible history of Beijing in our spare time and then use our savings to travel around South East Asia on our time off.

It would have taken longer to save up at home and we would have missed out on living in Beijing.

If you decide to use savings or stay in your home country to save up, jump straight to the travel section.

I know the idea of working abroad is much more daunting than simply jumping on a plane with a backpack and travelling the world with your savings, but the rewards are much more significant than the effort.

You now have to decide what kind of work you’re willing to do. You can easily split this down the middle into 2 groups; manual and office based. This is a very broad split where office work can be anywhere from customer service or teaching, and manual can be anything from fruit picking to digging up roads.

In 2018 we were in the Australian outback working in a pub/hotel. I would put this more into the manual category and the rewards are very different. Don’t be too put off from the manual work because we have some of our best memories from Australia doing that job.

This choice does have some bearing on the places you’re going to be able to go. If you only want to do office work then it is going to be more difficult going some places, like Australia, as office jobs are not particularly in demand. If you only want to do manual work then Asia is basically off of the table as well, unless you have a particular skillset.

We recommend not having a preference as this opens up so many more countries and opportunities.

Now it is as simple as deciding where you want to go. You will be amazed at all the different jobs you can do and all of the different places you can do them. You could be a receptionist in the mountains of the Rockies, or a coffee picker in Hawaii. If working in the outback of Australia or teaching in China sparks some interest, then let us guide you through evrything you’ll need to know to get started.

If not then don’t worry! Right now, think of a place you would love to experience as fully and immersively as humanly possible. Once you have the country or city (or village in the dessert), put it into Google and search for jobs. You will be abosultely amazed at the depth of oppertunity and demand the world has when you care less about the job and more about the experience.

Lastly, don’t be too picky on the type of work that you choose. It’s not about the job. Of course, if you can get something you enjoy AND you get to travel a new country then brilliant!

TRAVEL

So, you’ve saved your money and you’re ready to get out and see the world. The first 2 things to consider are time and budget. In China we always had our time dictated for us during school holidays but in Australia we planned to do all of our travelling after we worked for 7 months.

These are the sort of things you should plan before you’re even ready to start travelling. If you can get the additional flexibility then do it because there is nothing worse than going to an incredible place at the wrong time of the year and having it ruined by crowds or weather.

Your budget is going to be the one of the things that you will have complete and total control over. Decide whether you’re going to save up for a bit longer and spoil yourself or go super frugal and get the most out of every penny. Whichever you decide we have some great guides on how to use your budget perfectly.

Now have a think about how you want to experience the world? Some people like a packed itinerary; seeing, tasting and abosrbing the most they can possibly do in their given time. Some people like to slow down, not neccesarily seeing as much but giving each destination time to cement itself in their memories.

Personally we have done a bit of both. I actually recommend having some faster periods of a trip and some slower ones. You don’t want to burn yourself out by running around for the whole duration but at the same time, you don’t want to get to the end of your trip and realise that you’ve done nothing.

When Jade and I went for our first trip through South East Asia, we rapidly went from Beijing, through China, into Vietnam and down into Cambodia. During this time we spent 2-3 days at each location and sometimes less. We were fresh and raring to go so this was definitely the right idea.

Then we found a small island with no internet or electricity and drank beer in a tree house overlooking the sea and sunset. It might sound like I’m blabbing on about the obvious but the little things tend to get overlooked.

I don’t want to go too in depth on here about planning a trip as this is just a place to get some inspiration and a general idea. Everyone is completely different on how they prepare for a trip. I literally plan every activity, hotel, tour and transport and put it all into an Excel spreadsheet which is then laminated and anoited as a holy text.

Jade likes to research every single place until she knows what each blade of grass will look like when she gets off the bus. You can see how both our obsessions might work quite well in tandem!

However, I’m not saying this is the right way. I’ve known people to turn up to the airport and get on a flight to anywhere before.

Just make sure you’re ready in your own way.

LIVE

This is the most important part of our entire ethos. We didn’t just put it at the end of MOVE | WORK | TRAVEL | LIVE because it sounds boho and inspirational.

You have to remember that this trip is almost certainly not going to be perfect. If you decide to move to another country and work then I can almost guarentee that it won’t be. If you were going on a trip for a couple of weeks then you might be able to come out of it with the perfect memories but when you start to travel for longer durations then things will go wrong.

It could be that you didn’t research the weather correctly and visit the most famous rice paddies is Asia with 1 metre visibility.

Or an agency might have booked you onto the wrong flight and so you got to the airport with no plane to get onto.

It would be terrible if you spent thousands on a vehicle for your road trip only to have it break down two weeks later.

Yes, these memories are safely stored away for us but no, it wasn’t the end of the world when it all happened!

On the flip side, travel gives you the ability to experience, witness and be a part of things that you’ve never dreamt of being part of. Be it watching a humpaback whale slowely swim towards you whilst you float in the water, seeing one of the rarest big cats in the world emerge from the undergrowth or exeperience the most perfect of sunsets on the most perfect of beaches – travelling is incredible.

There really is nothing like seeing the world and immersing yourself in other environments and cultures. You’re only on this site because you feel the same way so have a real think about it and let us get you there.