Everyone wants to travel & create content, until reality hits 🥶

Note: I wrote this post for the sole purpose of sharing a reality that most creators won't, because it doesn't sell, and I have nothing to sell you. Secundo, I'm not trying to discourage you. Finally, I am not complaining. Thanks to God, He Gave me so I can be sufficient.

There are two (x2) lessons that are imperative to learn. Not only for traveling, but for any project worth mentioning in the books of history.

🤡 Lesson 1: Don't fool yourself!

If you want to pass the 3-6 months mark traveling the world, you'll need to be 100% honest with yourself. Like you do when you see a doctor.

Traveling the world, means you have no home, no planned meals, no favorite groceries to cook your own food, you will eat outside most of the time, and you'll shoot your food budget out of the roof.

As of your overall health, it will degrade guaranteed. Don’t believe the healthy inspiring “day in my life" vlogs. They might be just hyping you so they can sell you their stuff (e-books, patreon, etc.), which I understand, no hate here 😉. P.S.: I don't have anything to sell you here, so enjoy the self-financed raw content 😉.

Since you've just become homeless, it means bad sleep. Because no matter how good the hotel is, it’s never gonna be like your own mattress. It’s a mattress where thousands slept before you 🙈.

To help you not fool yourself, here are three (x3) questions you need to ask yourself:

• Do I have the financial means?
• Am I in good physical and mental health conditions?
• Am I mentally prepared for burning cash on something that - 90% of the time - will bring me $0 in return?

💔 Lesson 2: It's a solo adventure (irreversibly)?

You are more likely to end up with zero (0) friend - which to me is perfect - but maybe not for you. Because I've met in my life so many people that'll lose their sh** just knowing they won't see their besties every week.

As of your family, they are more likely to distance themselves from you, because you’ve just made a weird decision, which is leaving your safe well paying job, for which you've studied 18 years and for which your parents have invested sweat and tears. Somehow, I understand their reaction!

Also, your family is scared that you mess up something, and consequently tarnish the family name... therefore they might even block you on LinkedIn (based on a true story 😂).

So if you can't handle the solo roads, i.e., no family and no friends, consistently on several months/years, this is not for you 💔.

💸 Let's talk money!

Any finance expert will teach you the following simple cold fact:

Case 1: If (income - expenses) > $1, it's an asset, it's going to make you rich, i.e., good investment (stick on it).

Case 2: If (income - expenses) < $1, it's a liability, it's going to make you poor, i.e., bad investment (stay away from it).

Creating content and traveling the world, falls 9/10 times (or almost) under Case 2.

So financially speaking, creating content while traveling the world is a catastrophe.

💰 Can you make money from content creation?

What's funny is that people think that when they'll become content creators, they'll make money.

What you don't see here is that when you become a content creator, you become the product!

After being hyped for months and years, now you're ready to create content. But before that, you'll buy online classes, online tools to streamline your content, e-books, upsells everywhere, etc.

The reality is that 90% of content creators are working for free for YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and will never make a sustainable living out of the social media. Because the social media arena has become saturated; too many gladiators fighting for the same show.

Or even simpler:

Most of the social media platforms don't even pay their creators that made them exist in the first place. This tells you everything you need to know about making money as a content creator!

💰 How much does it cost to travel and create content?

More than you can imagine: rental cars, fuel, flight/train/bus tickets, visas, ubers, and eating outside. Oh, also unexpected events.

In the case of Romania 🇷🇴, it costs a lot of money to explore it. But it's still cheaper than Switzerland 🇨🇭😉. Funny part is that many expect Romania to be cheap because it was an ex-communist country, right?! Well that was +30 years ago.

Today the country is more capitalist than the United States 🇺🇸. With the difference is that in Romania, I'm not sure if the country has the appropriate Governments institute policies and regulations to protect the purchasing power and keep the economy healthy. So prices have shot out of the roof!

To speak frankly, I can't even imagine how the average Romanian makes it through the month, especially with the current inflation. The minimum/average salary in Romania 🇷🇴 being around $300/$1000 per month after tax 🤯.

The cost will depends also on your travel style. But in my case, I made the choice of not showing a cheap/poor version of Romania. I think the country has suffered enough from this eroded image. Note: In general, showing creepy vibes of eastern countries brings more views.

Yes, Romania 🇷🇴 was an ex-communist country, for +45 years, with one of the toughest communist regimes, who gave jobs to its citizen after graduation, apartment, etc. But that was +30 years ago. Things have changed a lot, in good and less ideal ways... but that's a different topic 😉

🤑 How to survive financially when you travel the world as a content creator?

To survive, content creators start doing freelancing gigs, such as editing videos for others, creating pins for Pinterest, thumbnails, script, teaching english, etc.

So you just went from a 9-5 job to another one, but without the numerous safety nets you had in your past "golden" career, especially if you were a highly educated white collar, like I used to be.

Oh! and every month you're doing some freelancing, is a month that you're not participating in your retirement plan. So no retirement before your 70 buddy 😶‍🌫️.

🤑 But you can make money on YouTube, right?

In 2013-2020, yes! Not today!

Yes, you can still make money from YouTube today, but it will buy you b&p (beans & peanuts). That is if you manage to please the grumpy YouTube algorithm and make +10k views per video... which I haven't after 3 years of content creation 😂 (sometimes it feels good to laugh at your own failures 🤣).

In the old good days of YouTube, just by holding a camera and creating a video, you were already a hero!

Today, a grandma with a chinese Xiaomi in her hand, is a content creator. And if she's funny, her chances of going viral are x10 more than you!

The gold rush of YouTube is over. And whoever is telling you the opposite, is either lying to you, got lucky, belong to the 1%, or simply still new in the field of content creation.

🤔 A final word!

Before you leave your six (x6) figures job, sell everything, and travel the world while creating content - like I did three (x3) years ago - it is imperative that you know the following (in this order of priority):

• 💸 Plan financially, because without money, you won't travel. It's that simple!
• 💔 Learn to distance yourself from your friends and family, emotionally and physically. Your attachment to them might disrupt prematurely your adventure. They won't understand your choice anyway, and you'll burn valuable mental energy trying to convince them. Plus jealousy exists among friends and family, so they might crush your fragile shinny candle of dream whenever they can. Note: If you're with a partner, your journey is certainly going to be better - or certainly worst!
• 📈 You are more likely to not make any sustainable income for the first 1, 2 or 3 years. And even if you monetize your YouTube, it will buy you b&p (beans and peanuts)
• 😬 Be prepared for the emotional descent: once your cash is consumed, you'll have to spin the 9-5 wheel again. Oh, and since you've been traveling for 2, 3 years now, you'll have to work 2 or 3 more years to pay for your retirement! So instead of retiring at 67, you'll retire at 70 🥳

Otherwise, traveling the world while creating content is cool:

• You meet people from different backgrounds,
• you explore places you never heard of,
• you eat different food,
• you take cool selfies,
• you spend your best years (meaning your today) doing something you chose, and not living a life that was imposed on you by the post WWII societal norm
• and if you're lucky, you might catch some lifetime addictions 😭🇷🇴; nevastas, placinte, & co.

Anyway, that was my 20 cts thought...🪙 - "River Newsletter"