How to Travel More With a Full Time Job

For anyone that works a steady, full time, 9-5 job, you know the feeling. Day-in and day-out, strapped to your cubicle, trying to locate a small glimmer of sunlight from a window that's forty feet away from you. A lot of full timers (me included) day dream about breaking free of the confines of the cubicle and exploring the globe. But leaving a career that offers financial stability and comfort can be a daunting and, in some people's minds, silly task. So, if you're not ready to make the leap and quit your job and full on explore the world, then how can you travel more with a full time job?

Simple. You just need to find the time, create a plan, fund it and stick to it. Now, it may seem difficult to find the time and fund a trip if you are in a classic 9 to 5 and paying bills. Especially if your 9 to 5 is one of those that make you stay way past the 5 o'clock timeline. There are, however, a few tricks to help you save money and find the time to travel more with a full time job, you just need to start implementing them in your every day life. So, to help you get going on the path towards your more adventurous life, here are some of my tips for how to travel more with a full time job.

Save a Small Amount Every Paycheck

Acquiring a full time job may have initially seemed like the right way to quickly save up for a trip, but a full time job often leads to renting or buying your own place, gaining internet, hydro, water and other bills, and spending excess money on post work drinks on the weekend to help relieve the cubicle stress. Because of all this, saving for a trip can easily become the last thing that we utilize our full time incomes for (if at all).

To curb this, I'd suggest creating a separate savings account for funding your adventures and trips. And then, every time you receive a paycheck, put a bit of that money into that account, even if it's only $10. Your adventure / trip fund will eventually add up. Eventually, you will be able to afford that weekend up north, or that trip to New Zealand you've always been dreaming about.

Take All of Your Vacation Time

This one seems self explanatory, but a lot of full time employees don't actually use all of their vacation time. Whether they're swamped with work or simply trying to show that their job is more important to them than travelling, not taking your vacation time can quickly lead to workplace burnout and actually cause a dip in performance. Vacation days are literally provided to you so that you can rest and prevent burnout. So make sure you use all of them. Every. Single. Day. Not only will you feel better rested when you return to work, but you'll also be able to travel more with a full time job and actually experience the world outside of your cubicle.

Book Around Holidays

So, even if you do utilize all of your holidays and save a bit of money each paycheck, you may be wondering how you can explore some of the far reaches of the globe with your limited vacation time. Well, the answer is to book your trips around holidays.

For me, I typically book a lot of my trips around Boxing Day and New Years, as they are stat holidays in Canada and don't utilize any of my personal vacation time. That means, if I combine stat holidays with a bit of my own personal vacation days, I can create a longer vacation than I would've had if I had chosen to just take off a random week in July. This strategy is also effective for short weekend trips. Say you live in Toronto and want to surf in Tofino, BC for a weekend. If you went to Tofino over a long weekend and took two vacation days along with it, you'd have a five day holiday there. If you did that on every long weekend holiday, you'd not only travel more with a full time job, but also see a lot of different places, very quickly.

Plan Weekend Trips

If you are really tight on cash due to bills or you are out of vacation days or you are saving between trips, the most cost-effective way to travel more with a full time job is to plan weekend or day trips in your area. Playing tourist in a nearby town, finding a hiking trail or visiting a local vineyard / brewery are all very cheap and sometimes even free.

Start by thinking of all of the things you love doing when you're on a vacation, and see if you can do them near your own house. I love watching the sunset over water when I'm away. Luckily, I live near a lake, so I can experience that on the weekend right by my house. If you start to do a lot of the things that you do when you're on vacation right around your neighbourhood, you will start to travel in a small way more with a full time job. And these small travels can sometimes be some of the best of all.

Ask for a Remote Working Agreement

If you're looking to travel more with a full time job, a remote working agreement or flexible working hours may be the ultimate answer. The ability to literally work from your computer anywhere in the world is a dream shared by many. And it's highly doable these days. A lot of companies operate on cloud servers now, so you can essentially access your files anywhere you have a WiFi signal.

The trick here is just building up a level of trust with your boss so that you can actually work out a flexible or remote agreement. You could always start by asking your boss if you can work from home once a week on a trial run to see how it goes, and then build up more and more flexibility from there. The key here, though, is to ensure that your work doesn't slip while at home. If anything, your performance should increase on those days.

So, if you're a full time employee but would like to travel more, start saving money when you can and figure out the best ways to utilize your vacation time. Better yet, workout an agreement with your boss to let you work on the go. If all else fails, at least explore the world around you on the weekend. Those small adventures may not seem like the globe trotting travels you always dreamed of, but they will keep you in the exploring mindset and push you more and more towards finding ways to travel more with a full time job.

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