You really don't understand how bad it is these days. The average family does not have $2,000 in savings, much less 5 to 10. In fact, [the average American household with debt owes an average of $130,922][1]. Over $15,000 of that is in credit card debt alone.
Being broke is actually doing pretty well nowadays. We live in a world built on debt, where the financial sector makes up over 30% of the economy and almost everyone is beholden to large banks. In a few decades, we'll be right back to feudal system, if things don't change.
[1]: http://www.fool.com/retirement/general/2016/05/08/the-averag...
OP wasn't talking about an average family, but a single "decent programmer".
As for the median, I can't seem to find that statistic, but I would argue that it's actually a less accurate picture than the average.
[1]: http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/abigail-wilkinson/pew-69... [2]: http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/11/news/economy/middle-class-we... [3]: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/nov/13/us-wealth-i...
http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/02/22/getting-rich-from-...
You really think that's how most Americans live?
I try to work hard these days to pay off my mortgage early and save for retirement. Using my current savings and loosing one of my good years of income seems like something that should at least be mentioned.
Maybe this goes without saying, but the average family in North America lives well above their means. Rent to own furniture, a leased lexus for the wife and ginormous pickup truck for the office job husband, dinner and drinks out multiple times per week etc.
But none of your links actually back that up. If we're trading personal anecdotes, fine, but otherwise you're caricaturing the average family as struggling because of (I would guess based on your implication) stupidity and greed. This doesn't seem to match my experience of the "average" family, but it is common dog whistle language.
I'm not talking about the average family. I'm not about people on HN level jobs.
In fact, I wasn't talking about a family at all -- only singles or at most couples. A family makes it non practical for several reasons (though it still can be done).
I'm one of those "quit the job and traveled the world" types except I didn't travel the world, just did a healthy 6 month dose of travel but my friends and family look up to me like I did something they are completely incapable of and I might be because I had the self control not to have children and buy a home, go to bars regularly, eat out all the time, etc, etc.
I met tons of people who were doing the same with a lot less money then I had and they made the same sacrifices I did. Anyways, end rant. I agree debt is out of control and much of it designed but I also know people made a shitton of bad decisions with money.
For the rest, those making $50.000 a year or more, $5000 to $10000 is very doable to save in 1-4 years -- if you actually want to visit the world that is, and not just want it to fall on you lap while you enjoy everything else at the same time. Rent a smaller house, don't buy a new car, spend less on bars, restaurants and other BS, dont buy that iPhone, etc.
Don't spend my money on anything nice, having fun, or treating myself to something special in the hopes that I can travel the world as a beggar or poor person (5k-10k as is a substantially small travel budget)?
If I were still single (and younger), I would have taken that $10K and lived an awesome 6 months abroad. But 15 years ago my priorities were a fast-ish car, a nice apartment, eating out every night, and trying to impress a girl (now my wife). It's worked out well for me regardless.
[edit]Your attitude comes off as very entitled BTW. You complain about "...don't spend my money on anything nice, having fun, or treating myself to something special". Oh woe is me, I can't travel the world and buy that latest iphone and fancy new clothes...sheesh!
I did say: "if you actually want to visit the world that is, and not just want it to fall on you lap while you enjoy everything else at the same time".
The observation that (advice about travelling) "might not interest those who are not interested in travelling" seems redundant to me.
There's nothing wrong or right with either way of life, it's just different personalities.
Travelers may call your lifestyle fake or meaningless, you may call their lifestyle fake or meaningless, but the lifestyles are as real and valid as the person wants them to be.
It's ok to not want what other people want :)
And no, you don't abstain of having fun or having "nice things" And no, you don't travel the world as a beggar.
Most north american people just expend too much in things they dont need.
It's not like somebody put a gun on your head.
5-10K is by no means a "substantially small travel budget". In fact many middle class families in other parts of the world make it with that or less for the whole year.
Now, if you want to travel the world first class and stay on 5-star hotels, get the budget for it.
Not everybody needs or cares for that -- but we can still travel for months on end on far much less AND have fun.
Adjust the sliding scale of your combined travel budget/ rest-of-your-life budget as you need/want.
He traveled to 50+ countries and slept outside everywhere except poor countries where it was cheap to get a bed.
When he returned to the US, he sold cars and was homeless. Literally he slept outside but still worked out and ate well. When he got a car, he still slept outside.
He recently just made $60,000 driving for Lyft/Uber in 6 months and saved $30,000 (assuming a lot went to taxes).
He then moved and slept in hus car for 1+ month while having 30k and perfect credit, and still driving. Now he's taken a month off to pursue creative and side projects.
If you don't have a family, then anything is possible.
Again, the point was the will to do it not necessarily how he did it.
Can you really earn $120k/yr driving?
nobody would do that for more than a few months but i'm sure it's possible if you're really dedicated to raising some money in an unsustainable way.
Even if you don't have a family, people don't want to sleep outside.
You seem like someone who has little life experience.
My point was running a criminal enterprise isn't really an acceptable option for most people.
More generally, saying (or implying) "your advice is useless because many people couldn't do it" invalidates a sizeable chunk of useful advice.
Yes, many people don't have 5000-10000 and couldn't. But many do or could, and yet they imagine they couldn't possibly travel/leave job, etc.
It's easy, "live beneath your means". Move away from the valley and give up that lifestyle. If you're a decent-ish programmer, you can make a bunch of money in any of the other medium sized cities in the US with a reasonable cost of living.
Its about budgeting. We each keep a budget for our hobbies of about $100 per month. We spend about $200 at restaurants (eating out less than once per week). Most important is keeping a tab on your spending. UsBank has a download spreadsheet function that keeps track of your last export so it is very easy to download one month at a time.
"We would like to keep our team close" -- Management "Half of our team is in India" -- me ":shrug: go back to work" -- Management
It's not a LOT of money, but enough to travel if that is what you want to do.
Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of ... - Amazon.com http://goo.gl/f8Ue7
Everybody (author of the satire included) always jumps to conclusions that people doing such acts always have some massive fortune or cushion in the bank to wait them.
That's far from the truth. Thousands of people do the same thing every year without anything in the bank (and no sure job awaiting them when they get back).
Some have meagre savings (like $5.000 - $10.000) and use all of them to fund the trip (like year-long).
Others just go at it with nothing, and survive on the kindness of strangers and odd gigs here and there.
I know a few personally doing the latter, but many more doing the first.
Heck, if you have $10,000 in the bank, and are a decent programmer that can manage to find work when he gets back from the trip) you can quit your job, spend 3-4 months in Asia and Africa for dirt cheap, and still have like $2-$3.000 spare to get you through a month before finding some new gig.