How to Finance a Gap Year
Gap years are very popular with today’s university students. Every year, thousands of students doing an online MBA degree head off overseas to do voluntary work, work in vineyards and summer camps, and live it up for a while. How you spend your gap year is up to you, but what most people realize after a short time is that any savings you have won’t last long, so you will need to find some way to fund your travels. If you don’t, you will be forced to make an emergency withdrawal from the Bank of Mom & Dad to pay for a flight home.
There are plenty of options to fund a gap year. Older students, such as those studying for a masters in business administration online, are likely to have savings to tide them over for a few months, but younger students who have barely left school, will probably have no savings whatsoever. In this instance, you are going to have to get creative.
Get a Job
This is an obvious one, but it still bears repeating. Finding work on your gap year travels shouldn’t be too difficult if you are in a developed country such as Australia or Canada. If you follow the tried and tested backpackers trail around Australia and Southeast Asia, you will find numerous employment opportunities along the way. These will be mostly in travel and tourism, hospitality and agriculture, but it isn’t difficult to earn money from casual jobs.
If finding work doesn’t appeal, or you are in a more remote location where employment opportunities are few and far between, it’s time to look at other options for making money.
Keep a Blog
Blogging is a useful way to earn money while you travel. Creating a travel blog is an obvious choice, as it kills two birds with one stone, i.e. you can keep family and friends updated about your adventures and once you have a decent following, monetize your blog to generate an income. There are several ways to generate money from a blog, but the easiest are Goggle Ads and affiliate marketing. You can also accept paid guest posts, which is a bonus if you don’t always have time to write blog posts.
YouTube Channels
YouTube is now the biggest social network and popular YouTubers earn millions from their channels. It takes time to earn money from YouTube and you have to be willing to put effort into creating entertaining videos. These can be about anything you like, but funny ones tend to do well. For example, a short clip of you screaming like a girl when you find a giant huntsman spider in your bed will be video gold. Basically, anything that is entertaining, funny or useful will attract an audience, so start filming and it won’t be long before you are earning enough money to fund your travels.
Gap years look great on a resume, but only if you have used the time wisely, so plan your trip with this in mind!
