Courtesy of Tommy Walker
Tommy Walker.
Living in a small, working class town in Northeast England, the now 29-year-old remembers dreaming of somewhere exotic, somewhere "far, far away from here" as a child, he told Business Insider.
In his early 20s, he finally got the chance to go. Tired of a 9-5 corporate job at a product management company, he bought a ticket to Sweden, intending to work his way down by the Eurorail to explore the continent.
Then, his dad got sick, and he postponed his trip, settling for shorter-term stays instead.
In 2011, his father died, leaving Walker and his brother an inheritance through his workplace that Walker chose to split into pieces: about 60% on longer-term investments, and 30% on travel, starting with an ambitious trip to Southeast Asia.
He acknowledges that some people might consider his windfall a stroke of luck, but says he wishes some things had turned out differently. "Sure, I got an inheritance," he said, "but at the end of the day it's my father. It's no compensation for what happened, but obviously, it helped me get to where I am today."
His inheritance stopped fully funding his travels - which you can follow via Facebook, Instagram, or through his website - before the first of four years was up. Since then, he's been in a cycle of working, saving, and traveling. "I've always been lucky enough to find work and make money," he said, "so once I started this travel journey, I always felt that I'd always find money if I wanted to buy something later on."
Below, Walker explained the gritty reality behind long-term travel, why you don't need a windfall to leave home, and how he now affords to stay on the road.