Many of our friends often ask how comes we can afford so much travelling. So what’s all that secret? We put together some five ways in which you can also make some extra money and travel the world!

1. Airbnb and the like. Yes, we’re all about Airbnb – and how couldn’t we?

Airbnb is an online platform, which allows you to rent out your room/flat/entire house to complete strangers. Is that safe? Well, we’ve been hosting over 50 people and also been hosted a few times and we only have positive experiences. Yes, there was a cases when a US tourist claimed he’d been sexually assaulted by his host or when a host returned home only to find his guest were throwing the greatest orgy of all times. But before judging Airbnb, think about how many incidents happen in, say, 100 hotels in one city in a year and then bear in mind Airbnb is a platform of more than 600,000 places to stay all over the world. Looking at it like this, you’re more likely to be kidnapped by North Koreans in Switzerland than having hell on earth with Airbnb. The site also allows for reviewing and referencing so by carefully reading the reviews left to your host/guests, discussing with them prior to their arrival and carefully reading descriptions you will greatly minimalize your risks. There are other sites out there similar to Airbnb so maximise your chances to rent your room out on Wimdu, Flipkey, Roomorama, 9flats or Hometrip.

2. You have a bike? Rent it or do some repairs!

You can rent pretty much everything, but sleeping space and bikes are quite profitable. Sites like Spinlister allow you to advertise your bike and rent it out for good rates. If Spinlister is not extremely lucrative, maybe check out with your best ranking local hostels and spread the word (and while you’re at it, offer some fee to your ‘friends’ managing the hostel). If you’re doing this, make sure you provide a helmet, good lights, functional breaks and a locker. Maybe you love your bike too much and renting it to some random stranger is not your cup of tea, then repair other people’s bikes – post it on some social media groups and spread the word, soon you’ll get plenty of beers and some pocket money!

3. Are you good in writing, IT or pretty much anything that can be done at your laptop? Freelance!

There are a couple of ways to do this and both will take a bit of time to get you up and running. First, there are platforms like UpWork, where people, organisations and companies advertise for work and freelancers apply for it. You might have a rocky start but be persistent and keep looking and applying – also take some of their tests, have a well described profile and show you’re a serious expert when you’re sending in applications. Another way is to start volunteering for an organisation/company active in what you’re good at. Are you good in writing articles? Write so knock-out articles for a magazine (or more) on a voluntary basis, build a relationship with the staff and later on you might as well get some of your travels funded!

4. Grow! And by that we mean grow your own food

You don’t need hectares of land and you don’t even need a garden! You can simply get some pots and plant some herbs then sell them. We recently saw in the news a couple of Romanian youngsters who planted loads of mint, sold it to restaurants and bars and got 3-4 times their investment. Why not?

5. Sell stuff!

This can work well if you have an eye for what’s underpriced or not valued at all, or if you’re hand crafting something yourself. Say you see a chair missing a leg that someone wants to throw away? Why not fixing the leg yourself and selling it after? Are you an expert in computers, cameras, antiques or anything? Perhaps you make some jewels in your spare time? Then check on the market and see if you can make some deals out of it. There is plenty of stuff lying around out there, which is valued dearly by some – connect the two through your skills and platforms like Amazon, eBay or your local/national trading platform!

We’ve mostly tried Airbnb and occasionally renting or selling our bikes and that has proved to work really well. We’re also freelancing and that’s actually the biggest share of our income. Soon enough we’re planning to take on growing some herbs and if the time allows check on the town’s flea market. The lessons we’ve learnt so far is that you need to diversifyyour income sources, be perseverant and also save money – more on that in future posts!