A young individual from Generation Z who made the decision to leave his job as an estate agent in order to explore the world has shared his strategy for funding his travels.
At the start of 2025, some members of Generation Z and millennials are embracing a new career trend called ‘microretirement.’
Although there are cautions for those considering this path, the allure of taking a career hiatus to see the world is irresistible for many.
In January 2023, 23-year-old George Buckley opted to leave his real estate career and bought a one-way ticket to Bangkok, Thailand.
“I went in as a trainee sales negotiator, frontline, hammering the calls,” George told UNILAD.
“Gradually I found my feet and began to love it. I really enjoyed working with my colleagues.”
However, George realized that long-term, this career wasn’t for him, especially as he juggled it with creating content for his popular TikTok channel.
After ten months, he chose to resign from the position.
Thailand’s lively capital seemed an ideal launching pad for his adventures, with plans to explore more of south-east Asia.
“I went solo traveling,” George said. “So I kind of threw myself into the deep end. I didn’t do much research prior to arrival; I just wanted to throw myself in and see what happened and just deal with it.”
The content creator continued: “I’ve grown tremendously as a person because of it, and I’ve never looked back since it’s the best decision I’ve made.”
While it sounds appealing, many may question how to finance such an endeavor.
George revealed to UNILAD that he has always been prudent with money, saving before departing his job.
His financial stability was further supported by a part-time job at Tesco, a UK supermarket chain, and an emergency fund for any unforeseen circumstances.
Having now realized his dream of worldwide travel, the 23-year-old expresses no desire to return to a conventional ‘9-5’ job for the ‘foreseeable future’.
“I’m young, I’ve got energy for it [travel and content creation],” George said.
“It’s my passion, and I’m going to pursue that as much as I can and really go for it and see how far I can really take it. But I’d never write off going back into that nine-to-five role.”
Despite this, George admits to feeling some ‘envy’ towards those in traditional corporate jobs for their structure and reliable income.
Nevertheless, George is earning while on the move, currently sharing his experiences in Bali on TikTok, which serves as a major source of income.
“I’m not going to try and sugarcoat it and say it’s going to happen overnight,” George said about getting into content creation.
He continued: “I didn’t earn any money for the first two-and-a-half years of making videos and eventually built it up to the point where I realized I could do it full-time.
“I made sure that [my] income was high enough, which is especially important when traveling. Whether that’s making videos for brands or stuff that I’d earn off my personal social pages like TikTok and YouTube, to the point where that is steady enough.
“And I’ve also got that security fund as well for a fallback option if anything goes wrong.
“I would recommend if anybody is looking to go down this path, you build it [following] up first and get in the habit of posting regularly and actually getting some traction before taking that leap.”
George concluded: “And once you are fully confident you have some money behind you, go and take the risk, give it 100 percent and go from there.”