They Quit Their Jobs With $935K, Traveled 12 Countries And Spent $35,654 — ‘I STRONGLY Recommend You Pull The Trigger’

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A couple walked away from work with $935,000 to their name and spent the next year traveling through 12 countries.

"I was on the fence about doing this for YEARS (and my wife thought I was crazy)," they wrote on Reddit . "If you find yourself in a position like mine, I STRONGLY recommend you pull the trigger and DO IT."

They Quit With $935,000. How Did They Make A Year Of Travel Work?

The poster was 32 when two years of growing burnout in their tech career began causing physical symptoms of stress and anxiety. They quit with the couple's net worth at $935,000, while their wife continued working for another six months before joining them on sabbatical.

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During those six months, the poster began preparing for the year abroad, including spending more time on credit card churning and award travel to help cover flights and hotels.

By July 2025, their wife had joined them, and the couple left for what would become a 377-day trip through 12 countries. Vietnam, where the poster's wife is from, became their home base once they reached Southeast Asia.

They Traveled 12 Countries For $35,654 Out Of Pocket

The poster had gone into the trip expecting to spend between $60,000 and $80,000. After 377 days on the road, they and their wife had spent $35,654 out of pocket.

Of that, $33,044 went toward their stays and day-to-day expenses across the places they visited, while another $2,610 covered things such as international health insurance, phone service, and gifts.

Helping them stay well below their original estimate were 2.2 million airline, hotel, and credit card points the couple had spent roughly three years accumulating, largely through sign-up bonuses. They used 890,366 airline points across 35 flights for two people, along with more than 1.3 million hotel points and 16 free-night certificates.

They estimated that those rewards saved them about $47,560. Without them, the year of travel would have cost roughly $83,000.

Their Net Worth Actually Rose While They Were Living Without Income

The poster had gone 18 months without employment income, using cash savings from a high-yield savings account to fund the trip.

At the same time, they had taken a more risk-averse approach to their investments during the sabbatical, keeping anything outside equities in Treasury bills or longer-duration bonds so they wouldn't have to worry as much about the market.