Tips for Settling Down After Traveling the World

After you’ve been traveling the world for a decent amount of time, it can be difficult to settle down again. You can only be a vagabond living a nomadic lifestyle for so long, but it can be easy to stay in it. If you actually want to return to a more traditional lifestyle, you might need some tips to lay a foundation for the rest of your life. People typically travel full-time because they are in-between two different lives. It’s difficult to call it on your jet-set lifestyle. You may even be addicted to it. If it’s time for you to do so, here are some tips for settling down after traveling the world.

Move Somewhere New

If you left your home, there was probably a good reason you did. If you don’t want to go back home but want to settle down, why not move somewhere new? The idea of moving to somewhere you’ve been on your travels or have gone to before may excite you enough to get off the road. Are you looking for a purpose? Are you looking for a new place to lay your roots? While there are plenty of great options when it comes to cities and countries to move to, it can be difficult to pull the trigger. Give it some thought and you just may have a lightbulb go off as to where you want to go.

Buy a House

If you have enough money, you can also buy a house as a way to motivate yourself to settle down. Even a down payment will give you reason to stay in one place. One way to find the right house is to fix one up. If you’re not “handy,” this might sound intimidating. But when you’re doing renovations, you can find help with a website like HomeAdvisor, which is a platform where you can look at reviews of the best contractors to do the renovations. It’s a great resource for finding the right people to start the project. Making a home for your project will provide a reason to get off the road and focus on your future. It isn’t to make the transition, but if you buy a property you will feel obliged to fix it up and live in it for a while.

Be with the Right People

When you’re traveling for a long time, there are probably people you miss. Wherever they are, a good way to motivate yourself to stop traveling is to go be with them. This isn’t to say that you have to move where they are, but it is a good way to change your lifestyle. Commit to staying in one place for a while and you will find yourself changing your mindset around your nomadic lifestyle. After traveling full-time for a significant period, nearly everyone discovers it’s not all about where you are but who you are with.

Land the Right Job

For a lot of travelers, the hesitancy to settle down is because they don’t have a job to go back to. If you spend some time looking for a job, wherever it is, if you get one you might just be ready to start working again in a stable, long-term environment. You might even have had a job or two on the road. This is different. Going somewhere for a job specifically will give you purpose and a reason to go to the specific place and work at a particular job. So much of the cycle of full-time travel has to do with lack of options elsewhere. When you find the right job, you will be motivated to live a more traditional life again.

Become an Expat

A lot of people fantasize about the idea of becoming an expat, but few actually go all the way. You can change your lifestyle without going home. If you don’t want to travel anymore but don’t want to go back to your home country either, moving to a country that you love is a great way to settle down without feeling the stagnation of going back home. If you’ve been to a lot of different places, the odds are you have been somewhere you thought “I could live here.” If this is the case, why not give it a try? You just may find your true home and become happier than you’ve ever been before in your life. Settling down after full-time travel is never easy, but if you have the right motivation for the place, job, property, or people, it will be a lot easier.

Ryan Beitler is a writer, journalist, and traveler who has been to five continents and written about travel for numerous publications.