For many Singaporean {couples} of their late 20s, the subsequent milestones after marriage usually look predictable—BTO, promotions, and perhaps, beginning a household. However for Darien Tan and Joanna Wong, each 27, the script felt too acquainted and too confining.
In 2024, the couple decided that may shock most: they walked away from their mixed S$250,000 annual revenue, give up their jobs in tech, and set off to journey the world—indefinitely.
Since then, Darien and Joanna have lived in quite a lot of international locations, together with Indonesia, Europe, China, Japan, and so they’re nonetheless on the street.
However how do they make it work? We spoke to the couple to learn the way they made the leap, managed their funds, and what life on the street has been like.
They saved up S$200K to journey
Darien and Joanna first met in church once they had been simply 12 years outdated, and began courting at 16.
Seven years later, in 2021, the pair tied the knot. They then entered the company world, taking over steady 9-to-5 tech roles. However the routine quickly started to weigh on them.
“We had been comfy however lived for the weekends and the occasional vacation. We had been so work-focused [that] at one level our front room had no couch, simply desks,” mentioned Joanna.
By 2022, the couple started “severely planning” for a special form of life: one centered on journey and freedom.
They set a goal of S$100,000 in liquid financial savings, with a month-to-month funds of S$3,000 for dwelling bills overseas. Their mortgage may very well be lined fully with CPF funds, so it was excluded from the money budgeting.
A 12 months later, they reached that purpose, however determined to purpose greater, focusing on S$200,000 to increase their journey runway. To speed up financial savings, they rented out rooms of their house and co-lived with housemates.
Trying again, Darien calls the prolonged goal a “fallacy.” “While you ask anybody how a lot they must be comfortable, it’s at all times double of what they’ve. We had been at S$100,000 and thought we would have liked S$200,000,” he shared.
After hitting S$200,000 in financial savings, the couple felt that it was time to give up their jobs. “We had been 25 turning 26 at the moment… nevertheless it wasn’t simple to let go,” he mentioned.
“We had each simply gotten our promotions at work, and it felt like the chance price was too big to give up. After a lot deliberation, we determined that it was now or by no means.”
A near-death expertise that very same 12 months cemented their conviction. Throughout an organization retreat in San Francisco, Darien was concerned in a critical automotive accident on the way in which to the airport.
“The van we had been in rolled a minimum of 5 occasions,” he recalled in an interview with Business Insider. That second was a “breaking level” for Darien—it made him realise how fragile life actually is and the way simply all the pieces can change.
In Aug 2024, each Darien and Joanna handed of their resignation letters, and by Sept, they started dwelling life on their very own phrases.
Making “radical selections” collectively
When Darien and Joanna informed their households they had been quitting their well-paying tech jobs to journey the world, the response wasn’t one among shock—shocking, maybe, in a society the place many nonetheless consider there’s just one slender path to success.
“Our dad and mom are very supportive of the choices we make, however not with out motive,” mentioned Joanna. “Since we had been younger, we’ve at all times made moderately radical selections collectively—ones that in all probability constructed our dad and mom’ confidence in our skill to comply with by way of with unconventional selections and make them work.”
These selections span an extended record. Joanna dropped out of junior school to pursue Baby Psychology at Ngee Ann Polytechnic, whereas Darien turned down a full engineering scholarship at SUTD to review Enterprise Administration at NUS as a substitute. Collectively, they even began a baking firm throughout their tertiary research, working workshops for 4 years.
Ultimately, life introduced them to their tech careers—however the couple by no means misplaced their urge for food for charting their very own path.
“So, we didn’t assume it got here as a shock to our households that we each needed to give up our company jobs. I suppose it by no means actually felt like us within the first place to be in a single.”
The couple started their travels in Bali, the place they spent about three months recovering from years of company burnout. It was the primary time that they had actually disconnected from the Singapore grind.
“We allowed ourselves to utterly change off,” Joanna recalled. “We indulged in meals, figuring out, going for bodily remedy, sleep—and repeat.”
At first, they anticipated to really feel utterly fulfilled. In any case, they had been dwelling what they as soon as referred to as their dream life. However because the weeks glided by, an surprising feeling surfaced.
“There was an vacancy looming within us,” Darien mentioned. “As a lot as what we had was freedom, what we actually needed was function.”
That realisation led to a brand new purpose: to doc what it’s wish to dwell life on their very own phrases—from a Singaporean perspective.
“There are lots of Westerners that you could comply with on YouTube who determined to pursue the identical life-style as us. However you can be hard-pressed to discover a Singaporean couple who had really give up their jobs collectively to pursue an alternate life-style and documented it.”
They needed to pioneer what that regarded like for others again house, so the couple began a YouTube channel documenting their life-style in late 2024. Since then, their channel has grown steadily, attracting a group of over 20,000 subscribers.
Funding their travels
Over the previous 12 months, Darien and Joanna have travelled to greater than 9 international locations, together with dwelling out of a van in Japan and exploring distant elements of China.
Finance has at all times been a “massive subject” for the couple all through their journey. “As two very sensible Singaporeans, we’d at all times aimed to steadiness between dwelling our dream lives and in addition monetary prudence,” mentioned Darien.
All through their travels, the couple tries to stay to their S$3,000 month-to-month funds; nevertheless, bills fluctuate by location, with some months going over and others below. They steadiness it out over time to maintain their total spending on monitor.
As an illustration, in Jun, journeys to the UK and Spain pushed their spending close to S$6,000. Nonetheless, from Jan to Might, they spent properly below funds, averaging about S$1,800 monthly.
Past financial savings, Darien and Joanna complement their life-style with passive revenue streams. “We needed to do issues that almost all Singaporeans wouldn’t be comfy doing,” he added.
The couple continues to hire out their HDB, which generates practically S$5,000 monthly. In the meantime, their YouTube channel has additionally opened up extra alternatives.
Darien and Joanna’s YouTube revenue is break up throughout three major streams. They began with journey content material, incomes as little as S$3 per day from advert income when posting a single video monthly. In the present day, it contributes roughly an eighth of their social media-related revenue.
Whereas creating journey content material, they seen that viewers had been much less involved in itineraries and extra inquisitive about private finance. This perception led them to develop a monetary toolkit for aspiring travellers, which now accounts for 1 / 4 of their YouTube earnings.
Their remaining revenue comes from model partnerships secured by way of their content material. Collectively, these streams enable the couple to take care of their travels whereas sharing insights and inspiration with a rising viewers.
Dwelling life on their very own phrases
At the moment, Darien and Joanna are residing in Hoi An, Vietnam. “Vietnam is a really charming place with distinctive native meals. From a cost-of-living perspective, it’s 1 / 4 of Singapore’s,” mentioned Joanna.
They plan to proceed travelling, however life on the street isn’t at all times idyllic. In Vietnam, extreme flooding has disrupted each day life in current weeks—some roads are submerged, and the couple sometimes has to cross them utilizing small boats, like sampans.
There have additionally been occasions once they had no entry to bogs and even clear water, comparable to throughout their keep in Raja Ampat, Indonesia. However for Darien and Joanna, that’s a part of “the great thing about travelling.” “We get to expertise a rustic for what it actually is,” they mentioned. “We take conditions flippantly as a result of it doesn’t matter what occurs, it’s not the top of the world in spite of everything.”
For the couple, success is now not outlined by promotions or paychecks. Their philosophy is to spend their cash on doing the issues they need to do in life moderately than deferring it for a future second that will by no means come. This mindset has guided each their travels and their way of living on their very own phrases.
And so they hope they’ll encourage others to make significant selections for themselves as properly.
- Examine our Darien and Joanna’s YouTube channel here.
- Learn different articles we’ve written on Singaporean companies here.
Featured Picture Credit score: Darien and Joanna
