29-year-old left NYC for Istanbul, pays $1,369/month for a duplex apartment—take a look inside

In 2020, Doug Barnard was working in e-commerce at Walmart while trying to launch a YouTube channel dedicated to his travels.

As a college student, Barnard took a trip with his mom to India that was so impactful it eventually inspired him to become a full-time traveler — a path he didn’t think was possible for him.

“Going to India was an eye-opening experience for me. It was the first time I’d been to some place so foreign, so stimulating and for me it was this epiphany that I needed to experience more,” Barnard tells CNBC Make It.

“The most exciting part was talking to the people and seeing how things work. The immersion was what really got me.”

Eventually, Barnard was laid off from his corporate job due to the covid-19 pandemic. He decided to take that time off to focus on growing his YouTube channel. In 2021, he left the United States and spent two years traveling the world before making Istanbul, Turkey, his home base in 2023.