29-year-old American lives on roughly $1,463 a month in Turkey: 'It really is the perfect place for what I'm doing'

As a college student, Doug Barnard took a trip with his mom to India in 2017. It was so impactful it eventually inspired him to become a full-time traveler — a path he didn’t think was possible for him.

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

“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.”

At the time, he was earning about $60,000 a year working in the e-commerce sector, and although he didn’t dislike his job, it certainly wasn’t his passion.