There are many people I have met throughout my travels that have done Seasonal Work for decades and have made a pretty nice life for themselves. Imagine our scenario; my wife and I are both managers in a National Park. We have a free cabin on a river for the summer, and are close enough to walk to our jobs. Our cabin has a tiny kitchen and laundry is free. The only bills we have are food, our cell phones, and our car insurance. It is very easy for us to save enough during the summer to take the winter off and travel.
Even if you are not in free managers housing, it is still very cheap. Most housing contracts include food and are less than $500 a month. I would never suggest seasonal work in a place where you would have to find your own housing. We live in incredible places, that means housing is very expensive, you would be better off living in a city and just working a normal job if you’re not offered cheap housing.
One piece of the puzzle that most people don’t really think about is, you are responsible for the cost of getting to your seasonal job, and leaving. Many of these locations are pretty remote so you have to factor into your budget the cost of driving or flying. We’ve been taking multi-week trips in between jobs for the past few seasons and it is thousands of dollars to cross the country. You also have to factor in housing deposits before you arrive and even start making money.
Health insurance is another road block you would have to figure out. Sadly, in todays world, most of the seasonal workers I know just go without. Most of the time your contract isn’t long enough to get health insurance through a seasonal employer so you would have to self insure.
One of favorite parts about seasonal work is that you just kind of forget about money for a few months. There really isn’t anything to spend it on. 5 days a week you’re just kind of chilling and working your shifts and hanging out in your village. Swimming, hiking, paddleboarding – all free. Hanging out at a bonfire after work will cost you the price the beers you’re going to drink. If you’re even halfway responsible it’s almost impossible not to save money. Seasoned veterans know that they judge a season by how much they walk away with, not really what they’re making day to day.
Often, I see hourly workers get themselves into trouble by not planning earlier in the season. Things slow down and hours get cut. Next thing they know the end of the season is right around the corner and they don’t even have enough money saved up to travel to their next job. My first few years I would use a portion of every check I got to pay for a segment of my upcoming travel; train tickets, hotels, rental cars, etc.. When everyone else was stressing out, I only had to worry about money to eat out for a few weeks while I got to my next seasonal job.
I tended bar in the city for almost 20 years, made some really good money, but I was never able to save the way I can doing seasonal work. Getting paid while having no cost of living, is a recipe for freedom. Now that I have my wife with me who is onboard to do this for a few more years, we can save up some serious cash to go settle down in a place we know we’ll love.
