He’s not entirely wrong. I’m not advocating it but it is true that you can travel with any amount of money. If you have legs or some other means to move, pick a direction and go. Too slow? There is hitchhiking, train jumping, stowing away,… with a little money you can get a car or motor bike and go as far as it will take you before it quits. You can leave your job and become a long haul trucker, a flight attendant, a train employee, a traveling salesperson, work on boats, cruise ships, oil rigs. Do feo surveying and other such jobs. Join the military or service etc.
There are lots of ways from $0 to a little money to see great big chunks of the world you haven’t seen. You may not always know you’ll have a place to sleep every night or food to eat. You may have to take odd jobs and scavenge and use outdoors skills or beg and panhandle or even commit crimes. You may not be able to control where you go or afford to do all the things you might want to do- but there are plenty of ways to travel if you have the courage and or faith in your abilities and or determination to just get out and see the world.
Buuut…. Is that reasonable and should you? It could be fun at times and horrible st others. Unless you had resources or a support system as a “safety net” there are no guarantees, and a life like that can be horrible at times. It can be dangerous. You can be robber, hurt, killed, taken advantage of, stranded, arrested. You wouldn’t be doing much most likely to put done stable roots and grow your future beyond any useful skills and experiences or connections you happened to stumble on. It’s hard to get a degree while panhandling across a country or the globe. There isn’t a paycheck or 401 and it doesn’t pay into social security. It’s hard to have physical possessions except what you can carry and you would almost certainly be always living on the resources at hand without much or any security net or nest egg.
So it is and isn’t true. In theory if you want something bad enough and are willing to prioritize it above all, there are few things that aren’t possible. Having money and wealth and other advantages makes it easier to do most things and opens more possibilities much easier or certainly. It gives you a safety net if things go wrong or you change your mind and it can allow you to have more than one priority. If you have wealth and such you can travel AND build your home AND save for a rainy day AND have other hobbies and relationships and a job and a family. If you don’t, you may have to pick only a couple or only one.
How much are you willing to give up for this thing? That’s a question of life. People with wealth often don’t have to give up as much to have the things they want and since they have more they can give up more before it causes them problems. They often have jobs that allow the flexibility to do things that less well to do jobs or more physical work don’t. For most people there are no big rewards without big risks or big work and when it comes to work, you will almost always have to work harder for something than it is objectively worth. So you have to choose the life you want to live and prioritize the things you think are most important.
To be clear I am not a travel snob. I do not think everyone “needs to travel” or that those who aren’t well traveled are automatically somehow lacking perspective or intellect. A good amount of people I see who “travel” and talk about high minded things like cultural exposure just do tourist shit or the same things everyone else does except the natives, or they do some kiddie gloves nonsense for a few weeks to a year and declare themselves a real local who’s lived in another's shoes. Travel can be great and it can expand your views and understanding. You can get those same benefits without traversing the globe or paying huge sums for exotic vacations. Many so called travelers have never even experienced all their own country offer or even a good chunk.
There are also life experiences you just won’t get if you are always traveling. Without disrespect to either- the bonds formed by travelers and by those who have roots aren’t the same. I’m not saying either is better but I am saying they are almost mutually exclusive. You can’t see places and people change in real time when you are bouncing around. You can’t grow the sorts of connections that come from close familiarity with places and people for decades or more. Of course there is balance, you can travel and have roots, but one will always be a greater part of your life than the other.
So do you. Also- more pragmatically- you can travel for relatively reasonable sums of money and not live like a vagrant. There are hostels, exchange programs, colleges and commerce centers and clubs do trips and host people. You may have skills that are wanted in a work abroad program. You don’t need go to Paris to travel to France, there are lots of places around the world that aren’t as prominent in postcards and media but have culture and history or fun and beautifully things or amazing food etc.
you don’t have to travel abroad- Miami is very different from Pensacola, upstate New York isn’t NYC. Drive to Yosemite or the Everglades or the Catskills.
You can go to places in your area where historical events or industries were big, there are places all over where famous shows or movies were filmed, the town from Dukes of Hazard in Georgia, obviously places all over California and the west coast, New York City, New England… there are “tourist towns” all over, Reno/Tahoe, Atlantic City, New Orleans, Miami, Austin, Chicago, Amish towns and Quaker towns. Beach towns and mountain towns. Deserts and forests. Motels shaped like tee pees, lakes and old mines…. There are often places to travel to within a few hours or on a weekend trip and it can be done for a few hundred dollars or less all included. Go to the snow, buy an inner tube for $10. Go to the lake. Buy an inner tube for $10. Go tour ghost towns. Pioneer towns. Just drive backroads and see where they go. Hoover dam, the Mississippi, Colorado, Columbia river. The Great Lakes. The dist bowl.
$500 can be a lot of money to a lot of people but it is an amount that most people could probably save up to have at least once a year of not every couple years. Not everyone- but probably most people. So you probably can travel. To Paris or Fiji or Tokyo? Maybe not on your budget. Then again- maybe. It depends in part on how well you plan and prepare. The local college used to offer Japanese students a 10 day trip to Japan for $1200. This was a few years ago but not decades back and it was a steal as at the time a plane ticket to Japan was more than that on average retail cost.
Like I said though- it doesn’t have to be exotic or even out of the country. There’s more to see in driving distance of most places than a person can see in a lifetime and you don’t need to go somewhere new every time you travel. It can take many trips to one place to get a real feel for it or to even get a loose feeling.
So do you and don’t let people travel shame you, but know that most people can travel.
you don’t have to travel abroad- Miami is very different from Pensacola, upstate New York isn’t NYC. Drive to Yosemite or the Everglades or the Catskills.
Like I said though- it doesn’t have to be exotic or even out of the country. There’s more to see in driving distance of most places than a person can see in a lifetime and you don’t need to go somewhere new every time you travel. It can take many trips to one place to get a real feel for it or to even get a loose feeling.
So do you and don’t let people travel shame you, but know that most people can travel.