Winning the startup lottery would be awesome but probably requires some amount of luck. If you save (for example) 80% of your savings you can retire after 5 years and never have to work again. Its not for everyone but you might be surprised at how little suffering is required. There is a community of "early retirement extremists". Try MrMoneyMustache or the Networthify blog if you are interested:
Travel is cheapest when you live abroad rather than taking short trips and staying in hotels. I'm from Minnesota and I've lived and worked in Beijing, Singapore, and London.
Disclaimer: Networthify is my side project and my savings rate is not 80% but its a lot higher than 25%.
Disclaimer: Networthify is my side project and my savings rate is not 80% but its a lot higher than 25%.