The way I've been doing something similar is to take deployed defense contracts which last 3-9 months at a time (Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.), and make enough during that period to live for the rest of the year (and a couple additional years).
I've also been working on startup projects in my spare time, since I have good Internet connectivity while doing the day job. The "non-deployed" time can be spent traveling, or working full-time on any of the startup projects which have traction -- with the added benefit that I can provide my own financing up to a series A.
Somehow I get more done on projects in early stages when they're "side projects", and this way I don't have to worry about my burn rate during early stages (since it's substantially negative).
There are tax benefits ($91k/yr deduction) for being outside the USA 330 days/yr, so once you've done 200-250 days deployed as a contractor in a year, it makes sense to spend the balance outside the US as a tourist -- at a high marginal tax rate that's basically $30k, and I can live comfortably in Vancouver, Bali, New Zealand, Japan, etc. for a few months on way less than that.
The #1 thing I've learned is to totally automate my "administrative life" -- I use a mail-scanning mail forwarder, autopay on all my bills, etc. When you travel a lot, it's easy to miss a credit card bill, and it can be a black mark on your credit for 7 years.
The other nice thing is most of these contracts are "go home at night and not worry about it", vs. normal consulting where you can be called back at any time to fix something. And, the separation between dayjob and any personal projects is a lot easier in an admin/ops contract than in a developer dayjob.
I've also been working on startup projects in my spare time, since I have good Internet connectivity while doing the day job. The "non-deployed" time can be spent traveling, or working full-time on any of the startup projects which have traction -- with the added benefit that I can provide my own financing up to a series A.
Somehow I get more done on projects in early stages when they're "side projects", and this way I don't have to worry about my burn rate during early stages (since it's substantially negative).
There are tax benefits ($91k/yr deduction) for being outside the USA 330 days/yr, so once you've done 200-250 days deployed as a contractor in a year, it makes sense to spend the balance outside the US as a tourist -- at a high marginal tax rate that's basically $30k, and I can live comfortably in Vancouver, Bali, New Zealand, Japan, etc. for a few months on way less than that.
The #1 thing I've learned is to totally automate my "administrative life" -- I use a mail-scanning mail forwarder, autopay on all my bills, etc. When you travel a lot, it's easy to miss a credit card bill, and it can be a black mark on your credit for 7 years.
The other nice thing is most of these contracts are "go home at night and not worry about it", vs. normal consulting where you can be called back at any time to fix something. And, the separation between dayjob and any personal projects is a lot easier in an admin/ops contract than in a developer dayjob.