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I gave up my corporate job to travel full-time and live in other people’s homes for free

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A few years ago, I was working a traditional 9-to-5 corporate management job in the San Francisco Bay Area.

After nearly a decade in my field, I had a car, a home, emergency savings, and no debts to pay off. I’d done everything “right” and accomplished things many strive for, but I wasn’t completely satisfied.

Then, in 2022, I left my job, booked a one-way flight to Italy, and began traveling full-time. What I thought would be a short break turned into over two years of seeing new countries while living entirely off my savings.

I kept thinking, “When am I going to get tired of constantly moving around … and how can I extend this lifestyle until that time comes?”

In an effort to stretch my savings further and extend my travels, I started house-sitting.

House- and pet-sitting has helped me keep traveling and stretch my savings


Woman smiling with cat

By 2022, I wanted something different for my life. 

Alanna Parrish



I came across the idea to house-sit while looking for ways to travel more economically. In return for looking after someone’s home while they are away, I get a place to stay.

For me, this felt like an amazing trade and a way to avoid paying for hotels or rentals. Sometimes, I’m also paid for these gigs — especially if pet-sitting is involved.


Woman smiling taking selfie while holding

I’ve watched homes and pets in many different cities. 

Alanna Parrish



Once I started, I expanded my network through travel, and I discovered a high demand for house-sitters, not only in the United States but also outside of it.

So far, I’ve watched pets and homes in more than 15 different cities, including some international ones.

I’ve woken up to ocean views in Honolulu; explored the food scene in Santa Fe, New Mexico; biked along Chicago’s Gold Coast; and discovered hidden-gem cafés throughout Greenpoint and Fort Greene, Brooklyn.

I love the freedom that comes with this lifestyle and the connections I’ve made


Woman smiling with cat on her shoulder

A lot of my house-sitting gigs involve watching pets. 

Alanna Parrish



Many people’s biggest living expense is rent or housing, but I don’t have to worry about budgeting for those. I try to line up my sits so that I don’t often need to pay for hotels or rentals, either.

This has completely changed the way I live. I love the freedom that this life brings, not only financially but also emotionally.

Since I’m staying in actual homes and often for longer periods, I’m better able to explore different cities and neighborhoods the way locals do, rather than as a tourist passing through.


Perosn holding e-reader, coffee, on sunny balcony

It’s been nice experiencing some neighborhoods as a local. 

Alanna Parrish



I get to meet homeowners from all over the world who’ve been incredibly generous and welcoming, often going above and beyond to make sure I feel at home in their space.

Building these relationships with the homeowners and their animals has been such an amazing part of this experience. I take it very seriously that people are trusting me to live in their spaces and care for every home and pet as if they were my own.

It’s not always easy to live this way, but I’m enjoying it


Woman standing in front of columns and arches

Before I started house-sitting, my life looked very different from how it looks now. 

Alanna Parrish



This lifestyle is not for everyone. I live out of a suitcase and often don’t know where I’m going next.

I am constantly planning where I will be living and how I’m going to get there. Sometimes I am booked months in advance; other times, I am figuring things out a few days before or dealing with last-minute cancellations.

The uncertainty can be stressful, but the trade-off has been worth it for me in the end.

These days, I work remotely while juggling paid sits and free ones so I can keep traveling. I don’t know when I’ll settle down and stay in one place again.

For now, this lifestyle fulfills my desire to explore, connect with others, and discover new places. And I still have a list of cities that I would love to visit — both in the United States and internationally.

Whether I see them through house-sitting or not, I don’t see myself slowing down anytime soon.




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Burned out in her 50s, she left corporate life. Starting over in Korea helped her heal.

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Jane Newman spent her evenings watching K-dramas on her recliner during the pandemic lockdowns. She didn’t expect they’d spark a curiosity about South Korea that would eventually lead her to move there and start over.

In 2023, Newman was working for a consulting firm in Brisbane, Australia. As a manager, her heavy workload didn’t let up even as the world began to return to normal.

After months of long hours spent in front of a screen, she was burned out and beginning to feel the strain.

“I started out with a whole lot of shoulder and back pain, and then it developed into arm pain, and I couldn’t use my mouse,” Newman, now 60, told Business Insider.


A woman posing in a red suit in South Korea,

Jane Newman said she burned out from her corporate job in Australia.



Greg Samborski.



Standing desks and different chairs fixed little, so she took a sabbatical.

Newman had first visited South Korea the previous year, curious about the country she’d only seen on TV. Remembering how much she had enjoyed that trip, she decided to return for a two-month break.

When she went back to work, the symptoms didn’t take long to resurface. This time, Newman found herself struggling mentally and emotionally, too.

“I found it more and more difficult to do my work,” she said. By July 2024, she and her employer agreed it was best for her to step away from the company.

“I knew that South Korea was a place that I loved, and it made me feel good,” Newman said. “So I made the decision to go back and stay for a few months to see how it felt.”

New career, new home

For three months, she lived in an Airbnb in Gwacheon, a city just outside Seoul. Newman lived with her host, a local woman who had invited her to participate in the community events.

There, she joined a group supporting former US military “comfort women,” as well as two English clubs where members met to discuss news, read English fiction together, and give weekly presentations on various topics.

“I met the most wonderful people, and they really invited me into their conversations. And I got to know a lot more about Korea itself, and its history,” she said.


A woman leaning against a tree in South Korea.

Newman says she found healing in a small community outside Seoul, where she learned more about South Korean history and culture.



Greg Samborski.



“All of those things made me feel really welcomed, and at home, and part of a community, which is what I was really lacking back in Australia,” Newman added.

In Brisbane, her social life largely revolved around people she knew at work, or old friends she’d kept in touch with from her years living in the UK when her daughters were young. She was part of a bushwalking community and a social dining community, but most of those groups faded after the pandemic.

As Newman considered her next career steps, she found herself drawn toward public speaking and coaching to help people navigate the pressures of modern society and technology.

That focus also eventually led her to begin developing a tech startup in South Korea aimed at helping young people struggling with social isolation.

By February 2025, Newman moved to Seoul to begin her next phase of life.

She said her Gen Z daughters weren’t surprised by her decision since they already knew how much she loved South Korea. Both had already taken trips to visit her there.

When it was time for Newman to look for an apartment, she wanted a place that was close to public transport, with separate spaces for living and sleeping, and a good view.

It took her about two weeks to find a place. She now lives in Dongdaemun, a popular neighborhood, where her two-bedroom apartment costs 1.43 million Korean won, or about $1,000, a month.


Skyline from Seoul City Wall at Dongdaemun.

Newman lives in Dongdaemun, a popular neighborhood in Seoul.



Jane Newman.



Building a new life from scratch

South Korea has become an increasingly popular choice for foreigners in recent years.

Data from the Ministry of Justice showed that the number of foreigners living in South Korea at the end of 2024 stood at 2.65 million, a 5.7% increase from the year before.

For Newman, building friendships in Seoul came more naturally than she expected.

“I’ve found that every time I’ve come to Korea, I’ve made new friends,” Newman said, adding that this included people she met through a fan group for a Korean actor she admired.


A photo of Cheonggyecheon stream in Seoul.

Newman says she makes it a point to get out of the house once a day to enjoy her surroundings.



Jane Newman.



These days, Newman’s routine is a mix of work and settling into life in Seoul.

She starts her mornings with a coffee from the Starbucks across the street before diving into her coaching sessions and working on getting her startup off the ground.

Compared to her previous job, where working 60 hours a week was common, Newman says she now works around 20 to 30 hours a week.

With the more flexible schedule, she has time to exercise, meet people, and sometimes work from libraries or cafés.

“But I do make sure I get out once a day to go out and enjoy this beautiful place I’m living in,” she said.

Do you have a story to share about relocating to a new city? Contact this reporter at agoh@businessinsider.com.




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Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt says AI isn’t overhyped — the biggest gains from automating corporate work are still ahead

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If AI feels overhyped now, Eric Schmidt suggests that businesses should brace themselves — the real disruption hasn’t even begun yet.

In an interview with Professor Graham Allison at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum at Harvard University on Monday, the former Google CEO pushed back on the idea that AI’s rapid growth is a speculative bubble, saying that the technology is actually under-hyped.

“If anything, it’s under-hyped because you are fundamentally automating businesses,” he said.

The real transformation, he said, is happening deep inside companies, where AI systems are beginning to take over the “boring” tasks that quietly consume billions in corporate spending.

The biggest gains, he suggested, will come from automating the backbone of corporate work: the repeatable, time-consuming processes buried deep inside every organization.

The former Google chief listed billing, accounting, product design, delivery, and inventory management as examples of this.

“There’s an awful lot there — it’s extraordinary,” he said, pointing to areas like medicine, climate solutions, and engineering as sectors where automation could accelerate breakthroughs.

Schmidt, who helped steer Google’s early investments in AI and later co-authored a book on AI with Henry Kissinger, implied the technology’s economic impact will be far larger than markets or executives appreciate.

Still, not everyone agrees with that perspective. Some economists are sounding alarm bells that the AI boom is overheated.

In an interview this week, renowned economist Ruchir Sharma said the AI surge displays all four traits of a classic bubble and could unravel if interest rates rise, while tech leaders such as Sam Altman and Bill Gates have cautioned that parts of the market resemble the dot-com era.

Far beyond coding

To illustrate how quickly AI capabilities are advancing, Schmidt described watching an AI system generate an entire software program.

“Holy crap. The end of me,” he said.

“I’ve been doing programming for 55 years. To see something start and end in front of your own life is really profound,” he added.

However, he said that AI’s long-term upside extends far beyond coding.

From back-office workflows to logistics and scientific discovery, Schmidt believes the automation curve is still in its early stages of scaling and that Wall Street is underestimating the magnitude of the shift.

“The reason people are spending this amount of money,” he said, “is to automate the boring parts of their business.”




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