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This Adventure Photographer Has Made $150,000+ Whilst Living in Her Van
Here’s Christian’s playbook for making money from anywhere
Christian Schaffer doesn’t do ordinary.
She’s an adventure photographer who’s spent the last four years living on the road in her van — mostly by herself.
And through multiple income streams, she’s saved over $150,000.
That might not sound like a lot of money for four years of work. However, considering she pays zero rent and has complete schedule freedom, it’s more than enough for her dream lifestyle.
The questions I had as I binged her YouTube videos and read her articles were:
- How does she make money on the road?
- What are the downsides of this life?
- Can anyone do this?
Before we answer these questions, we need a little context.
How did Christian get to this point?
Christian’s Story
Part I: “Reckless Travel”
Christian’s mum had her when she was 16.
They lived with her grandparents in Wisconsin and struggled to get by.
“I did not grow up on money. We were on food stamps the whole time […] However, my parents encouraged me to focus on my education and have a hard work ethic.”
This focus took her to the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She sold all but four boxes of her belongings and flew to Oahu, where she didn’t know anyone.
Here, Christian worked a ton of different jobs during her four years at college:
“I worked as a model at Abercrombie and Finch […] I picked up a job as a waitress. I think I ended up working at four or five different restaurants […]
“I also started modelling, which paid the bulk of my bills […] I was an extra on Lost. I hosted events for Rolex […] Yeah, weird stuff!
“I worked as a retail manager at Puma and Starbucks, and then I ended up back at Abercrombie, which I loved.”
