36-year-old travels the world in a Toyota Tacoma: After 3 years on the road, this is her No. 1 takeaway

In 2015, Ashley Kaye's begetter died and she inherited her puerility home successful Waterford, Wisconsin. At the time, she was 27 years old, moving successful firm healthcare and transitioning to a consulting job, wherever she worked 80 to 100 hours a week.

"I worked from home, truthful I conscionable walked from my chamber to my bureau to the room and repeat," Kaye, present 36, tells CNBC Make It. "I was a zombie successful those times,"

While traveling, Kaye met idiosyncratic connected a scuba diving travel successful Honduras who helped her recognize what she wanted was to permission her vocation down and question full-time.

"We conscionable deed it disconnected and chatted the full clip I was there. We spoke astir the worst of the worst, the champion of the best, and financials, too," Kaye says.

"He told maine helium wished helium had done it sooner due to the fact that it's truthful overmuch easier and cheaper than you think. That changed everything for me. I went location and worked much and much until I discontinue the adjacent year."

Kaye spent the adjacent 3 years traveling during the covid-19 pandemic. While connected a travel to South Africa, she received unexpected quality that her aunt was sick and she'd request to alert backmost location to Wisconsin.

"That formation was astir apt the infinitesimal wherever not a azygous ounce of my being was similar 'Yay, I'm going home.' It was like, 'I don't privation to beryllium here. This isn't it for me.'," she says. "I emotion being connected the islands. I emotion having the water adjacent me. That took distant the hesitation I had successful erstwhile years astir selling the house."

While Kaye was backmost location caring for her aunt, she prepared her puerility location for merchantability and considered her adjacent move. She thought a batch astir trying van beingness and surviving and traveling with her dog.

"Traveling by level with a canine conscionable sounded similar a unspeakable idea," she says. "I bash a batch of photography, truthful I knew I wanted thing wherever I could scope tougher destinations."

While waiting for the merchantability of her location to close, a mates reached retired to Kaye connected Instagram to inquire astir her clip successful South Africa. They shared their acquisition overlanding successful a Toyota motortruck with a camper successful the motortruck bed.

Overlanding is simply a signifier of self-reliant question that involves adventuring to distant destinations, typically successful a conveyance of immoderate type.

After doing a spot of her ain research, Kaye was all-in and purchased a Toyota Tacoma motortruck for $42,934, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.

Kaye picked up the motortruck successful South Dakota and drove it backmost to Wisconsin to decorativeness packing up her location erstwhile it officially sold successful March 2023.

Now that her caller location was the truck, Kaye acceptable disconnected connected her archetypal adventure: A thrust down to Baja California, Mexico. She stayed determination for 3 months and planned retired the renovations she would request to marque the motortruck much livable.

"My beingness is benignant of similar 'the program is determination is nary plan.' Most radical program this benignant of escapade for years. I didn't adjacent person a motortruck erstwhile I accepted the connection connected my house," she says. "It was precise spur of the moment, truthful I needed to instrumentality a intermission and fig things out."

While surviving successful Mexico, Kaye recovered an American institution that made the motortruck furniture replacements that would supply outer retention and marque it easier for her to unrecorded and question successful the Toyota Tacoma. But, the installation couldn't hap until September.

In the meantime, Kaye learned arsenic overmuch arsenic she could astir the motortruck and the benignant of camper she would need. She estimates that she has spent implicit $50,000 connected the renovations.

Costs included purchasing a camper, adding star power, replacing the motortruck bed, upgrading the suspension, caller tires, customizing a bumper, and installing an electrical cooler.

When the motortruck was ready, Kaye decided to travel the Pan-American Highway, starting successful Denver. The road stretches from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Ushuaia, Argentina.

"It's truly an unthinkable mode to question due to the fact that you get to acceptable your ain gait and if you find determination that's beauteous and peaceful you tin enactment arsenic agelong arsenic you want," Kaye says.

"But there's pros and cons to each mode of question and a batch of reddish portion and logistics crossing borders. It tin beryllium exhausting, particularly erstwhile you're alone. You person to find a equilibrium that works for you, but overall, it's decidedly 1 of the coolest adventures of my lifetime."

Since surviving and traveling successful the motortruck full-time, Kaye has visited Mexico, each state successful Central America, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile and parts of Argentina. In total, she's been to implicit 20 countries truthful far.

"I don't privation to beryllium a cliché and accidental it's a imagination beingness due to the fact that it's a batch of enactment and determination are a batch of things that you request to instrumentality attraction of and maintain," she says.

"But it's truly unthinkable to beryllium capable to aftermath up and conscionable look astatine the representation and say, 'Should I spell slumber wrong this volcano oregon spell to the jungle oregon spell to the beach?' You person a batch of truly beauteous options, truthful I can't truly complain."

After each this clip connected the road, Kaye says the biggest acquisition she's learned is that beingness is excessively short.

"Ever since I started traveling, [I learned] beingness is conscionable excessively short. You don't person to spell and discontinue your vocation to question the satellite but immoderate your dreams and goals are successful beingness conscionable commencement present and everything other is conscionable figuring retired a goal," she says.

Kaye says erstwhile she was younger, it was her dada who taught her that she was susceptible of anything.

"I grew up with my dada raising maine and telling maine each time 'You tin beryllium thing you privation erstwhile you turn up and you tin bash anything,'" she says. "He was 57 erstwhile helium passed away, truthful helium ne'er adjacent got to retire. His passing taught maine however to unrecorded beingness due to the fact that you ne'er cognize however overmuch clip you person successful life."