Darien Tan can still vividly remember the day he nearly lost his life.
Tan had a near-death experience while participating in his company’s annual retreat in San Francisco last year. The 26-year-old had taken up a sales position with a hospitality tech company after graduating from the National University of Singapore in January 2024.
“So after the entire retreat, we were on our way back to the airport. That was when we got into a really, really bad car accident where the van we were on rolled at least five times,” Tan told Business Insider.
“Somehow, by God’s grace, every one of us survived,” Tan continued.
But the incident became a wake-up call for Tan on what he wanted to pursue in life.
“That was kind of my breaking point. I was asking myself, ‘Hey, if I were to die at that point, would I have been happy with the life that I chose to lead?'” Tan said.
The incident would end up changing Tan’s life dramatically.
Giving up their high-paying tech jobs to travel
In September, Tan and his wife, Joanna Wong left their full-time jobs in tech to travel the world. Tan and Wong told BI they had a combined annual income of around 250,000 Singapore dollars or about $185,000, at the time.
Wong, 26, graduated from NUS in 2022 and had been working as a user experience designer for about three years when she decided to quit and travel with her husband.
Wong told BI that while she did not experience a “breaking point” like Tan, she found herself grappling with burnout.
“I think when you are in a job, sometimes you can get very busy with the work, and you don’t have the mental space and capacity to even think about what you actually want to do,” Wong said. “I didn’t have the time to think about my future.”
Tan said he also felt unfulfilled at work.
“I didn’t see how closing deals on a day-to-day basis would make me feel fulfilled, besides the financial aspects of it. I couldn’t see how selling tech software will make the world a better place,” Tan said.
Finding a good place to live
The couple started in Bali, where they lived for about a month. Wong said the time spent in Bali allowed her and Tan to recover from their burnout and to consider what they wanted to get out of traveling.
“In terms of career, our environment in Singapore always makes it a point that you have to know what you want to do. And then in terms of who to marry, you are encouraged to have a spouse because it gives you access to things like housing,” Tan said.
“But on where to live, I think a lot of us always take that as a default. We don’t really get that chance to travel with the objective of deciding eventually, ‘Do we want to continue living in Singapore, or do we prefer somewhere else?'” he added.
Since then, Tan and Wong have lived in Indonesia, Thailand, and China. The couple said they are still on the road, though they haven’t ruled out returning to Singapore.
Tan told BI that he and Wong are using their savings to finance their travels. He added that they were also earning some income on the side from renting out their apartment and taking on freelance work.
“We give ourselves a monthly budget of 3,000 Singapore dollars. On some months, we overspend so we try to average it out,” Tan said.
“That has been a good budget for us so far. We generally can afford the things we want to eat and the places to stay. We don’t feel that we are compromising much in terms of cleanliness or safety,” he added.
While most young professionals will be busy trying to climb the corporate ladder, Tan and Wong said they weren’t too bothered by the path they have chosen.
“Anxiety usually comes whenever there is no plan. But for us, we are happy with the idea of our savings dwindling,” Tan said.
He added that their philosophy as a couple, ultimately, is to spend their money “doing things we want to do in life,” rather than “deferring” it for a moment that may never come.
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