Americans just don't get enough time to travel

When I tried to explain to my parents about my goal of getting out of the country and living abroad, my Dad said he had a better idea. "Vicken. If you want to travel so much, why don't you work here in the U.S. and take a vacation every year to travel?" Not a bad idea. I could earn more money working here in the U.S. and would be able to take some time off every year to explore at least one country. But how much paid vacation do American employees receive? I decided to do a bit of research and found the results pretty shocking.

Source: CNN

Basically, if you want to take lots of vacations to see the world, then the U.S. is probably not the place to work. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the average employee receives about 10 days of paid vacation a year after one year of service with the company. After 5 years, the paid vacation gets bumped up to 15 days. And it isn't until you've worked for a U.S. company for at least 20 years that you will receive another 5 days of paid vacation time. How does this compare with the rest of the world?

Source: CNN

After 10 years of service, the minimum amount of paid vacation days range from 10 to a whopping 30 days of vacation time. That's a full 7-week vacation period. You can spend a whole month exploring Europe and when you get back, you still have two weeks of vacation left. And you get to do this every year! I bet that makes a lot of Americans jealous. Americans are definitely hard working people, but many are being overworked and don't get any opportunity to take a break long enough to release some stress. Chances are, if I decide to stay and work in the United States, I'm going to live to work, rather than work to live.

Of course, I also have other options to consider. I could start my own business, and since I'll be self-employed, I get to choose my own 'paid' vacation hours. Another option is joining the Peace Corps, which I'm seriously considering at this point because it seems like the fastest way of reaching my goal. Speaking of Peace Corps, they're holding an info session this Saturday in Costa Mesa. I'll be checking that out to see if it's really something I want to do. Thanks for reading.