The Moonlighting Doctor: How I travel the world with only 7 clinic days a month

Travel back then was not something I even sought out. Sure, colleagues and I flew domestic time to time, but I never looked at maps, I never checked flights, and I was just happy to finally be able to buy new clothes whenever I wanted to and not rely on my meager salary as a resident physician. 

The trip that started it all

A year into my private practice, a colleague invited me to join him on his business trip to Kuala Lumpur. This would be my first international trip as an adult. I was enticed because, according to him, “Sa Hilton tayo titira. Just pay for your flight and meals.”

It was only when I landed in KL that I found out that my friend was going to be busy every day during the day and only had time to hang out in the evenings. I was forced to explore a new city on my own, which, to my surprise, was something that I enjoyed rather instantly. 

I’ve always been good with maps, and I liked that going solo opened my eyes to another culture, and many firsts were experienced during this trip: first laksa, first mosque visit, first monorail, first bird park—you get the point. 

I remember telling myself back then that I was going to set a goal to fly at least four times a year as a reward for all the work I was doing in the clinic—and this goal failed. Instead of flying every three months, I began flying every month.

Little by little, I “conquered” every popular East and Southeast Asian city that’s reachable by a direct flight, and I started regularly checking flights for online promotions. I was slowly realizing that traveling was bringing me a kind of happiness that I had never found in buying clothes or other things. After two years of frequent travel, I went to Europe on a DIY trip, and it made me realize that this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. 

Balancing work and passion

My clinic schedule didn’t suffer as much because I never had my own office. I enjoy being a dermatologist, but it was never my life’s passion, so it was wise for me back then to have decided to work as a consultant for a couple of clinics. 

I didn’t get employee benefits as such, but at least this lent us relative freedom. We were able to take as many leaves as we could, as long as we had relievers to cover for us. I frequently called on colleagues, and we would usually swap leave dates, and this worked perfectly for like a decade or so.  

All this time, I had to be frugal to sustain my lifestyle. My goal was to be able to fly frequently and still save for the rainy days. This took an enormous amount of discipline. For example, I knew I had money to buy Zara or wear Yeezy sneakers, but I rarely gave in to trends. In my mind, I always ask, “Gusto ko ba ng Zara, or gusto ko ng pambayad sa flight?” And the flight always wins.  

For a few years, though, my savings weren’t kept in check. I was much younger then, and the YOLO mindset overpowered my will to save. In 2013, I saved just P100,000 and it was a wake-up call for me to save more. I knew my future would be in peril if I didn’t manage to save more, not just for travel, but for illness and retirement as well. 

Traveling isn’t cheap—well, it can be cheap, but being constantly on the road incurs lots of costs, no matter how hard I try to keep costs low. 

Thankfully, my numerous trips taught me skills. Friends often raved about how good I am at spotting low fares online, both for flights and hotels. My ceiling price for Europe, for example, is P50,000, and I’ve often scored flights to the continent for less than P40,000 round-trip, even to as late as 2023. The reason I’m good at this is that I needed to be good at this. I had to keep my trips affordable in order to sustain this lifestyle. 

The arrival of COVID-19

The year 2020 was a game-changer: COVID-19 came and it changed our lives forever. If the pandemic taught us anything, it’s that life is short and is meant to be spent with people we love and for things that we enjoy doing. After numerous deliberations and after ensuring that I had enough savings, I decided to gradually cut down on work. 

I wish to emphasize that by working less, I earn less. My income is inversely proportional to the amount of travel that I do. Now that I'm just doing an average of seven work days a month, I’m making half of what I would make if I were doing 14 days per month instead. I never ask for money from my mom whenever I travel, so everything I spend abroad is all my own.

Money has always been the most important factor in my life decisions, and I only really managed to achieve this setup because income has been somewhat predictable the past few years.

I’ve established good relationships with many of my old patients, and they keep coming back to the point that they’re the ones adjusting to my travel schedule, and my blog also earns quite a bit these days from brands and affiliate marketing.  

These days, I spend a better part of the day managing my travel page on Facebook; I actually never talk about medicine on this platform. My goal has always been to share the joy of travel with everyone, including numerous tips on how to gain meaningful experiences while on the road.

I realize that my setup is strange and something that’s difficult to comprehend for others. Even my colleagues have messaged that they admired my out-of-the-box decision in order to chase my passion. Hard work, and I guess a bit of luck, conspired perfectly for me to reach this point. 

Every decision we make in life has a trade-off, and in the end, I chose this path and I have no regrets. Shedding a chunk of my income is acceptable to me, as long as I get to pursue my dreams, but also still remain financially stable.