How We Make $4,500 a Month While Traveling the World with VIPKid

The first question everyone asks us is “How can you afford to be constantly traveling?” Well, the truth is that we’re not always traveling! We have planned our life so that we can spend time traveling, but also have time in a “base” country where we work online for a company called VIPKID.

First, proof! here are my pay stubs from vipkid for one month:

Vipkid is currently paying once every 2 weeks so my paycheck is divided in two.

So in one month, I taught 233 classes (25 minutes each) or 116.5 hours. Jake worked the exact same hours as me so together we made $4,882.50 in one month while living in Hanoi, Vietnam!

The truth is that we obviously take a lot of time off to travel, so not every month looks like this. However, we wouldn’t be able to take that much time off and make this much money wherever we go without this incredible job.

For example, we lived in Playa del Carmen, Mexico for 2 months and worked from an Airbnb (click here for $40 towards your first stay!) with great internet!

From there, we took weekends off to visit beaches and cenotes and then took week-long trips to Chichen Itza, to go swimming with Whale Sharks in Isla Mujeres, and other beautiful places in the Yucatan Peninsula!

HOW I STARTED WITH VIPKID

I found VIPKID when I was student teaching. We weren’t making any money and I was finding out how much I disliked teaching in Public School. A girl I knew had found this magical job that she could do before school started and she was making decent money!

At the time, I had already planned our trip to Europe (you can read about the $1000 Europe Mistake we made on that trip here) and put off applying until we got back. I was worried that the job would disappear, but 6 months later VipKid was there waiting for me!

WHO CAN APPLY to VIPKID?

In order to apply to VIPKID, you need to have a Bachelor’s degree and be able to legally work in the USA or Canada.

You don’t need a teaching degree, but you do need a Bachelor’s, or at least be about to get your Bachelor’s. When I signed up I was still a semester away, and I emailed them and they encouraged me to apply anyways! If you are interested, then just do it!

HOW MUCH MONEY CAN YOU MAKE

This is the best part! But here’s how it works:

For most people who start with VipKid, they offer you $8.00 per class as a base payment. Each class is 25 minutes long so that comes out to $16 per hour.

However, VipKid has incentives that it pays on top of that. For every class that you show up to on-time and complete you get $1. So that is another $2 per hour.

Then they have an incentive to get you to teach more classes each month. Once you have taught 30 classes they give you an extra .50 cents per class. After 45 classes that turns into $1!

So here’s how it works for me: I work 4-5 hours from Monday to Friday, meaning that I always hit the 45 class mark. That means that I end up making $10 per half hour, or $20 an hour!

HOW DO THE CLASSES WORK?

First of all, all classes are one-on-one (thank goodness!!) in Skype format.

HOW MANY HOURS are required?

None! That’s why I seriously tell everyone they should apply for this job. It’s the best side hustle there is. You NEVER have to work, you don’t have to ask for time off, you don’t have to do anything!

The only thing required of you is to show up for every class that gets booked, on time. That is very strict but easy to do if you go into it thinking that way.

There are two ways to do this, you can choose to open slots in advance or you can open them to be booked within 24 hours.

Here’s what a schedule looks like:

You can see the dates and the times of a 30-minute slot. Once you have figured out when you can work, you can clock on the box and choose “open slot” which will turn the box blue.

After the slot is booked by a student, it turns green! Then once you have finished teaching the class, the boxes turn dark gray like pictured above.

HOW DO I GET STUDENTs?

It basically works like a Facebook profile. You upload a profile picture and 3 other fun pictures of you. Then you write a short introduction about yourself and create a short video.

P.S. Follow us on Facebook, where I post news about travel, cheap deals, & our newest blog posts!

After those are uploaded, parents are able to see your profile and the hours that you have opened. Here’s what my profile looks like on my end:

However, the students and their parents see a Facebook-like version of this and they can choose to follow you and be notified when you open classes!

I WANT TO APPLY!

I’d love to help you apply for VIPKID! It is the best job I have ever had and it’s honestly the reason we can travel like we do. I have already helped my husband and a friend that I met through Instagram get hired!

I was able to train them both and help them prepare for the interviews and the actual job afterward! They both love it so far and are making great travel money.

The truth is that the application process is a bit rigorous and they can be picky about who they choose to hire. However, it is definitely worth the hard work, in the beginning, to get to have the perfect travel job!

If you’re ready to apply right away, here is my referral link! Then head over to this post that will walk you through the best tips for passing your interview and Mock Class!