{"id":48528,"date":"2026-04-01T04:11:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T04:11:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/a-trip-to-colombia-in-my-20s-turned-into-8-years-freelancing-in-south-america-heres-what-id-do-differently\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T04:11:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T04:11:24","slug":"a-trip-to-colombia-in-my-20s-turned-into-8-years-freelancing-in-south-america-heres-what-id-do-differently","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/a-trip-to-colombia-in-my-20s-turned-into-8-years-freelancing-in-south-america-heres-what-id-do-differently\/","title":{"rendered":"A trip to Colombia in my 20s turned into 8 years freelancing in South America. Here&#8217;s what I&#8217;d do differently."},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/69ba172aebc245a53a8114da?format=jpeg\" alt=\"A woman posing next to a tree in South America.\"\/><figcaption>A trip to Colombia inspired Sinead Mulhern to go freelance.<\/p>\n<p>Jake VDVF<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li>Sinead Mulhern has lived in South America and worked as a freelance writer for 8 years.<\/li>\n<li>Before the move, she saved enough to cover the cost of living for a year.<\/li>\n<li>Looking back, she wishes she&#039;d spent more time studying Spanish and made better use of the flexibility of freelancing.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In 2016, I spent two weeks in Medell\u00edn, Colombia \u2014 and it changed the course of my life.<\/p>\n<p>I explored the city and hiked to a waterfall hidden in the mountains, but it was the small details that stayed with me: Latin music I&#039;d never heard before, tropical fruits, and locals socializing in a neighborhood barbershop.<\/p>\n<p>Back in Canada, I couldn&#039;t shake Colombia&#039;s beauty. I hatched a far-fetched plan: become a freelance writer and move there.<\/p>\n<p>At the time, I was in my mid-20s, living in Toronto, and working in magazines. With no deep roots in the city and a sense I&#039;d soon be changing jobs anyway, the timing felt as good as it would ever be.<\/p>\n<p>Over the next two years, I built up contacts, clients, and savings. Then I returned to Colombia to go freelance. I wanted to immerse myself in the culture and learn the language.<\/p>\n<p>Eight years later, I live in Ecuador and still work as a freelance writer. The move worked out \u2014 but there are a few things I&#039;d do differently.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/69ba17f8d387710cb9e45b14?format=jpeg\" alt=\"A woman working on a laptop and a dog cuddling up.\"\/><figcaption>She started off in Colombia and settled down in Ecuador.<\/p>\n<p>Provided by Sinead Mulhern<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Here&#039;s what worked<\/h2>\n<p>I researched the monthly cost of living and saved for a year<\/p>\n<p>Creative industries like mine can be unstable, and there&#039;s always a new hurdle. Right now, it&#039;s AI.<\/p>\n<p>The instability and oversaturated market can keep people like me from giving it an honest shot. Knowing I had my work cut out for me, I saved enough to cover my living expenses for a year, about $8,850.<\/p>\n<p>I was halfway there already and saved the rest by freelance writing in the evenings and on weekends and by simplifying my lifestyle. I&#039;d been working full-time for a few years as an editor at a running magazine in Toronto. The savings goal was pretty straightforward: 1,000 Canadian dollars a month for the time I planned to be away.<\/p>\n<p>When I got to Colombia, I was fortunate to work while exploring the rolling green coffee region. Oftentimes, I hiked through fields after meeting morning deadlines. I was slowly figuring out how to lean into work that felt satisfying and valuable. It didn&#039;t take long to come up with the three client green flags I still stand by.<\/p>\n<p>Those are: a client that&#039;s enjoyable to work with; work that&#039;s meaningful and engaging; projects that pay well. In deciding whether to accept new work or continue with existing contracts, it has to be all three.<\/p>\n<h2>In hindsight, there are things I&#039;d do differently<\/h2>\n<p>Of course, hindsight is 20-20. For anyone on a similar trajectory, this is what I&#039;d do differently.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/69ba2303ebc245a53a8114e0?format=jpeg\" alt=\"A group of women having drinks at a table in South America.\"\/><figcaption>She would have taken more time to become fluent in Spanish.<\/p>\n<p>Provided by Sinead Mulhern<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>1. Dedicate time to learning Spanish and nothing else<\/h2>\n<p>I now speak Spanish at an intermediate level, and my second language has been crucial to my work. Because I write travel stories largely set in Ecuador, most of the pieces I&#039;ve published have either been inspired by a conversation I had or required interviews in Spanish. Oftentimes, it&#039;s both.<\/p>\n<p>When I arrived in South America, I didn&#039;t expect to stay this long. I enrolled in Spanish classes right away \u2014 and I&#039;m still studying \u2014 but in hindsight, I would have learned faster if I&#039;d paused everything else and focused solely on the language for a while.<\/p>\n<h2>2. Give back to my community more<\/h2>\n<p>Remote workers like me are part of a relatively new and deeply privileged group that can work in one economy while spending in another. That reality has never sat comfortably with me. It&#039;s my opinion that those of us in this position \u2014 myself included \u2014 owe more to the communities we live in.<\/p>\n<p>After all, in the absence of an office, my neighborhood has become my workplace. Though I&#039;ve given back in small ways, one thing I&#039;d do differently is commit to supporting local causes close to my heart on an ongoing basis, whether through my time or money, or both.<\/p>\n<h2>3. Put myself out there<\/h2>\n<p>Last year, I realized I&#039;d been standing in my own way. For years, I&#039;d refused to put together a proper online portfolio. When I finally did, several opportunities came up \u2014 including a large travel writing project.<\/p>\n<p>That editor had been on my radar but when she came to me, I realized I&#039;d underestimated myself by not making the introduction first. <\/p>\n<p>So, in retrospect, I&#039;d put myself out there by launching the website, sharing my work, or getting in touch with goal publications without hesitating.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/69ba2289d387710cb9e45b15?format=jpeg\" alt=\"A woman in black posing uner palm trees in South America\"\/><figcaption>Looking back, she&#039;d tell her younger self to take solo work trips.<\/p>\n<p>Jake VDVF<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>4. Take advantage of freelancer flexibility<\/h2>\n<p>There&#039;s a lot that freelance work and entrepreneurship don&#039;t offer: stability, paid sick days, benefits, the safety net of HR \u2014 I could go on.<\/p>\n<p>What it has offered me is freedom and flexibility \u2014 and that&#039;s what has made it worth it. Nobody can tell me when, where, or how to work.<\/p>\n<p>Looking back, I value how hard I hustled, especially during the six months when I lived in Medellin. I&#039;d tell that younger version of myself to lean into that flexibility a little more and travel solo.<\/p>\n<p>That trip I took 10 years ago inspired a dream that eventually became a plan. That plan was shaky at best, but a decade later, I&#039;m now in my mid-30s, living in a part of the world I love with a writing career I&#039;m happy with.<\/p>\n<p><em>Do you have a story to share about living abroad? Contact the editor at <\/em><em>akarplus@businessinsider.com<\/em><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Read the original article on Business Insider<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A trip to Colombia inspired Sinead Mulhern to go freelance. Jake VDVF Sinead Mulhern has lived in South America and worked as a freelance writer for 8 years. Before the move, she saved enough to cover the cost of living for a year. Looking back, she wishes she&#039;d spent more time studying Spanish and made [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-48528","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48528\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}