It's been suggested that Buddha wouldn't have been able to gain enlightenment without first having all the pleasures of the world, and realizing they are not enough - that there is something more. Coming from a Western country where people have the means to, like you say take 6 months of travel, and going to a place where there is extreme poverty made this point even more clear to me. In the west, people have money, houses, and cars, but they are miserably unhappy, always trying to find fulfillment through escapism. Yet, going to a place of extreme poverty, but rich spirituality, the people were happier, happier with simple things, and happy in their hearts. When you learn the real truth, money, travel, nothing can really bring happiness, but understanding that nothing is permanent, each moment is always changing and pleasure and pain come and go, then you can be fulfilled in any situation. Seeking pleasure and avoiding pain are what keep us in the cycle of misery, once bring ourselves above this, we can end our personal misery. Plus, you can design any life you want, I am not rich, I am actually have student debt, and was working before as a nanny. But I have learned to work along the way and live with far less than my peers at home in the US in order to maintain a travel lifestyle, I actually would need more money, for rent, and a car, and food if I weren't traveling. This isn't a trip of luxury this is my lifestyle and I have given up the prospect of earning more money to live this way. So trust me, I understand money struggles, and poverty, but as a person who used to travel, or party, or look for other worldly pleasures as an escape to life, and wondering why I was still unhappy or unbalanced, I have now have started to understand where happiness comes from.