How realistic traveling without money actually is
Hi everyone, my name is Diana, I'm 20 years old and I'm from Colombia. I want to take a gap year and start traveling the world, yet I'm still a student and have little money. Colombia is pretty cheap so you don't spend much but you don't gain much either, and low skilled jobs are very hard to find, so even if you have one the amount of money you can save won't be enough to survive anywhere else. Still, I keep hearing about these people that go to New Zealand or Australia (where people get paid more) and find a job kinda easily, live really cheap staying in hostels, housesitting or using Couchsurfing and save enough money to afford their travels (to cheap places at least). Is this actually possible or this only happens to a bunch of lucky people?
I think it's possible to travel cheaply - doing what you said above is a great start but you'll definitely need some money to start out. First of all, flights from Colombia to your destination and even if you do manage to get free accommodation, you'll still need to eat.
I don't know if it's that simple to walk into a job in Australia - lots of people go there and end up hanging around, burning through their savings because it's competitive for low-skilled, traveller kind of work. You'd also need to sort out your visa situation, which might cost money.
Also, Australia is incredibly expensive to live there so you'd need to make sure your pay/outgoings are right to be able to save for travel. I know this all sounds very negative but I'd hate for you to get half way round the world and get stuck/run out of money and not be able to do what you want. I'd definitely save some money first, then see if you can secure a job before you arrive.
Good luck!
Of course there are a few people in the world who can make their way traveling by the sheer force of their personalities. But even if you can charm absolutely everyone, that's not going to get you on an international flight from Bogota to Sydney.
Maybe you should try the USA first. It's cheaper to get here, and there are places like Ocean City, MD where you can sign up to work the whole summer season, receive free housing, and still save some money.