For those of us who just sought to find a way to make it happen with regards to honoring our desire to travel more often than what the average person could ever dream of, this information age we’re currently living in couldn’t have made for a better time in which to do so. If you look at the current economic system of the world then you’ll realize that it’s nothing but a constant flow and exchange of information, which means at any given time, value is contained in some record-keeping standard, somewhere.

We can talk about Digital Nomads, who are people who essentially work remotely to generate an income and, because of the remote nature of their work, they’re able to travel, since they can work from anywhere. These people have mastered the art of using information as currency, at least on some level.

You can take things a step further in your mastery of the use of information as currency and all it really comes down to is the ability to acquire information which people find very useful and then exchange that information for something of value you can use.

Direct deployment of information as currency

I don’t know if this is a practice that has an official term, but I learned about the use of information as currency while out and about on yet another one of my trips. I was backpacking, which means constant interaction with other budget travelers in establishments such as hostels, on free food tours, etc. This is not to say budget travelers are necessarily broke. For the most part they just know to take full advantage of all opportunities to save money that come their way. After all, there are times when all the money you saved traveling in one region could come in handy someplace else, particularly when you don’t have the option of budget travel.

So if I’m in Thailand, for instance, I’d stay in the cheapest hostel I can find, so long as it’s decent, so that on the way to another destination I can perhaps enjoy a prolonged stay in what is otherwise considered to be a luxury destination, like the Seychelles where everything is expensive.

So it was in this scenario that I discovered the direct deployment of information as currency and it simply works by letting a fellow traveler in on some mega savings they can take advantage of. The money they would have otherwise spent then gets redirected to you and travelers are usually more than happy to reward such information-bearers in this way.

Indirect deployment of information as a currency

I’ll demonstrate the indirect deployment of information as a currency with a real-world example…

If someone is looking for a personal injury attorney Los Angeles isn’t necessarily a city they’d associate with a law firm specializing in this area of law, but if you know of a great such attorney and you share that info with someone who is looking for one, in some or other way they’ll feel indebted to you and will want to return the favor you effectively did them in some or other way that can have you benefiting with some tangible value.