A HEALTH worker has revealed how he earns over £153,000 a year and still manages to travel the world.
Aspen Tucker, 29, was working as a staff nurse at his local hospital over Covid-19 when he saw an advert to become a travelling nurse.
1
Within days, he had left his job, boarded a flight and saw his salary rocket from $1,000 to $6,700 (£3,400) per week.
He told CNBC: “I didn’t give notice. I got my stuff, went to Texas, and told my manager when I got there, ‘I’m sorry, I’ve got to go.
“‘This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity’.”
Since leaving his hometown of Spartanburg, South Carolina, in 2020, Aspen’s world changed beyond all recognition.
Life on the road sees him pick up nursing contracts that range from four to 13 weeks long.
He usually works a minimum 48-hours a week, which is roughly £71-an-hour.
But some weeks Aspen smashes out 60 hours of work to rake in vast sums in overtime.
And it’s paid off, in December alone, the travelling nurse netted an eye-watering $20,000 (£16,117) while on contract in Fresno, California.
Most read in Money
But despite the huge income, Aspen was forced to shell out £2,200 on rent for his hometown house plus an AirBnB while in Fresno.
Other outgoings include £1,300 on car rental and £720 on car and health insurance.
The relentless work schedule means he can only realistically work eight or nine months a year, leaving plenty of free time.
Explaining what he does when he’s not working, he said: “The first thing I’m doing is booking a vacation.”
Aspen’s salary coupled with time to kill has allowed him to tick off a bucket list of countries he dreamt of seeing as a child.
In just three years, he’s already visited Belize, Colombia, Seychelles, Qatar and Kenya.
The 29-year-old says he is inspired by his shrewd grandad who dropped out of school aged just 12.
By the time he died, he had built a small fortune and owned six houses and instilled strong values in his family.
He’s also always been able to save, in part thanks to his mum and stepdad, both travel nurses, who allowed him to live rent free until he was 27.
But Aspen has paid back his family’s generosity with cash gifts and even set up a scholarship to help budding African-American nurses.
He says: “I always followed my grandfather’s blueprint. He helped everybody.”
