This Millennial Ditched US For Bali With Zero Savings, Now Lives In Luxury On $140K A Year

After completing a dual master's degree program in medicine, Olumide Gbenro had two choices: becoming a doctor or traveling around the world.

"All of my life, I just followed the rules, whether it was from my parents, religion, or society," Gbenro, 33, told CNBC. "But deep down, I knew that if I took the position in the Ph.D. program, I could never go back, I could never travel abroad … I'd be stuck to a lab, so I decided to say 'no.'"

Gbenro decided to leave the U.S. and enjoy life as a so-called digital nomad in Bali. While he had little to no savings, his resourcefulness came to the forefront as he leveraged Instagram and offered to enhance other users' social media strategies for a nominal fee of $250.

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Bali, Gbenro says, "seemed very peaceful" and the locals "looked genuinely happy."

Now in Bali, he saves more than he would in the U.S. due to the lower cost of living. With an annual income of approximately $140,000, Gbenro says he spends about the same amount of money he would each month if he was living in San Diego, but his quality of living is higher.

"I'm living a life of luxury," he claimed.

Bali also doesn't have the same history as America with racism and discrimination, Gnenro said, citing how the Indonesian province is more accepting to foreigners and people from different backgrounds.

Gbenro spent his childhood in Nigeria. At six years-old, his parents moved to London and, after seven years, they were granted visas to the U.S. via the green card lottery and settled in Columbus, Ohio. 

"Being a person of color, I felt that there were certain times in my life where I just didn't feel valued as a human being," Gbenro says. "I always felt left out."

"I realized I wasn't happy living in America still," he said. "There was something about living in America that made me feel like I wasn't growing... As a Black man, there was a psychological trauma and pressure I felt living there, especially as an immigrant too, feeling like I didn't fit in," he continued.

That changed when he bought a one-way ticket to Bali.

"It looked like the perfect place to live," he said. "People just look at me as a fellow human being, not a Black man."

This story is part of a new series of features on the subject of success, Benzinga Inspire.

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