In 2020, while working as a staff nurse at a hospital in Spartanburg, South Carolina, Aspen Tucker came across a job posting for a travel nurse. In 2020, Aspen Tucker left his staff nursing job to become a travel nurse, a move that came with a significant bump in pay. "I'm able to have a high salary as a travel nurse, but also come back to where the cost of living is low," he says. That month he split an Airbnb with his girlfriend (also a travel nurse who occasionally takes jobs at the same hospitals) in addition to paying his mortgage and utilities back home. When he's traveling work, Tucker pays friends and family to take care of his dog, Skye.

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