There are many volunteer positions in the TEFL world. Often you must pay for your own transportation to the venue and may even need to pay a fee for administrative costs, food, and lodging. This is not always the case, but it often is. Sometimes the fees will not be expensive at all, and sometimes they will be extremely high. Occasionally you can get room and board in exchange for volunteering, but due to its very non-commercial nature, volunteer jobs cost you more than just your time, but also your money.

Perhaps the best volunteer organization for TEFL teachers is The Peace Corps. Initially it consists of several months of training followed by at least 2 years of volunteer work. They will provide a locally indexed living wage and free comprehensive medical/dental care. The Peace Corps also pays for your trips to and from your destination and gives you a small bonus when you drop them off. US graduates can defer student loan payments while in the Peace Corps.

In Asian countries it is quite possible to earn quite decent money, live a good lifestyle and save $12,000 a year; this is a decent amount of money by western standards and more than you could save at home with a job that pays double TEFL. salary, but when you consider that you can live luxuriously traveling around some of the poorest Asian countries for a year on that money, you understand why many lucky people work a year in Korea or Japan, travel for a year, and do it all over again.