Odds are that if you decide to take the leap and travel around the world, you fill find yourself with lots of money leaving your bank account, but not a lot finding its way back in. There are many ways to ease this pain, from living less lavishly to trying to earn money through odd jobs. You could even leverage your past experience to freelance while travelling as a part-time consultant or web programmer if you have the skills.
But before you do anything have you to ask yourself two questions:
How much money will I have to spend and how much money do I need to make?
Both questions are trying to figure out the same thing which is how much money will you need to travel (and thrive, not just survive).
So how do you answer these questions?
Create a budget.
Yes, it sounds boring. But it doesn’t have to be. You are creating a budget of what your costs will be as you travel around the world. It is one more step on your way towards freedom so it can’t be that bad, right? Plus, you get to research all of the different places you want to go since each will have varied costs and possible means of income.
No need to make the budget too complex, at least not yet. What you want to do is get yourself in the proper mindset. Do some research. Ballpark expenses. Figure out a few things you might want to do in a given location and see what the costs are.
But just because that tour to Machu Pichu might cost $300 doesn’t mean you can’t take it. All it means is that you won’t be able to eat out at a restaurant as much for a week or two. You are travelling to enjoy yourself, after all. Not just to save money while you do it.
Hopefully this general budgeting exercise will make your adventure more real as you begin to see the actual possibilities that are out in the world. Plus, you will have time to create a more detailed budget as your departure date comes closer. But leave some flexibility in your plans by doing a general budget early in the process.
For Meg and myself, our ideal scenario is that we are able to work while we travel. We have not settled upon a business idea yet but are exploring all opportunities. Whether it is creating an e-book on a topic we are very familiar with or provide some form of service online. We have our eyes set on being digital nomads… although this can have its own set of costs as the equipment can be expensive and require care. In the long run, we’d love to earn enough to not have to go back to our current careers. But guess what? You need to make a budget to figure that out too.
We want to practice what we preach so we will also be creating a budget and posting it to LandingStanding. We hope to get your opinion on how realistic we are being and if there are any special places we should save up to visit.
Stay tuned for our detailed budget and we’d love for you to share yours!
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