How We Afford to Travel & You Can Too

If you dream of traveling full time but are wondering how the heck people finance it, you’ve come to the perfect spot.

We’ve been traveling and living throughout the world for the last 5 years while paying (loads!) of college debts at the same time.

And no; we don’t hail from affluent families, we’re not drug traffickers & we didn’t win the jackpot. (All legitimate assumptions.)

People ask us all the time how we are able to afford this lifestyle. So, how do we do it?

• The trouble is it’s not a straightforward solution that can be summed up in a few phrases.

• We’re so glad for the freedom we have made for ourselves, but it’s not magic. It has taken hard work, preparation and attention.

• But don’t worry, we’re not going to leave you with some sort of hazy, phony explanation. We are allowing you in, and revealing step by step how we have afforded to travel and live worldwide for 5 years.

• We’re sharing loads of ideas and methods that have helped us travel longer and cheaper while making money along the way. And YOU can utilize these too.

• Grab a cup of coffee and a notebook, because this article is packed full of practical advice that can help you finance the travels and lifestyle of your dreams. No fluff. No nonsense. Just true, honest, useful information.

1. We Worked Hard To Save Money For Trip

• Before we were jet traveling travel bloggers, we were living a reasonably “normal” existence. You may read more about our journey on our About Us page, but here’s the gist: Ben was working as a production engineer and Katie was working as a graphic designer (with a touch of advertising, marketing and photography!).

• We lived in a lovely apartment in a wonderful region and generally loved our life. But decided that we wanted to enjoy a “adventure” before actually settling down.

• We enjoyed nights in with pals instead of going to the bars as regularly. We made most of our meals. We took on side jobs. We reduced all our non-necessary costs (including cable TV). We pondered over every purchase, and I said goodbye to shopping sprees. (in all honestly, I haven’t missed them at all!)

• So we started seeing our bank account grow, and grow and increase. The money we saved went to our wedding, our honeymoon (in Banff!), our school loans (grrrrr…) and into a fund for, you guessed it: Traveling!

2. We Taught English Overseas

• Teaching English in Korea was one of the finest decisions we have made. We met life-long friends, got the unique chance to be totally immersed in a culture different from our own and we had the experience of a lifetime.

• Oh, and have I mentioned that we were EACH able to save $22,000 in only one year?! Yeah, that’s $44,000 between the two of us.

• We’re not posting this to boast, but simply to highlight just how fantastic an opportunity teaching English can be. Learn how you can save that much money too!

• There is no way we would have been able to afford to travel across the world for a year (that’s right, traveling straight for one YEAR!) had we not taught English internationally. So essentially, we owe many of our adventures to our year in Korea.

3. We Travel On A Budget

• When we originally went off on our 3-month adventure in South America, $10,000 looked like a lot. At first it was tempting to indulge on $100 a night hotel rooms, elegant drinks and frivolous trips.

• But we believed that our $10,000 may be gone quite fast if we did that. Instead, we chose to travel frugally for the most part. This would allow us to go longer and further. And sometimes “roughing it” leads to the finest adventures.

• But we also determined early on that we didn’t want our low budget to hold us back from once-in-a-lifetime adventures. We also wanted to be sure we were supporting firms who were doing good things for the environment and their communities, even if they cost more. The key to enjoying your trips while yet staying to a budget is BALANCE.

• Splurges are OK when they are balanced off with days with less spending.

4. We Discover Inexpensive Airfares

• If I’m entirely honest, I believe most travel bloggers make much too big a deal about getting inexpensive tickets. I meant, just because you locate a $200 airfare to Paris doesn’t imply you can afford a trip there.

• I think knowing how to travel affordably is far more advantageous in the long term. But for folks who fly as often as we do, it does assist to know certain tactics for getting inexpensive flights.

• And there is something fairly fulfilling with obtaining a fantastic price. It was an extremely inexpensive airfare to Colombia, after all, that inspired us to quit our jobs and take the leap. (Well, a cheap airfare AND a bottle of wine!)

• We’ve acquired round-trip flights to Thailand for little over $600. And we’ve traveled to Europe for just a couple hundred bucks. So how do we do it?

Read Also: Adventurous Things to do in Olympic National Park

5. We Have Taken Employment All Throughout The World

• We don’t enjoy the thought of depleting our savings account dry. We always want a cushion, and we want to be earning more than we spend. So we have developed ways to work while traveling.

• Ben teaches English via video chat, and gets decent money! And the greatest thing is he has done it all across the world: from a guesthouse in Vietnam to the drivers seat of our campervan. I used to take on freelance writing tasks that I could finish in my own time — like after a day of sightseeing.

• We’ve also done volunteer work in return for lodging and board, which has allowed us to travel longer. We have had some really fantastic experiences working on organic farms we found through WWOOF or WorkAway.

• And when we needed to save up a bit more, we grabbed employment at a ski resort in Washington state where we got to enjoy “fun jobs” while slowing down for a time.

6. We Live Simply

• It seems cliché, but traveling has taught us that less is more. We rarely buy new clothes or “things”. We carefully about each purchase, and make sure that it’s something we actually need.

• One of our best moments of our lives was when we lived the simplest. We spent 3 months living in a campervan we made with our own 2 hands (well, actually 4 hands, considering there are two of us!).

• We camped in the woods , cooked outside and spent the evenings beside campfires. It was amazing. And it was inexpensive.

• What many people don’t aware is that travel might really be cheaper than staying at home. Yep, you read that properly.

• Take away the monthly rent (or mortgage), cable, Internet, gym membership, vehicle payments, auto and rental insurance, and all the other things that comes along with staying in one location, and you’ll realize that you actually don’t need much to be happy.