well, I have been traveling for a while, I travel to a place and spend a least 3 months there and recently I want to do more extended travel, go further and longer, like some of the great wanderlusts out there, traveling for years with very little money in their bank. however I do get this question a lot from friends and people who I met: “how do you get funding for your travel."
well, I am going to tell you how.
I am not from a wealthy family, far away from wealthy, I never got my allowance ever since I was a kid. I was born and growing up in China, only when I was 17 I went to Australia to study and then stayed for about 11 years there. studying in Australia is never cheap, at least for my lower middle class family in China. my dad has, however, managed to fork out enough money to pay most of my tuition fee, the rest I had to earn them with 3 part time jobs. I sorted out my living cost and even can put away most of the earning into the bank. I didn't really go shopping a lot while living in Australia, I was almost a vegetarian (because carrot and onion are really cheap, and also healthy to live on) I had a boyfriend at that time to share the cost of the stamp (for the first four year we were together I didn't even ask him to pay for my coffee. dignity but also stupid, haha)
so full time university study and always asked for more part time work and never went out to party, within 4 years I saved about AUD $ 18,000. then after university I kept on working, I was lucky I got a very good paid job at the university library, I was able to save $25,000. again I didn't go out party, I don't really like it at that time and I don't drink either. I only use some of the money to enjoy good coffee and good food. I even bought myself nice iMac and DSLR camera to start my photography. with all those expensive gear spending and I still managed to keep my bank balance around $25,000. I tried not to let it drop down to $20,000. every year I do take a 3 months trip either to Brazil or China (before 2011).
ok with this huge amount of money, you think I can just go travel around the world again and again and again. WRONG! too bad I was born in China. so whenever a Chinese citizen needs to travel overseas, he/she must apply for visa, pretty much everywhere in the world Chinese must obtain a visa to get in, very few country give them Visa on arrival. so to get the visa, I must proof that I have sufficient money in the bank to travel. so $20,000 in the bank can safely lock me in a visa approval. if I go lower than that, I probably can't travel to some fancy place like Europe or can't travel for 3 months. so I really envy those nomads who only have $500 in their pocket and they manage to get by and no need to worry about visa matter. if I don't need to worry about visa, I could travel for a long time and be very happy.
anyway, it is what it i.e. no longer complain (almost). so when I am on the road I try to live as cheaply as possible. if I can get free accommodations from friends, I would happily accept it. in return I wouldn't mind cleaning house or doing any cooking for them. it is only fair. if no free accommodation I would stay in the cheapest hostel in town, usually hostels are fun, fun place to meet cool people from around the world. then I will try to cook my own food, in that way you save a lot of money than eating out every meal. I do love good food, so once in a while I wouldn't mind spending some money on an unforgettable eating experience.
I do like to set up some challenge for myself. for example, I would say to myself, can I live on $1 today? I would go do it. when I was in Rio, I used it several time. it was too hot to eat big meal, so I would buy 2 bread which cost about 60 cents, that would get me through the day, and with the budget I saved I would spend it on something I like.
budgeting is very important. usually before going on a big trip, I would set up a rough budget plan, for example: $2000 on airfare and transportation. $1000 shopping money, $600 accomondation.$1000 eating, $400 misc. so total budget for that trip is $5000, I would try not to go over it. so maybe average spending for one day is $40, then I will try to stick to that, if I really really want to buy something that goes over my daily budget, then I will use my challenge method to save $39 and until I could save enough to buy the thing I want.
of course I don't do $1 a day all the time. when I am out there I want to experience the local culture, but there are times I just experience with my eyes and that's free.
so my advice for your travel funding. Work and have a goal to save up enough money for your travel, if you are not Chinese or at least do not have visa problem, I think about $7000 is good to get you going. if you are from EU, that's even better maybe $500 is good, because you can always look for some part time jobs in EU.
Now I am on my second yearlong world traveling. I don’t know if I will spend all my money this time. I really hope not. Let’s see how I go, stay on the budget and try to do some freelance work while on the road. Although freelance work maybe only enough for a meal or something, but hey, it is better than nothing. When you are out there, every little cent counts! No need to be super stingy but be careful and be aware of what you are spending and how much could you afford to spend.
Happy traveling and if you have good tips on saving and making money on the road do let me know too. If you have any questions feel free to ask and I will try to answer when I can.
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