![]() See also: How to Make Money While Traveling It’s fine if the answers to these questions vary over time it’s simply important to understand what sort of money you’ve got to work with every step of the way. What kind of income is it? Is it passive (eg: rental income, investment income, or passive business income), or active (eg: a freelance career or entrepreneurial venture)? If it’s indefinite, you’ll need a stream of income to support you. Here they are, along with the relevant questions to ask so you can start to create your own travel budget and style.Īre you traveling for a fixed term on fixed savings? Or are you making travel a full-time and indefinite lifestyle? The 2 Core Components of Financially Sustainable Travelįinancially sustainable travel, at its core, has two main components. It’s simply up to you to pull the trigger. Isn’t it wonderful that you can spend as much or as little as you want? That you can choose a destination – and lifestyle – that suits your budget and your desire for exploration? ![]() So as much as you might like me to tell you exactly how much you’ll spend to travel full-time or long-term, as you’ll see from the criteria below, it’s just not possible.Īt the same time, I can’t help but smile at this quandary. But a tight budget is not a necessary cornerstone of financially sustainable travel). In those years, out of necessity, I acquired various budget travel techniques like getting free accommodation. Perhaps the confusion stems from the early years of my travels I was earning less, so I had to make do with less. Has it been synonymous with budget travel? Not particularly. So have I been traveling in a financially sustainable way? You betcha. So when readers balk (as they occasionally do) at my travel expenses, suggesting that this isn’t “financially sustainable travel” as they see it, I simply point them towards my income for those same years:Įxcept for a slight differential in 2013, I’ve consistently spent less than I’ve earned. Life’s misadventures aside, if I didn’t have the income to support my expenses in general, I wouldn’t have spent (other money) the way I did.įor example in 2013 even with those dastardly experiences, I also made other costly choices – such as paying for accommodation (instead of getting it for free which I’ve done so much), and a big splash-out in Europe. This “stuff” of life happens whether or not we travel but – fairly or unfairly – it becomes a part of the “travel budget” when traveling long term or full-time. (See also: Brace Yourself: Travel Isn’t all Roses and Lollipops ) In 2013 for example, I had almost $20,000 in erroneous expenses as a result of “stuff” happening like a house/passport theft, near-fatal accident, and financially supporting a partner. My annual expenses changed drastically for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was life just being life. Just look at my own cost of full-time travel over the years and how it has changed: Why? Because travel – especially when it’s a lifestyle, not just a short vacation – is so incredibly different for everybody. When I was writing Working on the Road: The Unconventional Guide to Full-Time Freedom (since discontinued), my editors pushed me heavily to provide long-term travel budget spreadsheets and other tools that would categorically spell out how much it costs to live and travel full-time. My Own Journey to Financially Sustainable Travel It has since been updated for accuracy of links and content. This post was originally published in 2019. Let’s look at financially sustainable travel in the realm of creating long term travel budgets. So, it’s time to get really clear:įinancially sustainable travel is about having (ie: saving or earning) sufficient money to pay for your desired travel lifestyle (whatever that looks like).ĭoes that sound vague to you? Good. While the definition of financially sustainable travel seemed intuitive to me, perhaps it’s not to everybody. Is it about budget travel? Absolutely not! (Just look at some of my Financial Case Studies to see people who are traveling full-time with six-figure incomes, as well as others traveling on a budget). Is it related to environmental sustainability? Nope. ![]() While the two are intrinsically connected, they are not the same. People confuse financially sustainable travel with a long term travel budget. Since those early days, it has been used in a variety of contexts that aren’t in the spirit of what (I intended) financially sustainable travel to be. I guess it stands to reason: I coined the term, somewhat accidentally at that. There are a lot of misnomers about financially sustainable travel.
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