full image - Repost: Extensive travel on $25k a year (from Reddit.com, Extensive travel on $25k a year)
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Over the last three years (35 months) I've made an average income of just about $25 grand a year (USD, pre tax). But I've been fortunate enough to travel to 8 countries while saving to travel for the next couple months, plus contribute to retirement and avoid taking on debt. I figured people might find my finances a little interesting, especially because I don't think I've done anything out of reach of folks who are relatively healthy and financially stable to begin with.So for the big picture, after taxes I've brought in almost exactly $55,000 after taxes, insurance, retiremenent and other deductions. In the same time I've spent $39,000 on living and traveling (mostly travel, my travel expenses are 53% of my spending). In total I spent around 15 months traveling and 20 months working, for an average travel expense of $1300/month ($45/day) and non travel average expenses of $916/month ($30/day). Of the $16k difference about half has gone to retirement and the rest is savings for my upcoming travel and an emergency fund.I think my average job has paid around $16-18/hr, which you'll notice only adds up to my total numbers if you put in a lot of overtime. Despite all the overtime, I've been pretty lucky with work, highlights include lots of driving forklifts, living in a tent for 4 months building backcountry trails, and two years of various working holiday activities in Australia. My number one prioty for work is finding places that offer free or cheap accomodation, or involve camping.When it comes to spending while working my biggest outlay is food. I haven't paid rent since 2021, my phone is fairly cheap, I qualify for medicaid and rely on travel insurance, and I have no outstanding debts. I don't think that I live super frugally, I'll go on nights out and splurge on dinners occasionally, plus I like to spend some money on books, games, activities (I'm unfortunetly hooked on SCUBA diving). My goal is to never spend a ton of money, but always be willing to spend on fun stuff when it comes up.While traveling I'm pretty damn cheap. I stay in hostels, go to cheap places, eat cheap food, and work for accomodation whenever I get the chance. Besides SCUBA and the occaisional boat tour I don't have a lot of stuff that I spend big on traveling. I walk everywhere or take public transit, I don't buy souveniers, and I'm more than happy to take a night bus or camp on a beach to save a night's accomodation. If I'm being honest I could probably reduce my travel budget by a lot if I refused to buy beer, but that probably won't happen.Some bulleted thoughts in no particular order:Rent is death if you're trying to do this sort of thing. I've primarly lived out of my backpack, and all my possesions back home fit in my car.Family and support is very important, it's a huge weight to know that if I ever screwed up I could probably be bailed out by my folks. I can also leave my car at their place and use it as an address. I think it would be possible to live like I do without a robust support network, but it would be a lot harder.I'm super fortunate and privilaged. I don't have a lot (or any really) of responsibilities, and I feel confident in my ability to land on my feet someday with a permanent job. Plus I'm a white American male, so I have a pretty high base level of safety when traveling.I'm technically ahead of schedule when it comes to retirement, but I could have been putting a lot more money in than I am.Along with rent being death accomodation traveling is one of my biggest expenses. I try to work with hostels to get discounts, stay places long term, or spend time backcountry camping to stretch my cash.I don't use a travel credit card or airline loyalty program for points/miles. I probably should but frankly I don't understand how they work.You're always going to spend more than you expect, so keep a healthy emergency fund. Between a fender bender I paid out of pocket for, some phone replacements, falling for scams, and unexpected medical expenses 9-10% of my total spending has been for things I hadn't planned for.If you're under 30, Australia is your best friend. Minimum wage is $18/hour and if you get out of the city it's pretty easy to save a lot of money. Most of my income has been from Australia and their wonderful overtime/holiday pay rates.
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