On Money

“Do you have a job?"
“Did your father get oil money?”
“Did you deal drugs?”
“Who’s paying for your trip?”

Inevitably, these questions come up in conversations, colored with various mixes of curiosity, disbelief, and the assumption that I am a trust-fund kid. People seem to struggle with the concept that yes, I am paying for the trip myself, and no, I am not independently wealthy, all money I've made has been legal, and I did not have particularly lucrative jobs for the last year and a half. I had did have a LOT of jobs, both in college and since I graduated, but that was not the secret.

Travel is not particularly more expensive than a new car, a wedding, a boat, or any other "luxury item" that people spend money on. It is not an unreachable goal for most of us in the Western World. It simply requires saving money. My secret to saving is so simple it can be explained in one sentence. 

I kept track of every single dime I’ve spent since Fall 2012.

Each month I did the math: How much I would earn that month, what my necessary expenses were (food, rent, car insurance), what my unnecessary expenses were (beer, eating out, beer, skiing, beer). I added it all and made sure the total was a smaller number than the amount of money I made. I set goals each month based on those totals. If I went over my budget, I picked up an extra shift, found another job, or pro-rated the expenses over multiple months. For example, if I had to spend $300 on groceries at Costco, I added and extra $100 to my grocery expense each month for 3 months, since that was the approximate amount of time the groceries would last. It's simple math, the kind even I can do, it just takes discipline to enter your expenses as they happen.

In the interest of full discolsure, I will admit to two additional advantage, besides my obsessive accounting. 

1) I have very little student debt, and my loan payments are incredibility low, meaning that unlike my peers I don’t need to shell out $600 every month to make my minimum loan payment. This I attribute to a combination of good fortune and hard work, including applying for nearly 100 scholarships, working as an RA, and taking the maximum number of classes each semester so I could finish in four years. However, I truly believe my system would have worked even if I’d had student debt, it would have just taken a bit longer (perhaps 2 years instead of 1) to save enough.

2) I avoided paying rent as much as possible. I spent nearly every summer with a job that included housing, and had my housing paid for when I was an Resident Assistant in college. Housing is generally the biggest expense in any budget, so finding that cheaply was key. This does mean a few sacrifices of privacy and space, but with a bit of creative thinking it is entirely possible.

That’s it. That’s the whole story. I worked a lot, had a bit of luck, and most importantly kept an account of every dime I spend, and still do.  

If you would like a copy of an the excel template I used, a breakdown of my expenses on the road, or other budgeting information, comment with your email below.

To find out what your dream trip would cost, check out: 

Budget Your Trip - for accurate estimates of expenses in many countries  

Kayak - for estimating flight costs. In Europe, also try RyanAir and EasyJet

Lonely Planet - cost estimates for budget, mid-range, and high-end travel