Perhaps it is important to start writing early, even if not much is happening. A huge part of taking a rtw is the saving and the planning. But the most important part is to have desire and the idea.
My first job in New York City was at a crappy event planning company. The events weren’t crappy, the company was. I was paid poorly, over worked, and treated terribly. In the end I was fired/laid off. I say both because I don’t really know what it was. They had complaints, but I had also learned from other employees that they found a way to fire whoever was in my position every spring. They did this because there was no work to be done and the position was no longer needed in the summer months.
Towards the end I had very little to do. I spent my days surfing the Internet and reading travel blogs. I was lucky to have been able to travel quite a bit during college. I worked in Dresden, Germany at the Deutches Hygiene Museum for three months between my junior and senior years, and then after graduation I moved to London for six months to work for a student organization. Reading others blogs brought me back to when I didn’t have a crappy job and worry about paying my rent every month. That’s when I found them, the round the world blogs. The idea intrigued me, but I knew that I would never have the money, I was lucky if I even got my rent paid each month. That was without having credit card debt and with my parents helping out with student loans as well.
They let me go around three in the afternoon on a Friday. I went home and cried. That weekend I went to visit my parents and licked my wounds. But, I also felt some how free. I had no money and needed to find a job pronto, but without the hell that was EGR I felt like a whole new person.
Just a few weeks later I was offered a job at Smithfield Foods. They paid me a lot more and I rewarded myself with a nice shopping spree. Soon I found out that more money didn’t really mean a better job. I didn’t have much to do there. I would spend entire days with no actual work to do. I spent the first month typing up my journals from Europe and making blogs out of them. I also read more about travel and rtw’s.
I played with the numbers and realized that at my current salary rate with the help of working for my dad on weekends I could save a nice sum of money every month. I could make it happen. I could be a rtw traveler.
Over the past 20 months I’ve saved and saved. I have done a damn good job of it too. I already have more money for this trip than I ever thought I would, and I still have 9 months left to save. Here are a few steps/tips I have for saving money:
For two weeks write down everything you spend money on, then go through the list and figure out what was needed and what wasn’t. You’d be surprised at how quickly dinners out and Starbucks can add up.
Take your list and cut out all the unnecessary items. For me these included take-out for lunch and dinner, new clothes, HBO, loads of nights out, and weekly mani/pedi’s.
Figure out a budget. How much do you have to spend every month? What is left? 90% of what is left should go into your designated travel fund. I suggest opening a separate savings account for this. I like to use ING. I open a new CD every few months with whatever is in the savings account so that I can get a little extra interest and make the money less accessible to myself.
Give yourself a weekly allowance. It’s really hard to do this at first, but if you stick with something for four weeks it becomes habit. I could have take-out, but then if I was out of money and my friends wanted to hit the bars I was S.O.L. If I have money left over at the end of the week I put it in a jar in my room. This is used for special events, a friend’s birthday, the day I just have to treat myself, etc. When the amount reaches over $100 I tend to deposit it in my savings account and start over.
Look at some of your other expenses. If you have credit card debt, pay it off first. Do you really need that many minutes on your cell phone? Is the gym membership a necessity, will do you workouts at home? Do you have to go out 7 nights a week? How about limit it to 2 or 3. Do you really need a car? Can you walk to work? Before buying anything I figure out what that money would get me in France, or Russia, or Thailand. Do I want what I can have there more than I want this thing? I often use a country where the dollar goes really far.
Step four leaves you with a good amount of extra time. I started filling it up by going through everything in my bedroom. I got rid of a lot of stuff that I just didn’t need. I also listed loads of clothing, cd’s and books on Ebay and Half.com. This made me about $1000 dollars. It doesn’t seem like much but every little bit you put away helps. I also began to plan. I enjoy planning and it allowed me to focus on the trip during most of my free time. I also began filling out online surveys. Overall I’ve made about $60 doing that. It’s not a lot of money at all, but it is a day in Western Europe, or two days in South East Asia. It’s always important to remember that every single penny helps.
Get a better paying job. After a year at Smithfield I was bored to tears and ready to move on. I got a much better job at an investment firm. This job holds my interest and offers a challenge that Smithfield never could have. Plus, they pay more and give decent bonuses which go right into the savings account.
Get a second job. I started out working part time for my dad taking inventory. I had been doing this job since I was just out of high school and it had become lucrative. I would visit my parents on weekends and put in 15 or so hours every couple of weeks. When my parents moved too far away for me to visit most weekends I transferred to a local district. Once I did this I was able to work week nights as well as pick up the one store on a weekend that I wouldn’t have bothered coming home for. This also takes up a lot of time where you might be tempted to spend money.
Watch your money grow. I often set goals for myself and then have a reward when I hit them. When I hit 5k I bought a decent bottle of wine to enjoy. At first I thought I would allow myself to buy something nice guilt free, but I ended up just sticking that money into savings too. So now, about every 5k I hit I feel a few moments of pride, and then desire to hit the next goal even quicker.
Aside from raising the money one of the most difficult parts of planning for a rtw is staying motivated. This is especially hard when you are saving for years. I try to do something that is travel related every day. I have a desk calendar that has pictures from all over the world. I also keep up with several blogs written by people currently traveling. Bootsnall is a great place to read about travel and really helps keep me on track.
It also helps to travel while you wait for the big trip. Yes, this costs money that you could be sticking in your savings account, but I look at it as a way to save my sanity. I could never just not travel. When lack of funds forced me to stay put for two years I was miserable. These trips also help you to figure out what type of traveler you are. Maybe you will find that hostels make you miserable, or that you love Italy and want to spend four months visiting every town on the map. You can save and prepare according to what you learn. You will also pick up skills that will help you to avoid danger and save money down the road.
There is not much going on right now in my travel world so I won’t really be updating much. I mostly want to keep this because planning and saving can take much longer than the trip itself takes. You really can’t have one without the other.
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