Afford Anything

At some point last year Z told his friends that he wouldn’t be attending 6th grade with them; instead he’d be “traveling around the world.” One friend was shocked and said that the trip must be costing us “a MILLION dollars!” That was when I realized that our friends and family may be curious and/or concerned about the cost of such a venture, and that there may be some unrealistic assumptions among them.

My original vision was to spend two to four weeks at a time in each location, in AirBnbs, and live as we do at home, but working and schooling online…shopping at local markets, cooking our own food, and occasionally visiting a tourist attraction. But mostly experiencing a place and culture by living there.

That would have been extremely affordable (and cheaper than living in the U.S.). See the listings below....these are examples of the savings you can find if you book a month-long stay during non-peak travel season. (These are all 2- or 3-bedrooms; you can find even better deals on studios and 1-bedroom accommodations.) You'll see that booking a month-long stay can save you 50-70% or more off the normal rate! Spend February in a 2-bedroom Greek island house for $1225! or September in a 3-bedroom beach house with a pool in Thailand for $995! What about October in a 3-bedroom apartment in Kuala Lumpur with a rooftop pool for $971? How about southern Spain for a month in early Spring for $1011?

As you can see, extended stays can be extremely affordable!

However, as most plans do, things changed when I explained it to M. He thought it would be better to move every 3-4 days to “maximize” the number of places we could visit (a much more costly method of travel—more transportation costs, less time for working/learning, no discounts on extended stays, etc.). We compromised, as usual, and found a system that has worked pretty well for us. We stay in more budget-friendly locations for longer periods of time (about a week to 10 days) and pricier places for about 3 days. We avoid expensive destinations during high season and holidays (e.g., we spent the week of Christmas/New Year’s in Kathmandu, Nepal, having turned down friends’ invitations to meet up in Japan or Dubai).

A huge money saver is also utilizing airline and credit card points to book free flights and hotels. (See "Fiji flights for $5.60") For more information on travel rewards check out one of the many travel reward blogs such as the Choose FI website’s Travel Rewards section https://www.choosefi.com/topics/travel/ or ThePointsGuy.com.)

Each month I tally up our spending; living this way, surprisingly, is not more expensive than living in New Jersey. Minimizing expenses back at home is crucial though. Vacations are expensive because we are paying for everything back at home and also paying for housing and transportation while traveling. Before leaving for this trip, we rented out our house to cover our home-related costs, sold my car, and reduced our auto insurance drastically down to the bare minimum just to cover our other car in storage. This means that we aren’t shelling out for a life back home while we are living life on the road.

This month I first heard about the “Dry January” concept—not drinking alcohol for the month of January. I read about a woman who, after trying the experiment in January, stopping drinking entirely and has since saved about $6,000 per year.* (Lighter drinkers may be saving closer to $2000/year.) As M and I don’t drink, and have never spent any money on alcohol, by this calculation we have not spent $100,000 or more over the last 25 years.

As Paula Pant says in her financial podcast, “You can afford anything, but not everything. Every choice that you make is a trade-off against something else. …. So what actually matters most to you? And how do you align your decision-making to reflect that which matters most?” So, no, we aren’t spending “one MILLION dollars,” but this experience is what matters most to us right now, and we are willing to make the small trade-offs to make our dream a reality.

*https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/03/how-dry-january-can-help-you-save-money-improve-health.html