How To Afford Long Term Traveling in Your Twenties
Sometimes it’s about what you save not what you earn
There is an undeniable magic to traveling when you are young. Your body can handle things like sleeping on floors and couches, partying often, and living off junk food. You can take financial hits, even go flat broke, and it’s not as big of a deal as it is when you start getting older.
Still, it pays to be smart about your finances, even if you don’t have much money at all. Below, I have compiled a list of tips to help you sustain traveling as long as possible in your twenties with minimal resources.
Enjoy, and don’t forget to share and leave a comment if you find this article helpful!
Down Size
If you have a van-life set up, you don’t have to down-size as much as somebody who is backpacking. However, in either case, you’re going to have to take inventory and really think hard about what possessions really matter to you.
If you are backpacking, consider that you will have to carry everything with you on your travel days. If you end up bringing extra luggage, and you are flying, it will add to the overall cost of your trip as you will have to check the bags. If you want to cover a lot of ground, it is better to whittle everything down to one backpack, and a light one at that.
Regardless of your setup, don’t bring anything with you that you can’t handle being lost, stolen, or damaged. Do your research about where you’re going, things like carrying an obvious lap top bag can make you a target in certain parts of the world.
I am a bit of a minimalist myself, I think the less you have the better. This is doubly true when it comes to traveling long-term and being nomadic.
The last time I lived somewhere semi-permanently, I sold all my unwanted stuff on craigslist, Offerup, and to my friends on my Instagram story.
Avoid Debt
For some of you, it may be too late, but that’s not a death sentence. Do your best not to accumulate any more. There are still plenty of people who travel despite owing lots of money to their student loans and credit card debt.
You may also want to take a year or two to focus on paying off your debt before traveling if that’s feasible in your situation.
I would encourage all aspiring nomads to go through all of their recurring payments and think hard about whether or not they are worth the price. Are you paying $20 a month for a service you don’t use? Cancel it, those little things can add up quickly, especially once you no longer have an income to support you.
Get Off Your Lease
Maybe you have an apartment and have accumulated a lot of possessions over the years. It can be very daunting and overwhelming to imagine how in the world you can make such a drastic lifestyle change.
It’s okay if it takes time, you don’t have to make this transition all at once. When I finally decided to travel long-term, I lined everything up with my lease ending. My transition took me about a year.
Paying rent while you are traveling is a killer, and completely not worth the trouble in my humble opinion. Yes, some people do it.
Use your lease end-date as your travel start-day. Use it as your deadline for selling all your things, downsizing, and making that faithful leap.
Consider Seasonal Work
I would 100% not be able to live the lifestyle I do without working seasonal gigs. No matter how good you are at saving and being frugal, you will eventually start to run out of money and will need income again.
If you’re good at crypto or have remote work, good for you! For the rest of us, it’s more accessible to be a line cook, a ski-lift, or some other kind of in-person gig.
Seasonal work is good at any age, but it is especially convenient for younger people because they typically do not require any experience. Seasonal jobs mainly just want to hire people who won’t leave half way through the season.
Consider Work-Trades
Airbnbs and hotels get expensive quickly. Even cheap accommodation will start to weigh on you without an income to offset your expenses.
The most popular websites for Work-Trades are Workaway.info and Wwoof.net.
In a nutshell, a work-trade (sometimes called a work-stay) is where you technically volunteer (some hosts will pay you, but not most) four hours of work a day in exchange for a bed and sometimes food.
There are a lot of advantages to doing work-trades beyond just the financial aspect. Sometimes traveling gets boring, yeah I said it! It can help to have a small work routine to keep you active.
Work-trades are also helpful in that they can plug you into a local community that would otherwise be hard to access if you are staying in an Airbnb.
Learn How To Cook
This may sound obvious or even similar to saying “stop buying avocado toast” but seriously, cooking will save your wallet majorly. Groceries will just about always be cheaper than eating out, unless your exclusively eating street food which brings its own issues.
It isn’t hard to learn some basic recipes to save money while you are traveling, plus it is a very handy life skill to have in general. You don’t want to be that person in their thirties who can’t cook anything for themselves!
Even if you can’t cook, just buying a loaf of bread, peanut butter, and some jelly will save you money as well. Bananas are also a no-brainer. You’re not on vacation anymore, if you want to sustain your travel you can’t eat out at restaurants every single night.
Be Flexible
This should be obvious, but if you have high standards, you can’t be surprised when you rack up a huge bill. Being flexible to things like sharing a room, sharing a bathroom, and just living communally, in general, can save you a lot of money in the long run.
We all have certain luxuries and comforts that are important to us, which is fine, just know which ones matter to you the most. I am flexible on most things, however, if my budget allows, I will usually opt to have my room. I still will and do share rooms when it’s necessary though.
Some of this will take the experience to find that perfect balance between budgeting yourself but also not making yourself uncomfortable. I recommend that you start on the side of budgeting rather than on the side of making yourself comfortable.
Sometimes we think we need certain luxuries, but after a little bit of time without them, we realize that they weren’t as important to us as we thought. Also, when it comes to sharing a room, it can be easier when you know it will only last for a few months. Knowing that afterward, you can splurge on a private room for a bit.
In Conclusion
There are a lot of little here-and-there things you can do to make long-term traveling more sustainable in your twenties. These are merely suggestions that I have found immensely helpful in my own life. We all have the little luxuries that are worth the price to us, but that is for you to decide on your own.
The most important thing is to be mindful of your expenses, don’t let them become frivolous and careless. If you follow that mind state, you should be fine. What’s most important is that you’re learning and having fun!
