Travelling is good for us, no doubt. Most of us like to travel and you don’t even have to ask many people to know their answer. But it also doesn’t come free of cost. It’s not like boarding a bus and going to some place nearby.
There are flight tickets to be booked, hotel rooms to be reserved and not to mention the overheads for meals and local travelling. But you don’t have to be a money nerd to travel either. You don’t have to invest in shares and bonds or take out insurance policies to collect the money you need to travel.
How much you need to save depends on several other questions. Finding answers to these simple questions should help you to set aside a decent travelling budget:
Where do you want to go?
The answer to this question decides to quite an extent how much you will end up spending on the trip. Travelling to certain destinations can be quite cheap such as going to Indonesia or Thailand.
Distance is a major factor when it comes to determining how much you will spend on a trip. In order to travel to Los Angeles or Australia you may have to save a lot more money. Some of the other trips that can prove to be quite expensive are hiking to Machu Pichu or spending nights in Switzerland or Bahamas.
On the other hand travelling to a country where you wish to take a tour of local museums and other top-rated attractions can be relatively inexpensive. You must first work out where you would like to travel to in order to set aside a proper budget for the same.
For How Long Will you Travel?
Another important determinant of your travelling budget is the number of days you will be gone. Undoubtedly for long trips you need to save more while for a short trip you may not have to dig too much into your savings.
Can you Work when you are Travelling?
If you’re among those travellers who work for only a few months in a year and spend the rest of it in another country, this option is actually quite good for you. Signing up for a job or a volunteering task in a country you’ve gone travelling to is an excellent way to explore a new culture while reducing your travelling expenses. This can lift the burden off your travel budget and at the same time allow you to learn new skills and give your income an added boost.
What will you do when you get there?
What you intend to do when you get to a place also determines how much you may have to spend. Taking a trip to a place which is famous for adventure sports may be quite expensive as these activities can cost you a bombshell. Taking a trip to Las Vegas to gamble can prove to be even more expensive, that is if you lose more than you win.
How Well do you Deal with Temptations?
How well you can save for your travels depends on how well you deal with your urges. You may need to sort your priorities in your head first. Is it travelling or is it shopping? If it is travelling, you may have to stay off shopping for a while.
Setting aside a budget for everything you are passionate about as it can help you to balance out your expenses. If you own a business and wish to take your team out on a trip as part of a corporate day out exercise then you could cut back on those team lunches and dinners in order to save for that trip.
Is There Anything You Can Sell?
If there are fitness accessories you bought with the intention of using them daily like a bicycle or a treadmill but they have only been collecting dust for a while now, you can sell them to give your savings an additional boost.
If you have an extra room to spare you can put it up on rent and have an additional source of income for yourself. If you’ve recently graduated there may be many textbooks which you may not need any longer and you can sell them to get yourself some extra cash.
Any Direct Debit You Can Cut?
You may have set up direct debits on your account for your monthly expenses such as your phone bills, Netflix or those memberships of gyms or golf clubs. If you believe any of them to unnecessary or something you can live without, you should cut down on them immediately. If you’ve never seen the face of the gym after you gave in to their smooth talk about getting fitter, you should cancel that subscription right away.
Those who like to travel do not mind turning into a minimalist for as long as they have to because as long as they are saving money to feed their passion, they don’t really care about anything else.
