Let’s face it. Traveliving involves an essential budget not only for the day-to-day activities and expenses but also for the preparation. However, is not that dreadful and everybody can organize his financial resources in an efficient way. Plus, it is measurable and can be monitored easily, anytime. At the end of the day, if Greeks can do it, everybody can do it 😉
But, first lets talk about the stereotypes that come with the travelling budget. First of all, you must be rich to travel around the world. Second, you need a fortune to get prepared. Third, you need to go pro. Fourth.. bla bla bla. Lots of stereotypes make people skeptic and hesitant as well as deter them from start planning their once in a life time adventure. Why? Mostly because they follow other travellers who are heavily equipped and outfitted, not being prepared for the unexpected but because they like to have cutting-edge technology, travel gadgets and other partially useless stuff which of course can afford (or manage to get through sponsorships, supporters and funny deals they make with companies in exchange for articles, exposure and Instagram posts).
It is true that you need a substantial amount of money to buy a vehicle and tune it up, purchase some travel gear that you might miss or need for the long term, shop for a travel insurance and book some tickets (or pay for the shipping of your vehicle). However, the biggest mistakes that people do especially when they are getting prepared is due to lack of long-time travelling experience and travel wisdom. We did the same before Africa and we learnt our lessons before hitting the Americas. After all, we managed to cut our preparation expenses by 20% (and the travel gear/ equipment expenses by more than 60%) and our daily living-running cots by 50%. Sounds good, no?
If there is a recipe for success is to always try to adapt your lifestyle with your available budget. If there is a secret, is to slow down your pace, fill up with experiences and spend more time in the places you visit. The slower you go, the less you spend.
As for the practical aspect of how much you actually need to start traveliving, please find an excerpt from our recently published book TRAVELIVING | A ROMANTIC & PRACTICAL GUIDE:
“From my experience, everything depends on the vehicle you want to travel with, the upgrades that will serve for your comfort and safety, the region you want to explore, your travel style and your pace but anything between 15.000 to 20.000 EUR for a car, 6.000 to 9.000 EUR for a motorbike, 2.000-4.000 EUR for a bicycle and 1.000-3.000 EUR for backpacking is a sufficient entry-level amount that will allow someone to leave his couch, get prepared and outfitted, and start wandering for at least 6 months to a year before stopping for the first assignment in a local community, farm or a hostel to work or volunteer (assuming that you are traveliving and not circumnavigating the globe in 200 days).”
Last piece of advice: study thoroughly while planning & go through travel forums like HorizonsUnlimited, ADVRider, ExpeditionPortal, WikiOverland and personal travel websites & blogs, and see what other people do. Try to match your personal standards with your actual needs and the territories you are going to visit and DO NOT copy other travellers’ packing lists. Last but not least, talk with other travellers, ask them questions. Most of them, they are happy to answer almost everything!
Finally, save every penny you can for the actual trip and don’t spend ridiculous amounts of money on action cameras, professional clothing gear and fancy stuff. Every cent you save, is a cold beer in the actual trip and much more!
We first met Mark in El Cuco, El Salvador. Mark is a solo traveler from Ottawa, Canada and he came to verify everything of what Canadians are famous for. The last 5 months or so, he is travelling solo from Ontario, Canada to Tierra del Fuego, Patagonia in a Honda Odyssey family van.
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