Good stuff Mollydog

"Times are changing"

To clarify community, I still play soccer, enjoy bicycling, and other activities. Even though I have rented bicycles, played soccer (futbal) with the locals, it is not quite the same when you are always moving on. Though, I still enjoy everyday.

All this being said, I am always thinking of moving and working in another country...time will tell.

It is difficult to avoid paying student loans as it is very to difficult to have them waived via bankruptcy and if you do not pay, they can dock your wages, take tax returns, put a lien on your credit. And that is if you are even fortunate enough to pass Human Resources for an interview.

Ahh the laws they pass...

I'm just in the initial throws of putting my travel plans together, which of course includes "how the hell do I pay for this".
Like many on here I will choose to liquidate other 'toys and non essential things' to fund the trip, so in that respect I am fortunate.

Despite how much money each of us may have and how much we can 'liberate' to make these trips a reality, the principle that you have to change your way of thinking, decide what is important, what you want and what you are willing to sacrifice to get it, is the critical issue here.

Very few of us can afford to leave for a year without impacting on our financial situation, our careers, our family or any other number of other things.

The one thing I know for sure though is that I won't be lying on my death bed wishing I'd tried harder to get that promotion or bought that larger house with the better views.

If you go to the grave with money in the bank, you've done something wrong...

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Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

Good for you!

IMO, younger travelers have an advantage. Many are not yet committed to common trappings (mortgage, family, job, advanced degrees). This is key.

I did major travel in my 20's. No commitments. (I did drop out of University but otherwise did not have many bindings holding me) I managed 7 years before I burnt out on Latin America. (very long story)

Traveling in ones 20's, IMO, is the best time to do it. Paying for it is the hard part ... and sustaining travel for years, even harder. But it can be and has been done.

But if you look at current long time RTW travelers, most are older, retired ... and God knows how they got enough money to travel ... forever. Many still own a home, have a steady income of some kind. (retirement,investments or whatever) That's good planning I guess.

But do you really want to wait 30 years before traveling?

Perhaps the best compromise is to take a month or so every couple years and go ride in paradise, then return and get back on your Hamster's wheel for another couple years!

I agree. Did most then too. You're less hung up about nice things and creature comforted too which brings cost down.

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Tacos Tyring Travels.com

We (the better half and I) made the decision about 9 months ago to leave our great country (Aust) and go travelling for as many years as possible. Our plan is to leave in another 8 months at the end of the year and so far things are tracking well.
Starting from scratch.... with nothing this is how we have financed things so far.
We had a good win with some shares that got transferred to the US when the Aust dollar was high and then we cashed them out 6 months later when the Aust dollar had crashed, so we won both ways; that bought the bike. With the remainder we both work in construction and have been working 13 day fortnights (one day off every 14) for 6 months and living off my wife's wage and banking all my wage. Its bloody hard and we dont have a life atm.... and the only thing that keeps us working like robots is our goal, so each day we drag ourselves out of bed and do it all over again..... day in day out. Our plan is to try and save $70,000-$100,000 (aust) before we leave which is doable and if it takes a bit longer to get to this goal then so be it. We have built a shed up the back yard to store all our furniture in as we priced self storage and for the cost over the period we could build the shed and have an extra asset at the end. The plan is to rent the house out which should cover the mortgage with all the furniture packed in the shed. If tenants / anyone wants to break into the shed while we are away and carry a flat screen or leather lounge down the yard then good luck to them..... plus its insured anyway. Everything else should work out...... we hope!!!!
If possible it would be good to try and get some work while moving around but I dont know how successful that will end up, with Visa's etc. Other than that we simply have to watch our money while we are away and try and budget to keep things going. That's the idea and while many around us have said it cant be done, what we say to them is #$@%!
David & Em

Good luck to you both!
With your skills (construction) I'm betting you'll be able to find work in many areas you travel. I only really know Latin America well and can tell you ... they need BIG TIME help in the trades. Plumbing? Not a clue. Electrical? Nearly as bad.
Structural? Better but spotty. They are pretty good at concrete, floors, tile, brick masonry, steps but horrible at most things in terms of legit, safe construction practices.

In Mexico I was traveling with an Electrician friend. He is maintenance supervisor in a US Govt 30 story hi-rise, so serious skills beyond electrician. His office building houses FBI and IRS, plus the Federal Court. So everything works.

At one motel in Mexico the owner had serious electrical trouble. My buddy offered to help ... and once the owner realized what he could do ... we never paid for a room or a meal or drinks!

We drank LOADS of his Tequila. (my head still hurts) The Rat's nest of horrible and dangerous wiring was really scary. My friend Patrick was able to sort most it out in about a week, working 4 or 5 hours a day. By the time we left the guy was gob smacked. Everything worked. Stuff that hadn't worked in 10 years was working again. No blown breakers, no smoke, no fire. Biggest problem is getting proper parts.

I don't know your speciality ... hopefully you can do a bit of everything. Everything is what they need. They won't pay much compared to Oz or USA, but I'm betting you can do pretty well if you find the right client. There are people with money ... and often times they just cannot find skilled tradesman ... at all. You will be stunned by the down right shoddy work everywhere. If you have true skills ... you will never starve, that is certain.

In my case, that's what I've ended up with. There never seemed to be the "right time" to do the Big One, and in any case modern bikes, telephony and internet access make things a lot more straightforward than they were 30 years ago. Today, I own my own house, have a remarkably tolerant wife and two great kids who have left home for lives of their own, and in a couple of years time I plan to ride home from Kazakhstan where I'm working now, to my home in UK to retire. It's not in the same league as people who doing real extended RTW journeys, but for me, who has never done a real big trip before, it's enough, and a nice underline to a biking lifestyle that has led me to doing a lot of other stuff besides.

A mate of mine did some epic backpacking trips straight after uni, and I remember him telling me he used to finance the trips by smuggling gold - it was always good to travel with a girlfriend as girls can carry twice as many gold bars as boys He also worked washing up and doing odd jobs to finance himself on the road, but such work is generally done by local people for very cheap rates, so not a lot of help if you are after enough money to finance accommodation and continued bike travel.

Another more recent story comes from a friend who rode from UK-NZ and ended up working in a bikers bar in Nepal for a few months, but I think that was more for the people than the money

As regards what it costs for most people I'm in the fortunate position to be able to finance a 2-3 month trip from savings. I don't want to be sleeping on benches every night but neither do I want to blow money on 5* luxury. With accommodation, food, fuel and barring disasters I have a rough budget plan of $100 per day average.

Save half of every paycheck for a year or two.

Don't have any bills (from home) while travelling.

Keep your ear to the ground for work.

Like Mollydog said, and do it now. I'm doing my current trip in bits and pieces. Spreading out your travel, the experience can be savored, and each country taken in at its fullest. I read ride reports of many riders whose trip is to ride from point A in order to reach the goal of the trip at point B, missing way too many experiences and sights along the way. Lately I've been able to leave for 6 weeks at a time, currently riding in South America for under $3,000US for everything, airline tickets included. It doesn't have to be one big trip. Make it an annual part of your life. Do it on the cheap too; small inexpensive moto, watch for airline deals, travel light, and travel cheap. In between, work on your language skills and go for motorcycle adventures in your country of residence.

Reading posts above, I have to add that my in country cost in Peru last year was $2,200US for 6 weeks, which does not include purchasing/renting/shipping a moto or airline costs. That included rooms every night (no camping), food, gas, moto repairs, and personal purchases. Costs of course vary by country and by the exchange rate of the money you bring. I was able to find rooms for $15US fairly regularly, often less, and a couple times up to $20. I went through about a tank of gas, generally riding less than 200km per day on a 250cc moto. I had about $300 in moto repair/maintenance, including chain/sprocket and a couple other items, which is included in my $2,200 trip costs. I consider these costs affordable, making this kind of travel a reality.

I agree that it's an expensive lifestyle/thing to do most of the time. But the experience and memories you get from it is priceless!! It can't be compared to anything. It's worth it!

Stop smoking, drink less, spend less, don't doubt your saving potential.

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Tacos Tyring Travels.com

I've mentioned this before ... but bares repeating:
A good way to save money is to settle in one place for a while. Moving costs money. FUEL, Expensive hotels and un tried restaurants. Keeping the bike fit during constant moving can also take it's toll.

If you find a really nice place to stay for a while, you can save loads of money, possibly could give time for maintenance, waiting for packages or just resting and recovering.

I lived in several places during travels in Latin America. Mostly Guatemala. Very cheap to rent a house, super cheap to live. Same with El Salvador, Peru', Bolivia, Argentina. Great for working on language skills too.

Getting off the gas and settling for a bit can really stop the financial Fire Hose and help extend your trip ... IF YOU HAVE THE TIME. But most set a firm time limit ... miss a lot as they ZOOM by ... and never learn a thing.

Like they said, pack it in, sell everything, travel cheap and GO.

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Greg "WANDRR" Turp
2WANDRRs.com

No need to sell everything. In fact you may even make some money if you did it right.

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Tacos Tyring Travels.com