How do you do it
 

How do you jack it all in and travel?
Where does the cash come from, how do you live without an income,? how is it feasable?
What do you have to do in advance before feking off on the TRIP??

Can you be too old too old do it at 44,? How do you explain to them all that your off??

How do I live on the road??

This is a very good question that comes up every now and then. If you do a search you'll find previous discussion. It breaks down into four areas:

1) Retirement: The rider is retired and is living off of investments, a pension, etc. and no longer needs to work to finance their costs. I read one estimate on ADVrider that this probably accounts for 80% of the trip reports on that site.

2) Between jobs: Sometimes the rider has been laid off with a severance package, or has simply quit their job and is not eager to return to work.

3) Save, save, save: The rider scrimps and saves for a long time (years) while planning ahead for the trip.

4) Good fortune: There is also the occasional journeyer who has won a lottery, a legal settlement, had a huge payoff from an investment, etc.

Not very encouraging I know. Most of us are not going to meet (1) or (4) any time soon. With today's economy the thought of deliberately quitting a job (2) without a new one to go to right away doesn't seem very smart. Family obligations, mortgage payments, etc. it can be very difficult to meet (3). Hell, a couple of weeks ago I was thinking I had $1000 to spare for a short motorcycle trip next month... and then my car broke down, costing me about $950.

Yeah, I don't know what to say. Keep saving, keep putting money towards retirement, and keep buying lottery tickets.
:confused1:

The issue has been extensively discussed on this thread: How does one afford this lifestyle?

I guess it's all down to a case of prioritising what you want out of life ..

.. :confused1:

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How?
 

Scrimp, scrimp sacrifice. When you run out of money come back and scrimp again . I intend to set off soon to Africa, leaving behind my temp' min wage job and a rented room in a shared house.
At 47 I have no future in this country anyway (u.k) and when , if, I come back I will be homeless and unemployed, again. But I think to live in such an intense fashion, even for a relatively short time is probably worth it. Oh yeah, no one will understand and everyone will think you are crazy. 44 too old? I think not.

If it is not too personal a question, how much money are you taking with you?

@tenere99 exactly...
I´m 33 years old,and i´ve got my working visa for canada,so i leave germany behind me again...to try it far away from home.
I need some help with the shipping of my bike because i think 2000US from one company, or 1395 Brit Pound from another are verry deer...
Always good travel greety andy

?
 

I,m afraid that is too personal a question.

Sorry - did not mean to pry; just interested in how much money people hit the road with.

Andy - be aware that you cannot import your European bike into Canada unless it is more than 15 or 20 years old. You can keep it there for one year only after which time you need to remove it. If you are planning to be there for more than one year, suggest sell the bike in Germany and buy another in USA and import into Canada.

Paranoia
 

No need to apologise chief just my paranoia. The correct answer is not enough I guess.:thumbup1:
As a final thought you need to think about your perceptions changing to the point of never fitting in when (if) you come back. In 2010 I was nearly killed in the Chilean earthquake. Then you get back and people tell you about their latest 'phone upgrade and how drunk they were last weekend, and how many numbers they got on the lottery, and what's happening on Big brother.
I am in no way trying to be elitist and I do not regard myself in any way special but there is more to life than that shit! Surely?

I hear ya brother. I've nearly been killed a couple of times, once pretty close and pretty violently and it sure does change you; I actually like to think it made me a better person, but on the flip side I also don't have a lot of time for the usual suspects and all their sh1t.

Ride on.

Exactly!! And you don't have to be caught in an earthquake for that to happen. Life is never the same after an extended visit outside the western world.
A plus side, I no longer care about 'convention' nor what 'others' think of what I do or say, and that itself can be a journey into the unknown.
It leads you to somewhere new but I don't know where yet.

They say before you leave you should look at your luggage and take only half of it, look at your cash and take twice the amount.
But I now say - look at how far you plan to travel per week/month, take a BIG knife to it and divide it by four.

And be prepared to find your outlook on life when you return is completely different to all those around you.

In our case, save for four years - sell the car and scrimp on every thing. While away try and stick to a daily budget and keep an eye on all spending.
Have all your affairs registered at an address of a good friend, banking,passport,bike doc's etc. Inform the Inland revenue and sorn the bike.
At 44 you are not old even at 65 if you have the will to do it and the health to match you are not to old. Years ago when I was 30 and back packing in Cambodia a 20 year old dread locked kid told me I was to old to be packing - the fact that I could fold him in half and post him home to his mum didn't occur to him. If you have the will to leave home and the funds to stay at it then get on with it, if you don't you could miss the chance.

Paul

I was asking the exact same question about a year ago. And now I'm living in a truck parked up in Morocco and shipping to south america in July.

I'm also 44, and I quit my job. I'm not going into personal finance but some stuff is easy to work out. There has been quite a few threads on it, but the way I figured it, was a budget of just under $100 per day covers everything. Some days we spend less than $10, but then we have to allow for heavy stuff like shipping, insurance etc. Then take a look at what you can put together and are willing to put into a trip, and that will decide how long you can go for.

The more shipping, or big mileage days adds up the cost - diesel is out largest bill. For a bike, it's different, but then we dont have any hotel bills. We've spent exactly 1 night in a hotel since we set off last year, and that was just so we could stay there with friends.

We cook all the time, buy local, only have a drink once a week or so. We eat out maybe once per week. Sounds awful, but actually it's nice!

I was in a job where I could take a nice holiday every year, and could pay into my mortgage as fast as I could. As soon as the house was paid for, life changed a lot as there were no more nooses around my neck. I was never a rich guy, but always careful with money.

now, I have the house rented out and 90% of the rental income comes into my bank account, and that goes a long way to keeping us going.

Hope this helps someone else to make the jump, we're not sorry!

Merv.

Yup, that'd be difficult for some folks :rolleyes2: