Flickr Photo Credit: Reef Raff

Think you don’t have the money for long term travel? Consider the possibility that life on the road may actually be less expensive.

After we sold our house in Arizona and hit the road for six months, we found that our monthly expenses actually went down. Of course, different lifestyles may be more agreeable to this type of approach than others. Not everyone can just give up their mortgage. However, if you make your money through telecommuting and can pick up an occasional house sit coupled with a few months each year in a very inexpensive country, you may be able to travel extendedly AND save money for a home at the same time.

If you are open to house swapping, that’s another way to get more vacation than you can perhaps traditionally afford. Many expenses are eliminated when you are on the road long term, and if you are not switching gears every single day, your travel costs may be far less than you expect. Obviously, you’ll need to choose what works for you, your family and your life style. But depending on your situation, hitting the road may be more affordable than you think.

Flickr Photo Credit: Scumfrog

By David A. Dickinson 

Recently I had a government job offer which required me to attend an interview in Boston.  This touched off a debate that seems to come up a lot in the Aroostook (or as we locals say, “the County”); What is the cheapest way to go from here to there? 

Boston is the true hub of the region nationally; to go to the rest of the world from Northern Maine, one must first transit Boston.

    Basically, four options are available; bus, aircraft, personal auto, or a combination.  I knew that, to drive, I would most likely have to stay a night, either in Portland (Maine!) or Boston.  But to fly would be optimal; I could leave my vehicle at Presque Isle airport fly down, do the interview, and fly back all in the same day. Heck, I might even be home in time for dinner, or supper as we say in the County!

   The next mental step would be to compare the price of each excursion.  Lets say I opted to drive from Saint Froid Lake in Northern Maine, stay one night in Portland, bus down to Boston to avoid suicidal urbanite drivers, do the interview and bus back.  Expenses would break down as follows; 

1. Gas to Portland and back; round trip distance would be 610 miles. My Mitsubishi Outlander gets a non-stellar 20 mpg. This computes to 30.5 gallons. Times that by about three dollars a gallon and you get  $91.50.

2. Round trip bus ticket with Concord Trailways: $20

3. One night at the Days Inn in Portland: $60

4. Taxi in Boston to the Fedral buildingand back to South Station: about $20 total.

5. Meals: Lets say I totally spurge and have five meals for $20 a piece for $100 total.

6. Tolls: About $10.

This comes to $301.50. Whew! A lot to spend on a one hour interview! And thats US dollars, not pesos or rupees or anything… I wonder what flying costs?  I would even be willing to pay a little more, say $350 tops.  I would just call the difference “aggrevation pay…”

   A quick search on Expedia dashes my hopes; a round trip ticket costs $459! And thats not including the fact I would still have to drive to Presque Isle (about 60 miles) get a taxi from Logan airport, and maybe still eat a meal along the way.  Checking with the carrier US Airways yields yet a higher price: $613. By way of comparision, our recent tickets to Guayaquil, Ecuador from Newark only cost in the $500s.

    In the end, I chose the Drive/Bus combo option. I’m just dismayed (and I’m terribly dismayed), when people state as was published recently in a local paper, that, flying from Aroostook is the way to go.  Incomes aren’t the highest in the state up here; its a travesty to see the folks who can least afford it pay the most. Lets see some truly economical mass transit available in America, and I’ll gladly park and ride!               

Flickr Photo Credit: PSD

We’ve all heard about the idea of degrees of separation when it comes to how far removed we are from knowing a particular person. For example, you have a friend who’s aunt works on a committe along with a specific public figure . . . something along those lines. But have you ever thought about applying this line of thinking to financial decisions and how far away or close they bring us to a particular goal such as long term travel?

I once heard the comedian Jeff Foxworthy say during a TV interview that he was two decisions away from putting up dry wall for a living. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that, and I daresay neither was Mr. Foxworthy. My point is this: our financial decisions have the power on a daily basis to bring us dramatically closer, or further away from that which we value or desire. 

It’s very easy to get bogged down in the perceived length of time it might take to achieve a goal, particularly if your salary is far less than you desire and your only available strategies appear to be to those that save smaller increments at a time such as coupon clipping, ice tea making, etc. But how many of us surviving on even a moderate income make larger decisions several times per year that could pay for a travel or other type of dream immediately?

Here’s an example I was discussing with a friend this week who encouraged me to post about it: Less than a year before our around the world trip and David’s retirement from government service, we knew we would have to purchase a newer vehicle with less mileage for him. We owned his current vehicle outright, having paid cash several years prior. We also had a reasonable amount left over from that year’s tax return. Long before we knew we would be desperate for a new auto, we started looking around and let friends know that we were looking as well. It’s important to note that THIS TOOK EFFORT. Shopping properly for any large ticket item is a job, not a hobby or something you can expect to achieve  in an afternoon with no prior research. After a few weeks, a friend who had been reading the paper one morning (we were half down with the flu and had skipped it) called to say she saw something she was sure would interest us. An elderly woman who was no longer able to drive was selling a practically new (30,000 miles) small-sized SUV for several thousand dollars under the blue book in order to unload it quickly. Even sick, we knew we needed to make viewing this vehicle a priority. So off we went, and had a new vehicle within  24 hours. We took the needed balance out of another account and priced the older Jeep to sell quickly. It did, and we replaced the savings with that.

How does this relate to taking an around the world trip, you ask? I’ll tell you. Nearly every other vehicle we were interested in was closer to 20,000 dollars. This one sold for 10,500. We were very close to purchasing one of the other vehicles because we were transitioning on so many levels (house sale, cross country move, military retirement, new property purchase, long term trip, no next job) that we just didn’t want to have to make room for an unpredictable car. Have we gotten vehicles before for less than 10,000 dollars? Yes. I’m still driving one of them and it’s doing quite fine, despite being nearly 16 years old. My point is, we spent over 9,000 dollars less than we were about to. Our approximate total for all the months we spent on the road, excluding air fare? Roughly nine thousand dollars.

Applying the degrees of separation model of thinking, we were only one degree / financial decision away from a lifelong goal. Think about this for a minute. Are you in the middle of a major home remodel and think you can’t do both that and another goal? Can you bump down your decision on a designer faucet, paint color or antique Persian rug in order to free up money for another goal? Can you pick up some fabulous furniture at a moving sale (trust me, living in Tucson for several years taught us that this does not have to result in owning the cheap stuff) rather than buying new at a showroom on credit? That can easily result in at least 10,000 dollars worth of savings. Think making your own curtains or even hiring a local stay at home mom to do it for you is a trite way to save money? With a small cottage it may only result in a savings of one to two hundred dollars. While that’s certainly nothing to sneeze at, those of you with a larger executive style home know that designer drapes for a large multi-story structure can add up to big bucks. Hire it out or make them yourself to carve out money for an additional large cost goal. I promise you, they won’t have to look chintzy or cheap.

Once you’ve shifted your mind set to realize the power of the financial decisions you make every day in your life and home, I think you’ll start to see how easy the dream of long term travel can be to accomplish. Travel isn’t your thing? There are many other ways you can rechannel monies saved to honor other priorities and goals you have set for yourself. How about a college education for yourself or your children, staying home to be a parent, caring for an aging or ill parent, writing your first novel or album, pursuing art or even charitable interests?

The friend I was discussing this with actually got the ball rolling by saying she was looking at various vacation packages she was interested in and some of them shocked her by being priced as high as some vehicles she had owned. She also went on to say that she had taken the time to search on the internet for the vehicle she wanted, a Jeep Liberty. She got a practically new one (less than 3,000 miles) for approximately 3,000 dollars less than other more abused, higher mileage versions of the same thing. For some people, that’s a decent month’s salary. Still think you can’t save up that three month emergency savings total? You may be separated by fewer degrees from that and other goals than you think.

Flickr Photo Credit: Lance and Erin

Hi Guys! I found this link to a great budget travel article.

Several pages long with numerous helpful links organized by topic area, such as catching international farm work, working from the road while traveling in your RV, hospitality exchange clubs for all ages, trail volunteer programs for free camping, driving cars between destination points, and more. They have some great information here!

Flickr Photo Credit: Savannah Grandfather

David and I have been discussing this option on and off for several years. While we are both still intrigued by the possibility, I have to say that personally, the jury’s still out on this one for me. Here’s why.  

The per day cost is not as low as we could probably travel internationally on our own with house sitting, bargain plane tickets, hostels, etc. However, if longer periods of time on the water are what appeals to you, and you would like the opportunity to write between destinations, this mode of travel might be for you. Here a few links I found when researching the subject.

•  Article on freighter cruising, and some contact information for a couple of companies who organize such tours.
•  Log entry and information from a gentleman who wanted to travel from Germany to South America by freighter, and how he achieved his goal.
•  An article written by a gentleman referring to the “golden age” of freighter travel, much less expensive than it is today. Interesting read, none the less.

Let us know about any experiences you’ve had in this arena. We’ll be happy to post them!

Flickr Photo Credit: Mil8

OK. I admit it. I have let my sewing skills atrophy far too much to jump in and do this right away. However, if your skills are sharp, here’s an article with several sets of directions for various types of gear, as well as a list of books on the subject. There was a sergeant who designed and sewed his own ruck sack for 6 bucks. No, I did not forget a zero.

I’m very impressed with this page. There are tons of different sets of directions for creating your own stuff, backpacks, shelters, snowshoes, the works. These guys really put in a ton of effort to compile these resources. If you’re serious about shaving off every nickel from your trip budget, and have the skills to attempt some of these projects, then I highly recommend this page.

Flickr Photo Credit: Rick

David and I have heard many success stories about this over the years, and are hoping to try it out soon. What are we referring to?

The ability to earn free travel by leading a tour group. Here’s a link to a page with several articles on getting free travel by leading an adventure tour, educational trip or church group.

I would think you could get even more mileage out of this idea by leading the group for the free ticket, then remaining behind after you get everybody back on the return plane and taking time to travel independently. This would work really well if you were leading a group to Germany and after they went back, you could get on a train and spend time seeing the rest of Europe. You’d still have your return ticket when you were finished. If anyone else has done it this way, please feel free to post info. I know there are other people out there who would like to know about this.

Flickr Photo Credit: Pipi Wild Head

When we were planning our trip around the world, I couldn’t wait to see the temple rubbings available at Angkor Wat. That got me to thinking about the possibility of a novice like me actually attempting my own.

I did a bit of research, and attempted a few gravestone rubbings of my own on a family trip to Nova Scotia. It’s quite fun, and apparently there are some enterprising people out there who finance their way around the world with this art form. Here are some links I found:

• This one is from the state of Michigan’s official web site. It’s a bit more oriented towards getting children excited about it, but if you are taking a family vacation, and want to get the kids excited about climbing around temples in Guatemala, this would be a good activity to start building the skills.
• This one is a great how to article regarding the creation of tombstone rubbings. With some of the hilarious wild west epitaphs in Tombstone, Arizona, I’m sorry I didn’t think of this while we were there.
• This link is to a collection of Mayan rubbings that a gentleman did on a trip to Guatemala. If you scroll down just a bit, you’ll see he also wrote a log of the trip and provided photos of where and how he actually did these life – sized rubbings. Knowing how much my arm muscles hurt after tackling a few gravestones, I can really appreciate the work and attention to detail this person has devoted to his collection.
• Want to turn your temple rubbings into cash to finance your trip? This article describes how you might approach it.

I think rubbings make a very unusual souvenir from a trip, definitely suitable for framing. If you try this yourself, please send us a link or image. We would be happy to post it. Researching this topic proved a bit challenging, as you will note from the short list of links I was able to find. Happy travels!

Flickr Photo Credit: Web Chicken

During a recent conversation with an entrepreneurial friend of mine about ways to supplement income during business expansion and retirement transition, she asked if I had ever considered online teaching.

While I had seen an occasional add or two for doing conversational ESL work over the internet, and heard about the option of teaching academic course materials online, I had to admit I didn’t know as much about the topic as I would have liked.

She told me she had met a gentleman in Colorado who was doing it as a way to be a stay-at-home-Dad while his wife’s job provided the health insurance for their family. Apparently, he really enjoyed this work at home opportunity and the flexibility it allowed for his family’s lifestyle choices. It occurred to me this option would also be appropriate for some forms of long term travel as well. I’m just starting to look into this, but I did a bit of initial internet research and this is what I found.

http://en.ubschool.comThis one was posted recently on the ESL Cafe web site, and looks really quite interesting. A degree isn’t something they are sticklers about, they just want you to be able to carry on a conversation in your native language with English language (and other language) learners from around the world. You just need a fast internet connection, a computer and an internet.

http://teachonlinebook.com/ This web site promotes the services and book of Dr. Danielle Babb and Dr. Jim Mirabella. The book is called Make Money Teaching Online. They also have seminars, workshops and such. I’m putting it on my list of things to read.

http://www.worldwideworkathome.com/teaching.html This site is geared for work at home opportunities. However, I would think this would be very conducive to long term house sitting or single destination traveling where you will have a hookup to internet. Also, the RV crowd might find this of use. This link is for teaching jobs online, and has information on places that offer online teaching jobs. There is also a main section of the site with a job board for other work from home opportunities such as freelance writing, blogging, transcription, etc. There are international telecommuting job opportunities here as well.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/online_adjuncts/ An online discussion group for internet adjunct work at the university level.

http://www.eslcafe.comThis is mostly for regular international teaching, but they do have an occasional posting for online teaching.

Got more info? Sound off, so the rest of us can benefit. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Flickr Photo Credit: Cambodia4kidsorg

If you are comfortable in the classroom arena, and want to finance your world travel experience, international teaching may be for you.

There are many resources out there for locating overseas teaching opportunities. Here are three of my favorites:

http://www.eslcafe.com You can search through international job postings, post your resume in search of a specific opportunity, or join one of their discussion boards.

http://www.seriousteachers.comI just discovered this one recently, but have been experiencing tons of responses while I look for online or other flexible teaching opportunities.

http://www.tieonline.comThis is the web site for a publication I always used when I was doing the international teaching circuit thing. There’s about a 30 USD annual subscription fee, but you get their newspaper and online services.

Know of any other hot online resources for this job market. Let us know!