‘You are lucky, you are rich!’ ‘I wish I was as rich as you!’ ‘See, I am not as lucky as you!’ ‘I wish I had the money to travel!’ ‘How do you get so much money?’ ‘How do you manage your funds?’ And many more…

First of all, let me start my saying that I am neither rich nor do I have a plant that gives me money to travel. I also do not have a long lost uncle who left me huge chunk of money.

So, the big question – How do I pay for my travels if I am not rich? Well, the answer is simple I work hard, earn, pay for my travels and travel.

I have a full time 9 to 5 job, just like anyone else, during the weekdays.

I plan for my travels. Right now, I exactly know what I am doing on 19 November 2019. 😀 Just kidding! Having said that I do know roughly what I am doing in November 2019. When I say what I am doing, I mean where I am travelling.

And honestly speaking, travel does not require too much money like how most people think. My passion is to travel, I don’t care if I travel by budgeted airlines and stay at dorms.

Tricks & Tips

In this post, I am giving away few of my tricks that I use to fund my travels:

• Planning – I plan for my travels. I plan a lot and I come up with a rough itinerary. However, I do not book everything at once, I distribute the bookings across my pay days. And I understand sometimes the cost go up and I am okay with it. I am okay to bear the $100 extra cost than to put a lot of burden on my salary or credit card.
• Budgeted Stay – I stay at dorms or camping sites. I always go for a hostel when traveling. The simple reason being 1. It is cheap. And 2. I get to meet fellow travelers from all over the World. The dorms can cost as less as AUD 23 for a bed. This helps me not spending too much money on my stay.
• Budgeted Airlines – I travel by budgeted airlines. I am fine with traveling with just 7 kilos and in a cheap budgeted airline.
• Frequent flyer – I use my frequent flyer cards. Sometimes, I get my flight tickets funded with the frequent flyer cards. For example, I had got a flight from Auckland to Santiago with around 90,000 Qantas points and AUD 75.
• No liabilities – I do not have too many liabilities. I do not have too many expenses tied for a month. There are very few expenses that I have to pay and the rest goes for my travel funding.
• Domestic travels – I do many local domestic travels. I make lots of road trips and my main expenses during road trips are fuel and food.
• Travel debit card – I have a travel debit card. I constantly transfer some amount (sometimes as less as AUD 20) every month into my travel debit card. This amount builds up and I use this for the expenses that I incur during my travels.

I do all the above for reducing the expenses for my travels. Having said that, I never compromise on my food and the activities that I do. My main expenses for any travel are food and experiences. And this where the travel debit card comes for rescue.

“Where there is a will, there is always a way“.

So, if your priority is travel, there will always be a way to travel 🙂 . Also if you would like to know how I manage my leave, read my post here.