Think spending a year abroad is beyond your grasp? The Lost Girls explain it’s easier than you think.
On the road, we’re frequently asked “Where are you from?” and “How long are you staying.” But back home, people are dying to know “How the heck can you afford to quit your job and spend a whole year bouncing around the globe?”
Between flights, lodging, food, drink, entertainment, internet, shopping trips and extras, we’ve estimated about $15,000 to hit more than a dozen countries around the world.
That figure might seem exorbitant -until you consider it’s the same amount as our yearly rent in overpriced Manhattan.
As our pals in Gotham are struggling to save enough for a summer share or a single coveted pair of Jimmy Choos, they wonder how we managed to sock away that kind of cash.
First, let’s put two popular notions rest: No, we’re not trust fund babies and we don’t have sugar daddies.
The short answer is that it’s actually much cheaper to travel for a year than it is to maintain our cost of living back in the United States. Seriously!
So, exactly how does one save for a trip like ours?
Since everyone seems to want a peek at our bank balances and checkbook registers, we’ll just lay it all out. Here are five ways we’ve turned ourselves into our own travelin’ sugar mamas…
1. Spend Less, Save More
While this mantra is probably the only piece of advice less fun than “eat less, exercise more” the resulting nest egg accounts for the bulk of our travel budget.
Jen’s parents invested in a bond for her when she was young, and she’s chosen to cash part of it in order to hopscotch the globe with her friends. Once Holly got a job that paid more than starvation wages, she started depositing a portion of her salary into a savings account automatically, every single month.
As for me, I worked a full-time editing gig at Shape magazine and kept up my freelancing for the five months leading up the trip. It was a lot of work - but I nearly doubled my savings and will hopefully have enough to move back to NYC once this year is up.
2. Take Your Work With You
As media gals, our jobs didn’t exactly stop the second we took off…in fact, our experience in magazines and television enabled us to score cool assignments with publications like For Me magazine, Car & Travel, inWedding (a Hong Kong based publication) and Fodors.com.
Yes, it can suck trying to write articles when there’s a gorgeous white sand beach beckoning, but the cash we make for these pieces goes way further in a developing country than it does in crazy-expensive Manhattan.
Depending on the word rate, one piece might cover our cost of living for two weeks, one month…or more!
3. Pick A Cheap Destination
One of the fastest ways to run out of cash? Travel to countries where the local currency is strong-and the dollar is weak. Right now, that’s almost anywhere in Europe.
Since the three of us have already hopped the pond and hit France, Spain and Italy in our early 20s, we decided to go a bit more exotic and visit some of the world’s most popular “alternative” destinations.
In countries such as Brazil and Turkey, a good night’s sleep (plus everything listed above) will set us back about $35 per day, but we’ll “subsidize” that cost by spending the rest of our trip in $15- and $25-a-day nations such as Bolivia, India and Vietnam.
Besides flights, our only major expense will be paying for secure volunteer programs in Kenya and Tanzania-a charity opportunity we feel is well worth the cost. Australia, our final stop, will be more expensive but we’re hoping to get work visas so we can…
4. Score Unexpected assignments
Every travel writer dreams of the day when she’ll check her email and find an assignment to cover a far-flung destination for an upscale magazine.
When you get one-as I did within the first few weeks of arriving in Peru-you jump for joy, because the assignment almost always “requires” spending a couple nights in a fancy-shmancy hotel.
For budget-travelers such as ourselves, crashing in a dreamy hotel not only gives our wallets a bit of a break, but allows us to recover from the other 360 nights that we’re spending in dorm rooms with no heat, privacy or running water.
We know travel writing this isn’t an option for everyone, but it’s nice work if you can get it!
Finally, if all else fails…
5. Take A Temporary Job
Getting a job on the road is one of the best ways to know stop being a tourist and get to know a place for real. (Plus replenish your depleted coffers).
Since the land Down Under is somewhat pricey, we’re hoping to fulfill our collective ambitions to tend the bar at some beachfront pub or secure a part time gig at a hostel.
The hardest part is just doing it.
If that seems too good to be true, consider that young Aussies, Brits, Israelis and the Irish all find a way to take gap year-it’s not considered a luxury, but a required right-of-passage into adulthood.
Amanda Pressner is one of three twenty-something New Yorkers who ditched their media jobs to embark on a yearlong, round-the-world journey in search of adventure and inspiration. Visit their website The Lost Girls.About the Author
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20 Comments... join the discussion!
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This is so interesting. 2 things come to mind:
1 - I’ll have to forward this to my husband, although it will encourage him all too much on his latest kick of quiting his job and having our family tour around the world. A la “One Year Off”, his inspirational book.
2 - The exchange rate factor is so important and underestimated by younger travelers. I think people get set on going to Paris or Rome or other European cities that they forget to look at this. I just wrote a post on this as well.
Nicole
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“If that seems too good to be true, consider that young Aussies, Brits, Israelis and the Irish all find a way to take gap year”
Ha..ha..what utter rubbish.
“…ALL find a way”.
Ah yes…the entire youth of all of these countries just disappears.
And here’s me wondering why, last time I was in the UK, there wasn’t a single soul between 18 and 35.
Obviously they were all at Full Moon Parties in Thailand or doing bars jobs in Australia.
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Yeah, I agree.
Out of all the 18-35 year old’s that I know only one person that has been travelling round the world.
It’s becomming more common these days though, when I was at university in 1998 not many people had experienced travelling. Yet these days there are a lot more people going before university….. I have no idea where they find the money to be honest.
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@travemonkey and ourman — i’m willing to bet a much larger number of aussies, brits, etc go traveling over their American counterparts. I think it’s more accepted as part of the former’s culture. While I met countless backpackers from these countries on the road, I rarely met any Americans (and even then, they were pretending to be Canadians…)
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I think travel (not “vacationing but travel”) should be a requirement for youth, especially for those of us living in the ‘developed’ world. Our lifestyles today, and the choices we make on an everyday basis have a truly global impact. Until people go out and explore other cultures , people won’t think on a ‘global’ level.
Also, anyone who explores a developing country is much more likely to appreciate how good we have it here, and be more likely to make the sacrifices it may take to improve standard of living in these countries.
I do understand how terrible travel (especially air travel) is for the environment, but I think the benefit out weighs the cost. Almost everyone I’ve talked to who has spent time traveling, (more or less) agrees that there better becasue of it.↵ -
I agree about traveling. I took a year out five years ago and it changed not only me but my life forever.
Since then I have become something of a “professional volunteer” if that is not a contradiction in terms. I spent two and half years working for a streetkid project in Hanoi and now have just embarked on a similar project here in Granada, Nicaragua.
In addition, while I blogged at home before I even came away. Now I have stories, photos and adventures to share.
I’ve never been happier.
But I’m lucky. I have some money available to me from external sources. It fine to say everyone should travel but for most people it is an impossibility.
You mentioned Israelis - most go after their period of national service which, I believe is still mandatory thee for both men and women.
Now there is something I would vote for - not national service, but government funded travel for the young. I’m joking, but only little.
A government funded year doing volunteer work in a developing nation? What could be a better way to build a country full of decent citizens?
It’s not quite that but I’ll give my old volunteer organisation VSO (www.vso.org.uk) a plug for funding my Vietnamese work overseas. It’s a British organisation but anyone from any country can apply and they are funded to the point of a small but liveable wage.
My adventures, if anyone is interested are at: http://www.ourmaninhanoi.com and http://www.ourmaningranada.com
For what it’s worth I’ll also add…world travel is good. Great in fact. But it doesn’t come close to living and working in a developing country. If nothing else, it makes you appreciate not only your life but just how incredibly lucky you are.
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ourman — thanks for the followup. you mentioned some excellent resources. a friend of mine spent time in a Burmese refugee camp on his last trip to Asia, and safe to say, he came back a changed man. Perhaps not overtly (since we was only their a few weeks) but as you mention, any activity to give back and widen our perspectives is infinitely worthwhile.
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Ian, I officially apologize for the Americans and their Canadian facade. haha. I’ve always found it amusing to meet other Americans traveling in foreign countries who call themselves Canadians in disguise, with the Maple sewed on their packs, even in countries like Europe.
When I was nineteen and left for SE Asia, I first considered this, but then reexamined at how it felt to be afraid of my own identity. I decided it was not the way I wanted to live my life. So… throughout Maoist Nepal, throughout Nigeria and Vietnam and Kashmir, I said yes, I’m an American. It awoke a whole new level of conversation and interaction, and it allowed me to embrace my culture without fear of who I was.
Now, despite being American and accepting my nationality while traveling through cultures whom often have a drastic difference in global perceptions, I find my Self everything but American in the way I perceive the world, in the way I talk, live, dress, eat, and approach travel and my own dreams.
I’m American, but in the act of accepting a part of who I was, I let go of it all and became my Self underneath this material being. To travel with fear - fear of identity, fear of money, fear of the other people around you and their culture, - is to miss out on the beauty and freedom of travel itself.↵ -
cam — beautiful thoughts. thanks for sharing.
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Wow, this is so interesting. First and Foremost I want to give my kudos to the Lost Girls for living the dream. This is my dream as well, and I am just beginning my career as a writer, so I look forward to the days I can write on these kinds of topics! So girls thanks for paving the way for the rest of us!
Secondly when it comes to the whole “travel thang”. I agree with many here that are saying travel is important for young people. In my opinion I believe travel is the greatest teacher, not just to learn about the world, but about yourself, which is ever MORE important. That is what makes someone a good traveler - is knowing themselves, having confidence in themselves and then making the most of their trips. I “philosophize” about this topic often as I think here in America, where a lot of people are just not educated about the “outside world” because most of what we see about the “Outside world” is negative, people are afraid to get out there - fear is the driving force of people NOT traveling. I really want to change that here in America. I am just starting out, but I think it is a worthy goal.
Good Luck to all of you!
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Backpacking sort of makes you become–willingly–poor and homeless to a certain extent. Any money will go a longer way like this.
I love The Lost Girls. Great site!!!-Ethan
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You seemed to have contradicted yourself by holding your selves up as non-trust fund, non-sugar daddie types and then go onto say one of you cashed in part (only part!) of a bond her parents invested for her to fund her travel.
If only life were that easy eh?
Otherwise, great website and enjoy Australia. The East Coast road trip is highly recommended.
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You are sooo right …it does NOT have to be expensive and anyone can do it. Even Europe does not have to be expensive…we only spent 33 dollars a day for a family of three in a gorgeous 15th century white village last winter enjoying the sun and the warm people!
I am sitting here at typing away at a pool in Santorini and living sooooo much cheaper than we did in California. You can travel, live your dreams and spend MUCH less than living at home while doing it.
You go Lost Girls…from SoulTravelers3 !!
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Like, OMG, I’m sooooo worldly! I have been wasted in like, eleventy countries! I can’t WAIT to back to NYC and pepper my otherwise bland conversation with poorly pronounced foriegn words I learned while I was overseas!
PS: Hi Daddy! Send money! The other girls just bought the cutest little mushroom tea mugs and I sooooooooo want one, too!
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Hey now phony spotter - did you actually read the article? The Lost Girls aren’t trust fund kids, and even if they were, your sarcasm is flat out rude.
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Hi all!
As newly registered user i just want to say hello to everyone else who uses this bbs
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What is bumburbia?
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There are quite a few jealous people commenting on this section. I think this is an awesome story, I like to travel myself and wanted to a world tour at some point. You guys are right when you say that the hardest part is just doing it. People are too busy getting in their own way to realize it’s just as easy as saving up some money, booking a flight and setting off on an adventure. Its not about having tons of money. Its about having the courage to throw away your day planner and maybe discovering something that’s more fulfilling than getting up in the morning, going to work, coming home and then doing it all again the next day. Heaven forbid we should learn something new or get to know a culture other than our own. Ignorance is bliss.
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