Most of us have some version of “traveling more” as a goal. If you ask people why they don’t, most of the time they’ll tell you it’s because they just don’t have the money. Traveling can be expensive (although it doesn’t have to be!), especially when time is a factor too. But if you want something badly enough, you can almost always make it happen. It may take a lot of time, effort, patience, and maybe a little compromising, but it can be done.
Derek and I were taught a lot of things about money as children, both directly and indirectly. Because of our outlook at the time, we chose to focus on paying off our debts in full before saving up for a year long trip. Paying off our loans did save us hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in interest, but it may have actually cost us in the long run.
Had we done things a little bit differently, we would have started traveling much earlier. Traveling earlier would have forced us to hyper focus our goals and really look at the big picture. And honestly, having a monthly loan payment might have been the drive we needed to push towards success. Had we done things differently, we might have been months ahead in our journey today.
I try not to live by what-if’s, and it’s hard to think that being debt free is a bad thing, but I think we made the choice for the wrong reasons. We did it because it seemed like without doing so, we didn’t have the right to quit our jobs to take off.
While it’s nice not to have to worry about that monthly payment, that peace of mind didn’t encourage us to start working our hardest to find sustainable income doing something we love. Since we set our first travel goals in 2016, our beliefs about money have shifted, but whatever you decided is right for you, hopefully the tips below will help you achieve your goals. They certainly helped us get where we are today.
Set your goals.
Once we decided to make traveling a bigger priority in our lives, we were able to save up about $50,000 in around three years (on a combined $53,000 pretax annual income!). If we had it to do over again, we’d make some changes. But we set out to pay off our loans, then save money to travel. Together we had about $30,000 in student loan debt, and within two and a half years after graduation we were completely debt free.
Make your goals very specific and trackable. I adore spreadsheets, so I would use them to make a list of our target goals for where we should be each month. It was easy to see if we were staying on track or not. However you decide to do it, get those goals in writing and have some way of easily tracking your progress.
Make “enough” money.
Whether you’re paying off debt or saving money, the first thing you have to do is make enough money. It seems simple, but if you aren’t making enough money to have a little extra after all of your living expenses are paid, you have to find a way to make more, or lower your expenses. We did both. We each worked full and part time jobs while we were paying off our loans. Once our rental lease was up, we moved in with family to save $500 a month on rent.
Get a second job, or find odd jobs you can do in your neighborhood to earn extra cash. Work on your resume and interviewing skills to find a new, better paying job if you have to. Move in with family or try to get a roommate. If there’s no money left over at the end of the month, you have to create some, one way or another.
Treat your goal like any other bill.
Every time you get paid, pay all of your bills and necessary expenses first. Then everything that’s left over goes to that place you have designated. No exceptions (Ok. One exception: don’t forget to have an emergency fund for actual emergencies! Life happens). For us that meant that after the utilities and the credit cards were paid, the rest of our paychecks went to paying off our student loans. When those were gone, that money went straight to our travel savings account.
If you’re saving up, I recommend having a separate savings account for your emergency fund and your travel fund (or whatever you’re saving for). It will help you keep things nice and organized.
You can also use this method to automate your savings every month, but I personally don’t do it that way. This method limits you to a set amount each month, so you might not be saving the most you could. For some people though, this is the best way to make sure they are at least saving something each pay period. Just do what works best for you.
We got paid weekly, so we made loan payments every week, even though it was only due once a month. At any rate, be sure to check your accounts frequently. Seeing the loan balance go down or the savings account climb will help you stay focused!
Any time you get extra money, put it towards your goal.
It’s easy to see extra money as a free pass to splurge, but the best practice is to pretend you never even saw it. Whether it’s a tax return, rebate, refund, reimbursement, gift, or it’s money you just found on the street, put it towards your master plan. This will help you reach your goals faster and keep you on track to conquer your big goals. It may be hard in the moment, but it will be worth it in the end.
Remember that you are sticking to this money plan for a reason.
Everything has a value and it directly affects your goal. Think of things at the store by the number of hours it would take you at work to earn the amount it costs. That shirt isn’t $20, it’s two hours at the office. Is it really worth it?
Don’t be tempted by instant gratification.
Ask yourself the hard questions. Is it more important to go out for lunch today, or would you rather save that money and eat lunch at a café in Paris? If it’s Paris then pack your lunch and save the money.
Save every cent that you can.
Every single one. Use coupons when you can. In fact, never pay full price for anything. Does your grocery store have a rewards program, like Kroger Plus or Wal-Mart’s Savings Catcher? Sign up for it.
Ask local places that you frequent if they have any kind of loyalty programs that you can take advantage of. If coffee is your vice, make it at home or at least see if you can get every tenth cup for free.
Do you shop online? Then try using Ebates, Paribus, and/or iBotta. Open up a new browser tab and search the name of the website plus the word “coupon” or “discount”. This doesn’t usually work with sites like Amazon, but a lot of individual retailers will have coupons that you can find to save an easy $5-15+ on your purchase.
Ask your bank if you are eligible for any kind of premium account type that has added incentives. Our local bank has a program that lets us earn $60 every three months just by mailing in some of our receipts.
We’ve saved so much money just by taking the extra step where we could. It may take some time and it may be a bit cumbersome, but it’s worth it if it helps you reach your big goal faster.
And at the end of the day, don’t forget to reward yourself just a little.
Saving for a big goal should be exciting, even though it is challenging. If you are completely miserable, and hate it every step of the way, you’ll never make it.
We still took small vacations, we still went out to eat, we still went to the movies with friends. Just make sure your splurges are worth it. You can always make more money, but you can’t make more time.
If you’re ready to take a big leap to follow your dreams, it won’t happen overnight, but it can be done. Set your goals, and do everything in your power to achieve them. We did, and it paid off.
