How can you afford to travel all over the world?
My parent's make it rain bitches! That's right, I'm fucking rich and I wipe my ass with business class suckas!
...No. I honestly get asked this question quite often by people who are seemingly astounded that I am able to afford to travel, and I think that they expect me to have some wild and crazy answer like the one above for how I am able to afford traveling all over the world. Something like I won the lotto, found a genies bottle, or blackmailed Britney Speers with a secret sex tape made in Mexico. The truth is far less outrageous and exciting, but much more realistic…I saved. I saved and saved and saved. I spent four years working my ass off, paying off debt and saving up a good portion of my check specifically to go on this trip.
I'm also helping finance my trip by taking my office (aka laptop) with me all over the world and working as a software engineer.
There is no secret and I don't have an easy solution for you. Anyone can save up their money to travel the world like I am if they want to badly enough. Like most things worth having in life, it takes hard work and sacrifice, and if something is important enough to you, you'll make those sacrifices, and you'll soon find yourself being the one who is asked "How can you afford to travel all over the world?"
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What do you do for work?
I'm a software engineer.
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How much money does it cost to travel around the world?
That all depends on where you want to go, what you want to do, how many stops you want to make, etc. Also depends on how much time you are going to spend in developed VS developing countries. The point is, there is no concrete answer to this and you're going to have to figure out on your own how much things will be costing you for whatever countries you want to visit.
The best way to go about doing this is do some research online to find out about how much your plane tickets will be, then do some more research to see how much your hostel/hotel will probably be, then do some more research to see how much you can plan to spend daily in whatever country it is you want to go to. A lot of research huh? Or you can take the short route and spend a couple dollars on a travel guide book in which they'll outline how much you can expect to spend a day in whatever country it is that particular book is for.
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How did you plan a trip around the world?
The way I see it, you have one of three options when planning a trip around the world.
1: Do your research and plan everything yourself.
2: Use a travel agent
3: A combination of using a travel agent and planning things out on your own.
I opted for the first choice. Why? First off, because I didn't feel like paying out my ass for a travel agent. Secondly, because planning things on my own gives me a much better idea of the area that I'm traveling to. Thirdly, because I'm gangster like that.
There are a couple good resources to use when planning a trip around the world. First off, guide books. Guide books can be a very useful tool for planning your trip, as well as to use when you are at your chosen destination. They have maps, listings of where to stay and eat, what to see, as well as all the important information like visa requirements, exchange rates, and what to expect culturally in an area amongst other things. Some of the big travel guide publishers are "Lonely Planet", "Rough Guides" and "Let's Go".
Use the internet. Use the internet. Use the internet. I can't say that enough. Google is your best friend people! If you have a question, simply type it into Google and chances are, someone out there had your same question which was already answered on some travel site or internet forum.
There are also a couple of websites that I use pretty often:
http://travel.state.gov/travel/travel_1744.html - I use this site quite often. It is the US government travel website which lists all the countries in the world, and tells you what the safety situation is there, what the entry/exit requirement are, as well as a slew of other practical information about a particular country. One thing though, don't let some of the safety talk scare you off on this site. They always error on the side of caution (I'm sure they don't want to be sued), so sometimes they make things seem worse than they really are. Always do your research on safety using this site along with others.
http://www.usa.gov/Citizen/Topics/Travel/International.shtml - The United States government website with general information about traveling abroad.
http://wikitravel.org/ - This site is just like WikiPedia (the online encyclopedia), except that it is specifically for traveling.
http://www.hostelworld.com/ - This is the site I use most often to book hostels/hotels as well as read reviews about a hostel/hotel that I am thinking about staying at.
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/index.jspa - This is the Lonely Planet website's forum section. Chances are there are 100 people on this forum who have had the same question you have, so simply type your question in their forum search bar and look over the results for your answer.
http://www.xe.com/ucc/ - This site gives me up to the minute currency exchange rates.
The last thing you can do is talk to other travelers and the locals once you arrive at your destination. They usually will have some good information about the nearby areas that you won't find in a guide book or online.
Doing all this takes some time and effort, but you'll find that getting yourself around is very easy and at the same time, empowering.
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