How I Afford To Travel The World At 24

You don’t need passive income for everything

You must be thinking, who am I to tell you this? Why should you believe what I say, right? I am 24 years old and 24 countries and have only been working for 2 years. I live in India travel abroad at least once a year entirely on my own money.

The one year that I studied in England, I traveled to 10 countries. I saved that money from my pocket money which was also not luxurious but decent enough to cover my basic expenses.

So what did I do? How do I do it? That’s what we’ll talk about here.

I have read numerous articles on Medium on passive income. While that’s awesome, it doesn’t mean that those who work 9–5 jobs or are students cannot create wealth.

When we are in our 20s, we dream big to travel the world and quit our job at 40. All that is possible but just takes a few simple steps to get there.

The only thing you actually need to put in is the eagerness to create wealth.

Do You Spend Then Save?

When I was 18 my family used to give me $150 per month for expenditure. I was doing undergrad in a different city so this was the money for everything minus rent.

This is a decent amount of money in my country, not enough to go out and eat often but enough to cut through essential costs.

It doesn’t matter how much you make, what matters is how do you spend it.

Every end of the month that I receive my salary, I cut a certain amount and send it to my savings account. This way, I set my spending limitless right in the beginning because my bank account will only reflect only the X amount of money I plan to spend.

If I didn’t do this, I would get more casual about spending money because when you see you have more money you will convince yourself that what you have to buy is absolutely essential and you can save next month.

This is just the way you convince your mind to indulge and the next month's lever comes.

Is Your Money Growing In Your Sleep?

More and more people need to educate themselves about investments.

It is essential to put your money in a scheme, stock, or mutual/index funds so your money is growing.

It doesn’t matter how less you can put in, even $25 a month is okay. Something is better than nothing, right?

To give you a perspective - if you invest $100 a month for 10 years, at an annual interest rate of 8% that money will yield you a 50% return.

As you can see above, $12,000 put in over a period of 10 years comes back to you as an amount more than $18,000. This is money growing in your sleep.

A little every month yields big returns. Don’t worry, it doesn’t have to be $100 but can be $25 or even $2500 a month. Whatever works for you!

This is to build your long term security.

Do Not Fall For The Social Bubble

“If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free. If our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed.” Edmund Burke

Every time you scroll on Instagram or Facebook you’re being told that you need either a product or service.

Either there are ads, or it's your emotions churning and influencing you when you see people having a great time.

You want something from a particular brand because suddenly everybody is wearing it. You want to spend $10 on coffee and snack and work at a cafe to click a picture on Instagram and put it up — because its cool.

You also want new clothes because a set of people have seen you in that same black dress at the previous party you attended. Plus, the pictures will come out to be the same!

Social media is there to sell things to you and make you feel that you need certain things when you don’t. Do not fall for it.

I traveled to 6 countries in Europe for a span of 3 weeks once with just one heavy Superdry jacket to save me from wind, snow, and chill and 5 pairs of clothes.

I did blog a lot on Instagram but had I cared about different outfits in all cities I wouldn’t have been able to afford my travel.

Frugality isn’t always cheap

I paid $10 for a hostel in Budapest and made friends from across the globe. While there were no fancy facilities such as a pool and jacuzzi but there were parties arranged every night for all of us in local pubs to experience the Hungarian culture. There were free breakfast and homemade dinner for $5.

I ate all large meals of the day under $15 during my travels to eat at local places instead of the expensive tourist traps.

While I was frugal during my travels, I was able to travel due to frugality itself.

What can you do to get what you want? Which in my case is to travel the world.

Notice where your money is going. This too is fueled by social obligations many times, to be at a certain expensive place because your friends are or buy certain things. Is this more important than achieving your materialistic (and non-materialistic) dreams?

If somebody invites me every week to an expensive fine dine, I will decline it because that money spent there can be the money saved for 3 nights of a hostel somewhere.

Weigh your priorities and be frugal to get what you want. A penny saved here and there will be a penny spent to buy what makes you happy.

If I can then you can. I come from a country with a weak currency and low paid jobs as compared to the West, yet I have funds to do what I want.

What's your excuse?

Sit and assess where is it that you spend. Make a ‘want’ versus ‘necessity’ matrix. Think of all the unnecessary expenditure which occurs because of societal pressures. And then cut it down.

This will take about an hour or two of your time and then once you become mindful of your expenses, within a few months you will have an extra chunk of $$$$.

Best of luck!

This article is for informational purposes only. It should not be considered Financial or Legal Advice. Not all information will be accurate. Consult a financial professional before making any major financial decisions.