I Spent $10,000 Traveling the World for Six Months
But that’s way cheaper than staying at home
Spending $10,000 to travel the world for six months might seem like a massive waste of money. And I get why you’d think that.
I mean, $10k is a lot of money. Heck, that’s a life-changing amount of money for literally billions of people. I bet right now, you’re thinking one of two things:
- How ten grand would totally change your life
- That I’m a complete moron for “wasting” that much money on travel
But here’s the thing about travel.
I ran the numbers on what I’ve spent on this trip vs what I typically spend at home, and I’ve actually managed to save over $8,500 by leaving the U.S.
That’s right. Traveling the world for six months was more than eight thousand dollars cheaper than just sitting in my apartment.
And that doesn’t even include the money I’ve earned as a freelance writer while traveling. (I’m a full-time freelance writer so my income doesn’t change while I travel.)
Travel is cheaper than you think. And once you realize how much money you actually spend every day, $10,000 in six months might not seem like all that much.
To prove it, I’ve tracked literally every single dollar, baht, dong, ringgit, rupiah, and euro I’ve spent traveling over the past six months (180 days) between June 3, 2019 and November 30, 2019, in this detailed spreadsheet.
(You can make a copy of the travel finance spreadsheet template here if you want to use it to track your own travel expenses. It works great).
I hope these numbers inspire you to “waste” a little money and hit the road for a while.
Six months of world travel cost me $9,692
Countries visited: Spain (70 days), Indonesia (42 days), Singapore (20 days), Malaysia (17 days), Vietnam (11 days), Portugal (7 days), Ireland (5 days), and Thailand (8 days and counting):
- Accommodation: $2,401— ($13.33/day)
- Flights: $ 1,443 — ($8.01/day)
- Dining: $ 1,963 — ($10.90/day)
- Fun (Museums, Tours, Activities, etc): $480 — ($2.66/day)
- Car & Moped Rental: $461 — ($2.55/day)
- Phone (T-Mobile): $406 — ($2.25/day)
- Gear (Clothing, Electronics, etc): $392 — ($2.17/day)
- Groceries: $332 — ($1.84/day)
- Travel insurance: $326 — ($1.81/day)
- Taxis: $311 — ($1.73/day)
- Alcohol: $266— ($1.48/day)
- Visas & Fees: $247 — ($1.37/day)
- Health & Hygiene: $238 — ($1.32/day)
- Coffee: $165 — ($0.92/day)
- Transit (Bus/Train/Boat): $143 — ($0.80/day)
- Gifts & Souvenirs: $64 — ($0.35/day)
- Public transit: $54 — ($0.30/day)
Grand Total: $9,692 or $53.84/day
You can see the world on less than $55 a day
Ok, so that’s roughly what it costs to travel the world in style for six months. About $54 a day.
And that’s for everything, including travel insurance, flights, travel vaccines and medication, my phone bill, and every single boring thing I’ve had to buy along the way (like replacing my computer battery in Singapore).
It also includes car rentals, train tickets, laundry, museums, tours, surfboard rentals, travel visas, taxis, souvenirs, hotels, and every single meal, coffee, beer, and bottle of wine I had along the way.
$54 a day for everything. Not bad, when you break it down that way. And it can get a lot cheaper. (I’m a pretty frugal guy, but $54 isn’t exactly traveling on a budget.)
We stayed in some pretty nice places with infinity rooftop pools, welcome drinks, coffee makers in the room, and even the occasional swim-up pool bar (I like pools). Heck, I even sprung for a night of glamping in an Irish yurt.
$55 a day can get you a lot, and you can travel for much less if you get a good deal on flights or use credit card points. Travel is also cheaper when you don’t have to worry about travel vaccines (or computer repairs).
The point is, you can travel for less than you think, and still have a fantastic time.
Just paying my rent in New York City costs more than every penny I’ve spent traveling the world for the past six months.
So how does that $55/day budget compare with what it costs to live in the US? Here’s what spending $10,000 in six months looks like in the U.S. (for me at least).
What does $10,000 buy in the U.S.?
$10,000 in six months comes out to a “whopping” rate of $55.55 a day. Which might sound ok until you realize you have to pay for every single thing in your life with just $55 a day, including:
- Rent (or your mortgage)
- Every single meal
- Groceries
- Car insurance
- Health insurance
- Gas (and your car payment)
- That gym membership you never use
- Your phone bill
- Utilities
- Internet
- New clothes (and shoes)
- Birthday presents
- Netflix and Spotify
- Going to the movies
- Drinks after work
- A new set of snow tires
- Pizza
- Tolls, public transit, taxis, flights home, vacation, out of town weddings, parking tickets, a new phone, medication—the list goes on.
$10,000 doesn’t exactly seem like Rockefeller money now, does it?
And that’s exactly the point. $10,000 should feel like a lot of money because it is a lot of money. But not when you waste it on overpriced rent, expensive meals, and all the other things you just don’t need.
Spending money on travel might seem frivolous, but compared with the cost of just living in the U.S., traveling the world for months can actually be one of the most fiscally responsible things you can do with your money.
How I saved over $8,500 traveling the world
So how did I “save” over $8,500 traveling the world for six months? Easy. I didn’t spend that money. It’s still in my bank account.
I ran some averages and simple calculations of my rent, utilities and average expenses in New York City, and with what I spend on rent, groceries, commuting, eating out, socializing, the gym, etc, I would have spent roughly $18,000 in the past six months if I hadn’t left the States.
Heck, my rent alone was $1,400 ($1,500 with utilities), which would have cost me $9,000 for just six months of housing.
That means if you compare the $2,400 I spent on all of my accommodation in Europe and Southeast Asia over the past six months with my NYC rent, I’ve saved over $6,600 right there.
That’s nearly $40 a day in savings not leaving my bank account for six months. And that’s just housing.
Or to put it another way:
Just paying my rent in New York costs as much as every penny I’ve spent on hundreds of meals, dozens of hotel rooms, all my gifts and souvenirs, and every coffee, beer, museum, tour, taxi, train, bus, boat, not to mention six months of travel insurance, medicine, vaccines, car and moped rental, gas, visa fees, and groceries.
I managed to save enough money to buy this Hobbit home just by leaving my New York City apartment and traveling to Spain, Ireland, Portugal, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Indonesia.
And I’ve got six more months of travel planned.
The cost of travel vs. daily life in the U.S.
“Of course you ‘saved’ money by traveling,” you scoff. “You lived in New York. What about the rest of us that don’t pay tons of money on rent?”
Good point. New York does have higher than average rent. And it can be an expensive city. But the cost of living in the U.S. is rising everywhere.
According to CBS, in 2019, the average rent across the U.S. hit a record high of $1,405 a month. And living in New York meant that I didn’t have to pay for a car or gas or insurance premiums, which most other Americans have to deal with. It evens out.
Every place in the U.S. has its own sunken costs, but almost nowhere in the U.S. is more affordable than what I’ve experienced abroad in the past 15 years of travel.
Travel is an investment in yourself
Yes, I’ve spent nearly $10,000 to travel the world for six months.
But no matter where you live if you add up all your bills, rent, subscriptions, phone, and monthly spending on meals, groceries, drinks, coffee, car payments, gas, health insurance, prescriptions, plane tickets, clothes, gifts, and going out to you know…do stuff, you’ll be surprised by the grand total.
Back in the “real world,” I’d wake up every morning with $50 essentially gone from my bank account. And that was before I’d even had my morning cup of coffee. But not anymore.
- My “rent” on this trip averages out to just $400/month (and my view changes every week)
- Groceries, dining out, drinks, and coffee all cost just $15/day (and I’m enjoying some delicious cuisine)
- I spend $5/day for all my transportation needs and less than $3/day for all my entertainment (and I’m having a blast)
The financial reality of full-time travel has changed the way I handle stress, work, deadlines, expectations, and even my idea of success.
$10,000 is just a number. You might spend more, but you can certainly travel on a lot less. And that’s the point.
When you step back from your routine and stop spending so much money on the things you don’t need, you can create the life you want at a shockingly affordable price.
In the past six months I’ve walked across Spain, surfed Uluwatu in Bali, seen Komodo dragons up close, slept in an Irish yurt, met my nieces in Singapore, strolled on white-sand beaches, danced in Vietnam, stood under waterfalls in Malaysia, marveled at La Sagrada Familia, met up with old friends and made new ones, soaked in geothermal hot tubs, and found my go-to street noodles in half a dozen cities.
I’ve spent $10,000 in the past six months having the time of my life.
And I have more money in my bank account than ever.
Shoot me an email [email protected] if you have any specific questions about what it costs to travel the world.
Also, let me know where you’d go and what you would do with $55/day.
