Traveling the World on $17,000 a Year

Ego · Post by **Ego** » Mon Apr 22, 2013 7:45 pm

Motion. People move...
1) To go toward something.

2) To go away from something.
Couples traveling together often have different reasons for being in motion. When one finds what they're looking for they want to stop. Conflict.
Also, India is different from anywhere else in the world. Traveling as a couple in India is like introducing an invasive species into the relationship. It goes for the weaknesses and picks, probes, pries.... until it eventually exploits them. At the same time the traveler is bombarded with opportunities to look inward, to probe themselves, to brush aside external concerns, to minimize distractions and think. Scary stuff.

secretwealth · Post by **secretwealth** » Mon Apr 22, 2013 7:57 pm

I think blaming travel for couples breaking up is unfair and disingenuous. 40-50% of U.S. marriages end in divorce, and I don't think 40-50% of married couples in the U.S. are traveling.
People get together. People break up. People travel. People don't. Life is messy.

Laura Ingalls · Post by **Laura Ingalls** » Mon Apr 22, 2013 8:35 pm

arebeispy--I would like to travel at some time, but I am not sure if I want to be more hobo or more RV'er.
I view it as more seasonal changes. I would like to be the lighthouse keeper/docent in the Apostle Islands Memorial Day-Labor Day. I would like to spend some time with my family in the early fall (also in the Midwest). I am not sure what I want to do the other seven months of the year.
The psychologist in me says it is the intensity of the relationship that you have when you travel all the time. It may make you more divorce prone.

susswein · Post by **susswein** » Mon Apr 22, 2013 9:13 pm

Folks traveling around the world on sailboats with their kids is pretty common - almost every anchorage and marina has a few "kid boats".
It's less common (but not rare) among the backpack set. I can recall spending time in a number of hostels all over the world and watching the parents "homeschooling" their kids in the common area.
Pretty much all the boatkids and traveling kids I've met were great kids and very mature and responsible for their age - much more so than almost any kid you'd meet here in the states.
Not exactly related, but I think that spending a year traveling around the world should be a minimum requirement for anyone seeking elective office at a national level.

secretwealth · Post by **secretwealth** » Mon Apr 22, 2013 10:32 pm

I'd agree, but change that to spending a year living abroad. It's easy to spend a couple of weeks in a country and think you understand it--it's hard to spend a year in a country and actually understand it.

RealPerson · Post by **RealPerson** » Mon Apr 22, 2013 10:55 pm

Living on a boat can be as cheap or expensive as you want, just like on land. You can buy an old but seaworthy boat for the price of a car instead of a house. No heating or AC bills. No car expense since you won't have a car. You can anchor for free instead of picking up a mooring or dock.
A lot of people don't carry insurance on their boat (liability risk much lower outside of the US) and have no medical insurance because they are cruising in areas where medical costs are much lower that in the US. If need be, they pay out of pocket.
You can keep electricity consumption to a minimum, so you don't have to run the engine much to charge the house batteries. You can cook quite well on a boat, often with cheap ingredients purchased from local vendors or fishermen.
I second the maturity level of kids raised on a boat while cruising. These kids understand the importance of self-reliance and being aware of your surroundings. They are not quite as addicted to their little electronics stuff and facebook is not the center of their universe.

secretwealth · Post by **secretwealth** » Mon Apr 22, 2013 11:53 pm

How (and where) can you anchor for free? I've contemplated boat living, but from what I've seen most piers charge as much as I pay in monthly apartment maintenance.

BeanHead · Post by **BeanHead** » Tue Apr 23, 2013 12:45 am

My wanderlust never ceases. And when blogs like Nomadic Matt show it's possible, I frequently dream of selling it all and living out of a backpack. If only I could get FH on board.

secretwealth · Post by **secretwealth** » Tue Apr 23, 2013 12:55 am

I think it's also worth remembering that blogs like Nomadic Matt earn $30k/yr.--and it's pretty hard to build up that kind of ad revenue (Jacob and DividendGuy can attest to that).

Post by **jacob** » Tue Apr 23, 2013 1:07 am

http://themonkeysfist.blogspot.com/2013 ... tions.html

RealPerson · Post by **RealPerson** » Tue Apr 23, 2013 1:51 am

@SW - Free anchoring. I have no knowledge of the New York area for sailing. I was primarily referring to the Caribbean, where not paying for anchoring is the norm, which I believe to be the case for most of the world. Anchoring does not involve a pier. You just set one (or two depending on the conditions) anchor in the bottom of a bay. The boat will freely swing around the anchor depending on wind and current. Because your anchor can drag or come loose, you have to regularly check for drifting throughout the night. Attaching to a mooring costs money because someone has to place and maintain the mooring. Docking (attaching your boat to a dock or pier) is the most expensive. Docking allows you to take in fresh water, load up fuel and use shore power instead of your house batteries to operate things. Docking fees are typically determined by the length of your boat. Docking is also convenient because you don't need a dinghy to go ashore.

KevinW · Post by **KevinW** » Tue Apr 23, 2013 4:58 pm

@jennypenny
I've given some thought to owning two vacation homes, one in a southern Spring break beach town and the other in a northern Fall foliage and ski town. Those peak seasons are nearly disjoint so you can always be renting out one unit in its peak season and living in the other in its off season. Spring break is roughly Mar.-Apr.; foliage season is roughly Oct.-Dec. and ski season Dec.-Mar. So you could live in the beach house Aug.-Mar. and in the ski chalet Mar.-Aug.
The catch seems to be that you'd be highly dependent on property managers and the air travel industry.

Ego · Post by **Ego** » Fri Apr 26, 2013 3:27 am

Great post yesterday.... The Dreamer
http://www.drivenachodrive.com/2013/04/the-dreamer/

Ego · Post by **Ego** » Fri May 03, 2013 11:14 pm

Spending a life in equilibrium is wonderful because if I stop pedaling, I fall....
http://vimeo.com/groups/wereldfietser/videos/58201809

Jen10 · Post by **Jen10** » Fri May 03, 2013 11:42 pm

@secretwealth, there are plenty of places in the U.S. where you can anchor for free (as RealPerson says there is a big difference between anchoring and docking/mooring, which involve fees). Our family of 4 have been in Florida for over a month at an anchorage getting fixed up to head back to the Bahamas. Florida has gone through a lot of turmoil about boaters' rights to anchor and right now the law is on the side of boats. Of course there are limited areas where you can dock your dinghy to get off the boat, but any cost will still be way cheaper than paying rent.

jennypenny · Post by **jennypenny** » Sat May 04, 2013 3:47 pm

@KevinW--Another issue is taxes. We've looked at 6 months each in two places, or doing summers or winters someplace and keeping a permanent residence for the rest of the year. Residency requirements vary greatly between states, so it's worth looking into that as well. I think as long as it's possible to drive or boat between the residences then you're probably fine.
Managing two properties is my biggest hesitation.
--------
@Ego, that was good. He would definitely fit in around here. "[God's] an eco-freak like me." LOL...I'm stealing that line.

KevinW · Post by **KevinW** » Sun May 05, 2013 12:36 am

Managing two properties is my biggest hesitation.

Yeah, at the end of the day you're always entrusting one of your properties to a manager who is thousands of miles away. There's a lot that could go wrong with that.

Ego · Post by **Ego** » Mon May 06, 2013 3:33 am

@JP, It can be challenging to explain our strange lifestyle to curious friends/acquaintances who can't really grasp how it's possible. One cyclist friend had an aha moment while watching that video. He envisioned his dream of cycling across France for the price of a baguette and a few biscuits as fuel.