Financially Sustainable Travel: My Cost of Full-Time Travel in 2012

38 thoughts on “Financially Sustainable Travel: My Cost of Full-Time Travel in 2012”

1. Thanks for such a detailed 2012 break down. Glad you are able to enjoy good food and setting a such a great example for sustainable travel.

   • Thanks, Tiffany! Happy travels….

2. Terrific post! I think it’s great that you were able to do all that traveling for that amount. I realize some wouldn’t consider that “budget,” but like you said above, you “consistently spent less money to travel full-time than I ever did to live in one place.” How awesome is it that you were able to have all those new experiences for less than when you were rooted.

   • Hey Kim – Indeed! And for travelers who want to see how it can be done for less – way less – check out my cost of full-time travel for 2011 and 2010, which were both about 10k cheaper….

3. It’s nice to see what sustainable travel vs budget travel looks like b/c as one who only goes when I have PTO, I’m willing to splurge just a little bit for that short period of time… It ends up being mostly transportation or food…

   • Splurging (as long as it’s in your financial means) is totally okay! And when you can choose and plan for your splurges, it’s all the more fun. I too love splurging on good food….yummy!

4. That’s a really good run-down of your expenses and I hope it encourages people to travel more as they see it doesn’t cost nearly as much as they probably think that it does.

   Do you publish a similar break-down for your monthly earnings vs. your spending? I’m always looking for bloggers to publish the results of how much they earn compared to what they spend. I think if people saw that you could actually save money while traveling more would be inclined to pack up and go nomadic.

   • Hi Ellen – Here’s my post about how much I earned in 2012 (although I didn’t break it down monthly, it was pretty even throughout the year).
     https://www.theprofessionalhobo.com/financially-sustainable-travel-my-2012-income/
     And yes – I actually earned quite a bit more than I spent – over $10,000 more! So it’s very possible to save money on the road.

5. Great detail! We plan on listing what we spend each month and then by country on our upcoming RTW trip! You did a lot of this year, and your figure to me looks great! Keep up the good work!

   • Good stuff Hannah! Although it’s a bit of a chore I actually get a lot of satisfaction out of tracking my expenses and seeing just how much I spend to travel full-time.
     Good luck in your own expense-tracking endeavours….and happy travels. Please do report back here on what your expenses end up being…

6. Nice summary. About to say, some of those months were pretty expensive, much more than I usually spend stateside.

   • Thanks, Turner! Yep, no getting around the fact that some months were pretty pricey. But those months also usually entailed large lump sum expenses like web redesigns or annual premiums for medical insurance. Take out those larger items, and I still think my average monthly expenditures are still relatively reasonable. No?

7. Thanks for sharing this. It always helps when us travelers are transparent about costs.

   • Thanks Kim! How does this compare to your own traveling figures since you started traveling full-time?

8. Lately i have been considsering being a travelling house sitter.My background in Property Management should help.Any suggestions as to how to start before joining any specific site?
   THANK YOU,
   btw-this blog has been very informative.

   • Hey Kyle,
     I too have experience in Property Management, but my experience is more commercial and apartment buildings, so I found it only marginally helpful.
     Here’s some good info for you on house-sitting:
     http://www.wisebread.com/10-tips-for-landing-the-perfect-house-sitting-gig
     and
     https://www.theprofessionalhobo.com/the-creative-guide-to-free-or-cheap-accommodation/

9. Oh, it was absolutely interesting to read about average expenses this time, and highly motivational since it demonstrates that a hobo career can earn you not only a life on a shoestring but also a slightly better off one! well done, Nora!

   • Thanks, Claudia! Indeed….being a hobo doesn’t necessarily mean being “homeless” in the I-live-in-a-cardboard-box-and-eat-spam sense….unless it’s a personal choice…(smiles)

10. This is brilliant Nora! Given what you did throughout the year, the price tag isn’t too shabby at all. I really admire your ability to keep track of your expenses so diligently. I try to do that when I travel but I get lazy and lose track of things after a few weeks. Any tips?

    • Hi Bethaney – Admittedly, tracking expenses requires some commitment, but it’s also the first step to creating a realistic budget (while traveling or at home) and then stick to it. And once you get used to tracking your expenses for a while the habit is formed and it’s not terribly onerous.
      I tend to use a mobile app to make it easy to enter expenses as I incur them, and my current app of choice is Trail Wallet (I’ll be reviewing it soon).
      Also, a big motivation to track expenses is my (self-imposed) obligation to illustrate the cost of full-time travel – both for this site and for my own sense of curiosity.

      Here’s a primer on tracking expenses:
      https://www.theprofessionalhobo.com/managing-your-money/

11. Thank for sharing these details Nora. We are a little like yourself; While we don’t go crazy, we also don’t travel to a very low budget. We worked very hard in our ‘old life’ and now, in our new nomadic life, we want to enjoy the fruits of our labor.

    We don’t go crazy of course (we want to live this lifestyle for some time so we still need to be watchful) but Im at an age and time in my life where I don’t want to live in hostels and constantly eat street food and 2 minute noodles!

    No one should ever have to apologize for how they choose to travel! There are many ways to travel from low budget to 5 star and everything in between. It doesn’t matter HOW we travel, just that we do.

    • Great point Nicole; travel styles, goals, and preferences are very unique decisions to each traveler – each with their own unique price tag.
      When I realized the big jump I’d made in my travel expenses in 2012 (over the previous couple of years), I felt a need to justify it, since in the past I really made a splash with articles like “How to Travel Full-Time for $17,000/Year or Less”….
      http://www.wisebread.com/how-to-travel-full-time-for-17000-a-year-or-less

      So thank you for your support in having a larger travel budget, and like you, I think it’s time to enjoy some of the rewards from hard work done in years past and present.

12. LOL!
    Thats exactly the experience i have.
    thanks for the info.
    be well

    • Hi Kyle – Do you mean that your own cost of full-time travel is similar?
      I’m glad you enjoyed the info!

13. no-
    that i am experienced in both commercial and residential aspects of management.
    would love to see myself somewhere interesting in a month or two.lol.
    one concern though is i’ve noticed so far there are no ethnic house sitters.
    it wouldnt at all be surprising about “reservations/stigmas”,but such is life.
    thanks a bunch

    • Kyle – Well, it depends on your definition of “ethnic”, which I’m guessing you mean as being a visible minority. It depends on the home owners, their preferences and their neighbourhood, and the location of the home. I’ve seen lots of opportunities in latin america, for example, where speaking Spanish and being of latin american descent would be ideal.

      Also, don’t give up or take it personally if you find it tough to score a house-sitting gig. I have applied for dozens of opportunities and never even heard a word back. There’s a lot of competition, and often it boils down to how quickly you respond to the listing.

14. GREAT info Nora. Now the next BIG question is which deserves a part 2 article or follow up is–How much did you make and how?? Its great to see that 28k for decent to great living is all it takes but just as important to see where the income is to pay that debt!

    • Hi Steve,
      I actually wrote about my 2012 income a few weeks ago and linked to it in this post, but apparently not overtly enough! 🙂

      Here it is:
      https://www.theprofessionalhobo.com/2013/01/financially-sustainable-travel-my-2012-income/

      And if you’re still curious: my 2011 income:
      https://www.theprofessionalhobo.com/financially-sustainable-travel-part-1-my-2011-income/

      And my 2011 Expenses:
      https://www.theprofessionalhobo.com/my-cost-of-full-time-travel-in-2011/

      And just to reiterate, for the previous two years I’ve spent about $17,000/year to travel and live full-time. This year my income jumped, so up my expenses went too – largely by choice.

15. Fantastic breakdown! Most of it isn’t really in an extreme budget travelers range but then again just like you said “budget travel” isn’t the same as “sustainable travel”. Keep up the great work with your site, it definitely shows! 😀

    • Thanks, Ron – I’m so glad you like my site, and that you appreciate my breakdowns! Happy travels….

16. I just found your website and love the transparency about your living/travel expenses and income! These are really helpful breakdowns and I hope someday I am able to do financially sustainable travel full time.

    • Thanks, Jessica – and happy travel planning! 🙂

17. You mentioned house sitting in your financial breakdown for 2012.
    How does one find/qualify for a house sitting gig in Europe?
    Geezer and Spring Chicken are piqued with interest.
    Thank you.

    • Hi Jeff,
      Here’s some more information on house-sitting:
      https://www.theprofessionalhobo.com/the-creative-guide-to-free-or-cheap-accommodation/

      And if you’re interested in house-sitting as well as other forms of free accommodation, check this out:
      https://www.theprofessionalhobo.com/travel-tips-resources/get-free-accommodation-around-world/

18. omg. I am amazed at the high sums involved. Yes really! I live, pay rent, pay taxes, utility bills, food, and all the necessaries for life, on £15,000 (uk) per annum. I don’t like it, because I subsist at the lower end of society, but that is my world, and for many reasons (my health, age, etc) I have no opportunity to increase my standard of living. What I would give to live “sustainably” on $28,000 whilst simultaneously travelling the world. What I would give……..

    • Wanda,
      If you look at my cost of full-time travel in 2010 and 2011 (links at the beginning of this post), you’ll see that my cost is $17,000 – which is 11,000GBP – much LESS than you’re currently living on in what appears to be relative misery.

      • Your reference to your 2010-2011 costs would not be a true comparison – it’s not like-for-like. That was four or five years ago, and at that period my income was far lower than what it is today – so my point would have been the same even back then. Not that I’m sure what my point was. I think I was jealous of you, that’s what I meant by my phrase “What I would give…”
        I enjoy your writings.

        • Hi Wanda,
          I understand you feel trapped by your lifestyle and income restrictions, and I feel for you. Even if you do nothing about it, I encourage you to look at it a different way. Inflation between 2010 and now doesn’t account for the change of my travel expenses, which as the years have gone by, have gone up not because the cost of living in general has, but because I’ve made different choices (such as starting to pay for accommodation instead of volunteering and house-sitting, or living in more expensive countries). If I wanted to go back to living and traveling full-time for less than $20,000 year, now, I could.
          I’m a realist – and sometimes the things we want to do aren’t possible. But I also believe that more often than not we are our own worst enemies and restricting forces.
          Thank you for your support, and I hope you manage to design the life you truly want.

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