Posted: 5/16/16 | may 16th, 2016
Last year I announced a case study program in which I would work with a cross-section of readers and help them plan and organize their trips, walking them through all the stages of travel planning and creating a roadmap to getting them on the road.
And, I said in the beginning, I’d share their stories along the way to help inspire your own trip.
It’s been a few months considering that I last updated their progress, and, with the project winding down, I want to share one final update for each student and how they accomplished their goals:
Jianne
Jianne is a 27-year-old office worker from Manila striving to take a two-week holiday this year. Living in the Philippines, she has no access to travel hacking resources, a plethora of visa restrictions, and a weak currency.
When we started last year, Jianne was a spender. She liked to shop, eat out, and always had “something that just came up!” She was continuously spending a lot more than she earned, so we needed to get her to only spend on her needs and reinforce the idea that any extra spending delayed her trip.
I don’t believe in going into debt for travel so we needed a path toward getting her finances in order.
Since you can’t know what to cut if you don’t know where the money is going, I had Jianne track all her expenses so we could see where the low-hanging fruit was. Jianne had never tracked her expenses before and ideal away we saw there were a lot of little things she could trim back without changing her lifestyle too much.
We cut down her eating out, taxis, shopping, and drinking, and had her create a change jar where she would put all her coins and small notes.
Shifting spending routines is a hard process. Half-way through working together, Jianne stopped tracking her expenses, went out a bit more, and overall, fell off the wagon. She was still spending a lot more than her salary each month.
But perfection is not the goal, and she realized her mistakes.
While working together, Jianne never got to go on a trip. We were simply starting too far behind to get her on a trip during the program. However, by the end of our program, Jianne was no longer spending a lot more than she earned and she’s been able to pay off a lot of her debt and start to develop a savings account.
She is still far from taking that vacation, but the first step in taking your dream trip is starting down the monetary path toward financial freedom. I’m incredibly ecstatic and pleased that she did that. No matter what, less debt and a lot more careful spending is always something that improves your life.
Here’s what Jianne has to say, in her own words:
Matt and I started tracking expenses and identifying areas where I must cut down my expenses. It was very challenging at first, and there were times I felt disappointed at myself for not being consistent. I was a shopaholic a year ago — it’s not easy to switch it off.
After a while, Matt taught me another approach: to have a daily cap of expenses instead. This was a lot more effective for me. If there’s something I need to spend on, I would compensate by cutting the budget on other days. It was much easier if I had a separate budget for “my money“ for the day. I didn’t feel deprived or disappointed, but a lot more responsible and in control.
With the help of Matt, I learned that there are different ways that may work for each individual effectively. You just have to try as much as you can until you find what works for you. Now, I feel that I have achieved a huge thing and that I’m halfway done on my journey to that special trip.
Diane
Diane, a 59-year-old from Canada, has always dreamed about going to Australia and new Zealand.
She and her husband live in the countryside on their fixed income pension. There’s no way for her to increase her income or take lots of advantage of the sharing economy, like Airbnb.
Her income might have been fixed, but her expenses weren’t — and, as a Canadian, she has access to rewards cards that could help her get totally free flights.
Diane has dreamed of traveling for years but never really thought it was within her grasp. travel was for the rich, she thought! I set out to verify her wrong. like Jianne, Diane had to find a way to minimize expenses so she could save a lot of of her limited income. While she and her husband have a small retirement account, we want to avoid tapping into that as much as possible, considering that that has to last lots of years to come!
As with Jianne, we started tracking her expenses and we found lots of ways to cut her spending. She switched to a more affordable phone plan, stopped eating out, began planning her meals to avoid getting unneeded food, and stopped making unnecessary purchases from the dollar store (she was an addict).
Diane went from saving $20-50 CAD a month to saving over $500 CAD! She has learned to reframe her spending and think of objects as “things that take away from my trip.”
Additionally, she got her husband to cut back on smoking — which not only added years to his life but also money to her travel fund.
Since she is on a fixed income, she’s been able to save the same amount of money each month and now has over $6,500 CAD saved toward her trip!
The greatest thing we’ve done is to get her on the travel hacking train. She subscribed for the American express and TD bank Aeroplan credit report cards, met the low minimum spending requirements, and — combined with her old points balance — has a total of 90,000 Aeroplan points as well as 17,000 Air Miles (an account that she can use for flights, too).
This will cover her entire flight to Australia and give her some extra points for any regional flights she might take. With discipline, the support of her family, and travel hacking, she’s made this long-term dream a reality, all while on a fixed income. It took time but she did it.
Now, she is going to Australia, new Zealand, and the cook Islands with her sister in August for six weeks. She’s ecstatic to finally check out some pals she hasn’t seen in decades because she never could afford to do it before!
As Diane says:
I am so ecstatic to be so far along in my planning. I had been wanting to travel to Australia to check out pals for over ten years but never seemed able to get rid of lots of obstacles. some of them were that I couldn’t seem to save money for this trip, decide when to go, and I didn’t know how to utilize air miles.
Fortunately for me, Matt was able to take me step-by-step through the planning process so I was no longer overwhelmed. He showed me how to get and maximize Aeroplan miles to fully cover the price of airfare, he showed me where I could cut some costs to save up for spending money, and a lot of essential to me, he showed me how to feel good when I was no longer wasting money on mindless shopping considering that I now had goal I wanted to achieve. The money in my separate “travel account” brings a smile to my face at the rate it is increasing.
But one of the most essential things I learned from Matt was how to deal with anxiety. I suffer from claustrophobia and anxiety, so just getting on an airplane is stressful to me. but knowing that Matt also had issues but overcame them and keeps traveling makes me realize I too could travel and delight in it. I am so ready to go!
Sander and Jolien
This couple from the Netherlands has always been in great shape. They never really needed my help on the financial side, though I helped them get better at tracking their expenses (which they like doing), create a separate bank account for their savings, and work up an ideal budget for their trip.
Toward the end of the year, they stumbled a bit in their savings but have now canceled a few bills and really see that every euro spent now is one not spent on the road. They even recently moved back in with their parents to minimize their rent.
By the time the leave for Brazil next month, they will have saved close to 30,000 EUR between the two of them!
Since they were financially in the clear (and planned to work along the way anyway), we spent the last of our time together going over their packing list, helping them get the gear they need, and going through our pre-trip checklist to make sure they didn’t forget anything. The packing list they sent to me was over 3 pages long!
After slashing their packing list, I had them put everything in their backpack so they can see how much it weighs in buy to find a lot more gear to cut, as well as show them that what we think is needed is typically not. They also did a camping dry run to see what they’ve included but won’t actually use.
Most of my work with them was simply getting them used to monitoring their spending (so they keep it up on the road) and helping them with the logistics of getting ready to sell it all and travel the world!
Here’s what they say:
We are ideal on track moneywise. We will start our trip with €5K a lot more than first anticipated, so we are very pleased about how everything went. We really cut down our expenses now. We do not go out to dinner or we don’t see a motion picture in the theater anymore. We even stopped getting clothes.
In December, it was hard to keep a keen eye on our expenses. We kind of failed it due to all the festivities and parties. We spent too much but Matt’s help put us ideal back on track.
Our greatest challenge in the last two months before we finally start our journey is probably trying to bring along only the bare necessities. Our first packing list was way too long. together with Matt we discussed what is helpful along the way and what is just extra weight. In the next month, we will purchase our last goods and we are going to walk a two-day trail to get used to our backpack, shoes, and just the kilometers.
(Sander and Jolien have a blog and you can follow their adventures on the web site No Sprinkles, just check outgeenhagelslag.nl!)
Семья Брэндона
Брэндоны-средняя американская пара из Индианы с двумя молодыми сыновьями, которые собираются взлететь на годовую поездку в круглый мир, начиная с июня. Муж Майкл в отставке, а партнер Дженнифер – учитель (а также тот, который организует поездку).
Я начал работать с Дженнифер в ноябре, и, как и все остальные, нашей первой задачей было отслеживать ее расходы. Ее семья была в хорошей форме, но было удивительно, сколько семья тратила на еду – не только на продукты, но и на еду вне дома, когда у них было много еды дома!
Казалось, все получали еду здесь, там и везде! Мы получили семью с лучшим бюджетом на продовольствие, подписались на более доступные телефонные планы и вырезали их дорогой кабельный телевизионный пакет для потоковой передачи через Интернет.
За последние 6 месяцев они смогли удвоить свои сбережения до 25 000 долларов США!
У меня были Дженнифер и ее муж открыть вторую предпочтительную карту Чейза Сапфира и Barclays в дополнение к тем, которые у них были. Теперь у них более 60 000 баллов каждый за поездку.
В то время как они не могли полностью покрыть свои рейсы с очками (Дженнифер много использовала для другой поездки), у них все еще будет достаточно очков, когда они поезжают, чтобы покрыть меньшие расходы, такие как жилье и билеты на обучение. (Это особенно верно, учитывая, что Дженнифер также получила венчурную карту Capital One.)
Хотя 25 000 долларов США недостаточно для семьи из четырех человек в течение одного года, причем многие из их рейсов и меньшие расходы позаботились в первые несколько месяцев, они планируют арендовать свой дом, что будет получать дополнительный доход каждый месяц Они вступают в более доступные страны в Юго -Восточной Азии!
Вот что говорит Дженнифер:
Мы мечтали и спасаем в течение всего года в течение почти двух лет, поэтому немного сюрреалистично делать конкретные шаги к тому, чтобы это произошло. Совсем недавно я понял, что нашей самой большой проблемой стала эмоциональная задача, связанная с тем, чтобы вырваться от нашей обычной жизни и сообщества семьи и друзей.
Практически, наша самая большая проблема – сэкономить столько денег, сколько хотелось бы. Мэтт был здорово привлечь нас к ответственности и провести нас через свои советы по взлому. В высшей степени полезно иметь возможность общаться с логистикой с кем -то, у кого такой большой опыт. К счастью, мы добиваемся прогресса в том, что приведет нас к нашей цели, например, обновления паспорта, глобальные SIM -карты для наших телефонов, аренда нашего дома и начало работы в наших упаковочных списках.
***
Более года наш проект тематического изучения уже закончился. Все уже в пути и собираются для своей поездки. Я действительно доволен тем, как этот проект оказался, и надеюсь, что вы с удовольствием следили за этими четырьмя этажами по мере продвижения.
Я надеюсь, что четверо очень разных людей могут воплотить в жизнь свою поездку, вдохновляет вас понять, что вы можете совершить поездку своей мечты тоже!
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Забронируйте поездку: логистические идеи и трюки
Забронируйте свой рейс
Найдите дешевый полет, используя Skyscanner. Это моя любимая поисковая система, потому что она ищет веб -сайты и авиакомпании по всему миру, так что вы всегда знаете, что ни один камень не остается намеренным.
Забронируйте свое жилье
Вы можете забронировать свое общежитие с помощью Hostelworld. Если вы хотите остаться где -нибудь, кроме общежития, используйте Booking.com, поскольку они постоянно возвращают наименее дорогие тарифы для гостевых домов и отелей.
Не забудьте страховку путешествия
Страхование путешествий обеспечит вас от болезней, травм, кражи и отмены. Это обширная защита на случай, если что -то пойдет не так. Я никогда не отправляюсь в поездку без нее, так как мне приходилось использовать его много раз в прошлом. Мои любимые компании, которые предлагают лучшие услуги и ценность:
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