Since announcing that we are going to be selling everything and traveling the world almost a year ago, the next logical follow up question was WHEN? Well, first we had a wedding to pull off. Which I might add was amazing and magical and now I get to call this man my husband, which is a pretty fantastic thing!
(photo credit: the amazing Jenny Stroment Photography )
Now that the wedding is over and we’re settling back into our routine, we are re-focusing on what lies ahead. The next step. The adventure of a lifetime! Now we start planning, saving and the “future tripping” to envision what we want our long-term travels together to be like.
Jake has never taken a trip like this before. He wants to make sure he gets to really enjoy himself. (and so do I!) We need to build in a vacation  (oh and how about a Honeymoon?) even if this is not what the entire year will be like.
While, I on the other hand, have done some long-term travel (2 months abroad) but I really want to see how sustainable financially we can make our travels! How can I generate income while over seas, and even bigger, how can I create an on-line revenue stream that I can continue when we come back to the States? So many questions with still no answers.
Aside from any on-line revenue stream that we may generate, how much do we need to save before we set out? We have been doing some research and for the two of us to travel for one year, assuming that we don’t earn any extra income while traveling, our big number is…. *drum roll please* ……. $40,000! I know.. it’s a lot. More than I’ve ever seen at one time in my life, that’s for sure!
What are we doing to reach this goal: Jake is currently job hunting. Preferable something outside of the HR/recruiting world he was in for the last 7+ years. Â He’s looking for something that will be a new challenge, which will be perfect to prepare him for a year of new everything! Â I will be looking to pick up additional photography work in addition to getting some kind off on-line business up and running. So if you know anyone looking to update their professional head shots, family portraits or children photos, let me know.
To reach our goal, we’ve set the estimated “Go-Date”  as  *another louder drum roll please* …..
March 31st, 2017!
Friends, family, onlookers, this is getting real! I was hoping to push for sooner, but Jake, the ever wise- look before we leap- one, made an excellent case that not only do we want to make sure that we have the funds to comfortably travel, but also some to come back with. (that husband of mine, always thinking ahead!) Â This means more meals at home. Every purchase now being scrutinized in terms of, “We could buy this… or this could be an extra week in Thailand.” Â Setting a date and sharing it with all of you makes our dream even more real and makes it feel closer than ever.
2016 will be the year of saving, selling and planning. Oh joy! Â And we’ll be sharing this part of our journey with you as well.
OK. Next question. What else do you want to know? 😉
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I’ll share my total Spain budget with you. It’s pretty detailed, thanks to the Trail Wallet app. (You might want that app, come to think of it.)
Thanks Jenn! I would love that! I do have the Trial Wallet App… I just need to be more disciplined in using it. 😉 Any tricks or tips on staying on top of it?
I found the easiest way to use TrailWallet is to input expenses *immediately* every time. It took under 1 minute for each item, and once I get into the habit, it really became automatic. Much, much easier to put the expense in right away than:
1 – saving a receipt to input later – especially when there is NO receipt at all
2 – relying on memory
That’s so exciting. I remember when we were saving up for our yearlong trip it seemed so far away in the beginning, but once you see the money start to build up each month saving gets addictive 🙂
It really does get addictive! And it changes your priorities really fast when there’s a deadline 😉
I remember what it felt like to finally have a “go-date”! It’s super exciting and your financial goals are totally do-able. It’s smart of you to start your blog before you’re traveling, it will help you find a supportive community for your goals.
The travel community has been AMAZING! I’m glad we started it early too. 🙂 Also we wanted to share our process from the beginning. It hopefully will help others as well as keep us on track! Ha ha!
Hi,
Fantastic! you guys are doing exactly the same as us. But our plan is for the end of our expat years, which should be June next year.
Jorge from http://www.Couplertw.com
So cool! Checked out your blog. Angola sounds incredible…and expensive! I had no idea! Do you guys know when your around the world travels will begin? Excited to share adventures!
Looking forward to your travel stories! Love your pictures already. 😉 We have been on a trip around the world for about 4 months now and are meticulously logging all our expenses with, yep, the app Trail Wallet. We analyze our expenses per country, so take a look at our blog if you’re interested!
Thanks so much! Your expense breakdown per country is super helpful! I need to get on the Trail Wallet. I have it, just need to make it a habit to use it. 🙂 Looking forward to sharing adventures with you guys as well Cheers!