I don’t have any data to back this up, but I’m pretty sure that one of the most asked things on travel is how to afford it. Travel seems like a luxury for many reasons, but often, that’s because travel can be SO expensive. Between flights, hotels and visas, paying for an international trip can be daunting, if not impossible. But I’ve traveled to dozens of countries, without very much money at all. It’s a bit of a slow and steady approach, but apparently the turtle wins the race. This is how I afford to travel without a trust fund.

First, though, let me explain what I don’t do.

Some of the most common advice I’ve come across is that to afford travel, you should get into travel hacking or cutting out lattes and other simple joys from your life. I don’t think these things are unhelpful, but I also don’t think are accessible or practical for everyone.

For some folks, travel hacking – like getting really, really into it – is just not something they want to do. The nitty gritty of it is too time consuming. Or they don’t care to make a full time hobby out of travel hacking. Or, if you’re me, it is, frankly, boring. 

And as for cutting out lattes – don’t you dare come for my coffee. And please don’t suggest I cut out the small joys from life. I really work hard to save money for travel, but I refuse to make my day to day less fun or fulfilling. I won’t limit myself to such an extreme that I have just a few days a year of being happy.

So, yea. I get lattes. But I also catch flights.

Here’s how I afford to travel.

To make traveling a reality for me, I do a few things that admittedly take more time than travel hacking, but are a bit simpler:

• I take money out of every. single. paycheck. and move it to a separate account for travel. It’s $50 per check most of the time but when it gets closer to my next trip, I usually bump that up a bit. If I have 5 months before a trip, this brings me to at least $500 for spending money.
• I have a monthly budget and when I travel, I move over a percentage of my budget to my travel account. This is always relative to the amount of time I’m abroad. For a two week trip, I transfer over $500 or so. That, combined with the $500 I’ve put into my travel account over a few months, gives me $1,000. Since I tend to choose affordable destinations, this amount easily covers all my in-country expenses, and often leaves me with some funds left over for my next trip!
• I’ve cut down on dinner and drinks out. This is, undoubtedly, what I spend the most on. So while, I refuse to cut out my favorite Thai restaurant from my life, I do set some boundaries. I have a limit for how often I go out for dinner or drinks each week. I just invite people over for wine nights instead.

• About 80% of my monthly spending goes on a travel rewards credit card. I know I just talked about travel hacking not being for everyone, BUT. Even the lite (or lazy) version of it opens up future travel opportunities. (As everyone will tell you, though, don’t do this unless you stay in your budget and pay off the card every month. Getting into debt won’t help you travel.)
• I pay for bigger expenses in advance so that I can pay those off as I go (flights, accommodation, etc.). Occasionally, I’ll pay these expenses over the course of two months, rather than right away, but I never buy a flight or book a reservation I can’t quickly pay down.
• I keep an eye out for cheap flights and often choose my destinations that way. My trip to Barcelona for a few days would not have happened if the flight wasn’t just $300 round trip.
• I stay with friends or family whenever I can. I went to the United Arab Emirates because I was able to stay with a friend. That trip definitely would not have been affordable had I need to pay for a hotel in Abu Dhabi. By crashing with someone, that trip became a reality.

• When I have them and need them, I use points! I sort of treat points like a ‘break in case of emergency’ resource. I prefer not to use them unless paying for a flight would be a bit tricky for any given trip. Sometimes those $300 roundtrip flights just don’t exist.

That’s about it! Nothing groundbreaking here, and no trust funds to fall back on. Just simple tactics that brought me to four countries in 2019 and what looks like at least three in 2020, all while working a 9-5 job. (And for some insight into finding time to travel, check out How to Travel Abroad With a Nine to Five.

I hope this is helpful for anyone working to build travel into their lives. If you have other ways you save or afford to travel, share them here! And if you haven’t already, I hope you subscribe!