The travel bug is one helluva a thing. But, it’s also trying to envision your future self in 25 years and the most important memories that you have. What is it that you’d talk about?

For me, it will be this future adventure. It’ll be taking a year away from our ordinary life to travel to different parts of the world.

This is the very preliminary stage to begin planning. And I wanted to keep this blog post updated to help make this a reality.

Goal | As a family, take 12 months to travel to different areas of the world to create stories and perspective as a family.
This will need to  happen when the kids are old enough to remember their cultural experience, but not take away anything from high school. So, perhaps Nixon will be 12 and Lyla will be 9. So, this would be around 2025. There’s time!

Costs | The first installment of this blog is to try to gauge an idea of costs. So, I’m going to tentatively plan this to give a ballpark. Here are the things to consider:

  • Areas to Travel
    Okay, let’s imagine that we stay in 5 places (for all continents outside of Antarctica). Africa is a major question, but Botswana is the safest country.

    • Chile | S.America
    • New Zealand | Oceania
    • Singapore | Asia
    • Botswana | Africa
    • Hungary | Europe

Here we go with Costs

  • Chile Trip | 10 Weeks
    • Need to either fly or drive from Reno to San Francisco.
      COSTS: $60 flight * 4 = $250
    • Flights | SFO to Santiago

      COSTS: $600 flight *4 = $2400
    • Average Night Stay

      COSTS: $1500/mo = $3500 
    • TOTAL FOR FLIGHTS/LODGING | $6,000 
  • New Zealand | 10 Weeks
    • Flights from Santiago to Queenstown

      COSTS: $1150 flight *4 = $4750
    • Average Night Stay

      COSTS: $3000/mo = $8,000 
      There is no place cheap to stay here.
    • TOTAL FOR FLIGHTS/LODGING | $12,750
      Freakin’ expensive in New Zealand!
  • Singapore | 10 weeks
    • Flights from Queenstown to Singapore

      COSTS: $400 flight *4 = $1700
    • Average Night Stay

      COSTS: $2750/mo = $6,800 
      Still pretty expensive
    • TOTAL FOR FLIGHTS/LODGING | $8,500
      Freakin’ expensive in Singapore!
  • Botswana | 10 Weeks
    • Flights from Singapore to Francistown

      COSTS: $750 flight *4 = $3000
    • Average Night Stay

      COSTS: $2000/mo = $5000
    • TOTAL FOR FLIGHTS/LODGING | $8,500
  •  Budapest | 12 weeks
    • Flights | Botswana to Budapest

      COSTS: $516 flight *4 = $2200
    • Average Night Stay

      COSTS: $2000/mo = $6000
    • Flight back home

      COSTS: $700 flight * 4 = $2800
    • TOTAL FOR FLIGHTS/LODGING | $11,000

TOTAL EST. COSTS for LODGING/AIR: $47,000
TOTAL EST. COSTS for FOOD
Let’s say as a family, we can live off of $75/day, which is a family meal of $25. That’s a lot of store foods.
$75 * 365 days = $30,000

If I’ve calculated everything correctly, the costs come to:

  • TOTAL | $80,000

Now that doesn’t include other things | Laundry, Activities, Rides, etc. And, the overall goal is to break even.
But, I also can foresee a lot of savings once the pen hits the paper. So, is $80k a reasonable budget to work against?

Possible ways to lessen this amount:

  • House Rental – The house we currently live in can go rented. After taking out a storage unit, then putting in revenue…
    Plus factor in the possibility of paying the house off before we’re ready:

    • Revenue | $15k
  • Know People  – We know people! Whether in New Zealand, the Philippines, Amsterdam, or Germany – we do know a few people that might be able to help us by staying with them. That’d save on costs.
    • Savings | $5k
  • Volunteering – Yes, it’s a thing. http://twocents.lifehacker.com/five-ways-to-make-extra-cash-while-you-travel-1790731115
    If we could try the WWOOF model in one of the places:

    • Savings | $10k
  • Consulting/Working – It’d be great to help offset costs by working part time or consulting. This would be variable and we can play conservative. Tthis would have to come into the world by savings.
    • Revenue | $10k
  •  Savings – So, over the next 9 years, we’d have to attain $40k to make that possible. That’s saving $5k/year, while also trying to pay off the mortgage quicker. Hmmm. May be a bit without reason, but who knows!?!
    • Pulling out | $40k to even out trip.

Also, here’s some great articles on the topic