How We Travel Full-Time WITHOUT Being Rich!

Stop pushing this ridiculous lifestyle that you have to be rich to afford. We've had so many comments along these lines over the last few years since we've been slow traveling. I think people look at a vacation, they take a week-long vacation, it costs $4,000 and they think that slow traveling or full-time travel will cost the same and it just doesn't. No, meaning you'd have to times that by four. Four, yeah, like $16,000. No, it doesn't. It does not cost that much. So in this video, we're going to bust the myth that you have to be rich to travel full-time. But before we dive in, if you're new to our channel, we're Amelia and JP, and we can help you fast-track your move abroad, whether you want to expat in one country or just slow travel for a while like we're doing right now. When we tell people that we travel full-time, we often hear, oh, you must be rich. And we are not rich, despite what a lot of people think. And that's a whole other YouTube myth that we should bust in a different video, Amelia. What, you mean that YouTubers are all raking in millions of dollars of ad revenue? Yeah, what a big lie that is. All right, so this video, though, is about how to travel full-time on a budget. And so we're going to share how we do it on an ordinary middle-class income that we earn. And we're going to start with number nine, which is fewer flights and more trains. Yes, the longer you stay in a place, this is just kind of logical, the less flights you take. And that's the benefit of slow travel. If you stay one to three months, which is pretty common for a lot of people, well, obviously, you're just not having as many transportation costs associated with changing locations, which could be cities or countries. Yeah, exactly. And also, because we travel full-time, we have a lot of flexibility on when we travel. So we always go on a Tuesday or a Wednesday, which is almost always more affordable. Plus, you don't have the amateur travelers, and it can be really frustrating. But that's also a different video. Yeah, it is a different video. How to travel, travel etiquette, flight etiquette. Yeah. I think, too, when you have more flexibility and the benefit of taking your time in slow traveling is that you can look for price deals. And we often choose our next location based on the cost of transportation, meaning either airfare or train costs if we're going to go to a different country. Because if something, if we were eyeing a place, we'll just say France, and all of a sudden the flights got doubled or tripled, then maybe we would go someplace else, like Montenegro. Yeah. Yeah, and in Europe, especially, the train travel is fantastic, and it's less expensive than air travel most of the time. Although Ryanair can be pretty cheap. Yeah. But it's so much better than air travel. Plus, you don't have to show up as early. But it's usually cheaper, unlike the US, where if you want to take the train, it takes four times as long and costs 10 times as much. Well, in Asia, you've got AirAsia. There's another discount carrier. They have a lot of flight options. So you can look at different countries and see which one will work with me with my travel schedule, of course, and the visas as well, and choose accordingly. Yeah. All right. Number eight is that we maximize our discounts. A lot of that is by just staying, getting those long-term stay discounts. Yes, you can get a month-long stay discount from Airbnb and some other places. We also do apart hotels, and we ask for longer stay discounts as well. I know some people do this with their hotels, and they maximize discounts by using points. So that's another way you can save some money. Yeah, you're going to find that apartments in other countries are less than the cost of a hotel, well, in those same countries, or especially compared to the United States. Yes. Apartments in the U.S. are really expensive. Well, staying in hotels in the U.S. are really expensive now, too. I just can't believe how much more it is. Yeah. And we skip those third-party booking websites, too. I know some people like those, but we just go straight to the airline websites to book. Sometimes we'll use directflights.com or Google Flights to find what airlines fly those routes, but then we go straight to the airline to buy the tickets. And that's usually cheaper than trying to book through a third-party site, where a lot of times they tack on extra hidden fees that you don't even know about. Well, I like the peace of mind that you get from booking direct. So if something does happen, I feel like I have more control over what's going on if I can talk directly to the airline or directly to the hotel or the Airbnb. Well, Airbnb is a little bit different. You don't talk to the host directly, but actually, I guess you do. You do. You don't talk to the Airbnb, but you talk to the host. You're right. You do talk to the host through their platform. And some of the members in our Turtle Travel Club do pet-sitting and house-sitting as a way to get free lodging, and sometimes they even get a car with that. I gotta say, this is something that we have not done, and I am very intrigued because they've been sharing their pictures about all of the little pet snuggles they're getting, and I am seriously wanting to do some pet-sitting. Yeah. And another thing that some of our Travel Club members do a lot better than us are the rewards and points programs. Yes. We are Marriott people because Amelia did that with her job, so we had a bunch of points, and we just kind of stuck with Marriott. It's not the best point system out there, but we tend to like their hotels better. But there are other point systems that are really good, and our Travel Club peeps really know how to maximize those deals. They do. It's kind of complicated, but I know that a lot of people do take full advantage of all the perks that come along with it. And part of the discounts with that is that if you have your status in there, you can get lounge access, which means you can get more free meals, free alcohol if you're a drinker, or mocktails or whatever, and you can really take advantage of that cost savings if you don't have to go out to eat as much. Yeah. So that's what we do when we stay in Marriott is, well, we get free lounge access, so we have our dinner there. We also often have breakfast sometimes is included. Often is included. Yeah. With the lounge, it is included. But sometimes if you're just staying in a hotel in general, you can negotiate free breakfast. Yeah. So we'll get the breakfast at the lounge. We eat dinner at the lounge. Sometimes we eat lunch out, but we don't have any other food costs. So it saves a lot of money. It does. All of this stuff really adds up, meaning you can take that at deduction. Yeah. All right. Number seven on this list is that we cook a lot of our own meals. We try to stay in apart hotels or condos as much as we can so that we can cook, because when you shop and buy your groceries, it's a lot cheaper in most countries. Yeah. Maybe not in Vietnam. Not in Vietnam. It's actually, I think, cheaper to eat out in Vietnam and parts of Cambodia and Thailand than it is to buy stuff and cook it. However, it's not as healthy. I like doing this anyway, because also if you're slow traveling, you're living in these places. You aren't on vacation. Well, sometimes you are kind of in vacation mode. It's hard not to be, but it makes me feel like we're really part of the community more if I'm going to the grocery store, going to the local merchants and buying local produce, and then coming home and cooking. And I find it relaxing. It is relaxing, but that saves us a lot of money. It does. When we eat out more, it costs more almost everywhere outside Southeast Asia, especially in Europe. It's another way to help manage costs. If you do want to go to someplace that's more expensive, like when we went to London, boy, that place is pricey. And a lot of people just have their breakfast and coffee at home. That saves a meal out, $7 coffee, wherever you happen to be. Some places are expensive. Yes. Like London. All right. Number six is the slower, the slower pace equals fewer tourist expenses because you're in a place longer. You kind of get the feel for it. You find more free things to do. You're not, you don't feel like you have to rush to get all of these expensive tourist things done within like a week timeframe. We also don't do a lot of paid tours. If you are somebody who spends a lot of money on tours, you might want to cut back on that to manage your costs. And I find that we don't feel the need to go out and do all of that stuff because when we're there, we're able to take our time and really learn more about the history and culture on our own and just explore first by walking around, like you said, doing the free stuff, which is just using our feet. And when we find something interesting, we look it up. Yeah. Like Gary says in our travel club, he says, calls it blundering. He likes to go blunder around the city for a while and just figure it, find his way around. Yep. It works great. Yeah. Your spending habits definitely do change. We do the big stuff like the Louvre. I mean, you can't go to Paris and not go to the Louvre, which is kind of expensive. We did the Roman Forum and the Colosseum. I mean, some of those things, those bucket list places, you really, you're going to want to spend the money on that, but then you don't feel like you have to go do everything else. Like we have some people on our leaps that they do something every single day, but they're treating it more like a vacation than slow travel. And I think it takes a while to shift that mindset. It does. It is a mindset shift. And also the fact that you can go back if you want to. For example, we went to Siem Reap. We did not slow travel. We only went there for four days because we just thought, oh, well, we just want to see Angkor Wat. Well, we were wrong. We needed to spend more time there. And we did go back. And then that way we were able to really take our time and enjoy it more. All right. Number five is you have better transportation choices when you are living in a place for a short period of time and when you're just vacationing there for a week. And these can save you quite a bit of money. You walk more. Like Amelia just said, you take the public transportation. You have time to figure it out and learn it because in some places it's very confusing. Like we're in Prague right now and the metro stations don't have signs. You kind of have to know, be clairvoyant to know which station you're in because it's not like they have a digital readout. They're speaking in Czech, which doesn't always sound like the word looks. And when you come into the station, there's no sign like everywhere else in the world. This is the worst country for signs. It is confusing. I find the Google Maps extremely helpful. You definitely want to learn the public transportation if it's available. And that includes the buses. We don't do buses a lot because we just walk. But the bus system is really good in other countries. Yeah. So you can get by without a car, I guess, is where this one is leading. You don't need a car, which is a massive expense, whether you own one at home or you rent one while you're vacationing. You just really don't need that once you settle into a location to really figure out the transportation. I think that's a big mind shift for Americans and Canadians because our countries are so huge and so spread out. We are just used to having our cars. And so many other countries, that's just not a typical way of life for a lot of people. OK, number four is we avoid peak seasons. We go during shoulder season or off season. Sometimes it might be colder than we like, but there's also a lot fewer people. So you get better deals because it's off season. Right. That saves a lot of money. I really like going in shoulder season or off season for that exact reason that you said, JP, the fewer amount of crowds, because especially in places in Europe, it can get very, very crowded. And of course, you want to see the iconic stuff. You don't want to just stay in your neighborhood. Yeah. And if your goal is to live more like a local, then you can choose the less iconic places instead of those bucket list destinations every place. So you go to tier two cities like instead of, I don't know, Paris, you go to Dijon, which is a lot more affordable. Oh, it sure is. And we loved it. Yeah, we did. It was amazing. I'd totally go back there and spend more time. We stayed a month in Dijon and it wasn't long enough. No. All right. So if you want to learn more about how slow travel works and how it can work for you, we created a free slow travel unlocked mini course that you can grab from our website and have it delivered straight to your inbox. Just go to turtletravelclub.com slash go slow or scan this QR code. The QR code is easier, I think. I know it is easier, but not if you're watching on your phone. That's true. You can't really hold up a mirror. You have to have two mirrors, one there. Yeah. Somebody can figure that out. Let us know. They should make those clickable on mobile. I know. QR codes should be clickable. I don't know why they're not. All right. Number three, health care can be less, can cost a lot less abroad than you pay back in the United States. This is a big one for people because people are really concerned about health care as you should. It's something to take very seriously. And we get asked from people about getting international health insurance, which I'm not a huge fan of because it can be very costly and you often have to jump through a lot of hoops to get your coverage or to get your reimbursement. But of course, it depends on your individual situation. We always recommend just putting some money aside for medical emergency health care issues that may arise and just pay as you go. Yeah. It's called self-insuring and it works the same for dental care. And we remember that guy we met in Cuenca. He was there getting dental implants. Yes. He said he got a quote in the US and it was $40,000 to do his dental implants. He went to Ecuador. It was $10,000. So with the cost of a month in Ecuador to get them done, he saved like $25,000 versus having those same things done in the US. A lot of people go to Mexico and Ecuador and other countries around the world to get these kind of procedures done because it's just cheaper. Well, that's also why we talk about doing our health screening in Kuala Lumpur because it's very affordable. People do this in Thailand, Vietnam. I mean, you've got a lot of options. Health care around the world is good. All right. Number two, you stop shopping as entertainment, what I like to call retail therapy. When you're traveling full time, you don't feel this need to shop. You just go out and wander around or blunder around the city and see different things. Your life is filled with different new experiences and you don't feel this compulsion to go to Amazon and order things that you never opened. Are you? I thought maybe you were talking about souvenir shopping too. Well, I don't know. If you're slow traveling, you don't really do a lot of souvenir shopping either. Because you don't want to carry that stuff with you. Yeah. So that was my thought about that. You buy a lot less stuff. It is both because a lot of people spend a big chunk of their budget on retail therapy and they don't even realize it, how much they're spending. And when you don't feel that need to shop to make yourself feel better, it saves a lot of money and makes travel more affordable. Yeah. It's exciting to go to a new place once every, I don't know, one to three months or however you want to live your slow travel life. Because you're right, JP, you do not get bored. You're constantly being stimulated by different things with different experiences. And by the way, make sure you use a fee-free ATM card and a credit card. There are a lot of credit cards that don't charge international fees. That will save you money. Fee-free ATMs will refund the money charged by the dispensing bank. That saves money. So all this stuff adds up. Right, Amelia? Yes, it does. Okay. This is the number one reason why we can afford to slow travel or full-time travel. And that is the costs are not additive. We're not adding our travel expenses on top of our living expenses. Our travel expenses are our living expenses. We don't have a house or cars back home that we have to continue to pay for. No utilities, no insurance, no maintenance on anything. We have nothing back home. I think that is the biggest key to traveling full-time is to get rid of everything. Some people get a small storage unit and put some things in. But most of the people we've met doing this have sold everything. And their budget is what used to be their cost of living budget is now their travel budget. Exactly. That is the key differentiator. And I think that people don't realize that your best option is to sell your place. Or some people choose to rent it. You can rent that out. Just you don't want to be paying your mortgage back home and then paying for a short-term rental somewhere else because that really drives up your costs. Yes, it does. It makes it really more affordable. I think that's the biggest thing people don't understand is when they take a vacation, the cost of the vacation is added on top of their cost of living for back home. Whereas if you travel full-time, it just replaces it. Yes. Yeah. So it's just much better. But the hard part is letting go of all of that stuff. It is. It's a mind shift. And we know people struggle with it. I struggled with it. JP was like out the window. But it was definitely a longer transition for me. If I can do it, you can do it. Yeah. I was happy to get rid of all that stuff. I always say I feel so much lighter without the weight of my possessions. I agree with that. Yeah. In fact, I would like to get down, just have a rollerboard suitcase. That would be awesome. I don't agree with that. I know. I'm thinking about going with the new wardrobe here. I'll have two black t-shirts. That's it. I like seeing you in some different stuff once in a while. All right. So hopefully, you understand now how we afford to do this. And I guess we should talk roughly about the budget. So when we lived in Denver, before we wrap this up, let's talk about that. So when we lived in Denver, we were spending more than $6,000 a month. $1,200 of that was just on our cars. We had two cars. We had two cars, the car payments, tags, taxes, insurance, maintenance, gas, all of that stuff, parking, $1,200 a month. That is like a third of our entire travel budget. You know, it's crazy. We spend between $3,500 and $4,000 a month on travel. When we're slow traveling. Now, we talked about this in a previous video. Fast travel, that's a whole different animal. And our costs went way up when we were doing that, which is why we recommend and why we are slowing back down. Yeah, exactly. So in Ecuador, we were spending around $3,000 to $3,500 a month in Cumbaya. In Cuenca, we were spending $1,800 a month. I honestly think we would still be spending that much if we lived there. $1,800 a month. I mean, $2,000 a month. We'll just round up. Yeah, so $2,000 a month to live in Ecuador versus $3,500 to travel the world. It's a pretty good deal. I think so. And a lot of people in the U.S. are shocked when we tell them that we only spend like $3,500 to $4,000 a month to travel full time because it's usually half what they spend on their cost of living back in the U.S. Well, and we know people who do this for a lot less because they do the house sitting and house exchanges. If you can minimize your monthly costs like that, your housing costs, you're going to save a lot of money. Yeah, and that's for two people, obviously. So it would be more like, what, $2,500 if it was just one of us. And we don't go the cheapest route, like Amelia said. You could probably do this on under $1,500 a month if you stay three months in each location. Especially if you focus on lower cost of living countries or parts of the world like Southeast Asia. Yeah, in Southeast Asia, you could probably do this for $1,000 a month in Southeast Asia if you stay in each place, like if you max out the tourist visa. Right. It's really not that expensive. It's way more affordable than people think. So hopefully we busted that myth that you have to be rich to travel full time like we're doing. We're just rich in spirit. Yeah, and experiences now. Experiences. So remember, if you want some help along this path, go grab our Slow Travel Unlocked mini course at turtletravelclub.com slash go slow. And before you go, please leave us a like, and we will see you all in our next video. Ciao.