The best time to plan a long-term travel adventure is while you’re young and still living with parents. Once you start taking on financial commitments, it makes it much harder to travel. Not only do you have to save up for all the travel costs such as flights and accommodation, but you also have to set aside enough money in the bank to keep paying bills like rent, utilities and insurance.
That said, traveling for months at a time when you have bills to pay isn’t impossible. There are a few solutions to consider to help eliminate your bills or cover them. Below are just a few examples.
Work as you travel
Working as you travel allows you to keep earning money. This could prevent you from having to save up as much money beforehand to cover travel costs and bills.
There are some jobs that you can do from any location providing that you have a laptop and wi-fi such as writing, graphic design, and virtual accounting (known as digital nomad jobs). In other cases, it may be possible to pick up jobs as you travel such as working at a bar for a few months in one location and then working in another bar in another location for a few months.
Working while traveling does require giving up time to work – which could mean that you can’t travel as fast and freely. Consider before you sign up for any work.
Move out of your home
If you’ve been thinking of moving home, why not move out of your home just before you travel? You won’t be paying household bills any and you can start looking for a few homes when you return.
All of your possessions could be moved into storage temporarily while you travel. You can then move into your new home once you return from your travels.
Rent your home out as you travel
If you don’t want to move out of your home, another option could be to rent it out while you travel. If you own your home, you could rent it out to tenants who can help cover the mortgage while you’re traveling. If you rent your home, you could talk to your landlord about moving out for a few months and arranging for a new tenant to move in temporarily. Not all landlords will agree to this as finding a short-term tenant isn’t easy, however, you may be able to talk them around to the idea by helping them find a tenant before you move out.
As with moving out, you’ll want to put your possessions into temporary storage as you travel.
Temporarily take your car off the road
If you own a car and you’re not taking it away with you on your travels, you may want to consider registering your car off the road. The vehicle can go into car storage as you travel. This allows you to keep your car without having to keep paying taxes and insurance.
Where can I find car storage near me? There should be a storage facility in your area that also offers car storage. Alternatively, if you know a neighbor with space on their driveway, you could kindly ask them to keep your car there for a few months while you travel.
Temporarily cancel subscriptions you don’t need
It may be possible to cancel many other bills like gym subscriptions. You can then renew these when you get back home. Don’t cancel subscriptions that may still be of use while travelling such as music streaming subscriptions.
