The only comment I would make is hunker down and buy a piece of real estate that you can rent out that locks you in the market.

While now you say you don’t want a nest egg or a house etc, life goes by in an instant. You wake up and your 55!!!!!!!

That unit you bought pays for your travel later on.

The house I own cost $80’000 in 1992. To buy it now would be $850’000

We will rent that at $3000 pm. We can travel anywhere. But if you told me that in 1992 I would have spat my coffee.

So just get something is my advice.

Good luck to you!

BTW I don’t think it’s a USA thing. It’s a western thing.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Just spent 6/7 weeks riding down through the US so not a great deal of data but we did stay with a few North Americans so here’s a thought for what it’s worth.

Looks in general that consumerism is a lot greater in the US than the UK. The amount of new and nearly new big pick up trucks is staggering. Then there’s the other toys: motorcycles, boats, quads etc….
In the UK these things are expensive and attributed to wealthy people but it looks like everyone has them in the States - well everyone we met anyway.
Also in the UK people are used to going abroad for holidays so it’s something to save up for and, if they enjoy travel they will save for an extended trip.

Our friends and relatives in the States don’t seem to have 2 or 3 week holiday periods and if they do they certainly don’t need to go far to enjoy them so maybe travelling or trips or whatever are just not on their radar.

No offence just a thought.

I added a post earlier, and today thought about things and ended up writing the following, which I hope adds a little to the discussion. Others have given similar comments so there's some repitition.

1) re cost, it's all pretty flexible - how you travel affects cost massively. People spend USD 50K for 10 days in a luxury lodge in Namibia, others spend USD 1000 for 3 months in Cambodia. Anyway - think of costs in terms of the costs associated with travel (fuel, ship/ferry fares, museums, galleries, national park entry fees, insurance, medical expenses, visas, vehicle maintenance), and those which you will be paying whether you travel or not (food, drink, accommodation, insurance, medical expenses…

Now, consider the comparison, between travelling and staying at home.

Fuel: depends on your travel pattern on the road or at home - if at home you commute in heavy traffic for an hour each way every day you consume enough fuel to travel 200 km a day on average on the road. So, no extra cost.
Vehicle/bike maintenance: If you travel 15,000 km a year at home, and travel 45,000 km in a year on the road then your vehicle maintenance will obviously triple. However… if you're doing the maintenance in Colombia or Cambodia labour costs are a lot less than in the USA or Canada and you will end up with overall costs which are similar.
Shipping/ferry costs: clearly these are going to add expense to your life when travelling. Ferry expenses are not high unless taking a ferry from Bellingham to Whittier, Nova Scotia to Newfoundland, or Melbourne to Tasmania. Shipping your vehicle across an ocean is expensive. This is a significant additional expense, however obviously if you don’t travel where you need to ship your vehicle it will not add much cost.
Museums and galleries: You'll probably not spend much on these unles you routinely visit museums and art galleries at home, in which case the cost difference will be the difference in entry fees. In some countries it’s free, in others not, so you need to compare fees between those at home and those where you plan to go.
National park entry fees: Similar to the previous aspect, although when on a long trip you may visit more national/state/provincial/territorial parks than at home. Some parks (Serengeti leaps to the fore) are expensive, others are free or inexpensive. If you plan to visit many parks on a trip look into park passes (e.g., the Wildpark Pass in RSA) which reduces the price per park.
Insurance: Travel insurance may not be any more expensive than the insurance you pay to stay at home - it depends on where and what you plan to do. Comprehensive vehicle/bike insurance for travel in much of the world is prohibitively expensive so most travellers in South America and Africa (for example) take out the legal requirement in each country and no more.
Medical expenses: Medical insurance and “out of pocket” expenses in the USA are ridiculously high (I assume that by “American” The Raven means “USAian”). Leaving and travelling elsewhere is likely to mean a reduction in insurance cost, and medical costs’ being a lot less, if there is any cost at all.
Visas: This is obviously a cost which is not required if you stay at home. Costs range from inexpensive to medium, however USA passport holders have reasonable “passport power” and costs are not that high when visas are required (compared for example with the cost of a UK visa for a Colombian passport holder (last time we obtained a UK visa it cost USD 1137.00! Now travel to the UK for Colombians is visa-free).
Food and drink: you eat and drink at home anyway so the “travel cost” is just the difference. Food and drink costs when travelling in Africa, South America, and Asia are typically less or a lot less than costs in the USA.
Accommodation: Very much dependent on where you go. Campsite costs (unless wild camping) are high in the USA, Canada, and Australia, as well as in some parts of Europe, however a lot less in other areas - you can stay in posadas/BnBs in South America, for example, for less than the price of a campsite in Australia. In cities we usually stay in hotels or BnBs, and when outside cities it depends on the area.

So, overall, taking into account the difference in costs at home versus travelling, it’s not that big a difference. When people say that “budgeting for a south american trip is about 20k USD” you need to decide how you'll travel and compare this with the cost of not going at all.

2) "Americans" vs non-"Americans". I think it depends on the "where". We have met far fewer "Americans" travelling in Africa, Asia, and Australia, whereas in Latin America we've met more "Americans" than Australians and Europeans. The number of Africans we've met outside Africa is very small indeed.

3) Don't overthink it - get out there and travel!

I think the flaw in your argument appears in the 'fuel' section: ...if at home you commute in heavy traffic for an hour each way every day you consume enough fuel to travel 200 km a day on average on the road. So, no extra cost.

While that statement is accurate in itself, it identifies the reality for most people, insofar as that 'commute' is to a place of work, where they earn the $/£/€s necessary to meet all those 'at home' costs. So if you're getting a monthly allowance from Mum & Dad... fine, but for most folk,once they take to the road, in your example South America at a cost of 20k, there's a high liklihood that they'll find those salary cheques are going to stop arriving each month.

__________________
BobnLes