Been there done that. Don't do it .. the boss won't let you go .. even for 4 weeks .. no you cannot go ... In the end you quit. Leaves bad blood behind. You want to be replaceable, or at least seasonal .. so there is the possibility of 'disappearing' for a while and not leaving them missing you too much. Or be in a high demand job .. but anyone with the experience can do it. Accountant, nurse, bricklayer, plumber etc.

I would not do a credit based extended trip. Save more bucks :-) Credits are expensive - you burn a lot of money with it, who will shorten other trips/travels/rtw`s or other plans in your life later.

The life in not over with 40-50.

I dream of an RTW by car since i`m 16 years old. Did several short trips with rentals in Laos, Thailand, Cuba, Europe.

With 38 i was able to buy that car i dreamed about, was able to test the setup through africa.

Now i`m 40, still saving bucks each month. Still looking for the right timeframe to start for such an trip. The car is there, equipped - now i just top up by budget.

Each month i`m able to save bucks, to extend my trip

Surfy

__________________
About Overlanding, Travelogues, Equipment
Trans-Africa over the west coast

There has to be some university somewhere in the UK doing a course in eco travelling or overland sustainable tourism or something. Sign up and get yourself a student loan. That'll fix the finances as you'll never have to pay it back.

Back in the real world it's hard to give advice as it's a problem I've kicked around for decades without coming to a definitive conclusion. The only thing I would say is that, although I've never met you, (although I did see you once in the bar at a rally surrounded by fawning female acolytes kneeling at your feet!) I get the feeling that it's a serious issue for you.

Something like that is only going to get worse as the years pass. Not because you're going to be too old and too knackered by 35 but because it becomes increasingly difficult to dump everything you've achieved in other areas of your life. Weighing up doing the trip vs having to start virtually from scratch when you come back has the scales tipping more and more towards the stay side as the years pass. Even at the age you are now many men have wives, children, houses, lifestyle and "career progression" to consider. Dumping some or all of those to travel may be beyond what is possible.

Even if you don't tick many of those boxes atm you may wonder how vanishing for a year or two will impact on them in the future. I don't think it's an coincidence that a lot of long term travelling is done by people in their 20's with nothing to lose and people in their 60's (post retirement) with everything to gain.

On a more philosophical bent have you wondered why you want to do this? I don't want to start spouting psychobabble but there's usually some underlying motivation for people wanting to do anything unusual that goes beyond the obvious. This forum probably isn't the right place to bare your soul but you ought to be aware of your own motivations. Back in 2008 I cancelled a trip to Africa - something I'd spent a year planning - about a week before departure for a reason I've never told anyone but which goes right to the core of my life experience.

So, bottom line, do it or don't do it, but weigh up the consequenses of each option and decide which takes you further in the direction you want to go. Heart may be saying go now and sort the mess out when I get back but head, looking at the world of finance, employment and long term prospects, may have different ideas. If you're hoping people on here may come up with an angle you haven't considered, well, don't hold your breath, we all look to you for answers.

My own philosophy: NEVER EVER travel on debt.

Here is a thought: You have £5000. Just leave. Now. Get jobs along the way. Work in bars. Work on a cruise ship. Work on farms. And Volunteer a lot in return for food and a place to sleep. Hitchhike from place to place. Cook your own food. Couchsurf. I've met people who left with $1000 USD in the bank and traveled for years. End result compared to saving money ahead of time? I couldn't tell a difference talking to them....

__________________
Traveling The World Since: 2011
Blog: The Seductive Life (General Travel)

Nearly 34 eh.
I didn't know people as young as that were allowed to join this forum.

I think you have to put to one side the elderly parents potential problem as your parents could easily be around for many many years so that is always, hopefully, going to be a factor.

I don't know how much you expect to need in total for this trip but you will effectively lose £2,280 of your £10,000 loan as that is how much you need to pay back while you are away.
So that leaves £7,720 to add to your £5,000 but you'll probably need a little more from the loan as you'll need funds when you get back to find a job, and digs, and you won't get paid in your new job for a month.
But you know all of that.
So probably need to assume you'll only have £7,000 of your loan as "available" money.
I'm making the assumption here that you won't be earning while you're travelling.

I wouldn't go for the loan myself, but good luck in whatever you decide although my 50P says you'll take the money and run.

Lot of good answers here.

I do not comment if you should take the money and run or not.
But, when you get stuck to a career, you will suddenly wake up one morning and wonder where all those years have gone.
I have noticed that older I get, faster the time is running…

__________________
www.whereishemuli.eu
Riding round the World

Facebook:WhereIsHemuli

Great replies.... Nice one

I know that 34 is not the end of my life haha.

And I know that one big trip is not going to quench the lust for adventure. It will probably just make it worse.

There are a few reasons why I can't wait another two years.

1) I can't settle in my job..... It pays the bills and allows me to save but I'm losing my will to live and spirit to travel. All I do is think about where I'd rather be. I haven't been away since 2012 and that was cut short by a moaning girlfriend.

2) Elderly parent... In another 2-3 years, my mum could be an invalid. It's like the reverse of some people waiting for their kids to grow up... I might not be able to disappear on a long trip with a clear conscience if I wait.

3) Business/Career opportunity. I have an exciting new self-employed venture on the horizon. Not something I would want to just drop for 12 months. It's not feasible. You can't save for travelling when you're starting up a business.


I have no delusion that another long trip will be my last but I think as there are a lot of places I have really wanted to visit that will 'checked off' after a RTW, I will much happier... After that I will be happy with just 2 months a year over the winter. I've just always always wanted to do a long , long trip...


I am no stranger to debt. I have had plenty of loans and credit cards and I ALWAYS pay.

The loan I am looking at is £10,000 with a payment of £190 a month for five years. A lot if you're not working but nothing I can't manage.

Like I say, I'm not one of those who blindly borrows money without really thinking it through.

So... hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

__________________
Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

That's a good deal

For what it's worth; I wouldn't have done it.

Start looking for a job offshore as previously discussed ;-)

Don't borrow money it's like a noose around your neck!

Ted,

Plenty of good comments about whether one should borrow from the future to pay for one's dreams now so not much to add there. Have fun with whatever you finally decide.

Having said that, there is a pretty big gap when you mention what you are planning to do when you come back.

If you are serious about starting a new business, unless you are one in a hundred, most new businesses require start up capital, take a while to be profitable, take even longer to be cash flow positive, and take even longer than that to be profitable enough to match the wages you would earn working in a regular job.

The first stage of your plan doesn't mesh with the next stage I am afraid. If you are serious about it, you will need every bit of capital to start and succeed at your new business. If it isn't required to pay for getting things going, then it will be needed to pay for you living expenses while you wait for things to take off, or it will be needed for the never ending list of things required to grow your business to the next level.

There is an opportunity cost of taking on debt now. You are using it for short term consumption as opposed to investment in a longer term income generating asset down the road. Certainly not the end of the world to do so, but be very aware of the pros and cons and include those in your calculation.

Ride safe.

This is the only reason I haven't got the loan already.. I don't want to be broke and in debt whilst trying to start fresh after a trip....

Hard to weigh up the now and the later isn't it... !!

__________________
Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

I started my own company after I had been on the road for 12 months. I even had a small loan (for my apartment).
Luckily I didn't need a lot of money to start the company but it was still hard. It was impossible to get credit/loan for the company when I started because I couldn't document an income. Cashflow the first months was a problem and I had a dip after a year.
This is more then 10 years ago, and the company is still running strong!

The good thing about my new business idea is that I already have most of the tools and equipment to do so.

I've been buying them over the last two years and they've cost me about £7000. Mig/Tig welders, cutting equipment, tools, etc etc. The list goes on... I still need a lot of practice and experience with them... I'm really struggling to find the time to get stuck into some proper projects after doing a 50 hour week at work and then having a load of gardening, DIY and my own bike restorations at the weekend. I can't seem to get a break.

It's the reason why I don't have a lump sum to go travelling now. I thought I could do a mundane 9-6 for two years to pay for the equipment and a good trip afterwards.. But barely a year in, I'm going a bit nuts !!

__________________
Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

Maybe all the contributers to this thread should get together and set up a therapy group because bit by bit we seem to be teasing out what's actually going on in your life. Just lie back on the couch Ted, relax, and tell us about your childhood ...

Some of what you've been saying does strike a chord with me as I had similar issues at a similar age. Different circumstances but similar choices to be made. I'd just split up with my wife, I was working in a downmarket job with only dead mens shoes promotion in front of me and a feeling that time was moving on. I had a ten year plan from my early 20's and I'd achieved none of the items on the list. Looking back it was the second worst time of my life. I seriously considered an extended trip, just to give me some time to think and just shake everything up. I got to the point of doing a lot of the prep work.

It wasn't one big thing that stopped me, rather lots of little things. One of them was that I started a business - a part time paying hobby to begin with which gradually took up more and more of my time and supplied more and more of my income. There was never a point at which I made a formal start - went to the bank with a cash flow projection, that kind of thing as I never saw it as a long term career move. I still don't and I've been doing it 30 yrs! It's only now I'm starting to feel the same kind of unease with it that I felt with the old job back then.

I get the impression that at the root of your "distress" are a number of things -

1. A feeling that you're worth more (and I don't mean money) and should be doing better than the current job.
2. That you've served life's apprenticeship and if you're going to do something significant now is the age to do it.
3. There's not much else going on in other areas to distract you from, or compensate for, the situation you're in.
4. You have some ideas on how to improve things but so far all you've done is spend money on your business idea but it's not brought much, or any, in.
5. (This is the pop psychology bit) A long trip would be like taking time out from it all. Maybe things would happen en route or I'd come back with a different mindset.Perhaps I could even wipe the slate clean and start again.

Going on the trip would be like taking control of your life again. You'd be in charge of your own destiny and making your own decisions. What worried me (and one of the factors that stopped me going) was that the problems you'd (I'd) face on the trip were different. They were essentially linear problems, with linear solutions - turn left or right?, do I have the correct paperwork for this border?, pizza or pasta tonight? The issues I wanted to resolve though were multifactorial and complex and subject to all sorts of internal pressures that I knew the bike trip wouldn't fix - the sort of baggage you take with you rather than leave behind at Dover. You're obviously different so your solution will be different but if you do decide to go down the trip route make sure you do it with your eyes open and know what you want from it.

I've often wondered whether all our paths through life are just a continual sequence of cocking things up and trying to find a fix. A fair bit of mine has been like that anyway.

Of course it's up to you but for thought provocation. It's impossible to calculate an interest rate or consider value until you know for certain the date you will begin earning money to pay the loan payments. Because in the interm you are paying your payments with borrowed money so that would be added to your cost of borrowing. Do a rough calculation and I'll bet it'll make your hair stand in end the true cost of that loan in the end.
Cheers!