I'm always fascinated by the ways in which people fund their tours. More often than not i'm left looking on in envy.

I'm late twenties/early thirties, and don't really have any assets to speak of.

I passed my test in Feb 2008, quit my job in May, and by August rode 5,500 miles to the Black Sea and back. Ever since then I've had the motorcycle travel bug.

Bar this year when my position was made redundant, I've been fortunate enough to do a short 17 day tour every year, despite having low paid jobs.

My ultimate dream is take a 36month tour of the world.

I find it difficult to adjust to the regular 9-5 rat race at the best of times let alone after a tour, so in order to fund my tour my aim is to create a (mainly automated) company, that will pay me at least £600 a month and allow me to carry on touring after any initial saving run out.

I have already started my own company, but it barely makes anything, and I might have to look at other options. In the mean time I've taken on a decent paying 12 month full time work contract to try and get some savings started (I have nothing so far). I'm expecting to be able to save about £5000 in 2013. I'd happily leave with £17,000 and figure out the rest on the road.

The aim is to leave within the next 3-4 years. It's a tall order, but it's good to dream right?

Apart from the full time job, you're pretty much exactly the same as me...

I think you shouldn't wait as long though. Just budget better.

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

I'm heading to Canada on the working holiday visa to try and get started in the Oil Industry.

If you can't find high paying work where you are, move elsewhere and look for it.


£5000 sounds a fairly low amount to save in year. I'm currently managing to save £150 a week despatch riding in London, I might have to have pinched a little bit out of my savings by the time I'm finished (well alright, by the end of Jan when the double whammy of vat and tax are due at the same time ) but it's mostly a fairly credible savings regime, and could be a lot better if I hadn't got used to daily heavy drinking and living off fast food.

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UK to Mongolia 2009, on a DR350

I think that's quite a lot..... Just under £500 a month.

Who really has that left over after you've been squeezed left, right and centre by the government, family, bills, prep costs etc.

Not me

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

I agree.

Just spent the weekend with Ian Coates who has just returned from a 14 year RTW trip. His budget was £10 a day or less.

Well practised in the art of fixing anything Ian went the odd way round simply helping farmers fix there gear, doing free work for bed and food, and on occasion getting paid in food, petrol or accomodation.

With a credit card for emergencies, he managed with his tent, and has done over 400,000 kms on his old Africa Twin.

Ask him yourself at facebook/iancoates

Oh did I mention he is 70 years old this year.

I can't find him on facebook with that name...


I think it's

https://www.facebook.com/ian.coates.923?fref=ts

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

I believe this to be one of the most vital threads thus far. Take my word for it, as I've been lurking for quite some time now.

Anywho, as we started to set our departure plans in soft stone, we've also started to prep for it financially. Meaning: we started by clearing out decent items at yard/garage sales which were held at inopportune times by the sellers, and stashed the items in the garage, waiting for spring to have our own sale, in hopes to generate a small profit. Stash away profit, re-use operating capital, buy - sell. Rinse - repeat.
Caveat; our vehicles remain parked outside the garage throughout the winter.
Upside; it's personal sales. No sales tax, no 'profits' to speak of, and a nice supplemental chunk of change that goes in the pink pig.
Combine the above with going out less, eating out less, selling the low MPG truck, etc. Money doesn't come easy, and it certainly doesn't come fast, but it comes, and that's the entire idea of the "gameplan".

Not much input, but maybe something to consider for some of you.

M.

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Never regret. Always ride.

Well.... he made it !

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

None of us want to hitchhike, but I though this story of a Frenchman who travelled for five years, RTW, paying NOTHING for transport, hitchhiking on planes, boats and vehicles was inspiring. And you know he was invited into many homes for meals.

French hitchhiker Jeremy Marie travels 100,000 miles around the world without spending any money | Mail Online

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Rallying for A Wild Life — THE FILM!
http://igg.me/at/AWildLife

www.LorraineChittock.com
www.facebook.com/lorraine.chittock

I replied on this thread a long time ago, but find a lot of the responses really interesting in that we seem to put a high value on doing things cheaply/for free as opposed to what I consider more realistic. Granted, selling one's home and all posessions and just flying out of town full throttle is so sexy and legendary, I just find it so unrealistic for MOST people. I find it unrealistic for people with a sense of obligation to what is at "home," let alone those 90+% of us who dont' have the personality to just up and leave.

For me, I want the adventure, but I also want the home to come home to. You can say that is having your cake and eating it too, and it may well be. However, what I tell people any time I talk about travel is that you CAN have both but it is all about choices. I live in a smaller house than I can "afford" because I want to make sure I can pay the mortgage when I don't have income (am traveling). I don't buy a new car every few years, I don't own a flatscreen, I don't go out to the bar and drop $100 every friday night. For me, those are the major things which enable travel from the fiscal side.

I wrote before about how I do contract work as a financial analyst for a couple of years at a time and then plan something and go off for a few months (last trip lasted about 6 months). I come back with a beard fit for nesting birds, tens of thousands of pictures, and several lifetimes of experience.

I hope to travel more, and I also hope to have a (somewhat) stable life here in Richmond, VA. Have I found the perfect answer or some secret formula? ..no, far from it, but I have found what I THINK is a way to make my perfect mix of travel and home time work out.

In the end, I'm always saving, always working to make sure my debt is limited and that when I do get the itch...or I do come up with a plan, I can execute on it more quickly. ...and that I have some sort of fall back when I get home, utterly destroyed from an epic adventure and need to obtain an income stream within a few months.

In the future I hope to be able to generate income through investments that can sustain or help buffer more longer duration travel. Every penny I don't spend on something I don't need gets me that much closer to that goal.

I surprised myself at how little I was spending on my last European trip. I thought it was going to be equivalent to Australian prices but it ended up averaging at 30E a day.
10 on petrol, 10 on food (supermarket) and 10 on camp sites.

In Germany I met a lady at a youth hostel who put a sign up offering 10E haircuts to backpackers. She was busy all day and funded her next weeks travelling with a few hours work.

Note to self - learn to cut hair

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Postie Notes - "you're not seriously going around Australia on a postie bike??"