Hi all,

I think it's quite relative but to those of us living in the UK I don't know anyone who seems to be able to save money here any more. I think this is increasingly the case in many western countries, spiralling living costs and stagnating wages, not to mention high rents relative to income and the continual drive towards poor pay, zero-hour contracts, etc! Those who got into the property game early are pretty lucky (one might argue that the babyboomers buying up the property and charging young people a fortune is half the problem).

As a 29 year old, getting on the property market hardly seems viable, and if it was (i.e. I had a partner, parents throw in thousands for deposit), I'm not sure a 25-year mortgage is something I'd really be enthusiastic in signing up for anyway. Meanwhile, I've been travelling around since university and never stuck to a single job nor played at getting those of those things people call 'careers', and yet, the people who did play that game seem to work ungodly hours, and never have time to do anything worthwhile with their money beyond spending it on expensive, glitzy material items - and there is nothing wrong with that either, but I don't think it's something that would satisfy me. So it is the catch-22 of not working and having time, but then not having enough money.

I've been hanging around the HUBB now and take interest in peoples trip reports. It seems quite amazing to me people have the money to appear to be so well equipped with pro-level dSLR's, top-spec camping and navigation equipment and really expensive, top whack adventure bikes (and good for them too!) But I think, relatively speaking, that is as amazing to me as people find me amazing, when I tell them I've lived here and there, and done all the stuff which I've been lucky enough to have done in the past seven years since going overseas. I suppose you must work with what you have. I'm lucky in that between trips, my dad lets me stay at his place and does not charge me a penny, I think if it were not for this, it would be a lot harder to live my somewhat erratic lifestyle, yet I'm sure I could find a way if it was necessary.

Right now I am planning a trip to South America. I've been doing a lot of research and am currently scouring eBay for deals on second-hand equipment, you can find really good deals; for example, so far I've bought my stove, sleeping bag, sleep mat, etc, and saved a lot of money. All I need now is a water filter, a half-decent tent and a basic Garmin eTrex. As for my bike, it's going to be either a new or a used Honda CGL125, which retail at around 700 quid, while ones with low-mileage can be had for as low as 350/400 GBP. I also volunteered with a programme sponsored by the UN called English Opens Doors. I'll teach for six months in a Chilean highschool, and in return get to live with a host family, get the visa paid for, plus healthcare, so this will hopefully take the pressure doing everything at once, give me time to improve my Spanish and generally provide a good platform to launch my S.America trip from... I hope

People find my lifestyle strange, and sometimes family members ask things like 'what about a career' or weirdly, 'but where do you think you'll be in ten years time', and yet for me, the career boat has already sailed (bon voyage!), and besides, perhaps I'm still young and naive, but I believe it is essential to follow your heart, and maybe that is to buy a house, settle down, have kids, and then that's great you'll probably be happy, but if it's going solo around the world on a motorcycle, then allowing a house, career, to get in the way of that, well that probably won't bring any joy. We all seem to adopt a strange mentality that we'll get 'on top' of this business we call life, and if we just work through it, and get to the end, everything will be all right. And yet I suspect when people reach the end, all of sudden realise that all we have we ever had was the present, so to keep forsaking it for a future that never comes, well I'm not sure that can work... well, getting rather philosophical now and perhaps I have this all wrong!

Time will tell