"How we made money traveling the world"



I often don't know how to respond to peoples comments about all the trips we have been able to go on. I usually just say something like, "Oh, we fly standby so we can fly for free." But its really a much longer answer than that. Atleast for me. So I wanted to do a few things 1- paint a little more accurate picture of what its been like for us to travel 2- how it was all possible 3- explain why we chose to spend our money traveling and 4- document my gratitude.   I want to explain these things, mostly to my future self but for anyone else that is curious.

 First, we've slept in the airport literally more time then I can count. Both when I work and when we travel. Since I work part time and commute from Hawaii to Denver, I don't work often, but when I do, I work a lot. Often my schedule is something like 5 am to 11 pm, then sleep in my car or on the airport floor for a couple hours, then do it again for 2 or 3 or 4 days. Ideally, I try to work 4 days straight, then have 24 days off.  The 4 days literally max me out (but the three and a half weeks off are awesome). I don't just sleep in the airport when I work. Keith and I sleep in the airport all the time when we travel. Sometimes on purpose, sometimes because we have no other option. And we pretty much always try and take red eye flights so we don't have to spend extra money on a hotel. So we also sleep on airplanes a lot. I didn't think it was possible, but I now can sleep in almost any positions lol.

Its important to note that we spent less money this summer traveling than we would have staying in Hawaii. Luckily enough we found the nicest couple to sublease our apartment to during the summer. So we had no monthly housing fee. We were SO blessed to be able to stay with both of our families in between trips. We could have never, ever, ever done it without them.

We set a summer budget, and kept track of EVERY dime we spent. We actually stayed well below our budget. Crazy enough, between April and September, we spent less than $3,000! Hawaii housing alone is significantly more expensive than that. I have come to realize you really don't need that much money to travel.

Regardless, I know from the outside looking in it may seem careless and stupid to travel the world when we really have no money to spare. But people don't understand that it is literally cheaper for us to fly to the Philippines than go out to dinner. Not to mention we get to watch like 6 new release movies and get at least two free meals on the plane.

Some may not buy my argument that we made money traveling because 'we spent less money than we would have spent living at home'. We didnt make money traveling this summer per say...but we did make a ton of memories. And we did gain a ton of perspective . We made and strengthened friendships. We generated ideas and plans. And we accumulated so many experiences.  The most important 'thing' to make is not money. That is without a doubt.

So beside from me truly believing that it was a good financial decision for us to travel every week for 20 weeks straight last summer, I think about the huge opportunity cost that we would have missed out on had we chose to do otherwise. They say nothing is as expensive as a missed opportunity. Soon, (hopefully real soon(!)) we'll start having kids, have expensive -expensives, Keith will be in dental school...life will get crazy really fast. And I can't wait for that season of our lives. But I'm so glad we took advantage of this season too.

I have learned so much by seeing even just a tiny part of the world. I once heard a quote that says, "I am not the same having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world." I agree. I'm not exactly sure what I have learned (one of these days I should sit down and make a list) but my vision has definitely broadened, my perspective deepened, my understanding enhanced and my love and gratitude has tremendously grown after 'seeing the moon shine on the other side of the world'.

But what I want to document more than anything is that we owe an eternal THANK YOU to our parents and siblings who picked us up, fed us and dropped us off at the airport oh-soo-many-times, and also extended framily (friends and family) in all different parts of the world. I cant even begin to adequately articulate it but I hope they know how truly, deeply grateful we were and are to them for literally opening so many doors and opportunities for us.  We never in a million years could have done it on our own. I could have never kept the job had my parents not let me take their car every single time I went to work. We would have never survived, mentally or financially had we not been able to come home to our families houses and caught up on sleep, laundry and food. Trips would have been infinitely more expensive had friends across the globe not let us stay at in their home. Keith and I have talked hundreds of times how blessed we are for everyones incredible generosity.  I hope we can pay it forward throughout our life. I truly have a passion for traveling, and seeing like 25 countries in the first 15 months of marriage has been better than a dream. I feel so grateful for the circumstances that have allowed me to travel and most especially to my Father in Heaven, who is the source of every single good thing in my life.
 
And Im so grateful for my travel buddy husband who puts up with me and my endless planning.