How we fund our Travels
While many travelers we know fund their adventures through writing, blogging, or working as travel consultants, that’s not our approach. We handle our own finances and like to think of ourselves as young retirees!
Honestly, when we left our corporate jobs to embrace a life of travel and exploration, we didn’t experience any nervous jitters. That’s probably because it wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision—it was a plan 15 years in the making. Everything necessary for this lifestyle came together gradually, not overnight. Back in college, Vinod had this sense that working until retirement wasn’t how life was supposed to be. So, he began saving early and dove deep into financial planning. It wasn’t easy, but it gave us a head start.
When Vinod started his first job, his focus wasn’t on career growth—it was on personal growth. Trust us, those are two very different things. Even while working, he always had this nagging question in the back of his mind…
“If I were to receive a monthly deposit equivalent to my current salary, with a 10% annual increase until my expected retirement age, would I still want to work?”
This persistent question led Vinod to explore alternative sources of fixed income, such as bank deposits, rental properties, dividends, and equity savings schemes. After some trial and error, he developed a solid financial plan. Around this time, we got married, and together, we intensified our approach to saving. Since I shared his view that working until the end of life wasn’t appealing, his philosophy resonated with me deeply. In fact, it was a key factor in our decision to marry.
Even as we saved diligently, we continued to travel—initially to nearby destinations, and as we grew more financially secure, we gradually expanded our travels. As I mentioned earlier, nothing happened overnight; everything was a gradual, step-by-step process.
Another quality that has worked in our favor is that neither of us is particularly drawn to material possessions. This has significantly shaped our financial needs, which differ greatly from those of others. I’ll dive deeper into this in a future post.
So the answer to how we fund our travel is financial planning and a combination of lifestyle choices.
This is our approach to freedom—because financial independence is essential for everything we want to do. The biggest advantage of this method is that we have plenty of free time and the financial flexibility to pursue other interests. For instance, we can take a break from traveling to volunteer for tree planting, or even fund these initiatives ourselves. An even greater benefit is that we’re not driven by the need to boost blog views, which means we can travel where we want, revisit the same place multiple times, and truly follow our passions.
The downside to our approach is that it takes time to implement.
If you’re looking for alternative ways to fund your travels, there are plenty of options out there, and the internet is full of resources.
That’s so perfect!