The initial step is planning on how you will earn money while on the road. There are numerous ways to do this, that will depend on what your career goals, interests, and skills are.
1. Be A Digital Nomad And Earn Money From Wherever You Are
One option is finding remote jobs that let you work from anywhere or move the business that you currently have online. If you happen to have experience working as a writer, graphic artist, web designer, or software programmer, those jobs can be done easily remotely, to give you the freedom to work from wherever you are.
Starting a travel blog is another option. A blog isn’t a definitive way of getting rich, however, if you are traveling the world anyway, then most likely there will be plenty of material for you to write about.
Publishing quality content and getting a readership established might enable you to monetize your blog eventually. See this site if you wish to know more about the UK pensions options for expats who live abroad.
2. Get A Short-Term Job At An Overseas Location
A computer is not required for every travel job. For example, you can work as a waiter, dive master, or another kind of experienced professional that will enable you to have more flexibility. Some individuals in those professional travel for half the year and work during the other six months.
Seasonal jobs are a great way to find work in a new place as you are traveling. I grew up in a ski area, so I saw a lot of foreigners finding jobs during the winter on the mountain. You might have to work long hours in those kinds of jobs but it is only for a couple of months during the year. Once the season is over, you are free to either find a different job in a new place or go do some traveling.
Being able to cut whatever costs you can is an important component for saving for your retirement on the road. Fortunately, there are ways to do this fairly painlessly.
3. Cut Out Traditional Living Expenses
When you are traveling on a full-time basis you won’t need to pay housing expenses back home. After I graduated I traveled for almost a year. I had never signed any leases, so while I was gone I didn’t have to pay for rent along with my accommodations when I was abroad.
If you own a house and car, you can just sell them, which will cut out car and mortgage payments, in addition to insurance and maintenance. Or you also can rent your house out, to turn an expense into a stream of income. An Airbnb is a profitable way to rent your house out over the short-term and you can earn a good amount of money doing that. If you are going to be gone for a long time, you can consider having a hired service, family member or friend manager your rental for you.
4. Use the Best Travel Credit Card
It is important to consider carefully which credit that you are going to be traveling with. Some of the top travel cards come with a sign-up bonus that can give you a free flight. For example, I opened a new credit card recently that had a nice bonus and I was easily able to meet the spending requirements on a vacation that my family took.
In addition to the perks and rewards, the credit card that you will be using overseas never should charge you any foreign transaction fees. When you making the decision on which card you would like to open, make sure to check out what travel perks are being offered. For example, there are some credit cards that have free rental car insurance that comes with them that can save you a ton of money.
5. Find Deeply Discounted or Free Accommodations
How to save money on your accommodations will depend on where you are going and the way you like to travel. Some of the options include couch surfing, house sitting, or getting free stays by cashing in your points on a hotel credit card.
I have used the couch surfing method while I was traveling in southern Spain. It would have cost $25 to $30 per night at a hostel, and tradition hotels would cost $50 at least.
Even on just a short weekend trip, I saved almost $100 on accommodation costs, and I was able to make connections with some interesting local people that I would not have met otherwise.
Many backpackers work at a hostel to get free accommodations.
This kind of exchange is facilitated by some websites. However, when I have been traveling, hotel owners have offered me this kind of exchange in a more informal way.
Speak with the person who is running the hostel or hotel to find out if they need some help and kind of arrangement they would be open to.
6. Avoid Any Unnecessary Banking Fees
You might be charged a fee by your bank if you withdraw money abroad, and then you might get charges fees by the foreign ATMs on top of that. Those fees can really add up. You bank might charge you something like $5 to use an out-of-network foreign ATM, and then a 3% foreign transaction fee, while the owner of the ATM charges $5 per transactions.
So if you are making four $100 withdrawals every month, then you will end up spending $52 per month, or $624 per year, on fees alone.
If you cut down on how many withdrawals you make that can reduce the flat fees you need to pay. Before you leave, also make sure to check the free structure of your bank. If it is expensive, then you might want to switch to a new bank and put the money they save in those fees into retirement savings.
There are even a few U.S. banks that at the end of the month will reimburse all of your ATM fees to you.
Saving for retirement as you are traveling full-time doesn’t need to be hard. Before you leave, make a plan. After you have started to travel, adjustments can be made after you determine which strategies are helping you meet your retirement and travel goals the best.