How we Afford to Travel for Half the Year

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Something we get asked on a regular basis is how do we afford to travel for half of the year? There are a few steps that we have taken in order to be financially stable to accomplish this two winters in a row. When we are home in Canada, we live within our means, we budget, and we try not to buy things we want; only things that we need. 

The main system we are using now is to work for 6 months (the summer months) while in Canada to bank some money, and then live off the savings for 6 months when we are away (during the winter months). 

We essentially make our money two ways: our regular jobs and then side hustles. Here are some of the ways we are able to travel for 3-6 months at a time: 

Regular Work

We are both technically self-employed now and we make our own hours. We generally work anywhere between 8:00am and 5:00pm, Monday to Friday (hubby occasionally works a couple hours for special jobs on weekends).

Virtual Assistant

I work as a virtual assistant, so sometimes I continue to work with my clients while we are away from Canada. When we were living in Mexico, it was the same time zone, so I was able to maintain my work without any issues. This provided me with a steady stream of income which I used to cover our accommodations while travelling. 

Delivery Driver

In 2017, my husband left his full-time military job to become a delivery driver. It’s his favourite job! Now that he has been doing deliveries as his main source of income for so many years, he has become an expert in delivering goods across Toronto. He works for himself and for other companies. While working for other startup delivery companies, he’s been able to negotiate his pay to higher amounts based on the delivery item and time it will take – work smarter, not harder.

Military

My hubby opted to be released from the military full-time years ago when his contract was up, but he continues part-time by going to his unit once a week and one Saturday a month. If there is a special event or someone is needed as a backup, he will happily go in for a couple hours of work.

Side Hustles

My husband is the king of side hustles; and this past summer he took it to the next level. He is already on the road for work every day, so he found ways to make money while he was already out and about. 

Scrap Metal

He would collect scrap metal – anything he could find – and store it in the garage until he had a trunk full of goods. I’m talking dishwashers, broken chairs, wires, fans, you name it and he’d take it to the scrap yard.

Bottle Returns

Beer bottles and cans are also something that people in Toronto love to leave on their curbs for someone to return to the liquor store; he would collect those while on daily walks and eventually bring them back to the store for a couple of bucks.

Selling Items 

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. We love to flip items we buy at garage sales or items found on the curb for a quick buck. We sell them on places like Kijiji and Facebook Marketplace. We’ve sold items such as video games, video game consoles, kids outdoor toys, books, and furniture. We once sold a perfectly good bookshelf that someone put on the curb for $100 on Facebook Marketplace! We also go around our house to see if we have items that we no longer use or do not want to put into storage while we are away. Things like furniture, kids toys, dishes, clothes, and other random knick-knacks hiding in our closet that may be of use to others.

Card Churning

This is an odd one that many may not think about, but essentially many banks or credit card companies will offer you cash bonuses when you sign up with them. Sometimes it requires you to make a direct deposit or an automatic bill payment for a certain number of months, and in exchange they will give you a lump sum of money at the end of those months. You can do the same with cashback reward cards: You use them regularly throughout the month and at the end of the month you get a chunk of money for things you needed to buy anyway.

Possibilities are endless

The thing with some of these means of making money is that you must not let your pride get in the way. Some people think we’re cheap by selling stuff online, but in reality we’re richer than you think and we can travel abroad because of it. My hubby didn’t want to know the total of the cash he’d accumulated this past summer from scrap metal, bottle returns and video game sales, but I was curious how much he was making the entire time. He severely underestimated how much he made in just a few months (and for those wondering, the total amount from junk, bottles and random sales of knick-knacks was $1,580CAD!) and I couldn’t be prouder of how much money he accumulated with almost ZERO effort.

Once we arrive at our destination, we do our best to live on a budget based on the amount of money we’ve saved between the two of us. This means we pick low-cost-of-living countries (so far that’s been Mexico, Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia), find deals on flights by buying the tickets 3-4 months in advance, and stay in an Airbnb or find cheap hotels on Agoda. 

If you’re thinking you want to travel full-time or even for an extended period of time, do not be discouraged by the cost. There are plenty of ways to make money to save for the trips and there are plenty of ways to fund your travels while you’re on the go too.