How I Traveled to 10 States and 4 Countries While Saving Half of my Income Last Year
- Kristen Tejada
- Feb 10, 2022
- 8 min read
TLDR: The key takeaways I did to make this happen and discuss in this post are:
Evaluate where you are at currently compared to that dream life (physically, emotionally, financially, professionally, personally)
Take baby steps to create the time, geographic, financial and other freedoms you want
Surround yourself with people who are living that life and/or will support you when you start taking those steps to get there. Even if they sound crazy.
Remember to enjoy life along the way to your financial goals…don’t sacrifice everything that brings you joy to save a few bucks.
I’m currently writing this blog post in Playa Samara, Costa Rica after finishing up a peaceful (and very sandy) yoga session on the beach. My current commute is walking out the front door of our jungle tree house and setting my computer on my yoga mat at the little bar top outside by the pool. Even with this month-long trip, I will still have saved ~40% of my income this month. I’m not telling you this to make you jealous. I’m telling you this because I want you to know it’s possible for you too if you take purposeful steps to craft the life you want.
Last year, I didn’t stay in one place for more than 2 months at a time. I traveled to 4 beautiful countries, 10 states, and visited every one of my best friends and family. All of this was possible while still saving ~$50K. Don’t get me wrong, this wasn’t a total vacation. I worked full time and held down a side gig. But even with that, it was one of the best years of my life so far. I felt a sense of freedom and personal fulfillment that I hadn’t before.
My goal is to reach financial independence in 8 years, which means I need to save at least half my income annually while growing that income at least 10% each year. Then I invest it and repeat and repeat until my annual passive income (money I don’t exchange my time for) exceeds my annual life expenses. Many people pursue the FIRE (financial independence retire early) path through extreme frugality. If you can do that without being totally miserable/being ok with being totally miserable, power to you. But I quickly realized that wasn’t going to work for me. I wanted to pursue a path that balanced being happy and living a fulfilled life now, while still making significant progress towards my FI goals. Enter, my save by traveling plan.
I know, you want to get to the ‘how’ already. Not all of these things will be applicable to you. Like I’ve said before, my path may not be your path. But if any of these decisions help you see what is possible to change to be happier and live the life you want now while reaching your financial goals, that’s progress. Without further ado, here are the major steps and decisions I made to put me on the path to big savings without big sacrifices that deplete my personal happiness jar that anyone can do too.
Create a Vision Board
I used to think that vision boards were really hokey and a waste of time. Just because you put something on a piece of paper doesn’t mean it’s going to happen, right? What I didn’t realize until I created one was that the power was in the process, not the end result. Forcing yourself to sit down and think about what your ideal life looks like, whether in pictures or words, allows you to create clarity. Once you have clarity of your vision, you can start crafting your goals and action steps to help you achieve that vision.
Turn Liabilities Into Assets
Once I created my vision board, I realized my current life situation wasn’t really matching up at all to what I wanted. I owned a 3 bedroom house that I barely used half of the rooms in, working a job that quite frankly I dreaded, and seeing my friends and family who live across the country maybe a couple weeks out of the year. It took an outside person though to help me figure out how to bridge the gap between my current reality and my vision board. They helped me realize that I could get rid of my biggest liability (my house) which wasn’t making me happy, and turn it into an asset (cash) to invest and make big progress towards my financial goals. This move alone turned $2,700 worth of expenses (not including all of the “other” expenses that go into owning & maintaining a home) into savings.
I recognize that this may sound like a radical decision and that not everyone can up and sell their house. Nor should you. What you can do is to look at what areas of your current life are out of sync with your goal life and focus on what you can change within that equation to tip closer to your goal life.
Live “Rent Free”
This is probably one of the more extreme changes I made last year. After selling my house, I decided to try to live rent free for an entire year as a personal life experiment. Luckily, I have friends and family who love me and support my alternative life choices (oh and they just happen to have extra bedrooms). This wasn’t just a random experiment to save money though. I had a goal of spending more quality time with friends and family. They are spread throughout the U.S., so I usually only get to see my close friends and parents once a year. Going to spend several weeks to months with them at a time was a way for me to build deeper connections with them and fulfill that goal. Living rent free helped me actually keep that savings from my mortgage in my pocket.
By not being tied to a location, I was able to also say yes to more spontaneous trips. This is how I was able to check off ten states and four countries last year; I simply said yes to more things, and ended up making amazing memories with my favorite people. All while still saving a considerable amount of money because I budgeted each trip and adjusted my spending elsewhere.
Again, I know this won’t work for everyone. But maybe some version of it could work for you. Could you rent your house out and go stay with friends and family for a month? Can you do apartment arbitrage to Airbnb an apartment and use that cash to live in a cheaper place? I have a friend who rented out her apartment to a colleague while prepping her cabin to post on Airbnb and made enough money to cover her rent plus some that month. Anything is possible, you just have to get creative and decide what changes you control that fit your ideal lifestyle.
Get a Fully Remote Job
Keeping a full time job helped me keep my income levels high so I could continue to save exponentially every month. The only way that being home-base-less works is if you aren’t tied to a location by said job. There are absolutely pros and cons to being a fully remote worker. Personally, I don’t need the in-person interaction from work when I can get it from my personal life. I’m also a total introvert so it actually drains my energy to be in an office constantly. Will it hurt your career growth if you’re fully remote? Maybe. Once you stop chasing titles though it kind of doesn’t matter. As long as you are delivering value, showcasing that value, being challenged, learning new skills, and have a healthy relationship with your work, does it really matter?
If you’re really worried about it, you can look for companies that are 100% remote across the entire organization. This levels the playing field for everyone and can take some of that pressure to show face every once in a while off the table.
Pick Up a Side Gig
If you want to expedite your path to financial independence or really any of your financial goals, you may find that lowering expenses and your current salary alone isn’t going to cut it. You need to find a way to bring in additional income. If you can get a raise from your current job, great. But if you find yourself a little stuck on the salary side, look for ways to make money outside of your day job.
My biggest piece of advice here is to do something that you actually enjoy that doesn't feel like work. If you pick up a side gig that requires you to work mornings, evenings, and/or weekends, if you don’t enjoy it then you’re just going to be back to feeling unhappy and want to quit. I did social media marketing for a little bit and eventually recognized it was draining my energy, so I had to leave. Luckily, I was able to find another one that allowed me to combine a topic I was super passionate and excited about with a skillset I was pretty good at and voila, an extra $500-$800 a month flowing in.
Track Income vs Spending + Happiness Factor
Awareness of your personal cash flow (money coming in vs money going out) is critical to achieving any financial goal, but especially for saving. I’m not a big fan of budgets, tbh. The method that ended up working for me I’ll write a whole blog post about this at some point, but the method that ended up working for me was simply going through every expense I incurred and every income influx each month and understanding my balance.
I know this sounds tedious. But going through every expense one at a time allows you to reflect on the expense and Marie Kondo it by asking yourself if it was “worth it”, and if it really made you any happier. You’ll be surprised at the results. For me personally, this helps me make better in-the-moment decisions and also doesn’t make me feel restricted by a budget. It reminds me that ultimately I can still choose what I spend my money on, but to be more conscious and selective.
Invest Passively
Once I got clarity on my life goals and the financial goals I need to achieve to make that a reality, freedom to work where and how I want, and found ways to lower my expenses and increase my income, I could focus on making that money earned work harder for me. What I realized, though, was that I didn’t want my third job to be managing my money. Yes, you need to put some time and effort into it no matter how you choose to invest, but having time to focus on things that excite me is still my number one goal.
I knew I wanted to invest in real estate after being part of a financial independence mastermind and being coached personally by someone who paved their road to FI through real estate returns. I learned how powerful the higher returns and tax savings can be for turbocharging my wealth accumulation to help me reach my FI goals faster. I also knew I did not want to become a landlord and spend my time on managing properties or Airbnbs. I chose to invest passively in multifamily apartment buildings with a person I trust immensely and that has a strong proven track record of delivering returns to investors because it fit with my life goals; More time for things I love and reaching financial independence in 10 years or less. All of this netted more income coming into my bank account every month that I could then save and then re-invest.
There are many options out there to invest either actively or passively. Real estate isn’t the only option. My point here is to choose the investments that align to your life goals, financial state, risk tolerance levels, and where you want to spend your time educating yourself. All investing requires some level of additional time investment to ensure you understand the mechanics, pros, cons, and risks.
I know this is a lot. That’s why I do the TLDR’s in the beginning of each article to help you decide if you want to dive deeper or just skip to the parts that are of interest. Never in my wildest dreams would I have put together this plan for myself on my own. It took surrounding myself with the right people, educating myself on alternative life paths and investment vehicles, and some deep reflection on what truly makes me happy to go through all of these steps. Remember, these were steps. They happen one by one, not all at once. Don’t let the feelings of being overwhelmed, needing to know it all, or fear of the unknown stop you from taking that next step forward. And don’t forget you’re never alone. If you ever need an accountability buddy or someone to bounce ideas off of, I’m here to help.
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