Nomad Wallet

Travel More. You Can Afford It.

Air Travel Then and Now (Pssttt… It’s Cheaper and Better Now)

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As we enter the holiday season, complaints about expensive airfares become more and more common.

But over the last few decades, the price of air travel has dropped a lot. That’s the only reason why almost everybody can huddle together by the water cooler and bond over chats of expensive flights, bad airplane food and pesky TSA agents.

If you were to start talking about expensive flights in the 50s, you’d be greeted by silence and jealous glares. Only one out of five people had ever flown back then.

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Affording Travel Interview With Andrew: Surgeon and Luxury Travel Aficionado

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For today’s interview, we have Andrew, who travels as a couple with his wife. He works full-time as a medical professional and lives below his means most of the time. Every year, though, he sets aside about $20,000 to travel on his vacation days. Although he only gets three weeks of vacation days per year, he has managed to visit 46 countries so far.

His story is a great example of why working on a career and maximizing your earning potential could be the best way to go — even if you’re an avid traveler.

To read the interview, click here.

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How I Saved $20,000 in 1 Year Without a Budget

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I believe that what you do with the money you earn is more important than how much you earn.

A few years ago, when I just graduated from college, Cheesy and I together made a little over $50,000. It wasn’t much, but we managed to save about $20,000 by the end of the year — enough for a down payment on our first property.

The key to accumulating a large pile of savings is no secret: just spend less than you earn. Obviously, we made difficult sacrifices, but deciding to do it and sticking to a simple system made it a lot easier.

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Affording Travel Interview: Home Exchange Sucks (but It Can Save You Lots of Money)

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Home exchange is not all sunshine and roses. It will save you a lot of money on accommodation if you decide to do it, but it’s neither simple nor easy — not always, anyway.

What’s both simple and easy is five-star hotels, but they’re not always an option, for obvious reasons.

As a budget solution to travel, home exchange has its own set of pros and cons. This post will go through some reasons why home exchange rocks and why it also, at the same time, sucks.

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5 Things You’ve Probably Done That Could Get You Arrested While Traveling

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You’ve watched Locked Up Abroad and, while you sympathize with the storytellers, you can’t help but feel like maybe they deserve their jail sentences.

Letting a “friend” you just met pack your bags; traveling to war-torn countries; swallowing tiny, plastic-wrapped pieces of hashish — only crazy people do these things. You’re not crazy; therefore you’ll never find yourself in handcuffs.

If that’s what you think, as you read further, count the number of things in this list you’ve done.

To find out what crimes you may have committed, click here.

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Affording Travel Interview With Milene: Working Various Jobs Abroad

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I’m really glad Milene agreed to do this interview. This girl lives on the edge!

Even though she says her bank accounts are “mostly empty”, this Dutch girl has managed to travel to more than 30 countries. Milene is currently in Buenos Aires, where she has always wanted to live, learning Spanish and looking for a job.

I’ll shut up now and let her tell you her story about traveling with no money. Enjoy!

To read the interview, click here.

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5 Essential Things to Do Before Traveling With a Credit Card

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There’s nothing more embarrassing than finding out your card doesn’t work at the cash register.

Once, I had a check-out lady enunciate of her fourth “declined” so much you’d think she was teaching me a new word. It was a good thing I had just enough cash to pay for my purchase. Otherwise, I would’ve had to slink away under her chastening glare as the rest of the grocery store wondered what was happening.

You probably don’t want to risk public humiliation. Nor may you want to risk the more private (but similarly painful) humiliation of offering to pick up the tab, only to find that your card doesn’t work.

If you plan ahead, you could easily avoid credit card disasters

To find out how, click here.

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Money-Saving Holiday Travel Booking Tips

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Now’s your last chance to grab some holiday travel deals. Holiday fares tend to shoot up in price at mid-October, according to Kayak. The difference can be up to 17 percent for Thanksgiving fares, 51 percent for Christmas fares and 25 percent for New Year’s fares.

So if you want to book some holiday fares, do it now.

Tip: The best way to cut down on your holiday travel spending is by going against the flow. Do the opposite of what other travelers do and you may just find little pockets of cheap fares in the midst of all the holiday price hikes.

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Paying for Things While Traveling: Credit, Debit, Cash or…?

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There was a time when you always had to get some travelers checks before going abroad.

Now, with so many choices when it comes to payment methods, how is a traveler supposed to decide which one to go for? Making the wrong choice could easily cost you hundreds of dollars in fees, not to mention the frustration of not being able to buy anything.

The correct answer is to prepare yourself with several payment methods.

Card swipe machines and ATMs can be picky and temperamental. Even if they supposedly accept Visa, they could be in the mood to spit out your card instead.

At the minimum, you should have two credit cards (for most purchases), two debit cards (for cash withdrawals) and some cash (only when necessary). There are also other payment methods that you can use as a safety net.

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Affording Travel Interview With Anne: Borrowing a Loan and Budgeting

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There’s nothing more inspiring for travelers than seeing other regular people travel. That’s why Nomad Wallet will regularly chat with real travelers about how they manage their time and money in order to afford this rather expensive hobby.

My first interview features the lovely Anne Sutherland-Smith of the Pretraveller blog. This Aussie fell in love with traveling when, as a 7-year-old, she moved to Kenya with her family for 3 years. She started traveling solo before she could even afford it. She still travels now with her husband and three children, but she handles her money much more carefully these days.

Enjoy!

To read the interview, click here.

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