Nomad Wallet

Travel More. You Can Afford It.

You are here: Home / Archives for borrow money

Is It Ever Okay to Get Into Debt to Travel the World?

by 16 Comments

I feel like I shouldn’t be saying this, but I do think it’s possible to get into debt to travel the world and still call yourself a responsible adult. (I admit that it can be a slippery slope, though.)

The only time we ever got into debt to travel was when we were in a long-distance relationship. Cheesy had the money upfront for the airfare to visit me and he was staying at my place, so accommodation was sorted. He also had some cash, but he still maxed out his credit card during the trip.

Once he got back home, he immediately started throwing as much money as he could toward that credit card balance and got it paid off within a couple of months. The debt doesn’t affect us in the long term, so I would say that we handled that like responsible adults would.

(Of course it would’ve been even more responsible to not max out the credit card in the first place. But we only saw each other twice that year, so…)

To continue reading, click here.

[ Read More ]

7 Types of Financial Safety Net for Long-Term Travel

by 12 Comments

You may be the most adventurous adventurer there is, but even you probably wouldn’t want to end up with no money in a foreign country.

It’s always awesome to encounter the kindness of strangers during a trip (like the time I ran out of local currency in Taiwan). It’s not so awesome to be in a position to need strangers to extend their kindness.

You don’t have to have everything figured out before you leave home, but it’s important that you have some sort of financial safety net in case things go wrong.

To learn more about the 7 types of financial safety net, click here.

[ Read More ]

Affording Travel Interview With Megan: Working Two Jobs (and Occasionally Getting into Debt)

by 24 Comments

Today, I’m interviewing Megan of Mapping Megan.

She’s an Australian journalist who has been travelling and blogging around the world for the last 7 years. Her husband Mike is an American travel photographer, and together they have made the world their home.

What I love about her story is how much she has sacrificed to afford travel, at one point even taking on two full-time jobs and a full-time study load! Megan is all about determination and hard work.

To read the interview, click here.

[ Read More ]

Affording Travel: How Steve Jobs the College Drop-Out Paid for His Trip to India in the ’70s

by 24 Comments

In India, he met a cab driver who brought him to a crappy hotel, a market vendor who sold him watered-down milk and a holy man who shaved his head. He took too many rides in overheated, overcrowded buses. He got dysentery and lost 40 pounds.

These sound like things you’d read about a broke budget traveler; not things you’d expect Steve Jobs to have gone through.

But it’s true: before he was known as the CEO of one of the most successful corporations in the world, Steve Jobs was a budget traveler. Not just any budget traveler either — he was a hippie college drop-out who enjoyed smoking a joint and dropping LSD every once in a while. Like a bad ’70s stereotype, he also went to India in search of enlightenment.

So how did Steve Jobs pay for his trip to India?

Read on to find out. Click here.

[ Read More ]

Affording Travel Interview With Anne: Borrowing a Loan and Budgeting

by 9 Comments

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.

[ Read More ]