You can probably afford it. Whatever it is.

One of the most asked questions about our trip is “How can you afford to do this?” . First off I believe you can have almost anything but you cannot have everything. But even if you don’t believe that all you have to believe to have a trip around the world is believe it is possible. Without that belief all the work isn’t worth the effort. And let me say now it is work. You must prepare to travel. And to travel full time you must prepare a lot.

So let’s do it step by step.

Stop spending on things that do not fit your goal of full-time travel. That means not spending money on concert tickets when that same money can be saved for whale-watching in Baja for example. You may want to start asking yourself how many lunches that fifty dollar dinner could buy you in Mumbai. (Hint: a lot). Saving money for the future may not be easy, but if you want to travel freely you must find a way to save more money than you do now.

Downsize. Get rid of things you do not use. Sell them and put the money in your savings account. Marci and I had a couple garage sales. We made about $3000. That of course includes selling all our furniture, and household goods. But even before selling our house we downsized. We started giving things away. Once you make up your mind you are traveling you will see several things you can not keep and will not need and do not use. Any item you own that falls into either of those three categories will eventually need to go away some how. We are in the process of giving away one of our cars for example.

Get a credit card. Or two. Marci and I have three. Make sure they are cards with travel rewards mostly known as miles. Even though the airlines and the courts have made using miles an exercise worthy of a PhD candidate there are still a few ways to get a nice bit of bang for you buck. So get a miles card. The best one (read: most bonus miles for least effort) you qualify for first then get another one and maybe even a third. Here’s what you need to know.

Plan a trip. The most exhilarating way to begin building travel into your life is to  plan a dream trip. Here is a dream trip of mine.

Begin. The thing is the sooner you decide that travel is what you want the easier everything else becomes. These suggestions no longer look like sacrifices or hard work but instead become the first few steps toward your first trip.