Preparing Your Finances

Cash and Cheques – What to Bring?

There’s no way that you can bring all the cash you’re going to need for an indefinitely long journey with you! For that reason then, you’ll need to bring cards, cheques and more. At any given point, you should have enough money to last you about a week. This will ensure that you won’t get into trouble if you should lose your card and you’ll still be able to get home or at least stay a few nights in a hostel.

Another tip is to keep a little cash separate and safe. For example, try keeping some in your shoe and that way, even if your things get stolen, you’ll have some cash to get by! You can also try using travellers’ cheques. These can be cashed in abroad but require ID, which means they’re useless to anyone who steels them from you. If you have life savings, then make sure it is very difficult for anyone who gets hold of your things to access them. Security is a big issue when you travel.

Bank

You’ll need to let your bank know that you’re no longer at your current address and you’ll probably want to use a parent or friend’s address instead. You also need to speak with your bank about withdrawing cash. Make sure you’re with a bank that makes it easy for you to get money out abroad and consider switching if yours carries a hefty fee.
Better yet is to get a credit card.Not only do these work abroad but they also protect you against having your cash stolen.

Because the money isn’t yours, it will be on the credit card company to chase it up! Another tip is to consider getting a PayPal card. This again gives you an extra layer of security by allowing you to shop without handing over bank details. And better yet, you’re likely to get paid by many clients online through PayPal. Thus the money never needs to even visit your bank account!

Financing

The hope of course is that you’re going to earn money online in order to finance your trip but it can also be useful to have other income streams. One, as mentioned, is to rent out your home, in which case you’ll probably want to use a property management company to handle the day-to-day administration and you’ll need a storage unit to keep your things.

You’ll likewise need to find storage if you are renting and you’re not going to have anywhere to come back to!
Another option is to take out a loan. This might seem reckless but again, the way to look at it is as spending money on what is likely to be one of the most amazing and transformative experiences of your life. It’s far from reckless or a waste. And a good option here is to get a PayPal loan!

This works very well with the PayPal card option (because you’ll be able to fill your PayPal account without worrying about withdrawing), it has zero impact on your credit rating and you will be able to pay it back out of payments you receive from clients and customers! In other words, you’ll only need to pay it back as your online earnings are working out.

You don’t need to have a big lump sum of money to go travelling like this but if you can get some from PayPal or another source, then it will free you to explore more openly and worry less about cash!

Budgeting

Finally, it is always a good idea to plan your trip and to pay careful attention to your budgeting as you do. Plot a route through the countries you wish to visit while ensuring that you’re going to be able to afford to visit them on the salary you’re likely to be earning!

Again, try looking for ways to cut cost – such as using SkyScanner to find the cheapest flights, AirBnB and Couchsurfing. There is a resource sheet that comes with this ebook and if you check that, you’ll find plenty of excellent tools to help you plot your trip and save money on the road!