Key Takeaways
- Manny and Olivia are two 33-year-olds who lived the corporate lifestyle working as marketing managers for two of the biggest media/telecom conglomerat
- Nomadic Matt: Tell everyone about yourselves! Manny and Olivia: We are both 33 years old and from Toronto. In half a year, we saved $40,000 and, on Ju
- How did you find this website? I’m always curious. We first considered doing an around-the-world trip in October 2011. I mentioned it to a few close f
Manny and Olivia are two 33-year-olds who lived the corporate lifestyle working as marketing managers for two of the biggest media/telecom conglomerates in Canada. In half a year, they saved $40,000 and quit their cubicle jobs to follow their passion for travel, writing, and photography. We wanted to interview these two because their story demonstrates that disciplined financial planning and intentional lifestyle shifts can make long-term travel accessible — no matter where you’re from.
Route for Less: Tell everyone about yourselves!
Manny and Olivia: We are both 33 years old and from Toronto. In half a year, we saved $40,000 and, on July 25, 2012, left Canada to start our trip around the world. We plan to be on the road for 14–18 months.
How did you find this website? We’re always curious.
We first considered doing an around-the-world trip in October 2011. I mentioned it to a few close friends, and one of them, a big travel buff, mentioned that Route for Less was a great resource. One look at the site and we understood why.
It was really encouraging to see that we weren’t alone facing this choice and that other people out there have successfully followed their passion. It became easier to plan everything and hesitation gave in to excitement.
What kind of trip did you plan?
We were planning a full around-the-world trip (with the exception of South America). Starting with Europe, we would work our way to Africa, India, Southeast Asia, and then Australia and New Zealand.
After that, we would take the Trans-Siberian Railway through Russia. Hopefully we will end the tour with a trip to Denmark and the Netherlands.
We weren’t exactly sure how long it would take, but our initial calculations came in at just under two years.
Were you afraid or nervous before you went on your trip? I was terrified.
Planning a world trip is very overwhelming, and it’s hard to anticipate issues that you may face and prepare for them in advance. Reading real-world experiences and “traveling” alongside others’ journeys provides a bit of reassurance that things will work out — even if they don’t always work out exactly as you planned.
How did Route for Less help you with your trip?
Olivia: When planning a big trip, especially one for over a year, you really need to budget and understand what you can and cannot do. It’s hard to find good resources online that tell you what to expect to pay for simple things like food and local transportation.
The site saved us a lot of time and money, allowing us to budget properly using its travel guides and practical tips. We have recently become virtually addicted to the newsletter as we move forward in our journey.
Manny: When we decided to do a world trip we weren’t sure what to do with our stuff. Should we keep it? Store it? What about our house? A reality check came when we read the article on “saving money for your travels.”
So to save money, not be stressed, and really live out our world experience, we sold our stuff, including our house and car, and took off.
You saved a lot of money for your trip. How did you do it?
Manny: We created a spreadsheet that outlined average daily living expenses for each country and multiplied it by the number of days we would spend in each country. We factored in when we would be staying with family or friends, as well as transportation costs. We then added a 15% buffer, knowing full well that it’s next to impossible to stay right on budget.
After averaging out the entire trip, we came to a daily expenditure amount: $100 CAD a day. We made sure to have very realistic expectations, knowing we would blow our budget in Western Europe and make up for it in Asia. While we were working on budgets, we began to tighten up on our spending, especially dinners and nights out.
We did try to live off of one salary and bank the other. We put some money away in a high-yielding interest account and are using $40,000 of it for the trip.
Olivia: I also took on a number of different event-planning contracts on the side, working 18-hour days quite often. It wasn’t that easy, but it was manageable because we had a clear goal in mind. We made it a point to not dip into our overall savings or any money we made from the sale of our home or cars. This way we have no hesitation or regrets spending the money on our adventure and can actually enjoy it stress-free.
Within six months we were able to raise about $40,000. This allows us about 600 days of travel.
That’s a lot of travel! What about life on the road has surprised you the most?
We are really surprised at how comfortable we can get in foreign locations and different beds every night.
Another surprise is language barriers. This is often the worry of many travelers, but it becomes nonexistent when you actually start traveling. Sign language and different translator apps are actually more fun and add a new, funny dimension to common interactions.
Staying on budget can be a problem for a lot of people. How do you two stay on budget?
We have a spreadsheet where we keep track of every single expense. On one page we have categories such as restaurant, grocery, transport, entrance fees, gas, car, etc. On the next sheet, we have totals for each category and then we average out the expenditures by days to see where we are at and if we need to start cutting back. We often share meals since general portions are gluttonously large.
We gave up our home addictions to sweets and alcohol and thus cut another huge chunk of expenses. We don’t spend frivolously and actually rent fully equipped rooms for a little extra cost and buy groceries instead of eating out constantly.
