Tips

How to save money

Traveling for a long period of time generally means that you'll have to be budget-conscious. While planning your trip, it is important to plan to stay flexible. However, when it comes to money, it is often easier to know ahead of time how much everything will cost so that we can make sure that we have enough money for the trip.

This guide is about traveling, and not so much about how to manage your money. After all, people save their money for many reasons, not just to travel. There are thousands of guides and tips on how to save up for a big purchase on the internet and in the bookstore, so we won't go into too many details here. However, here are a few cruicial key points that helped us along the way.

Put away a set amount of money into a savings account with every paycheck. Then, live off of the rest without touching the savings. It should be as if you didn't get paid the whole amount to begin with. Many experts say to put away 5% to 10% of your paycheck, but we're recommending more. If you can, shoot for as high as 40% or 50%. This may seem crazy at first, but try to push yourself and see what's possible. Depending on where and how you live, you'll be surprised with your results if you stick to it.

This brings us to the next main point: reevaluate your spending priorities. Do you need that new iPhone or those fancy shoes? Could you be living cheaper? If you're prioritizing a trip around the world, you're hopefully already thinking about these issues.

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How to Plan a Travel Itinerary

Before you travel, creating a document that outlines where you'll go, when you'll arrive and how you'll get there -- an itinerary -- is a common way to ensure that your travels go smoothly after you embark. Itineraries don't have to be binding, but they allow you to represent the proposed trajectory of your trip tangibly, which makes it easier to make last-minute changes that don't affect the overall course of your travels. Planning a basic itinerary is simple to do but requires some time and concentration.

Step 1

Make an ideal outline of all the places you'd like to visit and arrange them in a sequence that makes sense with the local or regional geography. If you're traveling to India, for example, and want to visit the southeastern city of Kolkata, the southwestern city of Mumbai, the northeastern city of Agra, the northern city of Delhi and the northwest city of Jaipur, plan to travel between adjacent cities -- Mumbai to Kolkata or Delhi to Jaipur, for example -- rather than making long hops across the country, which will not only cause you to "backtrack" in your travels, but also cost more.

Step 2

Notate ideal travel and accommodation options on your itinerary, even if you don't end up using them. If you're traveling in Europe, download a European rail timetable and make note of two to three trains that run between cities as options to take between them. Make a list of possible hotel options in a given city, either from a travel guide like Lonely Planet or Rough Guides or from online resources like Trip Advisor or Orbitz.

Step 3

Book transport and accommodation in advance whenever your plans are set. If you're traveling internationally, for example, book a round-trip ticket to and from the foreign country before you depart. If, on the other hand, you're traveling to Thailand and know your visa runs out after 30 days, book a train to a neighboring county in advance to avoid paying a penalty.

Step 4

Plan for activities within cities and regions whenever possible, again keeping in mind that these may be subject to change -- plan alternates accordingly. Plan activities with the arrangement of your city and region in mind, as well as the time you'll need for an activity. The Palace of Versailles in France, for example, is about 17 miles from the center of Paris and requires not only time to get there and away, but to explore the massive extent of the palace. Plan to visit attractions within the city, such as the Eiffel Tower and Jardin de Luxembourg, on a different day.

Step 5

Remember that itineraries are often tentative and understand that your plans can change -- and they probably will. Use your itinerary not as a fixed representation of where you'll be or what you've been doing at any given time -- and how you'll get there -- but as a means of helping you make abstract travel plans concrete.