Nearly every time i’m talking about  my travels, someone tells me:

I want to do the same when….
You’re so lucky that you’ve got the opportunity to this. I want to do that as well, but. ….
How did you afford your travels?
Did your parents sponsore you all the time?

I can not hear that anymore.
So this is how you can do it (When you are from a so called “first world country”, unfortunately it is much more complicated for other countries):

Traveling is not a thing of money. You won’t need much money.  It’s not a holiday, where you spend all your money in a short time for luxury.

It’s more  the way of thinking you’ve got to change.

In this society you get teached that security is everything. You should follow a secure working life (go to highschool, college, study and work in the same job for the rest of your life). You shall have any safe guardings possible (old-age pension, accident insurance, liability insurance, car insurance and so on). You shall built a own house,  get your own car, get children etc etc.
The funny thing is that the people who are following exactly this way are always telling me that they will travel later. When they are hedged with a final degree, a proper education or a well paid job.  But that’s not how it works; because security is the opposite of freedom. And traveling is close to the utopia of freedom. So if you want to get free,  you can not follow this way.

To get to the source , you have to swim against the current:
Quit all hedges.(the only insurance you should have is a health insurance for foreign countries) Give away all your belongings which fit not into 2 suitcases (or store some more at a friends place). Sell your car.  Don’t start building a house and beware of making children at that time. And finally  quit your job. Now you’re free!

That sounds radical but you don’t have to do that in one step. To give you an example:
You ha do have one ore two jobs, 1500 a month is your salary (netto). Your bank statement looks like that:

+ 1500 Salary
– 100  Insurances
– 400 Rent
– 200 Car
– 50 Fitness center
– 30  Mobile Phone Contract
– 50 Hobbys
– 400 Food
– 270 Other things                                                                                                                      = 0

Usually the most of the people have 0 on their bank account at the end of the month.

But you want to travel,  for you the only amount which counts is the one at the end of the month.
So first, quit your mobile and fitness center contract (get a prepaid card for emergencies and do fitness by your own in the nature). Find hobbies which don’t cost any money.  Sell your car. Quit all insurances except your health insurance.

Downgrade yourself: e.g. go for a coffee 2 times a week instead of every day,  same with going to a restaurant. Party hard but don’t spend all your money on drugs and alcohol( go out with good friends and you’ll have a good time anyway;)). Try to train already how to set the food budget quite low by cooking pasta and rice quite often.

So now it looks like:
+ 1500  salary
– 400 rent
– 40 public transport
– 10 mobile (prepaid)
– 250 Food
– 100 Other things                                                                                                                            = 700

If you’re looking for a cheaper place to stay (couch of a friend/
Living community)  , your savings can be even 800 per month.Or if you have another side-job, you work more but at the same time you have less time to spend money and you will save a lot (Sometimes I worked 60-80 hours/week) . Of course it’s not an easy way of living in this time but you’ll see that most of the luxury is not really necessary and you will appreciate these things much more when you´re doing it less often (I am sleeping in my sleeping bag for half a year now and can not stay in my shower because the shower tube is too short; can´t wait to sleep in a normal bed and having a nice shower back in germany 😉 )

Regarding to your upcoming trip, try to plan as less as possible,  just the direction and maybe the duration. It’ll give you a lot more freedom. Some people say you should book most of the trip in advance to get a special price. But as soon as you’re long enough in a foreign country, you become a local. And the locals get the cheapest prices ;).

You can now calculate when you can start your trip. For example with €700 travel savings per month:

1. You want to go to Indonesia

Flight: 800 (2 ways from germany)
Monthly travel budget/length of stay:
400 / 1 Month
300/ >1 Month

• Money needed for a 1 month trip :
  800+400= 1200
  Month to work:
  1200/700= 2
  → 200 overage for example an OWD Diving Licence
• Money needed for a 6 month trip:
  800+6×300= €2600
  Month to work:
  €2600/€700=4
  → 200 overage for example an OWD Diving Licence

 

2. You want to  travel all around the world:                                                                                 Flight Ticket: from 2000 e.g. from www.aroundtheworld.de with multiple stops          Average travel budget/month for a beginner: 900

• Money needed for a 8 month trip around the world:                                                   2000+8×900= 9200
  Month to work:                                                                                                 9200/700=13
  (Don’t forget that you could stop e.g. in Australia for working, reload you bank account and then continue your trip)

So now you know how it works, shut up and travel!