With coronavirus restrictions all but lifted and the UK more or less back to normal, travel is back on the menu. Pre-pandemic, travel industry expenditure in the UK had increased by 7% to a staggering £62 billion – a number set to be beaten in the coming years. For many, major plans for long-term travelling were postponed indefinitely. But as countries began to open back up to international visitors one by one, it’s time to get planning again. Here’s how to fund a year of adventure without going broke!
Full Time Employment
First things first, you will want to make sure you have secured full time employment for your year of preparation. Pulling together the funds for travel alone will be difficult if you do not have regular work lined up – your existing commitments to rent, bills and sustaining yourself will always come first, meaning you will need a bare minimum regular wage to keep up with your travel budget.
Start Saving
Next is to start saving money from your work. This sounds easy from the off, but requires a lot more thought than it may at first seem. Draw up a holistic budget for your living situation, including your income and any outgoings, from rent and utilities to weekly averages for food and leisure expenditure. Find out what you have left monthly after each payslip; this is the most you can save monthly without cutting into your living expenses. Once you have settled on a minimum monthly figure to save, do some digging to find an easy-access savings account with the best available interest rate, and set up a direct debit for the amount you want to save from your current account to your savings account.
Investments
Savings accounts have become notoriously toothless in recent years, with inflation stagnating and interest rates remaining low. As such, you may want to find a way to get greater returns from your savings, especially if you aren’t going to be touching them. One great way to do this is by investing your savings on the stock market. An investment fund is the safest way to do this, whereby a broker takes your money and invests it across a portfolio of companies it believes will grow steadily. There is always an element of risk, but the returns can average 5% – a significant amount, especially if you’re after having as much money as possible ahead of your year-long trip.
Trading
Even greater returns than investments can be found, however, by having more of an active hand in investing your money. With research, patience and attention to detail, you can follow the stock market yourself, and trade stocks to generate bigger profits than passive investment funds. Trading platforms like Metatrader 5 allow you to continue to trade from anywhere, meaning you could feasibly earn money even while you travel!
Secondary Work
If you still have time to spare in your day, you can opt for a more sure-fire way of generating additional income for your travels, and take on a second job. You could go freelance, and provide the same services you do in your day job ad-hoc to new clients via online freelancer platforms; you could pick up a bar job to work the evenings after your day job; or you could even pick up cash-in-hand labouring work on weekends – the options are endless.
