I’m excited to introduce to you Cliff from Live Family Travel. His San Francisco based family spent ten months traveling the world on a career break. They home schooled and enrolled their kids in schools overseas, spent time with family, saw the world, and bonded as a family. And, they did so, on a budget this nomad is impressed with. Today, Cliff is going to share how his family did it – and advice for other families looking to do a big round the world adventure.
My dream of taking my family on a world tour began in Nicaragua in the summer of 2012 with my two daughters, who were three years old and six months old at the time. Most people thought my wife and I were crazy to go to Central America with two little girls. But, for three weeks, we relaxed at the beach in San Juan del Sur, rode horses through the countryside, and hung out in the bustling town of Granada.
It was an experience we vowed to repeat.
Over the next couple of years, we traveled together to various destinations, including Puerto Rico, Peru, Argentina, and Guatemala. We enjoyed these short trips but, the more we traveled, the more I wanted to go longer – I wanted a year-long trip around the world.
In 2015, that dream became a reality as we spent 10 months traveling in 10 countries.
But to make that happen we needed to be creative with how we saved and spent our money.
My family lives in one of the most expensive areas in the world: Silicon Valley outside San Francisco, California. Housing prices are extremely high and the overall cost of living is higher than most cities in the United States. I worked as a marketing manager in technology companies while my wife took care our two daughters.
After our trip in Nicaragua, we decided that we would make family travel a priority in our lives. From July 2012 to December 2014, we saved approximately $40,000 USD, which equates to $1,333 USD per month. Saving that much money on one salary in one of the most expensive areas in the world was not easy. It took some crafty saving skills, but here is what we did:
I worked freelance jobs. I earned extra money for work on short-term marketing projects, in addition to my full-time job. Now with the on-demand gig economy, there are many great options to earn extra money, including Uber, Lyft, and Wonolo.
We refinanced our mortgage. With a lower interest rate for our home mortgage, we saved over $500 USD per month.
I reduced my 401(k) and 529 contributions. Instead of putting all of my savings into my retirement account and my daughters’ education accounts, I decided to reallocate about $500 USD per month to our travel funds.
We reduced our spending. We cooked most meals, capping our food budget at $1,000 USD per month. We also stopped buying unnecessary electronics, clothing, and toys, limiting our discretionary spending to $500 USD per month.
By earning more, spending less, and reallocating a portion of my savings to travel, our travel budget gradually increased to a point where we felt comfortable enough to take time off to travel the world.
But in order for this trip to really make financial sense, we needed to do something about our house while we were away. We did this by renting our house with a family found through Craigslist. Thankfully, this area is in demand and after accounting for our mortgage, insurance, and taxes, we were making $500 USD per month profit from the renters, which helped pad our travel fund.
Additionally, we sold our SUV, which ended our $700 USD per month loan payment. We also sold all our furniture and about 80% of our electronics, clothes, shoes, and toys through Craigslist and some local Facebook groups. In total, we made about $5,000 USD from these sales.
With about $10,000 USD of extra money from rent payments and selling our stuff and the $40,000 USD in savings, we created a budget of $50,000 USD for our trip. We knew we had to make our money stretch as far as possible by being savvy with how we saved and spent on the trip.
How Much We Spent
Below is a list of some of the expenses of our trip per country visited. (Later I’ll go into more detail about how we accomplished this.) With this information, I hope you realize that extended family travel around the world can be affordable and realistic. All you need is a curiosity to explore the world, flexibility, and a bit of budgeting skills.
Honolulu, Hawaii
Duration: 1 month
Accommodations: Free, stayed at my mother’s place
Transportation: $800 USD
Flights: $2,400 USD
Total: $6,000 USD
Phuket, Thailand
Duration: 3 months
Accommodations: $2,000 USD ($667 per month for one-bedroom apartment)
Transportation: $400 USD ($133 per month)
Schooling: $2,100 USD ($350 per month per kid)
Visa extensions: $200 USD total
Flight from Phuket to Hangzhou free with Star Alliance points
Total: $8,000 USD
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Duration: 3 days
Accommodations: $150 USD
Flights: $435 USD
$750 USD total
Hangzhou, China
Duration: Approximately 2 months
Accommodations: Free, stayed at my wife’s parents’ place
Schooling: $400 USD total for 2 months ($100 per month per kid)
Total: $2,500 USD
Europe – Italy, Spain, France, Belgium, Germany, Netherlands
Duration: 2.5 months
Accommodations: about $5,200 USD (average of $71/night) for 73 nights
Food: $3,500 USD (average of $47 per day)
Shopping and leisure activities: $1,500 USD (average of $20 per day)
Schooling: $800 USD for 4 weeks in Barcelona ($400 per month per kid)
Flights and transportation: $5,000 USD
Total: $16,000 USD
Hong Kong
Duration: 3 days
Accommodations: Free, stayed at friends’ place
Flights: Free stopover in Hong Kong on the way back to Hangzhou from Europe
Total: $300 USD
Hangzhou, China
Duration: Approximately 2 months
Accommodations: Free, stayed at my wife’s parents’ place
Total: $2,500 USD
Flights to Bay Area: $2,000 USD
** Check out a breakdown how we spent our money in Europe.**
Breakdown by Expense Type
Flights: $9,000 USD
Other Transportation: $2,000 USD
Accommodations: $7,500 USD
Schooling: $3,300 USD
Food, shopping, and leisure activities: $17,750 USD
GRAND TOTAL: $39,550