You’re likely living alone or with a few friends or a romantic partner, but you’re unlikely to be married and have kids or a life-long career type job. With no mortgage to pay off, your financial situation – while it might be a little slim – won’t be stressful or take over your life, so why not pack up your life into a few bags and take the time to learn a new culture or see some amazing sights?
You’re young, brave and bold, so why not? However, there are a few guidelines you should keep in mind if you want to have a good experience while traveling.
Save Money
As a student, if you step back and actually look at your expenses and where your money is going every month, you may find a few ways to spare some cash and save it up for your travels. Without any major bills or debts, your main expenses are likely to be on material items like clothes and makeup, or food.
Cutting back on the expensive stuff and keeping it minimal in order to get to a goal amount of money in your savings account (a good idea, since saving up large amounts of physical money is a terrible, archaic idea) and getting some kind of job, be it part-time or freelance, are all good ideas to get a little bit of cashflow going into your travels.
You should find it easy to gather some money, unless you’re in an unusual situation and are absolutely strapped for cash – in this case, reach out to your college or university and see if there are any chances to receive financial aid or even go on a cheaper trip with the school.
Plan Out Your Trip
“If you don’t even know where you’re going, the likelihood is that you’ll never go anywhere,” Heather Black, a travel blogger at Write My X and Next Coursework, “and figuring out how much money you should save up will be difficult if you don’t know the prices of flights or accommodation, since it’ll be impossible to just guess.
Research is your best friend, and not being shy to dream big and figure out what you can and can’t achieve. At the end of the day, if you’ve got a plan and you’ve got the funds, you generally can’t go too wrong.” From arranging dream travel boards on Pinterest to writing out the expenses for your trips with help from the internet, any type of planning will be good and beneficial to you, and help you on your journey to traveling as a student.
Study Abroad
This one might not be what you were expecting, but even if you don’t take a gap year and end up studying abroad, you’ll still be experiencing a new culture and having a ‘holiday’ of sorts. Also, embracing the school atmosphere will likely lead you to learn the language quickly and make friends who you’ll never forget and who will make your travels much more interesting and fun.
Furthermore, you won’t have to pause your studies just to go traveling, which could be beneficial for students on longer courses (i.e. medical, etc.) since pausing your studies for a year just elongates your time spent before you can actually start your career. Studying abroad can be costly, due to all of the travel and visa costs, but it is also very rewarding.
other valuable tips:
What to do After College – Job, Vacation, Travel, Improve, Have Fun?
Volunteer Abroad
Speaking of rewarding, volunteering abroad is also an option that you have. “Why not go on your travels and also give something back to the world?”
Asks Jennifer Davie, a lifestyle blogger at Britstudent and Australia2Write. “Volunteering abroad might mean that you have to stop your studies, unlike studying abroad, but it also often means that you can get travel or accommodation – or both! – for free or reduced, and there are many agencies and organizations which will allow you to work with them and go and volunteer.
You’ll be helping out other people, and making an impact on the world, while still seeing different places and having the time of your life away from home.”
Image Credit: Pixabay
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