“How do you fund your travels?”

This questions is by far the one I get asked the most when chatting with people around the world. Everyone wants to travel, but most believe it to be prohibitively expensive and difficult. Exotic destinations become a dream that is parked on a “bucket list”, often never realized.

Travel however is usually a lot cheaper and easier than one would imagine. Having traveled full time for almost two years, I’ve learned to do it economically and efficiently.

I fund my travels by three primary methods: savings, this website, and travel hacking.

Savings in the Bank

Having saved a substantial amount of cash from working full-time for 8 years, I rely on my savings for the majority of my spend. I also dabble in stocks to a varying degree of success to try increase my bankroll.

Have a trip in mind? Establish a budget and start saving.

World-Adventurer.com

Next, thanks to the many avid adventure and luxury lifestyle readers (yes you!), I’ve been able to secure sponsorships with hotels, tourism boards, airlines, travel agencies, and other companies. These companies are looking to promote their product and usually offer a barter in exchange for my mentioning or featuring them on World-Adventurer.com.

Through the website I’m also able to generate some revenue through advertisement, but I am careful and selective on this, because I don’t want to diminish the quality of the website experience for my readers.

Want to travel for free and love to share your stories? Start a blog!

Travel Hacking

The two most costly and usually necessary travel expenses are flights and hotels. These expenses can be significantly reduced for the enthusiastic travel hacker.

Travel hacking is basically understanding and taking advantage of the corporate system related to travel. In fact, there’s no hacking at all, just a lot of research and common sense.

A huge component of this system is to use credit card and sign up bonuses to save thousands of dollars on airline and hotel costs. I currently have over 20 credit cards that I use for very specific purposes to garner the maximum number of points possible to use toward travel. There are many blogs, forums, and websites focused specifically on credit card points/miles, but a lot of them promote products because they get a commission if you sign up. Read and compare several sites to get a more complete picture of a specific credit card or deal.

The next major part of travel hacking is knowing how to get the best price for flights and hotels. This can include booking complex multi-city and around-the-world itineraries, buying “mistake fares”, or even purchasing in a different currency or sales point.

The best way to learn about these deals and strategies is to actively read and subscribe to different blogs and forums. With practice, you too can start booking flights and hotels the best possible price.

Though money is important for travel, it’s not everything. If you are really passionate about seeing the world, money won’t hold you back.

More on that in the next Insights post!