@Eric – Ha ha! Duly noted, I did admit to lavishness! (Sorry).
You know, it’s funny; this makes me think about discretionary income and how we choose to spend it while we travel. I’ve written about this many times before, but the thing is – travel or not – we can spend our money in so many different ways.
So while in some ways I think I’m living a luxury lifestyle because I focus my discretionary income on things I enjoy, some of the things I do to CREATE that extra cash comes in certain lifestyle choices that others might not be willing to abide by (such as communal living in hostels or volunteer situations).
Similarly, there are things I don’t want to/aren’t willing to do to save a few bucks, that somebody else wouldn’t blink at in order to create extra cash for their own bit of “luxury” spending.
Anyway, this is a pretty big tangent, but something interesting to ponder, I think!

@Baron’s – I think that sounds absolutely awesome! Except for one thing: if you go all the way around the world by boat/train, and you miss out on one of the best parts (going across Canada)…I’m going to internet-disown you! 🙂

@Tunimaal – Try a No Baggage trip just for a weekend, while you’re living in Tokyo! Once you figure out how to “pack” for 3 days, you can usually go somewhat indefinitely. (Somewhat).

I love that idea of No Baggage Challenge. I definitly wanna try this when possible. I am currently living in Tokyo, but next trip I will do I will try your idea… This is great… Than you

I loved watching your video…I also subscribed to your video channel…(Barbbicycle is me)… Anyways…my dream is to someday fly from Vancouver to Hong Kong (Or better still cross the ocean on a freight liner), then board the train in Hong Kong…go through Shenzhen, shanghai, Beijing, Moscow, across Europe all the way to Shanon Ireland, then cross the ocean to Montreal and fly home to Vancouver or take the train across the country…

Wishing you a very happy New Year

Berge.

“I could easily have traveled in 2010 for much less than this amount…but since I have enough income to support a more “lavish” lifestyle, I spend accordingly.”

Cheers,

Shawn

Thanks for the the suggestion though; this year I’ve kept much more detailed records of my expenses, so I expect I’ll be able to break it down much better for the post.

But you do bring up a great point about travel in general. How many people DO want to travel for less than $10,000/year? What are people’s travel/budget expectations?
How many people are willing to make the sacrifices necessary to keep their expenses that low? How slowly are people prepared to travel (that’s one of the things that keep costs low)? What activities do people do while traveling? And what destinations are people after?

These are all very important factors that determine just how much you spend on the road. And the glory of it all – as we’ve discovered through my bi-weekly week-in-the-life series – is that even the “daily grind” of travel is so different for everybody.

There are ways to keep your costs low while traveling. But maybe my methods won’t be the same as yours. It’s so unique to the individual and what they want to do on this big(little) blue planet of ours.

Happy Holidays!

When you do the post on finances, could you also break down how much did you have to spend on necessities and how much did you spend ever so lavishly on luxuries? As I recall, last year the number was quite big, a five digit amount. I’m sure there are people who are also quite committed to long term travel, but who’d have to make do with more like a four-digit amount per year, so I hope you’ll keep those folks in mind.