Traveling the world has helped me broaden my view, become more empathetic, try new things, expand my comfort zone, become more confident, and meet incredible people.  One of my favorite quotes reads, “Travel is the only thing you can buy that makes you richer.”  I truly believe that, but also realize traveling can become very expensive.  I started this blog because I want people to be able to experience the world the way I have, but not worry about how to pay for it.

I got my first passport in 9th grade.  My family had planned a trip over Christmas vacation to visit my grandparents who were living in Argentina at the time.  We spent two and a half weeks in that incredible country. That Christmas, rather than buy presents for each other, we asked our grandpa to find families in the village they lived in that were in dire need of a Christmas that we could provide.  My brother, sister, and I carefully shopped for each child, imagining what they would like to receive for Christmas. We packed all of the presents carefully in our extra checked bags and set off on a trip that changed me in ways I could have never imagined.

Christmas day came and we traveled to each of the families houses – houses that I had no clue could be called that since they were little more than cinderblock shacks.  My brother, sister, and I carefully handed each child the toys we had picked out.  Dolls and strollers, cars and trucks, scooters and skateboards.  The light in their eyes was infectious.

That trip is when I got my first Gameboy.  I remember sitting in the back of a 15 seater van with several local boys my age after a party in the village where my grandparents lived, letting them play Mario Kart.  Even though we couldn’t communicate (I didn’t speak Spanish), I remember their pure excitement as they played, three to four of them huddled around the tiny screen at once as grandpa drove home. Despite having only a few pictures of the trip, I came home a changed boy.

During that first international trip 15 years ago, I was bitten with the travel bug.  Hard.  I fell in love with understanding different people and how they live.  In the 15 years since, I have visited 26 different countries, several of them more than once. Travel has become a priority for me and I have been traveling ever since – taking advantage of spring/summer breaks, study abroad experiences, and paid time off from work.  I don’t regret even a penny I have spent on travel.  But in the last couple of years, I have learned that I don’t need to spend very much.  That’s not because I’ve scaled back on the places I go (most recent trips were to Japan and the Philippines, then Israel and Jordan), but I found a better way.

By staying on top of my finances, using credit cards strategically, and learning a number of thrifty traveler tips and tricks, my dream of traveling the world has become a reality.  When many people think about money, especially on non-essential travel,  it gives them anxiety.  It can be intimidating.  Put your anxiety at ease because it doesn’t have to be that way!  In this blog, I want to show you how to make your dream bucket lists become reality and I want to save you money while you do it.  I hope you’ll join me and start sharing your experiences!