Affordable dream trips for real families

We had a ton of people read our last post on how much our trip will cost. It seems to have hit a real nerve. I got a couple emails / comments about how much money it was and it would never be affordable for real families.  I wanted to show you that this is possible for a real families, with a little planning, imagination, and hard work. Remember, our budget was for 2.25 years, at about $67,000 a year. For this exercise, we are going to plan a couple different options that are shorter and more affordable.  For those who can’t take a year off, how about taking a summer off instead?

The savings plan:
The mean (not median) income of a US based household in 2014 is $72,641. Saving 10% of your income annually after taxes is roughly $5,810. Commit to this savings goal and do it for 8-10 years. I won’t go into details on how to do this, but I’ll give you links to a couple great blog posts with strategies on saving that money at the end of this post. After 8-10 years of savings, you should have $46,480-$58,100 saved for an adventure, interest non-withstanding.

Trip plan ideas for a family of 4:

• A year in South East Asia: 365 days * 4 people *$35 per person per day= $51,100
• A summer in Europe: 77 days * 4 people *$100 per person per day = $30,800
• A year in South America: 365 days * 4 people *$45 per person per day = $65,700
• A summer seeing the National Parks of the US and Canada: 77 days * 4 people* $80 per person per day = $24,640
• An Eat Pray Love Type Trip: 4 months in Tuscany Italy, 4 months in Nepal, 4 months in Bali: [120 days * $65 per person per day + 120 days * $20 per person per day + 120 days *40 per person per day] * 4 people = $60,000

For a summer, I used 11 weeks as that is the most a family could take without interrupting school. Below for a couple, I used 13 weeks for a summer since most couples won’t have a constraint of school.

Trip plan ideas for a couple:

• A year in South East Asia: 365 days * 2 people *$35 per person per day = $25,550
• A summer in Europe: 91 days * 2 people * $100 per person per day = $18,200
• A year in South America: 365 days * 2 people* $45 per person per day = $32,580
• Winter in Australia and New Zealand: 91 days * 2 people * $100 per person per day = $18,200
• An Eat Pray Love Type Trip: 4 months in Tuscany Italy, 4 months in Nepal, 4 months in Bali: [120 days * $65 per person per day + 120 days * $20 per person per day + 120 days * $40 per person per day] * 2 people = $30,000
• A summer surfing on a beach in Costa Rica : 91 days * 2 people * $60 per person per day = $10,920

Which one appeals to you most? What dream do you want to live out now?

Savings ideas:
100 great tips for saving money
54 ways to Save money
Cut your expenses
How I saved $13,000 for travel in just 7 months
How to save money for a RTW trip
28 ways to save money for traveling