As a writer and traveler, I have dreams of winning the lottery or somehow making a big deal that would provide enough money to live and travel for a few years without having to worry about my expenses. After some thoroughly enjoyable calculations, I feel I need $1 million to comfortably leave my regular life and retire tomorrow to a life of leisure.
I would put $500,000 into a savings or retirement account, that way I would not have to worry about the future. I have about 20 years until I reach retirement age and that would grow nicely and create a nest egg for me, leaving me free to travel and enjoy life. That’s what I need the other $500,000 for, to travel around the world, exploring and enjoying new places.
My ideal situation would be to travel around the world, staying in various places as long as I wanted. I would stay at hotels, not four star, but nice ones. I would eat meals wherever I felt like and would really get into the local experience. I would visit museums and tourist spots, but would also spend time just living and experiencing the local lifestyle. I would love to try living in European cities like London, Paris, Amsterdam along with other cities like Lima, Peru and other spots in South America I have or dreamed of visiting. I might stay a few days or a few months, depending on whether I liked being there.
To live this life, I figure I would need about $500 per day to be comfortable. Hotels are $200 to $300 per night, plus another few hundred a day for a nice breakfast, lunch and dinner. I would also want to buy souvenirs at each stop along the way. Spending $500 per day adds up to $182,500 for a whole year.
For souvenirs and other purchases, I think a budget of $4,000 per month or $1,000 per week would be good, plus another $1,000 per month for shipping things back home. That’s about $60,000 for the year. Before I leave, I would want to outfit myself with the latest phones, video cameras, tablets, laptops, etc., to be able to communicate and also write about and document my travels. That would probably cost me about $20,000 in gear plus another $1,000 per month for wireless, mobile phone and other communications.
In addition to food and lodging, I would need a transportation budget. I would look to rent cars and also fly from city to city. Car rental might average about $100 per day, so if I rent a car half the year, that’s about $18,000 plus $5,000 in fuel. Add another $2,500 per month for airline tickets, train tickets and bus passes, that’s $30,000 for the year.
I would also need another $50,000 to maintain my current expenses, cars and residence. All this would be no fun without my beautiful girlfriend, so it would cost another $100,000 to bring her along for most of the journey, or to fly her in when I’ve found a location I like and want to linger.