I’ve been on the road for six months now. One of the questions I get most often is how can I afford to just travel all the time? And I try to explain that it’s not as expensive as you might think. The person I’m talking to then usually nods and smiles… and completely doesn’t believe me. So to be fully transparent, I’m sharing my quarterly spending for my nomad life. With words like “recession” and “inflation” making daily headlines it’s particularly relevant to show that travel and cost of living in other parts of the world is much more manageable (for those of us privileged to have or have had American incomes). Back in May I shared my numbers for the 1st quarter of my travels, here you can see my 2nd quarter numbers.
I started this 2nd quarter “home” in the United States for a couple weeks. During my 2nd quarter of travel I spent one day in Memphis, Tennessee, 11 days in Maryland, six weeks in Colombia, and five and a half weeks in Ecuador.
This post contains affiliate links and referral codes. By clicking these links and signing up/ordering items I’ve linked to or recommended, I may receive a small commission, at no cost to you. If I have linked to a product/service, it is because I have used it, liked it, and would recommend it.
Caveats and Addendums
A couple of caveats for how I am categorizing my spending:
- For housing, the amount is included in the month the housing was for, not when it was paid for, because I am booking my accommodations ahead of time.
- If an expense covers more than one month (housing/rent) it will go into the month when the spending starts.
- Spending at “home” (i.e. Maryland) is not included.
- Spending not related to travel will not go into total monthly travel spending (such as bar membership dues, charitable giving, and a few subscriptions like Adobe Creative Cloud).
- I realize annually Q2 is April-June, not May-July. But I did not leave until February. So for now, my Q1 starts in February, and my Q2 starts in May. When I get to one year, I’ll probably re-adjust back to normal quarters.
Pretty Charts and Graphs
Quarter 2: May-July
Total Q2 Spending: $7,902.48
Avg. Monthly Spend: $2,634.16
| Category | Spending | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Housing | $2,492.94 | 31.55% |
| Travel/Transportation | $820.45 | 10.38% |
| ATM/Cash | $1,036.82 | 13.12% |
| Insurance | $465.22 | 5.89% |
| Restaurants | $730.16 | 9.24% |
| Education | $0 | 0% |
| Groceries | $393.19 | 4.98% |
| Streaming Services | $71.43 | 0.90% |
| Entertainment | $175.19 | 2.22% |
| Telephone | $899.39 | 11.38% |
| General Merchandise | $252.30 | 3.19% |
| Healthcare/Medical | $419.07 | 5.30% |
| Personal Care | $0 | 0% |
| Clothing/Shoes | 146.32 | 1.85% |
If you don’t think quarterly, here is the breakdown month-to-month:
May – Tennessee, USA to Maryland, USA to Bogota, Colombia to Medellin, Colombia
Total Spending: $4,579.68
| Category | Spending | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Housing | $1,721.14 | 37.58% |
| Travel/Transportation | $380.49 | 8.31% |
| ATM/Cash | $134.39 | 2.93% |
| Insurance | $307.62 | 6.72% |
| Restaurants | $397.43 | 8.68% |
| Education | $0 | 0% |
| Groceries | $134.95 | 2.95% |
| Streaming Services | $21.48 | 0.47% |
| Entertainment | $91.90 | 2.01% |
| Telephone | $730.76 | 15.96% |
| General Merchandise | $149.59 | 3.27% |
| Healthcare/Medical | $363.61 | 7.94% |
| Personal Care | $0 | 0% |
| Clothing/Shoes | $146.32 | $3.19% |
Notes:
- When I say spending at “home” is not included, I mean things like eating out or car maintenance (had to get my car inspected to be able to sell it). I do include spending that was for my travel, such as filling a prescription to take with me and buying some new sneakers and shirts.
- Travel/Transportation includes my travel from Tennessee to Maryland, Maryland to Bogota, and Bogota to Medellin.
- Insurance includes my SafetyWing travel medical insurance, which renews monthly and covers my travel and health insurance needs abroad. For my first three months, I also carried another travel insurance policy, but realized it was redundant and I didn’t continued with it. Now I rely on my SafetyWing and my ACA coverage for in the U.S.
- I paid off my new phone in May. It was purchased in January and was on a monthly payment plan, but I want to switch service providers and need it paid off to do that. I just bit the bullet and paid it all in May.
- I sold my car while I was in Maryland to a lovely couple who drove down from New Jersey to buy it. As strange as it was to part with the only car I’ve ever bought, which served me well for 14 years, I’m glad it went to a good home. I was able to cancel my monthly car insurance, but I did purchase a non-driver policy, to cover me if I rent a car or am in an accident and also to maintain continuity of coverage in case I need to get regular car insurance again in the future. The policy was $261 for the year and worth it for peace of mind and to avoid serious hassle and probably higher rates in the future.
June – Medellin, Colombia to Guayaquil, Ecuador to Cuenca, Ecuador
Total Spending: $2,195.11
| Category | Spending | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Housing | $771.80 | 35.16% |
| Travel/Transportation | $439.96 | 20.04% |
| ATM/Cash | $282.43 | 12.87% |
| Insurance | $78.80 | 3.59% |
| Restaurants | $176.54 | 8.04% |
| Education | $0 | 0% |
| Groceries | $181.86 | 8.28% |
| Streaming Services | $21.48 | 0.98% |
| Entertainment | $83.29 | 3.79% |
| Telephone | $103.49 | 4.71% |
| General Merchandise | $0 | 0% |
| Healthcare/Medical | $55.46 | 2.53% |
| Personal Care | $0 | 0% |
| Clothing/Shoes | $0 | 0% |
Notes:
- I spent most of June in Medellin, Colombia, only the last week in Ecuador. Cash is still king in Ecuador and I paid for my accommodations in Guayaquil in cash, so that isn’t reflected in the housing category above.
- The ATM/Cash category is just based on ATM withdrawals. Not all of the money is necessarily spent during a given month. On the flip side, I was traveling with about $200 cash in U.S. dollars. Ecuador’s currency is the U.S. dollar, so I used this cash before withdrawing more from an ATM in Ecuador. This isn’t reflected above either, so my spending is probably about $200 more than is shown.
- Travel/Transportation includes a number of Ubers in Medellin and my flight from Medellin, Colombia to Guayaquil, Ecuador. I arrived in Ecuador in the middle of the paro; protests, strikes and blockades around the country which went on for a little over two weeks. These were mostly non-violent and in and around the capital, Quito, and were not targeted against foreigners or foreign policies, so I did not feel I needed to change my plans. However, after I arrived in Guayaquil the road blockades spread further across the country, blocking the only land routes from Guayaquil to Cuenca, where I was going to be staying for a month. I had planned to take a bus, but that became impossible. So, I booked a last minute flight from Guayaquil to Cuenca. That was an unexpected expense in June that added to this travel/transportation category.
July – Cuenca, Ecuador to Baños, Ecuador
Total Spending: $1,127.69
| Category | Spending | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Housing | $0 | 0% |
| Travel/Transportation | $0 | 0% |
| ATM/Cash | $620.00 | 54.98% |
| Insurance | $78.80 | 6.99% |
| Restaurants | $156.19 | 13.85% |
| Education | $0 | 0% |
| Groceries | $76.38 | 6.77% |
| Streaming Services | $28.47 | 2.52% |
| Entertainment | $0 | 0% |
| Telephone | $65.14 | 5.78% |
| General Merchandise | $102.71 | 9.11% |
| Healthcare/Medical | $0 | 0% |
| Personal Care | $0 | 0% |
| Clothing/Shoes | $0 | 0% |
Notes:
- The glaring absence this month is housing. As I said before, cash is king in Ecuador, as demonstrated by my amount of ATM withdrawals. I spent half the month in Cuenca, so that housing was account for in June. For my 10 days in Baños I stayed at a hostel that only accepted cash, and I did not pay until I left. So as of the end of July I had not paid anything for my accommodations in July! But, some of the cash withdrawn in July was used to pay for the hostel, so this amount isn’t missing, it’s just included in the ATM category.
- I use Charles Schwab Investor Checking for my overseas ATM withdrawals. My ATM card allows me to withdraw from any ATM, regardless of fees, because Schwab reimburses me for the ATM fees at the end of each month.
- My travel/transportation is also included in the cash category. Taxis in Cuenca and Baños are very cheap and definitely don’t take credit cards. I took a day trip to Giron from Cuenca and I took a bus from Cuenca to Baños, both tickets paid for in cash, and totaling less than $15.
Tracking Expenses Made Easy
If you are worried that I am spending too much time tracking every cent, don’t worry, I’m not doing anything! I use Personal Capital to track all my spending. Which is also why my cash spending may be slightly off. If you are serious (or even just curious) about financial independence, you need to know where your money is, and where it is going every month. If you want to give Personal Capital a try, clicking the link here, signing up, and linking an account will get you a free $20 (and I’ll get $20 too). There are other applications like Mint or your bank or brokerage firm’s portfolio tracker, but this has become my preferred tracker in the last few months.
So What Does This Mean?
“Thanks for showing us all your spending Rachel, so, what does it all mean?” Fair question. So far, I’m well within my budget and on track for my annual FIRE spending. Hooray! My spending in South America has been, as I hoped, lower than my spending in Spain and Portugal, mostly because housing and food costs are lower. But it also means that my month-to-month spending is not as important as what it adds up to at the end of the year. Hopefully I will be able to keep my spending low over the next few months because I have a big, EXPENSIVE trip coming up in December. It’s a bucket list once-in-a-lifetime thing, so even if I go over my annual budget, that’s okay, I’m still going. My budget has some cushion, and I’ll make it up in the future.
This budget also only tracks my EXPENSES, it says nothing about income. In Q1 and Q2 of my nomad life, I also sold my possessions including my condo and my car, received some income from investment dividends and sold some of my photography in a gallery. I have yet to draw down anything from my FIRE nest egg.
So what it means is that despite worldwide concerns about inflation and recession, I am able to travel and enjoy my time exploring new countries without breaking the bank. In Q2 I’ve taken day trips, paid for organized tours, gone out to eat and experienced everything the places I’m visiting have to offer; I’m not sitting at home trying to spend as little as possible. Full time travel is not as expensive as the nodders and smilers think it is, and here are my numbers to prove it!
This post contains affiliate links and referral codes. By clicking these links and signing up/ordering items I’ve linked to or recommended, I may receive a small commission, at no cost to you. If I have linked to a product/service, it is because I have used it, liked it, and would recommend it.
1 thought on “Spending Report For 2nd Quarter of Nomad Life”