February 2, 2024 marked the two-year anniversary of when I left the United States to start my indefinite travel journey. But starting last year I shifted my quarters back to the calendar year. My first “year” was only February to December 2022, so Year 2 is the length of 2023.
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Year 2 Stats
In 2023, I visited to 12 countries, 72 cities, and I slept in 87 different beds (this includes 10 nights in tents at different locations). I traveled on 20 planes, 10 busses, and 9 trains. Keep in mind that I did a road trip, a 9-day mountain trek, and a long distance walk; for each of these I was in a new city and bed almost every night. And they definitely contributed to my average of 9,200 steps and 3.6 miles walked per day for the entire year.
Total Year 2 Spending: $41,786.09
Avg. Monthly Spending: $3,482.17
| Category | Spending | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Housing | $10,334.87 | 24.73% |
| Travel/Transportation | $12,826.19 | 30.69% |
| ATM/Cash | $4,375.67 | 10.47% |
| Insurance | $1,241.47 | 2.97% |
| Restaurants | $3,875.19 | 9.27% |
| Education | $109.00 | 0.26% |
| Groceries | $1,684.95 | 4.03% |
| Streaming Services | $285.09 | 0.68% |
| Entertainment | $1,158.08 | 2.77% |
| Telephone | $297.73 | 0.71% |
| General Merchandise | $1,369.13 | 3.28% |
| Healthcare/Medical | $2,668.16 | 6.39% |
| Personal Care | $372.20 | 0.89% |
| Clothing/Shoes | $1,188.36 | 2.84% |
Spending By Month
Year 1 vs. Year 2
Since I use geo-arbitrage to stay within budget by balancing time in high cost of living areas with time in low cost of living areas, comparing month-to-month spending each year doesn’t make sense. In 2022 I spent most of December in Antarctica and Patagonia– two expensive areas to live and travel, while in 2023 I spent the same month almost entirely in Vietnam, a very low cost of living country. So it makes much more sense to compare categories to see if I’m consistently spending on the same things.
| Category | Year 1 Spending | Year 1 % | Year 2 Spending | Year 2 % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Housing | $10,640.86 | 27.06% | $10,334.87 | 24.73% |
| Travel/Transportation | $14,203.83 | 36.12% | $12,826.19 | 30.69% |
| ATM/Cash | $4,817.83 | 12.25% | $4,375.67 | 10.47% |
| Insurance | $1,341.02 | $3.41 | $1,241.47 | 2.97% |
| Restaurants | $1,919.96 | 4.88% | $3,875.19 | 9.27% |
| Education | $667.24 | 1.70% | $109.00 | 0.26% |
| Groceries | $950.06 | 2.42% | $1,684.95 | 4.03% |
| Streaming Services | $417.52 | 1.06% | $285.09 | 0.68% |
| Entertainment | $451.98 | 1.15% | $1,158.08 | 2.77% |
| Telephone | $1,629.36 | 4.14% | $297.73 | 0.71% |
| General Merchandise | $1,015.24 | 2.58% | $1,369.13 | 3.28% |
| Healthcare/Medical | $933.21 | 2.37% | $2,668.16 | 6.39% |
| Personal Care | $190.43 | 0.48% | $372.20 | 0.89% |
| Clothing/Shoes | $146.32 | 0.37% | $1,188.36 | 2.84% |
Overall yes, it looks like my spending is fairly consistent one year to the next. I guess we’ll see over time when I have a bigger data set to compare! I find it interesting how close the dollar spending amount is considering Year 1 is one month shorter than Year 2 (since I started traveling in February), especially in the Housing category. And my food spending increased significantly in Year 2. My best explanation for this is that food was more expensive in some of the areas I was eating out in more often than I was cooking, like Patagonia and Washington, DC. I did also eat more just by the nature of my travel last year; I ate at least three meals per day on the Camino, and all of those were at restaurants or cafes along the way. My telephone bill decrease is due to paying off my phone in 2022 and getting rid of T-Mobile. I’ve written before about how that company screwed with me and while it took me about six months to get out of their grips, since then my phone costs have been very reasonable. And as I’ve discussed before, most of the Health/Medical spending is one prescription I have to refill in the U.S. The amount in 2023 is twice what it was in 2022 because I refilled it again at the end of the year for use in 2024. As for Clothing/Shoes, in 2022 I was able to pack and use things I’d had in my closet when I cleared it out. In Year 2, I bought some new clothes for all the hiking I was planning, I replaced clothes I’d been wearing for a year and worn out, and I had to buy some wedding-specific items as a bridesmaid in my brother’s wedding.
Did I Stay on Budget?
I think when I stated my annual spending goal initially a couple years before I left my job, I said my goal was to spend $30,000 per year. At the time of that post, I had not yet reached a FI number that could support that goal, but I had a couple years left to get there. But, the stock market did very well over those next couple years, and I blew my goal FI number out of the water. When that happened, I gave myself some more leeway in terms of spending. I upped my annual budget significantly, and even with my new budget I left plenty of room to take advantage of opportunities that arose. For my first year of travel I set myself a budget of $40,000. I spent $39,324.86. That included a trip to Antarctica in December, but was also for only 11 months of the year. For 2023, my second year of travel (and the first 12 month period I’m looking at), I predicted my spending would be on par with 2022, just with one extra month in there. But I decided to increase my budget to $45,000, after recalculating based on the 4% rule. Since the stock market had done well over the year, my FIRE nest egg increased even though I was no longer earning an income. 4% of my FIRE nest egg was more than it had been when I started, so I increased my budget accordingly. Even though I increased my budget, I ended up spending $41,786.09 over 12 months, which as originally predicted, was in line with my 2022 spending.
Future Plans: 2024, Year 3!
In 2023 I read the book Die With Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life, by Bill Perkins. This book changed my way of looking at my retirement and validated my increasing my spending year over year. There are a lot of other salient points in the book but this is the one that resonated with me: ‘you’ve saved your money, now you can SPEND IT.’ Basically, we are wired to save enough money to last until we die, and usually this means we save more than we need, to make sure we make it all the way there. And then we have trouble actually spending it, because we’ve spent so long saving it. So, going into 2024, I’m keeping that in mind. My portfolio has continued to grow and at the end of 2023 it is again larger than it was when I retired at the end of 2021. So for 2024 I am increasing my budget again, to $48,000. But the goal this year is to spend that budget, not see how far under it I can get. That doesn’t mean I’m going to throw money away or waste it. It does mean that after two years of traveling I know what I like and dislike, and where I place value. So, if I have to pay a little extra to get an accommodation I want, or for the flight times I want, I’m gonna do it. And yeah, I’m ordering dessert if I want it. And that second Coke (really only my immediate family will get that reference). I’m confident I can loosen up a little with the purse strings while still not blowing this budget. Stay tuned, we’ll see together how this experiment turns out!