People are traveling the world more than ever before. According to one estimate, over 1.1 billion people travel abroad every year. While tourism is an exciting way to enjoy your time off, it can also be very expensive. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to finance your next trip if it is one of your priorities.
Here are some great ways to pay for your next trip.
Do some seasonal, temp for freelance work on the side
Over 80% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. They simply don’t make enough from their normal job to pay for a trip abroad. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to make a supplemental income. Rachel, the blogger at World School Family, writes that her family funded their vacation because her husband took some good paying seasonal jobs.
You could do some work freelancing. Writing, translating, using Photoshop and consulting are all great ways to generate a side income. I have spoken with many freelancers that earned 30% of their regular salary on the side and some that eventually replaced their traditional job with it.
Get paid to write about your trip for major travel blogs
Many professional travelers make a full-time living blogging about their trips. You probably don’t travel enough to start your own travel blog. However, you could offer to write a post and share images of your experience for an established travel website. They could pay you $100 or more for your story. You would obviously get paid after your trip, but this could offset any credit card debt that you took on to finance it.
Get a personal loan instead of using your credit card
Credit cards are commonly used to pay for trips. However, the interest rates can be very expensive.
Fortunately, there are much cheaper ways to pay for your trip. Consider getting a personal loan instead. You may be able to get a loan with rates half as high as those a credit card company would charge.
Save money with Airbnb or couch surfing
Have you looked at rates on hotels in the places you want to visit? You will probably notice that they are very expensive.
Paying for your room and board will be one of the most expensive parts of your trip. Fortunately, there are new ways that you can save money. Couch surfing and getting a room on Airbnb are great options. You may not want to do this if you have children. However, it is usually a pretty safe idea. Websites that oversee these systems usually have records of the hosts. If somebody hasn’t received any complaints before, then you shouldn’t have any trouble staying with them.
Look to work with companies that will subsidize your trip in exchange for some work
Are you looking for a stress-free vacation or are you willing to put in a little sweat equity for the chance to travel abroad? If you don’t mind working a bit, number of companies will actually pay for your travel expenses. Some of them will even pay a salary.
Forbes has a list of some of these companies. They may pay you to teach English to native residents, work on a farm, help conduct surveys or do other tasks that don’t require any specialized training.
Take a look at these companies and see if any of them would be worth working with. You may enjoy doing this work in exchange for a subsidized trip.
Use a credit card with travel perks
I know a couple that has never paid for a trip. They have credit cards with generous travel rewards and collect enough points to take at least one trip across country every year. The only thing that you need to be worried of is the interest rates on these cards. Since they offer great rewards, the card companies have to pay for them with higher interest rates for people that are delinquent on the payments. However, this downside will be irrelevant as long as you make your monthly payments in full. One writer from the Penny Hoarder got over $1,000 in travel benefits in 2016.