Balancing Your Lifestyle Whilst Saving For Your Next Big Trip

I remember the plane ride home from my first big trip to Europe. As I sat in my economy class seat I reminisced about the last two years of my life partying, exploring and having sex with strangers. I was suddenly faced with the prospect of returning to full time employment and living with what I fear most: Routine.

I spent the next six weeks without a job. During that time I found it hard to come to terms with partying any less than 3 nights a week, but lack of funds soon became my personal party pooper and gave me no choice but to retreat into forced hibernation.

Every now and again I would look over photos of that amazing two years spent in what now seemed like a dream and became increasingly nostalgic. The nostalgia became so overwhelming that it was turned into something that fueled my insane desire to travel again.

“If I am to have that kind of freedom again within the next year, I have no other choice but to adopt a ‘saving money mindset’.” I remember thinking to myself as I paced up and down my hallway waiting for the results of the job interview I had taken a few days beforehand. At this stage I was around $10,000 in debt and it seemed as though the road to financial freedom was years away. I needed to sit down, write out a budget and stick to it, but that task was easier said than done.

Within the first two months I had successfully paid back $5000, but the routine had started to get to me. My hibernation period had left me completely uninspired and although saving money was going to fund my return to the promise land in the long term, it wasn’t giving me enough fulfillment in the short term.

I cracked. I began to feel the need to go out and get drunk every single weekend. My urge to fuck random women from nightclubs was back and I didn’t care if I spent every cent that I earned getting it. I went from being the guy in hibernation mode to the guy insisting on all of his friends joining him for drinks. The thought of routine had scared me into forgetting that my primary objective for returning home was to save enough money for another adventure. Spending $300 on a Saturday night became my new routine and it seemed as though I had lost all motivation to travel once again.

Six months had now passed and my spending to saving ratio was a disgrace. I was still over $5000 in debt and, along with myself, my alcohol/drug intake was to blame. I had starved myself of freedom and was now experiencing the side effects of ridding myself of anything that would affect my goal of traveling again as soon as possible.

My mistake was obvious; I lived an unbalanced lifestyle. I either gave 100% to partying or 100% to saving. It seem as though I either wanted to leave again within a few months or never again. Instead of allowing myself to splurge every now and again I banned myself from any social event because I saw it as a money burning exercise. What I needed to do was allow myself to be social, but at the same time be disciplined enough to stick to a realistic budget.

I needed to create a budget that promoted both short term and long-term freedom. Saving 75% of what I earned was all well and good, but it was destroying my soul and provided me with little short-term fulfillment.

Over the next few months I saw a noticeable change in my mental health. I adopted both a ‘living for the weekend’ lifestyle and a ‘saving for the big trip’ mentality. By coming to terms with the fact I wouldn’t be able to travel for at least another 6 months I was able to fully enjoy the present by living in moment, but at the same time keeping the thought of travel in the back of my mind.

For me, saving the majority of what I earned by not socialising wasn’t a sustainable lifestyle even if it was only going to be for six months. Coming to terms with waiting another year to travel was tough, but it became easier as I discovered that the reward was being able to have my proverbial cake and eat it too.

- Gavin Madden