What About the Money?? Step 3

Step 3: Everyday I’m Hustlin’ 

Finding some Money in your life

Welcome back! Read the Intro Money Post, Step 1 and Step 2 to catch up if you haven't already. Now that we know the amount of money that we need to leave behind for home expenses, and the {estimated} amount that we'll need to bring down with us - we know the total amount we need!

$$ to leave at home + $$ to spend while on the road = TOTAL $$ to SAVE!

Where does all this money come from you ask? Take a look at your savings account - does it have enough money to cover this amount?

YES. Really?! Good for you - you're rich. Go eat some gold-covered wafers off a silver spoon in your mansion. Just joking - but I have no tips for you.

NO. Welcome to our world. Now we've got to go get some money!!

Time Vs. Money

With a firm 'must have' number in you mind, you have to estimate how long it will take you to achieve these goals. You need a total number and a time period in order to create a success savings plan.

Consider this: If your total number is around $20,000 there are a couple of ways to do it:

•  Save $500/month for just over 3 years and you’ll have enough to go
• Save $4000/month for 5 months and you’re ready to be on your way
• Sell $10,000 worth of stuff, save $2000 for 5 months and leave.

Obviously these are very different life plans. When we decided to do this – we told ourselves that we wanted to leave in approximately SIX MONTHS. That’s a quick amount of time to change your life – it’s a hurricane of crazy over here!

NOV ~ DEC ~ JAN ~ FEB ~ MAR ~ APR

Get hustling and Find the money in your life

In most of our lives, money exists. We just have to milk it out if we’re willing to part with some of our sentimentality and work our asses off. Here are some ways to get the $$ out of your life:

 Sell your things! Take a look at our Selling topic to see more about what we're selling or our House topic to see about our biggest sale, but in general get rid of your crap. Could you be on a episode of Hoarders?? Sell the small stuff, sell the big stuff. Sell your unused hockey skates, sell your car. Sell your house.You may find that you have a surprisingly LARGE amount of capital invested in your belongings. This step is both terrifying and exceedingly liberating.

 b.      Save your money!! This trip is our #1 goal moving forward and our daily choices need to reflect that. We started re-organized our budget to max out the amount we could save on our regular salaries, with our regular expenses, this was even BEFORE we sold our stuff. In addition, we started squirreling away our recycling money, saved our excess cash and cut down on our unnecessary spending. 
** Side note** this is harder than (a) Seriously – no Starbucks?!? I’m failing miserably on this one**
Use Mint.com or some other budgeting system to help you see where you can save your pennies.

Make more money!! Working 2 jobs has been something I’ve done since my first year of University. We’ve both worked two jobs throughout our lives, and sometimes at the same time! It was crazy and we made good money doing it. If you need to bring in extra $$ every month – get a job! It can be anything from babysitting to a job in a restaurant. Anything that brings in money.
The alternative? Get a job that pays better. {That's what I did}

This was me:

Adjust your lifestyle early. The combination of selling your things and saving your money can make saving money extremely successful. Many of the 'things' you are going to sell, cost a high percentage of your income monthly. You can save exponentially if you are cutting down your normal living expenses. Look at some actual examples from our life:

·         Average monthly cost to run our house: $2800

·         Average monthly cost to rent a room in our friend’s apartment: $500

·         Savings: $1300 PER MONTH

·         Average monthly cost to run 2 vehicles: around $600

·         Cost of 2 transit passes: $180

·         Savings: $420 PER MONTH

This plan definitely comes with some short-term sacrifices, and I am well aware that this is NOT a great long term plan. This is our ‘get the money and run’ plan; it will be uncomfortable and irritating.
BUT that’s where  goal setting comes into play. We’re going to have to SUCK IT UP.

After everything is sold, and we spend a few weeks/months living the “SUPER-BUDGET” life, I think we'll probably be glad to leave. At least that’s what we’re counting on. And when you get wherever it is you’re going – and you have the extra money to enjoy yourself of fulfill your plans and dreams - you’ll be extra thankful {and probably relieved on occasion...}

This extremely lengthy discussion about budgeting/finance is probably pretty boring for most, and too simple for some. If you have more specific questions about we’re doing this financially – ask us. Some things are better left unsaid, some are better to share.

Thanks & Enjoy!

*Side Note* All the financial ideas/advice here is coming from our own personal experience. Check the Inspiration & Idea post for more information about us, and our general socio-economic status. We are by no means wealthy, but we have to acknowledge that through hard work, education, a dash of luck and a little corporate-ladder climbing, we have good jobs with decent salaries. I can’t speak for people of different situations/economic situations. Sorry for the bias**