Maximize Your Purchasing Power Through International Living! (part I)
Hey there my Steemit friends. A key part of being Travel Pro is all about purchasing power. Every country around the world your purchasing power changes. Just crossing the border from one country into the next could have you spending double at every turn or cutting your expenses in half. Just a move in the exchange rates can have your expenses changing significantly in one direction or the other. In this part six of our How to live Travel Pro Series, we are going to talk all about how to make this work for you and show you how you can live very well for very little all around the globe!
I'm from the USA so I have the benefit of holding, earning, and using one of the stronger, more stable, and most tradeable currencies the USD dollar. This has been an advantage to me to varying degrees over the years. My last article was titled "Don't Travel Strictly for Pleasure!" This article you are reading runs on a similar theme.
I often choose my destinations on where my money goes the furthest. This is probably the main reason I've been traveling for over eleven years and have never been to Europe! Going to a place like Europe is full of countries I personally call Pay More Get Less. Meaning you have to pay more for everything from hotel, transportation, and food, and you receive less in return.
I enjoy second and third world countries with low crime and stable governments. Countries where you get off the airplane with a twenty dollar bill in your hand you are immediately at the top of the economic social scale. These countries I call Pay Less Get More Countries. This means that hotels, transportation, and food are all less expensive and you get more in return.
Then you have places that are in between, like a country I'm currently visiting Chile. Here I have to raise my daily budget of about $30 dollars a day to about $40 dollars to maintain the same quality of living. While in Peru I could get by very comfortably for about $20 dollars per day. For $30 a day I was enjoying up-scale restaurants and didn't have to think twice when purchasing things. I truly felt wealthy in Peru living on $30 dollars a day.
The things I basically spend my money on day to day is not much different then most people around the world. Food and Rent; travel expense, clothes, and other random things that plays in just a bit as well, but I can actually put off clothes, electronics, and other shopping until I'm in a country that offers great deals.
For example electronics, the US basically can't be beat, clothes third world countries especially ones that produce it for cheap like Peru, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia... Travel expense well, you just need to look back into my blog to learn how I work that magic. However, food and rent is your daily expense that can't be avoided.
What's your budget? What are you working with? What's your income while traveling? Can you afford to travel perpetually? Can you afford to travel anywhere perpetually? How about living in a hotel in Paris France for a month at $100 dollar as night? Can you afford $3,000 dollars a month in rent; for a year, for ten years?
This is how you have to think about things if you're going to Live Life Travel Pro. Going to Paris my be your dream destination, but it could be a financial worst nightmare. It could be so expensive that you either have to live in a dorm, couch surf, and eat from supermarkets, and still blow your budget everyday.
For me this is no way to live long term. You basically have to Pay More and Get Less; lowering your standard of living to something undesirable or simply blow your budget day after day, potentially causing serious harm to your financial situation.
I have so much great information to share on this specific topic of Maximizing your Purchasing Power Though International Living we'll have to continue where we left off next week in part II. Until then I sincerely hope you have been enjoying this series! -Dan "World Travel Pro!"
With over 11 years of travel experience I answer travel and international lifestyle questions. Leave a question in the comments and I may make a Steemit post just for you!
