Amazon Prime membership: Is It Worth It?
Is a yearly Amazon Prime membership subscription for material goods worth more than a full-day wine tour in the Pinot Gris region of Alsace, France? If your immediate answer is no, then you, my friend, are in the right place. I’m here to share with you strategies I used to afford long-term travel. I’m so excited to share these tips with you. In full transparency, I saved $20,000 and gave myself one year before jumping in with both feet. If you don’t want to be fearful of how much your dollar will go, I recommend saving for a year. This is coming from someone who quit a comfy job without a backup plan. I realize that not living in the US means that a dollar means a lot more to other countries. You don’t have to work your life away, and you don’t need a lot of shit to be happy.
RESEARCH
I spent an entire year educating myself on how this was possible. I used my earbuds to the MAX by listening to podcasts from veteran digital nomads and long-term travelers during long walks, car rides, or gym sessions. When I was at home, the TV was off and YouTube channels were on. I will share those in another post
GET THOSE TRAVEL CARDS
I used the Discover travel card to rack up points for the year and use the points for flights.
SAVE SAVE SAVE
Really take a moment and realize: Is it worth it? I only used vacation days for weddings and tightened up my budget for a year because I decided that this was what I wanted.
STOP BUYING STUPID SH*T ( Amazon Prime membership)
See above. Is travel worth more now than that Amazon Prime membership? Every time. If you want to know how much I don’t miss Amazon Prime, I will tell you all about it via Facetime from a crystal-blue island in Thailand.
SELL YOUR SH*T
I say this, but I only got rid of clothes (and I cringe at all the clothes I still kept!). I don’t have a car note, so I decided to keep it, & I rented out my condo for some passive income.
WRITE IT DOWN
I’m not type A, so I planned enough of my trip to make sure I could stay with the right visa, for safety, and for my mom’s peace of mind 😃. I use NOTION (http://www.notion.so) for itinerary planning and shared this with my mom. But there were certain aspects I left up to the spontaneity of travel.
I hope this helps your journey as much as it helped me! I have lived out of a backpack over the last 5 months, and while I miss maybe having one more pair of shoes, I don’t miss the 10 pairs of jeans that are currently in storage. You don’t have to transform into a minimalist for long-term travel. but It
Hi Sarah! Sorry for the delayed response (still figuring out the ins and outs of blogging). Thanks for following along!