Back in the day, when had the big dream to move to the romantic mountains of Chiang Mai, we quickly brought ourselves back to reality by asking, “How will we be able to afford this trip for the long term?” The fact of the matter was, we wanted to responsibly fund our overseas adventure rather than wing it and risk having money problems later. Although we were putting a portion of each paycheck towards our Thailand fund, we wanted to earn more; our goal was to have enough money in savings to last us for one year.
Three Ways We Funded Our Overseas Adventure:
- Sold our belongings via Craigslist, eBay, consignment shops, and yard sales
- Stockpiled vacation days to later be cashed out
- Signed up for rewards credit cards to earn free airline miles
We saw it as a win-win situation. Even if we never ended up moving, it still gave us a warm, fuzzy feeling knowing we purged our apartment of things we no longer needed or wanted, saved up a ton of vacation to be used at a later date, and earned enough miles for several out-of-states trips to visit friends and family.
But alas, our dream of moving to another country came true. It took us one year to sell our belongings down to three suitcases each and a few boxes that went into storage. We earned roughly $27,500 from selling our stuff, which was more than enough money to fund a frugal, yet comfortable year living in Thailand. The vacation days earned at work were cashed out as a lump sum check after resigning, and we earned huge airline mile bonuses after signing up for some credit cards, which ultimately resulted in free airline tickets to Thailand ($$$!) See, all of our hard work paid off!
Finding ways to fund our overseas adventure was incredibly rewarding and actually quite fun! We loved seeing our savings accounts grow and grow after each thing we sold, and we happily anticipated using our two “free” airplane tickets to fly to Thailand.
What’s stopping you from selling some stuff for a little extra dough? Why don’t you start your own “Overseas Adventure” fund!?
Hi there. Is Chiang Mai where you want to live for the long haul or is this trip only temporary? Do you plan on coming back to the States or living and traveling frugally for quite some time? Thank you! Brandy
Our original plan was to make Chiang Mai our hub and travel to places around Thailand and Southeast Asia. So far so good! As for moving back to the US, right now we don’t have plans to do so as long as everything is going well with family back home and with us in Thailand. We are interested in checking out Central America, so that’s where we might move next (in a few years). Right now we’re very happy with living lightly and traveling to new places.