Working on the road: Exactly How Much Do I Make?

The question everybody is too polite to ask: How much money do I make in a month? How much money do I spend?

Throughout the remaining days of the next month, I will explain to you, in detail: Just how I managed to create for myself everything I have. I will explain the transition from overworked freelancer to limitless travel vagabond…while still trading my time for money.

The Title of This Article is:

Part One: Working on the Road, How I’ve Made it Work for Me

Over the next month, look forward to the next four articles:

Part Two:  Having Clients I’d Never Met

Part Three:  Being Suddenly Productive

Part Four:  When I Began to Save Money

Part Five: What I Would Have Done Differently

…and action…

About a year ago, I was first looking into creating a more flexible, deliberate lifestyle. I had read The Four Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferris a total of six times in one month (not a joke) and was hungrily delving into the wealth of less-than-promoted information on Lifestyle Design.

The issue that scared me to death, was the idea of so much instability and possibilities for error and miscalculation. Rarely are blog posts or articles written about exact amounts of monetary input and output, and this creates a lot of hype – but little certainty and confidence – for those who feel they have to justify this supposedly “unstable” career choice with some tangible numbers before diving blindly, and head-first, into a new life/work style.

Unfortunately, as I read through the archives of popular blogs, saw supersaturation in the online markets, and watched the so-called “new rich” ideas become commonplace in the homes of people around the world, I slowly lost confidence. I lost the enthusiasm that told me I could do it. I lost the certainty that seemed so plentiful when reading books which made the process sound so easy.

At this point, some simply give up – returning to their pastimes of spending justifying the attendance of the office Christmas party as “networking”, and trying to appreciate the little things such as “casual Friday”. I did not give up. Call it my determination, or perhaps it was the plans I had made with Julie to leave my hometown, but I managed to pull it off. I created a job which could be done from anywhere.

So, how can you obtain the confidence required to avoid this seemingly inevitable path? I feel it is my job to tell you – from the greener side of the grass – just how much I make and spend per month, and how I make it work for me.

In this part of my series, I’ll tell you the numbers. This will provide a primer, and hopefully encouragement, to keep your momentum going while I write the rest of the series.

How much I make:

My current projects are almost completely different from when I started my adventure. A web programmer by trade (and not a particularly experienced one), I assumed my market was cornered by people in developing nations who will work for half, or sometimes a quarter of what I charge per hour. It just wasn’t so.

If I have learned anything since making the decision to make money as I go, it has been that no market is ever saturated to the point of making it impossible to make it work.

Our common sense will tell us that many skills (such as furniture builder, social worker, chef) are impossible to take with you in any form of constantly moving medium. Our common sense is, in nearly all cases, incorrect. To make the pieces work, one simply must think critically, while throwing in a touch of capitalism; coupon clipping; and flexibility.

But enough inspirational straight-talk, you wanted to know how much money I make. Here you go:

Large programming project – $1000 per month
New travel-writing gig – $700 per month
My blog and sponsorships – $100 roughly per month

Total: $1800 per month.

Believe it or not folks, that’s actually alot of money for me. In the month before this one, I only made $1100 for the month.

Now: Keep this in mind, this is important: I don’t know about the laws in other countries, but for me in the US, the taxes I pay as a freelancer are essentially a third of everything I make.  Let me repeat that: taxes as a freelancer in the US take away a whole third of everything I make.

So what are we looking at as far as amounts?

Large programming project taxes – $332 per month
New travel-writing gig taxes – $234 per month
Blog sponsorship and affiliate taxes – n/a

So what does that leave me with at the end of the month?

The grand total of: $1234.

So there you have it – the cold hard reality. Obviously, I am not the only one doing this sort of thing, and others are more or less successful, but I don’t know how much everyone else makes – because they won’t talk about it.

Before I say anything else – those of you with office jobs paying $40,000+ per year who’s inspiration just vanished completely – don’t give up hope just yet.

When I was working at my desk job, I had worked my way up to a $40,000+ per year job which also offered medical insurance (what’s that?) and a 401k. Even with this large amount (in comparison to my $20,000 monthly take-home which I have now) I found myself trying to make ends meet at the end of the month. Gosh – food was so expensive. So were furniture and electronics. Buying my new $300 iPod video stressed me out – I was giving up alot of food money for the month. I needed the iPod, though, I told myself, to drown out the noise of my coworkers through the day.

Just a few months later, after changing my life completely and quitting my job, I had no need for the super-expensive iPod and ended up selling it for pennies.

How much money does one really need to make it all work? Well, that depends on their lifestyle, their dependents, etc. When my wife-to-be Julie is with me, I support us completely. I cover the accommodations, buy the food, transportation, etc. Using techniques like coupon clipping, I manage to turn the income of one into the expenses of two

More often than not, Julie is with her family or doing an internship or other program that lets her cover her own expenses. This leaves me to use my extra cash to put aside as savings, or to spend on tours/luxuries along the way.

Now, here is a breakdown of my spending:

Accommodation – typically $25 per day at hostels around the world. FREE if staying with a friend or family member. This totals $750 per month.

How much do I have left so far after accommodation expenses? Looks like $484. I make sure to mix in time stayed with relatives, or couchsurfing, so every few months this expense is able to be put away for airfare.

Food – $250 per month. This amount fluctuates, depending on how long my stays are at the locations I stay at. The longer I stay at a specific accommodation, the more bulk foods I can buy, and the more I save. I’ll give more information about saving money on food in a coming post.

Transportation – Passes for most city-based public transit systems rarely cost more than $100. If the public transit is unusually expensive, I will bike or walk.

Those are my main categories. Internet access can be achieved basically for free at almost every location around the world.  I will address the internet issue in another post as well.

Grand total expenses: Around $1100 per month.

That gives me some money to play with (museums, tours, etc), and allows me to put some away for airfare later on.

Ending thoughts: I know this sort of tight budgeting seems precarious, and in the increasingly scary economy, it is. As many successful businessmen and travelers will tell you, you must be willing to try something new, to reap the rewards of such a totally awesome lifestyle.

More is coming! To  find out more, make sure to read the next article in the series coming monday,

Part Two: Having Clients I’d Never Met.

If you liked this post, you might like these:

1. Working on the Road: Having Clients I’d Never Met
2. A new way to dry clothes on the road
3. No Money Month – Day 3

Tagged as: Travel Tips