Funding a trip round the world

...what criteria would you be using to define 'best'? (see, your questiion wasnt really simple at all).

Get yourself sponsored and go round the world by pedalo or something equally unusual.

Putrid poetry, dismal doggerel, extrava-stanzas...

Ahh, and so it begins : )

Well, "best" in the sense of best for us in the long term - which for us, I guess, would mean lowest total repayment.

I'm a bit of an overpayer when it comes to the mortgage because I know that's one of the best investments you can make - ie it will save more money typically than any savings vehicle. Hence my inkling it might be best to remortgage - I know with my mortgage provider I can use my overpayments for payment holidays, which could help for the year's mortgage payments - or even borrow the overpayments back. I'm not sure with Nationwide whether the borrowing-your-own money idea is cheaper or not in comparison with borrowing more capital...probably cheaper to borrow your own money - at least I would hope.

I would prefer not to take the advantage I've built up through overpayments away (currently overpaying to finish mortgage in around 7-9 years).

So any options? Unfortunately, aside from my crazy impulses and ideas, I can't really think of an odd way to sponsor my way around as Tiddy Ogg suggested. : (

tens of thousands is a lot, I would suggest 15k should get you both a round the world trip without much trouble, if you want it to, it could be more if you have expensive tastes, or easily less if you don't.

A ROTW flight ticket will cost you 3000 quid at most for the two of you (30,000 miles on Star or 4 continents on One World, you could do it cheaper with a cheaper deal) - you could use my route planner at

to decide what sort of routes those would allow you. The cost of living, in cheap parts Asia outside the obvious, you could easily be happy on 20 UKP per day for basic living for the 2 of you as a couple - if you're spending a lot of time there. In the US or Australia or pacific islands and places this will go up to 35 or 40 if you're happy with hostels or basic hotels. So for a basic trip I think another 8 thousand will be plenty for a basic 1 year trip, I know lots of people who've done it for less. That's assuming no Europe of course, Europe can be done cheaply on week trips, there's little point as part of your round the world trip.

On top of that there's any real luxuries and expensive bits you want to add, only you'll know what's relevant there, if you have expensive tastes though, I'd think about doing 6 months rather than a year, as it will get very expensive.

If the Mortgage company will extend 20 grand more to you, and you're happy, that's bound to be the cheapest way, but if you're under 30 and have got your mortgage down to 7-9 years, are you sure you couldn't save up?

I'd also recommend renting your house out, what've you got to lose? A lived in house is going to be lot better than an empty one.

Jim.

"Jim Ley" wrote

Possibly - the tenant stealing your identity & selling your house? [As described on TV recently...]

In message , snipped-for-privacy@nospam.com writes

What you are really saying is 'How should I borrow the dosh without having to borrow any more dosh?".

You cant have your cake and eat it. Remortgage for the amount you owe, plus the amount you want to spend plus the next two years payments on an inter4st only basis. Forget all this 'overpayment ' business, you are only 30 and it is just a marketing con. When you get back, assuming you have income, you can reschedule you mortgage over whatever period you like.

In message , snipped-for-privacy@nospam.com writes

Well I suppose you could get passage on cargo ships to cross the Atlantic and Pacific and then hire cars to drive across the various countries. A _possibility_ for income could be as a courier like that but that would to some extend dictate your direction.

You say you don't want to rent the house out for the year you are away, so how are you going to pay the mortgage and pay some of you travelling costs without that income, also what plans are you going to make to keep someone attending to the property so that you don't invalidate or minimise your buildings insurance.

If you do this will your job still be there when you return?

Sounds like the way to go - thanks for your input. As the interest only repayments would as you suggest only be taken out for 2 years, can you help me to understand how this works out cheaper in the long term since the mortgage would be switched back to a repayment one after the two year period. I just can't work out by myself how that works out cheaper than just having the extra ontop of my existing mortgage with my existing repayment terms.

Well that's what I was thinking anyway - the overpayment feature itself is a great way to pay off a mortgage early and I'm all for that - but the borrowing back / taking payment holidays crap sounds great too, but I'm sure you're completely right is just a marketing con once you really get into the fine detail.

So a daily average spend of 32.88 for food and accomodation for 2 people. Hmm. I agree it must be possible, but I normally take a pessimistic view or perhaps its a realistic view and acknowledge that whatever budget you plan for it always costs more. Just how much more is the real question. But thanks for the useful info and guidelines, much appreciated.

Yep we've already agreed on that one - its a good point!

Well really its 7-9 years with the mortgage overpayments we're making. If we were to save those payments, then a) it still wouldn't be quite enough to go and b) the mortgage length wouldn't be 7-9 years anymore! But then I suppose it may only be 10-11 years if we were to stop overpaying for 1-1.5 years...

Basically, I'm crap at trying to work out whether saving the mortgage overpayments now in order to avoid borrowing more capital from the mortgage lender is cheaper than overpaying the mortgage now and borrowing the full amount needed from the remortgage and trying to carry on with the mortgage overpayments later! If you see what I mean! Maybe its just the same thing - my brain gets tied up in knots just trying to think about it logically!

In message , snipped-for-privacy@nospam.com writes

By selecting 'interest only' it meant that you are only committed to the lowest monthly payment, and extra you choose to make will reduce debt and interest, but you are not committed to that extra payment during your tour. If you need to borrow the next year or so's payments then it makes no sense having a repayment mortgage because that means you would just have to borrow more to cover the higher monthly payments.

I take your point, but if you are not earning all of thats irrelevant until your start earning again.

Ask on the rec.travel.* groups. I know people have mentioned that they can travel living off just the rental income from their house.

What do you want to do whilst travelling? You might be able to lower expenses by house sitting, esp in more 'western' places such as Oz and the US. e.g spend a few weeks in a major city, get the day trips out of the way whilst living in someone elses house instead of a hotel or hostel?

X-No-Archive: yes In message , Tim writes

The owner left private papers in the house! There is a daftness in the affairs of men (and women) that passes all understanding.

Interesting! That would be wonderful! I'll check it out - however - I doubt if we'll get enough from renting out our place!!!

Just to see the world for what it is. See as much of it as possible. I realise I can't see all of it in one year though!

That's a great idea - wonder how many people actually do that though?! Time to google I think...

I definitely don't want to go to the US of A. I hear they're all crazy out there. ; )

Hmm, good ideas, but I'm afraid they don't suit me really. I know I'm fussy and I know I need to compromise on somethings and if I don't it'll cost me a whole lot more. But a genuine thanks for the ideas.

Well, that's what my original post was all about! I think I'm coming round to the idea that we'll need to rent our home out whilst we are away. I just think its an extra hassle to plan for (letting agencies, tenants, organising storage, worry about if its going to be wrecked when we get home, etc).

Well we actually live in a flat and so the property is maintained by our managing agents, so that's no problem in our case.

Who knows! I certainly haven't mentioned it. Neither have I decided if this is actually going to be possible or whether it will ever come into fruition! - I'm just working through all the considerations of such a trip before making any firm commitments (it would be a year from now anyway).

My wife's job would be safe enough though, which is one good reason for going ahead with it...

That was probably going to cheap places like SE Asia, and just one person not 2.

The rec.travel.* groups are excellent places to ask advice for the independant traveller.

Have you checked out the lonely planet forums

or - you will probably get some useful info there.

Shim (doing his travelling around the world 3 weeks a year!)

That's what I did! Well, usually a month per year. People I met in places like Australia couldn't believe I was just there for a mere month - but I found it an excellent way of seeing the world while employed in the UK, making the finance easy.