4 Simple Steps To Save $3000 During College For Your First Backpacking Trip
We’ve all heard that you need discipline to save money for travel, especially as a struggling college student.
When I saved $3000 during my first year of college to take a 3-week trip through Greece, it wasn’t because I was disciplined. It was because I had a flawless system in place. I took out the behavioral component of money and made saving my only option.
Follow these 4 simple steps to save $3000 as a full-time student to fulfill your globe-trotting dreams:
- Step 1: Give yourself at least 6 months to save.
- Step 2: Budget your trip relentlessly.
- Step 3: Open a HYSA as your travel fund.
- Step 4: Automate your savings.
Step 1: Give yourself at least 6 months to save.
The worst constraint you can place on yourself for saving money is time.
Simple math reveals that the longer you save, the less money you have to save monthly. If you need to save $3000 in 3 months, you’d have to scrape together a nearly impossible $1000 a month. Extend your horizon to 6 months, and that number drops to an attainable $500 a month.
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Saving in advance of having a trip planned helped me save enough money to take the journey and even splurge a little!
Step 2: Budget your trip relentlessly.
A world-class sniper doesn’t shoot with their eyes closed.
That’s what you do when you attempt to save for a trip without a goal. You need to create a tangible number to calculate how much you need to save every month. Like I said, the earlier, the better.
I recommend estimating your flight and accommodation and then using online resources to estimate the cost of food, activities, and transportation.
Step 3: Open a HYSA as your travel fund.
Having a vehicle to hold your savings is crucial to avoid accidentally spending them.
The reason so many people have trouble saving is behavioral; they see something, they buy it. Establishing a high-yield savings account with someone other than your current bank reduces your access. If you don’t have access, you can’t spend it.
Opening a travel fund was also crucial to keeping me motivated; seeing the number climb every week made me feel like I was that much closer to taking a dip in Santorini.
Step 4: Automate your savings.
With a time frame, a number, and a place to stash your cash, you can automate your weekly or monthly savings to reach your goal.
Automating your savings builds on the idea that we need to remove the behavioral component of money to save successfully. Set up an automatic transfer to your travel fund every time you get paid so that you save before spending. These weekly transfers from my freelancing income catapulted me to $3000, and they can do the same for you.
Taking out all the guesswork means saving has never been easier.
