I’ve never stopped to think about it, but now that I do, I find it surprising that for people who travel as much as we do, we hardly ever talk about money. We didn’t meet each other until we were in our sixties, so we each brought our own finances to the relationship. As time went on we never merged our finances, electing instead to establish a joint bank account to which we contributed whenever it got low. The joint account pays for rent, food, and other common expenses. Other than that, we each have our own checking and investment accounts to do with as we please. The other night, during our customary cocktail at sunset, we just happened to mention our individual savings accounts: They have grown considerably since we began our travels.

We added up our expenses for the past ten months and indeed, it has cost us less — far less — to live than it did while we lived in Portland. In other words, for us full-time travel has been a money-saving venture. And an adventure to boot. How can that be? Well, to begin with we don’t have a car, and that’s financially significant. No automobile insurance. No homeowner’s insurance. No utilities. No Internet. No…

…well, there’s already a post from our fellow travelers Brian and Shannon, who also travel full time and have also found that they’re saving money by traveling. They’ve even taken the extra step of declaring their home state to be one without an income tax, something we never thought of. Brian has put a lot of research into the subject of full-time travel finances, and his revelations are eye-opening (and for us, validating). Click on the link above to see what I mean.