2024 Total expenses for budget slow travel around the world

Hiking Mount Fuji. Peering into North Korea from the DMZ. Immersing in the beautiful chaos that is India. Hanging out in Hiroshima. Laying up on world-class beaches in Thailand and the Philippines. Just some of our 2024.

Another 12 months of slow-travel have wrapped up. It was another year of surreal adventure in early retirement.

India, Thailand, USA, Philippines, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan (China) were the countries we visited and enjoyed in calendar year 2024.

And as always, we kept meticulous track of our spending. Every morning, we review our previous days activities and expenditures and enter them into our “Spending Tracker” cell phone app.

Now that 2024 is over, it’s easy to tally up the figures and arrive at a grand total for the whole year.

Below is the complete breakdown.

$11,566 — Housing

$4,254 — Gifts/Charity

$4,018 — Restaurants

$2,971 — Groceries

$2,814 — Travel

$1,998 — Excursions/Entertainment

$1,832 — Health

$1,565 — Supplies

$1,213 — Beer

$887 — Local transit

__________________________

$33,118 total for 2 people: year 2024

Some further figures:

– $2,759 average monthly spend

– $637 average cost per week

– $90.71 average daily expense

Wow! For barely $90 per day, we again experienced some of the most diverse, far-flung, and tantalizing places, cultures, and activities this world can offer.

I highly recommend such an adventure to any human being with the 90 bucks!

Of course, throughout the year, we have posted many detailed MONTHLY spending breakdowns. Those can help curious travelers better gauge what it costs for a long, ‘local-style’ stay in a given location. Here’s links to some of those expense reports: Pondicherry, India; Chennai, India; Japan; Busan, South Korea; Seoul, South Korea; Taipei, Taiwan.

Based on our eight previous years of experience, we set a budget goal of $2,000 per month for ‘developing countries, $3,000 for ‘developed’ nations. By that criteria we were expecting to spend about $31,000 in calendar year 2024. As seen above, we ended up about $2,000 or 6.5% over budget.

No problem. We are very satisfied with the total; as we always recommend a 20 to 25 percent budget cushion — just in case of overspending or emergencies.

Of course, we could cut our charitable giving or restaurant dining — or any category — if we truly had a ‘hard’ limit on the budget. Translation: it is possible to do what we do on even less — perhaps 20 to 30 percent — without detracting from the fun and satisfaction of exploring the planet.

Thankfully, we have some flexibility and optionality in our slow-travel designs. And in fact, we plan to raise our budget in coming years. I have a private pension due at age 65, and my US social security retirement age is 67. Until then (I’m only 61), we’ll creep the budget higher, spend whatever is necessary to remain comfortable as we ‘get older’, and have a blast as we did in 2024.

Of course, the real overall takeaway from our lifestyle — and the expense totals — is that even in a time of inflation, climate crisis, and political upheaval, there are still plenty of enchanting places in the world where the cost of living is a mere fraction of Western prices.

Consider these metrics:

– $31.69 daily lodging average

– $19.15 daily food expense

– $3.32 per day for beer

To be clear, we didn’t make any extraordinary efforts to be frugal. We just lived the same normal, modest, comfortable lives we always do. Sure, we look for deals on food and goods – same as you do wherever you are. We eat half our meals at home; our rentals have kitchens. We walk a lot and use public transportation. We enjoy delicious local street foods.

With careful advance planning, we were also able to find some fantastic monthly Airbnb prices for apartments. Our places aren’t fancy, but always clean and comfy and centrally located. We want to be “where the action is” – not in some bargain-priced distant lodging with a commute involved. Monthly discounts can sometimes be over 50 percent on Airbnb. We grab those! We’re also willing to ‘take a chance’ on newer listings that offer big discounts to build a positive review history.

Above are a few of our Airbnb listings; and here are links to the ‘Kortn’s crib’ video tours I’ve posted where you can see exactly what you can get for $20 to $30 per night (monthly rentals) around Asia. Auroville, India. Busan, South Korea. Taipei, Taiwan.

The home pictured below is the house I still own in Cleveland, Ohio (now leased out). Older, compact, tidy, comfortable, low-maintenance, functional, economical, urban. To be honest, the conditions at most of our Airbnb rentals aren’t that different. Occasionally, we are disappointed with some aspect of a rental. But the good news: it’s only a month-long stay – then you move on.

I just checked our records; our spending for LAST year, 2023, averaged just under $77 per day — a grand total of $27,880 ($2,323 monthly). The higher 2024 numbers are mainly a result of living in East Asia for six months (Japan, South Korea, Taiwan), where costs are higher. $1,300 was also spent on ‘Travel’ airfare to/from America for a summer visit.

In the end, I can’t imagine life in the global north on $90 per day. Especially when there is so much to experience elsewhere at far more reasonable prices — including healthcare. Yes, America — healthcare is NOT a nightmare everywhere! Here’s a link to our Indian health costs in 2024.

Further, as the political and economic divide widens in western nations, I have to believe some number of the dissatisfied will be more interested in numbers like we’re sharing here. 2025 New Years resolution: I will keep posting our budget breakdowns.

Finally, for a true view into our daily vagabond lives, here again is the 2024 video summary my wife created as my Christmas gift. I’ve watched it repeatedly. It brings tears to my eyes and a huge smile to my face.