Keith Savage

https://www.traveling-savage.com

Age: 30

Hometown: Madison, WI

Quote: “The most important lesson for us was the power of a budget.”

How did you find out about Vagabonding, and how did you find it useful? I read Rolf’s book a long time ago – I think I found it after browsing through recommended reading on Amazon. The title just jumped out at me and I was pleasantly surprised to read a book about travel that spoke to my situation: a corporate office worker seeking to travel but having limited time to do it.

After I read the book, I naturally investigated the website and I’ve found it to be full of useful tips and inspiring stories. I think it might have planted to the seed for my current journey.

What is your job or source of travel funding for this journey? I’ve worked at a health software company for the past seven and a half years. In the last year my wife and I have saved the money I need to fund my travels. There’s a lot guess work – especially when so many varied and unknown countries are in the mix – but we built some buffer room into the budget to account for that.

While I’m traveling, my wife will continue to work at her job. We still have mortgage payments, bills, and all the miscellaneous expenses of owning a home.

Do you plan to work on the road? The travels I have planned represent a career shift for me, from technical writing to travel writing. So, in essence, being on the road will itself be work. As far as more traditional forms of work, probably not. My plan is to be gone for one month at time three to four times a year. After a trip, I’ll return home to Wisconsin where I can continue writing about the experience and start gearing up for the next one.

What was the reaction of your friends/family/colleagues as you planned your trip? My wife and I formulated the plan together, and I didn’t tell anyone else until I believed it could be real. That meant making sure we’d have a feasible financial situation, believing in my own writing skills, and having the skeleton of a plan.

Once I started telling family and friends, the reaction was overwhelmingly supportive. Almost everyone encouraged me to take the leap, especially once I mentioned how unhappy I was with my current situation. There’s always someone who throws poison in the well, but it made me stronger hearing the feedback and weathering the storm of doubt that it triggered.

Any tips or lessons learned from the travel-preparation process? The most important lesson for us was the power of a budget. By creating savings goals and monitoring our monthly spending, we were able to accumulate the needed resources much more quickly than we thought possible. Prior to this plan, we didn’t hold ourselves to a budget, and sometimes we think back and lament all of the money we could have saved.

The point is that if you’re anything like me, someone working a good office job but looking for something more in line with passions, don’t let money be an excuse. You can put together a plan that will turn a dream into a reality.

How long do you hope to spend on the road? My plan is to take one-month trips three to four times a year for the next two years. In total, that’s about eight trips to various destinations around the world. All of this starts with me going to Argentina in November.

After the two years are up, it’s anyone’s guess what I’ll be doing or where I’ll be.

Which destinations do you hope to visit? I wrote a recent post outlining places I’d like to visit over the next two years. Some of the places on my list include South Africa, Turkey, Scotland, Hungary, Norway, maritime Canada, and Japan. Oh, and Argentina, but there’s no hoping about that one – I’m going.

Which experiences are you most looking forward to? I’m most looking forward to successfully traveling on my own for a month while keeping in contact with my wife. Beyond that, I’m really hoping for some everyday cultural experiences, just hanging out and chatting with citizens and understanding the way of life. I think that’s worth writing about.

What are you packing for the journey? For me, packing for a week-long, month-long, or year-long trip would probably be pretty similar. I will not be checking any baggage thanks to a couple of Tom Bihn bags I picked up, the Aeronaut and the Smart Alec. The Aeronaut will hold all of my clothing and toiletries and the Smart Alec will contain my laptop, external hard drives, iPhone, cables, books, and other gadgetry.

I aim to pack light: a couple of pairs of convertible pants, a few shirts, etc.

Do you have any worries or concerns about the journey? Yeah, plenty. This plan is pretty radical for my wife and I since we haven’t been apart for nearly this long before. We’ll definitely have some kinks to work and I just hope we can make this plan work for its entirety. Ironically, though I love to travel, I’m also somewhat of home body.

There’s no going back now and I’m glad for it. I’ve given notice at my job, bought tickets to Argentina, and I’ve written for ten months about my plans. Onward!

How can we best follow your adventures? Easy, check out my blog: Traveling Savage. You can also follow me on Twitter @travelingsavage and become a fan of Traveling Savage on Facebook. (https://www.facebook.com/TravelingSavage)

Are you a Vagabonding reader planning, in the middle of, or returning from a journey? Would you like your travel blog or website to be featured on Vagabonding Case Studies? If so, drop us a line at casestudies@vagabonding.net and tell us a little about yourself.