How Can You Pay For Your Gap Year Travel Plans?

All the best things in life are not free. Traveling is an eye-opening experience that you will never forget. It can change your whole perspective on life and alter your goals in life itself. Unfortunately, it’s not cheap. Even though more people are globetrotting than ever before, the costs have relatively stayed the same. And if you’re a student looking to take a gap year and explore the world, it’s going to be even more difficult.

But, it’s not impossible; far from it in fact. You do have numerous ways to fund your own travels and continue to have a trickle of cash coming in so you can pay for things like a place to stay, food, equipment, and transport. You’ll need to be outgoing and ready to take on any challenge. In the end, it’s so worthwhile and you won’t regret it!  

Look at fundraising

A positive and challenging step towards filling up your traveling fund jar is to ask for fundraising sponsorship in return for completing a run. You don’t have to be an Olympic marathon runner, but you will need to enter a reasonably difficult endurance race to get some notoriety. Look for a 10-mile run to join and make sure it’s a public event. Equally as befitting would be if they run itself was for charity. The more participants the higher the overall collection will be. When your name has been accepted you’ll need to start training although it’s recommended you do this well in advance. 

Go around to all the people you know and tell them about your goal. Ask them to sponsor you so you can get closer to your travel goals. Even just $1 or $5 is going to greatly help toward the pile of money you will need. Then you may want to go knocking on doors, telling people about your ambitions and why you’re partaking in the run. Again, every little bit helps and you’ll slowly begin to amass a large amount of money. Then on the day of the event, have someone record you or perhaps record yourself with your smartphone. Show people what you did and how you managed to retain good faith in their sponsorship pledge.

Loading up on a loan

If time is of the essence and you can’t do a charity event or attain sponsorship, you do have bad credit loans at your disposal. For example, one such type is the guarantor loan from Buddy Loans which allows you to take out up to £10,000. The payment period can be from as little as 12 months or as large as 60 months. With a guarantor loan, someone is elected your safety net. Someone else will need to guarantee that they will step up to the plate and make the payments, should the borrower be unable to make them. This gives the company reassurance that someone else will act as a safety net and make good on the outstanding money.

The reason why someone with bad credit can be accepted is that the guarantor will be assessed as to whether or not they have a healthy credit score and or income. £10,000 will last you a long time on your gap year travels, so it’s a highly recommended financial avenue.

Work in film

The film industry is always looking for new extras. Working as an extra can pay up to triple digits per day. Some of the larger names like Warner Bros can pay around $130 a day just for playing someone in the background. Since the same extras are used throughout the film, you may find yourself being on set for days or even weeks at a time. As you can imagine, this will mean your money will mount up and pretty soon you could be nearing over $1,000. Working hours are long, however, and they can be a little tiring. But, if you’re flexible and have plenty of time to spare, this is a pretty easy way to earn more than enough for your gap year travel plans.

Be more mindful

It’s not just about making money, but saving too. Cut out the expensive things in your life and the luxuries that you don’t need. You may also want to move into a cheaper apartment for a few months, just to save up for your year abroad. Don’t buy unnecessary things in your weekly grocery shop and be more prudent of how you spend your money. You’re going to learn so much about yourself while on your gap year. Traveling the world is a once in a lifetime experience, so get creative and motivated to pay for your own travels!

If you enjoyed this post, why not read my What I’m Packing For Venice and European Cities/Towns I’m Dying To Visit.