When people say "you can travel cheaply" they don't know what they're talking about

Hi everyone. I'm an American who has traveled extensively throughout Asia and the world. I have lived in Asia for the greater part of five years and have a deep understanding of the costs associated.<br><br>I regularly see posts of people saying that you can travel somewhere for "the cost of rent" or some other nonsense. If you look closely at these examples, they're usually including stuff that you pay for at home anyway (like food). If you seriously think that you can travel to Asia (as an example) for $800-1000 a month, you're delusional.<br><br>There is a recurring theme of people lowballing the cost of travel because they either A: Don't know what they're talking about or B: Want to inspire people to travel. I think the latter is somewhat malicious and creates unrealistic expectations that will lead to disappointment and potentially sad outcomes.<br><br>I'll illustrate an example. Let's say you want to travel to Vietnam. Notably, one of the cheaper countries to travel in. If you want to travel Vietnam, you need to get to Vietnam. From the US, a round trip ticket is around $900 or more. If you want to travel for three months, you need to plan your trip and save money to stay off work for three months. If you make $50,000 a year, you pay about 25% in taxes (~$1000/month). <br><br>Adding in other expenses for the trip that you cannot avoid like travel insurance, gear, and a visa if you plan on staying longer than 30 days, you're looking at an additional $1000 or more in expenses. At this point, you have already spent $2800 and you haven't purchased a single plane ticket. Let's assume you make $12,000 a year, or $1000/month. You need to save three months worth of expenses (which is 3/12 * $12,000 or $3000) to afford to take time off. <br><br>This brings your total cost to $5800. At this point, you haven't purchased a single plane ticket. Now you do. $900.<br><br>Total cost is now $6800. Now you get to pay for three months of food and hotels. This is a lot of variables to consider, but let's take another example from people who have done it.<br><br>Three months of travel in Vietnam on a shoestring budget is around $2000 for two people (so $1000). Let's assume you stay in a hotel for 90 days. A hotel that costs $10/night averages out to $300 for the whole stay. If you want to stay in an Airbnb for three months, you're looking at a minimum of $500.<br><br>Total cost is now $7100. Let's not forget that you will be flying out of the country when you're done, so tack on another $200 for a ticket to Cambodia or wherever. Or another $900 if you want to fly home.<br><br>At this point, if you want to travel Vietnam for three months, you're looking at around $8-10000 in expenses.<br><br>Vietnam, as I mentioned earlier, is one of the cheaper countries in Asia to travel in. For example, Japan is not. If you want to purchase a round trip ticket to Japan from the US, you're looking at a minimum of $1200. I would not dare estimate expenses for traveling in Japan for three months because it's just too much.<br><br>If you want to travel Asia on a shoestring budget for three months, it's looking at a bare minimum of $8000. Realistically, it's probably more like $10,000.<br><br>If you make $50,000 a year and want to take 3 months off to travel, at a bare minimum you need to save about 5 months worth of your salary (25% tax + expenses not associated with travel) to do so.<br><br>I regularly see these types of posts on Chambers of people who have traveled extensively and have a very warped sense of what it actually costs to travel. The average American does not make piles of money, and if you want to travel extensively, you need to have a good understanding of the costs associated.