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Fund Your Gap Year Experience
Guest Post
A gap year can be a life changing experience: you meet new people, taste new food and immerse yourself in new cultures. However, you won’t get anything for free on your year off so it is important that you have enough money before you leave. In this article we explain how you can fund your gap year.
Make goals
When you’re saving for a gap year, the reality of your trip can seem a long way off. This can make it difficult to motivate yourself to actively build up your financial reserves. However, if you want to enjoy decent accommodation with wireless internet that will allow you to play online games and keep in contact with friends and family back home then you will need plenty of money.
To make your future expenses seem more current it is a very good idea to come up with a hypothetical budget. Go through all the daily, weekly and monthly costs that you think you will encounter while you’re away. This will give you a grand total to aim for, which can make saving up a lot easier.
Get a job
The most obvious way to make money is to get yourself a job. If you live at home with your parents it is likely that many of your expenses will already be paid for so you can save a lot of money quite quickly with even a part time, low paid job.
As you are going away you are unlikely to find work at a company looking for a long term employee; however, there are a number of sectors that expect high staff turnover so often hire staff on a short term basis. Sectors that you might like to try include catering, retail and construction.
Sell your things
If you’re going away for a gap year a then you probably have quite a few things that you won’t need while you’re on your trip. These include old toys, clothes and electronic items such as game consoles and DVD players. But while they’re pretty useless to you, you can quickly turn them into liquid funds by selling them on internet auction sites.
Make sure you do your research into what you’re selling so that you can get the best price for your goods. What looks like an old rag to you could actually make you a lot of money if sold to the right person. Any money that you do make should be safely stored away in your bank account.
Cut down on expenses
Life with Mum and Dad can be a bit stressful at time, but it is normally pretty cheap. However, even if you’re living at home there are a few ways to cut down your outgoings so that you can save up to fund your gap year. Think very carefully about any money that you spend. Try to keep eating out to a bare minimum.
It’s also a good idea not to buy too many new things in the build up to you year away as this can really dent your bank account.
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