[botswana99]

I did a 6 month round the world trip with my wife in my early thirties. It was great. We blew our house down payment. But eventually saved again and have two kids. Never hurt my career. In fact helped it when I went from writing code to managing teams of engineers.

Dude, life is a long. Work will always be there

[lemonsqueeze]

Glad you mentioned spending house payment.

Another way to do this is to buy the house first, and rent it out while you are away on travels.

[mars4rp]

and spending what?

[lemonsqueeze]

Put down the smallest downpayment allowed by law.

Start writing off bills like cell phone, internet, printing, write off a management fee. Basically using the property to lower your tax foot print (money saved is money earned)

Ideally buy a triplex or fourplex so it cashflows and generates a small, few hundred dollars a month.

Save the profits for a year or two. Travel.

I took that approach because I would rather wait a couple years and travel for years on end and knowing that my net worth is not taking a huge hit.

The choice was... do I want to travel now for a year and blow through my savings. Or do I wait a couple years and then travel for the rest of my life.

[botswana99]

Yea blowing 20 grand (or more) on a round the world trip is terrible financial advice. If I would of bought that house in Palo Alto instead of traveling I'd have much higher net worth. But all the financial things eventually worked out (house, college, savings).

So blowing your savings in your 20s or 30s on a cool trip is not financially traumatic. It's just not financially wise. But wtf ... its the greatest time in the history of the universe to be a nerd. If you are reading HN, you have been gifted the amazing ability to abstract. Which means you can earn a decent living. So why not travel while you can? All that responsibility shit will still be there waiting for you!

[aliston]

It would take me about 30 years of traveling to spend the down payment on a house in Palo Alto...

[lemonsqueeze]

Good luck with that, there's a reason I choose to live in an affordable city. Wouldn't want to be an indebted slave my whole life.

To each their own.