Freelancing on the Road

In October, Vibhu and I plan to take our lives on the road. First, it’ll be a road trip back to the west coast to visit family before heading off to India to get married.  After the grand event in Agra, we’ll be roaming around India for a while. Maybe a few months, maybe more. I have romantic visions of an overland adventure in a bio-diesel converted VW bus. Vibhu wants to study yoga and Ayurveda at an ashram. We both want to hang out on the beach in south Goa.  Whatever our travels manifest into, money will be required.

At the moment, we have the luxury of two incomes, few expenses, and the ability to save a pretty penny every month. But in the same breath, we’ve also got a big traditional Indian wedding to finance, immigration documents to obtain, and a plan to travel for an indefinite length of time. I’ve been making budgets since elementary school when I first started getting allowance, so crunching the numbers again and again to figure out how we can afford our grand plans, well that’s old news.

Our current expenses add up to about $2,500 per month, but this figure will be completely obsolete once we sell our stuff, pack the car, and hit the road.  India is a very inexpensive country, and the last time I travelled there, my daily budget of 400 rupees (about $10) was more than enough to cover the necessities. Between the two of us, a budget of 800 rupees per day should be more than adequate.

Although we should have enough money saved that we won’t need to rely on freelance writing gigs to keep us going, it sure would be nice to watch that money grow in a high-interest Indian savings account too.  800 rupees per day for two people comes to $140 per week or about 6 articles published each week at an online magazine. Travelling full-time and publishing that much seems a little daunting, especially in a country where wifi connections are extremely limited.  But with some planning and research before hand, it can be done.

Dirt Bag Writer offers up some great resources for beginning freelancers which have been added to my “to do” list for the weekend. My goal between now and November is to expand my social networking use, develop a fully functional blog, and publish, publish, publish in whatever form possible.  Hopefully the powers of these forces will converge with just enough momentum to launch myself into the universe of paid travel writing.

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