5 BIGGEST Money Mistakes We’ve Made

It’s very common for many people to go into something and not think of all the things that could go wrong. But that’s okay because if you had to know all the consequences then you may not ever do a majority of the things you want in life. It’s what makes great stories and tests your character during those moments of making a mistake. We have to say we are the furthest thing from the perfect travelers and have made many of our own mistakes thus far.

“Mistakes are the growing pains of wisdom.”

We have fought, got lost, had items stolen, pooped our pants and have gotten injured. We wanted to share with you the top five whoopsies we’ve done so far so that perhaps you can avoid doing the same mistakes during your future travels.

1. Getting denied entry.  We were waiting patiently in Honolulu at our
boarding gate, ecstatic to be heading across the Pacific Ocean to our next spot
 only to find out 30 minutes before boarding that we were denied entry into Japan; we would have to book a flight out of Japan in order to enter. We had to run to the other side of the airport to book on a staff computer for the cheapest destination out of Japan.

Travel tip: Use Expedia to book an emergency flight you’re unsure about because you can cancel the flight within 24hrs and get 100% reimbursed.

2. Arriving at the wrong airport.  We arrived nice and early to the airport in Istanbul, excited to start our first Workaway in Turkey. Having booked our ticket in advance, we assumed that the airport we arrived into (IST) was the one we were departing from versus the more domestic one (SAW). Well we lost our money on that flight, had to rearrange our plans with the Workaway hosts and book another flight.

Travel tip: Never assume! Double or even triple check your flight information.

3. Buying $150 dollar soup. We’re nice people, we worked hard for our money, we deserve a nice, warm soup to fill the belly – but not $150 soup.  Sometimes the conversions are really simple, like 100 YEN equals $1 CAD, and sometimes we make stupid mistakes not counting all the zeros on the YEN pricing.  We thought we purchased a $15 soup until we received the bill…

Travel tip: Get an app on your phone that does the conversions for you.  YEN to CAD was a simple one and we still managed to screw it up.  Also when converting in your head you are doing rough estimates which may throw your budget off at the end of the month.

4. Not planning far enough ahead. Sometimes waiting for last minute deals is great and can be worth it but more often than not we’ve found it hurt us.  For example, getting to London, England was cheap to travel to but a nightmare to leave because it was 5x the cost and every day we spent in London waiting for a good deal would just be eating away at our budget.

Travel tip: If you’re restricted by dates and times you have to be places, plan far ahead! If you’re on a one year trip and can be flexible, you can take the risk and watch for deals or book an around-the-world ticket!

5. Partying. Not much more we need to say about it.  Although some places alcohol is cheaper than bottled water, a long day of drinking is money down the drain, either out one end or the other.  When your having fun sometimes you lose track.

Travel tip: Allot a percent of your budget to alcohol or like we’ve learned, leave your cards at home and only take with you how much you’re willing to spend.

We say these are mistake but really we think of them as memory investments. All and all, we keep things in perspective and love that we are imperfect and always learning. If we knew it all then life would be boring.

So to help you with your future, remember to triple check the airport your leaving from, look at the countries laws for entering and what conditions you need to meet before hand, keep a money conversion app on your phone and become super familiar with the currency exchange rate, plan ahead with your trip – and party … hey, you’ve saved money on everything else why not!

Stay tuned to find out What We Did Wrong Before Leaving on our Trip, how we neglected parts of our business and real estate and what we learned.