Money

This is a summary of costs for 15 days traveling through Cambodia by bus and tuk-tuk with our family of 4 including all airfare, transportation, accommodations, excursions, food, groceries and everything down to a stick of gum.

Want to know how much you should pay for a trip to Angkor Wat and Bayon, how about an English tour guide? Then take a look at our chart below – be forewarned, things are not always grammatically correct, but I am sure you will be able to figure it out.

Quick Summary

  • Total cost for 15 days: $2,038.75 USD
  • Daily average: $135.92
  • Accommodation: $512
  • Transportation: $259
  • Excursions: $607
  • Visas: $120
  • Restaurant: $342.05
  • Groceries: $91.20

Cambodia Family Travel Expense Worksheet

Date Currency Price Category Item
2/15/2015 2:53:00 USD $120.00 Visa Cambodia visa
2/15/2015 22:10:00 USD $4.00 Resturaunt Shakes
2/15/2015 22:10:00 USD $5.00 clothes T shirts
2/16/2015 0:11:00 USD $31.00 gifts Scarf for demise
2/16/2015 2:31:00 USD $19.00 Resturaunt Dinner
2/16/2015 15:15:00 USD $64.00 Excursions Circus
2/16/2015 15:16:00 USD $5.00 Transport Tuk tuk for circus
2/16/2015 20:36:00 USD $80.00 Excursions Bike ride tour
2/17/2015 2:43:00 USD $6.50 Resturaunt Pizza
2/17/2015 2:43:00 USD $13.00 Resturaunt Lunch
2/17/2015 2:43:00 USD $9.00 Groceries Bug spray
2/17/2015 2:59:00 USD $4.00 Groceries Water
2/17/2015 15:13:00 USD $30.00 Accommodation Siem reap rooms
2/17/2015 15:18:00 USD $28.00 Resturaunt Dinner
2/17/2015 16:55:00 USD $3.00 Transport Tuk tuk
2/17/2015 17:59:00 USD $40.00 Excursions Angor
2/17/2015 18:01:00 USD $55.00 Excursions Tuk tuk and guide
2/17/2015 23:59:00 USD $28.00 Resturaunt Lunch
2/17/2015 23:59:00 USD $2.00 street food Fruit
2/17/2015 23:59:00 USD $1.00 Souvenir Post cards
2/18/2015 15:06:00 USD $5.00 Transport Tuk tuk
2/18/2015 15:06:00 USD $63.00 Excursions Ladyboy show
2/18/2015 15:06:00 USD $14.50 Resturaunt Lunch
2/18/2015 15:06:00 USD $8.00 Groceries Batteries Ice cream Chocholate
2/18/2015 15:11:00 USD $27.00 Resturaunt Dinner
2/18/2015 15:13:00 USD $30.00 Accommodation Siem reap rooms
2/19/2015 15:13:00 USD $18.00 Accommodation Siem reap rooms x1
2/19/2015 21:40:00 USD $3.50 Groceries Fruit
2/19/2015 21:40:00 USD $3.00 Groceries Water
2/19/2015 21:42:00 USD $10.00 Excursions Tenple
2/19/2015 21:42:00 USD $35.00 Transport Temple tuk tuk
2/20/2015 5:01:00 USD $1.00 street food Donuts
2/20/2015 5:44:00 USD $15.50 Resturaunt Mexican dinner
2/20/2015 7:37:00 USD $9.00 gifts Baby gifts pants and animals
2/20/2015 15:13:00 USD $18.00 Accommodation Seam reap rooms x1
2/20/2015 20:09:00 USD $69.25 Resturaunt Belfast x6
2/20/2015 23:28:00 USD $6.30 Resturaunt Ice cream
2/20/2015 23:52:00 USD $5.30 Groceries Gum meds
2/21/2015 0:39:00 USD $32.40 Groceries Groceries
2/21/2015 1:07:00 USD $4.00 Transport Tuk tuk
2/21/2015 1:48:00 USD $1.00 Groceries Water
2/21/2015 3:44:00 USD $18.00 Resturaunt Dinner Khmer kitchen
2/21/2015 5:37:00 USD $2.50 Souvenir Rabbit
2/21/2015 5:37:00 USD $14.00 Excursions Messages
2/21/2015 5:38:00 USD $1.00 Groceries Water
2/21/2015 15:06:00 USD $64.00 Transport Bus seim to phenom
2/21/2015 22:35:00 USD $2.50 Groceries Water and bread
2/22/2015 4:25:00 USD $5.00 Transport Tuk tuk
2/22/2015 4:25:00 USD $10.50 Resturaunt Dinner
2/22/2015 4:26:00 USD $65.00 Accommodation King grand boutique hotel pehn
2/22/2015 21:38:00 USD $18.00 clothes Berkshire shoes x2
2/22/2015 21:38:00 USD $9.00 Excursions S21+brochure
2/22/2015 22:50:00 USD $3.00 gear Sunglasses
2/22/2015 22:50:00 USD $6.00 clothes Dress
2/22/2015 22:50:00 USD $3.50 Groceries Water and ice cream
2/22/2015 22:50:00 USD $2.00 gear Watch
2/22/2015 22:50:00 USD $4.00 gear Camera bag
2/22/2015 22:52:00 USD $6.00 gear Backpack sm
2/22/2015 23:02:00 USD $10.00 Souvenir Genicide book
2/22/2015 23:28:00 USD $4.00 Souvenir Scarf
2/22/2015 23:35:00 USD $10.00 Transport Tuk tuk
2/23/2015 4:26:00 USD $65.00 Accommodation Grand king
2/23/2015 23:28:00 USD $3.00 ice cream Ice cream
2/23/2015 23:29:00 USD $12.00 Excursions Killing fields
2/23/2015 23:29:00 USD $12.00 Transport Tuk tuk
2/24/2015 1:42:00 USD $70.00 Accommodation Grand king
2/24/2015 5:25:00 USD $16.50 Resturaunt Dinner same same backpacker
2/24/2015 15:02:00 USD $8.00 Groceries Water mini bar
2/24/2015 15:04:00 USD $44.00 Transport van to sen monorom
2/24/2015 15:04:00 USD $5.00 Transport Tuk tuk to van
2/25/2015 1:42:00 USD $30.00 Accommodation Nature lodge sen monorom
2/26/2015 1:42:00 USD $30.00 Accommodation Nature lodge sen monorom
2/26/2015 4:30:00 USD $46.00 Resturaunt Dinners x 2 and brkfst desert nature lodge
2/26/2015 4:30:00 USD $8.00 Transport Motor ride
2/26/2015 4:32:00 USD $10.00 Groceries Fruit and rolls
2/26/2015 6:26:00 USD $260.00 Excursions Elephant valley all day with meals
2/26/2015 19:39:00 USD $66.00 Accommodation King gran
2/26/2015 23:34:00 USD $5.00 Transport Tuk tuk to hotel
2/27/2015 2:09:00 USD $20.00 Resturaunt Lunch
2/27/2015 6:24:00 USD $54.00 Transport Van San monorom to PP
$2,038.75 USD

More Americans are choosing to take time off from work to relax or re-examine their priorities, so they can return to work energized. Some companies offer formal sabbatical programs, but how can the average person take time off to evaluate their direction, explore their passions, and make time for the things that are really important?

Whether you’re disillusioned with your career, yearning to follow a dream, doing pre-retirement planning, or taking time out after a layoff, now is the time to step back and reboot.

But I always here the same thing: “I could never afford that”

“You must be Rich!”

Our story is a simple one that probably mirrors that of many middle-class families in America.

In 1995 my wife and I both graduated high school and moved away from home to attend college, we acquired debt, graduated from college, found decent jobs, started paying off our debt, got married, rented a one bedroom apartment, wen’t back to graduate school, acquired more debt, bought a flat screen tv and surround sound speakers, purchased  a small townhouse with an affordable mortgage, moved to a nicer (and much more expensive) California location, sold our townhouse, had our first child, acquired a bigger mortgage and more debt to accommodate our growing family, bought a family van and acquired more debt, and then boom…. Our house lost all it’s value overnight, our jobs were threatened, our 401K’s decimated and my life was 100% actualized. This brings us to the year 2008!

I had become a slave to my lifestyle, and what made it worse? I had done it all with good intentions.

We have middle-class jobs

I am a family practice physician assistant practicing in a small rural clinic since 2004.  My wife is a Registered Nurse who has been working full-time until the birth of our daughter in 2007 when she reduced her hours down to 20 per week.

Timeline to Travel

In 2007, I read a book that inspired me to look at my life differently. In 2008, after the financial crisis, we moved out of our home and I started a blog that would eventually become a small (yet profitable) online business.

In 2004 we purchased our first home and sold it for a small profit, then in 2007 we purchased our second home and hit a wall.

This changed our lives and fortunately instead of running with the bulls we changed our direction and became smarter.

We made sacrifices like moving out of our home and renting it to college students for a year, becoming lean as a family and most importantly I studied every financial book I could get my hands on to understand what went wrong.

I lost sleep for months not to mention when the market crashed so did the hospital I worked for.

But, I stand here today as a testament to what financial education and some hard work and faith in the process can accomplish.

Making work serve your interests instead of the other way around

I mentioned I started a profitable blog in 2008. This has been essential to what is making this trip possible. Writing online at first was an outlet but learning to make money online has been one of the most amazing experiences of my life.

It is about creating services and providing the right information to people who need it and out of this grows something spectacular. In my case it was a business which as a health care provider was something I didn’t even know was possible.

My online business now provides roughly $3000 of monthly income. Sometimes more and sometimes less. This is the income that we will use as we travel.

As a family practice PA I can make about $75,000 take home cash annually and this is after maximizing out our retirement accounts.

My wife, working part time can bring in about 30K as well. Over the past 5 years we have been able to build a nest egg, and with the online income store up a bit of liquid cash. We soon realized that the costs of living here in California are ridiculous. With a small amount of income and $50,00  in liquid assets we are making this dream of RTW travel a reality.

Debt Free

money-problems-big

We are 100% debt free on this trip.

  • We rent out our house to completely cover our mortgage and make a very small $150 of monthly profit.
  • We rented out our family wagon to cover the monthly payment.
  • We paid off our school loans completely: My wife was Air-force ROTC and  I was a National Health Service Corps Scholar, because of this our loans have been paid off by the government.
  • We resisted new purchases in preparation for our trip. My old clunker has 250k miles and we ride bikes everywhere.

We Look For Passive and Investment income

When I first read Robert Kiyosaki’s book Rich Dad Poor Dad I thought he was full of crap. But years later after I started my online business and went back and read his book about Cashflow Quadrants it became clear to me.

I gained a clear understanding of what it was I was working for (Earned Income) and I was able to find a better path.

You MUST BECOME FINANCIALLY EDUCATED if you really want to travel around the world with your family.

We as Americans are EXTREMELY WEALTHY when compared to the rest of the world. Honestly, I believe that with a little planning and the right kind of investing a family with a plan to travel around the globe can swing it.

It is nice to have some type of dedicated and slightly predictable passive or portfolio income stream while you do it. So you should plan for this. One way is to start today to get your financial education.

Becoming Financially Educated

Once you understand what types of income you can generate and the options that are available you can make goals. You may decide that owning a home is not worth the liability. So you could sell it if you own or rent and look to purchase a property as an investment and earn revenue from this. Make home ownership an ASSET!

You could start a side business using a skill you have to generate some income and grow it into a profit generating passive income stream like I have. But this requires dedication and a whole lot of persistence.

I have used Relay Rides for the past year and a half renting out an old truck we purchased as a junker in 2004. We have made over $3000 on this car renting it out over the last year!

I started 6 other web properties and have been able to see these grow into their own revenue generating businesses as well.

Once you are financially educated you can free yourself from the confines of job = money. This is a process for sure.

To be continued…