The question bothers me a bit. I don't think people are asking smokers how they afford to spend so much on cigarettes (and in Australia this can easily be $5000 per year), drinkers how they can indulge in a hundred dollars of booze on each weekend, shopaholics how they buy all that stuff that they don't really need, or parents how they can afford to raise a kid (and that's 20 odd years of big expense). But still, it's a question so many people ask, so I'll offer some insight.
Firstly, I am stingy. That is, I don't spend much money on anything other than travel. I never smoked, I hardly drink, I rarely buy things I don't need: not fashion clothes, not makeup or styling, not household decorations, not books or movies or cds; not even when I'm living in Australia. I go out plenty when I'm home, but mostly with the free events offered by the city council or community groups. I've never been interested in having kids.
Secondly, travel is cheap. Travel can be expensive of course, but not when you do it this way. H and I live in a motorhome. We mostly camp for free. Our biggest expense is fuel, and we travel, on average, 100-150 kilometres per day. Our next expense is food, and we prepare our own meals almost everyday (we've eaten out twice in 2 months, and never had takeout). We'd have a food expense no matter where we were in the world, but we eat out less than we would in either of our own countries... It happens when you bush camp as much as we do.
My money came from working, strict saving (as above, not spending) and investing the hard-earned-well-saved cash. My plan was always to travel long term (when my piers were planning their future careers, I had the idea that I'd simply like to be a traveller), and I knew I'd need money.
Never have I earnt a big paycheque, I finished high school and started working. I did recieve excellent guidance in life from both my parents (they encouraged me to invest).
I hope that sets things straight.
