The Bottom Line

I have been asked on a few occasions, “How much does a trip like this cost?”

Not surprisingly, that same question was among the first that I asked our travel agent when we first contacted her. I did have a ballpark figure in mind before I asked it and I had based that figure on a combination of the upper limit of what I felt we could spend and my own swag as to what the cost of such a trip might be. My guess was pretty close.

To ask what a trip like this costs is somewhat akin to asking, “How much are a pair of sneakers?” I’d have to say, “It depends… are we talking about Keds or Reeboks?” Same principle applies here.

The trip we are planning could easily cost less if we chose to make it so. As it is with nearly anything else, it can certainly be done for a whole lot more, too. It all depends on a wide variety of factors, not the least of which involves class of travel, class of hotel and the extent to which you want to utilize guided tours, and which kind. We are looking for the cheapest possible air fare (who isn’t?) and are willing to splurge a bit on the hotels and tours.

For the answer, take a look at the French title of the novel by Jules Verne about a wager made by one Phileas Fogg, and substitute the word mille for the word jours. By the way, for a non-topical comparison, here’s a look at Phileas’ planned route.

click to enlarge

Regardless of how you go about it, an around the world journey is definitely anything but inexpensive. It certainly is not an investment from which you can expect monetary gain, unless maybe you are a talented writer and have some marketing skills. However if you measure the return in terms of lifelong memories and one-of-a-kind experiences, it becomes money well spent indeed. For everything else there's Mastercard...

We are truly fortunate to have the financial ability to take this trip. That ability comes, in part, from having had an upbringing by parents who cared to enough to give their children a solid foundation for learning how to save, how to budget, and how and when to spend money. A stable career with a steady, comfortable income lent a lot to it, as well.

As is the case with many other things in my life, financially, I am not a do-it-yourselfer. We have had help for many years with our financial planning and management from an advisor. Our guy’s name is Chris Allessio and he is with Edward Jones. When I look back at our portfolio value from around the same time as we seriously started planning this trip and compare it to the value today, it has increased enough to cover the cost of this trip.

To anyone seeking a good financial advisor, I highly recommend Chris. If you want to know more about Edward Jones and Chris, here is his home page.