Preparing Finances

Finances are without a doubt one of the biggest items you are going to have to deal with. Nobody likes to get down and dirty with them, but when preparing a big trip such as the great Aussie Big Lap, this one is a must! From preparing before you hit the road, to how you will fund your travel when you have begun your new lifestyle. There are so many things to consider, along with an absolute barrage of lists!

We have compiled a list of things that you could consider paying for in advance before you hit the road, and that way it will be less income you need to generate while travelling, and more money towards the fun things you want to do, or keep you on the road longer.

Here are some ideas of things you could prepay.

Let’s start with insurances:

*Car

*Caravan

*House

*Health

*RAA Roadside

Insurances are those bills we pay, but seldom feel we get anything out of. But it’s one of those kind of things that you would need if you didn’t have it. So, we keep paying it. For instance, our private health insurance costs us a fortune, but we only use it for our children’s orthodontics. I’m certain we could use it more, we just don’t. Truth be known, we would probably be better off if we just paid the orthodontists bills when they come in, we would probably have leftover, but I guess you never know when something unexpected may pop up, so we have the insurance as a backup.

We have roadside assistance on our new vehicle warranty system, however we also have roadside assistance with an independent insurer as a package with our son who is included on the policy. So we don’t need this one, but will keep it as an extra peace of mind while our son is only in his third year of driving. Here we could save money by having him obtain roadside assistance himself, but as a parent, I continue to want my kids to be protected and while I am paying for this, I know he has this insurance.

If you rent the home you live in prior to your travel, then you wouldn’t have building insurance, just contents, the landlord pays for their building insurance, but more often than not the cost of this is reflected in the weekly rental price. If you own your home and are going to sell it, then you won’t need this either.

Moving on to registrations

Registrations

*Car

*Caravan

*Dog

We will be leaving our every day drive car at home parked up, therefore won’t need to register or insure it until we return as nobody will be using it, (so we have actually saved some dollars here!). But our tow vehicle and caravan will be paid a year in credit prior to our departure. A good portion of people pay their insurance monthly, so if you change over and pay it for a year before you leave, bare in mind that in one year’s time, a full lump sum will be due. Or just before it falls due, you can change back to monthly payments. Always keep good communication with your insurer.

And not forgetting to register the dog! But he doesn’t cost much 😊

Keeping your home

If you choose not to sell your home, some of the bills just don’t stop even though you aren’t residing there. If you are going to rent it out, you are still responsible for these listed below.

*Council Rates

*Emergency services levy – not sure if these are applicable to homeowners outside of SA, but this certainly is something we cannot escape here.

*Water and Sewage – If you are going to rent your home out, you will still be required, as a part of the lease contract, to pay certain portions of the water bill, like the ‘connection’ fee, which is just paying for the joy of having mains water connected to your property, and the sewage which is where, yep you guessed it, all that nasty stuff from the toilet goes. On our property, we run on septic, so we don’t have to pay a sewage fee, but we still have to have the septic tank pump every three to four years. Our local septic man does this for us, for around $180. Which works out to be approximately $45 per year. Pretty cheap in our eyes.

It pays to also keep in mind here that keeping your home means the upkeep and general maintenance of it, if in the event of a breakdown. For example, a new hot water heater, or damage to property. So if you can, keep a separate account with a few funds in it for this reason. It’s just good insurance to have for when the insurance doesn’t cover the costs or when making a claim is not economically viable if the insurance excess exceeds the cost of repair or replacement.

Entertainment

If you are going to travel with kids, you will definitely want to consider some streaming services if you haven’t already. Most families nowadays already have one, if not a couple, of these services so it won’t be a new thing to you. Nobody plans to be spending loads of time in their caravan, but let’s face it, the weather isn’t always a sunny 24 degrees. It’s going to rain, it’s going to be cold, windy and with this weather brings some downtime. There are many things that you can do to keep the kids entertained while stuck inside, but when you want a slow pace, or a wind down before bed time, streaming is a good idea. We have a few services, and include:

*Spotify

*Netflix

*Stan

You could also look at a satellite dish for your rig. We have seen many of these set ups on vans. The average Sphere set up was around $3000 when we enquired a few months back. But not really something for us.

We don’t travel without Spotify and our Road Trips playlist that we have personalized to our music preferences. You can do this within minutes, and it’s well worth spending the time rather than random music that will have you pressing the ‘next’ button over. It’s a good idea to do this with everyone who will be travelling as you don’t want to be listening to music that just one person prefers. Everyone will be in the car, everyone will be hearing it and it’s supposed to be a happy time, that everyone will enjoy. So this is another opportunity to minimise the risk of DJ arguments while on your travels.

Put set bills into credit:

*Mobiles

*Internet

Most travellers won’t need to pay internet connections at home once they have begun the trip, however at this stage our kids will be staying home, so we will pay the internet connection one year in advance. If you are on prepaid for your mobile, you could perhaps look at changing over to post paid and put the bill into credit, or perhaps at regular intervals buy credit vouchers before you leave (providing they don’t have an expiry date of course) and use them when needed.

Generally with mobiles on post paid these days, the plans have unlimited almost everything, and then include set amounts of data. So more often than not, the bill amount remains the same every month. You could look at paying this amount x 12 (for 12 months) to your network provider and there’s one less thing you need to think about while on the road.

Finalise and close accounts

These ones don’t apply to us, but a lot of people preparing for their lap would benefit from finalising these where possible.

*Credit cards

*Store cards + afterpay / zip pay etc

*Loans ie personal or car etc

*Mortgage

Our mortgage will be paid by the income from our rental properties, so this will be ongoing and we are lucky enough to not have any other loans / credit cards / or store accounts. The monthly repayment on other accounts can add up and put a financial strain on the weekly budget, so paying down, if not paying off completely, would be a big weight off your shoulders, and give you more accessible funds to enjoy more paid activities and sightseeing etc, or mean you don’t need to come up with so much each week to fund the trip.

A couple of other things to consider would be:

*A satellite phone – it’s a good reassurance to have behind you when you delve into the outback where reception is just not a thing you can rely on. These types of phones are quite costly, so again, something to consider paying a year in advance where possible.

*Gift cards - this may sound odd, but you’ll thank me later.

When possible, purchase a Woolworths / Coles / Aldi gift card. Say $20 per week, or $50 if your funds can support that. They are valid Australia wide and act like a savings account for your groceries and/or fuel. Obviously, many smaller towns won’t have these facilities, so you use your bank for those stops. But these gift cards don’t expire anymore, so you’re on a winner with these. Just buy them at intervals where possible and stick them in your ‘Big Lap’ folder as we do. Or, as an alternative to the gift cards, you could look at purchasing a prepaid Visa card and load money onto that when it’s feasible for you. But just check that the prepaid Visa card doesn’t have fees or expire. And putting the card away out of temptation or leaving with a trustworthy family member or friend would be something to consider also.

*Open new savings account

If you are easily tempted, perhaps look at opening a savings account with a different financial institution. Set up a weekly or monthly transfer if your budget allows. Cut the card up so the temptation is not going to be around. Once a month, log on, check that all is going to plan and keep saving. Before you know it, your funds will be building up, getting you closer to your travels.

*Minimalise

Have a clean out. Sell items you haven’t used in a year, and don’t plan on using while on your big lap. Chances are if you haven’t used them in the last 12 months, you probably don’t need them lying around cluttering your world. Because we had stayed in our previous home for 17 years before we purchased this one, we ‘acquired’ lots of things. A lot of them we probably could do without. We are certainly going to get onto moving these unneeded things on. There are many places you can sell your unwanted goods these days including:

Have a garage sale

Sell on Gumtree

Sell on Ebay

Sell at the local markets

Sell on FaceBook

The funds you generate from these sales can go straight to your preparations, be it paying down bills or put straight into the savings bank account. You will be free of ‘stuff’ and you will have money towards your big lap. WIN WIN!

*Make your property work for you

If you are lucky enough to have a spare bedroom or rumpus room, perhaps consider renting this to a friend or family member before you set off. You could have that empty room making you up to $100 per week, some go for up to $150 per week including utilities. And if you do this for a year prior, there’s an unexpected $5200 cash injection for your savings!

If you have some spare land also, you could rent it to people who don’t have enough space on their blocks for a caravan or trailer etc. With so many of the newly developed suburbs having very little land to cover just the house and a small shed, there are always people looking for somewhere for their caravan also. Even storage containers. A friend of ours has had her landlord reject renewing her lease, and they’ve been in that home for 7 years now so they have an entire house, with 4 kids, plus 2 massive sheds to find a new home for. So we offered for her to put a couple of storage containers on our block until she finds a new home and gets settled – free of charge of course! But if it’s a stranger, you could certainly advertise your space for up to $20 per week. There’s another $1040!

The more finances you can come up with prior to your travel, the smaller chance you will need to pick up work along the way, unless you want to of course. If you set yourself a budget, a lot of people stick to $1000 per week, then you will know exactly where you are at before you leave. If you manage to come up with more funds, or pick up work, then great, but it is a good idea to go into this trip with as much ticked off as possible. But then again I’m an Aries, I’m an organizer and I don’t like surprises, so I do everything in my power to cover all bases. From the tiny little things like packing toiletries, to the bigger things like we have just covered here.