On Thanksgiving I went out for a nice steak dinner. As my date and I left the restaurant, a ragged looking homeless guy accosted me for money. The kicker? He was white! At some point, this hobo was once a tourist or expat. Now he was begging for change.

If you’re going to move abroad, you need to carefully plan your finances.

Today’s article shows you how much you need, and how to ensure you’ve always got a stable supply of money coming in.

Here we go.

1. Don’t Bother Moving Abroad Unless You’re Making $30,000 / Year, Minimum!

This is the single best piece of advice I ever received. Don’t relocate overseas unless you’re making at least $100 per day.

This is enough to provide a comfortable cushion and let you really enjoy most countries. Case in point, I first moved abroad in 2014.

At the time, I did freelance writing and probably made about $120 per day.

That allowed me to:

• Live in a two-bedroom apartment downtown.
• Go out to eat twice a day.
• Go on dates three times a week.
• Do tourist stuff like SCUBA diving and sightseeing.

And, I still had money leftover.

Don’t be the guy moving abroad to an exotic country, only to beg for food or work all day as $4/hour hostel receptionist.

Going somewhere with no money, and no income is a recipe for disaster.

2. Develop Passive Income As Soon As Possible

The coolest person I’ve ever met while traveling was a guy who owned 30+ rental properties. He’d hired a manager to run them for him, and spent all his free time traveling the world.

He worked hard at building a passive income stream, and now enjoys total freedom.

Passive Income gets a bad rep and it’s often one of those buzzwords people toss around. But it is possible. You do something once and collect recurring revenue from it.

Personally, I don’t know much about rental properties, but I do pretty well off eBooks and information products.

(One $15 Book Selling One Copy Per Day Equals $500 A Month, Passive Income)

I make enough off Kindle and PDF books to cover my entire cost of living.

This took well over a year to accomplish, but it’s well-worth it.

If you want to go this route, I suggest two books. Write, Publish, Repeat and How To Write And Sell Simple Information For Fun And Profit.

Those two titles cost maybe $30 total, but they’ll teach you everything you need to know.

Of course, there are also other passive income streams.

Dividend stocks are a great example. You buy shares of a company and they pay you for doing so. This takes a lot more money to accomplish, but it’s still doable over time.

No matter what, you need to develop some form of passive income.

As Warren Buffett says:

“If you don’t find a way to make money in your sleep, you will work until you die.”

3. If You’re Traveling Short-Term, Have An Emergency Fund

There are a lot of people who budget for a trip, and never factor in “worst case scenario” expenses.

This is stuff like getting in an accident, running into unforeseen expenses, and other things of that nature.

Or, it can even be a good thing.

Like stumbling on a property or business you want to buy.

In either case, I suggest having at least 2 – 3 months in Western living expenses saved up as your emergency fund.

This way you can enjoy yourself without having to worry how you’ll pay for things.

Closing Thoughts

Don’t travel abroad to be some gross begpacker. It’s dangerous and miserable.

If you want to move abroad, build up a reliable source of income. Better yet, create something once which generates passive income for life.

Or, at the very least, save up enough to enjoy a lucrative cash cushion.

P.S. if you’re looking for more money-making ideas, check out How To Make $133,225 A Year With Very Little Effort.