No Money No Honey

---

Had my first round of vaccinations today, Yellow Fever and Typhoid. I have two sore arms and an appointment for more of the same next week. In all it will cost about £100 to get my full vaccination armour, but it's better than dying from being beitten by a rabid Bolivian dog.

Still, cash is now constantly at the forefront of my mind whereas it historically is at the back. I hate money. I mean I write about money every day as a financial journalist, and I find it quite exciting when we're talking millions and billions. But dealing with my own cash or lack thereof is both dull, and now, frightening because I have to find a way to ensure I will not get stuck in South America with no money, without taking a huge loan to cover my ass which I'll spend the rest of my 20's paying off.

I said in my first blog entry that the idea of this trip was to live the opposite way to how I have been living, and now that money is the priority, I guess I got what I wished for in a weird way. I am now all about the money - the making of, the saving of. I have to keep reminding myself what this is all for and stop the Woody Allen-esque panicking.

The following is embarrassing because everyone assumes a financial journalist has encyclopaedic knowledge of all things money, including personal finance. But I do not.

So after I got my arms shot up with death-inducing diseases I went to the bank to ask for a loan. I'd been told by some friends to lie about what I needed it for, lest I get laughed out the door. The woman I spoke to did look as if she was going to say no, and asked a lot of questions, which I answered honestly because I'm kinda stupid. But she did approve my request. Instead of skipping for sweet baby jesus joy I immediately realised that this would need some practical things in place if it was to work (they want me to roll my 5k credit card debt into the loan, making it 11k in all) - for example, even if I get a decent full time job in Oz for a few months, how do I propose to make monthly repayments on the loan of about £250 if I won't be working in South America? I was honest in saying that I didn't know. And she approved the loan on that. Anyway I didn't sign for it then and there, I am going to investigate further, different loans and also credit cards. I need to swot up on all things APR, balance transfers, repayment holidays, etc etc. I knew from the outset that I'd need serious cash for this trip but a) I always thought backpacking was done on a shoestring, however, knowing how much that is is like asking how long is a piece of (shoe)string- b) I have no sources of free cash like so many people who do this have, like parents or grannies who snuff it and leave big inheritances, c) I have made the decision to travel quite quickly in a carpe diem kinda way, it is an 'executive decision' if you will, thus leaving myself only four months' salary to save. Most of that is gone before I even step on the plane

What I've discovered in my researching what I need for this trip is that this 'holiday on a shoestring' stuff is pure fairytale bollocks. Tis a lie. Well unless you're a student in which case the bank will throw cash at you just because you're clever enough to pass, and give you most of your life to pay it back. I can't believe how discriminated against non-graduates like me are in every way. There's no 'career gap year' loan. Surely as a careerist I'm a more reliable borrower as I'll be straight back into respectable employment when I return and will start paying the loan back right away; bloody students can't even boil an egg eithout their mummy's help, and even then they're boiling an egg that either mummy paid for, or I bloody well paid for in money I've paid to the government or into my bank that is then conveniently directed towards student or graduate loans. ANYHOO....

---

Comments

[alexis]

bloody students
what a bunch of wasters they are.