Budgeting as a traveler
Undeniably, one of the perks of travel social work is that we are generally paid a wage that is reflective of our value. I don’t even want to get started on how first responders, teachers, social workers are compensated on a whole in the United States, but for many people, travel work may be the first time in their careers where they can work freely without massive financial burden. But with great power, comes great responsibility… or that’s what they say. An easy trap to fall in to, and trust me, it’s super common and incredibly human, is that we walk away from our first assignments thinking, “I made really good money, so how did I not manage to save anything?” Simple answer is, life happens. It’s okay. In my past life as a music therapist, I sat on a regional board as the treasurer. I had always been great with other people’s money, but not amazing with my own. So I knew how to budget, but I never really followed one for myself. I’d have a general idea of wha