If you’re like me, you’re probably expecting Training Camp to help answer some of your questions about money. Unfortunately, it probably won’t. I put together this blog post to help address some of the questions I still had when I left Training Camp. I hope it helps you!
Disclaimer: This post is not a recommendation by AIM on how to manage your finances, this is just what I did and what others on the Race have done before. It is meant to be helpful, not exhaustive, and not a guarantee. You should definitely research all of these things yourself before doing anything!!
Taxes
Someone will have to file your taxes for you while you are on the Race. Make sure to leave your login info and any tax information (social security, etc.) behind with someone who can file for you—ideally, whoever you nominate as your power of attorney. (They will talk about Power of Attorney at training camp but you can do some preliminary research on this as well.) As a tip, a great time to collect all this information is when you file your taxes the year before you leave!
Also be sure that all your W2’s and other tax documents will go to the correct address!
Phone Plan
Canceling your phone plan might cause you to lose your phone number, and if you don’t have a phone number, you can’t use WhatsApp, which is how the entire world stays in contact. Make sure you think this through before just canceling!
Some plans, like Verizon, will allow you to suspend service for a time. Verizon was a 6 month suspension, but then I had to turn my service back on for a month before suspending again. This allowed me to keep my number overseas.
Loans
I personally waited until I was debt free before going on the Race. I collected the following information from my squamates:
Student Loans: After you graduate, you have a 6 month grace period before your loans come due. Unfortunately, you can’t increase your fundraising amount on the WR portal to account for loan payments, so most people going on the Race apply for a deferment.
One of my friends on the race set herself as a volunteer and changed her payback to an income-based plan. WR does not typically qualify for debt forgiveness, but you can also check that if you want!
Car (Insurance, etc.)
If you sold your car…
Good for you! You don’t have anything to worry about unless there’s a global pandemic that brings you back 4 months early… but what are the chances of that happening? =D
If you’re keeping your car…
A) You can register your car as PNO – Planned Non-Operation. You can file for planned non-operation when you submit your registration. Keep in mind that PNO is valid from the moment you file, so if your registration is due in April but you plan to keep driving your car through August, don’t do PNO with your registration. (You should also be able to go online to the DMV.)
Keep in mind that if you register for PNO, you can’t even move your car to a new location. It must stay where it was parked!
B) Keep your car “operational”. This allows others to drive it if necessary. However, you must have car insurance; if you do not, you will get a notice from the DMV. (This happened to me). I tried to get renter’s insurance, which was only a few bucks a month, to have some kind of insurance on the car so that I wouldn’t get in trouble. It didn’t work.
Medical Insurance
Your insurance plan for the Race is amazing. They will go over it in detail at training camp, so I won’t explain it here. What you need to know right now is that it does not start until you depart the country, and it is a reimbursement plan, so you will need to have an emergency fund in case you get sick overseas.
You should also know that most travel vaccines are not covered under normal insurance, so be sure to check before you go to a travel clinic!
For later: Be sure you check your coverage coming BACK from the Race as well! We were only covered for one month beyond the date when we arrived back in the US.
Personal Spending Money
Food, lodging, transportation and any other necessary costs are covered in your fundraising. What’s not covered is personal items (toiletries), fun snacks, lattes, souvenirs, and money for adventures like paragliding over the Himalayas. Check the race website for more details =)
One of the invaluable pieces of advice passed around at training camp was to open an account with Charles Schwab. They have no international transaction fees AND they refund ATM fees, which can save you hundreds of dollars! Something to note: they are an investor bank, so you will have to open two accounts, one for investing, one individual. I did this and only used the individual; that is fine!
If you choose to use your personal debit/credit card, make sure you check whether they have any international fees. Most banks charge a fee for an international transaction in addition to ATM fees. Also be sure to put a travel advisory on your card so your bank doesn’t block you when you pull out money in Ethiopia.
Mastercard & VISA are widely accepted card types. American Express is not as widely accepted.
Some people recommend carrying cash. While this might work for some countries, it’s really not advisable to carry a ton of American cash around on your person. Additionally, it can be tricky to find places that will take American money, and if they do they might be really picky (e.g. only brand new $100 bills). Generally, it’s safer and more cost effective to pull money out in each place. You also won’t have to do shady trade deals for currency in each country.
Regarding the amount of spending money, you’ll see $50-$200/country recommended on other sites. This depends largely on the type of race you are doing (big cities vs. more rural) as well as your personal preferences. Coffee won’t be covered in your budget, so if you’re like me and you enjoy a latte, you may want to go a bit higher on that spectrum. I planned for $100/mo and definitely spent over, whereas a married couple on my team had $200/mo for both of them and barely spent any. Keep in mind that in many places you will be the richest person for 100 miles, and a) don’t want to attract the wrong kind of attention, b) don’t want to hurt your witness or make your hosts/friends feel bad by casually spending money on things they could never afford.
