Although the cost of travel can certainly be decreased, traveling will never be 100%, completely free. In addition to the monetary costs, it will cost you your time. With smart planning, you can ensure that your dollar will return you the maximum amount of happiness that it can.
START SAVING
Take a percentage of your net paycheck and deposit it into a savings account with a decent interest rate. While in the short-term, your efforts may not result in a lot of interest. If you have more time (think years), you might look into investing a portion of your income and dedicate that money to your trip.
SIGN UP FOR TRAVEL CREDIT CARS AND
FREQUENT FLIER REWARDS PROGRAM
It might be worth it to sign up for a travel credit card with a large sign up bonus if you’re going to be purchasing a lot of flights or traveling to many different places. You can then redeem these points on frequent flier rewards programs to get upgrades or cheaper (and sometimes free!) flights.