Mustachians,
I'm a 25 year old single guy with a solid career and very little to tie me down.
I've spoken to my employer many times about my desire to travel (small company, close with the owners) and I've been told that they would be open to me taking a sabbatical.
Thanks to MMM, YNAB and all the great personal finance communities out there, I've spent 4 months recalibrating my finances and priorities, and I've paid off $6000 of my $15000 credit card debt. I should be free by October.
I'm shocked at how much money I was spending on useless things that I don't even remember buying, and annoyed at past me because I could have saved $100k over the last 6 years of work had I not bought shots for everyone, everytime.
In any case, I've now freed up a lot of my income and I'm continuing to do so.
But, unlike most people here, FI is not my priority. I want to start saving up for a long term trip (talking 365+ days). My budget would be somewhere around $30,000 with a goal of leaving in early 2017. This would give me enough time to save for the travel and put aside some money for living expenses when I return home.
Should I just be dumping all of that money into a savings account? If I have anything left over every month after meeting my savings goal, should I pay into an IRA or anything?
I've done all this math considering my current salary, and I'm preparing to ask for a sizable raise next month. I have NOT accounted for the raise in this math. If I get the raise, I can move my timeline for leaving up, but I'd also like to make sure I come home to a good situation and give myself time and flexibility to get back in the job market in case my employer can't accommodate me (unlikely, but still, plan for the worst).