How to fund a life of adventure: From cycling the world, to cheap exploring close to home, Alastair Humphreys on the Making the Money Work podcast
How do you decide to become an adventurer? For Alastair Humphreys, the decision in his twenties stemmed from his love of a challenge, the outdoors and curiosity about the world.
He says: ‘I had the idea that if I don’t go now while I’m young, life’s only going to get more tangled and complicated. Therefore – it sounds scary and a bit daft – but I should do it now, because otherwise I’m probably going to regret it later.’
The decision led to a life of adventure, in which Alastair has spent four years cycling round the world, run six Sahara Desert marathons, been on an Arctic expedition, busked his way round Spain, spending only money he could earn, and has written 13 books.
But Alastair’s adventure philosophy isn’t about big expensive trips, he would rather do things on a shoestring – and wrote a book encouraging others to have their own cheap ‘microadventures’ close to home.
Alastair joins Andi Peters and Simon Lambert on the third episode of the Making the Money Work podcast to tell us about funding the life of an adventurer and building a career out of his exploits.
From round-the-world exploits to microadventures: Alastair Humphreys
He also explains why he wants to help people live more adventurously – even if that’s just heading out of town and sleeping under the stars on a hillside.
He says: ‘When I started microadventures, there was the idea of trying to encourage people to have short local adventures.
‘The reason was because people were always saying to me “I’d love to go do an adventure but I haven’t got enough time”, or “I’d love to go do an adventure but I haven’t got enough money”.
‘They’re the two big ones in life.
‘So, what can we do? I decided to flip the notion of the 9 to 5 – this sort of burdensome grinding constraint of our life – to say, “Well, what about your 5 to 9?” That’s 16 hours of hypothetical daily freedom… how can I use that?
‘The best thing is when you get to the office in the morning and people say, “Did you do anything interesting last night?” for once you don’t have to lie and make something up.
‘You can say, “Yeah, last night, I had a microadventure, I slept on a hill”.
‘A little disclaimer, if it’s rainy that’s a rubbish idea, but on a warm summer’s evening it’s glorious.
‘The wilderness is nearer than we think and it’s simpler than we might imagine to have an adventure.
‘On top of that, the benefits and the memories of that linger far longer than the tiny amount of cash you’ve spent.’
As well as talking microadventures – and encouraging Andi to try out sleeping in his garden – Alastair reveals how he comes up with ideas and money for his feats, whether it is walking a desert or rowing the Atlantic.
He also tells Andi and Simon about how he once headed for Spain without a euro in his pocket and no bank or credit cards, with the aim of busking his way round and only spending the money that he could earn from playing the violin.
He also reveals how he manages his money and saves, shares his thoughts on writing books and why self-publishing can pay off, and explains why being told he was an idiot for not having a pension – after a talk to a pensions firm – spurred him into saving for retirement.