It can be hard to strike the balance of saving money for your trip to Asia while still living in the moment and enjoying where you are. Stevo and I are from southern California, one of the most unaffordable places for rent in the USA. After three years of living and traveling around Asia from 2011-2014, we considered moving to Los Angeles in 2015. When we started to math it out, the sticker shock of just existing in LA (rent, food, bills) versus our potential to save money and still have fun in the city just didn’t add up for us. We didn’t think we’d be able to save for future trips while struggling just to live there.