Firstly, I have not been paid to write this article, but this is a product that I came across that I felt I had to share as it has made my stay in the United States so much easier. Revolut is a financial disruptor, one of a number of recent financial innovations succeeding in London. My job involves me staying up to date with global financial innovations, but it was a colleague of mine who introduced me to Revolut.

The company was founded in London in 2014 by a couple of Russian immigrants to the UK and its growth has been pretty incredible. The premise of Revolut is simple - its a global money app that allows people to transfer between a select group of currencies without charging any commission, a fantastic tool for anyone that exchanges currencies on a regular basis.

I've always wanted to fly Business Class, even if its just once and a few weeks ago I got the chance flying from London to New York. For me it goes much deeper than just a single luxurious plane ride.

Growing up in a single parent household in a council estate has its obvious problems. I can count on one hand the number of people in my estate who no longer live there. Many have been stuck there for generations, social mobility completely passing them by. I was one of the lucky ones. Many of the people I knew had two parents who did the work of none. I had one parent who did the work of two.

Just before the EU Referendum in June 2016, I mentioned that a leave victory would see the cost of travelling abroad creep up and thats exactly what happened. Luckily my trip to South America happened just a couple of months beforehand. Whether the cost falls over time depends on a number of factors, but for now some of the prices I came across might be slightly more expensive now.

I spent just over a month travelling from the Pacific Coast to the Atlantic Coast and in that time I managed to see four different countries. There's a couple of big omissions; Argentina and Colombia but I managed to see Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Brazil and there is a variation of cost between the different countries.

Compared to the cost of travelling around Thailand, South America was considerably more expensive, even in Bolivia which was the cheapest of the countries I had visited, however there are certain things you can do to make sure you get the best value for money. As I mentioned in my post on travelling around Thailand, the more you get to know a place, the cheaper the cost per day becomes.

How expensive is South America? Here's my take...

I've been to Thailand a couple of times now, but before I first went out there, I had no idea how much cash to take with me or how much I would be spending out there.

​I found Thailand to be one of my better value for money experiences. Sure, its not cheap to get there, however if you book flights in advance, you can get a good deal, especially with Russian or Chinese airlines. While you are out there, you really do get bang for your buck. You can do a whole range of activities, for a fraction of the cost of doing them in European cities. 

I won't lie, I did have to save some money before I went, no matter how cheap a place is, spending a significant amount of time away from home will always eat into savings. Whats strange is, the longer you stay, the cost per day actually falls, this is because you begin to realise the cheapest places to eat and the most cost effective ways of travelling or finding shelter for the night.

How expensive is Thailand? Here's my take...

That pretty much describes me after leaving university. I had taken, lets say, a scenic route through university, so I came out of the other side with a nice little degree but absolutely no money and a lot of debt. Even worse, my mom had given some jewellery as collateral to a local pawn shop that my dad had left her in order to pay for my Masters degree. Coming from a (first world) poor single parent household, my first course of action was to take any job and make sure we brought back the jewellery as I know it had a lot of sentimental value to my mom.

My friends, at this point  were into their European holidays phase, but with no money there were a couple of trips I missed out on. Thankfully I managed to get a good job (after a few not so good ones) and once I had paid my mom I began saving for my first big adventure.

I found out, very quickly, I could make travelling as cheap, or as expensive as I wanted.