How to handle your money?

On the 10th of April I'm leaving for Brazil. Got my one way ticket yesterday This is the beginning of a journey for a few years. I have no plans where to go or when I will get there. We'll see where this journey will lead me. The thing is that I'm getting rid of everything I own (except what I can fit in my backpack), giving up my apartment here in Amsterdam etc. Burning all the bridges sort of. I know that I won't come back here. Not that I don't like Amsterdam but there's a whole world out there. My main problem is how to deal with the money I have saved up while I'm traveling. I will work of course while on the road (my main plan is to get involved in as mush volunteer work as possible) but what to do with my savings? How do other long term travelers deal with this situation?

Find a bank that has full-service internet banking. You can leave the money in an account or fund that provides good interest, and move it to your current/checking account as required for withdrawals. Then use ATMs to take out the money as you need it for travel expenses.

If you don't have a personal money manager available, this the most cost-effective and painless approach.

But I think these banks need an address of some sort? Where they can send bank statements and just as a precaution, that they know where to find

Has anyone had a problem with account security using this approach? One guy I talked to thinks that any internet cafe is inherently insecure (passwords recorded, etc) and you're risking losing your bank account by managing it from public-access computers, especially in a place where people are poor. This seems a bit paranoid to me, but just wondering if anyone has heard of any problems like this.

Many banks here (the USA) send out inserts that say 'Save the environment! Stop receiving paper statements and receive them online instead - just sign up on our web site.'

I suppose they still want to have some address, but that can be anyone you trust - parents, brother/sister, good friend, former job, whatever.

Online bank as many here have allready said.

When choosing an online bank, be aware of one thing; How do you log on to it. I have encountered three different security schemes concerning how to log on. The first involved a plastic card (creditcard size) with 100 numbered 'pin-codes' written on it. On every login I had to enter one of those pin-codes in addition to some other ID stuff. The pins were only to be used once, so when I was close to 100 logins the bank sent me another card in the mail. Would have been inconvenient if I were on the road. The second scheme involved a little electronic thingy that looked like a small calculator that generated a number to enter at logon. Mine failed twice and had to be replaced; not convenient when far away from home. My current bank uses a system where I have to download a security certificate to the browser in order to log in. Every time I use a new computer, I have to download a new certificate, and each time the bank sends me an email confirming it. After using a public computer I will delete the certificate. This scheme is the one I like the best as it doesn't require me to carry any card or 'calculator' with codes. Also, the confirming emails will tell me if someone have attempted to log in using my identity and security codes.

True, but somebody still has to set up the computers. I don't even own a computer at home (do all my banking from the library, etc) but obviously the risk/reward ratio isn't as good for the techies here (making conservatively $30,000 a year) to go messing with my $5000 account as for somebody in Thailand who works a lot longer for that much money.

By the way y'all, I just got an account with USAA in preparation for my upcoming trip - they have no ATM fees, and even reimburse the other bank's fee for withdrawals made from ATMs here in the States. They are designed in large part for people (military) living abroad, so seem to have a pretty good international network - non-800 numbers that you can call collect from overseas, for example. And excellent customer service so far. Might be worth checking out.

Well, how much clout do you think my bank would have with the police in Kathmandu over some tourist who had a few thousand dollars swiped from their bank account? Besides, I think the lag on it being investigated could easily be a few weeks, especially if you weren't sure which cafe was the crooked one. I'm inclined to agree with you that the scenario is not very likely, but the thing that has given me the most comfort so far has been just looking around my bank's web site, it just doesn't seem like there's any easy way to get at the money - you either need the ATM card, or it's going to involve phone calls and paperwork. Anyway, just my $.02 (not worth much, even in Thailand