An unspoken question lingers on people's faces when they hear our family of five took a gap year to travel around South America. We budgeted about $12,000 for flights, estimating six one-way flights at about $2,000 each for our family of five. All told, we expected the trip to cost about $60,000, or less than a year of life at home in Chicagoland. We funded our trip by renting out our home in the Chicago suburbs, which covered our home upkeep and nearly 40% of our travel expenses. On the trip, we didn't know where we'd be in two months or how much money we'd bring in.

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Persons: Matt, —, Chile's Torres del Organizations: Torres del Paine, Mirador, Amtrak, Chile's Torres del Paine Locations: Chile, South America, Chicago, Los Angeles, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Costa Rica, Illinois, Bolivia, Spanish, Chile's, Argentina, Intag, Chicagoland, Santiago, Mendoza, Pereira, Colombia