There are ways to easily justify that travel is an investment in yourself. Enough of the doubts and low-key discrimination that travelling is just a waste of money. Read on and be armed with these justifications.

This is always a question that non-travelers could not get a good answer from those half-smiling nomads. "What do you really get out of traveling?"

Because...... its fun! Its an experience! Its a way to meet people, understand culture..... and if everything else fails to make a convincing answer, YOLO!

Can....you...bring down those raised eyebrows?....

But there are really ways to "measure" travel as an investment. You just have to believe it. Have faith and watch your worth grow! Even thru multi-level travel (well, I guess it could also exist).

1. Deepens your knowledge on geography

You spent countless hours trying to fight off your overwhelming drowsiness in your geography class(es!), didn't you? But when you plan your travel, every byte of information about the destination gets processed and filed neatly in your brain.

2. Makes you an instantaneous story-teller or source of information

You don't need much egging to tell your adventure, misadventures, and places, people, scenes, scents and everything that smothered your senses in your travels. They ask, you answer, with passion! Your eyes light up, their mouths drool. Of course, you should not really reach that ass level when you share your stories.

3. Increases your confidence and makes you more credible

Who can say with utmost credibility that there is a species of bamboo that can grow up to six inches only except those who actually walked on it? That Parasailing is more of a peaceful experience than what the TVs or Youtube clips show? That Orangutans would like to show off their babies, much like humans? You! You who was wary while in the middle of adventure, but who got those experiences ready to be shared to one or one thousand people.

4. Makes you understand people

Understanding people is a huge investment! You'll know how to better deal with anybody. Everybody has a need, a problem, a challenge. You will discover people, and you will better understand yourself.

5. Makes you more careful in making decisions

Yup, contrary to popular belief that travelers make fast and stupid decisions, its actually the exact opposite. You become very careful and always two steps ahead of the consequence of your decisions. You don't want to get stuck in the middle of the forest or get robbed by some seemingly half-twit local, don't you? You look first before you touch, you look over the shoulder before you move sideways. Isn't this a great management skill you can bring home?

6. Makes you a better haggler - negotiator

Every cent matters. That's a rule of thumb in traveling. 100 original price can become 50, or even a ridiculous 10! You will become an expert, without even talking and with just a calculator in hand.

7. You get better in allocating meager resources

A train ticket is for a train ticket, and not for another bottle of beer! Must have money to get home!.... Bread is as filling as a slab of steak. You simply get better at this at the beginning of every trip.

8. You will learn empathy and come up with ideas on how to help others

You might see people, communities, animals, places that smash your ideal and peaceful world. Then you ask a lot of questions, you ask yourself. And maybe...just maybe, when you get home, you try to come up with solutions. A fund-raising campaign, adopt Darla, the cute, blind otter? Invent a safe water container that can be carried or rolled through forest trails and deserts? Who knows??

9. You know that money well-spent is much, much better than money saved for nothing.

Yeah.... there are no safe deposit boxes in Heaven. There's a reason why extra money is called disposable money. But not really, travel experience is not disposable. It gets saved and used at the right time, even after 50 years!

10. You gain skills and insights for your career

Whatever your career may be, a new environment can give you fresh ideas. And those ideas become your next ladder for success. Say you're an accountant and you can't see how travel can become part of your career? Why don't you do this as an exercise - try to compute the value chain of your travel from your home, thru a plane ride, and to your destination? Then tell your boss that tourism value chain can be an amazing thing!

11 . You discover business or career opportunities

This is actually an old scenario - John travels to an island, sees that its like a dream come true, then he asks around how much would it cost to set up a local business, and the rest is history. Maybe, all the stuff you bought and collected in your travels could one day become pieces of your new restaurant.

12. Decreases your chance of early dementia??? Hmmm....

Because of all those fresh inputs, the memories that you keep playing on your head again and again..... perhaps you could grow old with lesser possibility of dementia? I'm not really sure, but very hopeful about this one. But lets give ourselves 20,30,40 years and lets see if travel memories have saved us from forgetting many precious things.

So these are the 12 valuable reasons you can keep inside your wallet to remind you whay travel is an investment in yourself. We are all creatures gifted with the opportunity to keep memories and relive those moments at any convenient moment. Keep filling your jar of travel memories.