Planning A Family Vacation Without Debt

Your dream vacation should not come with an airport meltdown, a blocked credit card, and a month of financial regret when you get home. We get real about family vacation planning, starting with the unglamorous details that can quietly blow up your budget: notifying your bank before you travel, pausing deliveries, paying bills that come due while you are gone, and having a neighbor keep an eye on your mail and your house.

Then we dig into the money side of travel budgeting in an inflation-heavy world. We talk about why most people underestimate the true cost of a trip, how to add smart “slack” for surprises, and why it is so easy to accidentally finance a vacation with credit card debt. We also cover sneaky costs like rental car upgrades that increase gas spending, plus the question everyone asks: how early should you start saving when prices and job security feel uncertain?

Finally, we share practical strategies that make vacations cheaper without ruining the fun: using a dedicated vacation fund, tracking hotel prices with flexible cancellation policies, and choosing condos or Airbnb-style stays with kitchens so you can cut restaurant spending with a few simple meals. We also weigh credit card protection versus debit card risk so you can travel with the right mix of security and control.

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Transcript

Welcome And The Vacation Question

SPEAKER_01 0:03

Welcome to My Pocket FP, the podcast where your wallet finally meets its financial planner and they actually get along. Join your host Jason Taylor, certified financial planner, money sensei, and your guide to financial freedom. Whether you're planning for retirement or just trying to figure out where all your money went last weekend, we've got you covered. Get ready to take control of your financial life with smart tips, surprising insights, and yes, an app that fits right in your pocket. This is My Pocket FP because your future deserves more than guesswork.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Most people dream about taking better vacations, but the real magic happens when you plan for them without guilt, stress, or financial regret. Welcome. I'm Julie Schwenzer, co-host and producer with Jason Taylor, certified financial planner and creator of My Pocket FP. Hey Jason, have you guys uh taken any vacations yet this year?

SPEAKER_02 1:08

Uh yes, thank you, Julie. Uh we actually have. We went to a World Cup game in Seattle this year.

SPEAKER_00 1:13

So that's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 1:15

That's a good lifetime experience for my daughters.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

Oh, I bet. Do they play soccer?

SPEAKER_02 1:20

Uh yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:21

Oh, that's perfect. Well, we know you're the right person to ask about this. Um today's question is one a lot of people struggle with. How do you financially plan for

Pre-Trip Money And Home Checklist

SPEAKER_00 1:32

vacations, particularly when you have a family?

SPEAKER_02 1:35

Yes. Well, before we dive into that, I want to bring up something that you need to do before leaving for vacation efforts plan, too, just in case I forget. Because we've learned this the hard way. One of it is to tell your financial institutions that you are leaving. Your credit card company, your bank for your debit cards and credit cards. Uh, we actually had an experience where we were at the airport trying to get our rental car and our credit card wouldn't work because it was blocked because we were trying to use it out of state. So it's a good idea to let your financial institutions know you're leaving. Uh another thing we learned the hard way is we didn't tell the milk company that delivers you know milk to our house not to deliver. Uh so not only did we have spoiled milk in our box, we also had to pay for it. So, you know, it was you know, it was like $40 out of our pocket that could have been saved because we just blocked it for the week we were gone.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

Oh, yeah, that's great advice. Um, great tips. I'm sorry, both things happened. Hopefully, the card issue was resolved pretty quickly. Was it actually?

SPEAKER_02 2:38

It it it took some phone calls, but it probably wastes about an hour of our vacation.

SPEAKER_00 2:43

Oh no, oh no, and then spoiled nobody wants spoiled milk and to pay for it. Exactly. Oh man, those are great tips, actually. Yeah, to yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:50

So before we go to the actual you know, planning for the vacation, I thought I'd mention that.

SPEAKER_00 2:55

So, what do you suggest too if you're gone? I mean, obviously, food and and beverage deliveries, you know, pull those off.

SPEAKER_02 3:02

I I'm I'm bad when it comes to checking mail. I I check my mail once a week, but it is important to check your mail to pay all your bills before you leave as well. If they're due the next week, so you don't end up paying you know unnecessary late payment penalties or interest. So make sure you check your mail before you go and get all those payments made.

SPEAKER_00 3:20

Yeah, that's true. Because a lot of these cycles are on different dates, and if they're not, you know, automatic payments. Boy, can we get behind. Yeah, those are great tips along with having a neighbor, friendly neighbor or friend, check your mail. So nobody does anything with your bills while you're gone and takes your information. That's another one.

SPEAKER_02 3:38

Yeah, that brings up a another thing that is to have a neighbor or someone, you know, a family member to, you know, if you especially have a house, we're out of towns as a big hail storm and actually you know broke windows and had and flooded our basement.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 3:53

So it was good to have friends we could call to manage it so we didn't have to rush back home.

SPEAKER_00 3:59

Oh, yeah. Wow, wow. You guys go on a trip and everything.

SPEAKER_02 4:03

Yeah. If that sat the whole time we were gone, it would have been really expensive to fix.

SPEAKER_00 4:08

Yeah, absolutely. Wow, yeah, that's important. And when you say, like, give the heads up, especially to like your credit card or your bank, those companies, how much time do you think you have to be gone? Or does that matter, or is it more of like a change in routine? Your card company notices this change in routine that's out of the area, that's more likely to be.

SPEAKER_02 4:30

Yeah, your first transaction out of state or out of country, they will flag.

SPEAKER_00 4:33

Yes. Absolutely. Yeah, those are great tips. You're an expert too. You guys are very responsible financial planning family, and it still can happen.

SPEAKER_02 4:41

I you know, I think of the budgeting and I think of the you know, getting cash from the bank and all that stuff, but there's other things I don't think about quite as much and can get tripped up on.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

That's true too. You just brought up another point, is when, you know, depending on where you're going, do you need cash? Can you only use card? There's still a lot of places that only take cash, which is interesting.

SPEAKER_02 5:01

It it is, yeah. And all those, you know, farmers markets and things like that. Sometimes they don't take, you know, Venmore or credit card, and you gotta have some cash in your pocket.

SPEAKER_00 5:10

Yeah, we just ran into an issue too, where we had a garage sale and somebody wanted to make a big purchase, which was great for us, to get it out of our house and get some money in for some old patio furniture. But it was interesting because I only have Zell, my husband has Venmo, and then the people there didn't have enough cash, and then they didn't know which one had actually the active the Venmo account. So it's it's interesting how it all works, but it seems more likely that people have Venmo when it comes to personal transactions.

SPEAKER_02 5:39

Exactly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:40

So that's

Budgeting Mistakes And Inflation Reality

SPEAKER_00 5:41

that's another one too. So on to the financial planning part. What do you find is some of the biggest mistakes that people tend to make when they're saving for a vacation or not saving?

SPEAKER_02 5:54

Yeah, it's the same thing. You know, you when you have a house project, you know, when you buy a car, there's always extra that you need to plan on. Very rarely are you right on with the budget. So you need to kind of give a little leniency to yourself as far as what you plan to spend on a vacation and have that set aside. You definitely don't want two finance vacations on a credit card.

SPEAKER_00 6:17

So be ready to not have too much debt from a trip because that can add up. Yeah. Um, I wonder too, yeah, now with obviously there's inflation and gas prices are maybe coming down in some parts and stuff like that, but there's a lot of things to think about now. The even going to the movie theater, and I mean, not that that many people might not, you know, they might not do that on vacation, but let's just say that like just going there was shocking to me just to see the increase in prices across the board because of how much all the businesses have to spend, and it it's really hitting home that you just need more money to spend to do anything.

SPEAKER_02 6:54

Yeah, and that's a that's a trick. When you rent a car, a lot of times I like to give you a free upgrade to a larger car, which means more gas you end up spending on vacation depending on how much you're driving. So that's something you have to be careful of too is if you have a mid-size and they want to bump you up, it's not always to your advantage.

SPEAKER_00 7:15

Yeah, that's a good tip. And then with things going on in the world today that are really affecting people when it does come to inflation and the gas prices and maybe just some uncertainty with their job security, how early do you think someone should start financially planning for a trip?

SPEAKER_02 7:34

You know, ideally you you'd know that you're gonna go on this trip well in advance, or you have that pie-in-the-sky dream vacation that you just are always saving for, um, which

Vacation Fund And Booking Strategies

SPEAKER_02 7:46

is kind of like this World Cup, you know, it happens every four years when new is coming to the US. So we were able to start a separate account just for this vacation. To kind of be ready for it.

SPEAKER_00 7:58

Yeah, and that brings us to the next question about the role that a dedicated vacation fund does do for you and your family. I mean, what about the reduction in stress? That must have been nice.

SPEAKER_02 8:10

It is nice knowing that you have the money set aside for it. Even if you don't have a plan to go somewhere, it it's a good idea to have you know a fun account like that. If you're invited somewhere, you know, for a wedding or something, you can you know sometimes catch you off guard because it's sometimes six months in advance, you get those invitations. You're like, I'd love to go to a wedding in uh Turks and Caicos, but I don't know if I can save that much money in six months. So it's good to have kind of that set-aside um account for fun things like that that might come up.

SPEAKER_00 8:40

Yeah, and that like leads to another question too about balancing your financial priorities with your vacation savings, and seems more challenging these days because like also flights, they're they're pretty expensive too, and they're just seem to be increasing.

SPEAKER_02 8:55

Yeah, yeah, flights are hard to juggle. Um there's yeah, there's a lot of tricks to that too, and I wish I knew more about that myself.

SPEAKER_00 9:04

In some cases, too, it seems like it might help to book a hotel at the last minute, not all the time, because it might not have room, a room available, but sometimes it can be to someone's advantage.

SPEAKER_02 9:16

It's you know, nice about hotels is a lot of them, the big chains, have like a 24-hour cancellation policy. So you can actually book your vacation and just keep monitoring the price. And then you can, you know, cancel you know two days out if you find a better price on that same hotel. Or another hotel even. And we've actually saved quite a bit as well, you know, looking at vacations by doing uh Airbnb or condos where you have a kitchen you can cook in, so you're not going out to eat so much. You know, that can save you $500 to $200 a day on the vacation.

SPEAKER_00 9:50

Yeah, absolutely. When you look at the big picture, what are some smart ways to estimate the true cost of a trip? Is that setting expectations?

SPEAKER_02 10:00

Yeah, it's hard because I can be over the top planning. You know, we're all actually research the area and the you know cost of food, the cost of you know, gas, where we're going. A lot of people don't do that and it kind of adds a lot of stress to vacation. It's good to just kind of guesstimate, even, you know, so you have an idea on how much you need for food each day.

Credit Cards Versus Debit Safety

SPEAKER_00 10:20

And then what about what you said? If you could expand on that, why avoid the trap of putting vacations on credit cards? I mean, I think we know why, but if you could expand on that, and what's your advice to avoid doing that?

SPEAKER_02 10:33

You know, it's uh it's unfortunate because the system is built for people to actually put things on credit card. Um, because you do have some of that you know security and protection with a credit card that you might not have with a debit card, which is unfortunate because it'd be better just to take everything you know on a debit card, straight up your account, and have it taken care of. The key really is to keep track of it so you're not caught off guard when you get your next credit card bill.

SPEAKER_00 11:00

What about the concern that people may have about security? If I use my debit card, am I at more risk of somebody finding out my information?

SPEAKER_02 11:09

It's more the um if something were to happen, each bank's a little different how they treat debit cards. Uh, but a credit card that just has more protection as far as you know, them you know, paying you back for uh misuse of your credit information.

SPEAKER_00 11:24

Jason, is there anything else you wanted to add?

Grocery Runs And Cheap Vacation Meals

SPEAKER_02 11:26

When we go on vacations, this is you know that you know how kind of how I grew up is one of our first stops is a grocery store where you can buy you know bagels, oatmeal, basic breakfasts. The cheapest meal you can have when you go is usually breakfast or lunch. Um and then you have dinner, you know, back at your hotel or um you know back at your condo. You can go to Costco if you go to Hawaii and get a whole you know a week's worth of food for a lot less than going out to eat every time. So yeah, I know a lot of people think you know being on vacation is not having to cook, not having to do all this stuff, but you can save a lot of money by actually having some prepared meals each day.

SPEAKER_00 12:05

Yeah, that's great idea. Yeah, hey, I don't blame you. And they are delicious, so oh yeah. All right, well, thanks, Jason, for breaking that down. Um, so clearly, we always appreciate your insight.

SPEAKER_02 12:20

Thanks, Julie.

Closing Thoughts And App Invite

SPEAKER_01 12:25

Thanks for tuning in to My Pocket FP, where we believe small monthly changes can make big positive changes in your financial end game. If you're ready to level up your money game, head over to mypocketfp.com and download the app today. Your financial planner is now officially pocket sized and doesn't charge by the hour. Until next time, keep your goals high, your debt low, and your pockets smart.