By the time you hear this broadcast, I should be on a vacation adventure with my husband Rob in Yosemite National Park. I love visiting new places and it seems like a lifetime since we’ve taken a big trip. So I thought I take a few minutes to talk about saving for a bucket list vacation. Since I’m a financial planner, It shouldn’t be a big surprise that I recommend you start your trip with planning.
The first step is to decide what kind of trip you want to take, and think about what it is about the trip that will make it special for you, and what won’t. Is your dream to lay in the sun on the sand and listen to the waves, then going during hurricane season may literally rain on your parade. Want to visit a famous amusement park? Standing in line all day in the summer heat and humidity may be unbearable for you or make the kids cranky.
Next, figure out how much your vacation will cost. Remember transportation like airfare and rental car or road trip gasoline, hotels or other lodging, food, and entrance, show tickets, tours… Break it out in detail with numbers and add it up for a total trip cost.
Then decide how you will pay for it. If you already have enough money set aside for your trip, you're golden. But I DON’T recommend you go in debt for entertainment or vacations. A better way is to save first, then spend. Studies actually show that we get as much enjoyment thinking about and anticipating something as we do actually doing it. So dream, plan, save, go.
Let’s say you decide you want a weeklong beach vacation with your spouse and two children. You’ve done some checking online and see a beachside hotel is $250 a night, airline flights $1,000, hotel 150 a day, and $100 a day on souvenirs and activitieshat's $4,250.
If you save $150 a month you go on your dream vacation in 2 years and 4 months. Not happy with that? Think back what about your vacation that makes it a dream for you. And what isn’t that big a deal. Let’s say you really love to build sand castles with the kids. But you all just dash in and out of the water. Consider going in the off season when everything is cheaper and the water is cooler.
Kids dragging sand in everywhere sound more like work than vacation? Try a cheaper hotel off the beach with a pool and walk to the beach if you want. Or have the vacation exact vacation you dreamed, but for 4 days. Or drive to save the airfare.
These kinds of tough choices often come up in all areas of life. I like to say you can have anything you want, just not everything. What’s most important to you? Length of time away ? A particular season or year? Special activity? Specific location?
Want to go sooner? Maybe you can save more money now by cutting other regular expenses for a while, or find some ways to earn extra money. I can remember when I was young my parents said the family could go on a vacation to Florida. But my brothers and I would have to save the gas money which was going to be $100. We did odd jobs and skipped desert at school to make it happen. Dreaming about the vacation helped motivate us to save and I think we enjoyed it more having skin in the game.
And our vacation today? It’s epic. We’ve been planning and saving for a couple of years. We both love the outdoors, so we are splurging on lodging inside three national parks. Got train sleeper car ticketst with points. And haveg a cooler for drinks and food to save on eating out. That’s how we are having our dream, guilt-free vacation.
What about you? Focus on the what will really make the trip special for you and negotiate on the everything else. Save more, save longer, or find ways to spend less. The go enjoy your vacation! And know when you came home you’ll have all those special memories and none of the debt weighing you down.
By the time you hear this broadcast, I should be on a vacation adventure with my husband Rob in Yosemite National Park. I love visiting new places and it seems like a lifetime since we’ve taken a big trip. So I thought I take a few minutes to talk about saving for a bucket list vacation. Since I’m a financial planner, It shouldn’t be a big surprise that I recommend you start your trip with planning.
The first step is to decide what kind of trip you want to take, and think about what it is about the trip that will make it special for you, and what won’t. Is your dream to lay in the sun on the sand and listen to the waves, then going during hurricane season may literally rain on your parade. Want to visit a famous amusement park? Standing in line all day in the summer heat and humidity may be unbearable for you or make the kids cranky.
Next, figure out how much your vacation will cost. Remember transportation like airfare and rental car or road trip gasoline, hotels or other lodging, food, and entrance, show tickets, tours… Break it out in detail with numbers and add it up for a total trip cost.
Then decide how you will pay for it. If you already have enough money set aside for your trip, you're golden. But I DON’T recommend you go in debt for entertainment or vacations. A better way is to save first, then spend. Studies actually show that we get as much enjoyment thinking about and anticipating something as we do actually doing it. So dream, plan, save, go.
Let’s say you decide you want a weeklong beach vacation with your spouse and two children. You’ve done some checking online and see a beachside hotel is $250 a night, airline flights $1,000, hotel 150 a day, and $100 a day on souvenirs and activitieshat's $4,250.
If you save $150 a month you go on your dream vacation in 2 years and 4 months. Not happy with that? Think back what about your vacation that makes it a dream for you. And what isn’t that big a deal. Let’s say you really love to build sand castles with the kids. But you all just dash in and out of the water. Consider going in the off season when everything is cheaper and the water is cooler.
Kids dragging sand in everywhere sound more like work than vacation? Try a cheaper hotel off the beach with a pool and walk to the beach if you want. Or have the vacation exact vacation you dreamed, but for 4 days. Or drive to save the airfare.
These kinds of tough choices often come up in all areas of life. I like to say you can have anything you want, just not everything. What’s most important to you? Length of time away ? A particular season or year? Special activity? Specific location?
Want to go sooner? Maybe you can save more money now by cutting other regular expenses for a while, or find some ways to earn extra money. I can remember when I was young my parents said the family could go on a vacation to Florida. But my brothers and I would have to save the gas money which was going to be $100. We did odd jobs and skipped desert at school to make it happen. Dreaming about the vacation helped motivate us to save and I think we enjoyed it more having skin in the game.
And our vacation today? It’s epic. We’ve been planning and saving for a couple of years. We both love the outdoors, so we are splurging on lodging inside three national parks. Got train sleeper car ticketst with points. And haveg a cooler for drinks and food to save on eating out. That’s how we are having our dream, guilt-free vacation.
What about you? Focus on the what will really make the trip special for you and negotiate on the everything else. Save more, save longer, or find ways to spend less. The go enjoy your vacation! And know when you came home you’ll have all those special memories and none of the debt weighing you down.