Family of 5 Travel Budget

[Anonymous]

Trying to plan for our annual budget, and it seems insane.

$3000 - XMas travel to family out west
$4000 - Summer beach rental vacation
$3000- Ski weekends (Pres, MLK, few other weeknds in WV, lift tickets and rentals)
$5000 - Spring break trip like national park, or visiting friends in a city like Seattle, Phoenix, etc
$10000 - Summer travel for "big trip", such as traveling to Hawaii or Europe or Disneyland.

This is like $25k, which seems insane. Our HHI is $400k, after tax is $280k, so our vacation is like 10% of our after tax income.

Are my numbers crazy?

[Anonymous]

Sounds about right, a little low actually. I would cut out the skiing though and reallocate the funds elsewhere if the best you can do is WV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sounds about right, a little low actually. I would cut out the skiing though and reallocate the funds elsewhere if the best you can do is WV.

Also, to clarify, I meant that the amount is right, not necessarily the destinations. You are spending a lot of money to visit family, go to a mediocre Mid Atlantic beach, and ski in WV. You could pack in a lot more culture and bang for those bucks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds about right, a little low actually. I would cut out the skiing though and reallocate the funds elsewhere if the best you can do is WV.

Also, to clarify, I meant that the amount is right, not necessarily the destinations. You are spending a lot of money to visit family, go to a mediocre Mid Atlantic beach, and ski in WV. You could pack in a lot more culture and bang for those bucks.

I mean we drive to WV to ski so kids can learn to ski. Flying to Park City would be much more.

Same with beach, good destinations mean flights which add $3000 on top.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds about right, a little low actually. I would cut out the skiing though and reallocate the funds elsewhere if the best you can do is WV.

Also, to clarify, I meant that the amount is right, not necessarily the destinations. You are spending a lot of money to visit family, go to a mediocre Mid Atlantic beach, and ski in WV. You could pack in a lot more culture and bang for those bucks.

Have to visit family at Xmas. Cheaper than divorce

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds about right, a little low actually. I would cut out the skiing though and reallocate the funds elsewhere if the best you can do is WV.

Also, to clarify, I meant that the amount is right, not necessarily the destinations. You are spending a lot of money to visit family, go to a mediocre Mid Atlantic beach, and ski in WV. You could pack in a lot more culture and bang for those bucks.

I mean we drive to WV to ski so kids can learn to ski. Flying to Park City would be much more.

Same with beach, good destinations mean flights which add $3000 on top.

I guess we could drive to Cape Cod when kids are older. 4 hrs /day is about our max

[Anonymous]

PP here. I meant that what we do is cut out he beach and ski trips, family visits, and time in underwhelming but expensive US cities (like Phoenix and Seattle), although the national parks are worth it.

Then you can spend those dollars on much more amazing international trips, and expose your kids to more than the Delaware beaches and WV.

That’s just my advice anyway. You have the money, just spend it better!

[Anonymous]

How do you. Get that much time off?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Trying to plan for our annual budget, and it seems insane.

$3000 - XMas travel to family out west
$4000 - Summer beach rental vacation
$3000- Ski weekends (Pres, MLK, few other weeknds in WV, lift tickets and rentals)
$5000 - Spring break trip like national park, or visiting friends in a city like Seattle, Phoenix, etc
$10000 - Summer travel for "big trip", such as traveling to Hawaii or Europe or Disneyland.

This is like $25k, which seems insane. Our HHI is $400k, after tax is $280k, so our vacation is like 10% of our after tax income.

Are my numbers crazy?

I think it's a great mix of trips visiting friends and family, seeing new places, and relaxing at the beach. All the weekend trips would exhaust me, but you probably have more energy. Just be sure you have a generous emergency fund, and retirement and college covered and that lifestyle creep doesn't eat up too much of your income.

[Anonymous]

It’s about right op.

[Anonymous]

It’s similar to me except I don’t always plan such a big trip.
Travel is my Vice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do you. Get that much time off?

5 weeks of leave, we are older parents . ski is holiday weekend. 1.5 weeks xmas. 1 week spring break. 1 week beach. 1.5 week big vacation. Yeah sometimes big vacation would be a beach vacation (like French Riveria) and thus would skip Rehobeth, but we are both from a beach state so need to see the ocean at least a year

[Anonymous]

Forget the beach. Skip some of those ski weekends - how many times each winter do you need to go skiing?

Also, start using points - you can save huge amounts of money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Forget the beach. Skip some of those ski weekends - how many times each winter do you need to go skiing?

Also, start using points - you can save huge amounts of money.

We get unlimited 2% cash back. Unless you get big signing bonus (which happens once unless you jump cards a lot), I haven’t seen points being worth more than $0.02 but would be interested if there are some wheee points end up worth more than that? Like you can buy a flight that costs $600 for 200 points?

[Anonymous]

You’re taking five vacations a year. That is a lot of vacation.

I get more weeks of vacation than you but we don’t go away every time. Just 2-3x a year.