How do people afford the countless vacations?

[Anonymous]

We have the same HHI and mortgage and general approach to saving. Our extra money goes to therapies for our kids. I wonder all the time how people are affording all the vacations and, just as surprising, all the vacation days from work!

[Anonymous]

I have a friend who works in Hollywood and makes okay money - I think around 160k - but his wife stays at home. And they own a house in LA, which is probably as bad (or slightly worse) than DC. They constantly take vacations. They probably have about $40k saved for retirement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1. FB is full of lies, just ignore it. You can't post your investment portfolio on FB (well, you could but I'm not gonna)

I always think it's funny when people set up a dichotomy with in consumer spending (granite counter tops not Disney, travel not new furniture)

But there is a third option. Don't spend it, save it. We try really hard to save as much as we can. People must think we are barely scraping by, but my husband is going to retire by 45. So I guess that's our status symbol?

But the question was how do people afford vacations. Not how do people retire at 45.

My response was off topic, yes. The point I was trying to make is that people taking vacations three or four times a year are not maximizing their savings. For the super rich, it's all just a drop in the bucket. But for most people, those vacations represent a significant loss of potential savings for the future. But, then someone mentions a friend who died at 40 and no one cares about retirement anymore.

It was my friend who died at 40 and yes I care very much about retirement. I just am not putting off as many things as I used to - including some travel. Trying to balance it all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

As others have said it's about priorities. Some of the people who do expensive vacations now are going to end up telling their kids they have to take out huge loans for college or attend state school because they don't have enough saved up.

Nothing wrong with state school! Overpaying for an undergrad degree is the real financial mistake.

Overpaying for undergrad can be a mistake. But if your STEM focused kid wants to go to MIT and you tell him to go to U. Maryland because you can't pay for it, you may regret having going on so many vacations and not having more options for your child's future.

I don't think anyone in this thread is saying to travel so much they have no money leftover for anything else. I think they are saying they think its important to have some travel experiences. I think its important for kids to gain a broader understanding of the world - and travel is part of that.

[Anonymous]

I just finished cancer treatment and all I want now is to go on some fun trips with my kids.

[Anonymous]

I make about $100K and am a single mom with a big mortgage. I only go on one real trip every couple of years, because there are other uses for my money. But the last two big trips were to the Turks & Caicos and Costa Rica.

A lot of my friends make 2-3 times what I do and some have similarly earning spouses - they travel all the time. Most of them don't have kids, though. The people I know with kids might take 1 or 2 trips a year. A lot of times, one of the spouses travels for work, which means they have miles and points and hotel perks. That can make a big difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks to the people who reminded me to make the memorable experiences for the kids now.
We will try to get to the Grand Canyon this year, but on a tight budget. That is easy on these outdoor hike walk vacations since the hotel quality matters less. Neither of us flies enough with work to get miles accumulated.
WRT retirement, we could save more, but I was referring to the tax deferred plans that we do.
Our other expenses are low, since we never eat out (we eat healthy stuff and I am not a fan of restaurants), and clothing is negligible since our jobs do not require nice clothes. Only dd has a way of getting us to spend $1000 a year on her stuff.
The people I am referring to on FB are in the same boat as we are or worse. Older parents with two kids. I suspect they will ask their kids to handle college on their own. It is about priorities, their kids will have more fun now, which counts. I am betting on the future, which is only somewhat predictable.

you can do both jeez! lighten up a bit!

seriously. tight budget this, never eat out that. man.

[Anonymous]

It's all about priorities. We have a HHI of $1 million and take about 10 trips per year. When we had a HHI of $400k, we traveled about the same but stayed at cheaper hotels or on points. I earned about 60k at my first job, I still found money to travel. I love to travel. When I was younger, I admit I did not save much and used all my extra money on travel. Now we save a lot and still travel a lot. Our kids do go to public school.

OP, do your kids go to private school? Don't see why you don't think you have enough to travel.

We don't have a specific separate account for college. We expect to just write a check for college tuition out of our everyday account.

[Anonymous]

No kids, combined HHI of $72k, maxing out retirement, one car paid for in cash, rent is $1200k for a teeny apartment in a neighborhood we love, mid-20s----we do a 5-10 long weekends a year that usually coincide with fed holidays (cabin in Shenandoah during the winter where we hole up with board games and books in front of a cozy fireplace, NYC once a year, smaller towns like Harper's Ferry/Asheville/Gettysburg, more remote parts of OBX), aren't foodies so are content with cooking at our Airbnb 75% of our trip, mostly stay on the east coast where the most we'll spend on a long weekend is $300-$500 total. Travel is important to us---not only as a break to 'recharge' from daily life, but we value experiencing other cultures and ways of life. On a relationship note, we travel really well together and have done 6 hour road trips to see family for Thanksgiving/Christmas since we started dating, and our relationship really benefits from the time spent in the car together---that's where a lot of our major life decisions have been made after lots of discussion---something about the open road can bring clarity to our lives at home very easily.

We did one big int'l trip in the last year---a $7k 18 day trip to Australia that I meticulously budgeted for (I checked flight prices every night before bed and every morning for like two months before I bought our tickets)---and we splurged on that trip because it was our honeymoon---I.E. I spent maybe $2k more on whole-house rentals versus just a room/keeping our flights to two legs with short layovers, a few nice dinners out, etc. But I'm a research nerd who will read a gazillion articles/reviews of everything/Google map everything before we travel, so we get a lot of so-called bang for our buck.

I'm in the planning stages of our next big trip, which is hopefully next fall. It's important to us to get a lot of our always-wanted-to-go-there travel done in the next few years before we have kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's all about priorities. We have a HHI of $1 million and take about 10 trips per year. When we had a HHI of $400k, we traveled about the same but stayed at cheaper hotels or on points. I earned about 60k at my first job, I still found money to travel. I love to travel. When I was younger, I admit I did not save much and used all my extra money on travel. Now we save a lot and still travel a lot. Our kids do go to public school.

OP, do your kids go to private school? Don't see why you don't think you have enough to travel.

We don't have a specific separate account for college. We expect to just write a check for college tuition out of our everyday account.

How special for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have to travel for work. Sometimes DH flies out and we take a day or two for a long weekend. Or we're "working remotely" from a cafe in Paris after I worked for four days in Germany or something.

The dubius ethics of that would get yu fired at my company. As it should.

[Anonymous]

OP can afford to vacation, what a ridiculous thread. We may closer to 500k but our mortgage expenses are much higher and we go on a nice week long and a few weekend trips a year and could afford to do more, just never seem to take the time off.

The hand wringing over retirement is a bit much. We have about $1 million, including home equity, plus a vested gov't pension (like many in DC), those things plus social security will ensure a six figure in today's dollars retirement no matter what. I'm sure OP is in a better position but likes to freak out.

Ps OP spending $1,000 on your child at your income in a year is very cheap.

[Anonymous]

Our HHI is $160K-ish and on paper, we vacation "a lot". Even fly first class.

But lots of those are weekends away, and although I'm hotel chain loyal, I scrounge for good deals. For those trips, we drive. We live in the south now, so we do places like New Orleans, Savannah, Charleston. Big places with lots of hotel options at low price points.

If we fly, it's 1-3 times a year, domestically, to places where the airfare is under $500 a person. I'm airline-loyal as well, so we always fly first class for no additional cost. We stay in places like the Residence Inn, with free breakfast and sometimes free heavy snacks that double as dinner.

My company offers great rental car discounts, and we can do a week rental car for around $200.

Our child's tuition - since that's apparently relevant - will be paid by the GI Bill, so we're not screwing them over there.

It looks extravagant, but I promise it's not. Anyway, that's how we afford it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our HHI is $160K-ish and on paper, we vacation "a lot". Even fly first class.

But lots of those are weekends away, and although I'm hotel chain loyal, I scrounge for good deals. For those trips, we drive. We live in the south now, so we do places like New Orleans, Savannah, Charleston. Big places with lots of hotel options at low price points.

If we fly, it's 1-3 times a year, domestically, to places where the airfare is under $500 a person. I'm airline-loyal as well, so we always fly first class for no additional cost. We stay in places like the Residence Inn, with free breakfast and sometimes free heavy snacks that double as dinner.

My company offers great rental car discounts, and we can do a week rental car for around $200.

Our child's tuition - since that's apparently relevant - will be paid by the GI Bill, so we're not screwing them over there.

It looks extravagant, but I promise it's not. Anyway, that's how we afford it.

Extravagant to our family, friends, and neighbors, clearly not to DCUM.

[Anonymous]

[we make only half of that and have a kid in private school. But, we bought years ago and our mortgage is only $1250 a month. We take a trip every month and always pay on time.

quote=Anonymous]I look at my friends on Facebook and some of them seem to be constantly on vacation. Every year they might take three trips away. My cousin sends pictures of her family in California, the Caribbean, Florida, always with a beautiful scene in the background.
We might do that every other year or so.
Our HHI is over 400k, but between saving for college and paying the mortgage of about 4k a month, we feel that we just aren't secure enough to take fancy trips. Sadly, the last trip, the most expensive we've done, was a weather flop! Also, I have flight anxiety, so there is some reluctance on my part. But logistically and financially, we don't feel set enough to do that.
We out earn these people that I am comparing myself to, maybe they are good at getting deals?