HHI 250k—what’s your travel budget?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have taken our kids to 70 countries on similar income. All about priorities.

Please tell us more. How much do you spend annually? Do you group a bunch of countries together for trips? What kinds of accommodations do you stay in? Do you eat out the whole time or make food?

PP here. We spend $50K plus on travel annually, but have kept down daily expenses as much as possible. Sometimes we do groups of countries, but sometimes focus on one or two countries for longer periods. It depends on the countries and regions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have taken our kids to 70 countries on similar income. All about priorities.

Please tell us more. How much do you spend annually? Do you group a bunch of countries together for trips? What kinds of accommodations do you stay in? Do you eat out the whole time or make food?

PP here. We spend $50K plus on travel annually, but have kept down daily expenses as much as possible. Sometimes we do groups of countries, but sometimes focus on one or two countries for longer periods. It depends on the countries and regions.

^^oh and we tend to use Airbnb and a mix of eat out and prepare food ourselves.

[Anonymous]

We are at $390k (I just checked our tax return, I honestly had no idea.). According to co-pilot, we spent $22k on travel. I don't budget but try to spend as little as possible. In 2023, we went to the Caribbean twice, as well as a local beach trip. That total might include the tickets we bought for this year's spring break trip to Europe.

[Anonymous]

We're at a similar income OP with two kids. We have good credit scores and do a lot with credit card points (sign up bonuses will get you far!). We travel a lot and I love hotels but we don't go crazy with luxury accommodations. I like places with local character, boutique hotels etc. We also are pretty frugal with food when we travel. Eat at local restaurants, not super touristy, and bring some food with us/buy some groceries when we're there to cover breakfasts or lunches.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have taken our kids to 70 countries on similar income. All about priorities.

I call BS on taking the kids to 70 unless you are stationed abroad and/or the kids are now 40.

Out of curiosity, how many US states have you visited with the kids?

[Anonymous]

Ours is very low. HHI $230k. Maybe $4k, all in? Two beach vacations with family and a few driving trips to see family and friends, that’s it. My kids have only ever flown twice (round trip) in their whole lives.

But our kids are very little - 4, 2.5, and one on the way. We pay out the nose for childcare and we stretched to afford our house. So while we are quite well off, we’ve prioritized other things. Our priorities are likely to change as the kids age.

The thing about HHIs in these kind of numbers is that you’re basically wealthy - whatever is most important to you, you can afford it. Awesome vacations, great house, fabulous nanny, great clothes, expensive hobbies, lots of kids, lots of expensive extracurriculars. But you have to choose. You can only go big on a couple of things (depending on your definition of big). So we’ve got our great nanny and a pricey mortgage, but we don’t travel and we buy clothes at thrift stores. I’m sure there are plenty of people at this HHI in a two bedroom apartment with one kid who spend $50k a year on travel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have taken our kids to 70 countries on similar income. All about priorities.

I call BS on taking the kids to 70 unless you are stationed abroad and/or the kids are now 40.

Out of curiosity, how many US states have you visited with the kids?

PP here. Not BS. We just make a concerted effort to visit new countries and regions instead of returning to the same places. On states, we are at 49/50. Still missing Hawaii. Plus have visited PR and USVI.

[Anonymous]

300K. I don't really track it that well. Chase says we spent 36K but its not entirely accurate because it includes uber/lyft/parking but doesn't include restaurants. But I imagine between 35K-45K is probably accurate.

No wonder I haven't been able to remodel my kitchen yet lol. I know that we have spent 10K so far this year mainly on hotels and airfair. So We may end up spending less than last year!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are at $390k (I just checked our tax return, I honestly had no idea.). According to co-pilot, we spent $22k on travel. I don't budget but try to spend as little as possible. In 2023, we went to the Caribbean twice, as well as a local beach trip. That total might include the tickets we bought for this year's spring break trip to Europe.

Not even remotely close to what OP asked. You make more than 50% more than she does.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are now at about 300k. We don't do expensive cars, we have reasonable housing costs, public schools etc. But we travel a lot. We don't really budget, just do it. It is what we value.

There's a huge difference between 250k and 300k. That's an extra 50k in travel money.

We have one 16 year old. 250HHI. Probably spend 5K a year on travel (cheap flights, modest hotels and Airbnbs.) Kid has been to Europe six times, the Caribbean four times, Hawaii once, and too many national parks to count.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are at $390k (I just checked our tax return, I honestly had no idea.). According to co-pilot, we spent $22k on travel. I don't budget but try to spend as little as possible. In 2023, we went to the Caribbean twice, as well as a local beach trip. That total might include the tickets we bought for this year's spring break trip to Europe.

Not even remotely close to what OP asked. You make more than 50% more than she does.

She said she wanted other perspectives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are at $390k (I just checked our tax return, I honestly had no idea.). According to co-pilot, we spent $22k on travel. I don't budget but try to spend as little as possible. In 2023, we went to the Caribbean twice, as well as a local beach trip. That total might include the tickets we bought for this year's spring break trip to Europe.

Not even remotely close to what OP asked. You make more than 50% more than she does.

She said she wanted other perspectives.

She said “if you are in our range.” Did you even read the post? Is our children learning????!

[Anonymous]

We have the same income and visit family on the West Coast, a domestic trip for the long weekend plus one international trip (very budget trips, so public transportation, Airbnbs or 2-3 star like hotels) - approximately 6-8k annually

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have taken our kids to 70 countries on similar income. All about priorities.

Please tell us more. How much do you spend annually? Do you group a bunch of countries together for trips? What kinds of accommodations do you stay in? Do you eat out the whole time or make food?

PP here. We spend $50K plus on travel annually, but have kept down daily expenses as much as possible. Sometimes we do groups of countries, but sometimes focus on one or two countries for longer periods. It depends on the countries and regions.

So you spend 20% or more of your annual income on travel, and have well-funded retirement and college savings accounts? Something isn’t adding up. Do you have no mortgage?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have taken our kids to 70 countries on similar income. All about priorities.

Please tell us more. How much do you spend annually? Do you group a bunch of countries together for trips? What kinds of accommodations do you stay in? Do you eat out the whole time or make food?

PP here. We spend $50K plus on travel annually, but have kept down daily expenses as much as possible. Sometimes we do groups of countries, but sometimes focus on one or two countries for longer periods. It depends on the countries and regions.

So you spend 20% or more of your annual income on travel, and have well-funded retirement and college savings accounts? Something isn’t adding up. Do you have no mortgage?

You are right, no mortgage.