Money hemmorhage due to trips - wwyd?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If all the trips include your soon-to-be college students, do them now. Scheduling because much more complicated once kids are out of the house.

This is a good point. Otherwise I might save the trip to see your parents until next year since you are seeing them now. But with your kids finishing college and you still have your health and parents to visit, this is the time of life to put more money into travel. Fast forward 10 years and you might have health problems that prohibit travel, your parents might be gone, etc. it’s normal to shift some money into travel at this stage in life. Hopefully you bought your house years ago so have a lower mortgage, don’t need much in the way of clothes or stuff. Of course if you’re planning to host huge weddings or pay for grad school, that calculus might be different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn't travel at all in my 20s because i was so frugal/ Dave Ramsey focused. It's a huge regret now!
I have a house just about paid off and I will never say no to travel. 39 now and finally doing what I thought I couldn't afford.

I didn't travel in my 20s/30s, but I have zero regrets about it! It enabled us to have the life we have now. I have just as much energy in my 50s as I did in my 30s. I don't know who these people are who think that menopause equals the end of your life.

I'd just go on the trips OP. If you're worried about your savings, you can make that up by cutting back on other things (eating out, clothes, etc.) over the next year.

I appreciate hearing this because I have always worried that the ideal time for travel had passed me by. Things are much harder with kids.
But I have an aunt who never left the country until she was in her 60s and her adult kids wanted to travel with her. 10years later she's been to every continent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn't travel at all in my 20s because i was so frugal/ Dave Ramsey focused. It's a huge regret now!
I have a house just about paid off and I will never say no to travel. 39 now and finally doing what I thought I couldn't afford.

I didn't travel in my 20s/30s, but I have zero regrets about it! It enabled us to have the life we have now. I have just as much energy in my 50s as I did in my 30s. I don't know who these people are who think that menopause equals the end of your life.

I'd just go on the trips OP. If you're worried about your savings, you can make that up by cutting back on other things (eating out, clothes, etc.) over the next year.

I appreciate hearing this because I have always worried that the ideal time for travel had passed me by. Things are much harder with kids.
But I have an aunt who never left the country until she was in her 60s and her adult kids wanted to travel with her. 10years later she's been to every continent.

Which is awesome! But I know some who have health issues in their 60s and cannot travel the way they would like (or at all). So it's best to find a balance and enjoy travel when you can. It doesn't mean just spend spend spend on travel, it means spend and plan to travel and perhaps cut back elsewhere to make it happen. But definately, you shouldn't live so frugally that you hit 60, have $10M for retirement but have never travelled at all or done some things you want along the way. Much better to have only $9M and still enjoyed life along the way

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:we have a ton of expenses coming up this summer, mostly due to travel: dcs going abroad on a graduation trip (6k total, both got a lot of merit making college much cheaper than anticipated, so this is a gift for this as well), we are going abroad to see family (3k total), then we are also supposed to see dh's family a flight away (2k total). Just adding it up makes me want to throw up...But at the same time seeing family is important and I have a little nephew I rarely see. I just feel like maybe we should cancel the abroad trip for us (the 3k) and save that trip for another time since my parents are here now visiting. Wwyd? We have ample money (for us, not for DCUM) in savings, but at the same time these costs are more than we have ever spent over such a small period of time.

So, it's $11,000? Of course it depends on your budget, but that doesn't seem extreme for annual travel. We're spending that on a week at the beach with extended family (nice beachfront townhome rental) plus a visit to see the other side of the family in their home city this summer. We can afford about $15,000 in travel each year (family of 5), so I'm not worrying about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn't travel at all in my 20s because i was so frugal/ Dave Ramsey focused. It's a huge regret now!
I have a house just about paid off and I will never say no to travel. 39 now and finally doing what I thought I couldn't afford.

I didn't travel in my 20s/30s, but I have zero regrets about it! It enabled us to have the life we have now. I have just as much energy in my 50s as I did in my 30s. I don't know who these people are who think that menopause equals the end of your life.

I'd just go on the trips OP. If you're worried about your savings, you can make that up by cutting back on other things (eating out, clothes, etc.) over the next year.

It's great that you're enjoying traveling now, but there's no way that a healthy, fit person in their 20's/30's has the same energy levels in their 50's.

I traveled on a tight budget in my 20's and also saved. It's not one or the other.