How do people afford the countless vacations?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Welll, our HHI and our mortgage is about 1/4th of yours. We still go on at least one big trip a year. Then we do smaller weekend trips during the year. Our retirements and college accounts are funded.

We're doing WDW soon. We have BOGO tickets from Delta, so our flights were only about $400 total. Got a $250 car, a DVC timeshare that we bought decades ago, and our tickets are from last year. So we'll have a grand time for a bit over 2 grand.

We are also going camping on the Great Lakes this year, and may make it up to Canada for a few days this summer.

You can have great vacations if you just plan and don't need to have everything deluxe.

Agreed. We stay places that are perfectly fine - but for many people would probably be unacceptable.

[Anonymous]

Op, don't let what you see on "Fakebook" bother you. There is a fair number of narracist who misuse it. Do what you are comfortable with and lived your life as you want.

[Anonymous]

At $400k a year, you could easily afford them. You just have different priorities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. We do max out retirement (59k for me 20k or so for dh), we use public schools, and put away 15k or more for college between the two kids. Even with that, we worry about falling short when it is time to send them off. Last year, the flop vacation was really expensive. It involved car rentals and several hotels. That scared us enough to really trying to do the Grand Canyon this year on a tight budget.

Still don't understand where the rest of your money is going that you can't vacation often or decently well. I take time to price our trips for max value. It's also a huge priority for me. I hope you find some way to spend relaxed family time together. Yes having college paid for will help, but to have thoSe memories and that time spent together is invaluable.

$79K is not maxing out retirement, it's more like maxing out retirement plus saving another ~30-40 grand in after tax investment accounts and calling it "retirement".

Good for you for saving aggressively, but seriously, begrudging other people their vacations because you "can't afford" them? You're being totally ridiculous OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have plenty of friends (grown adults in their 30's) with parents who pay for their many vacations. "Let's all go to Disney!" courtesy of Grandma and Grandpa.

Having free vacations sounds wonderful in theory, but sharing all my time off with my parents? ...*shudder*

LOL. Well I got the short end of that stick. We pay our own way AND vacation with my parents. We enjoy it immensely though! Love spending time with my parents on vacation. What I hate is wasting my annual leave visiting my inlaws in their own house and not doing anything.

I forgot about this, but mine tried the same thing and I turned it down.

Sometimes, doing something independent helps your well being.

[Anonymous]

They probably make more money than you do. What's to get about that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Welll, our HHI and our mortgage is about 1/4th of yours. We still go on at least one big trip a year. Then we do smaller weekend trips during the year. Our retirements and college accounts are funded.

We're doing WDW soon. We have BOGO tickets from Delta, so our flights were only about $400 total. Got a $250 car, a DVC timeshare that we bought decades ago, and our tickets are from last year. So we'll have a grand time for a bit over 2 grand.

We are also going camping on the Great Lakes this year, and may make it up to Canada for a few days this summer.

You can have great vacations if you just plan and don't need to have everything deluxe.

Agreed. We stay places that are perfectly fine - but for many people would probably be unacceptable.

Why do people stay in hotels that are $200 a night? As long as there is a shower, bed, TV, and free internet, everything past that is a bonus. I just stayed in a Super 8 for 4 nights recently and it worked out really well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. We do max out retirement (59k for me 20k or so for dh), we use public schools, and put away 15k or more for college between the two kids. Even with that, we worry about falling short when it is time to send them off. Last year, the flop vacation was really expensive. It involved car rentals and several hotels. That scared us enough to really trying to do the Grand Canyon this year on a tight budget.

Still don't understand where the rest of your money is going that you can't vacation often or decently well. I take time to price our trips for max value. It's also a huge priority for me. I hope you find some way to spend relaxed family time together. Yes having college paid for will help, but to have thoSe memories and that time spent together is invaluable.

$79K is not maxing out retirement, it's more like maxing out retirement plus saving another ~30-40 grand in after tax investment accounts and calling it "retirement".

Good for you for saving aggressively, but seriously, begrudging other people their vacations because you "can't afford" them? You're being totally ridiculous OP.

That's really not true. I do $59k a year as well, and DH does $53k all in tax deferred retirement accounts, plus an HSA that we use for retirement savings. We could actually do more on a tax deferred basis if we wanted to look at some other plans but haven't done that yet. So that's $120k and we aren't technically "maxing".

That being said, I agree that the OP could easily afford to take a decent vacation or two, even one that involves "car rentals" without breaking the bank or jeopardizing retirement and college savings.

[Anonymous]

Also, some people are good at comparison shopping for airfare and hotels.

[Anonymous]

OP, why are you saving so much (79K per year) for retirement? That seems out of whack. Vacations are important - making memories. They don't need to be high-end luxury/expensive but you will regret the chance you had to have these experiences with your kids if you are foregoing in the name of having a super-hyper-comfortable retirement.

Our HHI is $500K, our mortgage is $6K, we save for retirement & college, and we still take 2-3 family vacations per year. Not of the super-luxurious type necessarily, but we do one ski trip (out west), one longer summer vacay (2 weeks), and spring break a driving vacation to see family. We're comfortable. We max out our 401Ks each year, and save 10K per kid per year for college. We do not expect to have full college tuition saved up. We'll be paying a portion of tuition out of current year income - which I think is pretty normal. Also, we do not count on our kids going to private college.

We do not car payments, student loans, or any debt other than our mortgage. Is that different for you? I would think you should pay off any debt like that first before you are saving $79K per year on retirement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have plenty of friends (grown adults in their 30's) with parents who pay for their many vacations. "Let's all go to Disney!" courtesy of Grandma and Grandpa.

Having free vacations sounds wonderful in theory, but sharing all my time off with my parents? ...*shudder*

LOL. Well I got the short end of that stick. We pay our own way AND vacation with my parents. We enjoy it immensely though! Love spending time with my parents on vacation. What I hate is wasting my annual leave visiting my inlaws in their own house and not doing anything.

My stick is shorter - we took a Disney cruise with my in-laws and we paid their way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Welll, our HHI and our mortgage is about 1/4th of yours. We still go on at least one big trip a year. Then we do smaller weekend trips during the year. Our retirements and college accounts are funded.

We're doing WDW soon. We have BOGO tickets from Delta, so our flights were only about $400 total. Got a $250 car, a DVC timeshare that we bought decades ago, and our tickets are from last year. So we'll have a grand time for a bit over 2 grand.

We are also going camping on the Great Lakes this year, and may make it up to Canada for a few days this summer.

You can have great vacations if you just plan and don't need to have everything deluxe.

I think this is a big part of it. A lot of people we know say they can't afford it and it's because when they do vacation they travel in luxury. So, yeah they can't afford to do that all the time. Meanwhile they make snide remarks about the number of vacations we take.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have plenty of friends (grown adults in their 30's) with parents who pay for their many vacations. "Let's all go to Disney!" courtesy of Grandma and Grandpa.

Having free vacations sounds wonderful in theory, but sharing all my time off with my parents? ...*shudder*

LOL. Well I got the short end of that stick. We pay our own way AND vacation with my parents. We enjoy it immensely though! Love spending time with my parents on vacation. What I hate is wasting my annual leave visiting my inlaws in their own house and not doing anything.

My stick is shorter - we took a Disney cruise with my in-laws and we paid their way.

Eeek. Disney cruises are pricey too. We just booked a 4 night one to the Bahamas for 5 people for the week following next Easter. $7k something and that is before the 2 nights at a Disney hotel and 2 days at the MK and airefare. It'll be well over 10k all in. LOL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, why are you saving so much (79K per year) for retirement? That seems out of whack. Vacations are important - making memories. They don't need to be high-end luxury/expensive but you will regret the chance you had to have these experiences with your kids if you are foregoing in the name of having a super-hyper-comfortable retirement.

Our HHI is $500K, our mortgage is $6K, we save for retirement & college, and we still take 2-3 family vacations per year. Not of the super-luxurious type necessarily, but we do one ski trip (out west), one longer summer vacay (2 weeks), and spring break a driving vacation to see family. We're comfortable. We max out our 401Ks each year, and save 10K per kid per year for college. We do not expect to have full college tuition saved up. We'll be paying a portion of tuition out of current year income - which I think is pretty normal. Also, we do not count on our kids going to private college.

We do not car payments, student loans, or any debt other than our mortgage. Is that different for you? I would think you should pay off any debt like that first before you are saving $79K per year on retirement.

If OP is saving $59k she must be over 50 (since she's doing the over 50 catch up contribution) so hopefully doesn't have student loans left. And while I am not a fan of car loans, paying a low rate or no rate car loan instead of making tax deferred retirement savings makes no financial sense. Plus at her age she needs to be prioritizing retirement savings if she plans to retire in the next 15 years.

Of course at $400k she should be able to do both, particularly because her taxes should be relatively low with the high retirement contributions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, why are you saving so much (79K per year) for retirement? That seems out of whack. Vacations are important - making memories. They don't need to be high-end luxury/expensive but you will regret the chance you had to have these experiences with your kids if you are foregoing in the name of having a super-hyper-comfortable retirement.

Our HHI is $500K, our mortgage is $6K, we save for retirement & college, and we still take 2-3 family vacations per year. Not of the super-luxurious type necessarily, but we do one ski trip (out west), one longer summer vacay (2 weeks), and spring break a driving vacation to see family. We're comfortable. We max out our 401Ks each year, and save 10K per kid per year for college. We do not expect to have full college tuition saved up. We'll be paying a portion of tuition out of current year income - which I think is pretty normal. Also, we do not count on our kids going to private college.

We do not car payments, student loans, or any debt other than our mortgage. Is that different for you? I would think you should pay off any debt like that first before you are saving $79K per year on retirement.

Only debt is the house. We are older with young kids so we have to be careful. We might not be fully employee when they go to college. We also want our kids to go to the best schools they get into within reason. But I agree that we need to build memorable experiences now. Thanks for the reminder.