Advice on annual travel budget with HHI of 300K?

[Anonymous]

There is nothing creative, inspiring, or imaginative about Disneyland.

Disneyland only serves to crush the spirit and imagination of a child. When parents talk, read, and share stories with their children are the times when their body of knowledge and imaginations grow.

Taking them to Disneyland consume predigested theme park fantasies is lazy parenting and intectually stifling. It only takes a young child about four minutes to realized there is some under-paid talentless teenager dressed inside that sweltering Mickey Mouse rat costume.

Once a child learns that all of their imaginary characters don't live real lives in far away enchanted forests but have handlers at tired old as amusement parks ... their interest in reading and imagining giant whales and the like ... begins to die.

[Anonymous]

We earn about $350K and spend about 10K on travel. we usually take one summer beach vacation ad 1 international trip and usually a long weekend or two thrown in.

But I agree that you should at least max out a college savings account for the tax saving especially since you have 3 kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is nothing creative, inspiring, or imaginative about Disneyland.

Disneyland only serves to crush the spirit and imagination of a child. When parents talk, read, and share stories with their children are the times when their body of knowledge and imaginations grow.

Taking them to Disneyland consume predigested theme park fantasies is lazy parenting and intectually stifling. It only takes a young child about four minutes to realized there is some under-paid talentless teenager dressed inside that sweltering Mickey Mouse rat costume.

Once a child learns that all of their imaginary characters don't live real lives in far away enchanted forests but have handlers at tired old as amusement parks ... their interest in reading and imagining giant whales and the like ... begins to die.

Therapy. You need some.

[Anonymous]

This thread has nothing to do with where parents are traveling to. Its a question about finances.

[Anonymous]

we make $370K and spend around $30K on travel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Most of you are sounding like my husband, with these figures, lol.

This post is brought to you by our latest disagreement whereby we are going to visit his family in Miami, and of course we have to go during school breaks which are more expensive. It costs $400/ticket to fly to Miami when we are looking but $177/ticket fly to Jacksonville and drive 5 additional hours each way. Guess which one he wants to do? His revised idea, then, is to rent an RV and drive both ways - but also, I can only take a week off work. And apparently, I think time is money

We could theoretically go a different time of year but it’s also a milestone birthday for his mother.

We actually haven’t done a ton of travel this year because I was “saving” for an international trip next year that is now unlikely to occur (for non-monetary reasons). I put “saving” in quotes here because I didn’t actually put any money aside except in my own mind. That is where I think a budget would help . But it appears there is a wide range of what travel budget would be acceptable.

Good grief. I don't make what you do but I'd buy the more expensive tickets and save my time, which is precious.

I agree with everyone else on this thread - you don't want to drive from Jax to Miami. That is not a fun drive, and going there and back will eat up nearly a whole day of your trip. Do not rent a camper to make the drive from DC. You'll spend two or three long days on Route 95 and be miserable.

$400 per ticket seems to absurdly reasonable that I can't believe you are even fighting about this. Why bother earning this much money to quibble about such small amounts?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Most of you are sounding like my husband, with these figures, lol.

This post is brought to you by our latest disagreement whereby we are going to visit his family in Miami, and of course we have to go during school breaks which are more expensive. It costs $400/ticket to fly to Miami when we are looking but $177/ticket fly to Jacksonville and drive 5 additional hours each way. Guess which one he wants to do? His revised idea, then, is to rent an RV and drive both ways - but also, I can only take a week off work. And apparently, I think time is money

We could theoretically go a different time of year but it’s also a milestone birthday for his mother.

We actually haven’t done a ton of travel this year because I was “saving” for an international trip next year that is now unlikely to occur (for non-monetary reasons). I put “saving” in quotes here because I didn’t actually put any money aside except in my own mind. That is where I think a budget would help . But it appears there is a wide range of what travel budget would be acceptable.

Good grief. I don't make what you do but I'd buy the more expensive tickets and save my time, which is precious.

I agree with everyone else on this thread - you don't want to drive from Jax to Miami. That is not a fun drive, and going there and back will eat up nearly a whole day of your trip. Do not rent a camper to make the drive from DC. You'll spend two or three long days on Route 95 and be miserable.

$400 per ticket seems to absurdly reasonable that I can't believe you are even fighting about this. Why bother earning this much money to quibble about such small amounts?

^ sorry, just saw there was a happy resolution. huzzah, enjoy your trip!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TWENTY FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS A YEAR ON A THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND HHI OMG

If my DH proposed that I would hit the ceiling. Holy crap.

Different people have different priorities. I would rather spend money on travel than on fancy cars or kitchens or whatever.

How many fancy cars or kitchens are you talking about buying? I'd also hit the roof and i make more than 300k and drive a honda!

[Anonymous]

We put $700 into each of the following accounts every month: each child’s 529, travel, and general savings. We make $250.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TWENTY FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS A YEAR ON A THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND HHI OMG

If my DH proposed that I would hit the ceiling. Holy crap.

Different people have different priorities. I would rather spend money on travel than on fancy cars or kitchens or whatever.

How many fancy cars or kitchens are you talking about buying? I'd also hit the roof and i make more than 300k and drive a honda!

Dp- we make $250 and drive an old Honda that’s been paid off forever. We just came back from a 2 week vacation in England. We aren’t at $25k, but if college was being paid for by grandparents or otherwise covered, we could easily do that with a ski trip out west and a long warm weather weekend. People have different priorities

[Anonymous]

For folks not saving for college my daughter got accepted to five universities all with partial scholarships. She picked cheapest one factoring scholarships which is net $37,800 a year all in(tuition, dorm meals etc.)

College does a ten payment plan out of my bank account. So I pay $3,780 a month for college. My second starts in 24 months so by then $8,000 a month. Then I have a third


Step up the 529 or work on promotions

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TWENTY FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS A YEAR ON A THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND HHI OMG

If my DH proposed that I would hit the ceiling. Holy crap.

Different people have different priorities. I would rather spend money on travel than on fancy cars or kitchens or whatever.

How many fancy cars or kitchens are you talking about buying? I'd also hit the roof and i make more than 300k and drive a honda!

Dp- we make $250 and drive an old Honda that’s been paid off forever. We just came back from a 2 week vacation in England. We aren’t at $25k, but if college was being paid for by grandparents or otherwise covered, we could easily do that with a ski trip out west and a long warm weather weekend. People have different priorities

Op here. The car I drive that is paid off is a 2009 Honda Accord. I like my car, lol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What do you think is a good annual travel / vacation budget for a family of 5 with HHI of appx 300K?

House expenses including mortgage, taxes, insurance are about $2800/month
Car payment - $500/month (for one car, other car is paid off)
About $1500/month on child care expenses
About $300/month on student loans

We generally have savings account, retirement accounts, and college saving funds that I consider to be in pretty good shape.

Thanks!

What about 529?
What's your net worth and age?
Would need a full picture.

[Anonymous]

Our HHI is 260k. No kids, no debt besides mortgage at 3k a month. We spend $20-25k a year. Rather than spend money on material items, we like to spend most of our money on travel and experiences.