A good way to think of it is ramit sethi’s conscious spending plan. As long as you are saving and investing at the percentages of income he suggests, and your fixed costs are 50-60%, I think you can see the remaining amount as guilt-free spending. The majority of our guilt free spending goes to family travel. We go on four 1 week-10day trips per year, plus 3-4 long weekends. Our kids are 6&9 and we see our time limited with them in exploring and see it as an investment in them as humans as well. I never regret taking the trip!

We are heading to Europe next week and most of our hotels are $1000+ per night. That’s an insane amount of money but we are in our early 70’s, we can afford it, and we may never be able to experience the insanity again.

Anonymous wrote:We have never regretted a single family trip. Esp if it reduces the amount you are saving rather than having to pull funds out of savings. It's the stuff of memories. Go see the glaciers in Alaska before they are melted, the Galapagos Islands before some PE firm decides they need to be developed and a corrupt government decides to go along. See the Tower of London and Alhmabra and the Great Wall of China. See kangaroos in Australia and wild game on safari.

Seriously, just do it

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you talking about reducing your savings to travel or actually withdrawing money?

While I am always up for a weekend trip, I think most of the time flying for a weekend is more trouble than it’s worth. But each to their own. That being said, your 14 year old isn’t going to want to or be able to travel with you for too much longer.

Well, I guess it would be a bit of both? We save money every month, but I would likely transfer savings over to pay for these trips.

I gave the long weekend as an example. I would hope to use this opportunity to travel during school breaks, when we otherwise haven’t been able to because of DH schedule.

Sounds like finances aren’t an issue. One thing I learned when my nieces were young is that kids rarely remember the gifts you give them but they remember the trips.

There are so many things to do even on a regular weekend. We do several big trips a year and several weekend trips. We’ve just started doing day trips as well (like leaving at 5 am and getting home at midnight). I think our adventures have been part of what has made our family so close.

We also let our kids bring friends when we take shorter trips and day trips.

Anyway, enjoy. I bet you can get lots of ideas from people here.

Anonymous wrote:We have never regretted a single family trip. Esp if it reduces the amount you are saving rather than having to pull funds out of savings. It's the stuff of memories. Go see the glaciers in Alaska before they are melted, the Galapagos Islands before some PE firm decides they need to be developed and a corrupt government decides to go along. See the Tower of London and Alhmabra and the Great Wall of China. See kangaroos in Australia and wild game on safari.

Seriously, just do it

100%

Anonymous wrote:Are you talking about reducing your savings to travel or actually withdrawing money?

While I am always up for a weekend trip, I think most of the time flying for a weekend is more trouble than it’s worth. But each to their own. That being said, your 14 year old isn’t going to want to or be able to travel with you for too much longer.

Disagree. Our 20-year-old still enjoys traveling with us because we go to interesting places around the world and everything is all-inclusive when you travel with Mom and Dad.

Go for the trip. DD is now 19 and DS is 17. I am so glad we spent money travelling together.

Anonymous wrote:Are you talking about reducing your savings to travel or actually withdrawing money?

While I am always up for a weekend trip, I think most of the time flying for a weekend is more trouble than it’s worth. But each to their own. That being said, your 14 year old isn’t going to want to or be able to travel with you for too much longer.

My teen DDs get overwhelmed if we try to travel for too many long weekends. They like their downtime . I focus on shorter trips during longer breaks, like 4 night midweek for spring break. Travel is always worth it to me - we get to have new experiences and just enjoy each other's company.

Anonymous wrote:We have never regretted a single family trip. Esp if it reduces the amount you are saving rather than having to pull funds out of savings. It's the stuff of memories. Go see the glaciers in Alaska before they are melted, the Galapagos Islands before some PE firm decides they need to be developed and a corrupt government decides to go along. See the Tower of London and Alhmabra and the Great Wall of China. See kangaroos in Australia and wild game on safari.

Seriously, just do it

Agree. You have all this money saved but few travel memories with your soon-to-be adult kid. Life is short and when you die, you can’t take all those millions with you. Some prefer to prioritize family and travel instead of accumulating millions.

We have never regretted a single family trip. Esp if it reduces the amount you are saving rather than having to pull funds out of savings. It's the stuff of memories. Go see the glaciers in Alaska before they are melted, the Galapagos Islands before some PE firm decides they need to be developed and a corrupt government decides to go along. See the Tower of London and Alhmabra and the Great Wall of China. See kangaroos in Australia and wild game on safari.

Seriously, just do it

Maybe plan for three long weekends away? That way it's a trip every four months but not super expensive.

Anonymous wrote:Are you talking about reducing your savings to travel or actually withdrawing money?

While I am always up for a weekend trip, I think most of the time flying for a weekend is more trouble than it’s worth. But each to their own. That being said, your 14 year old isn’t going to want to or be able to travel with you for too much longer.

Well, I guess it would be a bit of both? We save money every month, but I would likely transfer savings over to pay for these trips.

I gave the long weekend as an example. I would hope to use this opportunity to travel during school breaks, when we otherwise haven’t been able to because of DH schedule.

Take every long weekend you can. You have 4 more years if that with your kid. Take a week long thing in winter and one in summer and some more weekends.

Are you talking about reducing your savings to travel or actually withdrawing money?

While I am always up for a weekend trip, I think most of the time flying for a weekend is more trouble than it’s worth. But each to their own. That being said, your 14 year old isn’t going to want to or be able to travel with you for too much longer.

My DH (45) just received a promotion that allows him immense time flexibility. For the most part, he chooses his schedule. Before this he was working a very rigid and family unfriendly schedule. In two years he will begin collecting a government (state) pension on top of his current salary. We are by no means rich, but we are comfortable. I’m (42) also able to work from anywhere. We both invest heavily for retirement (him, on top of his pension), and while we probably have more liquid savings than most, I know we could do better. With that said, we could cover a variety of emergency expenses. I don’t know what else you might need to know that would help you decide how to answer, but I’d be happy to try if need be!

We are looking at our nuclear family life a little differently now that my husband has this newfound freedom, and as our DD (14) is getting older. We are trying to decide what to do in the next two years (before his pension kicks in) in regards to travel.

We budget in one large family vacation a year as it stands now, though this past summer we took two smaller trips, and we all really enjoyed that. Our DD isn’t getting any younger, and we know that we bond best with her at this age when we are relaxed and on vacation; these are some of our best memories overall, but especially during her teen years. Our memories are often a topic of conversation, and planning our vacations is an activity we enjoy.

How do we decide, financially, if we should allow ourselves to drain a bit of our liquid savings each year for the next two years, in order to take and additional 1-2 more “spontaneous” vacations throughout the year, now that that is a possibility? (Example: DD has no weekend plans so we plan a last minute weekend trip to the beach after finding a cheap flight.)