Anonymous wrote:What I love about travel is that it’s a relatively strong signal for who actually has $ and who is overstretching. Yes there’s people with a lot of $$ who don’t like to travel but for your average family in a $2-3M close-in McMansion who isn’t traveling at least 1-2x / year, it’s likely because they’re overstretched.

We spend a ton on travel but don’t tell anyone where we stay or how we’re getting there and we post zero pictures publicly. Once we have kids we’ll dial it down for a while for more middle-class type vacations until we’re relatively confident we’ve raised good kids and they aren’t spoiled sh*ts.

I find your attitude a little bizarre. People have different priorities. If they want their McMansion and can’t afford to travel, so be it. Other posters have said they live in modest houses and curb other expenses so they can afford to travel. C’est la vie.

What I love about travel is that it’s a relatively strong signal for who actually has $ and who is overstretching. Yes there’s people with a lot of $$ who don’t like to travel but for your average family in a $2-3M close-in McMansion who isn’t traveling at least 1-2x / year, it’s likely because they’re overstretched.

We spend a ton on travel but don’t tell anyone where we stay or how we’re getting there and we post zero pictures publicly. Once we have kids we’ll dial it down for a while for more middle-class type vacations until we’re relatively confident we’ve raised good kids and they aren’t spoiled sh*ts.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are at $350k HHI, $4k PITI (cries at 2023 interest rate), $1k car payment, $2k in monthly daycare, and no family money. We eat out, get DoorDash at least once a month, bi-monthly cleaners, max out retirements, have over $100k in college fund for one DC4. We also travel.

We don't live extravagantly, but we're also not pinching pennies.

Sure. Says someone with a HHI of $350k. I don’t think OP is wondering how you make it happen.

Shrug. We also live in the Rockville cluster in a home many of you would deride as a sh*tbox, but at least I don’t have to worry about where my next paycheck is going.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are at $350k HHI, $4k PITI (cries at 2023 interest rate), $1k car payment, $2k in monthly daycare, and no family money. We eat out, get DoorDash at least once a month, bi-monthly cleaners, max out retirements, have over $100k in college fund for one DC4. We also travel.

We don't live extravagantly, but we're also not pinching pennies.

yeah sounds solid middle class lifestyle

The question never asked how middle class people travel. The answer is to make a lot of money, obviously. Or be single without any responsibilities.

Some of us are on the right side of the k shaped economy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because there are a lot of people who make a lot of money. It's that simple.

And yes, there really are a lot of people with large incomes. And if you are smart with money and budgets and travel, it's highly manageable. The most common complaint I hear around me isn't the cost of travel but the time scarcity.

What is a large income? I make $150k per year and cannot afford to travel at all. I don’t even spend much besides on food, rent, gas, and insurance

150k is a small income for this area

Anonymous wrote:We are at $350k HHI, $4k PITI (cries at 2023 interest rate), $1k car payment, $2k in monthly daycare, and no family money. We eat out, get DoorDash at least once a month, bi-monthly cleaners, max out retirements, have over $100k in college fund for one DC4. We also travel.

We don't live extravagantly, but we're also not pinching pennies.

yeah sounds solid middle class lifestyle

Anonymous wrote:We are at $350k HHI, $4k PITI (cries at 2023 interest rate), $1k car payment, $2k in monthly daycare, and no family money. We eat out, get DoorDash at least once a month, bi-monthly cleaners, max out retirements, have over $100k in college fund for one DC4. We also travel.

We don't live extravagantly, but we're also not pinching pennies.

Sure. Says someone with a HHI of $350k. I don’t think OP is wondering how you make it happen.

We are at $350k HHI, $4k PITI (cries at 2023 interest rate), $1k car payment, $2k in monthly daycare, and no family money. We eat out, get DoorDash at least once a month, bi-monthly cleaners, max out retirements, have over $100k in college fund for one DC4. We also travel.

We don't live extravagantly, but we're also not pinching pennies.

It's about priorities.

We spend about 10% of our annual HH income on travel. But we live in a smaller house (never upgraded from our starter home), have 2 paid off cars we'll drive into the ground, don't eat out much while we're at home, etc.

I can see why different households with the same income can either feel broke and can't travel or feel comfortable and able to travel. Especially in this 100-200k bracket.

I'm the 150k poster who takes two trips a year. I also never get doordash or Uber eats, I cook everything I eat and dining out is rare, an occasional treat with friends. I drink very little alcohol, I don't have a Starbucks a day habit. To me these are all extravagances not worth the money. But if you're a household that does some or all the above regularly, you'd probably be shocked by how much is going out the door that could otherwise be saved just by cooking at home and being more realistic with where you're spending on entertainment and little frivolities.

Anonymous wrote:I am a nurse, so very much true middle class. I live in a VHCOL city. I take 2-3 int’l trips a year by keeping them to a week or less, buying very cheap airfare and going off season/ shoulder season. Once there, I stay in the cheapest hotel I can find that is safe.

Of note, i literally never, ever order DoorDash. Anyone who has ever paid $29 all-in for a single hamburger is not allowed to whine about the costs associated with taking a trip— you are pissing away your money

I don’t pay the premium for Instacart. I don’t have regularly scheduled housecleaners. I go out to eat with friends sparingly, not just because it’s 7 pm and I don’t feel like cooking.

Oh ! And I don’t have a $800-$1000 monthly car pay like a few of my coworkers who wanted the brand new bronco instead of the 18 month old used Corolla.

Sometimes I wonder if it’s often the car payments. If a family has two car payments, there’s your international travel. Unless you’re wealthy enough that it doesn’t matter.

Anonymous wrote:We travel internationally. Its actually cheaper than traveling domestically. Get past the flights (and often times, an international flight to a European country is cheaper than a domestic flight) and things are just overall cheaper.

This. I have traveled quite a bit with my family, but we do it on a tiny budget and try to cut costs wherever we can. It's definitely getting harder with inflation and flight costs. I've found international flights for $300-$450 (including over school breaks), but that was a bare-bones, budget airline with a personal item only and one shared carry-on lol. We flew to Copenhagen, London, Paris, Madrid, Portugal, and pre-pandemic, I found flights for $275 pp to Vienna, Austria!

It's difficult to find flights under $500-$650 that align with school breaks these days and so we are having to eliminate trips. I have my summer off, so we are planning a long trip to Europe. If you can rent an Airbnb for a solid month, you can often find a huge discount.

We make $300k. Piti is $3k. No daycare anymore and cars were cash. I also churn credit cards to get points. Taking 2 trips this year. One will be all points for hotel and flights for 4 so it's only food and activities cost.
Even when I made sub $100k I travelled once or twice a year. Chased deals and cheap Europe flights. I didn't eat out or bought fancy things and drove my old Corolla until it died.

Anonymous wrote:We travel internationally. Its actually cheaper than traveling domestically. Get past the flights (and often times, an international flight to a European country is cheaper than a domestic flight) and things are just overall cheaper.

+1 This. If you can get reasonably priced flights and don't need 5 star accomodations, a beach vacation in Mexico or even Asia can be cheaper than a beach vacation in the USA. Skiing is cheaper in Europe than the crazy prices people pay on the East Coast. Canada can be a driving vacation from the DC area and while food costs can be higher, hotels can be lower.

yet people pay 5k a week to stay in a random house on the beach in Cape Cod or 3K in the outer banks.