Anonymous wrote:I've wondered what is "normal" to spend on vacations too. My family of 2 has a 175K HHI, which we've only had for the past three years (we were in grad school before). We're still trying to figure out what we're comfortable spending on vacation. We spent just under 6K in 2016. Most of that was two international trips (Peru and Mexico), but we did a fair amount of domestic travel by plane (Atlanta, Cleveland, Providence, Albany) and by car (Charlotte, Pittsburgh, Finger Lakes) last year. The domestic travel was primarily to visit family and dear friends. We also did a couple of camping trips in nearby state parks. One of our domestic trips was with my in-laws, and they covered everyone's costs.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Family of six with a HHI of $160.
-DE beach 3-5 times each year (one full week plus long weekends): $3k?
-Spring break trip (Caribbean, cruise or some such): $6-8k?
-NYE overnight (plus festive activity):$750?
-Thanksgiving weekend trip: $800?
That's a good ball park. My DH would probably say we spend more.
-Misc. day trips, long weekends, etc.: $2-3k?
You make 160K in DC, have 4 kids, and spend 10% of your income on vacations?
Most years. So?
We live in MoCo, and our mortgage is very low since we purchased a reasonably priced home and were able to put down 50%. We live rather frugally (no cleaning service, no lawn service, old cars, etc.). And we don't have significant child care costs since all our kids are in school (public school).
People have commented that we travel a lot, and they hint that they wish they could afford to. From what I've observed, most people piss away money. Tally up how much you spend eating out each month. Tally up how much you spend on beer, wine and booze each month (at home or going out). We don't have car payments since we don't regularly trade up. We would rather travel than drop thousands on fancy furniture or cosmetic home renovations. YOLO.
So you have college fully funded for all 4 kids?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:We bring a nanny on our vacations and tack vacations on to international travel for work. We are also somewhat prissy and would not consider camping to be fun or relaxing - our vacations involve luxury hotel suites and such. We're easily spending low six figures on vacations. [[u]/quote]
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What? We want to feel like our vacations are a break from real life. (I did a camping trip once to try it after a friend gave me the "how can you be sure you hate it if you never try it?" I camped/hiked Yosemite for three days. I hated it.)
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Family of six with a HHI of $160.
-DE beach 3-5 times each year (one full week plus long weekends): $3k?
-Spring break trip (Caribbean, cruise or some such): $6-8k?
-NYE overnight (plus festive activity):$750?
-Thanksgiving weekend trip: $800?
That's a good ball park. My DH would probably say we spend more.
-Misc. day trips, long weekends, etc.: $2-3k?
You make 160K in DC, have 4 kids, and spend 10% of your income on vacations?
Most years. So?
We live in MoCo, and our mortgage is very low since we purchased a reasonably priced home and were able to put down 50%. We live rather frugally (no cleaning service, no lawn service, old cars, etc.). And we don't have significant child care costs since all our kids are in school (public school).
People have commented that we travel a lot, and they hint that they wish they could afford to. From what I've observed, most people piss away money. Tally up how much you spend eating out each month. Tally up how much you spend on beer, wine and booze each month (at home or going out). We don't have car payments since we don't regularly trade up. We would rather travel than drop thousands on fancy furniture or cosmetic home renovations. YOLO.
So you have college fully funded for all 4 kids?
Why is that a prerequisite for traveling with your kids when they are young? They will have far more life experience than those who never travel - so what if they have to take some amount of $ as student loans when they go to college or, gasp!, work and earn some of the money for themselves?
So, no, you don't have much money saved for the four college tuitions. Thanks for answering.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Family of 8, $210k income, about $1500 a year for travel. We rent a cabin two to three times a year, somewhere rustic or farmy. Once a year we do a road trip down to grandparents in NC. Everything else goes to retirement and school tuition.
bag the tuition - go to public and travel!!!
Anonymous wrote:Family of 8, $210k income, about $1500 a year for travel. We rent a cabin two to three times a year, somewhere rustic or farmy. Once a year we do a road trip down to grandparents in NC. Everything else goes to retirement and school tuition.
Anonymous wrote:We bring a nanny on our vacations and tack vacations on to international travel for work. We are also somewhat prissy and would not consider camping to be fun or relaxing - our vacations involve luxury hotel suites and such. We're easily spending low six figures on vacations.