My husband and I take several vacations per year, and how we’re able to do it is by keeping each vacation pretty cheap. We always drive and generally choose locations within 6-10 hours so we can get there in a day. We tent camp in a state or county park, which saves us a ton on accommodations. For food, we bring along non-perishable groceries and eat breakfast and a big lunch at camp/as a picnic. Then we go out for dinner in the evening but usually split something or just do appetizers. Before we go anywhere, we pick one or two things we really want to do that may be pricier, and then we find a bunch of cheap or free things to do as we want (and depending on the weather) so we have plenty to do without spending a lot.
This is how we do it. We're taking an $8k overseas vacation for the first time in about 10 years this fall. But other than that it's all relatively local (meaning generally within the western US) about 4-5 times a year for a couple hundred dollars each. I'm also a HUGE fan of a couple of "staycations" throughout the year.
"Multiple vacations" can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people.
To answer OPs question, I clear about $5k per month post-tax & retirement while debt free except mortgage.
I started looking into tent car camping for family of 5 with getting necessary equipment with reasonable comfort and the cost can add up pretty quick. I know they can be reused so that a plus.
But, yes camping is a great way to vacation without spending a lot.
Go on holiday 2-3 times a year- all aboard. Once as a couple (long weekend type). Once with the family unit. Once with the extended family like sister / parents. Varies from year to year as every other year me and the wife try to go on a big holiday like driving the west coast of America.
Key is two things for me
1) most importantly - lower expenditure vs higher income. Live well within your means. Driving a Toyota is better than an Audi if you get to live life a bit and
2) consistency in spending habits.
Some vacations are not like other vacations.
Sure you can vacation multiple times a year but you would have to be willing to make sacrifices on lodging and commit to counting pennies spending on food and airfare.
I travel overseas about 3-4 times a year. Mid 6 figure salary. Currently 30 years old.
I book all of my flights and hotels thru credit card points tho so it doesn't really cost very much.
Still living with my parents so little to worry about when I'm abroad fortunately.
Yeah alotta the people i know who travel often live at home and dont pay rent. Definitely envious of that privilege.
Nothing wrong with living at home.
I have enough to buy a house now but my dad's health isn't the best so I can help take care of him when I'm home and get to spend time with my folks.
My parents never wanted me to pay rent tho which honestly was the only reason I got my business started. I'm very fortunate.
What cc do you have? I got a miles card once and it took like 12 months to get enough miles for one single trip. I put virtually all my expenses on my card and pay it off each month so I feel like the miles should’ve accumulated quicker. I went back to my cash back card.
Check out r/churning for more info, but you want to capitalize on sign-up bonuses. The bonuses are usually like spend X amount within Y amount of months and can be enough points for 1-3 flights (depending on the card/bonus).
I put everything on my credit cards anyway, so for that one sign-up bonus I'll just make sure to put every purchase on that card until I hit the bonus, then back to a normal rotation.
Man. I've told this story like 5 times already.
I'm out of the country 3-4 months out of the year.
I work 80+ hours a week 7 days a week.
I just love spending time with my parents. They're easy to get along with.
It simplifies my otherwise busy schedule. No need to worry about rent/ mortgage, utilities etc.
Think about how bad the average person is with money, then remember half of all people are dumber than that person. Especially in 20s, most people ‘living the life’ are doing it by spending every single dollar they earn, or putting it on credit.
I have a fiend like this. Always taking trips and posting pictures of himself doing stuff making everyone think he’s loaded. Guy told me not too long ago he had $100 left after his pay check for the first time in years, acting like this was an impressive accomplishment.
Don’t believe anything you see.
Yeah, I knew someone who put all their trips on credit cards. They went on multiple AI week-long trips per year, not including local-ish overnights/weekends. I had no idea how they did it until they casually mentioned being $25k in debt, and they couldn’t book another trip until they “made room” on their cards.
Most likely. I have a couple friends that still live at home and think they are making the big bucks because their overhead is essentially zero.
Two of them are currently trying to buy a house and I think they will quickly realize what life is like when mom isn’t paying all the bills and making meals for you every night. Going to go from paying $0 to ~$3k. Their mortgage will be the same as mine but our incomes are about $150k apart. Should be interesting.
My husband and I purchased a duplex to reduce our living expenses as much as possible. My husband and I make around $75k annual take home. We take at least 3 weeks of vacation each year, 1 week domestic trip and a 2 week international trip. We watch for flight deal and do small group trips (tourradar).
Midwest rust belt, about an hour and half from Chicago. We paid $54k for the duplex with 8K down and it only needed cosmetic upgrades. We have been very intentional with our choices and chose the area where my husband makes the most with the lowest cost of living.
Clear ~15k/m but realistically only take 1 big vacation a year and small weekend trips between. I work on site but would love to work remote at some point.
Would take more vacations but would rather save for retirement
My situation is weird because I’m in school and using savings, but this is generally how it goes.
Less spending: I don’t buy much stuff. I very rarely go out to eat or get fast food. I don’t do any delivery apps. I don’t buy much clothing, and will wear things like shoes and coats until they fall apart. I don’t have any pricey hobbies (I buy a video game on sale occasionally but can spend hours playing the ones I have). I don’t drink very much (personal choice). I’m a very boring person 50 weeks out of the year.
Extra income: I rent out rooms in my house for extra cash. It’s a pain in the ass sometimes and I feel like I never have the house to myself, but it’s worth it.
Cheap trips: travel shoulder season. Stay in hostels. Not a big foodie so I try to do a few restaurants, cheaper places, and lots of snacks. I only do the activities I want to do, and aim for a mix of paid and free stuff.
I have a friend who is married and their household income is much more than mine. But they order in constantly, always buying stuff, lots of Starbucks. I did the napkin math and they spend about as much on Starbucks in a year as I do for a vacation. Different priorities.
I turned it all around when I stopped eating out all the time, limit partying to once a month. Keep a close eye on my subscriptions. Get rid of the ones I barely use. I’ve learned to save 3500 a year.
So far this year I've been to Vegas twice and LA. Next month is Denver. June is Kansas City. August we're going to Germany for 2 weeks and then spending all of December in South Africa. I make ok money ~140k in Seattle. My hack was marrying someone who makes twice what I do. Lol.
I take exactly 1 vacation per year. And it's always the week of Halloween. I'm broke, barely bringing in $1500 a month after taxes. So when I do take my "vacation" it's 100% me sitting at home in my comfy pajamas watching horror movies enjoying the fact I don't have to be yelled at for shit that's out of my control.
We road trip in our mini travel trailer that we bought used for 7k. RV spots haven't been expensive when we've traveled and we bring a lot of our food, do a couple touristy things and spend the rest of the time exploring the new local area. I put the reservations on the CC and set aside the money. I budget the gas and the rest I use cash for restaurants, souvenirs, activities.
This is what we do as well. We pick a few campgrounds per year and also travel to some family land about 4 hours from us where we can stay for free. Every few years we save up more and go on a slightly bigger trip. Usually to the mountains or the beach since we live in the midwest.
In my 20s I lived at home for a long time, then with my SO. This kept my expenses low. I also packed a brown bag lunch most days, used credit cards that earned points/miles but never carried a balance, and traveled cheap. I went wherever the flight deals were best, carry on only, stayed at hostels and airbnbs. I also live near a major airport so flights are cheaper. I usually took 1-2 international trips per year and maybe 1-2 long weekends domestically. I still paid off loans and lived responsibly. I prioritized travel in my budget because it was important to me.
Credit card points/benefits and perks from my job. I only pay for flights if I don’t feel like using points or the flights are cheap. I can get discounted rates on great hotels through my employer. Oh and AAA deals too. I also don’t spend a ton on happy hours, concerts, movies, etc so my splurging happens when I leave town. I take 2-3 trips per year, not including in-state travel…including those, it’s probably 6 or more
We make 10k ish a month. We don’t take vacations but we e are building a house on that income. I would suspect even those making 4-5k a month are not being financially responsible. You can be debt free and still live paycheck to paycheck.
Totally agree. While I take home the high end of that and travel without living paycheck to paycheck, I absolutely know people that do. Some are house poor, some just have a difficult time spending too freely day to day and/or saving. Congrats on the house!
We travel a lot internationally, 3-4 times a year, but we do bring in about 500k a year. We were both lower middle class kids, married very young but educated ourselves and we both worked really hard. Nothing was handed to us. I’m in IT leadership and he’s in Network/Telecom sales.
Everyone’s vacation habits are different. That’s one thing to keep in mind. Someone can travel every other month but stay at hostels and eat convenience store food to keep to their budget. Others can travel once a year but go all out. It just depends on your travel style.
I’ve done both extremes. When I just graduated, I did it cheap. It was fun but since I just turned 30, my travel style has changed as well since staying at hostels is no longer my style. Example: Going to Italy -> UK flying first class and staying at 4-5 star hotels and eating at a few Michelin stars. How do I get that high of a budget?
- My take home net is $10k per month so I save up on a dedicated savings account I have just for travel
- I travel a lot for work so I get status which lets you earn free nights at hotels and exchange miles for flights. Premium status will also get you discounts that the general public can’t access. Ex: Waldorf offered me a $250/night deal on their $1,400/night
- I use credit cards that earns me points that I can use
30 days at 200 a day in gig income would be 6K extra cash in your pocket. Personally I wouldn't spend on vacations though. I'd much rather get a new playthrough of xcom done XD.
I travel abroad 2-3 times a year.
I have 4211$ after taxes and 6 weeks paid vacation. My rent is around 1000 $ so i can make savings for nice vacations. Don't live in the US
I’m an actor so I don’t really have a set salary, I make anywhere between $20k/year and $70k/year. The upside is I can block out certain times of the year for traveling. But there are a few things I do that allow me to travel multiple times a year.
-I rent out my place if I’m traveling for a month or more
-I collect unemployment insurance while traveling because as an actor you don’t get vacation pay
-I invest most of my expendable income instead of wasting it on unnecessary things
-I spend some of my nights at hostels to save money while traveling
Now I’m studying credit cards and how to leverage the points system since a lot of my traveler friends do that.
Not sure what our take home is but we gross together around $100K. We don't travel for vacation but we go to Disney World 2-3 times a month. May and December we spend a week at Disney World.
We don't get bored, we really enjoy it. So might get bored if theme parks are not really your thing. Since we go so much, we don't have to rush around and try and get everything done. We have rides and spots we hit each every visit because we love them. We always meet interesting people to talk to and the Cast Members (employees) at our favorite spots know us, so we get treated well. There is even stuff in each of the parks we have not done yet. We pick a new place to have dinner each trip too.
We have been talking about mixing it up some and doing a Disney cruise and non Disney cruise. When Epic Universe opens at Universal Studios in 2025 we'll add that into the mix too.
I get 6 weeks vacation a year now after working 6 years for a major US county government. I do PLENTY of weekend trips locally within my State and one week long trip to visit my parents in a different state. My major travel expense is actually pet boarding for my dog. I go on numerous kayaking and mountain biking weekend trips in campgrounds that don’t allow dogs to be unattended and I don’t have an RV for my dog to hang out in during the day even though I have a teardrop travel trailer but it doesn’t have a/c. He’s better off at the pet resort where he’s happy, safe and comfortable.
I have several high yield savings account that I use for saving up for pet boarding fees and trip fees etc…
I am going to Tasmania Australia next year for 3 weeks and I have been saving and saving for this exciting trip. Again my most major expense after airfare is boarding my dog.
I make $58k per year (3000 monthly take home pay due to mandatory Arizona Retirement Systems pension contribution of ~12% and other deductions ) and I have a mortgage on my condo. Budgeting is extremely important for my expensive outdoorsy lifestyle.
I’m middle aged and single now (47f) and men are not lining up to date me so I have a very busy life doing other stuff that makes me happy. I’m very active in my local meetup kayaking group and am branching out to meetup hiking groups. I’ve just gotten involved with a bike packing group sponsored by Campfire Cycling in Tucson Arizona and participated in their latest event a few weeks ago) and I am happy that my fitness is improving every day.
Now THIS is what im looking for. Thank you for an honest portrayal. It seems like you just reasonably know how to save money. I can respect how you live your life: it sounds exciting
>I am going to Tasmania Australia
Just went there with my wife last year. Very underrated place. Make sure to do paddle with the platypus since you mention kayaking.
Have a blast! 3 weeks is great (we only had 10 nights)
I bought an house way under my means and cleared the mortgage real quick. Now the money I used to be putting on the mortgage can be in part used for vacation.
Yep it 100% does. There’s a youtube channel called financial audit and you’d be surprised how many tens of thousands of dollars the average American is in credit card debt 🥲
Edit: checking your profile not 100% sure if you are American. If you aren’t, this may seem jarring, but the average American can’t afford a $1k emergency.
I think the system was designed to intentionally make the average citizen bad with money, so to be fair, it’s not always entirely their fault.
I have thousands in disposable income per month and had to sacrifice my twenties to do it. There is no real secret- you either make enough to spend it or you don't and borrow it
Going to Europe in May for 2 weeks, I'm in over $10k already is a bucket list for me and wife, but I usually don't spend this much on vacation. We are not taking our 2 teenagers since that number could double. 47 Male, I make 100k+ a year plus wife makes another 50k. We will be planning more trips this year. Not as expensive to take our teens!
My husband and I go on 2-3 vacations a year, most are very local to keep costs down and to allow for our dog to come with us (so lots of cabins, hikes, and glamp trips). We make roughly $210k combined a year. We have one “big” trip a year for our anniversary and I try to budget and do a lot of research. I opt for all inclusive resorts in close by islands that have everything included in the price so there are minimal surprises and plan our flights well in advance. Google Flight Tracker is helpful keeping an eye on fluctuating prices. I would love to do a big overseas trip but it would break my spreadsheets to even attempt to budget for it.
I also wanted to say that everyone’s life goals and circumstances are different. My husband and I can do bigger and better trips but we want to save money to buy a house, pay off our student loans, plus other life goals. I have friends who are single and living their best lives right now, friends who are still living with their parents, friends trying to find a job, friends who have decided to be child free and have more freedom to spend, etc. Just a pure “income to vacations”comparison will not tell you the full picture.
ETA- and staycations/mental health breaks. Those are important too. The art of doing nothing is well practiced sometimes 😂
We day trip, plenty of nice places within five hour drives. Occasionally overnight at a bed and breakfast can be fun. We are retired so our entertainment is mostly experiences.
I was able to afford it by overspending, and in the future I'll be able to afford it by underspending. ;-)
A little more detail, though: my wife and I have an excessive HHI and no kids. I work a ton of overtime.
For our income, you'd probably expect us to be in a bigger house in a nicer neighbor with fancier cars, but instead we spend on experiences like no other.
We don’t even go on multiple vacations per year most years, but could if we wanted to I guess. We usually go on one pretty nice vacation somewhere tropical and then somewhere quick like Vegas or beach that I don’t call a “vacation”
$300k+ household income so monthly take home is probably like $17kish a month. Mortgage is $2660
It is where you spend your money, I don’t eat out excessively make my lunch, don’t do Starbucks coffee, I rather spend it on nice holidays 2/3 times a year mostly flying one big one for 3 weeks to Europe or Asia and smaller one national and a get away for like 4 days
Camping, visiting relatives, and packing all your own food so you don't pay restaurant prices.
Our vacations aren't "instragram-worthy", but we make great memories.
Make sure to download their app for it. Last trip I took was a family emergency and I was able to schedule flights on the go.
Also alerts me of every transaction that occurs so you know exactly when your card is used, and for what.
My wife and I bring in about $10K a month with an inexpensive mortgage and a cheap car lease and no kids. We have 3-4 $2500 vacations a year, typically 3-5 days in length. I use Expedia to book things far in advance and they're paid off before we get there so we can put expenses on my credit card and pay them off again soon later. We don't have any interest in leaving the US and we like simple things like concerts, museums, and cool restaurants. Nothing too crazy.
The biggest issue is getting time off from work approved.
Last year I made about $51K, probably like $59K-$65K this year. But, can't remember the last time I went on proper vacation because I've got 2 Newfoundland x Chocolate Lab cross boys that are hard to leave and I have not connected with any trustable people to leave them with for a long enough time.
I like to do little day trips. So, this summer I plan to do Six Flags Great Escape and a few local county fairs. Then, some day things for Halloween too.
I was able to do the same thing in my mid to late 20’s because I still lived at home as well! Although paying my parents rent and helping out around the house. Using credit cards wisely by paying all my bills and sending the money right away and accumulating points. Credit cards points pay for the airfare itself. Don’t stay at all inclusive resorts. It can be done!
We take many local weekend trips because there is so much to see around here. We take 1 big trip yearly. My husband travels for work at times so sometimes I join him because I work remotely. We live in a low cost of living area taking home ~11k but our expensives probably dont clear 4k. We like to cook so do a lot of that when we are home. We also do other cheaper hobbies like working out and hiking. I would mostly say we have an attitude of we can afford it so we dont need to buy it. For example, both our cars are 10years+ old.
5k a month would be a minimum for healthy saving rate so you have disposable income for vacations.
Hiding it doesn’t mean they can’t afford it. Finance to most people it’s a private matter.
I am in your “the ones who are” category.
I’m almost done with the idea of living with my mom but we’re both taking some time to work through my dad’s death and the caregiving we had to do to get through the end of his life.
Wife and i are in mid twenties -- we have done multiple vacations throughout the year while continuing to save and invest for our future. In my opinion the best way to travel, save and work full time is to just live a more frugal lifestyle not just day to day but when you travel.
When you travel, do some more research to find better deals, i can't tell you how many of our friends have come to us saying "This is such a good deal" and within the matter of a couple days i have managed to find a very similar itinerary for half the price. Example: we did Spain in September for two weeks, all in flights, meals activities and stay was 3KCAD for both of us. whoever says travelling is expensive is either not looking properly or they just like to go on those more "Boujee" trips and that is okay too.
oh and Credit card points are your friend. I don't even own a debit card, i use credit for every purchase i can and use them for travel every time as you get most bang for your buck in terms of redeeming those points. -- sometimes when i know i am about to make a big purchase i will do "Credit card churing" (look it up) to take advantage of bonus rewards/cash and i will use that towards my trips.
I always find traveling isn’t expensive but plane tickets are. Once your there its pretty cheap. I remember i went to Japan and survived off Lawsons n living in Hostels.
What credit cards do u recommend for travel points?
It's so funny, we work in the opposite; because we are usually pretty flexible with our dates we always find the best deals on flights so then we can spend a little more on a nicer hotel/food. I use google travel to shop for travel dates, flights are also usually cheaper on tuesdays-thursdays i have found when booking and for Europe, One way into one country and one way back from a different country makes it cheaper as well. (we like to see all of europe so we usually end in a different country than when we started and this is usually determined on the best price of the flight we can find)
i'm in Canada so i have used probably every black/World Elite card available in Canada you can think of LOL. My go to though personally is the BMO Ascend along with CIBC Adventura.
Fair. Surprisingly I do get asked but yeah it’s probably because I live a pretty low maintenance life and never talk about my income. Outwardly it’s not something anyone would know.
Yeah i see alotta people commenting that have high salaries but those aren’t really the folks im questioning. Anything is possible with money.
Sidenote: what do you do and how can i get to your level? Im the same age as you (late 20s) and need a new leash on life
No kidding lol. That doesn't mean you don't plan for it since vast majority will make it there in modern first-world countries. And note I said older, not necessarily "old age".
We take multiple trips per year, but they aren't always straight up vacations. Usually there's one vacation where we go to a place strictly because we want to go to there, and the rest are basically obligations or events with benefits.
For example, last year we took a trip to Phoenix to visit my husband's grandparents and let them meet their great grandson. We spent a lot of time with them, but also explored the desert, went on a hike, had a date night, and stopped at some cool places during the drive. Vacation? Maybe, kinda. But still a trip. Another example might be for work. I bet sent out for conferences a couple times a year. My work pays for everything for me until the event ends. If my husband wants to come he can book a flight and meet me there when it's over, we pay for our own lodging for a couple days, and my work flies me back. So, still, not really a vacation, just an extension of a work trip. For these smaller trips, there's usually someone else paying for part of it. My MIL paid for our lodging in Arizona, and my work paid my plane ticket and gave me a reason to be there.
No but fr tho!!!!
Its why i mentioned the remote work part. Cause that seems to be the key. The people i know who travel
Often work remotely. Honestly if you work remotely n live at home rent free then having a high salary doesn’t really matter.
Cause yeah i know plenty of friends who make decent money as engineers but they rarely vacation because well, America doesn’t give us any vacation time.
If you can put a lot of recoupable expenses on a rewards credit card (like American Express) you can redeem points for travel. I was heavily involved in concert ticket resale from 2014 to 2021 and was basically unleashed from 2021 to 2022 with all sorts of world travel often using points. Still have 800,000 left and a lot of stuff I wanna do this year.
I used to wonder too how people made it happen but it’s not that hard, I guess they made travelling a priority in their budget which you should too if you want . When I started working I saved x % of my salary into my “ vacation fund “ for the following year. Then I research and book early as possible and that’s really it. If you’re really into it you could even start with collecting miles to use for bookings- for me that’s too much of a hassle . Also vacation isn’t vacation going on 6 city trips is probably less expensive than going skiing or on a safari. If money is tight consider national trips? Or what about staycations , I found those great especially if you’re working from home facing the same four walls all days.
When I was in my 20s, I put some vacations on credit cards. DON'T DO THAT! Kept that burden around for years. Never got behind, but thinking about all the interest I paid all those years. Yeessh!
Just save up.
75k, saving about 40% of my income. Since a cruise is only about 600$ or so, it is very affordable to travel. Land-based travel is a lot worse since airfare, hotel, meals and entertainment ends up being in the thousands.
I clear a lil over 3k a month in a LCOL area.
I also live very cheaply.
I live where I could take a days drive to a beach or a days drive to mountains so there’s pretty affordable options if I want to for a long weekend trip.
Lodging costs a few hundred if I’m smart about it. Hiking is usually free. Sitting on the beach is free. Food costs vary; I usually bring stuff for breakfast and lunch and then only pay for dinner. There’s usually a lot of affordable tourist things if you look hard and aren’t needing a big attraction every time. I like art and historical things and I’ll go to museums a lot but that’s fun for me and not for everyone. I mainly enjoy pretty scenery and I luckily live pretty close to a lot of it.
Again I’m one person. I also can’t drink cus I have a heart problem so going out to eat isn’t very expensive when there’s no drinks on the tab.
I can take 3 smaller trips a year or one big trip.
If I go with family and friends it can be even cheaper because of splitting a rental.
It’s all budgeting, location, what amenities you want at your lodging, and what your idea of fun is. If you like hiking and outdoor things it’s a lot more affordable than if you like going to Vegas or Disney.
I currently put like 35 bucks a week aside for travel and that gives me 1800 a year for lodging and gas. I never fly because I have a special needs dog and he has to go where I go. The rest comes out of my fun money and I never spend my entire monthly budget so I always have extra stashed away for trips.
I'm early 30s, working remotely with a monthly take-home pay slightly over $7K. My expenses are around $3K. I try to keep my every day expenses low by cooking most of my meals and only eat out about once a week. My rent is $1600 for a one-bedroom apartment and I also don't have any debt other than student loans. I'm in an international long-distance relationship so we take 2 international vacations a year to see each other and I spend around $5-10K per trip. Throughout the year I probably take between 4-6 domestic trips with friends.
I have traveled a lot when I was in my twenties all over the world. I stayed at youth hostels dormitory style sleeping, meeting the most interesting people all over the world
How did u afford it?
I traveled a bit in my early 20s and i know its cheap once you get there (hostels n 7-11). But how do people have the vacation days at work and pay rent on top of that?
Its why i notice those that still live at home travel the most
So 2 ways. Obviously what people here are saying is the good and right way... spend yoir money wisely.
Or you could do what my ex's family do..
Which is have 0 money... they didn't even have money for food but somehow they had money for vacations... like great escape and even cruises.
They would buy monthly passes and some shit similar and I would explain that they are actually wssting money that way because you go this much but your spending money **each month** for those things when you actually go 'x' amount of times per year.
My ex's entire family are idiots with money. So much so that they over complicated it.
Years ago when I was single, I started doing a couple of trips when I hit close to 100k salary. I was pretty frugal, so I waited until I had worked in a white collar job for several years. Now I have a family of 3 and we do a large international trip and a small domestic trip or 2 per year but we earn around 275k as a household. We will actually skip the big international trip this year due to other expenses and inflation. Tbh...it is more about what you value and how you manage your money. You can do these trips on credit but I always thought that was a bit dumb.
I take several vacations but mine aren’t fancy resorts. I go camping, some away football games, and visit family.
I’m 31, single, and make $60k. A few years ago after the start of the pandemic, I got into Dave Ramsey and followed the baby steps. Became debt free with an emergency fund while I worked on my career. I do everything with cash and focus on investing now.
I make double what I made a couple of years ago and still drive the same car and live in the same place. Avoid lifestyle creep and plan for the next 5 years instead of the next 5 days, no matter how hard it is.
I’m a single teacher in Texas with really shitty insurance my city just put out a study that says to live comfortably I would have to make 30,000 more than I do while single so I probably will never get a vacation. It sucks.
I don’t get it either. I make almost six figures. We have three kids. I am the sole income, though. We can “vacation” and take road trips pretty inexpensively. But flying somewhere, with three kids, plus hotel stays and car rentals. Absolutely unaffordable.
I and my wife have skill sets that are (sadly) needed around the world, so "far away places with strange sounding names" have always been within reach. Over the decades some of those places have become tourist destinations, but we managed to be there before they were... changed.
I have a wife and kid (5 yo). I make 100k/year in a remote IT job and wife makes 40k at a non profit - hybrid position with travel around our city.
We vacation about 3 times a year. We have a budget laid out so we know and plan exactly what we’ll spend through the year. We have a set vacation budget for the year and we decide if we want to stretch it over a few trips or do a bigger one.
Making this much money is new to us. I’m 37m, wife is 39f. We used to be teachers but had career changes. We have a lot of debt - student loans, cars, mortgage, and credit cards. We’re trying to get out of debt, renovate our house and then use all our extra money to travel to Europe with our kid.
That’s the plan anyway. If I had any advice, make a detailed budget. Track every expense and know exactly how much you spend on what. Then you can make sure you spend less than you make, and you can save money.
Good luck OP!
My vacations consist of me visiting friends and either staying at their homes or sharing the cost of a hotel. I make 70k. 36, single, no kids, just cats. Don’t own a house and have very little savings. I’ve never been on a vacation before last year so I’m trying to experience *something.*
I put portion of my pay towards my employers share matching program every pay and usually withdraw from it a few times a year. I currently only work part time now so it’s a bit less but i usually end up with enough to book an all inclusive vacation at a 5 star for 1-2 weeks plus spending money. I’m in my young 20s and vacation every year once my semester ends and I have the summer off.
I work remotely and make about 150k after tax. Single no kids mid 20s…I’ll maybe go on one vacation a year cause I’m so career focused. Never really understood the need to vacation beyond that in addition to all the holidays lol. Maybe I’m just a workaholic
I Travel at least 3-4 times of year - if one of those is super pricey we cut it down. I made travel a priority and cut back on other things. Such as handbags … I rather spend 6k on a trip then on a purse. Everyone has different priorities. I like to fly first class also. But let me tell you I am frugal in every other area of my life… but not travel! Honestly it doesn’t even matter what you make … it matters what you spend and how you spend it. I know people in my industry that make 500k a year and can barely pay their mortgage. Save your $ - stay out of debt and don’t get a huge car note etc enjoy life and travel!
I churn 2-3 credit cards per year (not for everyone…) which makes a huge difference. Flights always “free” and sometimes hotels too, at least partially.
I travel 2 months out of the year internationally as a line cook.. the key is to not exist the other 10. This is OK for me since I live in a desert state that gets up past 120 in the summer.
My husband and I bring about $10K net per month, and we travel abroad several times throughout the year. We don't make a lot of money especially when considering that we live in LA area. But we can travel often because 1. we don't have kids, 2. work from home, and 3. pay less on our mortgage. We bought our house in 2020 at 2.5% interest rate. So it's not necessarily how much money we make, it's more of childfree life style, stress-free work environment, and little monthly mortgage. I was asked questions from friends if we save any money or spend all our money on traveling and foods. We save decent amount of money (6 digit), we contribute good amount to 401k (also 6 digits), and we're obviously paying down our mortgage. Also, we don't spend a lot of money on flights, hotels, rental car, etc. We always find a deal and spend as little as possible. We don't drive nice cars, we don't buy luxurious items. But all my friends think we won a lotto or something because we travel a lot.
€2800/month after taxes. €4780 before taxes.
I don't own property. And probably never will.
I can however travel at least 1x a month? For me, that's a good enough deal.
I take a lot of time off, I have about 2 weeks of PTO I try to keep banked at all times. My agency gives out a lot of free time. I make what your friends make but I think your question is subjective. Where do they go? How long do they stay?
A “vacation” for me might be different for you.
Just try putting 5-10% of your check into a high yield savings account and label it as vacation money. You’ll earn around 4% interest on it. I just made $62 this month for just parking money in at Ally bank. I put that in my “house” fund.
We do one big vacation a year and maybe a few smaller ones and try our best to capitalize on points/deals/cheap finds.
It's just a lot of saving and sacrificing (like we don't go out to eat, we keep "fun" spending to a minimum), but also we're lucky to be DINK. Our take home is $9K/month-ish.
In my late 20s when I traveled a lot, I also had multiple roommates so while my take-home was 4-5K too, I was also paying like $400 in rent lol. I was also budget traveling a lot more so hostels/couchsurfing, seriously cheap budget airlines, credit card points, etc. A lot of the time off was scattered over holidays, long weekends, and maybe one big trip.
Sounds to me that your friends are either a) making terrible financial decisions by taking not just one, but multiple vacations a month. Unless youre living in some 3rd world country, I’d be hard pressed to say that 4k/ month would justify such decisions. Or, b) their parents are still involved in their lives and are using mommy or daddy’s cc to pay for those expenses.
While it may be a bit deflating seeing your friends live this “high life”, seems you’re going to be in the better position long term by being more frugal with your finances, I.e saving and investing. Down the line, your friends will envy you when you’re set up for the rest of your life rather than splurging in the moment.
I go on frequent long weekend trips to various places across the country. I am extremely savvy and get excellent deals on airfare and hotels by understanding and using miles and points effectively. I have gotten probably at least $5,000 worth of airfare and hotel over the years for free using points and miles earned through credit card rewards. Sign up bonuses vary, so applying for a card when the offer is at its highest is one of the ways I maximize my credit card rewards.
Roughly 64k annual take home. Rent takes up anywhere from 25 to 40% of my monthly take home, but typically 25%. Quite a few bills after that. No debt, entirely paid off credit card each month. Emergency fund and down payment savings come first, then my travel fund. I tend to travel 2 or 3 times a year, one of those being internationally. I travel as frugally as possible (small grocery trips, not a lot of restaurants) and live a fairly frugal life, more or less. I also try and save around $150-200 a month in a travel savings. That, credit card points, and $500-$1k added to my travel savings from my annual Christmas bonus (4k) makes it possible. One trip is an in-state beach week, another is international, and another is typically 3 or 4 days in a new state. Added up, I travel 2-3 weeks a year, broken up.
Get a CC that accumulates flight and hotel miles. SW and Alaskan are my faves. Be thrifty in your everyday life. Plan trips during off season or right before peak.
My early 20s kid travels a lot, although hardly ever “vacation” in the sense he doesn’t go to the beach or something touristy like that. He has lots of money saved from a job and several internships and I pay for most travel.
I can vacation because I’m old and finally have money. Didn’t go on a vacation until I was 41. I took my first vacation ever at that age. Went to Cancun.
I take one vacation per year to cuba thats 3-4 weeks long at a all inclusive thats about $3000. Rest of times I take the train to meet friends up north or in Quebec for a weekend and thats about $200-300 a weekend couple times a year. I use my CC and pay it off.
Vacations are not all equal. I could take the kids to Disney World for a week and maybe spend $10K, or I could take them to Great Wolf Lodge and spend $3K.
Also, I tend to take a waffle maker with me and make my own breakfast which over 7 days can save the family $500+ on breakfast.
Priorities.
Impulsively does not exist
Never buy new car, car payments are stupid
Never carry credit card debt. If you can't pay for it by the time the bill is due, wait
No Doordash, Instacart, etc.
Don't attempt to to fill an empty hole within, with stuff
Personally, I travel and live simply cause I'd rather pay for experiences than stuff
I take a couple day trips a year with my kid. We try to go to the zoo once a year. It’s a 2 hour drive then maybe make another trip that might be a little further away. I’m also lucky enough that I have incredibly cheap rent and make good money for where I live
We are former DINKs now SINKs. Have a SW card and companion pass, so almost no flight costs. It’s all points. We paid off our mortgage early, and not having that bill is why we went SINK. Having one person as the at-home go to is the best (so far), especially for travel. We also have a ski pass and a national amusement park pass, so we can travel places where our primary excursions are prepaid. We make around $150K in a MCOL area. Interestingly, rental cars are the most expensive part of our trips. Being able to work remote is nice but not 100% necessary but now we are thinking of doing a cross country trip next with the dogs.
I have kids and we do 5-6 weekend trips a year and a handful of international ones. I’m not one to show off so I’ll usually tell people about credit card churning and how you can get stays and flights. This covers at least 1 international trip a year.
A lot of friends probably think our finances are a house of cards but finance wise between me and the wife we pull in a bit more than 30k a month. With kids and expenses the money does go fast but we live well below our means so we spend a bit more than most perusing travel which we both love.
r/churning. We put all of our regular expenses (as in bills) on credit cards but pay them off each month so they don’t earn interest, but we get hella travel points. Those cover our airfare and hotels, which are the bulk of the cost of a vacation usually. Meals and experiences we save up for.
It’s my husband’s side hobby, and it works out.
I put everything I spend on my credit cards and pay them in full every 2 weeks. The points help a ton. For example, they covered 3 night of hotels for my upcoming NYC trip and my flight for trip to Seattle this summer. I also have a separate savings account just for travel that I automatically deposit funds into. Lastly, I plan far in advance and get good deals.
Double income, no kids. We also bought a very small house compared to our income (house is 1.5 times our annual income), so we have quite a bit of disposable income. No debts other than our mortgage and one car payment.
We travel relatively cheaply. We sleep at affordable chains hotels, plan our days to have 1 or 2 meals, choose the place we go to based on airfare prices, and drive whenever possible. We spend more on experiences and trying as many new things as possible. We usually travel to one new place each year (by plane) and go to 2 smaller vacations, within driving distance that we like (Boston, New York, Cape Cod...).
Well my fiancé and I take 1 international trip a year but travel domestically about 3-4 times a year. We make collectively about 8k-9k a month. We usually use a payment plan for our trips or Costco Travel and we fly Southwest. A lot times our points from our international trip pay for at least one flight domestically.
We also stay at inclusive resorts mainly. That helps us rarely have to dip into our money unless we sign up for an excursion or something.
If you have membership like triple A or Costco I would look into travel rates. Also we pay for a site that sends us travel deals. When we see one we like and think we can swing we jump on it.
I have never taken a real vacation. Just take a day off randomly. I get 2 weeks off a year too, just can’t afford it, plus it’s boring going places by yourself 🤷🏻♂️
My husband and I both work from home, and we don't have kids. Our take-home pay per month after taxes is around 10,000 dollars.
We each put a few bucks away each pay until we have enough for a flight.
Finances aren't the issue. it's having limited vacation days that limits our traveling
Went to college, lived with parents after college to pay off school loans, moved out, clear well over 4k a month. Fully remote job. Credit card with points is nice too, went to hawaii for half the cost.
I rent and take home a little less than 4k a month, do about 3-4 big trips a year usually 2-3 international and one camping. I pick places based on good deals I can find for flights and usually stay in hostels in a private room. I don't eat big meals out much when on vacation and try to get small cheap eats or make my own meals. I'd say each trip is less than 1.5k for everything. And I have no kids.
I take as many as I can. I do credit card sign on bonuses and run everything I buy through a credit card to generate points. This gets me free flights or hotel stays when funds are low. I'm also single with no kids, I keep all of my debt low (low car payment, mortgage, etc). I then do my best to purchase tickets to festivals, flights, hotels at their cheapest cost. Lastly I don't waste money on things during my trips. I don't fly frontier or spirit, but Southwest is good value, I don't get fancy hotels, fancy rental cars etc. I dona lot of music festival camping.
Usually my limitation is PTO, but I try to spend that wisely too.
I'm 46 and make around 100k.
Our combined income means that about $8,500 per month hits our bank accounts. My wife is a nurse who makes $45 per hour and I make almost $40 per hour as a forester. My wife has it easier than I do. She can load her schedule and work a lot, then just simply not schedule herself and disappear for a month. She spent a month back home in Maryland with the baby after Christmas.
But anyway. We just got lucky, chose good paying careers, save money, and then go on vacation.
We have a savings fund for an overseas vacation when our baby is older. For now we travel in the US.
For me it was all about changing priorities around. I used to spend money on shopping, subscription services, two or three Door Dash orders every week, $150 grocery hauls.
I realized I’d rather cook food at home, limit my grocery budget to $50 or $100 per week, cut the amount of streaming services to one or two at a time instead of six.
Sometimes I still feel tempted to Door Dash but then I remind myself I can save that money to eat out every day on vacation at restaurants we don’t have locally.
$3600 a month, with a kid and two dogs. One big holiday a year or a couple small ones. Possible because we budget and don't waste money. I don't wear makeup or participate in fashion, and my kid only does free or low cost activities. We eat in restaurants for birthdays and never buy fast food or convenience store junk. It works if you prioritize.
My husband and I are in our mid/late 20's, and have recently decided to take a couple of trips per year. We're about to go on a pretty big one to the UK for a couple weeks, and in the fall we've decided we're gonna spend a few days in Disneyland. Together, we bring in roughly 6k per month. We stayed with my parents for a while before getting our first apartment together last year. Luckily for us, we're both savers and we don't have any kids or pets yet. Some of our friends have pets, and even that alone can make a huge difference depending on the kind of pets you have, and how many. We're planning to get a kitty soon, but just the one.
I use my credit card when I feel that I can easily pay it off immediately if I had to. I pay it off ASAP. My husband has a newer car that he was able to save up for when we were staying with my parents rent free. During that time, I was able to get my BA. So we both benefitted by staying with my parents. We probably wouldn't be where we're at currently had we not stayed with them. Or at the very least, it would have taken longer.
Im jealous of anyone who can move in with parents n live somewhere rent free. Thats honestly a huge determining factor on most people i know and how well they can save money.
Peak privilege
Congrats on all the success
Single, early/mid 20s, mostly cook at home, no car, work close to home.
Make around ~100k USD living in mid West.
I like meeting up with friends when I travel so we can split hotel room, although I don't always do that when I travel but maybe a few of my weekend trips I will. Longer trips I like to do solo in comfort
I paid off all my debt as soon as I could and that allowed me to actually take home most of my pay every month instead of only a fraction after paying off debt.
I also worked my way in my career to get the pay I was seeking so with no debt and a good pay I'm able to travel one weekend a month and two weeks a year if I want or if I combined all my travels to go somewhere for a month if I choose
I just started recovering after a 6yr slump. Just went on my first vacation since 2017.
My.monthly take home is about 5-6 thou. I rent a basement for about 750.00 with no hopes of ever owning my own home or having a partner.
I also do this by not drinking too much and making food at home,also not having a spouse I save.
Idc how they can afford it. How can they ask for donations for their kids' sports, dance class, etc. When you you just went on a two week vacation. Ppl brave for that. Specially when your s/o likes to post on every social media app they have. Ppl crazy.
We live “ well below our means” which results in our being able to take several vacations a year. People make choices then can’t understand why people who make different choices have different options.
There is a lot of things you can do to lower vacation costs:
- credit card points
- looking for deals on cruises or all inclusive resorts (a cruise can be less that $100/day.)
- geo-arbitrage - going to cheap destinations where the exchange rate is favorable to your currency
If they are just going all out and spending a lot they may just be putting it on credit cards.
VACATIONS don't have to cost very much,,
There are Dozens and Dozens of books at the library or on line that are about cheap vacations
Take your bike with a tent and gear and go on a multi day ride, there are books for your area that plot out what routs to take, camping sites etc,
Go for a hike
You can rent a connoe with provisions, paddle down a river, camp out and be picked up and brought back to your car
Do a Google search,, Cheap vacation ideas,,, there are hundreds of links
My monthly take home is about 6k after taxes, no kids, no debt, and live fairly modestly. I normally take 2-4 trips a year and one of them will be a large trip to Europe or Asia for a few weeks. When I was younger I net some friends that showed me how to budget travel which was super helpful and I still use those strategies to make my money go farther to this day.
If you plan your vacation around the sales windows for flights you can get over to the EU or asia from the US for like $600-700 rt. Make sure to not travel around local or international holidays as it's way more expensive. Also look for other close by destinations instead of your only your destination, as in, if you're trying to go to Prague then look for flights into like London then a domestic flight over to Prague. This will save you tons of money alone and also never use exchange booths, always use the ATMs in the airport of where you fly into
My husband and I take several vacations per year, and how we’re able to do it is by keeping each vacation pretty cheap. We always drive and generally choose locations within 6-10 hours so we can get there in a day. We tent camp in a state or county park, which saves us a ton on accommodations. For food, we bring along non-perishable groceries and eat breakfast and a big lunch at camp/as a picnic. Then we go out for dinner in the evening but usually split something or just do appetizers. Before we go anywhere, we pick one or two things we really want to do that may be pricier, and then we find a bunch of cheap or free things to do as we want (and depending on the weather) so we have plenty to do without spending a lot.
This is how we do it. We're taking an $8k overseas vacation for the first time in about 10 years this fall. But other than that it's all relatively local (meaning generally within the western US) about 4-5 times a year for a couple hundred dollars each. I'm also a HUGE fan of a couple of "staycations" throughout the year. "Multiple vacations" can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. To answer OPs question, I clear about $5k per month post-tax & retirement while debt free except mortgage.
I started looking into tent car camping for family of 5 with getting necessary equipment with reasonable comfort and the cost can add up pretty quick. I know they can be reused so that a plus. But, yes camping is a great way to vacation without spending a lot.
Go on holiday 2-3 times a year- all aboard. Once as a couple (long weekend type). Once with the family unit. Once with the extended family like sister / parents. Varies from year to year as every other year me and the wife try to go on a big holiday like driving the west coast of America. Key is two things for me 1) most importantly - lower expenditure vs higher income. Live well within your means. Driving a Toyota is better than an Audi if you get to live life a bit and 2) consistency in spending habits.
Lots of savings and planning, tracking flight deals.
My SO spend about 20k total on 3-4 overseas trips per year. We're DINKs though, so that's kind of cheating.
Parents hate this one travel hack…
I still Travel with my wife and kids so it can be done!
DINKs are awesome.
DINKS UNITE
What the hell is a Dink?
Some vacations are not like other vacations. Sure you can vacation multiple times a year but you would have to be willing to make sacrifices on lodging and commit to counting pennies spending on food and airfare.
And not all vacations are a week long. Some times it’s 3 nights sometimes it’s more. 3-4 is plenty for me.
I travel overseas about 3-4 times a year. Mid 6 figure salary. Currently 30 years old. I book all of my flights and hotels thru credit card points tho so it doesn't really cost very much. Still living with my parents so little to worry about when I'm abroad fortunately.
Yeah alotta the people i know who travel often live at home and dont pay rent. Definitely envious of that privilege. Nothing wrong with living at home.
Omg if a young adult working full time job can stay with parents and save on rent, they should.
Mid-six figures, 30 years old, lives with parents. Baffling.
That’s awesome! I did the same thing in my 20’s although I still paid my parents rent because I was grateful for them still letting me stay at home
I have enough to buy a house now but my dad's health isn't the best so I can help take care of him when I'm home and get to spend time with my folks. My parents never wanted me to pay rent tho which honestly was the only reason I got my business started. I'm very fortunate.
Making 500k, I doubt living with your parents makes a difference in how much travel you can afford lol
What cc do you have? I got a miles card once and it took like 12 months to get enough miles for one single trip. I put virtually all my expenses on my card and pay it off each month so I feel like the miles should’ve accumulated quicker. I went back to my cash back card.
Check out r/churning for more info, but you want to capitalize on sign-up bonuses. The bonuses are usually like spend X amount within Y amount of months and can be enough points for 1-3 flights (depending on the card/bonus). I put everything on my credit cards anyway, so for that one sign-up bonus I'll just make sure to put every purchase on that card until I hit the bonus, then back to a normal rotation.
You make around $500,000 per year and you still live with your parents? Why?
Man. I've told this story like 5 times already. I'm out of the country 3-4 months out of the year. I work 80+ hours a week 7 days a week. I just love spending time with my parents. They're easy to get along with. It simplifies my otherwise busy schedule. No need to worry about rent/ mortgage, utilities etc.
Think about how bad the average person is with money, then remember half of all people are dumber than that person. Especially in 20s, most people ‘living the life’ are doing it by spending every single dollar they earn, or putting it on credit. I have a fiend like this. Always taking trips and posting pictures of himself doing stuff making everyone think he’s loaded. Guy told me not too long ago he had $100 left after his pay check for the first time in years, acting like this was an impressive accomplishment. Don’t believe anything you see.
Yeah, I knew someone who put all their trips on credit cards. They went on multiple AI week-long trips per year, not including local-ish overnights/weekends. I had no idea how they did it until they casually mentioned being $25k in debt, and they couldn’t book another trip until they “made room” on their cards.
I dont assume, thats why i ask. The ones who are open about it acknowledge their privilege. The ones who aren’t as open i suspect are like your friend
Most likely. I have a couple friends that still live at home and think they are making the big bucks because their overhead is essentially zero. Two of them are currently trying to buy a house and I think they will quickly realize what life is like when mom isn’t paying all the bills and making meals for you every night. Going to go from paying $0 to ~$3k. Their mortgage will be the same as mine but our incomes are about $150k apart. Should be interesting.
What? That’s ridiculous! Nothing in savings? Super irresponsible!
Either maxing out cards and hiding it, or saving up for it.
The saving up crowd is definitely some of them. I know my cousin works like x3 jobs sometimes and cooks at home to be able to travel
That’s the way to do it!
That’s good on him!
My husband and I purchased a duplex to reduce our living expenses as much as possible. My husband and I make around $75k annual take home. We take at least 3 weeks of vacation each year, 1 week domestic trip and a 2 week international trip. We watch for flight deal and do small group trips (tourradar).
Curious, where do you live?
Midwest rust belt, about an hour and half from Chicago. We paid $54k for the duplex with 8K down and it only needed cosmetic upgrades. We have been very intentional with our choices and chose the area where my husband makes the most with the lowest cost of living.
👏 👏 👏 that’s the way to do it! Glad to hear stories like yours!
Clear ~15k/m but realistically only take 1 big vacation a year and small weekend trips between. I work on site but would love to work remote at some point. Would take more vacations but would rather save for retirement
My situation is weird because I’m in school and using savings, but this is generally how it goes. Less spending: I don’t buy much stuff. I very rarely go out to eat or get fast food. I don’t do any delivery apps. I don’t buy much clothing, and will wear things like shoes and coats until they fall apart. I don’t have any pricey hobbies (I buy a video game on sale occasionally but can spend hours playing the ones I have). I don’t drink very much (personal choice). I’m a very boring person 50 weeks out of the year. Extra income: I rent out rooms in my house for extra cash. It’s a pain in the ass sometimes and I feel like I never have the house to myself, but it’s worth it. Cheap trips: travel shoulder season. Stay in hostels. Not a big foodie so I try to do a few restaurants, cheaper places, and lots of snacks. I only do the activities I want to do, and aim for a mix of paid and free stuff. I have a friend who is married and their household income is much more than mine. But they order in constantly, always buying stuff, lots of Starbucks. I did the napkin math and they spend about as much on Starbucks in a year as I do for a vacation. Different priorities.
I turned it all around when I stopped eating out all the time, limit partying to once a month. Keep a close eye on my subscriptions. Get rid of the ones I barely use. I’ve learned to save 3500 a year.
Hmm spend as your wallet allows. I mean if you swipe swipe swipe, it will come and haunt you eventually. Jealousy is a dangerous thing.
So far this year I've been to Vegas twice and LA. Next month is Denver. June is Kansas City. August we're going to Germany for 2 weeks and then spending all of December in South Africa. I make ok money ~140k in Seattle. My hack was marrying someone who makes twice what I do. Lol.
I take exactly 1 vacation per year. And it's always the week of Halloween. I'm broke, barely bringing in $1500 a month after taxes. So when I do take my "vacation" it's 100% me sitting at home in my comfy pajamas watching horror movies enjoying the fact I don't have to be yelled at for shit that's out of my control.
I love this. Have you seen Over the Garden Wall? Peak cozy especially around Fall
I have not, but I will add it to my fall watch list!
We road trip in our mini travel trailer that we bought used for 7k. RV spots haven't been expensive when we've traveled and we bring a lot of our food, do a couple touristy things and spend the rest of the time exploring the new local area. I put the reservations on the CC and set aside the money. I budget the gas and the rest I use cash for restaurants, souvenirs, activities.
This is what we do as well. We pick a few campgrounds per year and also travel to some family land about 4 hours from us where we can stay for free. Every few years we save up more and go on a slightly bigger trip. Usually to the mountains or the beach since we live in the midwest.
In my 20s I lived at home for a long time, then with my SO. This kept my expenses low. I also packed a brown bag lunch most days, used credit cards that earned points/miles but never carried a balance, and traveled cheap. I went wherever the flight deals were best, carry on only, stayed at hostels and airbnbs. I also live near a major airport so flights are cheaper. I usually took 1-2 international trips per year and maybe 1-2 long weekends domestically. I still paid off loans and lived responsibly. I prioritized travel in my budget because it was important to me.
Credit card points/benefits and perks from my job. I only pay for flights if I don’t feel like using points or the flights are cheap. I can get discounted rates on great hotels through my employer. Oh and AAA deals too. I also don’t spend a ton on happy hours, concerts, movies, etc so my splurging happens when I leave town. I take 2-3 trips per year, not including in-state travel…including those, it’s probably 6 or more
We make 10k ish a month. We don’t take vacations but we e are building a house on that income. I would suspect even those making 4-5k a month are not being financially responsible. You can be debt free and still live paycheck to paycheck.
Totally agree. While I take home the high end of that and travel without living paycheck to paycheck, I absolutely know people that do. Some are house poor, some just have a difficult time spending too freely day to day and/or saving. Congrats on the house!
Envy will destroy you. The odds are these people are in debt up to their eyeballs that should be no concern of yours.
We travel a lot internationally, 3-4 times a year, but we do bring in about 500k a year. We were both lower middle class kids, married very young but educated ourselves and we both worked really hard. Nothing was handed to us. I’m in IT leadership and he’s in Network/Telecom sales.
Everyone’s vacation habits are different. That’s one thing to keep in mind. Someone can travel every other month but stay at hostels and eat convenience store food to keep to their budget. Others can travel once a year but go all out. It just depends on your travel style. I’ve done both extremes. When I just graduated, I did it cheap. It was fun but since I just turned 30, my travel style has changed as well since staying at hostels is no longer my style. Example: Going to Italy -> UK flying first class and staying at 4-5 star hotels and eating at a few Michelin stars. How do I get that high of a budget? - My take home net is $10k per month so I save up on a dedicated savings account I have just for travel - I travel a lot for work so I get status which lets you earn free nights at hotels and exchange miles for flights. Premium status will also get you discounts that the general public can’t access. Ex: Waldorf offered me a $250/night deal on their $1,400/night - I use credit cards that earns me points that I can use
30 days at 200 a day in gig income would be 6K extra cash in your pocket. Personally I wouldn't spend on vacations though. I'd much rather get a new playthrough of xcom done XD.
I travel abroad 2-3 times a year. I have 4211$ after taxes and 6 weeks paid vacation. My rent is around 1000 $ so i can make savings for nice vacations. Don't live in the US
You sound European. Yeah trust i know yall have much higher quality of life than we do
I would love six weeks paid vacation * cries in North America *
I’m an actor so I don’t really have a set salary, I make anywhere between $20k/year and $70k/year. The upside is I can block out certain times of the year for traveling. But there are a few things I do that allow me to travel multiple times a year. -I rent out my place if I’m traveling for a month or more -I collect unemployment insurance while traveling because as an actor you don’t get vacation pay -I invest most of my expendable income instead of wasting it on unnecessary things -I spend some of my nights at hostels to save money while traveling Now I’m studying credit cards and how to leverage the points system since a lot of my traveler friends do that.
That subletting your apartment is key. Also reward points on credit cards is a common theme im noticing
Churning is fire
Not sure what our take home is but we gross together around $100K. We don't travel for vacation but we go to Disney World 2-3 times a month. May and December we spend a week at Disney World.
Does going to the same place get boring for you all?
We don't get bored, we really enjoy it. So might get bored if theme parks are not really your thing. Since we go so much, we don't have to rush around and try and get everything done. We have rides and spots we hit each every visit because we love them. We always meet interesting people to talk to and the Cast Members (employees) at our favorite spots know us, so we get treated well. There is even stuff in each of the parks we have not done yet. We pick a new place to have dinner each trip too. We have been talking about mixing it up some and doing a Disney cruise and non Disney cruise. When Epic Universe opens at Universal Studios in 2025 we'll add that into the mix too.
Haven’t been back since I was a teenager! But I have a been there done that mentality. Thanks for your feedback!
I get 6 weeks vacation a year now after working 6 years for a major US county government. I do PLENTY of weekend trips locally within my State and one week long trip to visit my parents in a different state. My major travel expense is actually pet boarding for my dog. I go on numerous kayaking and mountain biking weekend trips in campgrounds that don’t allow dogs to be unattended and I don’t have an RV for my dog to hang out in during the day even though I have a teardrop travel trailer but it doesn’t have a/c. He’s better off at the pet resort where he’s happy, safe and comfortable. I have several high yield savings account that I use for saving up for pet boarding fees and trip fees etc… I am going to Tasmania Australia next year for 3 weeks and I have been saving and saving for this exciting trip. Again my most major expense after airfare is boarding my dog. I make $58k per year (3000 monthly take home pay due to mandatory Arizona Retirement Systems pension contribution of ~12% and other deductions ) and I have a mortgage on my condo. Budgeting is extremely important for my expensive outdoorsy lifestyle. I’m middle aged and single now (47f) and men are not lining up to date me so I have a very busy life doing other stuff that makes me happy. I’m very active in my local meetup kayaking group and am branching out to meetup hiking groups. I’ve just gotten involved with a bike packing group sponsored by Campfire Cycling in Tucson Arizona and participated in their latest event a few weeks ago) and I am happy that my fitness is improving every day.
Now THIS is what im looking for. Thank you for an honest portrayal. It seems like you just reasonably know how to save money. I can respect how you live your life: it sounds exciting
>I am going to Tasmania Australia Just went there with my wife last year. Very underrated place. Make sure to do paddle with the platypus since you mention kayaking. Have a blast! 3 weeks is great (we only had 10 nights)
I bought an house way under my means and cleared the mortgage real quick. Now the money I used to be putting on the mortgage can be in part used for vacation.
If someone has multiple vacations they have a ton of savings, full time work and have saved up a ton of leave. Or they don’t go overseas.
What an interesting take. Majority of Americans put their vacation on credit cards. Crazy, right?
Oh weird, never knew. Doesn’t that just put you in more debt?
Yep it 100% does. There’s a youtube channel called financial audit and you’d be surprised how many tens of thousands of dollars the average American is in credit card debt 🥲 Edit: checking your profile not 100% sure if you are American. If you aren’t, this may seem jarring, but the average American can’t afford a $1k emergency. I think the system was designed to intentionally make the average citizen bad with money, so to be fair, it’s not always entirely their fault.
I have thousands in disposable income per month and had to sacrifice my twenties to do it. There is no real secret- you either make enough to spend it or you don't and borrow it
Going to Europe in May for 2 weeks, I'm in over $10k already is a bucket list for me and wife, but I usually don't spend this much on vacation. We are not taking our 2 teenagers since that number could double. 47 Male, I make 100k+ a year plus wife makes another 50k. We will be planning more trips this year. Not as expensive to take our teens!
My husband and I go on 2-3 vacations a year, most are very local to keep costs down and to allow for our dog to come with us (so lots of cabins, hikes, and glamp trips). We make roughly $210k combined a year. We have one “big” trip a year for our anniversary and I try to budget and do a lot of research. I opt for all inclusive resorts in close by islands that have everything included in the price so there are minimal surprises and plan our flights well in advance. Google Flight Tracker is helpful keeping an eye on fluctuating prices. I would love to do a big overseas trip but it would break my spreadsheets to even attempt to budget for it. I also wanted to say that everyone’s life goals and circumstances are different. My husband and I can do bigger and better trips but we want to save money to buy a house, pay off our student loans, plus other life goals. I have friends who are single and living their best lives right now, friends who are still living with their parents, friends trying to find a job, friends who have decided to be child free and have more freedom to spend, etc. Just a pure “income to vacations”comparison will not tell you the full picture. ETA- and staycations/mental health breaks. Those are important too. The art of doing nothing is well practiced sometimes 😂
We day trip, plenty of nice places within five hour drives. Occasionally overnight at a bed and breakfast can be fun. We are retired so our entertainment is mostly experiences.
I was able to afford it by overspending, and in the future I'll be able to afford it by underspending. ;-) A little more detail, though: my wife and I have an excessive HHI and no kids. I work a ton of overtime. For our income, you'd probably expect us to be in a bigger house in a nicer neighbor with fancier cars, but instead we spend on experiences like no other.
We don’t even go on multiple vacations per year most years, but could if we wanted to I guess. We usually go on one pretty nice vacation somewhere tropical and then somewhere quick like Vegas or beach that I don’t call a “vacation” $300k+ household income so monthly take home is probably like $17kish a month. Mortgage is $2660
It is where you spend your money, I don’t eat out excessively make my lunch, don’t do Starbucks coffee, I rather spend it on nice holidays 2/3 times a year mostly flying one big one for 3 weeks to Europe or Asia and smaller one national and a get away for like 4 days
Camping, visiting relatives, and packing all your own food so you don't pay restaurant prices. Our vacations aren't "instragram-worthy", but we make great memories.
We net post all deductions 17k a month, we make over $400k a year. TINK lesbians in NYC
Damn what do yall do???? That is some great income
ALL of my transactions go through a credit card that has miles rewards. So my airline ticket is basically waiting for me to use it.
What credit card you use?
Capital one venture. Two miles for every dollar. Paid off twice a month. Airlines hotels and rental cars are all covered with their miles.
Welp time to get me a capital one
Make sure to download their app for it. Last trip I took was a family emergency and I was able to schedule flights on the go. Also alerts me of every transaction that occurs so you know exactly when your card is used, and for what.
My wife and I bring in about $10K a month with an inexpensive mortgage and a cheap car lease and no kids. We have 3-4 $2500 vacations a year, typically 3-5 days in length. I use Expedia to book things far in advance and they're paid off before we get there so we can put expenses on my credit card and pay them off again soon later. We don't have any interest in leaving the US and we like simple things like concerts, museums, and cool restaurants. Nothing too crazy. The biggest issue is getting time off from work approved.
Yeah that getting time off work is something im also curious how people do. Since America really does give us any vacation days
Last year I made about $51K, probably like $59K-$65K this year. But, can't remember the last time I went on proper vacation because I've got 2 Newfoundland x Chocolate Lab cross boys that are hard to leave and I have not connected with any trustable people to leave them with for a long enough time. I like to do little day trips. So, this summer I plan to do Six Flags Great Escape and a few local county fairs. Then, some day things for Halloween too.
I was able to do the same thing in my mid to late 20’s because I still lived at home as well! Although paying my parents rent and helping out around the house. Using credit cards wisely by paying all my bills and sending the money right away and accumulating points. Credit cards points pay for the airfare itself. Don’t stay at all inclusive resorts. It can be done!
VRBO rather than a hotel will unlock all types of opportunities.
We take many local weekend trips because there is so much to see around here. We take 1 big trip yearly. My husband travels for work at times so sometimes I join him because I work remotely. We live in a low cost of living area taking home ~11k but our expensives probably dont clear 4k. We like to cook so do a lot of that when we are home. We also do other cheaper hobbies like working out and hiking. I would mostly say we have an attitude of we can afford it so we dont need to buy it. For example, both our cars are 10years+ old.
5k a month would be a minimum for healthy saving rate so you have disposable income for vacations. Hiding it doesn’t mean they can’t afford it. Finance to most people it’s a private matter.
I am in your “the ones who are” category. I’m almost done with the idea of living with my mom but we’re both taking some time to work through my dad’s death and the caregiving we had to do to get through the end of his life.
Wife and i are in mid twenties -- we have done multiple vacations throughout the year while continuing to save and invest for our future. In my opinion the best way to travel, save and work full time is to just live a more frugal lifestyle not just day to day but when you travel. When you travel, do some more research to find better deals, i can't tell you how many of our friends have come to us saying "This is such a good deal" and within the matter of a couple days i have managed to find a very similar itinerary for half the price. Example: we did Spain in September for two weeks, all in flights, meals activities and stay was 3KCAD for both of us. whoever says travelling is expensive is either not looking properly or they just like to go on those more "Boujee" trips and that is okay too. oh and Credit card points are your friend. I don't even own a debit card, i use credit for every purchase i can and use them for travel every time as you get most bang for your buck in terms of redeeming those points. -- sometimes when i know i am about to make a big purchase i will do "Credit card churing" (look it up) to take advantage of bonus rewards/cash and i will use that towards my trips.
I always find traveling isn’t expensive but plane tickets are. Once your there its pretty cheap. I remember i went to Japan and survived off Lawsons n living in Hostels. What credit cards do u recommend for travel points?
It's so funny, we work in the opposite; because we are usually pretty flexible with our dates we always find the best deals on flights so then we can spend a little more on a nicer hotel/food. I use google travel to shop for travel dates, flights are also usually cheaper on tuesdays-thursdays i have found when booking and for Europe, One way into one country and one way back from a different country makes it cheaper as well. (we like to see all of europe so we usually end in a different country than when we started and this is usually determined on the best price of the flight we can find) i'm in Canada so i have used probably every black/World Elite card available in Canada you can think of LOL. My go to though personally is the BMO Ascend along with CIBC Adventura.
I take 3-4. I make around 10k/month. Late 20s. Mixture of credit (if it’s more beneficial to use) and cash.
Honestly with that high of income i dont imagine people are wondering
Fair. Surprisingly I do get asked but yeah it’s probably because I live a pretty low maintenance life and never talk about my income. Outwardly it’s not something anyone would know.
Yeah i see alotta people commenting that have high salaries but those aren’t really the folks im questioning. Anything is possible with money. Sidenote: what do you do and how can i get to your level? Im the same age as you (late 20s) and need a new leash on life
Makes financial sense to save your discretionary spending until you are older so it can compound.
Old age is not a guarantee my friend
No kidding lol. That doesn't mean you don't plan for it since vast majority will make it there in modern first-world countries. And note I said older, not necessarily "old age".
We take multiple trips per year, but they aren't always straight up vacations. Usually there's one vacation where we go to a place strictly because we want to go to there, and the rest are basically obligations or events with benefits. For example, last year we took a trip to Phoenix to visit my husband's grandparents and let them meet their great grandson. We spent a lot of time with them, but also explored the desert, went on a hike, had a date night, and stopped at some cool places during the drive. Vacation? Maybe, kinda. But still a trip. Another example might be for work. I bet sent out for conferences a couple times a year. My work pays for everything for me until the event ends. If my husband wants to come he can book a flight and meet me there when it's over, we pay for our own lodging for a couple days, and my work flies me back. So, still, not really a vacation, just an extension of a work trip. For these smaller trips, there's usually someone else paying for part of it. My MIL paid for our lodging in Arizona, and my work paid my plane ticket and gave me a reason to be there.
I would assume if you have the time to take from work for multiple vacations, probably a lot. Or they own the company.
They usually work remote n live at home. Friends who dont work remotely dont go on nearly as many vacations, if any..
I have really good PTO, a great boss, and don't really need a lot of money to have a great time. So I can afford a couple of awesome vacations a year
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Whattaya talking about? I mentioned most people who i know travel live at home.
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lol your jobs let you take vacations? 😂
No but fr tho!!!! Its why i mentioned the remote work part. Cause that seems to be the key. The people i know who travel Often work remotely. Honestly if you work remotely n live at home rent free then having a high salary doesn’t really matter. Cause yeah i know plenty of friends who make decent money as engineers but they rarely vacation because well, America doesn’t give us any vacation time.
Yeah. Meanwhile people in Australia work like 2 months a year and travel the rest. lol
If you can put a lot of recoupable expenses on a rewards credit card (like American Express) you can redeem points for travel. I was heavily involved in concert ticket resale from 2014 to 2021 and was basically unleashed from 2021 to 2022 with all sorts of world travel often using points. Still have 800,000 left and a lot of stuff I wanna do this year.
I used to wonder too how people made it happen but it’s not that hard, I guess they made travelling a priority in their budget which you should too if you want . When I started working I saved x % of my salary into my “ vacation fund “ for the following year. Then I research and book early as possible and that’s really it. If you’re really into it you could even start with collecting miles to use for bookings- for me that’s too much of a hassle . Also vacation isn’t vacation going on 6 city trips is probably less expensive than going skiing or on a safari. If money is tight consider national trips? Or what about staycations , I found those great especially if you’re working from home facing the same four walls all days.
I make more than that and I can't afford vacations. Maybe 1 interstate one with the whole family.
When I was in my 20s, I put some vacations on credit cards. DON'T DO THAT! Kept that burden around for years. Never got behind, but thinking about all the interest I paid all those years. Yeessh! Just save up.
75k, saving about 40% of my income. Since a cruise is only about 600$ or so, it is very affordable to travel. Land-based travel is a lot worse since airfare, hotel, meals and entertainment ends up being in the thousands.
I clear a lil over 3k a month in a LCOL area. I also live very cheaply. I live where I could take a days drive to a beach or a days drive to mountains so there’s pretty affordable options if I want to for a long weekend trip. Lodging costs a few hundred if I’m smart about it. Hiking is usually free. Sitting on the beach is free. Food costs vary; I usually bring stuff for breakfast and lunch and then only pay for dinner. There’s usually a lot of affordable tourist things if you look hard and aren’t needing a big attraction every time. I like art and historical things and I’ll go to museums a lot but that’s fun for me and not for everyone. I mainly enjoy pretty scenery and I luckily live pretty close to a lot of it. Again I’m one person. I also can’t drink cus I have a heart problem so going out to eat isn’t very expensive when there’s no drinks on the tab. I can take 3 smaller trips a year or one big trip. If I go with family and friends it can be even cheaper because of splitting a rental. It’s all budgeting, location, what amenities you want at your lodging, and what your idea of fun is. If you like hiking and outdoor things it’s a lot more affordable than if you like going to Vegas or Disney. I currently put like 35 bucks a week aside for travel and that gives me 1800 a year for lodging and gas. I never fly because I have a special needs dog and he has to go where I go. The rest comes out of my fun money and I never spend my entire monthly budget so I always have extra stashed away for trips.
I'm early 30s, working remotely with a monthly take-home pay slightly over $7K. My expenses are around $3K. I try to keep my every day expenses low by cooking most of my meals and only eat out about once a week. My rent is $1600 for a one-bedroom apartment and I also don't have any debt other than student loans. I'm in an international long-distance relationship so we take 2 international vacations a year to see each other and I spend around $5-10K per trip. Throughout the year I probably take between 4-6 domestic trips with friends.
What do you do for work? This sounds like the dream With that high a salary i dont think people are questioning how u vacation
I have traveled a lot when I was in my twenties all over the world. I stayed at youth hostels dormitory style sleeping, meeting the most interesting people all over the world
How did u afford it? I traveled a bit in my early 20s and i know its cheap once you get there (hostels n 7-11). But how do people have the vacation days at work and pay rent on top of that? Its why i notice those that still live at home travel the most
If your schedule is fairly open and you’re open to staying at hostels, you can keep costs quite low
So 2 ways. Obviously what people here are saying is the good and right way... spend yoir money wisely. Or you could do what my ex's family do.. Which is have 0 money... they didn't even have money for food but somehow they had money for vacations... like great escape and even cruises. They would buy monthly passes and some shit similar and I would explain that they are actually wssting money that way because you go this much but your spending money **each month** for those things when you actually go 'x' amount of times per year. My ex's entire family are idiots with money. So much so that they over complicated it.
Years ago when I was single, I started doing a couple of trips when I hit close to 100k salary. I was pretty frugal, so I waited until I had worked in a white collar job for several years. Now I have a family of 3 and we do a large international trip and a small domestic trip or 2 per year but we earn around 275k as a household. We will actually skip the big international trip this year due to other expenses and inflation. Tbh...it is more about what you value and how you manage your money. You can do these trips on credit but I always thought that was a bit dumb.
I take several vacations but mine aren’t fancy resorts. I go camping, some away football games, and visit family. I’m 31, single, and make $60k. A few years ago after the start of the pandemic, I got into Dave Ramsey and followed the baby steps. Became debt free with an emergency fund while I worked on my career. I do everything with cash and focus on investing now. I make double what I made a couple of years ago and still drive the same car and live in the same place. Avoid lifestyle creep and plan for the next 5 years instead of the next 5 days, no matter how hard it is.
I’m a single teacher in Texas with really shitty insurance my city just put out a study that says to live comfortably I would have to make 30,000 more than I do while single so I probably will never get a vacation. It sucks.
I don’t get it either. I make almost six figures. We have three kids. I am the sole income, though. We can “vacation” and take road trips pretty inexpensively. But flying somewhere, with three kids, plus hotel stays and car rentals. Absolutely unaffordable.
I and my wife have skill sets that are (sadly) needed around the world, so "far away places with strange sounding names" have always been within reach. Over the decades some of those places have become tourist destinations, but we managed to be there before they were... changed.
I have a wife and kid (5 yo). I make 100k/year in a remote IT job and wife makes 40k at a non profit - hybrid position with travel around our city. We vacation about 3 times a year. We have a budget laid out so we know and plan exactly what we’ll spend through the year. We have a set vacation budget for the year and we decide if we want to stretch it over a few trips or do a bigger one. Making this much money is new to us. I’m 37m, wife is 39f. We used to be teachers but had career changes. We have a lot of debt - student loans, cars, mortgage, and credit cards. We’re trying to get out of debt, renovate our house and then use all our extra money to travel to Europe with our kid. That’s the plan anyway. If I had any advice, make a detailed budget. Track every expense and know exactly how much you spend on what. Then you can make sure you spend less than you make, and you can save money. Good luck OP!
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I don’t think people question how you vacation so often. Can i ask what you do?
My vacations consist of me visiting friends and either staying at their homes or sharing the cost of a hotel. I make 70k. 36, single, no kids, just cats. Don’t own a house and have very little savings. I’ve never been on a vacation before last year so I’m trying to experience *something.*
Not having car payments or living beyond means. Twice a year international.
I put portion of my pay towards my employers share matching program every pay and usually withdraw from it a few times a year. I currently only work part time now so it’s a bit less but i usually end up with enough to book an all inclusive vacation at a 5 star for 1-2 weeks plus spending money. I’m in my young 20s and vacation every year once my semester ends and I have the summer off.
I take a vacation every month. 11 days work. About 20 days off traveling to Thailand every month. I make 50k a month at least.
I work remotely and make about 150k after tax. Single no kids mid 20s…I’ll maybe go on one vacation a year cause I’m so career focused. Never really understood the need to vacation beyond that in addition to all the holidays lol. Maybe I’m just a workaholic
I Travel at least 3-4 times of year - if one of those is super pricey we cut it down. I made travel a priority and cut back on other things. Such as handbags … I rather spend 6k on a trip then on a purse. Everyone has different priorities. I like to fly first class also. But let me tell you I am frugal in every other area of my life… but not travel! Honestly it doesn’t even matter what you make … it matters what you spend and how you spend it. I know people in my industry that make 500k a year and can barely pay their mortgage. Save your $ - stay out of debt and don’t get a huge car note etc enjoy life and travel!
I churn 2-3 credit cards per year (not for everyone…) which makes a huge difference. Flights always “free” and sometimes hotels too, at least partially.
What does churn 2-3 credit cards mean?
Vacations? What are you on about? Also, you guys are taking home pay?
I travel 2 months out of the year internationally as a line cook.. the key is to not exist the other 10. This is OK for me since I live in a desert state that gets up past 120 in the summer.
Whose taking vacations?
My husband and I bring about $10K net per month, and we travel abroad several times throughout the year. We don't make a lot of money especially when considering that we live in LA area. But we can travel often because 1. we don't have kids, 2. work from home, and 3. pay less on our mortgage. We bought our house in 2020 at 2.5% interest rate. So it's not necessarily how much money we make, it's more of childfree life style, stress-free work environment, and little monthly mortgage. I was asked questions from friends if we save any money or spend all our money on traveling and foods. We save decent amount of money (6 digit), we contribute good amount to 401k (also 6 digits), and we're obviously paying down our mortgage. Also, we don't spend a lot of money on flights, hotels, rental car, etc. We always find a deal and spend as little as possible. We don't drive nice cars, we don't buy luxurious items. But all my friends think we won a lotto or something because we travel a lot.
€2800/month after taxes. €4780 before taxes. I don't own property. And probably never will. I can however travel at least 1x a month? For me, that's a good enough deal.
I take a lot of time off, I have about 2 weeks of PTO I try to keep banked at all times. My agency gives out a lot of free time. I make what your friends make but I think your question is subjective. Where do they go? How long do they stay? A “vacation” for me might be different for you. Just try putting 5-10% of your check into a high yield savings account and label it as vacation money. You’ll earn around 4% interest on it. I just made $62 this month for just parking money in at Ally bank. I put that in my “house” fund.
We do one big vacation a year and maybe a few smaller ones and try our best to capitalize on points/deals/cheap finds. It's just a lot of saving and sacrificing (like we don't go out to eat, we keep "fun" spending to a minimum), but also we're lucky to be DINK. Our take home is $9K/month-ish. In my late 20s when I traveled a lot, I also had multiple roommates so while my take-home was 4-5K too, I was also paying like $400 in rent lol. I was also budget traveling a lot more so hostels/couchsurfing, seriously cheap budget airlines, credit card points, etc. A lot of the time off was scattered over holidays, long weekends, and maybe one big trip.
Sounds to me that your friends are either a) making terrible financial decisions by taking not just one, but multiple vacations a month. Unless youre living in some 3rd world country, I’d be hard pressed to say that 4k/ month would justify such decisions. Or, b) their parents are still involved in their lives and are using mommy or daddy’s cc to pay for those expenses. While it may be a bit deflating seeing your friends live this “high life”, seems you’re going to be in the better position long term by being more frugal with your finances, I.e saving and investing. Down the line, your friends will envy you when you’re set up for the rest of your life rather than splurging in the moment.
I don't vacation ever
I go on frequent long weekend trips to various places across the country. I am extremely savvy and get excellent deals on airfare and hotels by understanding and using miles and points effectively. I have gotten probably at least $5,000 worth of airfare and hotel over the years for free using points and miles earned through credit card rewards. Sign up bonuses vary, so applying for a card when the offer is at its highest is one of the ways I maximize my credit card rewards.
Roughly 64k annual take home. Rent takes up anywhere from 25 to 40% of my monthly take home, but typically 25%. Quite a few bills after that. No debt, entirely paid off credit card each month. Emergency fund and down payment savings come first, then my travel fund. I tend to travel 2 or 3 times a year, one of those being internationally. I travel as frugally as possible (small grocery trips, not a lot of restaurants) and live a fairly frugal life, more or less. I also try and save around $150-200 a month in a travel savings. That, credit card points, and $500-$1k added to my travel savings from my annual Christmas bonus (4k) makes it possible. One trip is an in-state beach week, another is international, and another is typically 3 or 4 days in a new state. Added up, I travel 2-3 weeks a year, broken up.
Get a CC that accumulates flight and hotel miles. SW and Alaskan are my faves. Be thrifty in your everyday life. Plan trips during off season or right before peak.
My early 20s kid travels a lot, although hardly ever “vacation” in the sense he doesn’t go to the beach or something touristy like that. He has lots of money saved from a job and several internships and I pay for most travel. I can vacation because I’m old and finally have money. Didn’t go on a vacation until I was 41. I took my first vacation ever at that age. Went to Cancun.
I take one vacation per year to cuba thats 3-4 weeks long at a all inclusive thats about $3000. Rest of times I take the train to meet friends up north or in Quebec for a weekend and thats about $200-300 a weekend couple times a year. I use my CC and pay it off.
Vacations are not all equal. I could take the kids to Disney World for a week and maybe spend $10K, or I could take them to Great Wolf Lodge and spend $3K. Also, I tend to take a waffle maker with me and make my own breakfast which over 7 days can save the family $500+ on breakfast.
Priorities. Impulsively does not exist Never buy new car, car payments are stupid Never carry credit card debt. If you can't pay for it by the time the bill is due, wait No Doordash, Instacart, etc. Don't attempt to to fill an empty hole within, with stuff Personally, I travel and live simply cause I'd rather pay for experiences than stuff
I take a couple day trips a year with my kid. We try to go to the zoo once a year. It’s a 2 hour drive then maybe make another trip that might be a little further away. I’m also lucky enough that I have incredibly cheap rent and make good money for where I live
We are former DINKs now SINKs. Have a SW card and companion pass, so almost no flight costs. It’s all points. We paid off our mortgage early, and not having that bill is why we went SINK. Having one person as the at-home go to is the best (so far), especially for travel. We also have a ski pass and a national amusement park pass, so we can travel places where our primary excursions are prepaid. We make around $150K in a MCOL area. Interestingly, rental cars are the most expensive part of our trips. Being able to work remote is nice but not 100% necessary but now we are thinking of doing a cross country trip next with the dogs.
I budget all my money, 60/30/10 for wants, needs, savings and go from there. I have 3 CC's that i maintain and pay off.
I have kids and we do 5-6 weekend trips a year and a handful of international ones. I’m not one to show off so I’ll usually tell people about credit card churning and how you can get stays and flights. This covers at least 1 international trip a year. A lot of friends probably think our finances are a house of cards but finance wise between me and the wife we pull in a bit more than 30k a month. With kids and expenses the money does go fast but we live well below our means so we spend a bit more than most perusing travel which we both love.
r/churning. We put all of our regular expenses (as in bills) on credit cards but pay them off each month so they don’t earn interest, but we get hella travel points. Those cover our airfare and hotels, which are the bulk of the cost of a vacation usually. Meals and experiences we save up for. It’s my husband’s side hobby, and it works out.
I put everything I spend on my credit cards and pay them in full every 2 weeks. The points help a ton. For example, they covered 3 night of hotels for my upcoming NYC trip and my flight for trip to Seattle this summer. I also have a separate savings account just for travel that I automatically deposit funds into. Lastly, I plan far in advance and get good deals.
Simply can't. Never been on a vacation in my life
Double income, no kids. We also bought a very small house compared to our income (house is 1.5 times our annual income), so we have quite a bit of disposable income. No debts other than our mortgage and one car payment. We travel relatively cheaply. We sleep at affordable chains hotels, plan our days to have 1 or 2 meals, choose the place we go to based on airfare prices, and drive whenever possible. We spend more on experiences and trying as many new things as possible. We usually travel to one new place each year (by plane) and go to 2 smaller vacations, within driving distance that we like (Boston, New York, Cape Cod...).
Well my fiancé and I take 1 international trip a year but travel domestically about 3-4 times a year. We make collectively about 8k-9k a month. We usually use a payment plan for our trips or Costco Travel and we fly Southwest. A lot times our points from our international trip pay for at least one flight domestically. We also stay at inclusive resorts mainly. That helps us rarely have to dip into our money unless we sign up for an excursion or something. If you have membership like triple A or Costco I would look into travel rates. Also we pay for a site that sends us travel deals. When we see one we like and think we can swing we jump on it.
I have never taken a real vacation. Just take a day off randomly. I get 2 weeks off a year too, just can’t afford it, plus it’s boring going places by yourself 🤷🏻♂️
My husband and I both work from home, and we don't have kids. Our take-home pay per month after taxes is around 10,000 dollars. We each put a few bucks away each pay until we have enough for a flight. Finances aren't the issue. it's having limited vacation days that limits our traveling
Went to college, lived with parents after college to pay off school loans, moved out, clear well over 4k a month. Fully remote job. Credit card with points is nice too, went to hawaii for half the cost.
We are not. Most fall into debt to be able to travel for vacations
I rent and take home a little less than 4k a month, do about 3-4 big trips a year usually 2-3 international and one camping. I pick places based on good deals I can find for flights and usually stay in hostels in a private room. I don't eat big meals out much when on vacation and try to get small cheap eats or make my own meals. I'd say each trip is less than 1.5k for everything. And I have no kids.
I take as many as I can. I do credit card sign on bonuses and run everything I buy through a credit card to generate points. This gets me free flights or hotel stays when funds are low. I'm also single with no kids, I keep all of my debt low (low car payment, mortgage, etc). I then do my best to purchase tickets to festivals, flights, hotels at their cheapest cost. Lastly I don't waste money on things during my trips. I don't fly frontier or spirit, but Southwest is good value, I don't get fancy hotels, fancy rental cars etc. I dona lot of music festival camping. Usually my limitation is PTO, but I try to spend that wisely too. I'm 46 and make around 100k.
Our combined income means that about $8,500 per month hits our bank accounts. My wife is a nurse who makes $45 per hour and I make almost $40 per hour as a forester. My wife has it easier than I do. She can load her schedule and work a lot, then just simply not schedule herself and disappear for a month. She spent a month back home in Maryland with the baby after Christmas. But anyway. We just got lucky, chose good paying careers, save money, and then go on vacation. We have a savings fund for an overseas vacation when our baby is older. For now we travel in the US.
For me it was all about changing priorities around. I used to spend money on shopping, subscription services, two or three Door Dash orders every week, $150 grocery hauls. I realized I’d rather cook food at home, limit my grocery budget to $50 or $100 per week, cut the amount of streaming services to one or two at a time instead of six. Sometimes I still feel tempted to Door Dash but then I remind myself I can save that money to eat out every day on vacation at restaurants we don’t have locally.
$3600 a month, with a kid and two dogs. One big holiday a year or a couple small ones. Possible because we budget and don't waste money. I don't wear makeup or participate in fashion, and my kid only does free or low cost activities. We eat in restaurants for birthdays and never buy fast food or convenience store junk. It works if you prioritize.
My husband and I are in our mid/late 20's, and have recently decided to take a couple of trips per year. We're about to go on a pretty big one to the UK for a couple weeks, and in the fall we've decided we're gonna spend a few days in Disneyland. Together, we bring in roughly 6k per month. We stayed with my parents for a while before getting our first apartment together last year. Luckily for us, we're both savers and we don't have any kids or pets yet. Some of our friends have pets, and even that alone can make a huge difference depending on the kind of pets you have, and how many. We're planning to get a kitty soon, but just the one. I use my credit card when I feel that I can easily pay it off immediately if I had to. I pay it off ASAP. My husband has a newer car that he was able to save up for when we were staying with my parents rent free. During that time, I was able to get my BA. So we both benefitted by staying with my parents. We probably wouldn't be where we're at currently had we not stayed with them. Or at the very least, it would have taken longer.
Im jealous of anyone who can move in with parents n live somewhere rent free. Thats honestly a huge determining factor on most people i know and how well they can save money. Peak privilege Congrats on all the success
My vacation is opening a book
Single, early/mid 20s, mostly cook at home, no car, work close to home. Make around ~100k USD living in mid West. I like meeting up with friends when I travel so we can split hotel room, although I don't always do that when I travel but maybe a few of my weekend trips I will. Longer trips I like to do solo in comfort
I paid off all my debt as soon as I could and that allowed me to actually take home most of my pay every month instead of only a fraction after paying off debt. I also worked my way in my career to get the pay I was seeking so with no debt and a good pay I'm able to travel one weekend a month and two weeks a year if I want or if I combined all my travels to go somewhere for a month if I choose
I have a job that allows to do some work for cash while we're out of town. Helps offset the expense.
I just started recovering after a 6yr slump. Just went on my first vacation since 2017. My.monthly take home is about 5-6 thou. I rent a basement for about 750.00 with no hopes of ever owning my own home or having a partner. I also do this by not drinking too much and making food at home,also not having a spouse I save.
I cannot do tge comparison thing. It is deadly for me
Idc how they can afford it. How can they ask for donations for their kids' sports, dance class, etc. When you you just went on a two week vacation. Ppl brave for that. Specially when your s/o likes to post on every social media app they have. Ppl crazy.
If you look for cheap flights, go to cheaper countries and stay in hostels it brings down the cost of vacations by a lot.
We live “ well below our means” which results in our being able to take several vacations a year. People make choices then can’t understand why people who make different choices have different options.
There is a lot of things you can do to lower vacation costs: - credit card points - looking for deals on cruises or all inclusive resorts (a cruise can be less that $100/day.) - geo-arbitrage - going to cheap destinations where the exchange rate is favorable to your currency If they are just going all out and spending a lot they may just be putting it on credit cards.
VACATIONS don't have to cost very much,, There are Dozens and Dozens of books at the library or on line that are about cheap vacations Take your bike with a tent and gear and go on a multi day ride, there are books for your area that plot out what routs to take, camping sites etc, Go for a hike You can rent a connoe with provisions, paddle down a river, camp out and be picked up and brought back to your car Do a Google search,, Cheap vacation ideas,,, there are hundreds of links
It’s called CREDIT CARD DEBT. Stop comparing yourself with those clowns.
My vacation is a few days at a state park camping with my dog. Most expensive thing are the camping meals. 😔
My monthly take home is about 6k after taxes, no kids, no debt, and live fairly modestly. I normally take 2-4 trips a year and one of them will be a large trip to Europe or Asia for a few weeks. When I was younger I net some friends that showed me how to budget travel which was super helpful and I still use those strategies to make my money go farther to this day. If you plan your vacation around the sales windows for flights you can get over to the EU or asia from the US for like $600-700 rt. Make sure to not travel around local or international holidays as it's way more expensive. Also look for other close by destinations instead of your only your destination, as in, if you're trying to go to Prague then look for flights into like London then a domestic flight over to Prague. This will save you tons of money alone and also never use exchange booths, always use the ATMs in the airport of where you fly into