How much do you budget for vacation?

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investing1012
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How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by investing1012 »

How much do you budget for vacation?
sfnerd
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by sfnerd »

We spend about 45k per year on vacations. We're a married couple, no kids, mid to late 30s, fairly high income (can range from 400k-1m), and enough assets where we could retire if we wanted (though I probably never will really retire, as I like what I do; might start another business some day though).

We mostly travel economy, occasionally business class, but rarely and only when we really see the value. We take a LOT of trips though. Like two per month on average.

Travel is just something we place a very high value on. Living abroad (Asia) also means we have to travel back to the US to see relatives and friends. We want to travel a lot while we still can. We could do it a lot cheaper if we were retired.
noco-hawkeye
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by noco-hawkeye »

This depends where you are going. The Caribbean / Mexico I think about 1,000-1,500 / person / week. Hawaii is more than that, and I'd think Europe and Hawaii would be in a similar ballpark. Disney amusement parks are probably in the higher end of the Caribbean / Mexico price range.

You can do national parks and less expensive beach areas (i.e. the Carolinas or the Gulf Coast) for a fair bit less than that. Maybe 750$ / person / week for there?

The answer is really "it depends".
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by H-Town »

investing1012 wrote: Sun Nov 19, 2017 9:04 am How much do you budget for vacation?
$15,000 this year, increased from $10k 3 years earlier. We're married couple and we travel frugally. We usually got free hotel nights from points and always fly coach. We love road trips and we've done a lot of them so far.
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Maya1234
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by Maya1234 »

As a homebody who much would rather go nowhere than go on the cheap, I budget about 20-25 k for one weeklong ( or 10 days to Europe) and one weekend vacation over a two year period. Long vacations, even luxury ones, are unpleasant for me. I miss being home.

We only fly first/business and stay in very nice hotels. Eat in great restaurants. We also always join museums we will visit.

Assets over 7 mil. 2 people. Mid-50s.

This is a great question. I’ve often wondered what BHs would say.
AlohaJoe
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by AlohaJoe »

There's not a strict budget but in the neighborhood of $40,000-$50,000 a year.
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TinkerPDX
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by TinkerPDX »

For now, “big” and “small” vacation budgeted in alternating years at $5,000 and $2,500. Family of 4 (youngest <1year, which limits options now). Household ncome ~ $160,000.

This is what I use for predictive planning, mostly. I expect once the kids are older, we’ll do more, more substantial, and more expensive travel, as we value these experiences highly.

This year, $5k is about right for an upcoming 10-day trip to Hawaii including air, car rental, lodging, plus $1k for "other" - though we also spent another $1k or so this year on smaller local, weekend vacations.
Last edited by TinkerPDX on Sun Nov 19, 2017 10:28 am, edited 1 time in total.
barreg
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by barreg »

With a family of four, we usually take one weeklong vacation per year of about $5,000-$6,000 and several shorter vacations (usually long weekend) for a few hundred $$ each.
crazygrow
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by crazygrow »

We spend a lot on vacations, somewhat because it is our love and somewhat because we are a big family (8 people). We did our first big international family trip this past year - Costa Rica for two weeks - and spent about $16k on that trip even after using skymiles for all of the plane tickets and points for some of the hotels. Looks like overall this year we will be close to $30k in total.

Salary ~$250k
Bonus ~ $80k
RSUs ~ $50k

Outside of vacations, we don't live frugally but we are a lot more reserved. $350k home (almost paid off); two bigger cars due to family size, so not cheap but not luxury/top of the line; same furniture we bought when we got married 15 years ago, etc.
TravelforFun
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by TravelforFun »

We spend the equivalent of 2% of our net worth per year on traveling. We're not retired yet so traveling money right now comes from our paychecks.

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delamer
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by delamer »

If you are budgeting for vacations, regardless of the amount, then give yourself a pat on the back.

A lot of people don't and either 1) don't take a vacation or 2) put it on their credit card which they are still paying off when the next vacation comes around.

My favorite story is the acquaintances who had frequent flyer miles that were expiring that they did not want to lose. So they charged all the other vacation expenses on high interest credit cards which they could not pay off immediately. Textbook "how not to pay for your vacations." Oh, and it was for 2 weeks!
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HIinvestor
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by HIinvestor »

Honestly we don’t budget and never have, tho we live well below our annual income. We take about 4 or more trips a year that last 1-3+ weeks. Sometimes my airfare is covered, sometimes a night or more of hotel is covered, more often it is all on our own dime but airfare is rarely more than $1000/person/trip and sometimes only $500/person/trip or less. We stay at hotels that are convenient to where we want to be that are about 3 or 4* or have sometimes stayed for a few days with loved ones and travel economy plus because we are United silver premier.

The price of lodging, transportation and meals varies greatly, depending on location. Indianapolis is generally much cheaper than Chicago, SF and DC, and Honolulu for example. We often base our travel on meetings I attend and tack leisure stops to my meetings, favoring in-park lodging at national parks.

When we have done a foreign trip, it’s often a package tour that includes everything (air, luxury lodging & meals) for under $4k/person for 10 Days.

We spend about $3500/person/year for domestic airfare, but sometimes more. Dunno, maybe we spend $10k or more on domestic lodging and more on meals but don’t specifically track either unless they are unreimbursed business expenses.

Oh, we always pay off our credit cards in full and never carry a balance. These days, we only pay for vacations out of current cash flow and never out of savings.

When the kids were young and living with us, trips were 4 airfares instead of 2 but we all shared 1 room and 1 car, so those expenses weren’t that high. We only took 1 or 2 trips a year back then because it was tough coordinating schedules and we had lots of ed expenses and college. Now that college has been paid off and H has retired, we are enjoying traveling more.
Last edited by HIinvestor on Sun Nov 19, 2017 12:11 pm, edited 2 times in total.
investingdad
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by investingdad »

We are mid 40s, two kids (10 and 12), with a combined income upper 200s.

We are in the process of a big splurge on a family vacation, probably 15k, right now. So 22k this year. Normally about 11k a year.

Maybe 1/2 a percent of net worth.
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by lazydavid »

We usually spend $25-35k per year, $5k of which is maintenance fees on our timeshares. That's typically one 2.5 week trip, one of a week or so, and a handful of long weekends. Fly only first/business the 1-2 times we do fly. Gross income will probably be $325k this year, roughly $115k of which actually hits our bank account.
Spewin
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by Spewin »

~$1000 per year. DINKs saving for FIRE. We usually do a week long backpacking trip within driving distance and another hiking trip with a hotel stay also in driving distance.

We also fly to relatives for one holiday per year, but we don't consider that a vacation. If you do, then at another $6-900 to our budget.
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midareff
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by midareff »

about $50K although last year or two were a bit more. Retired and like cruise ships.
UpperNwGuy
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by UpperNwGuy »

I am single, retired, and I take two European trips a year. I budget $5,000 for each trip. No cruises. No packaged tours. No all-inclusive resorts.
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JDCarpenter
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by JDCarpenter »

Quite variable topic, depending upon one's tastes and where you are in your life....

We are mid-50s recent retirees and expect to continue this first year's experience for a while--a bit more than 50% of the year on long international trips, with a few domestic travels in addition. "Budget" is looking to be about 66% of our non-tax spending (may be more in 2018-19, depending upon when we book Antarctic trip).

Was a very different story not too long ago when we had three kids in college and were cash-flowing those costs... So too, when our portfolio takes a hit, we will cut back on this discretionary spending as necessary/appropriate.
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quantAndHold
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by quantAndHold »

The last few years I was working we spent roughly $25k/year, mostly on foreign travel.

Now that I'm not working, we spend about $3-5k/year, although we travel in an RV that we paid >$100k for. We don't budget specifically for vacations. We have a monthly "salary" that we pay ourselves, and as long as we're able to stay within the salary, we can do anything we want with it. Being out on the road doesn't cost much more than staying home, so if we want to be out on the road the entire month, that's what we do.

Maintenance and repairs on the RV are covered by the "salary." Depreciation isn't. Depreciation is somewhere around $10k/year right now, so all in, we're probably spending $15k/year for 3-4 months of travel.
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fortfun
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by fortfun »

Do you have kids? Are you on a tight budget? You can get some all inclusive resorts in MX, where kids stay free. We usually go to MX for 200 per night (family of 4). Super cheap and decent resorts. Food and beverages included. It's getting harder to find but if you look, you can find great deals. Going to Hawaii this year will cost us 10 times that. So, it really depends where you want to go and the accommodations, food, and entertainment you want. I was able to pay for 2 tickets to Hawaii with the Sapphire card.
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by stan1 »

People who like to travel spend money on travel. People who like boats buy boats. People who like ceramic figurines buy ceramic figurines. Our annual expenses for boats and ceramic figurines are zero. We don't keep a budget but our annual travel expense is usually under 5% of gross income and under 0.3% of net worth so it is just not something we worry about.
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Lonestarz
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by Lonestarz »

Depends what you want. I enjoy travel where we interact with locals and experience local culture. Most of that is very affordable. For a hotel - our house is pretty nice and when we travel we don’t spend much time in the hotel - it’s just a place to sleep.

Hotel as a couple is maybe avg $100/night single travel I push closer to $75 (I don’t like the really touristy areas and those places are much more $) these prices are relevant if you go to a smaller towns and stay in standard hotels. The old church built into the side of the mountain is southern France was in the $60s because the shower was down the hall.

For food, maybe a nice meal or two but lots of snacks - fruit from farmers markets, fresh bread, sausages, local civiche. Maybe on average $50/day/person for great options. Local beer is maybe $10/day as most places allow you to drink on the street.

Transportation is maybe $30-40/day/person but we move around a lot so between City trains is a big part of that.

I would say when we go it’s maybe $5k/trip for 10days including souvenirs.

We typically pay for it by cutting back the month before/after. And since airfare is purchased in advance that splits the cost up more.

The more I try out the high end experiences - the more I realize I get 80% of that enjoyment for 20% of the cost if you know where to go.
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by birdy »

We used to take one "big vacation" (out of the country) every other year. NOW since retired, we are traveling out of the country Every year! We budget $10,000. to $15,000. per year for trips. We are frugal. We go with group tours out of the country which saves us money (yes, we are THOSE people who like group travel).

We have always budgeted for travel as it is a high priority for us. No kids. Started taking foreign trips in the late 1990's when our salaries were able to support travel AND savings.

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arcticpineapplecorp.
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by arcticpineapplecorp. »

Interesting answers, but I find it interesting that people are saying how much they "spend" on travel, rather than what they "budget" for travel, which was the question.

When I think about the question and about what we do, we research where we want to go, how much it will cost (roughly, meaning air transport, hotels, transportation (train/subway/bus usually), reasonable food and add up the cost of tours and/or museums we want to go to. That gives us the ballpark (we've usually been pretty close, sometimes slightly above but often below) of what we're "likely" to spend. We can add a little cushion to be safe if we want.

Once we have the figure we believe we'll need because we've added it all up beforehand we know what our budget for travel is. Once we've saved that amount (or know we're saving a certain amount and will hit our number by a certain date) we can go.

After going to the places we like to go for several years we have a fairly good ballpark of our overall expenses for a two week trip abroad. So we make sure we have that amount to cover it before we go (but still do our research and try to keep costs within budget).

Finally, some of these factors are out of your control to some extent, especially if you're traveling internationally. For example, if you're traveling in Europe and the Euro goes up before you get there your trip just became more expensive because of the currency increase relative to the dollar. That's why a cushion (more than you might think) is helpful, for these situations. This happened in Scotland a few years ago. The pound went up towards the end of the second week we were there so our costs were a little more than anticipated. Since we were aware of it, we could make some decisions to forgo certain things, or just realize the trip would be a little more than expected but it wasn't due to anything we did. I.E., we didn't "overspend" or not stick to our budget, it's ust the cost of the items went up for us (and other international travelers too).
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by stan1 »

When we travel there are areas we don't skimp on. For example we don't skimp on location of accommodations. I'd never book accommodation in London or Paris for a 1-2 week trip that didn't have a central tube/metro stop within a block or two of the hotel. We'll hire a private guide with a Ph. D. in Art History to tour art museums in Paris but travel by subway and walking not taxis. We don't plan for fancy meals or shopping as that does not add value for us.
Last edited by stan1 on Sun Nov 19, 2017 1:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Soul.in.Progress
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by Soul.in.Progress »

I always like this topic, because vacations are fun to talk about!

Here are some prior threads that are similar:

viewtopic.php?t=207442

viewtopic.php?t=153028

viewtopic.php?t=84827

viewtopic.php?t=191945
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by btenny »

You need to ask a more detailed question and define if it is while you are working or in retirement. Many people have second homes or condos that they use a little or a lot. How do you figure those costs in your vacation budget? In my case that is huge number. I have had a second home (ski condo) which I rented out for decades while I worked full time. Now that I am retired I have a full size second home ski house and I am the only user so the cost is 100% mine. Plus I also take other vacations. We budget $10K or less for those other type vacations.
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quantAndHold
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by quantAndHold »

arcticpineapplecorp. wrote: Sun Nov 19, 2017 1:03 pm Interesting answers, but I find it interesting that people are saying how much they "spend" on travel, rather than what they "budget" for travel, which was the question.
Judging by the amounts of money quoted in this thread, I suspect that most of the people answering this particular question are at the point in their lives where budgets are more backward looking and notional than prescriptive.
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by Lonestarz »

arcticpineapplecorp. wrote: Sun Nov 19, 2017 1:03 pm Interesting answers, but I find it interesting that people are saying how much they "spend" on travel, rather than what they "budget" for travel, which was the question.
Wouldn’t budget and spend line up in an ideal world? The budget should be a prediction of spend so the spend should be the reflective and more accurate number.
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by investingdad »

quantAndHold wrote: Sun Nov 19, 2017 1:16 pm
arcticpineapplecorp. wrote: Sun Nov 19, 2017 1:03 pm Interesting answers, but I find it interesting that people are saying how much they "spend" on travel, rather than what they "budget" for travel, which was the question.
Judging by the amounts of money quoted in this thread, I suspect that most of the people answering this particular question are at the point in their lives where budgets are more backward looking and notional than prescriptive.
I was thinking the same thing. We contribute a certain amount of dollars to the portfolio every year. Beyond that, as long as our checking account does not fall below a certain cash threshold, a budget isn't really necessary.
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by scottsdalevista01 »

$15,000. per year
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by Mudpuppy »

arcticpineapplecorp. wrote: Sun Nov 19, 2017 1:03 pm Interesting answers, but I find it interesting that people are saying how much they "spend" on travel, rather than what they "budget" for travel, which was the question.
Here's an answer to the question then: I'm not a big fancy vacation sort of person, so I budget about 2-3% of my gross income on non-work-related travel. This includes extending a work trip by a couple of days to see the town, which my agency allows as long as the extended trip airfare is the same or cheaper than the original trip airfare (I pay for my hotel and expenses on those extra days though). My upcoming trip to Hawaii is also staying within that budget since I've booked the airfare, hotel, and rental car on rewards points (mostly using CSR and hotel card sign-up bonuses).
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by DrGoogle2017 »

No budget, but it’s pretty high. But not every year, every other year we go to long trip in Europe , for the simple reason we are bored to go back every year, and we’re missed being home and I miss my garden.
I certainly would like to spend more but I’m getting more sensible in my old age. I have qualms about staying at places like the Dolder Grand in Switzerland, my daughter recommended it. She said she had the best time with the spa and meditation there. Yeah right, who wouldn’t.
Last edited by DrGoogle2017 on Sun Nov 19, 2017 1:51 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by Ron Ronnerson »

We spend about $1500 or so a year. This covers things like meals, ground transportation, and small purchases. We're a family of three and are visiting Disneyland, Las Vegas, and Hawaii in the next six months. Flights, hotels, and amusement park tickets were purchased using points. Our income is $150k so vacations are about 1% of the budget
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by Artful Dodger »

I remembered answering this just recently. It was in the "How Much Do You Spend On Entertainment?" thread. Here's what I posted re vacations this past year...

Vacations - Are these entertainment? Just did 12 days London and Paris - $7500; last winter - Singapore / Bali / Viet Nam - $10,000. We did some other trips - winter in Playa del Carmen (to get out of the cold - maybe $3500), trips to visit family in Seattle (1) and Phoenix (3) - probably $5000 total for all.
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investing1012
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by investing1012 »

I agree I’m a bit surprised by the high amounts quoted here. I think that’s due to my age (mid30s) and still in the high saving phase of my life. I think vacations are important though so maybe i should spend more considering you only live once.
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by smitty1515 »

$3-4K per year.
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by PFInterest »

investing1012 wrote: Sun Nov 19, 2017 9:04 am How much do you budget for vacation?
What my wife asks for.
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by hmw »

We don’t have a budget.

We almost always fly economy, and we tend to stay at nice hotels.

I don’t keep close tabs on how much we spent either. My best guess is that we spent about 10k to 18k a year.
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WestUniversity
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by WestUniversity »

investing1012 wrote: Sun Nov 19, 2017 9:04 am How much do you budget for vacation?
Foreign travel about $5K per week for the two of us. Domestic probably half that amount...
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by dwickenh »

PFInterest wrote: Sun Nov 19, 2017 2:24 pm
investing1012 wrote: Sun Nov 19, 2017 9:04 am How much do you budget for vacation?
What my wife asks for.
+1 :sharebeer
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furnace
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by furnace »

Some of the vacation budgets here appear outrageously high. Maybe it's justified as percentage of income or assets, so someone who has more can afford to spend more. But there are ways to travel very efficiently. A family can have great experiences for a fraction of the cost with some effort. Avoid the urge to pay full retail prices just because you can.
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by baconavocado »

Ours have been $5-15K/year lately.
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by delamer »

furnace wrote: Sun Nov 19, 2017 6:02 pm Some of the vacation budgets here appear outrageously high. Maybe it's justified as percentage of income or assets, so someone who has more can afford to spend more. But there are ways to travel very efficiently. A family can have great experiences for a fraction of the cost with some effort. Avoid the urge to pay full retail prices just because you can.
We prefer large suites to regular cabins when we go on cruises. We don't want to "travel very efficiently"; we want to travel in comfort.

And yes, we can afford to spend more. We don't pay more just because we can, we pay more because we are spending on something that we value.

If someone else can't afford it or doesn't value the same experiences, then they shouldn't buy them.
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by oldcomputerguy »

investing1012 wrote: Sun Nov 19, 2017 9:04 am How much do you budget for vacation?
Whatever it takes.
:twisted:

(Sorry, that was a bit snarky, wasn't it?)

I just retired, and DW will be retiring in a couple of years. We tentatively plan to hit some "bucket list" spots in the next decade, so I tentatively budget for a "lesser" and "greater" trip each year during that time. The "lesser" trip is defined as "similar to a week at [our favorite Caribbean all-inclusive]", usually around $6-7k including airfare; "greater" trip is defined as "similar to a week-and-a-half to two-week European river cruise", usually about $18k all in. In years where the market is good to us, we might sneak in a three- or four-night jaunt to Las Vegas (thanks to comp rooms at our preferred Caesars-chain hotel and airline points), maybe $1-2k for meals, shows, one-armed bandits, etc.
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by oldcomputerguy »

PFInterest wrote: Sun Nov 19, 2017 2:24 pm
investing1012 wrote: Sun Nov 19, 2017 9:04 am How much do you budget for vacation?
What my wife asks for.
:thumbsup :thumbsup :!:
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by Slacker »

We've discussed around the $5000 range for a "big trip" each year.

In reality, we really don't have the ability to use our vacation time like that so we end up just doing a bunch of short trips to nearby locations. In total, I don't think we've spent close to what we set as our budget for a big vacation this year (partially due to rewards points for flights, finding very inexpensive flights and mid-week hotel accommodations).
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Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by TheTimeLord »

oldcomputerguy wrote: Sun Nov 19, 2017 6:38 pm
investing1012 wrote: Sun Nov 19, 2017 9:04 am How much do you budget for vacation?
Whatever it takes.
:twisted:

(Sorry, that was a bit snarky, wasn't it?)

I just retired, and DW will be retiring in a couple of years. We tentatively plan to hit some "bucket list" spots in the next decade, so I tentatively budget for a "lesser" and "greater" trip each year during that time. The "lesser" trip is defined as "similar to a week at [our favorite Caribbean all-inclusive]", usually around $6-7k including airfare; "greater" trip is defined as "similar to a week-and-a-half to two-week European river cruise", usually about $18k all in. In years where the market is good to us, we might sneak in a three- or four-night jaunt to Las Vegas (thanks to comp rooms at our preferred Caesars-chain hotel and airline points), maybe $1-2k for meals, shows, one-armed bandits, etc.
Just out of curiosity, what percentage of your annual expenses in retirement do you expect to go to travel?
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harrychan
Posts: 2047
Joined: Sun Nov 14, 2010 8:37 pm
Location: Pasadena

Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by harrychan »

Family of 4 with two young kids. 2017, we will spend roughly $15k in vacation. One international which cost us about $12k and a bunch of mini ones to places like San Diego or Orange County.
This is not legal or certified financial advice but you know that already.
pacamoky
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat Nov 01, 2014 1:20 am

Re: How much do you budget for vacation?

Post by pacamoky »

Speaking of vacations, does anyone else struggle with feeling some remorse due to the carbon footprint created from traveling?
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