Family Vacation Poll

[F.M.]

Alright..... without getting too personal. How does everyone typically pay for a family vacation?

A little back story:
Family of 4. My wife and I own our own business, and make a decent living. We live more comfortably than most of our friends and family, but not to excess. We've made both of our children, 12 & 19, get jobs to teach them some financial responsibility (They don't seem to want the fancy shoes/clothes as much when they have to pay for half of them). We have only 1 credit card that might get used 2-3 times per year, but we have never carried a balance on it. Other than our mortgage, we have 1 car loan that I haven't rushed to pay off because it's at 0% interest, and a boat loan (but just until someone here buys it off me). We might eat out once a week. My 19yo is a student, but she got a full scholarship and still lives at home, so it costs me very little. And we're able to squirrel away a little money every month with the hopes of retiring before we're 60. My wife and I are happy with what we have been able to accomplish in life thus far. And our kids seem genuinely happy with their lives as well. We seem to live a very stress free life compared to what we see in our friend group. We take an occasional family trip, but not regularly. We sometimes get a little jealous of others and would like to travel a little more, but vacationing just seems so expensive that I have a hard time justifying it.

So on to my quandary....

It seems like our friends are taking vacations to Disney every summer. All while taking long weekend trips 5-6 times per year. Then going on multiple ski trips during the winter. A new vehicle purchase/lease every 2-3 years. Eating out or ordering in most evenings. And purchasing and trading in ATVs and UTVs every time the wind blows a certain way.

How does one make all that work without being in debt up to your eyeballs and living paycheck to paycheck? Am I just clenching my wallet too tightly, or just doing it wrong altogether? Should I get a credit card to use solely for travel and pay it off over the following 12 months before doing it again? Or should I throw caution to the wind and just use what we've been saving and not retire as early?

Rant over. Thoughts?

 

[Trannyguy]

Well we own a transmission and auto repair shop and have been greatly blessed financially but we got a credit card with good rewards and we purchase everything through the year with it then we cash it in once a year to use for vacation. It’s a lot easier to spend free money

 

[TimW451]

Don’t get trapped into a ”keeping up with the Joneses” scenario. Maybe the people who do/spend more than you are maxed out, put everything on credit, and or dont have an emergency fund or retirement savings. Work within your means and your priorities.

 

[Sbrown]

Rich Dad, Poor Dad says if you want something, you make a plan to achieve it without touching your existing finances, and definitely without taking anything out of savings. I, too, own my own businesses, but I also have a side hustle strictly for cash. That cash is what I use for vacations. We only vacation as much or as fancy as my side hustle cash lets us. I also never stop saving that side hustle cash, even if we miss out on vacations like we did in 2020. I just have that much more saved for when we do decide to vacation. Unfortunately "cash" wasnt one of the options on your poll.

 

[F.M.]

Rich Dad, Poor Dad says if you want something, you make a plan to achieve it without touching your existing finances, and definitely without taking anything out of savings. I, too, own my own businesses, but I also have a side hustle strictly for cash. That cash is what I use for vacations. We only vacation as much or as fancy as my side hustle cash lets us. I also never stop saving that side hustle cash, even if we miss out on vacations like we did in 2020. I just have that much more saved for when we do decide to vacation. Unfortunately "cash" wasnt one of the options on your poll.

It is now.

I also side hustle, but that's my gun and ammo money.

 

[F.M.]

Don’t get trapped into a ”keeping up with the Joneses” scenario. Maybe the people who do/spend more than you are maxed out, put everything on credit, and or dont have an emergency fund or retirement savings. Work within your means and your priorities.

We're really content with where we are in life, we've been really blessed. The Joneses are way out of my league by the way. I occasionally just need a 5 minute or so rant to clear my head.

 

[Sbrown]

It is now.

I also side hustle, but that's my gun and ammo money.

I hear you, unfortunately I lost all my guns in a terrible boating accident

 

[AZMark]

Sounds like you’re living right.

For a responsible person I would suggest getting a rewards or at least cash back credit card and put everything on it you can, but pay it off every month. I am shocked at how much money we get back every year, definitely enough for a weekend away.

 

[F.M.]

Sounds like you’re living right.

For a responsible person I would suggest getting a rewards or at least cash back credit card and put everything on it you can, but pay it off every month. I am shocked at how much money we get back every year, definitely enough for a weekend away.

I've seriously considered that. I guess I'm just thinking that once I retire, I'll be on a permanent vacation.

 

[AZMark]

Here’s a chart of the ratio of total US household debt to GDP for the last 60 years that also answers your question. You can thank banks and finance companies for their excellent marketing efforts and constantly increasing loan terms.

 

[SamAR195]

We play the points and cash back game. Charge everything and pay it all off each month. We pay for one big trip and a few weekenders each year this way. It’s an easy way to track all spending too. I cash points out regularly on Home Depot gift cards. Lord knows they take all my money.
We live debt free and busted ass to own everything cash.

 

[F.M.]

We live debt free and busted ass to own everything cash.

That's what we're doing, trying to get debt free to get the the next stage of our lives.

 

[WiskyDan]

I travel quite a bit for work and we get a pretty decent daily per diem. I rarely eat out when I travel so I pocket most of the cash and if I drive somewhere I get mileage as well. Depending on if I drive or fly, I’ll pocket anywhere from $250-$500 per week which goes into my slush fund.

I earn a lot of hotel, car, and airlines points as well so we can usually take at least one lengthy vacation per year where all of that stuff is covered.

 

[msavold]

Interesting question but not one one that I can answer easily since there isn't a 'one or some of all of the above' option. Honestly, it varies so much with where/when/how and with who we're going. We have cards that give us reward points and like some others have said we run a lot of everyday things through them (gas, groceries) and pay them off in full every month (stating the obvious, get hit with interest for a month of two and the points/rewards are worthless). And then there's air miles I get for work travel. Big trip like two weeks in Europe and we'll save up for it and perhaps combine the land portion with some air miles for the flight. That sort of thing. Other than a "loan" from the credit card company to be paid back in full a month later, I can't see borrowing for a vacation - although we did do that once, when we were both poor fresh out of college and wanted to go on a honeymoon!

 

[Outnumbered212S]

Stashed Cash / Savings - We use the envelope system. We set aside envelopes for larger purchases.
Examples
-2 vacations for this year
-Gas for the boat all summer
-Wife's 40th in 2 years
-New Truck down payment in June 2023
-License Plates
-Date nights

You get the idea. Just stuff that's usually 4 figures or more.
We also have a standard Saving and 401K's

 

[NewBoater]

We use our Southwest card for everything we can and pay it off each month and fly free many times each year which helps save lots of $ for trips.

 

[captainhook]

I don’t do debt and am fortunate enough to be able to do a big trip each year and a few small ones. But there are a couple of ways to look at this. When you’re young enough to enjoy everything you don’t have the time or money to do so. But when you’re old enough to have the time and money, you’re too old and it’s too late and you’ll never get that time back. In addition, I know my days are numbered being able to spend time with all of my kids on vacation as I never get to with my parents. I try to strike a good balance in between. That said I did a lot of scrimping and saving and waiting when I was younger to get here.

I would never borrow money to go on vacation and think that’s about the dumbest thing you can do. I was just in Disney a couple of weeks ago and always wonder how the hell these people are affording this as I fight the heartburn the entire time I’m there and we do it about as frugally as possible (only two park days, plan everything out, etc.). Keeping up with these idiots on Facebook flaunting everything is a lost cause and will lead you to the poor house in short order.

 

[captainhook]

By the way, I think Facebook and social media has significantly exacerbated this “Keeping up with the Joneses” problem. The people who seem the happiest on there are always frauds.

 

[F.M.]

Keeping up with these idiots on Facebook flaunting everything is a lost cause and will lead you to the poor house in short order.

That's why I don't do social media of any kind. I don't have nor have I ever had a single social media account. This forum is as close as I get to social media.

 

[malibu Dan]

Before we moved into the home we had built ( finally) the wife would book a 7-10 day get away every few years to an all inclusive like Sandals and make monthly payments up until our leave date. We could never afford such an excursion out of pocket up front but paying on it slowly was unnoticed.