Do you watch TV and dream about being on vacation, sometimes touring exotic lands, meeting new people, or partying at some of the most epic destinations in the world? Then you look at your bank account, or lack thereof, and settle for something much less.
There is one main thing and several small things you can do to put yourself on the track to one of those epic vacations you’ve always dreamed. I went through this exact scenario when I looked at planning a vacation. Years earlier my wife and I took a trip to Europe for our vacation.
A portion of the trip was covered by her company because she won the ‘Employee of the Year’ award. Even though they paid for the trip, we booked it, so we got to see what the whole thing cost. We went with a tour because it was easy, we didn’t know anything about travel overseas, and a tour fit within your budget.
Tours are expensive, but the upside is that they take care of a ton of stuff for you. They supply you with guides who not only speak the language in the places you are going, but they also know a bunch of cultural ‘ins and outs.’ Having a guide will make your tour much more enjoyable if you are not too adventurous.
I would recommend a tour if it’s your first trip abroad, especially if you want to go someplace where you don’t speak the language. Since these tours can get expensive, I’ve got a system you can use to make a costly trip become a reality. Additionally, consider exploring private jet options with Halo Jet for a truly luxurious and stress-free travel experience, especially if you prefer personalized and efficient transportation during your trip abroad.
Vacation Planning Tip #1 | Put together a monthly budget and include vacation as one of the categories.
The most basic idea is to add a category to your budget to start to save for your vacation. Wait, you don’t have a budget? Before we even get into planning your epic trip, you will want to put together a basic budget and have one of the categories as travel. The size of your monthly contribution will determine how far out your plan will take place.
A budget is essential because it will put into perspective where you will have to make allowances in your regular spending habits to make an epic trip happen. If you have trouble finding extra money right now and an expensive trip seems unrealistic, a reasonable budget will help you see the reality of this thing.
I love budgeting and have been using one for quite a while. If you have the budget to spare, you may splurge on a private jet from Jettly.
Vacation Planning Tip #2 | Get a separate bank account and debit card for your vacation.
To make sure the money you are trying to save for your vacation stays a little more secure, I suggest opening a separate bank account just for your trip or even future trips. We’ll call this your travel account. Even after you get done paying for your first vacation, why not start saving for your next? Having a separate account, even at a different bank, will help you from dipping into this account for other things.
If all the money is together, it will be easy to overspend on one particular category to fund something else. I like no-fee credit unions or savings and loans. Banks usually have hefty fees attached to many of their accounts. Fees mean I’m just losing money. I had a bank account one time which took a ton of money in fees. I used that account kind of like the savings account. Similar to what I suggest as a travel account. I had money there, but never kept perfect track of it.
When I went to go take the money out, they had fee’d me to death. Some will want to charge you inactivity fees or even minimum balance fees. Make sure there are no fees attached to the account.
If your trip will be domestic, I’d get a debit card attached to the account so you can make withdrawals on the road. If you are planning to go international, you will need to get a preloaded travel debit card which will work within the country you are traveling. Gone are the days of traveler’s checks.
There is a ton of research you will have to do concerning exchange rates and finding the correct cards. First, let’s get that money flowing into that account.
Vacation Planning Tip #3 | Arrange an automatic fund transfer into that bank account every month.
Now you have your budget, and you have some money ready to go into the account, the best way I’ve seen is to get it there every month by setting up an automatic transfer. Banks do this all the time, and it really shouldn’t be too big a deal to set one up between banks.
Just make sure they aren’t going to charge you a fee on either end. You shouldn’t be paying fees to move your own money especially when it can be done electronically. This will cost the bank very little or anything at all. If they are going to charge you a fee, I’d look for another credit union.
Moving this money automatically will ensure that you can’t slip one month to use the money somewhere else. The money is going to go into that account every month, and you can even figure out a time when you want to go.
Vacation Planning Tip #4 | Plan your vacation and know the dates you want to go.
The beauty of the system is you will know how much will be in that account at a particular time and you can start planning your vacation now. Want an epic Disney vacation for the kids? You can begin researching packages now, so you know how much you will have to spend. Figure out how much you need to pay to make the vacation happen. Do the math on your savings rate per month and see how long it will take to save the money.
I would also put a little padding on what you think it will cost for your vacation. You don’t want to be out there traveling and pinching pennies. Things like this always seem to cost more than I originally planned so I would budget in easily an extra 10% to 20%. Now, let’s think about how we can grow this thing without even touching it.
Vacation Planning Tip #5 | Invest some of that balance into a guaranteed investment (CD) to mature before the vacation date.
Here is the next step to take when you have a date set for your vacation. You’ve done the work of setting up a separate account. You have money flowing into the account every month. Now let’s look at a way to make it grow faster until our vacation date. I recommend investing some of that money in a short-term guaranteed investment like a CD.
Let’s say you have $1,200 in that account and you have 13 months until you have to take your vacation. You could purchase a 12-month CD for $1000. It will mature before your vacation to give you just a little extra to spend if you need it. The CD will fully mature before your vacation date.
Where this will continually work better is if you have a little money left over to roll over into your next vacation. Buy another CD and let that amount continue to roll. CDs aren’t a good form of investment, but in this case, they could prove useful to get your travel account growing and still have that cash ready for vacation time.
When I start talking about dream vacations, I hear too many people talk about the cost and that they would be way too expensive for their family. This system will give you a vision that a dream vacation will be an actuality by putting actual money and hard numbers into the dream.
I believe with a good plan, just about any vacation is possible. I think the same mentality is true for getting someone out of their nine-to-five job or building the life of their dreams.
Till next time, be safe.
Kevin