Author Topic: Article: "How Can You Not Afford to Travel?"  (Read 6270 times)

the_gastropod

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Article: "How Can You Not Afford to Travel?"
« on: August 11, 2015, 12:11:44 PM »
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alyssa-ramos/how-can-you-not-afford-to-travel_b_7835016.html

My favorite quote:
Quote
Using a credit card has not only allowed me to gain credit and a ton of travel reward points, but also to take the trips I want to take now and worry about paying them off when I'm older and not as adventurous later.

Oh, and yes, I understand you have student loan debts, almost everyone in America does, but hopefully that great job you got with your degree will allow you to easily pay your student loans and travels off when you're older.

sheepstache

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Re: Article: "How Can You Not Afford to Travel?"
« Reply #1 on: August 11, 2015, 12:18:42 PM »
Ha ha ha. Well except for the thing about debt and not saving for the future, though, it is bit mustachian. Because so many people claim they "can't afford" something because "it's impossible to save money."

Reminds me of this:
http://www.itchyfeetcomic.com/2014/09/a-penny-saved.html#.Vco8cPlViko


slugline

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Re: Article: "How Can You Not Afford to Travel?"
« Reply #2 on: August 11, 2015, 12:39:52 PM »
I liked this quote even better:

Quote
I really don't get why late 20s/early 30s people are trying to save for the future instead of living in the present.

Sounds crazy, but future self may turn out to wish present self did save a little more. . . .

AlanStache

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Re: Article: "How Can You Not Afford to Travel?"
« Reply #3 on: August 11, 2015, 12:49:10 PM »
Half the article was ok; then the other what was bat shit crazy-stupid! 

sheepstache

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Re: Article: "How Can You Not Afford to Travel?"
« Reply #4 on: August 11, 2015, 12:55:24 PM »
Put another way, it's kind of a facepunch for people who refuse to take responsibility for their lives. 'But I caaaan't travel. You're so luuuuuucky.' <facepunch>You could travel if you stopped whining and did something about it!</facepunch>

I also love this lowest-common-denominator counter-argument in the comments. I see it all over the place. Writer makes a suggestion. Immediate backlash: 'But not EVERYONE can do that!! What about people with kids?? What about people with no legs??? What about people who are IN A COMA AND ON FIRE????'
Well maybe the article's not goddamn written for them! You'd have to have pretty poor fucking reading comprehension to think the writer thought their advice would be applicable to people on foodstamps in public housing addicted to heroin or something. Like do us all a favor and just don't be so fucking stupid, okay? If the rule is that everything written has to apply to every goddamn blessed soul on earth, then very very few topics are available.

I had this recently with some friends in a debate about the advice that people move when the local economy is bad. Apparently this is terrible advice because not everyone can move. Sigh.
At first I was sad because I saw a man who had no shoes. So I founded an organization to provide shoes to people. Until I saw a man who had no feet. And then I shut down my organization because obviously shoes are a stupid solution that are no good to anyone.


LiveLean

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Re: Article: "How Can You Not Afford to Travel?"
« Reply #5 on: August 11, 2015, 12:59:26 PM »
I went backpacking through Europe after high school and college graduations for five weeks each time with money I earned from working iin high school and college, living MMM as a teenager/young adult and traveling that way, too.

Life-defining trips for me, not just because of the experiences themselves but because it taught me the value of saving for the important stuff and not wasting money on unimportant stuff.

This really shouldn't be so difficult, is it?

Eric

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Re: Article: "How Can You Not Afford to Travel?"
« Reply #6 on: August 11, 2015, 01:43:04 PM »
Put another way, it's kind of a facepunch for people who refuse to take responsibility for their lives. 'But I caaaan't travel. You're so luuuuuucky.' <facepunch>You could travel if you stopped whining and did something about it!</facepunch>

I also love this lowest-common-denominator counter-argument in the comments. I see it all over the place. Writer makes a suggestion. Immediate backlash: 'But not EVERYONE can do that!! What about people with kids?? What about people with no legs??? What about people who are IN A COMA AND ON FIRE????'
Well maybe the article's not goddamn written for them! You'd have to have pretty poor fucking reading comprehension to think the writer thought their advice would be applicable to people on foodstamps in public housing addicted to heroin or something. Like do us all a favor and just don't be so fucking stupid, okay? If the rule is that everything written has to apply to every goddamn blessed soul on earth, then very very few topics are available.

I had this recently with some friends in a debate about the advice that people move when the local economy is bad. Apparently this is terrible advice because not everyone can move. Sigh.
At first I was sad because I saw a man who had no shoes. So I founded an organization to provide shoes to people. Until I saw a man who had no feet. And then I shut down my organization because obviously shoes are a stupid solution that are no good to anyone.

Preach!!

NoraLenderbee

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Re: Article: "How Can You Not Afford to Travel?"
« Reply #7 on: August 11, 2015, 04:47:30 PM »
Traveling when you're young is great. Borrowing money to do it with the plan that you will pay it off (with years of interest) when you're older and have other responsibilities is not great.

2ndTimer

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Re: Article: "How Can You Not Afford to Travel?"
« Reply #8 on: August 11, 2015, 07:25:48 PM »
At first I was sad because I saw a man who had no shoes. So I founded an organization to provide shoes to people. Until I saw a man who had no feet. And then I shut down my organization because obviously shoes are a stupid solution that are no good to anyone    I am stealing this!

YK-Phil

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Re: Article: "How Can You Not Afford to Travel?"
« Reply #9 on: August 11, 2015, 07:38:05 PM »
Good article, for the most part. Obviously, the part about charging trips on a credit card and worrying about paying them later, is a bit of a stretch. I really like his last word of advice about getting TEFL certified and moving to Thailand to teach English, which is something I always recommend to a lot of my younger friends, including my own children, who feel stuck in a boring 9-to-5 job.

zephyr911

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Re: Article: "How Can You Not Afford to Travel?"
« Reply #10 on: August 12, 2015, 01:52:26 PM »
I liked this quote even better:

Quote
I really don't get why late 20s/early 30s people are trying to save for the future instead of living in the present.

Sounds crazy, but future self may turn out to wish present self did save a little more. . . .
And I don't understand why anyone (Mustachian or otherwise) thinks those two things are mutually exclusive.

The entire core premise of MMM is that consumerists are bankrupting themselves chasing convenience and luxury WITHOUT being happier in the present, and that you can be just as happy now, and far happier in the future, if you focus on happiness itself, right now, and use science and logic to optimize the pursuit.thereof.

russianswinga

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Re: Article: "How Can You Not Afford to Travel?"
« Reply #11 on: August 12, 2015, 03:29:05 PM »
I agree with the premise of using a credit card to travel...
I've used a credit card to get 50,000 points on Southwest, 50,000 miles on American, and will soon get 50,000 points on Delta. For free. Combined with the right discount fares, that will get me up to 2 round trip tickets to europe!
And yes, I do pay all the CC's off at the end of the month.

margarita

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Re: Article: "How Can You Not Afford to Travel?"
« Reply #12 on: August 12, 2015, 04:50:45 PM »
Put another way, it's kind of a facepunch for people who refuse to take responsibility for their lives. 'But I caaaan't travel. You're so luuuuuucky.' <facepunch>You could travel if you stopped whining and did something about it!</facepunch>

I also love this lowest-common-denominator counter-argument in the comments. I see it all over the place. Writer makes a suggestion. Immediate backlash: 'But not EVERYONE can do that!! What about people with kids?? What about people with no legs??? What about people who are IN A COMA AND ON FIRE????'
Well maybe the article's not goddamn written for them! You'd have to have pretty poor fucking reading comprehension to think the writer thought their advice would be applicable to people on foodstamps in public housing addicted to heroin or something. Like do us all a favor and just don't be so fucking stupid, okay? If the rule is that everything written has to apply to every goddamn blessed soul on earth, then very very few topics are available.

I had this recently with some friends in a debate about the advice that people move when the local economy is bad. Apparently this is terrible advice because not everyone can move. Sigh.
At first I was sad because I saw a man who had no shoes. So I founded an organization to provide shoes to people. Until I saw a man who had no feet. And then I shut down my organization because obviously shoes are a stupid solution that are no good to anyone.

This is priceless!   Thank you for the laugh.  Love your sense of humour.



lostamonkey

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Re: Article: "How Can You Not Afford to Travel?"
« Reply #13 on: August 12, 2015, 05:27:51 PM »
Traveling when you're young is great. Borrowing money to do it with the plan that you will pay it off (with years of interest) when you're older and have other responsibilities is not great.

The thing is if you still have student loans and a negative net worth, you are effectively borrowing money to travel whether you pay with a credit card or your savings. Obviously paying high interest on credit cards is stupid though.

I'm a red panda

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Re: Article: "How Can You Not Afford to Travel?"
« Reply #14 on: August 13, 2015, 07:04:40 AM »
I liked this quote even better:

Quote
I really don't get why late 20s/early 30s people are trying to save for the future instead of living in the present.

Sounds crazy, but future self may turn out to wish present self did save a little more. . . .

That reminds me of a scene from How I Met Your Mother- and while I might be mixing two scenes, I think what happened was a table broke, and somehow Lily got impaled with a sword Ted and Marshall were fighting with.  They cut back to years earlier, and the table is put together and a piece is missing.  Ted says "Oh well, that's future Ted's problem".


I think there needs to be a good balance. I am not going to be miserable today to save all for tomorrow- because today is guaranteed, but tomorrow may not come.  But I am also not going to "live like there is no tomorrow"; because it is more than likely that tomorrow WILL come, and I need to be prepared.

Kaminoge

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Re: Article: "How Can You Not Afford to Travel?"
« Reply #15 on: August 16, 2015, 06:58:09 AM »
Now I "need" a 3-D pen. And to think I didn't even know that was a thing until I read the article.

minority_finance_mo

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Re: Article: "How Can You Not Afford to Travel?"
« Reply #16 on: August 16, 2015, 08:21:05 AM »
Her grammar is terrible. How did she get a job working at Huffington Post??

DCKatie09

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Re: Article: "How Can You Not Afford to Travel?"
« Reply #17 on: August 16, 2015, 08:28:34 AM »
Now I "need" a 3-D pen. And to think I didn't even know that was a thing until I read the article.
That was definitely my takeaway from this too. How have we lived without this??

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!