High Travel Budget

[Livethedream]

Hoping for some feedback on if this sounds like too pricey of a yearly travel budget.

In 2 years we plan to start traveling around 6-8 weeks a year with our two young children, would be 3 and 6.

Our take home just went up and is around $120k a year. Our house will be paid off when we start traveling ($450k), around ($750k) in rentals, and $120k in other retirement accounts.

Is spending $10-15k a year seem crazy? A month in Hawaii, a cruise, and a couple other trips.

[terran]

I mean, it's high, but you also have a high net worth. Will you still be able to meet your goals otherwise? That's all that really matters.

[Livethedream]

True. We would still be investing $50k, and saving around $10k for vehicle replacements etc.

[MMMdude]

I don't think this is high at all.  We are planning on around 12k per year in travel costs - hoping to slow travel one month in a spot and then two further vacations per year when deals arrive.  Having said that i'm a big time travel/credit card churner although options are limited in CAnada.

[Sarah Saverdink]

We spend a ton on travel (and love it), so I'm supportive. We do have a higher household income and have a lot of discretionary spending.

My recommendation is to consider churning credit cards and other travel hacks to help reduce travel costs. Southwest will be offering flights to Hawaii soon and it's easy to earn a companion pass when you sign up for two of their credit cards. Reddit r/churning has a ton of advice on the topic.

[Livethedream]

We spend a ton on travel (and love it), so I'm supportive. We do have a higher household income and have a lot of discretionary spending.

My recommendation is to consider churning credit cards and other travel hacks to help reduce travel costs. Southwest will be offering flights to Hawaii soon and it's easy to earn a companion pass when you sign up for two of their credit cards. Reddit r/churning has a ton of advice on the topic.

Our plan is to do the southwest companion pass double credit card, one for me and one for my wife. We’re near Sacramento where supposedly they will be flying to Hawaii. With the two companion passes we will only need to purchase two tickets

[DreamFIRE]

I'm looking at up to $30,000 for a fun/travel budget, but that's during FIRE for a whole year, not for just 6 to 8 weeks of the year.  I figured I would be doing slow travel for longer periods.  Of course, that's also for just one person.

[MrThatsDifferent]

It doesn’t seem crazy to me. I just think you could probably do it with half that money, but it depends on what you want to do. Most costs are with flights, hotel, food, souvenirs and excursions. With flights, make sure you go at off-peak times and try to leave/return on Wednesday’s, never Fri-Sun. Use points as much as possible. I find Airbnb a much better deal than hotel rooms most of the time. Cook for yourselves most of the time. With 2 young kids, maybe forgo expensive excursions for parks, walking, natural beauty and other low cost stuff until the kids can remember it. Invest in getting a babysitter one or 2 days so you guys can explore on your own. Don’t buy any souvenirs or any stuff, it’s useless and meaningless. Take pictures and get them framed, that’ll last forever. Try to travel as lightly as possible. Good luck.

[jeroly]

It seems about right for your planned amount of travel time, but the real question is whether you have the assets to support the retirement income you'll need. At $870k in rental property and retirement savings, that's about $34k/yr total for the four of you at a 4% rate. Can you get by on that, especially if you spend $15k on travel? (Don't forget health insurance costs!)

[Livethedream]

It seems about right for your planned amount of travel time, but the real question is whether you have the assets to support the retirement income you'll need. At $870k in rental property and retirement savings, that's about $34k/yr total for the four of you at a 4% rate. Can you get by on that, especially if you found $15k on travel? (Don't forget health insurance costs!)

Good reminder, i am 31 and plan to fire at 45 so we have quite a ways to go!

[chasesfish]

I'm all for the travel budget you laid out, I am proud of some of my $10k+ travel years during our wealth accumulation phase, especially now that my wife has been dealing with medical issues for almost a year and a half that's restricted what we can do.  You can't ever plan on when that crap happens (two months shy of her 35th birthday).

FYI - Hawaii doesn't have to be that expensive, rent a 1 bedroom place with a full kitchen.  The best food out in Hawaii is served at lunch, often at roadside stands or from the window of a mini-market.  Avoid Honolulu and you'll be fine on expenses

[sokoloff]

It’s not crazy high, provided the rest of your financial story is developing as you like. We spend a fair bit more than that on travel, as having our family have travel experiences and see family is important to us and the money is there. It’s enough that it might delay true FI by a couple of years in our case, but we’ve made that trade off. (With kids in elementary school and a job I like, I’m not RE for many years past the FI date anyway.)

For your situation, figure out how sensitive your FI date is to $5K/yr vs $15K/yr of travel and decide what you’re comfortable with. If you’re still putting away $50K/yr with your current travel, you’re probably ok.

[Dragonswan]

That's a decent travel budget.  However, how's the children's college savings coming along?  At this age they won't remember much about the vacations (especially the 3 yo) and the money might be better set aside for their college education in these early years.  Then when they are older and can remember and appreciate the adventures you could spend this kind of money on vacations while letting compound interest take over growing the college fund.