Taking a vacation is not only a very North American thing to do, it is therapeutic! Taking a break from your work-a-day world is most likely one of the healthier things you can do, as long as you do not stress over it.
This means to not be stressed in the planning, going to and spending of your hard earned money.
So let’s take a look at a few simple things you can do to save stress-free for next year’s vacation. In addition, part of great vacation saving is realizing that it is not the most expensive vacations spots that make the difference but the memories you create around it.
Now let’s place a dollar amount on this vacation. Let’s use $1,000. How do we get there? This is a solution-oriented article.
Let’s start with your pocket change. Yes, I am suggesting that you do some of your spendings with cash and that you nightly take the change and put it in your large change jar.
Suppose that the average change you received per day was forty-two cents ($0.42). Now suppose you simply saved this in your change jar. Over 365 days, that amount will be $153.30(.42 x 365). Just from this, you are at 15 percent of your goal.
Taking this idea, a step further! How about downloading the Acorns app and tying your credit or debit card to this program? What does this application do, it rounds up your purchases to the next dollar and then takes the difference (the change) and invests it in a diversified portfolio.
So in addition to this, you may have grown on your money! So now with this application, you have an average daily difference of also $0.42 per transaction.
Let’s say that this additional $153.30 grew by a simple 5 percent just to keep it simple you will have an addition $160 towards your vacation every year. So now we have $313 saved towards your vacation savings and you did not even have to think about it or reduce your lifestyle.
This is the no-brainer way to get to 30 percent of the cost of your $1000 vacation.
If you happen to get large tax returns, then in effect you are giving the Federal and State governments your money for a year at zero percent interest. They are borrowing for free from you. How about this, change your W-4 exceptions that more closely allows you to have a higher take home pay and still gives you a small tax return every year.
If your take home pay increased by $80 per month, then discipline yourself to put that in your vacation savings account. You were not going to see it anyway.
So just doing this will give you $960 towards your vacation. Even if it was only $50 per month increase this will give you $600 in your savings with at least some interest growth. Adding up all the strategies, you will have about $930 just doing these simple things over the course of a year.
So you can see that it is easy to save the $1,000 over the course of a year. One last thought. Why not try a vacation that allows you to simply and with excitement plan a two-week vacation around where you live.
There is most likely some great places and scenes to visit daily that are within two hours’ drive from your home. You could create an awesome itinerary and maybe not even spend your entire $1,000.
