Vacationing and having debt

[marmalade]

I have to assume this is a joke?

I don't think this is a joke, I have 245 years worth of living expenses socked away. You can never be too prepared for the future.

 

[mousefansmom]

I don't think this is a joke, I have 245 years worth of living expenses socked away. You can never be too prepared for the future.

Hmm-hmm. Although I would LOVE to have even 5 years worth of expenses sitting in an account, that just doesn't happen around here.
I work VERY hard--I am a teacher, I work a second job at a country club AND I have a direct sales business (that has recently offered five figure bonuses!). I will be darned if I don't take a vacation whenever I have a chance. I do like to minimize expenses, AND my direct sales company has their conference in Orlando, so I can write off some of my travel expenses which helps a lot. But I agree with so many others...life is just too short--make the memories while you can.

 

[SirDuff]

I don't think this is a joke, I have 245 years worth of living expenses socked away. You can never be too prepared for the future.

In CASH?

Even if one has 5 years worth of living expenses, I don't get the suggestion to have all of it in cash.

 

[Marionnette]

In CASH?

Even if one has 5 years worth of living expenses, I don't get the suggestion to have all of it in cash.

Well, I don't count the Benjamins that are stuffed in a tin can and buried underneath a tree in my backyard. That money is meant for our retirement. Our emergency fund is shoved under the mattress, but it's only 3 years' worth of expenses. We have an agreement that the money in the cookie jar can't be touched because it's supposed to be for the kids' college funds.

 

[marmalade]

In CASH?

Even if one has 5 years worth of living expenses, I don't get the suggestion to have all of it in cash.

It is all cash and I have it stuffed in my mattress.

 

[SirDuff]

Well, I don't count the Benjamins that are stuffed in a tin can and buried underneath a tree in my backyard. That money is meant for our retirement. Our emergency fund is shoved under the mattress, but it's only 3 years' worth of expenses. We have an agreement that the money in the cookie jar can't be touched because it's supposed to be for the kids' college funds.

I thought that everyone knew that the cookie jar was meant for saving up for a new house

 

[Marionnette]

It is all cash and I have it stuffed in my mattress.

You need to diversify. Finance 101 tells you never to keep all of your money in one place!

 

[MagicalMawMaw]

When our kiddos were little we had little $. We however, had plenty to be happy with.

We had a home mortgage & a vehicle payment.
Never any credit card debt, but usually we always had a hospital payment of some sort. Our savings was small but was enough for necessary things that come up in life.

Did we vacation? Yes, every summer we took a week long vacation. No, it wasn't to disney or pricey places but we went somewhere & did something.

We may of stayed in cheap lodging & packed some picnics but our kiddos had a blast! Those are some of our best memories ever! A week of family together time was priceless!

When our oldest daughter graduated from high school we took our first trip to Disney. Each of our kiddos got to pick somewhere to vacation for their graduation & we went again several years later. We drove from Texas, stayed off property & ate most meals off property.

Do we regret vacationing & not saving those few dollars instead? No, no way! Those memories are priceless!

 

[FairestOfThemAll37]

In CASH? Even if one has 5 years worth of living expenses, I don't get the suggestion to have all of it in cash.

This!

 

[lustergirl]

It is all cash and I have it stuffed in my mattress.

Well since we both live in WNY can I come over for some of that cash

 

[pigletto]

You need to diversify. Finance 101 tells you never to keep all of your money in one place!

Exactly. Stuff it in several mattresses. Maybe even the couch.

 

[mom2my3kids]

To each their own, I have no business getting into other finances...In saying this if I waited to have kids until I could afford them I would of never had my kids..

 

[ShayBells]

I haven't read responses and I'm young, but I would hate putting off vacations for bills. It sounds cliche but you only get one life and when I'm 80 and my student loans are paid off and my house is paid off and my car is old and paid off. I'm gonna look back and either say thank God I have those memories or I'm gonna say I wish I would of done more. I'd rather have the former on my mind.

I think it's okay to vacation with any kind of debt as long as you aren't keeping food out of your child's mouth or a stable enough roof over their head to get it done. I say to each their own.

 

[saraschoening]

To each their own, I have no business getting into other finances...In saying this if I waited to have kids until I could afford them I would of never had my kids..

So true!

 

[StuckInKS]

In my opinion, debt is debt. People who say its OK to vacation with mortgage/car payment debt but not with CC debt are probably just trying to rationalize their own vacation habits with these forms of debt while criticizing others for vacationing with the "prohibited" types of debt. Since most people have these types of debt, many believe its OK to vacation while having them. I feel that If you are making your payments and aren't so far in that you should be considering bankruptcy, then why not? We don't have a mortgage or car payments but we DO sometimes carry CC debt. Why is it OK for people with mortgage/car debt to vacation and not us? After all, our credit card payments are MUCH lower than their monthly "standard" debt.

 

[luvdisney00]

Most people don't pay off their mortgage until their kids are grown and out of the house! The older I get the more I believe that life is fragile and unpredictable and you have to make the most of it. We have a mortgage and a car payment and we vacation every year. My kids are 20, 18 and 12 and we have spent a lot on Disney over the years , but I would not trade those memories for ANYTHING! Life is a balance.

 

[MomToOne]

If you have a financial plan that you are comfortable with and are living within, and if vacationing fits into that plan, go for it. I think the people who have the biggest problems are not the people who carry debt necessarily, but rather those people who have no financial plan that deals with emergency and retirement needs. And I'll be honest and say that that belief comes from personal experience and having to face some hard truths myself at one point in life!

 

[merrick]

we got married '99 and had DD in '00 (2 more followed in '05 and '07). we went to kingston or montreal for 3-5 days trips, weekend at great wolf lodge or niagara falls or we went to our MILs cottage. we did not go on our first vacation til '14 and MIL gifted us half the trip. this past year we had to cancel disney part two due to weak canadian dollar. but we got a last minute *very* reasonable trip to dominican republic. i have now booked for disney again this dec, i have been bitten by the bug!!

i realize with our DD in gr 10, we don't have that much time left for family vacations. i have not gone into debt for these holidays but i will say vacations have climbed up the priority list for me.

the amount of debt that people are comfortable with varies greatly. the idea of new car payments scares the pants off of me.... i can't imagine juggling one (or two) in addition to our expenses but others don't bat an eyelash.

i would say if both you and your spouse are in agreement of the priorities, go for it. if you are NOT, then i wouldn't. who needs that thrown in your face for the rest of time....

 

[DnA2010]

Interesting to see this topic surfaced in the year plus since the majority of this discussion we actually took not 1 but 2 Disney trips- we did a VGT week on the fantasy, using aeroplan flights, and a budget week at DL at a super cheap hotel with airmiles tickets.. I don't regret one $. Through following our budget we still did all the regular things (retirement savings, bit extra on mortgage, recently replaced our ancient SUV with a newer one paying cash)
I am getting over my paranoia of spending and accepting that work hard, spend carefully, play hard is who we are
We are now 2.5 months to adding to our family () which wilL be a new challenge, but we are def including vacations in our plans

 

[delilah]

Next month, I will make my last mortgage payment on this house. I am a physician, and I still have about $1500 in student loans from medical school. I am not rushing to pay it off because it has a lower interest rate than my mortgage. Our major wild and crazy expense is the DVC. We have 350 points at SSR and AKL. We first bought in 2004, when our son was 6. It is the 25th anniversary of DVC, and I happened to see an advertisement from about 1993. After seeing that advertisement, the 2016 me wishes that she could have told the 1991 me to use the $35K bonus that the hospital gave me to entice me to move here to purchase DVC. Our family lives in Florida, and we go about twice a year. We have shared so many good times with our extended family that the $10K or so that OKW would have cost at $57 or so a point would have been so worth it. Now that my son is in college, and doesn't want to go to Disney, I could consider selling OKW for almost as much as I would have paid for it. It would have been worth it, even with financing the purchase.