It's finally summer!
Many of us can't wait for our upcoming vacations to the beach, the mountains or somewhere in between. Whether you're almost finished planning your trip or just starting, we've got financial tips for stress-free vacation planning to help you out. These come from Inna's appearance on the Fiduciary Voices FinLit Series in 2024. (You can watch the video conversation at the end of this article.)
- Involve your children in planning not just vacation activities but vacation finances. Have your kids pick an activity they want to do and pay for from their own accounts.
- Use the bucketing approach to saving. This means you keep separate "buckets" or accounts for different savings goals. For vacation, you can open a new savings account, name it "Vacation" for that psychological boost and have every family member contribute to the account.
- Use credit cards aligned with an airline or hotel that you plan to take or stay at. This way you can take advantage of accrued points and miles. Eventually, you'll be able to use those points or miles to pay for airplane tickets and hotel stays.
- Research, research and research so you understand the total cost of the trip. Plan out meals and activities in advance so you know the price and then add in a bit of financial buffer. Track the expenses you’ll be accruing. You can use an online tool like Monarch Money, which is excellent for tracking all your expenses, not just vacation costs.
- Figure out how long you will need to save enough money for your vacation. Is it one year or a few months?
- If you go on a long, adventurous trip, take care of some of your estate planning documents. You don’t want to think about something tragic happening but having these documents in place is important because things happen. Have a will, especially if you have children, because you name guardians in your will. Power of attorney for financial matters, healthcare proxy who can make healthcare related decisions on your behalf.
Final Thoughts
Vacation is such an amazing time and experience to plan with your children but planning ahead always helps. We hope you have an amazing summer and a stress-free summer vacation!
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