What percentage of your income do you devote to travelling?

25 comments

1. 0%

   Two jobs currently: admin assistant and housekeeper.

2. hmm, like for leisure and not ‘to and from work’? Maybe 15-20%. Military.

3. 5-15% depending on the year. We usually do one bigger expensive trip a year and then a whole bunch of smaller ones. Usually less expensive things like camping. Fresh water dolphin polisher.

4. Gross income – taxes – expenses = travel money.

5. I don’t devote a certain percentage, but I like to save around $3,000 for a yearly week or two long international trip. It’s difficult for me to take more leave then that so unless I want to something in particular that is quite expensive I probably won’t spend much more than that.

6. I have no idea, I don’t budget that precisely and never have. My bills are paid, my savings and investing is taken care of, how much can I spend on X trip without making too much of a dent is about as far as I budget. In my last job I sold stuff to the construction and architecture industries.

7. No set amount

8. $0

   My paycheck is $230 every two weeks

   Travel isn’t something you do when you live bellow the poverty line

9. I don’t know.

   We usually take two big trips a year, kids and Covid permitting. We do a Disney park every year and something else.

   I’m a CPA/CFP.

10. Can’t give you an exact percentage, anything after paying bills just goes to savings, which traveling comes out of.

    I’d put myself in the category of: 1 major and 1 minor vacation per year. A major vacation being flying somewhere, paying accommodation, and paying for food/entertainment for a week or two. A minor vacation might be more like flying home, free accommodation, and paying for external expenses. And then maybe a couple weekend trips.

11. I don’t know the percentage because our income varies from year to year pretty greatly.

    It’s probably 12K a year on average for a family of 3 to 5 (2 college kids that sometimes come). This year that will include a week of camping on the beach, a week camping on a different beach in a different state, a long weekend to NYC for Christmas shopping, a mandatory trip to Florida for a week (family obligation), a long weekend hiking in White Mountains, a few days in Newport RI, and a week in Charleston.

    We spend very little on things like clothes, hair/salons, restaurants (unless traveling), etc. I cut my own hair, don’t buy coffees or snacks outside the home, and often buy from thrift stores to justify travel expenses.

12. rn 100% but only cuz I quit my job and am roadtripping. When I get another job, a huge chunk is being saved for travel

13. I don’t put any aside specifically for travel. I put maybe 10% away for “fun money”, sometimes it’s used for travel, sometimes it’s used to buy dumb expensive handbags or getting a facial/massage.

14. Depends on the year. This year we took a week-long road trip, visited family for multiple weekends, and took a 2-week cruise in Europe.

    Due to the amount of travel over time, we use points/miles to do a lot of trips. We plan them out a year in advance. For example, we book our cruises and pay for them monthly over the year. This plan makes them much more affordable. Additionally, we forgo Christmas and birthday gifts in favor of excursions or events on our trips.

    My spouse works in IT and I am in Proj Management.

15. 0

16. 5-7%. Wife is a CFO and I’m a freelance writer who actually makes decent money.

    We’re empty-nesters, so we take one two-week vacay a year. A two-week trip actually gives you time to decompress from your job.

    And, if you’re smart about it, it’s not that costly. For example, we have a Hilton Honors AMEX card. It’s pretty generous with hotel points for your purchases. So we buy everything on that card. Gas, groceries, you name it.

    We pay it off every month and then plan our trips using our points. For example, when we went to South Africa for two weeks, we didn’t have to pay a dime for our hotel stays. When we drove out west for two weeks, we paid for one night in a hotel. France? There were fewer Hilton properties there, but it paid for about half our hotel rooms. We’ve also used to it for our kids travel. For example, our daughter and son were in Vienna for a week last month, and our other son was in Singapore for several days a couple of weeks ago. Our points didn’t cover the entirety of their stays but it sure helped.

    There are also airline cards, too. But we like the Hilton Honors because it’s more likely you’ll need hotel rooms than airlines.

17. We don’t devote a specific percentage of money for travel. We usually take a big trip every 2-3 years, with smaller beach trips/weekend getaways every year.

18. I make comfortable money (tech recruiter) but don’t spend much on traveling, <5% of my income. It’s not a major pasttime of mine, most of my family is local so I don’t travel for holidays, and I resent the high prices of lodging and transportation. Most of the leisure trips I *do* take are small weekend trips to nearby areas within my state or a bordering state.

19. Nothing specifically, it’s not an important area for me

20. We go to the beach for a week every year and that costs about 3.5% of my salary, so 3.5%.

21. I don’t budget for traveling specifically. If we have the money to go somewhere, we go there. Generally we do 3-4 out of state trips a year.

22. What is… Tra-vel?

23. Our last trip was about 2% of our gross income. Typically less than 10% because we usually drive to where we’re going.

24. 30-40%, seriously. Traveling while I can, but it’s easier when you’re by yourself.

    Always travel when you get the chance to

25. When I used to travel a lot for work, I would get a ton of airline and hotel points.

    I’d take weekend trips and a few international trips per year all for free.

    Would just pay for food (but also had airport and hotel lounge access which came with complimentary food and drinks). Even my Uber/Lyft rides were based on points.

    This was all before the pandemic. I work 100% remotely now so no longer have the airline and hotel status and don’t gain as many points. It was a fun chapter in my life and got to travel a lot for work or for pleasure (and mostly free) in my 20s.