How much do you spend on vacations?

[rchampagne]

We're thinking about going crazy in 2020, and taking 3 big vacations (including Disney, of course).
So I'm curious... what percentage of your household annual income do you spend on vacations annually?
(Vacation-spent / Annual-Income) * 100 = %

I thought we were spending too much when we previously spent about 6%, but we're thinking 10% next year.

 

[Meglen]

our 2 person trip this year we are spending about 4% our last 4 person family trip was about 7%

 

[shu24]

Dang! You are making me do math. My total vacay budget ( family trip to the beach this summer, a mom/dd trip to WDW this fall ) will be about 4.5% of our yearly income.

 

[Disneyfan754321]

its hard for me to say, one of our trips is paid for using all of our tax refund and other trips in the year are made when my husband gets a good bonus.... so we spend 15-20% and last year I spent 5000 on one trip at Christmas then Disney 3 months later. We live to play.. We do not have car payments we do not have credit cards we just want to live it up while we can.
The funny part is our older kids when they were young we did vacations in state never spending more than 2000 on one week. on the same pay we make now but with there younger brothers we go to Orlando, Colorado every year.

 

[Forevermarypoppins]

I have no idea what % I spend yearly on Vacation, but I do try to deposit $100 every paycheck. I save all my change for vacation and sometimes extra $$ goes into that account too. We do not take a "big" vacation every year.

 

[Magical2017]

It depends on the year. We have several vacations coming up but my mom paid for airfare for one trip, and another is to a cabin at the lake that is very reasonably priced. We also have a cruise booked for January 2020 that is our family's main Christmas present to one another.

 

[Marionnette]

3% of our post-tax income. It’s a line item in our budget.

 

[kathy884]

OP, Are you talking pre-tax or post tax?

For me either way it's a higher percentage than it used to be, as DH recently retired. 8% of take home pay (income after state and federal taxes, 401K deductions, medical, dental, and vision, insurance/HOA deduction) and DHs social security income after taxes, or 5% prior to those deductions. I did not included qualified monies (money taken out of retirement savings) in either of those percentages, but that is savings that counts as income. We have cut back a little since DH retired too and typically spend about 7K a year on travel (one big trip (usually in the US or next year a cruise - Caribbean) and a quick visit to relatives on the east coast). We have a credit card that gives us airlines points that helps us go a little further with our travel dollar too. Oh and our cruise next year is out of Port Canaveral, so we have one day at the Magic Kingdom before that cruise next year.

Also, next year and I am not counting this as this is a once in a lifetime trip that is not part of our annual vacation budget (separate budget item already funded for a one time trip). We will be spending about 11K and taking DS on his bucket list trip to Paris and Belfast. We will do a day park hopper at the Paris Disney parks too.

 

[KayKayJS]

Depends on whether it's take home or gross. I'd say around 10% generally. This year it's less because we are expecting and most of our money is going to medical bills and supplies/furniture for her. Next year it'll probably jump to around 5% and then hopefully in 2021 we can get back to traveling more.

 

[pigletto]

Going forward no more than 1.5% per year of our post tax income. The majority will come from airmiles and other forms of travel hacking, but we have agreed on a set amount that can go into the travel fund. Its not much, and we prefer to fund it mostly outside of regular income because we have specific goals in mind for our money. But travel is a big priority to our family and we will find creative ways to make it happen without cutting into other goals and obligations.

 

[lovewdwfun]

I include all the food we buy on vacation for our family of 6 in our vacation budget. The last couple years we have spent around 10%. Life is short! I have a child with a disability and we are going to enjoy every moment we can. I do max out my 401K and Roth IRA and have no debt other than our low-interest mortgage. The percent on vacation was a lot less when I made less money. As I got my last two promotions, we continued to live in the same house and drive the same cars. A portion of the extra goes to vacation and a portion goes to savings. I found it would’ve been impossible, or much more difficult, to spend $5K a year if we were making $50K total. But at $200K a year, $20K total on three annual vacations isn’t as hard to swing.

 

[Brett Wyman]

We will spend approximately 5.4% of gross this year but we have a lot of vacations planned. We both have our 401ks maxed out and we save an addition 15% of net pay each check into a cash account.

 

[cmarsh31]

7-8% for 2020 right now, higher than usual but we're doing bigger things now with bigger kids.

 

[Disneyfan754321]

I include all the food we buy on vacation for our family of 6 in our vacation budget. The last couple years we have spent around 10%. Life is short! I have a child with a disability and we are going to enjoy every moment we can. I do max out my 401K and Roth IRA and have no debt other than our low-interest mortgage. The percent on vacation was a lot less when I made less money. As I got my last two promotions, we continued to live in the same house and drive the same cars. A portion of the extra goes to vacation and a portion goes to savings. I found it would’ve been impossible, or much more difficult, to spend $5K a year if we were making $50K total. But at $200K a year, $20K total on three annual vacations isn’t as hard to swing.

You are so like me, the game changer for us was hearing your child has cancer, we realized we dont live for work .. we work to live why not live the way we want. We dont make 200k only 100k a year but not having $1000 in car payments and all the money i make goes to fun stuff.

 

[StacyStrong]

I've never really tracked it, but a quick guesstimate (overestimating on numbers) puts me at about 6% recently.

But it depends. I've been doing rundisney races. I'm not sure I want to include race fees in my vacation budget.

But I also put over 1000 in various savings vessels (retirement, hsa, emergency, goal specific) every month on a single income so whatever. I don't want to live like a hermit!

 

[Mikamarii]

Are you talking planning or actually spending!?!? Hahah. Our planning phases are usually in the 20-25% but a day or two later when we realize that's crazy it drops to an average of 8ish %. Ok that's a bit of an exaggeration but but our initial plans are usually wayyyyyy over what we actually end up doing.

 

[cvjw]

We spend a lot of money on travel. Probably 15% or more. Some years more if we do multiple Disney cruises per year.

 

[Minnesota!]

Monthly, we are 7%. But then a portion of my OT or any bonuses or birthday money, etc. goes into it, too. So, as a rule, 7%. But, we spend more than that.

 

[Eeyore daily]

This says that for a Disney vacation I would be spending 20% of my income, although I would have been saving for over two years. Also reiterates the desire to go back to school and get a higher paying career field.

 

[hsmamato2]

I promised DH no more than 10% of take home pay,and I don't think I've ever exceeded 6-8% even in a very busy year. So far so good! This is yearly-