Avoid Vacations For Large Savings
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Vacations are very expensive. Because they are so expensive, they are a very good lever for increasing your overall savings and wealth. If you choose to stay home and avoid vacationing, you can easily save thousands of dollars each year. This is money that will have a very meaningful impact on your home loan down payment or other major savings goal. When people think about vacations, they tend to focus just on the cost of the hotel room and airfare. This is actually just the tip of the iceberg and vacations have many expenses in addition to your hotel room and airfare such as: eating out at expensive restaurants (or expensive room service), tips, souvenirs, clothes and accessories that you buy in preparation of your trip, and the cost of hiring someone to look after your pets while you are gone. For a one week vacation (or even a weekend vacation), these expenses can quickly eat into your bank account and keep you from your money saving goal. Don't Follow The Crowd - They Don't Care About Your Bank AccountIf you are taking time off from work, it is tempting to go on a vacation because that's what everyone does. When you get back to work, it's always fun to brag about your vacation. However, I strongly suggest challenging the norm and creating a vacation for yourself at home. Instead of taking a trip that costs thousands of dollars why not stay at home for the week and do fun things such as sleeping, shopping, golfing, hobbies and interests that you don't get to during the busy work week, and more. Everyone needs time to relax. By staying home, you don't have to deal with the stresses of traveling and will probably go back to work after your week off even more refreshed than if you had gone on a vacation. Stay Focused on Your Real Goal of Saving MoneyRemember to stay focused on your goal of saving money for your mortgage down payment or other big savings goal. By avoiding trips, you are one step closer to your savings goal. Picture yourself in your new house. Every day in your new house will be like a vacation. It makes sense to sacrifice in the short run to reach your goal of improving every day of your life by purchasing your very own house, condo, or townhouse. If You Decide To Break The Rules, Play It SmartAt the same time, I know that you just must get away sometimes. Rules are meant to be broken and even though avoiding vacationing is an easy rule of quickly reducing your expenses and saving money, it's ok to go on vacations if this will really improve your life and happiness. Just make sure to plan wisely and consider all of the costs ahead of time. By creating a budget and sticking to it, you will greatly reduce the expenses of your vacation. Also worth considering is a compromise. If you're taking a week off from work, why not spend three nights on vacation and the others at home. Cutting your vacation short allows you to still go on a trip but also gain the benefits of staying at home and saving money. If you are planning a vacation, I recommend going on a cruise because all meals and entertainment are included. Once you pay for your cruise and airfare, you are set (except for tips). A great site for saving money on cruises is the Priceline Cruise Home Page. Another cost effective vacation (as long as you can control yourself in the casino) is Las Vegas. You can find reasonable package deals on US Airways Vacations. Before visiting Las Vegas, please keep in mind that the shows, food, and casinos can be very expensive. To make the vacation cheap, you need to research everything ahead of time and find the values. Earn Double Pay While Taking Paid Time OffThe last piece of advice I want to leave you with is for the real power savers among us, people who are willing to do whatever it takes to save for their mortgage down payment as quickly as possible. They want to own a house now and cannot wait. My advice to this group is to save up your vacation days and then take them all at once. Once you are getting paid time off for your vacation, get another job on the side or start your own internet business. That way you are able to make double income from your paid time off and also your vacation job. This is difficult because everyone needs rest to function properly but you can save a ton of money quickly by employing this strategy.
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