What % of your gross annual income do you spend on vacations?

[Mdmulier]

What percentage of your gross annual income do you spend on vacations? Is there a rule out there somewhere?

I've read a lot about allotting > 20% of yearly salary for savings and retirement, but haven't really seen much about what's considered "sensible" when it comes to vacation budget.

[8arclay]

For us its less than 1%. Combination of high income, infrequent vacations, frugal trips most of the time, and travel hacking (reward points/miles).

Example: We're going to an all-inclusive in the Carribbean in February, business class round trip. All in out of pocket will be under $500

[afan]

Less than 1%. Probably a lot less. Too little to include in a budget.

[JBME]

instead of a percentage maybe think about a dollar amount. You can have some very nice vacations for a total of $20k/yr. For many here that is at most 5% of gross

[bovie]

Highly variable, but simply a portion of discretionary income and no more specific than that.

[pit.alumni]

Over the past 7 years as empty nesters we have spent about 7% on travel. Now semi retired with much lower income and expenses probably 20-25% of our spending will be on travel. We value travel and experiences generally over possessions. Also my schedule was such that I could take off a month at a time. So this included Safaris to Africa, overwater bungalows in Bora, S America and Asia as well as generous time on tropical beaches. When Covid shut travel down shortly after I retired from clinical medicine I didn't feel cheated that I was missing out on delayed plans, rather I felt fortunate that I had not waited and lived well along the way. The journey is everything.

[MaxPower]

Somewhere between 5-10%. We travel quite a bit, and when we do we usually go all out. And now that our kids are older and can do and tolerate more, we are doing bigger but more infrequent trips due to their schedules.

[VagabondMD]

Over the past 7 years as empty nesters we have spent about 7% on travel. Now semi retired with much lower income and expenses probably 20-25% of our spending will be on travel. We value travel and experiences generally over possessions. Also my schedule was such that I could take off a month at a time. So this included Safaris to Africa, overwater bungalows in Bora, S America and Asia as well as generous time on tropical beaches. When Covid shut travel down shortly after I retired from clinical medicine I didn't feel cheated that I was missing out on delayed plans, rather I felt fortunate that I had not waited and lived well along the way. The journey is everything.

This is completely a phase-in-life-related question. The nature of vacation changes with the presence of children, as your children get older, empty nest, kids fully launched, going part-time or transitioning to Career 2.0 (less salary), more wealth (hopefully) as you get older, and any other priorities.

It also depends on the importance of travel in your life. For me, it is hugely important. The next person might prefer mostly going to their mountain/lake/beach home. The next person might enjoy the golf club. The next might have in-town grandchildren that consume a great deal of their free time, etc.

Also, how do you define "vacation". Is it a week in Hawaii at a resort? Of course, that's an easy one. What about a weekend staying with your family a 3 hour drive away? A 90 minute plane ride and long weekend for the wedding of a cousin and staying in a Courtyard Marriott? Driving your daughter to college 6 hours away and returning the next day?

In summary, it is not generalizable. If I had to WAG I, I would say 3-5% over the years, but once the college kids are launched, it might be 5-10%, and if my wife soon retires, it could spike to 10-20%.

[wideopenspaces]

Agree with others, we don't follow any hard and fast rules about vacation spending as a % of income. Our income has varied a ton since finishing residency but amount spent on travel has not followed course. I'd say we probably average 20k/yr. With kids and my dislike of flying and covid we haven't done any international travel so it'll probably increase in the future when it becomes a thing for us.

[Anne]

No hard rules. Has always been somewhere under 5%. DINK with family and friends in other countries.

I love travel, especially international travel. I love feeling out of my element, trying to communicate whether or not I know the language, being outdoors in new places, getting a different point of view on the world, trying to see the US from a different lens, eating new foods, meeting new people. None of this is particularly expensive, outside of the price to get there. I’ve gone on some more expensive trips and sometimes I felt the value, but in general I don’t value luxury travel, I value exploring other cultures. Not knocking anyone who does value luxury travel though…if you do best to figure this out early so you can know how much money you will need to fuel your travel in the way you desire.

[Tim]

Vacations are lumpy, especially with the pandemic and new factors (family and restrictions).

[Kamban]

I like a few material possessions but value travel a lot. As a percentage I spent much more on travel early in life as a resident in UK and US. But later in life I have spent the same percentage or less but much more dollars since my income and /or net worth increased. I recently have had sticker shock on how much hotel prices and airfares have increased in 2022. It would not surprise me if I start to spend 100K or more in travel from next year onwards.

[Notsobad]

I’m shooting for 50%, one day. Not sure that we will hit that, even in the first couple years of retirement when we go on a traveling binge.

of course, pre-pandemic, we were close to the posters above. During the pandemic, dramatically lower.

all of us spend on different luxuries. If you make aggressive savings goals and meet them, spend the rest on what you like.

[StarTrekDoc]

Probably better would be ave cost per week trip to establish level of luxury spend and how often that is done per year.

Dollar value of our vacations typically run about $4-5k per week including flights/travel/meals/entertainment.

*Of course, we travel hack a lot of these so actual $ cost is much lower.

[pierre]

For us its less than 1%. Combination of high income, infrequent vacations, frugal trips most of the time, and travel hacking (reward points/miles).

Example: We're going to an all-inclusive in the Carribbean in February, business class round trip. All in out of pocket will be under $500

How much do you have to spend to earn enough points to cover the cost of a trip like this?