Ready to recharge and take that dream vacation? But…your bank account doesn’t agree? If your dream vacation is almost out of reach, how do you come up with the money to make it a reality? Read our tips on how to finance a vacation, and then get ready to pack your bags.
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Tips on How To Finance a Vacation
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Even if after the greatest travel experience ever, the most important thing that puts a damper on your vacation is an inadequate amount of finances. When considering how to finance the trip of a lifetime, there’s a lot that you need to consider. To finance the experience to end all experiences, your options are a number of short, medium, and long-term methods. Let’s dive in and show you what you need with these tips on how to finance a vacation.
Read these Budgeting Tips: Ideas for saving money
Long-Term Investments
This is a long-term way to build money. Invest in ETFs (exchange-traded funds), you could buy and trade bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. Use one of the many apps to guide you to make specific investments in stocks, shares, and real estate. If planning on traveling later in life, a real estate investment makes a significant difference.
When investing, diversifying reduces your risk and improves your investment performance over time. The biggest investment mistake is pulling their money out too soon. If considering the adventure of a lifetime, investing might be the best way to add to your overall finances.
The “Little and Often” Approach
One of the biggest obstacles to saving money is ourselves. We have to get into the mindset of compartmentalizing our finances. Tools can help here.
For example, the 50/30/20 method, where you put 50% of your income on the things you need, 30% on the things you want, and 20% on paying off debt or going into savings.
TravelingInHeels Tip: Personally, I’m a huge fan of Dave Ramsey, the personal finance expert, and his methods of paying off debt and adding to your savings. I highly recommend using his books and tools to take back your financial security, increase your savings, and self-finance your dream vacation.
Before financing your vacation, relieve yourself of your debt. Depending on the level of debt, you could work on the two concurrently. The little and often approach, when it comes to saving, is a very useful tool to build up your finances with a small amount of savings. For example, $5 a day, can soon add up over years. If in a full-time job, saving $5 a day over the course of a year equates to $1,300. It’s a small amount that you won’t miss.
Of course, if saving $10 per day, your savings doubles to $2,600. Savings of $15 a day equates to $3,900 over the course of a year! Start saving small so it doesn’t compromise your lifestyle and you can save it and forget about it.
One of the best pieces of advice for saving for anything and good money management, in general, is to understand what is coming in and what is going out of your account at any one time. Set yourself up a separate bank account or a PayPal account, and leave the money there to build up.
Crowdfunding
Crowdfunding may seem like a “rude” approach to getting money, and if you’re doing so for selfish reasons, it is indeed not cool. If traveling for a deeply personal reason, such as commemorating someone that you have lost, consider using crowdfunding to raise the necessary finances.
With websites like Kickstarter and GoFundMe, where you can set up a campaign, and share it with family, friends, as well as the rest of the world. You might think this is a little bit cheeky asking for money from others, but it all depends on the circumstances.
If choosing to crowdfund, do document your journey and do everything possible to keep all who invested a little (or a lot) up-to-date.
Sponsorships
Similar to crowdfunding, if planning on charity work, set up fundraising events by selling personal possessions online, but you could also raise money via sponsorships. Finding the right organization that will fund you completely depends on what you are aiming to do.
If you are hoping to do charity work or volunteer, you can write directly to a charitable organization that may be able to provide grants. It is important to check every single avenue here.
Getting Paid to Work Abroad
If having difficulties raising your finances, pt to work in one or many of your destinations, or use a combination of efforts to earn as you go. For example, many opt to teach English in other countries, as this gives them the flexibility and freedom to travel, but it also means earning money with a skill that they have in abundance.
Of course, this isn’t the only avenue. You could do some of the following:
- Work on an organic farm.
- Work as an au pair.
- Work for a cruise line or airline.
- Teach classes abroad, for example, yoga or scuba diving.
- House sitting or pet sitting in the country in exchange for your stay.
Start a Travel Blog
Starting a blog is something many people do, but this is also another long-term investment. You’ll need to pour your heart and soul into your travel blog, showcasing to the “world,” father supporters, fans, and followers. This means you’ve got to think a good 5 years into the future needed to allot the time and dedication to setting up a blog that will turn a profit.
If you are looking to fund a blog, you can find some really useful resources online.
Financing your travel experiences requires a combination of short, medium, and long-term efforts to make sure you have everything you need. Hopefully with the above tips on how to finance a vacation, you’ll have some tools to start saving.
