Why You Should Still Save for Travel When You Can't Go Anywhere

Our collective covid quarantine has thrown a wrench in the works of a lot of travel plans. Destination weddings became backyard affairs. We cancelled honeymoons and bucket list trips, conferences and cruises. Everything from yearly family vacations to girls’ weekend getaways took a hit.

For some, scaled down weddings and postponed plans have been a bit of a blessing. Like this article says, people who usually have a ton of travel obligations have found that they were able to save thousands of dollars from cancelled trips--dollars that have been repurposed, whether for paying down student loans, beefing up an emergency fund, or providing a cushion in the event of unemployment.

One question we trainers have been hearing a lot is whether it still makes sense to pad your travel fund even if we have no idea when you’ll be wheels up again. Do you really need to put hundreds of dollars aside for travel when we don’t know when it will be safe to hit the road again? 

Our answer is yes.

Of course, if you are out of work or struggling to make ends meet, prioritizing your travel fund may not be the wisest move. However, if you have the flexibility, keeping that account well funded has a lot of perks. 

Here are 3 good reasons to continue your contributions to your travel fund, even when your passport is gathering dust.

#1

It takes time to save money, and travel can be expensive. 

For instance, if you have the flexibility to put $200/month away for travel, it will take a year to save up $2,400. Depending on your travel style that could be a few fun trips, but if you have your sights set on higher dollar holidays, this might not get you where you want to go, when you want to go. Saving early and often for travel just gives you more latitude later. This is also true for travel rewards you earn through points and miles credit cards. If you’re spending within your means, it can take quite a while until those points add up to a plane ticket.

#2

The tourism industry is really struggling and some of the deals we’re seeing are super cheap.

In an effort to keep the lights on, airlines, hotels, and tour companies are offering great deals with flexible terms on future travel. If you don’t have money set aside for future vacations, how are you going to be able to jump on that crazy deal on the overwater bungalow of your dreams or those cut rate business class flights? The best budget travelers know that it’s all about acting fast when you see a once in lifetime deal.

#3

You need an “Oh wow!” fund (almost) as much as you need an “Oh Sh*t!” fund.

You need money for emergencies, and prioritizing an emergency fund is at the very core of the Financial Gym philosophy. But just like you can’t know what struggles life might throw at you, you also don’t know what opportunities might come your way. We want you to be just as prepared for the good things as you are for the bad. Being “good with money” isn’t just about saying no to spending. It’s also about being able to say yes when opportunities arise, and knowing you can do so responsibly.

At the end of the day, it all goes back to something I tell a lot of my clients who are a little afraid to save in big numbers: you aren’t setting the money on fire, you’re just setting it aside. In this case, we might not know how or when we’ll use those savings, but we do know that you won’t regret being prepared to say yes.

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