When did you start having an interest in going on vacation and actually did it?

[TridenT]

What were you earning? Where were you in your life? Did you live comfortably in your everyday life?


My thing:
After I get out of college (next Spring) I am considering going on a 2-3 month tour around the country. I'm thinking if I can get one of my friends to go with me for some of it then we'll go around the country teaching together and having fun 'n' such (We work well together). However, I would never go on vacation just for that. (For that long anyway) The real reason for going is to scout out new locations to live after college and see if I can find anything that enchants me more than the sunshine of SoCal. So, to me, it's not really a vacation as much as it is a search for that special something.

I'm trying to save up $7,000 (3 months of travel expense ($4000) and 3 months of living expense ($3000)). You might think that's undercutting it for travel expense but it isn't(I knows peeps). It wouldn't be so hard but I just bought $1,137 in gear and I am looking at spending another $1,000 on computer hardware now. The reason I am spending that money is because I want to live with nice things. I hate not having nice things. It makes my everyday life fucking miserable. I can't come home and relax because I am thinking, "I can't fucking trust what I am seeing my photos on is actually correct. I can't hear any music well because it's playing out of shitty $25 dell speakers. I can't play any new games because my system crawls since it's 5 years old now. Fuck this shit!" Also, not usually having a job while I am in school makes it a bit more difficult to save, but I will get a new job for school. (Considering TAing if I can't find a programming job(I have one right now, but it's only for the summer). There aren't a lot of undergrad TA positions for a lot of stuff I can teach.)

 

[Dr. Detroit]

So you are heading into your snr year of college - Many folks end up interviewing and accepting a job offer either in the fall or or winter term.

I know a kid who turned down a good job offer because they could not wait for his 30-day European vacation in August and needed him to start on July 7th. Its been 1yr, he currently makes $12 hr working as a Supervisor at the local movie theater.

He regrets his decision.

 

[purbeast0]

i didnt travel till i was out of school with a real job and could save some real money. went on my first trip out of the country when i was 23 to aruba. made me realize that i wished i had gone out of the country when i was younger. that is kind of why i took my brother with me to cancun when he was 18, so he could start getting out. he went back to aruba with me when he was 19.

 

[madoka]

What were you earning? Where were you in your life? Did you live comfortably in your everyday life?

The funny thing is, the more I make, the harder it is to take a long vacation. I'm leaving for a weekend trip soon and I keep thinking how much money I'm losing by not working.

 

[TridenT]

So you are heading into your snr year of college - Many folks end up interviewing and accepting a job offer either in the fall or or winter term.

I know a kid who turned down a good job offer because they could not wait for his 30-day European vacation in August and needed him to start on July 7th. Its been 1yr, he currently makes $12 hr working as a Supervisor at the local movie theater.

He regrets his decision.

Many folks, but not everyone. I am not particularly worried. Also, I live in Seattle and won't be living here. I'm not going to be interviewing for employers in places I've never been to. I'll find a job AFTER I move to the place I want to be in. Finding a job I'll like in a big city is a lot easier than finding a big city that I'll want to live in for 5+ years or finding a way to love that city in those years. (And sometimes it's impossible to love the city. E.g. Seattle. I hate this shit hole.)

 

[biostud]

I've been on vacations every year of my life. Sometimes just small trips, but I can't remember a year I haven't traveled. But living in a small country in Europe also makes it very easy and cheap to go to another country for vacation.

 

[purbeast0]

The funny thing is, the more I make, the harder it is to take a long vacation. I'm leaving for a weekend trip soon and I keep thinking how much money I'm losing by not working.

one of my coworkers at my previous job who is a contracter was telling me that as well. i never really thought about it because i've always had paid vacations at my jobs since i've never done contract work or worked for myself.

as i've made more i've just been able to make more vacations and splurge when i do go on vacation. it's nice to get away somewhere and not worry about money in the least while you are there. i just try to save as much as possible. like im going to vegas in july for my wife's 30th bday, and we're going for 5 nights, and i plan to bring at least $4k to spend, and we don't even gamble.

 

[purbeast0]

I've been on vacations every year of my life. Sometimes just small trips, but I can't remember a year I haven't traveled. But living in a small country in Europe also makes it very easy and cheap to go to another country for vacation.

yeah by "travel" i personally mean flying somewhere. i have been going to driveable vacations since as early as i can remember. i live 2.5 hours from a beach and 6 hours from the outer banks.

 

[wiredspider]

Just did it in college, made my own money, took off from work in the summer and went.

 

[Exterous]

I've had an interest for a very long time. I did a month and a half long trek across Europe the summer between HS and college. I used my savings account for most of it which I started years earlier. I'm glad I did as I didn't have the money or time to do anything other than 3 days here or there at local-ish places again until 9 years later. Fortunately we are now to a place in our lives where it looks like we'll be able to take a week or longer vacation to places like England, Italy, Hawaii every year.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I traveled a little when I was out of school, but it really wasn't until my second job where I really realized how much there is to see in the world. For that job, I was in charge of a global project and got to travel all over the US, Europe, Asia, and South America. My wife and I now try to take a vacation every year with a big, multi-week international trip every 2 or 3 years.

 

[jaedaliu]

I don't get your "plan." Is it to hop in your car with a buddy and drive around the country. Stopping a week at a time in a random city and tutor highschool kids for more money during the day, then spending it all at night as you go out with your buddy?

It also sounds like you've fallen for the power of branding and marketing. Who the heck cares if your speakers only cost $25? Who cares if you aren't able to get crisp prints on a picture blown up to mural size? you do. I think if you don't fix that attitude, you may lead a difficult life of spending everything you make and always wanting to upgrade to the next thing. Hell, look at speaker wires. It's easy to go to $1000/ft if you want "the best"

for your questions: After I got my first career style position, and whenever my wife could get a week or more off we would go travel.

 

[Possessed Freak]

Traveling in the states has no interest to me at the moment. Eventually, before I die, I want to go to a few cities of interest (Prague, Istanbul, Moscow).

 

[evident]

i would start trying to find a job NOW, while you're in school. use your univeristy's resources to help you find a job. this is the only advice you should take, especially if you want to "have nice things" and not be a broke bitch

 

[Vdubchaos]

I think you put WAY too much emphasis on materialistic things......and soon you will find out that they are worthless as well (give it 5-10 years).

Heck they are HARMFUL. You spend all your time working to acquire them and more time using them for very little value (in most cases).

As for vacations, they have become more important over the years (especially past 5 years or so). In my 20s I really didn't care for them at all.

Now, we mostly enjoy nature. Anything that involves nice drives/views/scenes.

HOWEVER, I do NOT like vacation at your typical tourist trap/hot spots.

We like peace, no people and space.

 

[HardcoreRobot]

been traveling as long as i can remember. though vacation was an odd concept growing up in the virgin islands early on.

havent taken any super long trips as an adult, just not easy to pull off with a FT job, and now family. i like being home too anyway, so multiple weeks on the road would lose some appeal.

 

[Vdubchaos]

I was watching Pawn stars and they had a little pop up that said "70% of American's don't travel abroad". Thought that number was kind of high (not sure it's true).

But I can relate to that. This country is so huge/amazing I just don't see myself traveling the world anytime in the near future.

 

[Legios]

You arent vacationing, you are stalling in entering the work force is all.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

I think you put WAY too much emphasis on materialistic things......and soon you will find out that they are worthless as well (give it 5-10 years).

Heck they are HARMFUL. You spend all your time working to acquire them and more time using them for very little value (in most cases).

As for vacations, they have become more important over the years (especially past 5 years or so). In my 20s I really didn't care for them at all.

Now, we mostly enjoy nature. Anything that involves nice drives/views/scenes.

HOWEVER, I do NOT like vacation at your typical tourist trap/hot spots.

We like peace, no people and space.

I can agree with this. I sold my mustang because it was causing me stress. Working on it, spending money on it, etc.. Forget that. I'd also be so much happier in a small cheap house in the middle of nowhere than the big monstrosity of a home I'm in now. Fuck material possessions. They dont mean piss.

 

[SecurityTheatre]

Vacations vary based on your income and place in life.

When I was in my last two years of high school, it was awesome to hop in the car and drive an hour away to the lake or something for a weekend, with some tents and friends.

When I was in college, I used to take all of my breaks (spring/fall break, the first/last weeks of summer) to drive to distant places. Three years in a row, at the end of summer, I took a 2-3 week driving vacation across the US and Canada. I visited almost everywhere. One year I would drive the east coast. DC, Philly, NYC, Boston, Montreal. The next year I'd drive across the midwest. Toronto, Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis. The next year I'd drive the southwest - Phoenix, Vegas, SoCal, NorCal. The next trip I did was the northwest, San Francisco to Vancouver and Victoria.

But when I graduated, I started work right away. Your last few months of school are the best time to look for work. You usually have time and motivation to look for a job, without the need/ability to immediately start working. You usually have housing and you have support and money.

Be careful taking a bunch if time right after school. From what I've seen, that's a recipe for ending up working at a restaurant or Best Buy.

And on the other hand, placing a bunch of value in material goods is something you will probably outgrow, to some extent. Sure, having a nice stereo is great, but you end up having to prioritize. Fine, if you pick something to splurge on (like audio gear, or a car, or computer gear) but then you will likely need to choose to not splurge on other things.

As for your trip to check out places. Saving $7,000 is a lot of money. Granted, when I did my roadtrips, gas was much cheaper, but I would do 3 weeks of hard travel on $900 or so. Today, it would take $1500 to do the same trip, but that covers 7 or 8 different cities. Of course, there are NO hotels involved there, and not much in the way of fine dining (making sandwiches in your car while driving can be cheap, healthy, fast and satisfying). Usually I was couch surfing with old friends or family friends, or acquaintances.

There are websites today to help you do that. Back in the day it required a bunch of phone calls and emails (yeah, I'm not THAT old) to friends and people I'd talked to.

Of course, I'm 12 years into a career and paid quite well. My last vacation was 2 weeks in Europe spending 300€ per night at hotels. If I was by myself, I might have preferred to stay in a cheap hostel on the edge of town, but my travel partner was more picky, so we had to have a nice private room at a decent location in the city.

Anyway, I do look back at the $5,000 extra I spent in Europe (over a budget-style vacation) and wonder what else I could have done with that, and whether it was worth it for a private room with a slightly softer bed and gourmet French dining and wine instead of Schnitzel and Sausages and beer from some friendly corner market outside a hostel filled with friendly travellers.

 

[Vdubchaos]

I can agree with this. I sold my mustang because it was causing me stress. Working on it, spending money on it, etc.. Forget that. I'd also be so much happier in a small cheap house in the middle of nowhere than the big monstrosity of a home I'm in now. Fuck material possessions. They dont mean piss.

Don't worry, I've been thru a "car enthusiast" phase as well. It ate up ALL kinds of time/money.

What a waste....I regret it deeply

 

[Vdubchaos]

Anyway, I do look back at the $5,000 extra I spent in Europe (over a budget-style vacation) and wonder what else I could have done with that, and whether it was worth it for a private room with a slightly softer bed and gourmet French dining and wine instead of Schnitzel and Sausages and beer from some friendly corner market outside a hostel filled with friendly travellers.

That's one of my bigger problems with Vacation. I stimply can't justify spending $3000-5000 on even a week of vacation (which is pushing it with this budget)........ANYWHERE on this planet.

 

[JM Aggie08]

Been out of school and working for just over a year now. I've saved a pretty decent amount, but have no real interest in traveling until maybe a few more years down the line.

 

[D1gger]

My first independant vacation was after my final year of university. I accepted a job offer, but negotiated a September start date. I travelled around for 3 months and had a great time.

My only problem was that I didn't think about how long it might take to get my first paycheque after I started work, and since it was about 3 weeks until I got paid I ran out of savings and didn't eat very well for the last 2 weeks of that.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

That's one of my bigger problems with Vacation. I stimply can't justify spending $3000-5000 on even a week of vacation (which is pushing it with this budget)........ANYWHERE on this planet.

Unfortunately, for some places, you pretty much have to spend that much unless you plan on staying in hostels. My wife and I went to France a few weeks ago and plane tickets alone were nearly $2400. If you want to see some countries/cities, you end up having to pay.