Affording to travel part 2

Yay! I applaud your determination and willingness to do what it takes to accomplish your travel goals. Every little bit you do not spend also contributes to savings. I work so I can travel and feel grateful that a few years ago I went back to school at night to obtain a professional certificate that was required for the position I have now. I have a Masters degree in Finance but this additional certification made me an attractive candidate and my employer hired me even though I'm of a certain age. I agree perseverance will get you what you want! :)

So glad for your new job (and what it will enable you to do). Congratulations!!

That is wonderful! Plus dumping the job from hell will help your mental "savings" as well!!

Good for you. When I was working my way through college I figured as long as I kept completing classes, regardless of how hard it seemed, I'd get my degree - and I did. Same for you, as long as you keep moving forward, even if the progress seems slow, you will get there.

I'll bet you'll be really good at finding travel bargains too because you worked hard to get there.

I like your approach. Too often so-called financial gurus will peddle their, 'Give up your daily latte and you'll be a millionaire' advice without reminding people that one sie doesn't fit all.

Deciding priorities and understanding where your spending is going is important from anyone making minimum wage up to millionaires.

Thanks for letting us know how your great show of initiative turned out!

Good job you Judy! I admire the changes you’ve made. Figuring out how to improve your life, then doing it, will serve you well throughout your life. And, it will get you to Europe... : )

Applause, applause, Judy! And congratulations on the new job! 👏

You ARE going to get to that trip, and we'll have a little forum fest when you do! 🎉🎈🍹

Don't forget some of the little things that can help? Throw the spare change in a jar, take good stuff you're not using to consignment....

Congratulations, Judy, and thanks for the update. You’re a living example of determination and working toward a goal.

Kathy... done. I always roll our change. It paid for a new computer a few years ago, when ours went belly up. We have $1 and $2 coins here so it adds up.

I have also started with the credit card sign up bonuses, the goal is for us both to fly round trip at no cost.

Bottom line... I was unhappy, I had a talk with myself, and I did something about it. Lol.

I also, just today, quit a sub-minimum wage job from hell and accepted
a higher paying job, with the difference in pay going to, you guessed
it.

Fantastic, Judy!! Congratulations!

"Bottom line... I was unhappy, I had a talk with myself, and I did something about it"

Judy, Congratulations! You have proven you can do anything you desire to do. Can't wait for your trip report, even if it's in a couple years.

Lol horsewoofie, I never even completed the one from the trip we took last year. I had one more day's worth to post about.

Giving up that delicious latte saves maybe $4 each time. Ditch the smartphone for a functional flip phone. Invest in your yourself to enhance your earnings. Etc.

Judy, good luck with building the trip fund. Also, I wonder if as you see it growing, you will want to work more hours to hurry it along, maybe even more than one grand a year. Nice to quit a bad job and get a higher paying job instead.

"Bottom line... I was unhappy, I had a talk with myself, and I did something about it. Lol."

Love that line Judy. Bravo.

Ditching a smartphone for a flip phone is often false economy for many people. Easy to find a late model android phone for $50 or less (in some cases, it's $20 online, the same price as a flip phone) and the $30 a month option from the prepaid discount phone companies like Virgin can pretty much 'pay for itself' in an era when so many stores are moving to having their coupons, loyalty programs, and promotions be delivered via smartphone app. I don'r really get into couponing, but still save $10-$15 a month on Target promotions when a checker scans my phone app at time of payment.

Judy,

Please add my congrats and best wishes to all those posted above. You will get there.

I mentioned this book on the previous thread, but it is worth mentioning again:

The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy, by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko.

From the introduction, these are the main principles describing the millionaire next door:

1. They live well below their means.
2. They allocate their time, energy, and money efficiently, in ways conducive to building wealth.
3. They believe that financial independence is more important than displaying high social status.
4. Their parents did not provide economic outpatient care.
5. Their adult children are economically self-sufficient.
6. They are proficient in targeting market opportunities.
7. They chose the right occupation.

Most of the people profiled in the book did not inherit wealth, nor did they hold extremely high-paying jobs.

The above list does not contemplate the impact of luck (both good and bad).

What is "economic outpatient care"? Support to children who are supposed to have left the nest? If so, we greatly appreciated receiving "economic outpatient care" from our parents when we were young and not so well off. It did not dampen our work ethics-we both work/worked more than 40 hours a week at our jobs and are reasonably frugal, but their support did provide some welcome relief from our hard work. One year for Christmas my inlaws gave us hotel and one airfare(we used points for the other) so that the 4 of us could spend my spring break week in London (I was a high school teacher and don't assume that all those "days off "we get are really days off!) If you can afford it, this kind of "economic outpatient care" can make some great family memories and I'm sure our daughter will continue to benefit from our travel largesse even when she(hopefully soon) finishes college.

Disclaimer: Judy, I am not at all implying that you are doing this-I bet you are really frugal. Bruce, in addition to the Latte, my husband is constantly amazed at how employees making way less than he does eat lunch out every day while he packs a lunch (although honestly, he eats at his desk if he eats at all and would usually not be willing to take enough time at lunch to eat out). Being conservative, a $4 latte and $10 lunch every day adds up to $300/mo! 5 months of that is a plane ticket to Europe!

@cala.... I always brown bag it. And I mean ALWAYS. In fact, I just finished my lunch here at work. Leftovers... I dont think I have ever gone out to lunch on a work day. No lattes, or anything like that, either. I have never had a cup of coffee in my life! If I dont have the money for something, I dont have it. Plain and simple.

My mom is always trying to give us money, and I say the same thing every time. We will have what we can pay for. It's a matter of pride with me.

Dont get me wrong... we dont live in a box under a bridge. We have things and we live a fun filled life. It's just a lot harder when I make so very little. Ugh... so you can bet that I will extract maximum value of whatever purchase I do make.

Judy, you should be really, really proud of your accomplishments! You are one amazing woman and I am in awe of your dedication and determination. You will reach your goals before you know it and definitely 'get what you want' !

Judy, I so admire your hard work and independence. You will definitely get more enjoyment out of something you have worked hard to obtain. That being said, it's a lot more enjoyable to our parents when they can see us enjoying their gifts to us instead of us just getting it when they're gone. All 3 of my daughter's remaining grandparents died while she was in high school. For graduation, I used some of their money to buy the kind of gifts they would have bought. I so wished they could have seen her in the dress and with the computer. Plus, giving to offspring while you're still alive means you can have some say so in how it's spent, if you want. I will say I still don't understand the desire of many of the WWIII generation to leave money to their pampered offspring(us babyboomers). To me, after they paid for college and braces, they should have felt so done with supporting us financially! We never felt entitled to their money, but always felt very grateful!

Cala, my mom may very well need money for her care one day.... I tell her all the time, it's not mine, it's yours. You never know what the future is going to bring. All I plan on doing with it anyway, is putting it into my retirement account.

She has mentioned spending it now so she can see us enjoy it, but we would both rather she have it to fall back on as she ain't getting any younger. We can do without a tricked out back yard, or whatever. It will just make our eventual trip all the more sweet. Ya know????

Still, one size doesn't fit all and you have to adapt each budgeting technique to fit your own personal situation. At my current job, I work nights and I bring my lunch 90% of the time. However, other places I've worked are pretty social and you'd be considered, 'Not a team player' if you didn't go out to lunch with coworkers once or twice a week. Other places have had an almost mandatory Friday happy hour after work, and you really should attend a couple of times per month.

I think the idea of doing without a smartphone is silly. And, no, this isn't because I need to instasnap my lunch for the world to see. In a given day, I can check the CTA schedule to see when the next train is, stream podcasts or radio from around the world, receive new pictures of my nephew, get a weather update, receive credit card fraud alerts and many other things. Plus, at my current office, we don't have access to personal email, so it's quite nice to be able to check email on the fly just in case something important comes in.

I think the most useful tactic is to take a look at your month's spending and then decide what can be cut and how much of an impact it will make on your overall budget. For example, I could put Netflix on hold during the summer as I very rarely use it. But, I'm lucky enough that the $8 per month doesn't really have an effect on my budget and I'd be glad to have it should I get one of those nasty summer colds where I can barely get out of bed.

Yes it is important to save money for care-my mother's 4 1/2 years in a nursing home took most of her hard-earned savings and the care was not commensurate with what they charged-when she got pneumonia my sister(who is not a nurse) was the one who diagnosed it. And when my mother-in-law wasn't eating, they didn't realize it was a problem with her teeth. Fortunately I took her to a routine dental appt where it was discovered but she died of a heart condition right before her teeth would have been fixed. And now I will stop with the non-travel stuff!

Good for you, Judy - a wonderful story! I'm just curious. Where are you dreaming of going on this trip that you so richly deserve? I know that the trips I plan and dream about keep me going.

Hi Dorothy, we were thinking of maybe northersn Italy and Austria, but Iceland (and something paired with it) also sounds good. I honestly dont know yet. It will be years till we get to go, so it's bound to change 10 times over. Lol

Judy - just wanted to add my congratulations!!! At this rate, you may be traveling sooner than you expected! :-)

"We never felt entitled to their money but always felt grateful." Yes, how very true!!

I didn't see Part 1, so will offer some advice for a method that has worked for my husband and me. It started b/c I was with a couple of friends who seemed to travel a lot. Both had work-related airline miles (we don't have that option) but also put Every Purchase on the airline credit card. I researched and found a Professional version of a card (what's in your wallet?) and ponied up to the annual fee. I put groceries, gas, clothes, restaurants, even an occasional latte on it! Two points for every $ I spend. For example, say you spend $50K, that's 100,000 points. Knock off the last two digits, and you have $1000 to spend on a ticket. But, you Must Pay It Off Every Month!