4 Ways to Save for Vacations

Saving money for what you want is easier said than done. However, if you want to make travel a financial priority in your life, there are certain things that you need to consider to make your dream trips possible. After traveling to 26 countries while paying off student loans, saving for a house and now pursuing financial independence, here are four ways to save for vacations.  

Start a travel fund 
Make travel a financial priority by including travel as a line item in your budget. I would recommend taking it one step further by separating out your travel savings into a separate bank account called a “travel fund”. A travel fund can be a savings account, checking account or a money market. Having your travel savings in a separate bank account (away from your day-to-day expenses) ensures that you don’t commingle funds or overspend.

Automate your savings
After you’ve created a travel fund, automate your savings. Automation makes saving easier because it takes care of all the heavy lifting for you so you never have to worry about moving money into your bank account. Automate your savings by 1) setting up a direct deposit with your employer or 2) automating bank transfers into your travel fund. 

Use Micro-Saving Apps 
To boost your savings use apps like Digit. Digit helps you save effortlessly by analyzing your spending and saving your spare change. Other popular micro-investing apps include Acorns and Stash. 

Finding Flight Deals
Lastly by saving for travel consistently you develop positive money habits, and you’ll also have money available to book flight deals. Here’s a short list of my favorite websites for finding flight deals: 

• Thrifty Traveler
• Secret Flying
• The Flight Deal

Through their daily newsletter, Thrifty Traveler notifies you of error fares, cheap flights and Delta SkyMiles Flash Sales. While there is a free version, I highly recommend signing up for premium so you get tailored flight deals from your home airports. The Flight Deal allows you to search for flights, hotels and car rentals, all in one place. This website is free to use and most flight deals depart from major U.S. cities like New York, Boston, Dallas, and Seattle. Flights will take you anywhere around the world from Asia to Hawaii. 
While these are my top tips for saving for vacations I would love to hear what other things you recommend in the comments below!
 
Author Bio
Danielle Desir is an author, speaker, podcaster and the founder of The Thought Card, an award-winning affordable travel finance blog and podcast empowering people to make informed financial decisions - travel more, pay off debt and build wealth. She has traveled to 26 countries and 3 continents and strongly believes in not letting your financial responsibilities hold you back from pursuing your dreams.