Travel is expensive. Credit card debt is bad. These are both facts, so how do you get around them to afford a great vacation?
One way to go is to set up a travel savings account. Money can be automatically deposited from your checking account each month until you need it for the trip.
"Don't worry about how much interest it earns," Mackey McNeill, a Kentucky-based CPA, tells CNN, adding, "It won't be much, but the point is that it's more effective than stuffing bills in a cookie jar."
Charging travel expenses is a bad idea unless you can afford to pay the credit card off immediately. If you can afford to do that, charging everything can be an efficient way to keep track of expenses and can earn you points towards future travel, depending on the type of rewards your credit card offers.
"You end up paying much more than the cost of the trip," McNeill said. "When you factor in double-digit interest rates and the months - or years - it may take you to pay it off, you can end up spending 50 percent or even 100 percent more."
How much you can or should spend on travel depends on your personal priorities.
"For some people, travel is important enough that they choose to live in a smaller house so they can see the world," McNeill said.
The biggest issue travelers run into is underestimating vacation costs. When you budget, be sure to include airfare and hotels, as well as meals, local transportation, souvenirs, cash for tipping, and an extra cushion for unexpected necessities or disasters. Once you have determined what your cost will be, you can pick travel dates and set up a monthly savings schedule.
Another way to make travel more affordable is to list your home on homeexchange.com. (Think of the movie "The Holiday", where Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz trade houses). This gives you the experience of living like a local, witout the expense of lodging, as your "payment" is the loan of your house or apartment to the person or family you exchange with.
These simple tips can allow you to afford to travel without feeling stressed about high credit card bills, so you can just enjoy the experience.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
