3 Ways to Save for Your Dream Vacation

Everyone has a dream vacation spot. “One day, I’ll get to go there” they think to themselves. This article will hopefully help you get you there! You see, without a plan to save, most will never start and most will be forced to continue to daydream. We don’t want that! You work hard for your money and we want to help ensure you spend it on the things you want! So below we’ve listed a few ideas to get that dream vacation funding started. Bon voyage!

1. Save Your Change

Most of us had piggy banks as kids - it was how most learned to save. And yet, here we are recommending you go back to those roots and begin emptying the change from your wallet every day. You won’t believe how quickly loonies and toonies add up. For faster savings, once you’ve got used to saving your change, try throwing in $5 bills too! You’ll be amazed at the results. On an annual basis, you can expect to see $300-$500 in your piggy bank.

2. Set up Automatic Withdrawals

Almost every financial institution has some sort of ‘high-interest savings accounts’ and while interest may not be the greatest these days, you’ll at least get something. These types of plans can be set up to automatically withdraw on the date you get paid. Taxes, CPP, and EI all come off your paycheque, but they don’t really affect your planning because it happens behind the scenes. Do the same for yourself. Set up automatic withdrawals and it is like paying yourself first and you likely won’t even miss the dollars. Remember, any goal worth working towards may take sacrifice in other areas.

3. Budget For It!

Figure out your estimated total cost of the trip and divide that by the number of months remaining until the trip takes place and save that amount monthly. If that number is too high, you may have to put off the vacation a few months into the future to lower the monthly strain on the budget, but remember, something is better than nothing and this method is way better than putting the entire trip on credit cards. Suddenly your relaxing trip may not be as relaxing as you get anxious about how you’ll pay it off!

If a vacation is what you want – you might have to make sacrifices in other areas of your spending. Make those sacrifices before the trip, otherwise, you’ll be tempted to put expenses on credit cards, as mentioned above, and you be forced to make those sacrifices after the trip.