Vacation When You Have Debt?

Vacations, who doesn’t love a nice vacation to get away from work and daily obligations? I know I do! Sign me up anytime. However, when you don’t have the money or you spend money you don’t have it's probably best to not sign up for them. Let me rephrase that, just don’t go. I love to travel, I have never done anything lavish like travel out of the country or stayed at a hotel that’s $1000 a night, nothing like that. ( I dream of the day in the future this will happen though). BUT, we have visited a few states here and there, and we have taken our kids to Disneyland and Legoland, a few times. Maybe boring to some, but I love it because my kids have loved it.

Today, when I look back though I realize that we could have done without some of those trips. Remember when I said earlier “just don't go”, oh yeah it's because I’ve been there. My husband and I have done a lot of those vacations by spending what we didn't have. Or if we did have some money, it left us short once we got back to reality. We would put hotel stays, meals and souvenirs on credit cards and “make a plan” to pay it all off once we got back from vacation. But those “plans” always went haywire for some reason or another. The car would break down and cost anywhere from $300 to $1500, unaccounted for dental work, or unexpected events would come up. The thing is I always felt there was always something coming up. Completely voiding our plan and getting ourselves into a bigger mess.

So even though we already had debt, and even though I knew the smart thing was to just say no to the vacation, I couldn’t. My excuses were always the same; that we worked so much, and that we deserved a break, that I only spent late nights and weekends with my kids and that they deserved a vacation to a place they would love. There was also a part of me that felt ashamed to tell my family “hey we can’t actually afford to go on a yearly vacation because we have debt”, so we would always end up going, sometimes to just keep up the facade. 

Of course we have enjoyed every vacation we have ever taken as a family. But what I haven’t loved is the feeling of devastation once we came back from those vacations. Cracking your fingers and not sleeping soundly at night because you know you have now added more debt to your already existing debt. If this is what you are feeling after a family vacation, then you are most likely doing it wrong. 

And in all honesty, if you are a present parent, if your kids know that you prioritize them over anything else that is what matters the most. Even though Disney and Legoland is probably something they have seen on a youtube video and now fantasize over it and when they will go, they can and will survive without it for a bit longer, just like we did. I’m not saying never take your kids, I’m saying do it the right way.

Pay off your debt, talk to your kids about it so they are in the loop. Make it a goal with them that once you pay off debt and have some money saved for your emergency fund then you can also start saving for a family vacation even if it's not exactly Disney, Legoland, or Universal or even if it is these places but within budget. The point is that you can make it happen, and you can make it happen without having to pay for your vacation with credit cards that just put you in a worse financial situation than you were to begin with.

Let me make it very clear, NEVER finance your vacations! If you’re putting anything on your credit cards it’s because you have already saved the money to pay it off in full as soon as you charge the credit cards. You got this, and remember, delayed gratification is the best. Especially when you come back from that relaxing vacation or hectic fun with kids but instead of worrying about paying it off, now you worry about planning and saving for the next vacation!!