How to Save Money for a Trip

Every year, you likely earn at least a few paid vacation days at your job. However, if you’re like many Americans, you rarely ever take them.

As the U.S. Travel Association reports, each year, more than half of Americans leave vacation time on the table. All that unused time accumulated to 768 million missed vacation days in 2018.

Of course, it’s easy to understand why many people simply forgo taking time off. After all, traveling can be expensive.

It’s all too easy: bills can pile up, professional duties can get in the way, and life events can take hold, all letting you leave those vacation days unused. However, there are ways to not only build vacations into your routine but to also save for vacations too.

With a little planning and a small amount of work vacations can be yours again. Here are a few ways you could work saving money for a trip into your financial routine so you never miss another vacation day again.

5 Tips For Saving For a Trip

1. Deciding Where You Want to Go and For How Long

To properly plan for how much you need to save for your trip, you first must decide when and where you want to go. Would you like to stay domestic or go international? Somewhere warm and by a beach, or cold and in the mountains? The choice is yours.

Once you make your choice, you could do a little calculating and add up the costs of transportation, accommodations, food, and entertainment for each member traveling with you. This way, you’ll have a ballpark number to save up to.

Here’s a vacation pro tip for you: If your vacation math comes out to be a little too high for your liking, you could look into your intended destination’s “shoulder season.”

Shoulder season is a professional travel term for the time between the high and low seasons. In other words, it’s a seemingly less desirable time to visit a place.

For example, the shoulder seasons in the Caribbean are in the late spring and early fall. During this time, visitors will still experience warmer temperatures, crystal blue waters, delicious Caribbean foods, and more.

But the early fall, classified here as September to November, also falls at the tail end of the hurricane season, making travel to the Caribbean a bit of a gamble. During that time, flights, hotels, and activities can be much cheaper as there are fewer tourists to fill the seats, rooms, and space.

2. Checking Out Your Current Finances

Once you decide where you want to go and just how much it will cost, then you could take a look at your current financial situation.

You might want to assess whether you have enough money to take a vacation right now, need to postpone until more fruitful times or have the ability to save up for a vacation later in the year.

If you’re not feeling like your finances are quite in the right place to take a trip soon, that’s OK, as there are ways to save so you can still use your vacation days. And that could begin with a budget.

3. Making “Taking a Vacation” a Line Item on Your Budget

If you already have a budget in place, that’s wonderful news. The only thing you might want to do is add in “travel” as a budget item and start socking away a little cash for that each month.

But, if you’re new to budgeting, that’s OK as well. Now might be a great time to start.

To begin, you could gather all your income statements and any outgoing recurring bills such as student loans, credit card bills, mortgage payments, or other debts.

Then, you could create a list of all your monthly expenses, including everything that comes out of your bank account each month, like rent, car payments, student loan payments, credit card statements, food, gas, insurance, gym memberships, streaming accounts, and more. Anything you spend money on, you could make a line item.

Next, you could compare your after-tax income against your debts and see how much you have left over. Any cash left over could go into your vacation fund.

However, if you have nothing left over at the end of your budgeting homework, you might want to take a cold, hard look at your spending and income level to make room for travel.

The simplest place to start might be by reconsidering your monthly spending. Are you still subscribing to that streaming service, and do you really use that gym membership?

If there are things in your current budget that can go, now could be the time to cut them. Then, you could reallocate that money to your travel budget instead.

4. Taking on a Side Hustle to Pay for Vacation

Of course, cutting back isn’t always an option. If you’re serious about saving for a trip, now may be the perfect time to take on a side hustle.

A side hustle is a part-time job outside your normal work. If you decide to go this route to fund your travels, you might want to think deeply about what you’re passionate about so it feels less like a second job and more like fun.

For example, if you simply adore meeting new people, maybe driving for a ride-sharing service is a good fit for you. If you’re a night owl, perhaps picking up a few shifts here and there as a bartender is good.

Or, if you like dogs, you could try signing up for a dog-walking service to bring in a little more money.

If you’d like to flex a little muscle with your other talents like photography, writing, or graphic design, you might try reaching out to a few places as a freelancer, which could both bring in a little more money and make you feel good at the same time.

5. Creating a Dedicated Space for Your Travel Savings

Now that you’ve done all the hard work of deciding where to go, how much it will cost, and how it fits into your budget, it’s time for a fun item: creating a dedicated savings account for your trip.

After all, it’s way more fun to put your vacation money into a savings account called “oh yes vacation time” rather than simply “account 3045766.”

And, you could take things a step further by making your travel account work for you by opening an online account that offers no account fees, like SoFi Checking and Savings®.

SoFi Checking and Savings has a vaults feature where you can create an individual vault for a specific goal within your overall SoFi Checking and Savings account.

Plus, you can use your SoFi Checking and Savings card during your adventure at any ATM around the world.

So, what are you waiting for? Now that you know how to plan, the world is truly your oyster.

Have a few vacation days at the ready? Start saving with a SoFi Checking and Savings account and get going on your vacation sooner.

External Websites: The information and analysis provided through hyperlinks to third-party websites, while believed to be accurate, cannot be guaranteed by SoFi. Links are provided for informational purposes and should not be viewed as an endorsement.

Financial Tips & Strategies: The tips provided on this website are of a general nature and do not take into account your specific objectives, financial situation, and needs. You should always consider their appropriateness given your own circumstances.

Third-Party Brand Mentions: No brands, products, or companies mentioned are affiliated with SoFi, nor do they endorse or sponsor this article. Third-party trademarks referenced herein are property of their respective owners.

SoFi® Checking and Savings is offered through SoFi Bank, N.A. ©2022 SoFi Bank, N.A. All rights reserved. Member FDIC. Equal Housing Lender.
SoFi Money® is a cash management account, which is a brokerage product, offered by SoFi Securities LLC, member
FINRA / SIPC . SoFi Securities LLC is an affiliate of SoFi Bank, N.A. SoFi Money Debit Card issued by The Bancorp Bank.
SoFi has partnered with Allpoint to provide consumers with ATM access at any of the 55,000+ ATMs within the Allpoint network. Consumers will not be charged a fee when using an in-network ATM, however, third party fees incurred when using out-of-network ATMs are not subject to reimbursement. SoFi’s ATM policies are subject to change at our discretion at any time.
SoFi members with direct deposit activity can earn 4.60% annual percentage yield (APY) on savings balances (including Vaults) and 0.50% APY on checking balances. Direct Deposit means a deposit to an account holder’s SoFi Checking or Savings account, including payroll, pension, or government payments (e.g., Social Security), made by the account holder’s employer, payroll or benefits provider or government agency (“Direct Deposit”) via the Automated Clearing House (“ACH”) Network during a 30-day Evaluation Period (as defined below). Deposits that are not from an employer or government agency, including but not limited to check deposits, peer-to-peer transfers (e.g., transfers from PayPal, Venmo, etc.), merchant transactions (e.g., transactions from PayPal, Stripe, Square, etc.), and bank ACH funds transfers and wire transfers from external accounts, do not constitute Direct Deposit activity. There is no minimum Direct Deposit amount required to qualify for the stated interest rate.

SoFi members with Qualifying Deposits can earn 4.60% APY on savings balances (including Vaults) and 0.50% APY on checking balances. Qualifying Deposits means one or more deposits that, in the aggregate, are equal to or greater than $5,000 to an account holder’s SoFi Checking and Savings account (“Qualifying Deposits”) during a 30-day Evaluation Period (as defined below). Qualifying Deposits only include those deposits from the following eligible sources: (i) ACH transfers, (ii) inbound wire transfers, (iii) peer-to-peer transfers (i.e., external transfers from PayPal, Venmo, etc. and internal peer-to-peer transfers from a SoFi account belonging to another account holder), (iv) check deposits, (v) instant funding to your SoFi Bank Debit Card, (vi) push payments to your SoFi Bank Debit Card, and (vii) cash deposits. Qualifying Deposits do not include: (i) transfers between an account holder’s Checking account, Savings account, and/or Vaults; (ii) interest payments; (iii) bonuses issued by SoFi Bank or its affiliates; or (iv) credits, reversals, and refunds from SoFi Bank, N.A. (“SoFi Bank”) or from a merchant.

SoFi Bank shall, in its sole discretion, assess each account holder’s Direct Deposit activity and Qualifying Deposits throughout each 30-Day Evaluation Period to determine the applicability of rates and may request additional documentation for verification of eligibility. The 30-Day Evaluation Period refers to the “Start Date” and “End Date” set forth on the APY Details page of your account, which comprises a period of 30 calendar days (the “30-Day Evaluation Period”). You can access the APY Details page at any time by logging into your SoFi account on the SoFi mobile app or SoFi website and selecting either (i) Banking > Savings > Current APY or (ii) Banking > Checking > Current APY. Upon receiving a Direct Deposit or $5,000 in Qualifying Deposits to your account, you will begin earning 4.60% APY on savings balances (including Vaults) and 0.50% on checking balances on or before the following calendar day. You will continue to earn these APYs for (i) the remainder of the current 30-Day Evaluation Period and through the end of the subsequent 30-Day Evaluation Period and (ii) any following 30-day Evaluation Periods during which SoFi Bank determines you to have Direct Deposit activity or $5,000 in Qualifying Deposits without interruption.

SoFi Bank reserves the right to grant a grace period to account holders following a change in Direct Deposit activity or Qualifying Deposits activity before adjusting rates. If SoFi Bank grants you a grace period, the dates for such grace period will be reflected on the APY Details page of your account. If SoFi Bank determines that you did not have Direct Deposit activity or $5,000 in Qualifying Deposits during the current 30-day Evaluation Period and, if applicable, the grace period, then you will begin earning the rates earned by account holders without either Direct Deposit or Qualifying Deposits until you have Direct Deposit activity or $5,000 in Qualifying Deposits in a subsequent 30-Day Evaluation Period. For the avoidance of doubt, an account holder with both Direct Deposit activity and Qualifying Deposits will earn the rates earned by account holders with Direct Deposit.

Members without either Direct Deposit activity or Qualifying Deposits, as determined by SoFi Bank, during a 30-Day Evaluation Period and, if applicable, the grace period, will earn 1.20% APY on savings balances (including Vaults) and 0.50% APY on checking balances.

Interest rates are variable and subject to change at any time. These rates are current as of 10/24/2023. There is no minimum balance requirement. Additional information can be found at http://www.sofi.com/legal/banking-rate-sheet..

SOMN19062