Is spending 10% of annual income on a fortnight’s holiday unreasonable?

[liloandtitch]

I’m late 30s and on a middle-income salary (comparable to a teacher), not a high earner.

Love long haul travel, did some shoestring / backpacking adventuring with friends in my 20s and had the time of my life.

Now 10 years on my friends are settled and I would love to travel again, but don’t want to travel alone, so have been looking at group travel.

I’ve found a company I like the look of, but their long haul destination group tours for 10-14 days are in the region of £2500 - £3000.

Add a long haul flight, and that’s £4000 gone before even factoring in spending money or new clothes and kit for the trip.

If I put savings aside for a year, I could ‘afford’ it… but it feels like ridiculous money for a middle-income person like me, it would be 10% of my salary

I have been thinking about doing a trip like this for years and always dismissed the idea an unaffordable having seen the prices.

But…. the idea won’t go away. Prices aren’t coming down. With prices shooting up in comparison to my salary, I almost feel it is kind of a now or never situation.

Do I need to put this idea to bed because spending 10% of my annual income on a holiday is obscenely irresponsible, especially in a cost of living crisis, or is this something other people in my situation would consider doing?

I do wonder whether other group members on such a trip would very very high earners with whom I’ll have little in common.

Any thoughts?

To me holidays are a priority for my life, ie I live in a smaller house etc to be able to comfortably afford really nice holidays , I say go for it OP

I've learnt that holidays are so important. I work very hard running my own business and having a nice holiday to look forward to spurs me on to work hard.

I have 2 or 3 holidays a year. Nothing too extravagant though, but I probably spend £6/7K a year on holidays 🥴 - seems a lot written down!

My parents started taking holidays with Explore and Exodus in their 50s, now in their mid 70s they admit they are probably too old as it's a lot of travelling around which they found too tiring on their last break just before Covid.

In their experience it's been a mix of age ranges, but generally an older demographic, mid 40s-70 years. Different destinations attract different clients but you can usually ask for the profile of an average traveller on your chosen trip. When they went to Cuba there was a real age distribution from 20s-late 60s, Spain was an older crowd, presumably as independent travel is easier to some destinations than others.

My parents were average earners and the majority of travellers seem to be similar (lots of retired teachers, middle managers, academics, social workers!) But they do have different levels of comfort tours and they always opted for the cheaper or middle one.

We're a high income household (no kids) and I guess we must spend 20% on holidays over the year. What's the point of going to work otherwise 😂(Accepting the fact that it's a very fortunate position and many people got to work to maintain a roof and food on the table, incase I get roasted)

I have a philosophy of trying to keep 6 month salary in the bank in case of redundancy (common in my field) - I know that's way out of reach for many, many people so please don't hammer me for that. If you think you've got enough in savings that you're not going to be in serious trouble if something unexpected happens then absolutely go for it. Travel is one of the great pleasures in life. And, I'll second (or third?) Costa Rica. It's a fantastic place, with a lot of different things to see (and definitely sloths 😍)

If you can afford it and you are not putting anyone else in a bad financial situation then it's no one else's business.

It’s not ridiculous because you’ll love it. Travel is worth prioritising. Go for it !

Do it now, while you can. I used to love doing these, but then I suffered a life changing injury about 10 years ago. It’s left me not able to do that type of trip. I’m so sad, but I do have amazing memories. You never know the moment….

Another saying go for it.

It would be different if you planned to do this every year, but as it's a one off thing then really if you're working out the cost compared to your income, you should do it over 2-3 years.

I'd focus on narrowing down the location, then see if you can get the price down. At this stage for the trip and not the flights there might be Christmas sales reductions soon, so worth ringing up and finding out. Skyscanner is great for working out when is cheapest to fly - NB always buy flights either as part of a proper package holiday or directly from the company.

You asked what the other people would be like. I suspect mostly they will be just like you - maybe a bit more disposable income, but that's hardly going to be noticeable. On mumsnet you can see it clearly there are people who value holidays and spend what they need to on them to do what they want and there are those who prioritise other things. I think that's the case regardless of income.

So do it and tell us where you decide on.

Rookie- why shouldn't she do it every year? It's part of her disposable income so why not spend it on what you enjoy? She earns enough as a single person to cover all her outgoings etc and this will be out of her disposable.

Well it's entirely up to you, and how you prioritise your spending. Personally i'm with you, I'd rather have a holiday than fritter money away on fast fashion, beauty treatments or driving a flash car.

Yup. 10% of wage on holidays is an annual thing for many. It's just that losds soread it rather than have 1 really big thing.

Oh no absolutely if OP wants to spend 10% of her salary annually on holidays, she should absolutely go for it. I that's roughly what we spend - possibly a bit more.
I just meant, if she's uncomfortable with the idea that it's not really 10% unless she takes a similar holiday every year.

I've just organised blowing 33% of my income on a 12 day jaunt for 2 of us.
Half of that is on one flight, irk.
It's more than just holiday, it's seeing a lot of relatives.
And not done every year.
Painful, though.
Hope you have a great time, OP.

We've just spent the best part of £12k for a month in Aus. Between us we earn £50k so £12k is 24%. Some of it was financed by a windfall, but I still think crikey that was a lot of money. Do I regret it, hell no. Life is for living (the windfall came from a critical illness payout so that point is even more pertinent). Do it OP.

You only live once, I am tight in many respects so I could afford lots of holidays. I’m in my fifties now and travel insurance due to my health is really expensive but have done stuff like been to the USA 15 times to both obvious and less obvious destinations. Been to lots of places in Europe and plus Africa. I will never catch up with DH though he has been to at least 120 countries.

Whatever you do just don’t go in to debt and have some savings for emergencies.m

A once in a lifetime or generation trip perhaps. To visit someone especially if they cannot travel, yes.

Not every year. Agree it should be out of savings not creating debt.

YANBU

holidays are expensive, I haven’t been able to travel for less than £4-£5k for the past 5 years so if you’re on a low salary unfortunately that will be a large % of your yearly income

I like to prioritise travel & I go away several times a year

I spend less on other things eg 20 year old car, second hand clothes, food yellow sticker. However, I do have savings

I've never regretted a single penny spent on travel & adventures. I have so many wonderful memories to look back on.

Travel while you are young, free & healthy

Do what makes you happy !

Don't worry about other people, just be yourself

@

I am single parent with 2 daughters. We are having a 'big' holiday next year. Taking into account food and spending money it will be equivalent to a bit over 2 months take home. I am on a pretty good salary as well.

Oldest is starting a levels next year so will be away at uni in couple of years so figure I'm just going to go for it.

If it's someone like exodus I had an amazing time on my trip with them

You are young, single

Book the holiday !

You will have something to look forward to & hopefully great memories afterwards

I wouldn't do it because I don't think I would enjoy it as I'd be worrying about the money and constantly thinking am I having such an amazing time that justifies the spend.
I do admit that I have a 'scarcity' mentality due to childhood trauma.

When I first saw your OP I did baulk a bit until I realised that I spend more than 10% of my income on our holidays

We go away 4 weeks of the year (separate weeks) and then various long weekends, bank holidays

Nothing glamorous or extravagant, mainly UK holidays but with the cost of the travel, accommodation, trips out while we're there and obviously eating out (all the time), I worked out it comes to about 6 or 7k a year!!! Perhaps a bit less every other year

But like others I live for my holidays and little breaks. I book months ahead and have a number of bookings on the go all at the same time

This is where percentages aren't always helpful. 7k when your income is 70k leaves a lot for living expenses and presumably a high disposable income

4k if your income is 40 AND you're supporting a family, kids have activities etc would be a bit mad