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?

Actually just to clarify, are we talking about 10% of gross salary or 10% of take home pay ?

Not at all unreasonable, if you can afford it. If you are going to do it, sooner is better than later, because travel is not likely to get any cheaper and other things might change (personal circumstances, political conditions at your destination, new pandemic etc).

I did the exact same thing in my 30s. Actually saving for it was a good discipline and it meant I did t fritter money away on clothes and takeaway. I say do it!

Do it! But make sure it's a company aimed at younger folk. With a bit of luck you'll make good friends who you can then travel with in the future.

It's one of the few things in life worth spending money on imo.

Try a tailor-made solo holiday from Trailfinders. We've found them excellent.

www.trailfinders.com/

Yep agree - go OP and have a fabulous time!

The advantage of being single is that you have no one else to please. You can spend all your money on holidays and live on lentils with no heating the rest of the year if you want to. You've unlikely to be unemployed for long as a teacher so probably don't need to worry about having 6 months of salary. With a partner or kids, there had to be more negotiation and insurance savings.

I spend all my money on skiing and adventure holidays rather than buying a bigger flat, clothes, meat, tech or driving. Probably a good job because I'd just drop an iPhone off a skilift!

A friend who does similar raves about PoshPack of that's your thing. We met on a open water swim holiday

I’ve just booked a last minute short break to see the Northern lights. We have two teens so it’s not cheap and I was having a wobble about the cost but this thread has reassured me it’ll be worth it! We can afford our bills and have enough savings to cover 6 months salary so I don’t know why I’m worrying. I love travel and missed it so much in 2020 and 2021 when we didn’t want to risk it.
Can’t wait until it’s just DH and I and we aren’t tied to school holidays - it will be so much cheaper!

Where will you go?

Iceland. Cannot wait!

We have done 2 holidays with www.gadventures.com/?aw_ag_id=5026387893&aw_kw_id=kwd-49899016234&aw_ad_id=479157304033&aw_nw=g&phonecode=PPC_SEM_Brand&gclid=CjwKCAiAp7GcBhA0EiwA9U0mtkRVYPwu-cc-B2dKF2uRPwDJhfxv49o1Jg5mI09Czvbt0SbXRXWdshoCD2kQAvD_BwE a few years ago, they were great, a wide age range from 20's to maybe 60's, different people there- single people, groups of friends, couples. I would recommend them.

@StarcourtMall Lucky you! Don’t forget that if it’s cold the battery on the phone just dies. The warmest place to put it then is in your arm pit. 😂 I have no photos of the aurora because of this..