06/15/2026
The trip lasted 9 days.
The loan lasted 3 years.
A couple sat across from me last year, still paying off a vacation they took in 2022.
They'd booked a $10,800 anniversary trip to Italy and put the entire thing on a card at around 24% interest.
Minimum payments stretched it across three years.
By the time they made the last payment, that $10,800 trip had cost them just over $15,200, and roughly $4,400 of that was pure interest.
The photos were beautiful. The balance was not.
A vacation also has no resale value.
The day you land back home, the thing you borrowed for is already gone, and every dollar of interest after that buys you nothing but a longer bill.
I'll take the other side of this every single time, and I earn nothing by telling you so.
When my clients want to travel, the plan is simple.
We fund it with cash that is already accounted for, inside a budget where the important things are handled first:
→ Retirement contributions going in every month
→ An emergency fund that actually covers an emergency
→ No consumer debt riding along behind them
Could that couple "afford" the trip when they booked it?
On paper, sure. But being able to swipe a card for something does not make it the right financial decision.
A financed vacation sitting on a shaky foundation will follow you for years after the tan fades.
A vacation you paid cash for, on a foundation that is already solid, is one of the best uses of money there is.
So travel as much as you can.
See the world, make the memories, go.
Just make sure next year's paycheck isn't already spoken for by last year's flight.
If you're not sure your foundation is solid enough to spend freely on the things that matter, that is exactly the kind of thing I help people sort out.
Message me.
