How much better off would you be without travel? (financially)

[smit0847]

Id be rich and miserable.

 

[JessicaTam]

"I will have the memories long after the cost is forgotten" or words to that effect.

I would be so much the poorer if I didn't travel.

 

[harvyk]

I would probably be in the exact same financial position as I am right now, just with fewer stamps in my passport (if I even had one)

Lets face it, there are very few people out there whom will take dollars out of a pleasurable activity and put them into wise investments. Most people would simply swap out one of life luxuries (eg travel) with another (eg faster car).

The above obviously excludes work travel which makes me money.

 

[drron]

I really don't want to add up how much I have spent on travel this century.It certainly is a lot.But then I am one of the lucky ones whoi can still earn a very good living doing work that I really love.So this enables me to keep travelling in the style mrsdrron has become accustomed to.
During my regular working life I met way too many people who had great plans for retirement but illness intervened before they could realise their plans.Saw much the same with my own parents.

Travel has brought great enjoyment for the both of us with the places we have been,the people we have met and the food we have eaten.We are living lines we never imagined.I have no doubt we are living lines that people with much more money are not because they have lost sight of why they wanted the money in the first place.

So whilst I can still work and hospitals want me back plus we still have our health we will continue travelling so I can inflict my TRs onto the good members of AFF.

 

[cove]

We really should look at the cost sometime in the future. When I load up credit cards I get notes on the statement where if I make the minimum payment I will be about 120 years old when it is repaid. Maybe I will check a little before that.
Traveling can be lots of fun so I have no plan to stop.

 

[amaroo]

Well and truly in the "two-comma" club ... will be very happy if I can manage to spend my way into the next club level.

 

[Bundy Bear]

I would be richer but have a few less friends if I didn't travel.

By my calculations about $60,000 richer, (I have earnt 7,000 SCs so I worked out recently that it was about $10 an 1SC thinking that BNE-SYD was traditionally $100 for 10SCs then you have accommodation, some times you are up some times you are below. Work has paid for a 1000 or so SCs, partly because of work but also JASAs were pretty good.

In the next few years I will be concentrating on my house loan but will still do a bit of travel, some of you will have to come to Brisbane.

I thinks it was Bundy Bear who had the signature along the lines of (to paraphrase) "Don't put off today what you want and are able to do until tomorrow - because you may find tomorrow you won't be able" (or something like that).
.............
Simple stuff and perhaps ordinary, but no financial regrets ..

My current FT signature is
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do." my AFF signature changes about once a year depending on my mood, and what ever new quote that I find floating around the internet, along with the picture, FT picture stays fixed with the Bundy Bear picture.

I have met serfty in a bunch of locations, Sydney, Brisbane, Cairns, Melbourne, Canberra, New York, Auckland, Christchurch, Napier NZ, Canberra, Darwin. Adelaide, and Ayers Rock. all great memories which aren't cheap; and as long as my credit card is paid once a month; rolling over the credit card paying the ATO is wonderful thanks Cove.

 

[JohnK]

If I didn't travel to Thailand I would have paid off my credit card debt by now.

If I had paid off my credit card debt I wouldn't need to work in Brisbane and wouldn't need to travel to Thailand to get away from work and recharge batteries.

If I wasn't working I'd be home in Sydney relaxing, close to mum and dad, playing golf Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and some Sundays. I'd probably also have money left over to travel to Thailand once or twice a year.

In summary I'd be much better off.

 

[Foreigner]

If I didn't travel to Thailand I would have paid off my credit card debt by now.

If I had paid off my credit card debt I wouldn't need to work in Brisbane and wouldn't need to travel to Thailand to get away from work and recharge batteries.

If I wasn't working I'd be home in Sydney relaxing, close to mum and dad, playing golf Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and some Sundays. I'd probably also have money left over to travel to Thailand once or twice a year.

In summary I'd be much better off.

Sounds like a vicious circle, no?

 

[JohnK]

Sounds like a vicious circle, no?

It sure does from where I am.

 

[Foreigner]

It sure does from where I am.

I suggest to my teams to see the glass as half full, always.

 

[Ansett]

Since the introduction of simpler and fairer I have opted to fly much less and look at BFOD and have saved in the region of 10-15K in twelve months

 

[JohnK]

I suggest to my teams to see the glass as half full, always.

It's still only half amount in the glass right?

 

[Foreigner]

It's still only half amount in the glass right?

That's right. But when you put on spectacles like i do you see the glass half full !

 

[cove]

If life gives you lemons JohnK better reach for the tequila.
I stole that from a new Big Dogs T shirt.

 

[Isochronous]

I spend a fair bit on travel but I also make money from it - the connections and ideas I've gained from it have easily repaid the cost.

 

[cmon0005]

I have spent a lot but the places and experiences gained are well worth it, and I don't regret any of it. Even now that we have a baby I am already planning a trip for the 3 of us end of this year, baby already has a QFF account setup for when child fares kick in.

 

[kpc]

Machu Picchu, Galapagos, Iguazu Falls, Easter Island, Maldives, Havana, Victoria Falls, African safari, Russia and Bora Bora next month....to name a few. I hate to think how much it would have all added up to...but priceless experiences and memories (photos and videos actually as memory not so good these dsys! ) to last a lifetime. ..won't change a thing! !

 

[OATEK]

I have spreadsheet records of my "holiday" travel back to about 1987, when I took my first big OS trip. I refuse to add it all up, but would not have hit the two commas mark. But I probably could have paid off a nice little 2 bed unit, and be making a substantial capital gain.

Explaining travel is a bit like explaining to first time parents how life changes after the birth of their first baby. All the head knowledge, the books and advice mean nothing until you are immersed in it all.

My first big OS trip was to attend my brother's wedding in Scotland. I was ho hum about it all beforehand, with the view what could be better than the Sunshine Coast in the summer or Tassie in the winter, or a dip in the ocean at Cronulla.

It all changed for me in 1987, and I have absolutely no qualms, nor has Mrs Oatek, about the $$ we spend on travel. Despite the $000,000s we have spent over the decades on travel, we have ourselves in the financial position to continue our adventures within Oatek house rules (something to do with buffet breakfast and fluffy white robes/towels).

 

[Deleted member 29185]

If I didn't travel to Thailand I would have paid off my credit card debt by now.

If I had paid off my credit card debt I wouldn't need to work in Brisbane and wouldn't need to travel to Thailand to get away from work and recharge batteries.

If I wasn't working I'd be home in Sydney relaxing, close to mum and dad, playing golf Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and some Sundays. I'd probably also have money left over to travel to Thailand once or twice a year.

In summary I'd be much better off.

Never look back. Consider for a minute, if you didn't travel away, you may have been hit by a bus instead! Would you still have been better off? Life is a lotto and I'm pretty happy with my lot. I rarely (if ever) say "what if", because we usually only consider one side of the multi-faceted answer!

To the OP, I travel mostly for work, so I'm guessing I may have been worse off without travel..........but who knows, if I didn't travel, I may have dropped into a newsagent out of sheer boredom and bought a winning lotto ticket............but then, I may have been murdered by someone after my winnings........and maybe not!

Live life for today, but still wisely plan for tomorrow.