Well it may not be a “secret” but I don’t personally know anyone who does this! So I’ll just jump right into it…
A few years ago I set up weekly, automatic transfers from my checking account to my Acorns account. For those of you who don’t know what the Acorns app is- it’s basically an app that invests your spare change which they call “round ups” and lets you invest as little as $5 any time or on a recurring basis into different stocks and bonds. An example of a round up is buying a coffee for $2.50 on your debit card, then it will automatically get rounded up to $3.00 and that .50 cents will transfer into you Acorns account.
I am in NO way any kind of financial advisor and the Acorns App is not made to be a travel account. However, I chose this app because it was super easy to use for me personally. (I am not sponsored by them either, I just like their app!) My suggestion is to choose whatever account would work best for you and AUTOMATICALLY (this is key) transfer money into a “travel account”. I emphasize automatically transferring this money, because I used to use a travel jar that sat on my counter and it got old real quick. I started forgetting to add money to the jar, then when I needed cash, I would just take the cash out of the jar and never replace it. If you would rather have a jar though and have more will power than me then go for it!
Every week, I set up $25 to be taken out of my checking account and have it transferred into my Acorns account. When I first started this, I only started transferring $5 a week then slowly increased the amount over the years based on my financial situation. Obviously the more money you are putting into this account, the quicker your account will grow. For the past 2 years, I’ve had $100 a month being transferred into my “travel piggy bank” along with my round ups and by doing this, I have been able to save a good chunk of money to put towards my flights and hotels when traveling.
We as humans make everything so complicated. We overthink everything, whether it’s losing weight or saving money, we will overthink it. I used to think traveling abroad was not realistic for me in my 20’s with all the bills I had and would feel so guilty taking money out of my tiny savings account to travel. I would always think to myself “Steph you’re being irresponsible, this money should go towards your student loans, car payment, retirement, etc.” This is what encouraged me to start putting money aside specifically for traveling so I would not feel as guilty.
I was able to fly to Thailand for $750 round trip at the age of 25 which is a little less than $15 a week! Imagine already having your plane ticket expense covered by using your travel account when booking a trip, that is huge!
Obviously everyone is in a different financial situation and some of you may not care to save money for traveling and that’s ok! Traveling is so important to me so I wanted to make it a priority in my life. Even if you are only able to put aside $5 a week or so into a travel account, it really does add up! Instead of spending money going out to eat, buying coffee, shopping on amazon, drinks etc. it can automatically be going into a travel fund. You will appreciate all the long-lasting memories and experiences from these trips way more than the Chipotle you had for lunch yesterday. Everyone has small spending habits they can work on if they make it a priority. It may take a couple years to be able to afford the trip you want, but I think it’s better to wait and go after a couple of years rather than never going at all. The money and time will pass by regardless, so if you can do this one, small thing every week, instead of doing things for immediate gratification, it will be worth it when you’re finally on that dream vacation in Greece (or fill in the blank).
This method can obviously be used for anything, not just traveling, but I just wanted to share how I am able to travel without reaching into my savings every time I want to book a trip somewhere.
Happy Savings 🙂
