This past Friday at the dinner table, my wife said to me, “I want to go to the beach.” Now, I am sure that she meant that more like a sometime in the near future type of time span. But, my answer to her was, “Go pack real quick!” After making some fast hotel reservations online, we were at the beach three hours later.
What a great spontaneous little vacation our family had! But, the best part of the vacation was that we paid for it in cash! My wife’s and my prior planning set us up for success and enabled us to be spontaneous. You see, we have a vacation fund. The fund is a savings account that we put as little as $50 a month into for things like our beach getaway trip. Because we have that money set aside, we do not have to put any portion of our little vacation on credit cards. I cannot even begin to tell you what an awesome feeling it is to not have our little two day beach trip following us home.
Vacation Fund. For as little as $25 a paycheck or even less at some banks, you can have the piece of mind and spontaneity that a vacation fund can bring you. My wife and I have our vacation money in a completely separate savings account away from our emergency fund and regular checking account that we pay our household bills with. Our bank even lets us pick a nickname for the account so that we can see our goal online on their website and feel like we have a great target to aim for with our savings. My wife has named our account, “London 2012”, because she is planning to take the family to England for the upcoming Olympics. You spend a little less and try and save a little more when you have a reason to sock away money.
So, what are you waiting for? There are a few great banks online, like ING Direct, that will let you set up your vacation fund quickly and easily. You can even pick your own wonderful destination name! What would you call your vacation fund?
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What a great idea. I didn’t know banks could do that. Thanks for the tip.
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