My dad has always taught me how to prioritize my savings.

When I was seven years old, I was fortunate that my family took our first international trip together.  We visited six different countries, and my experiences on that trip definitely have shaped who I am today.

However, my dad first started talking to us about planning and preparing for the trip when I was four.

Talk about planning ahead!

My father has instilled in me a love of travel, as well as a love of savings.  While logically it looks like these two things do not go together, they absolutely can with a little bit of planning.

To this day, I have a couple of travel savings accounts (and I talk about why I love having multiple savings accounts here) and I prioritize saving for travel so that I can afford to visit between five and ten countries a year (during my 22 vacation days). Basically, my carry-on is always packed!

If you want to prioritize travel and hope to incorporate it as a part of your monthly budget, these steps will get you on your way to saving success!

As a bonus pre-step, it is critical to establish an emergency savings account with at least $1,000 (ideally equivalent to 3 months of expenses).  I know that this post is about boosting your travel savings, but I can’t advocate enough for an emergency savings account!

Once you have an emergency savings account, you will:

Figure out your monthly income and expenses.

The most important part of starting a travel savings plan is to figure out what money you are working with.

Pretty logical first step, right?

Write down all of your monthly income (if you get paid every two weeks, don’t consider the months with three paychecks).  

Then, identify all of your monthly expenses.  Yep, that includes your Hulu, Netflix, HBOGo, and any other subscriptions.  

If you have any savings or retirement contributions, factor those into your expenses as well.

Now that you can see your (hopefully) extra income outside of your expenses, let’s see how we can make our savings happen.

Establish a SMART goal for your travel savings.

In my perfect world, I would save $20,000 just for travel in six months.

However, in the very real world, this is not feasible.

One of the ways to create a goal that has a higher chance of being successful is to make a SMART goal – a goal that is Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound.

For the example above ($20,000 in 6 months for travel), while it is specific, measurable, and time-bound, it is neither attainable or realistic (not with my salary!).

However, a more realistic goal would be to save $100 each month for 12 months for travel, while contributing a portion of my two “extra” paychecks (I get paid every other week), with a goal of saving at least $1,500 in one year.  

One thing that many people do to contribute to their travel savings is factor in a tax refund; however, I have adjusted my withholdings so the government doesn’t hang onto my money just to refund it (this past year, I owed $1 to my state and the federal government owed me $5.  Win-win.)

Develop a schedule for regular contributions to your savings.

Now that you have an overall, realistic, time-bound goal, you can figure out a schedule for your savings contributions.

Maybe you have decided that saving $25 a week is helpful.

Or you want to save $100 a month on the last day of the month so you know how much you are under your monthly budget and can contribute even more to savings.

Maybe you want to set up automatic payments so you don’t miss the money when it’s gone.

Or perhaps you have decided to do a “savings ladder” of $5 the first week, $10 the second, $15 the third, and so on until you are at week 20 ($100 that week) and have saved a total of $1,050.

Whatever you do, make a plan that works for you and mark your calendar accordingly!  

However, you should probably put that money somewhere, so your next step is to:

Create a place for your savings.

I am pretty biased towards having an actual savings account dedicated towards travel (banks and credit unions do allow for multiple savings accounts).  Even when the interest rate isn’t spectacular, I love getting an extra couple of pennies for my travel account.

Some people prefer to keep their travel funds in cute containers, envelopes, and anywhere that isn’t at a financial institutions.

If this works for you, that’s cool.  

I find it really easy to spend money when I know that it is hidden in my house (kind of like how I hide candy but really am just hiding it from others…)

Whatever route you choose, make sure that – as with everything else – it works for you (… but check out your savings accounts too.)

For months when you get off track from your travel savings, rebound quickly.

Say it with me – I am only human.

Some people can save, save, save, and save some more without ever falling off of the saving train.

However, many people have months when saving cannot be a priority (sudden illness, car breakdown, school-related costs, any other thing that can blow a budget).

While these months can be frustrating, you can get back on track!

See if you can contribute even a portion of what you expected to save.  If you expected to save $200 but can only manage $40, that’s still something, right?

There’s always next month!  Then you’ll be back on track to saving for your Harbor Bridge Climb in Sydney, your Eiffel Tower ascent in Paris, or your Great Wall Hike in China.  

You’ve got this!

Look for other money-making opportunities.

If you see that you are not reaching the saving goal that you wanted (or you just want to increase your travel savings), you can always look for ways to make more money.

I’ve increased my travel savings by babysitting, dog walking, house sitting, mowing lawns, working multiple part-time jobs, tutoring, taking online surveys, editing resumes and cover letters, and taking advantage of any gift card-earning opportunities through my health insurance provider.  

Also, when traveling alone, I offer to get bumped to a later flight so I can get additional flight vouchers to use on future travel.  Not everyone has this flexibility, but I love making money like this.

I’m always looking for more ways to make money for travel!

Figure out ways to stretch your budget.

Now that you have a travel account (hooray!), you can prioritize what to spend that money on.

Will you splurge on an upgraded seat on your flight?

Or would you rather spend time at a spa?

How about buying groceries for your time abroad so you can take that gondola ride in Venice?

There are ways to spend a lot of money on travel, but there are also ways to get a lot for a little bit of money (read my post about saving money abroad here).  

As with all aspects of saving for travel, how you spend your money is ultimately up to you – as long as you are comfortable with your progress and your goals.

If you need to readjust your goals, that is totally fine!  Just refocus, prioritize your travel plans, adjust your goal, and you’ll be on your way in no time!

What are your travel savings goals?  How do you prioritize travel?

Related Posts:
The One Thing All Students Need to Do by the Time They Go to College
When to Start Planning for Study Abroad
10 Ways to Save Money While Living Abroad
11 Things You Need to Research Before Traveling
My $1,500 Trip: How I Keep My Costs Low When Traveling