How to Organize Travel Expenses

Video Transcript

"Again with the help of Expert Village, I hopefully will be able to help people and assist people in terms of developing a budget. In this clip we are going to really discuss something that you hopefully you can get excited about but it also impacts a budget which is vacation and travel. I always kind of relate things when I talk about budgeting to my personal experiences and hopefully they are similar to your experiences. The vacation travel can normally be a big expense depending on what you do. In my case, we have relatives that live in Texas and we visit them at least once a year. We also travel to Disney World. I have smaller kids and we travel to Disney World on a frequent basis. We are there every other year. We do a lot of the State Parks that are around us. We go to a lot of their attractions. We like museums and so forth. So again, most people on average are going to take one or two vacations a year and are usually going to travel somewhere this needs to go in the budget. When I counsel people, I sit down with people, I always ask them "have you planned for that". So, vacation and travel are something that you need to include in your budget. In my case, if it is Disney World, it may be $1,000 you might spend there, a couple days at a hotel, the food, the transportation, so we need to budget that trip on a monthly basis. If we are going to take a trip, and you know you are going to take a trip, you don't just get up morning and decide you are going to go to Disney World; you usually plan for it, put that in the budget. Say OK, this trip should cost us XX amount therefore, we are going to start saving on a monthly basis. Again, it may be a family reunion that you might be having. Put those costs you might incur in your budget. Look at your vacation and travel. Those are fun times but those are an opportunity to plan in your budget because it does affect your budget. Again, the budget needs to identify any expense that you are going to have for the next twelve months. So, most people are going to take some type of a trip are going to travel somewhere and it is going to cost them something, put it in the budget. Again, that is an item that gives you control too, because you can travel very, very cheaply and control how it impacts the budget. Look at your expenses, look at your travel plans that you might have coming up and kind of put in your budget what that is going to be on a monthly basis and I think it will be very, very helpful when you develop your final budget."