It’s time to start digging out the rubber rafts and airing out the camper – it is vacation time!

While many of us long for our summer vacations, ironically, expectations, finances, and spending a great deal of concentrated time with other family members can bring on “vacationitis.” However, you can relieve some of the stresses associated with vacation activities through some practical financial guidelines and creative thinking.

1. Understand your real objectives. Not everything that appears to be a vacation really is; it may be merely an activity. A vacation should, first, provide a break in routine for each family member, whether the routine is school, doing dishes, making telephone calls, shutting off alarm clocks, or whatever. Therefore, a vacation needs to be long enough to enable you to wind down from daily activities.

Strive to build memories during vacation time. This can be true whether you always go to the beach or travel to different locations every year. Often the tough times on vacation are typically remembered with the most fondness. Remember the time it rained all week when you were camping out, or the three days it took to drive to Colorado with five kids ages 4 to 15? Today we can laugh about those experiences; at the time, they didn’t seem so funny. But memories were made.

Another objective is to build relationships. This means do things together as a family, but also have the freedom to go alone. Relationships can’t be forced – they must just happen; therefore the environment selected for the vacation is important. Other objectives may involve rest, education, or visiting family and friends.

2. Involve the children in the whole process. Determine where you are going on vacation one or two years in advance through a family conference where you set objectives and priorities, discuss alternatives, and establish a budget for the vacation. This helps to avoid conflict, teaches how to make decisions and how to work together, and gives goal ownership to each member of the family.

Children should also be encouraged and helped to save money during the year for the vacation. This will allow them the freedom to spend on vacation, teaches delayed gratification, and gives them a sense of excitement in thinking about the vacation. Remember to give the freedom to spend on vacation as they wish. That helps to avoid conflict and builds a trust relationship between parents and children as well as teaching money management.

3. Never borrow to fund a vacation. A specific vacation budget should be included as part of your annual spending. That way, when vacation time arrives, there is no guilt related to spending the money. Building family memories and relationships are legitimate goals funded by money. Just because money is tight does not necessarily mean no vacation. No money merely means that a creative alternative to a vacation is required, which leads to the next recommendation.

4. Be creative in saving money. Can the objectives of a vacation be accomplished in some way other than a cruise or a trip to Europe? For example, can you camp out instead of staying in a hotel? Can you stay with friends? Can you pack lunches rather than eat out every meal? In some seasons, costs are lower, especially in resort locations. What activities can be accomplished on the vacation that do not require spending money? And lastly, it may be that the vacation the family really wants must be delayed until a later time when adequate funds can be accumulated.

So, what is the strategy for surviving your family vacation? Make building memories and relationships your objective. Involve the children in the process. Never borrow to fund a vacation, and be creative in saving money. Follow these recommendations and you will experience a memorable and meaningful vacation rather than just a guilt-ridden and stressful activity.


Ronald Blue & Co., LLC is a leading financial, estate, and investment counsel firm serving more than 5,000 clients through a network of 14 offices nationwide. Founded in Atlanta in 1979, the firm manages approximately $2 billion in assets and employs a staff of more than 175 people. Ronald Blue & Co.’s services, based on biblical principles of financial management, include comprehensive, fee-only financial and estate planning, investment analysis and management, strategies for charitable giving as well as complete tax preparation and business services for individuals and organizations. For more information on how RB&Co. services can benefit you , contact the local office in Atlanta at 770-644-0500.