My 2013 Travel Goals

If you have not figured out yet, I am a goal oriented person. I love goals. They keep me focused and give me purpose. So, it may come of no surprise that I have created travel/points related goals for 2013. Since I preach the importance of creating goals, I will share mine as inspiration to others:

1) Visit either South America or Australia in Business Class

2) Revisit Europe or Africa (in any class)

3) Try at least 1 new airline

4) Visit one state, in the USA, that I have never been to

5) Do one thing I haven't done in Washington,DC each month and report back

6) 600,000 miles/points earned

7) Create and stay within a travel budget


I choose the 600,000 figure for #5 because it breaks down nicely into 50,000 points a month. Can I earn 600,000 points in a year? Probably. I just complete my year end numbers for 2012 and here are how they look:

Points/Miles Earned: 399,000

Points/Miles Spend: 346,000

Balance as of 12/31: 425,000

As you can see, I earned about 400,000 points and spent 350,000 points this year. If I continue to earn about the same number of miles that I spend each year, I feel that I will be in a good place. I don't believe in points hoarding, spend them while you have them, is more my motto.

The most important goal is #7 to me: create and stick with a travel budget. The game is a dangerous and addictive habit. With this hobby, there is always something to spend money on. Be it annual fees for credit cards to mattress/mileage runs, money always seems to be leaving my wallet to feed the habit. To be honest, I have no idea how much I spend on this "hobby" last year. For this reason, I am going to create a travel budget and force myself to stick to it. Any money spent on my "point/travel hobby" must come from this budget. Once the budget is exhausted, my spending for this "hobby" will stop for the year. (I doubt I will hold myself to this - if I exhaust my budget, I will still do things for the hobby, but I feel like I will be more stingy)

What my travel budget will be is still TBD. In year's past, I would move 75% of my bonus each year to a savings account and use that for travel related expenses. However, since I switched my job in 2012, I have no idea what to expect for a bonus. Therefore, I might need to move to deducting a certain amount each paycheck as a method of funding my points habit. Regardless of how I fund my travel budget this year, I need to create a budget, prioritize my expenses and stick to it. Otherwise, this little habit of mine might cause financial problems that I vowed never to get myself into again.

I am excited for what 2013 brings our community. With these goals, I have focus and a direction, now its time to execute it.