Some People Have Hobbies They Spend Money On...Mine Is Travel

I've been thinking about money quite a bit over the past few weeks. As I mentioned previously, my travel budget has become my friend, my enemy and my escape all at once now that I have a nice monthly student loan bill due from college. I often have friends come up to me asking how I afford to travel so much and how we take all of our great trips and I explain the general idea behind miles and points. For some the light bulb kind of flicks on and for others they just brush it off.

But what these conversations made me realize is that travel is my "hobby." It's my round of golf every weekend (though I still need to do that more often). It's my weekend out at the bar with friends. It's my stamp collection (do people still have stamp collections?). My point is...I realized that my priorities of where my money go and where my budget is directed is all about travel. What's fun for me is to take a weekend and spend it on a plane with an exciting destination at the other end. The journey can be taxing and long...but when I'm on that plane and I hear the engines roar up, I know that every penny I spent was worth it. Just like other that get a high when they hit the slopes for the first run of the day on new powder...that's me when I'm traveling.

Everyone has their interests and the things that they like to do and you always hear people talking about how they would love to travel more but there are all of these obstacles in the way. I don't doubt that everyone has things that hold them back from traveling as much as they would really like to...but you can do it. I always look back at myself...I'm a 24 year old with a full time job in a field that I love. I have that 9-5, but I can still travel on the weekends. I stick to a $200 a month travel budget and chase a great fare to places that I want to go instead of locking in where I want to go and paying top dollar. I save up my miles and points by using strategic and smart spending on credit cards that get me to my travel goal, and I don't pay more than I would be with my debit card directly out of my bank account. In the year and a half that I've been playing the travel game my credit score is as high as it ever has been and I don't have credit card debt (unlike when I was in college). In that same time I've flown over 150,000 miles (tame for you junkies I know) with some of it in Business and First class...something I never would have expected. If you love travel and want to see the world don't put it off...take what you want, make a goal and figure out how to do it. Now to go spend the rest of the day dreaming of the next adventure, Happy Friday!

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