When there is a discrepancy between the cost of what you love to do in life, and what you can actually afford to do, sometimes it can be a tough decision to make. What makes it easier, is the ability to plan ahead and understand what you value in life.
For me, aside from loved ones and family, my passion lies in traveling. I’ve always known that, but unfortunately, what I love to do just happens to be expensive. So up until a few years ago, I just didn’t have the money to go anywhere. I was either getting out of debt, or furiously saving for a down payment.
This is why I am so adamant about not necessarily having to find passion within your job in order to lead a fulfilling life (I just noticed all of the comments on that post disappeared when I left my old commenting system – thanks for nothing, IntenseDebate!). Your job can help fuel your passions that lie outside of the normal 9-5. But that also means knowing what other categories you need to scale back on in order to afford it. I’m a budget traveler. I bought a small home. I keep my grocery budget low. I find frugal ways to have fun. And I increased my income. All in the name of travel and funding my RRSP.
So, with my traveling done for the rest of 2011, I thought it would be interesting to see how much money I’ve actually spent:
2011 travel expenses = $7,080 (approximate)
I was actually a little shocked. That’s a lot of money, and I still struggle with the idea of spending money, instead of saving it. $7,080 represents about 8.85% of my gross annual income for 2011 – based on my projection of making $80,000 this year.
But while I feel like 8.85% is quite high, I think I’m okay with that. Because really, this is the reason why I’ve been working so hard. If I didn’t take on all these extra freelance projects, I would have never been able to afford to go on most of these trips, while still staying on track with my savings goals. So if I’m prepaying my mortgage by 20%, and I’m still saving for my emergency fund and stuffing $800/month into my RRSPs, why shouldn’t I travel? Right? Hmm, well, maybe. I do feel guilty now that I’ve actually add up all the costs.
I included my Montreal trip because I paid for the flight a few weeks ago. The spending portion of the trip will fall under my 2012 travel expenses.
$0 – Toronto
$400 – New Orleans
$2,500 – Toronto/New York City
$0 – Las Vegas
$230 – Seattle
$500 – San Francisco
$300 – Oregon
$400 – Tofino/Vancouver Island
$500 – Seattle (includes the price of 2 concerts)
$825 – Chicago
$625 – Montreal (flight only)
$800 – Victoria (approximate expenses for 6 trips home in 2011)
—–
I’m not sure what 2012 has in store for me. I’d like to travel about the same amount as this year, but I’d also really like to spend a year saving as much money as possible. And I feel like out of all the years to do it, 2012 is probably the best bet. I think my income is going to be comparable to this year (hopefully higher), and then I envision myself taking it down a few notches for 2013. Maybe. On the agenda so far for 2012 is Montreal for sure, as well as Toronto for the Canadian Personal Finance Conference, as well as wherever the Financial Blogger Conference is going to be. Other than that? Who knows. We’ll see what happens.
How much do you spend on your hobbies/passions each year?
18 Responses to “The cost of what you love to do”
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I do find it hard not to feel guilty when my mentality is need to save, save, save. I think it’s healthy that you’ve put in place your financial goals and since you’re hitting them you’re using your excess to fund towards what makes you happy. If you don’t, you either burnout unhappily or become like Moliere’s Avare (the Miser).
Right now my extra spend is going towards saving up for the baby’s arrival and updating our house (with a little bit of dog thrown in there). We also take one major annual trip (and will as long as we can afford it) but that saving priority comes after our mortgage and RRSP goals.
AMD´s latest post —> Weekly Spend Recap: November 7th to November 13th
I’m like you, my hobby/passion is traveling. I haven’t really traveled a whole ton the before summer of 2010 because of school and trying to pay some things off so starting last summer I started traveling a ton again. I went to Vegas, Kansas City, Chicago, Washington DC, Miami, Key West, Puerto Rico, Dallas and Los Angeles.
I consider it money well spent though, because I’m pretty frugal in other areas.
I hope to do lots of traveling next year also. Me and the BF just need passports though, so that will cut into our traveling expenses as well.
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I love to travel and to dance, so any money I spend on that is money well spent in my book. I have my travel money taken out of my paycheck directly and put into a savings account just for travel, so it makes it a lot easier to spend it. I have made it a priority and I try to spend such that my expenses reflect this. :-)
That said, this year I’ve spent SIGNIFICANTLY less on it, since I skipped the annual family vacation (actually, all of the kids did). I’d like to see it go back up next year, in the form of a big trip.
This post, and the link to the old debate about being passionate about what you do for a living, got me all fired up again. I am one of the few PFers who jumped in on the side of the debate of loving what you do so much that you should not care about the money. I still maintain that — however, when the money is *so* little that it actually distracts you from your life’s work, that is a problem too. There are days when I should be doing my homework, but I have to pour over my budget sheet and figure out how to keep my head above water financially before my head is clear enough to think great thoughts. HA! I have not been blogging enough lately because of this specific problem – I do not know how to solve the problem, and I am burying my head in the sand a bit. This post will help get me out of that rut, thank you Krystal.
I understand. I saved hard for 10 months, just so I could go to Europe this summer. It cost me over $7000. But it was well worth the money, the memories the friendships. I’d do it all over again!
how can one feel guilty for meeting all goals, without compromising a work/life balance!?
7000 for a tonne of trips to break up a very busy year is nothing to be guilty about- life is unpredictable, never know when it may end or what other circumstances can come up- travel as much as you like as long as your other goals are being met.
I pulled in over 100k this year with one full time job and 1 part time job and tenants renting my spare rooms. i hit all my targets, still had enough to buy a new used WV Beetle when i got into an unexpected car accident, AND still went to Europe with my mate for 1 month! spent 12k on that jaunt for the two of us, but boy was it worth it!!! great memories, built a stronger bond since we only had each other to rely on, and experienced a whole new set of life values. can’t be guilty for actually enjoying some of the fruits of your labour. that’s ridiculous.
I don’t think it’s a ridiculous concept to feel guilty about spending money, especially when you’ve come from debt. It shouldn’t be ridiculous, but it does feel weird to spend so much money when I’m so used to doing the opposite. Creating that perfect work/life balance is a really hard thing to accomplish.
Of course, I don’t regret any of the travel I’ve done. Each trip has been amazing, and well worth it. But in the back of my mind, because I’ve spent so many years scrimping and saving, my mindset will probably always be “is this money better spent/saved for something else?” even when I know the answer is no.
This is one of the spending categories that I say “If I’m not saving money to spend on this, what am I saving for?!” I don’t have the numbers, but I’ve probably spent at least 8,85% of my income traveling this year. I don’t see anything wrong with that, but I do think it should coincide with less spending in other categories. I don’t spend a lot on clothes or gadgets, so that leaves more for travel.
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“How much do you spend on your hobbies/passions each year?”
If you live your passion, then almost everything you spend goes toward that passion, right? Even the food you buy goes to powering your drive/success/energies.
Maybe that’s a tad much on the optimism, but everyone should also ask how much they spend on things they’re not passionate about.
I arrived here from a link on Twitter. Love the blog! Bookmarking now.
Eric´s latest post —> How To Budget For Long-Term Travel
I agree with the person before me, if we asked everyone how much they spend on things they are NOT passionate about, it would put it in a new perspective!
I saw a good quote the other day, “travel is the only thing you can buy that makes you richer”. I too enjoy travel, though my first child has taken precidence this year, both financially and time wise. I have been trying to keep my hobby costs down, especially while on mat leave. My two main hobbies are singing in a choir ($135/year fees), and my book club (only cost of book if I can’t get it from the library and food to contribute to potluck). The travel fund will return once my little guy is big enough to either come along or stay with grandparents.
Wow, I am a bit scared to tally up my travel spending! I know it’s been high this year and last year due to my move to Barbados, and I go back to Toronto to do school related stuff, stock up on goods that are way too expensive/unavailable here, and visit my family and friends. This year my only “real” vacation was to Jamaica for my cousin’s wedding and I saved a lot by spending 3 nights at the resort rather than a week, getting a flight on a seat sale and some other travel tricks. However, I made a commitment to cut down on travel expenses next year which will mean travelling within the Caribbean and staying with friends. I am really looking to fulfill this goal and save some money!
@Psychsarah That’s a great quote. And Krystal, for the amount of traveling you’ve done, that’s an impressively low amount. Congratulations on making what’s important in your life a priority. No need to feel guilty if you are living within your means!
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I think it is fine and natural to feel guilty spending the money. You have spent so long with the mentality that money should only be spent on necessities that it would be hard to look at $7000 and just shrug off the expense. Hopefully though, you are able to realize that this is why you spent all that time being strict with your cash and are able to move on from the guilty feelings and dwell on the happiness that you are acheiving your dreams without sacrificing your future.
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It is very close to what we spend as well – about 9.2, but after taxes : -)
http://www.niterainbow.com/2011/08/family-budget-2011-us-715-k-above.html
This figure stayed roughly the same over last four years. The key is to keep it that way ; -) As you always want to go elsewhere and try something new.
Life is a collection of experiences, so you have to enjoy yourself, as much as you can.
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