My wife and I are newly married, we love to travel and it is my passion and I would like to spend most of my disposable income traveling now-before we have little feet, and huge mortgage payments. We are able to fly cheap because of a airline pass card. How much travel is too much to be out of balance with other obligations? What do you use to measure this? Her parents say "save your money." We are in or have just finished masters degrees and are self supporting. My goal is to see one new country for every year old I am...I'm about ten behind.

halsar, I am in my 20's and have been married for 6 years. We have a house and we still manage to travel to Europe, on average, about twice a year. Its all about priorities. We have a nice house, but we could have afforded something larger and more expensive. We chose to live a little more modestly so that we didn't have to give up our passion for traveling. We also tend to travel during off-season, and often when we find airfare sales. We put money into a separate savings account each month to pay for these vacations.

I think it is possible to do both if you put some effort into it.

Best wishes,
Tracy

And p.s., our parents gave us the same "save your money" lectures they realized that we could fully function on our own.

Tracy

Tell your parents that travel, especially foreign travel, will make you a richer person and thus is a great investment!

Dear H,

>I would like to spend most of my disposable income traveling now-before we have little feet, and huge mortgage payments.<

That's a good way to guarantee huge mortgage payments.

I don't know where you live, but my daughter and SIL needed $25K as a down payment on a modest house near Sacramento in order to qualify for a mortgage.

>My goal is to see one new country for every year old I am...I'm about ten behind.<

So you will have to see 3 countries per year for the next 5 years. Assuming that you get the usual 2 weeks off, that's a lot of rushing around.

I would suggest doing a little of both. If you can, don't buy a house without at least 20% downpmt. You can travel adn buy the house, just maybe not a new country every year, but every other year. Traveling is wonderful, but so is equity!

What a foolish thing to type, angelas! Who can afford to put down 20% on a house?

Fodors should delete this posting immediately.

Travel...see as much as you can. Don't do splurge hotels and meals every day of your trip. With both of you having your Masters, you will be bringing in a nice income, so maybe you can save a little each year toward a down payment.

I am in my twenties and married.
We just bought a house in May, and initally cancelled a trip planned for august because we were nervous about all the expenditures.
Then when august came, we really regretted cancelling and planned a trip for October. We also decided that from now on we will do one big trip a year.
But I have to say - it is extremely important to save for a house, (and retirement!) Its very difficult to play "catch-up" if you start late!

Maybe I am a little late in the game and need some catching up. I'm 30, my wife 24.

Traveling Cheap
But we travel wicked cheap. We ate our own made PBJ sandwiches for many breakfasts and lunches while on honeymoon in Irealnd and slept in the rental car. Had a good time and don't regret the experiance of going.

Stellarosa - in my area if you don't put at least 20% down you have to pay PMI. If you save right you can easily have 20% within a few years (dep. on cost of house of course).

halsar

It's amazing what we will do when we are so passionate about traveling.

Good for you. See the world!

You ate PB&J and slept in your rental car for your honeymoon?

How romantic! I hope you at least splurged for the midsize.

in our area we will need over 300k for our starter home. 20% means 60 grand. I'm not a saver like that.

Live for today halsar!
I am 49 with 3 left- home children.
We started early. I was 18 and my husband 21 so the mortgage is paid off now.
Our family holidays were always within the UK. Cheap but happy.Our savings were always spent on those holidays.
Our first trip as a couple was to Paris and we were bitten by the bug! Now we travel as much as possible!
Our 29 yr old daughter and partner are thinking along the same lines as you.They need to move out of a rented flat and buy a house -maybe have babies,BUT they have already been bitten by the bug and are off to California next month.Good for them I say!
Who knows what to do for the best. My late father and mother saved up every penny for retirement and never lived long enough to spend it.
Enjoy what you have now!
Good luck for the future.

right, but the more you save the better off you will be with your mortgage. also, keep in mind that interest rates (though they have gone up) are very low now (my parents bought their house at 18%!!)- and house prices are starting to come down. So now might not be a bad time to start really socking away money

Paying a downpayment of 20% of more means that you will not have to pay for PMI with your mortgage loan which will certainly save money.

halsar, everyone has to make their own financial decisions and than live with their decisions. And personally I don't think parents should interfere with the decisions their married child makes unless that child is asking for financial help which obviously you are not. Or of course if the married child ask for the parents thinking..which is not always a bad thing to do in a lot of cases.

Anyway, I tend to be conservative when it comes to money so I would be saving for a house and just take inexpensive trips until I was able to buy a house. Of course once one owns real estate one can find that a lot of money is needed for unexpected repairs and maintenance etc. Best wishes to you two with your decision.

Both are definitely possible. My DH and I are in our 30's and just got married last year after living together for 7 years. We are both self-employed, so income is not guaranteed, but there's lots of work in our field so we are doing well. We bought a condo 2 years ago. Last year we paid for our entire (small) wedding and went on a 3-week tour of Spain and Portugal for our honeymoon. This year we went to New York in June for 4 days and we're heading to Northern Germany and Amsterdam next week for 2 weeks.

It can certainly be done, but you'll probably have to cut back elsewhere - more modest home, cheaper hotels when travelling, inexpensive restaurants at home and abroad. It really depends on how badly you want a home and what the market is like.

And as for your parents, they mean well, but they sound like our parents who never travel much. They don't see the purpose of going every year and consider it using money less wisely.

Sit down, figure out how much your monthly costs are at home (rent, utilities, food, entertainment, etc.) and how much you usually need for a trip.

I think a lot of people have unrealistic expectations and also are financially irresponsible. I think it is not necessary for 20 somethings to feel they have to own a house and are entitled to have a house. I didn't own a house until I was in my 40s. I think someone was joking above about 20 pct down payment being ridiculous, that's what I put down when I did buy (a little more, actually, about 25 pct). When you are young you are moving around a lot anyway, which isn't a good time to buy a house. Now if you are the kind of person who intends to stay in the same general place forever (town or part of town if you live in a big city), that wouldn't apply, but you can lose money (a lot of it) if you want to move and sell a house within a short time.

On the other hand, people should have savings for all kinds of emergencies (like losing a job, illnesses, lots of things), so the idea that you want to spend most of your disposible income is very irresponsible, I think. This has nothing to do with kids or mortgage payments.

I know people who blew all their money on things, and then ran into real trouble when something happened because they had no savings.

As for entitlement, along with the idea that young people think they are entitled to own homes (I see articles in my local paper occasionally, the real estate section -- when it is considered a tragedy of the housing market because a 25 yr old can't buy a house) -- I think they idea that you want to spend tons of money on foreign travel is also a sense of entitlement. It isn't necessary, just a desire. If you can do that and still maintain a reasonable savings account, fine, I'd forget the whole mortgage thing for now. What's the thing with people so young thinking they have to have everything and have their entire lives planned ahead. Your wife is 24 and already you are sitting around thinking about how you should blow a lot of money because you are going to be having children soon. And why do you have to have huge mortgage payments? Only if you buy expensive homes you can't afford.

There is something to be said for getting into the housing market and building equity over a long time, but I don't think that means you have to be doing it already -- or that there are no risks. If I had moved within even 10 years of buying my first home, I would have lost many thousands of dollars because the housing market took a dive of about 25 pct and stayed there for about a decade.

Christina, your advice is not financially sound.
Just because you didnt buy a house until you were 40 doesnt mean thats a good option. The sooner you buy a house the more time you have to build equity.

Also, I dont sense a feeling of "entitlement" from halsar, just a concern about where he should save his money.