Vacation Savings Calculator
Don’t forget to save for vacation with our Vacation Savings Calculator. Set the day you want to get away and how much you need to get there and our calculator will do the heavy lifting.
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What is a Vacation Savings Calculator?
The Vacation Savings Calculator is a tool that is designed to take the complexity out of financial planning and saving for vacation. Taking a holiday is intended to be a stress-free, relaxing experience. However, depending on the type of holiday you want to take, it can be a pretty hectic affair to budget and plan for in advance. The Hardbacon Vacation Savings Calculator enables you to:
- Determine the right contributions you need to be making to save towards your desired vacation
- Budget your other expenses based on the date you want to leave for vacation
- Assess what type of interest you would need to earn on your deposits to minimize your contributions and let your money do your work for you
How to use the Hardbacon Vacation Savings Calculator
The Vacation Savings Calculator offers more than just the monthly amount you need to save to build up your vacation fund. It also offers the functionality to input the interest that you can earn by depositing your money into a savings account. By ensuring that your money grows (instead of just piling up in an account), you can hit your vacation saving goal faster while contributing less of your own capital.
- To use the calculator, you need to enter the following:
- Savings Goal: The total amount of money you want to have saved to enjoy the vacation you have planned in your head
- Current Balance: The existing amount of money that you have saved towards your vacation goals
- Annual Interest Rate: The percentage interest that the bank (or any other institution that you deposit your money with) is paying you annually to keep your funds with them
- Vacation Start Date: The day you want to take the money out of the account and use it to spend on the vacation you have dreamed of
- Deposit Frequency: The number of times in a month you want to make a deposit into the vacation fund (option to deposit either weekly or monthly)
Learn more about the Vacation Savings Calculator Inputs
This holiday savings calculator offers you a quick way of evaluating what type of vacation you can afford and gives you a clear action plan of the steps you need to take to make that vacation a reality. While some of the inputs may seem ambiguous, we have broken them down here to help you decide for yourself what you would like to enter based on your ideal vacation.
- Savings Goal: To understand how much to budget for a vacation, do some research on various locations that you find appealing. Based on that, you can find out the prices you can expect to pay for things like air travel, accommodations, tickets to certain attractions, car rental costs (if applicable), food, and other expenses that you can reasonably expect to incur. It’s also good to add a 10% buffer amount for miscellaneous expenses that you can encounter while on the trip.
- Current Balance: You can find this out pretty easily by simply checking your bank statement to find the existing balance, and selecting an amount that you are comfortable with depositing towards a vacation.
- Annual Interest Rate: Reach out to different lenders to see what type of offers they have on savings accounts. Some lenders even offer high introductory rates to entice depositors to place their money with them.
- Vacation Start Date: This date remains entirely at your discretion for when you want to begin your well-deserved holiday.
- Deposit Frequency: Depending on whether you want to deposit once a month or once a week, you can pick either option.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I start saving for vacation?
As with many personal finance tips, the best way is to start budgeting early to see what you can afford and how much you need to put away monthly to have enough for the vacation you have planned. You can also practice frugality by cutting down on excess or discretionary expenditures each month. Discretionary expenditures include things like eating at a fancy restaurant or watching the latest new movie in theaters. These are avoidable expenses that are not necessary for day-to-day living.