Travel Isn’t a Luxury. It’s a Line Item.
I’ve sat across from a lot of people in my years as a financial planner. And one of the most consistent things I hear, once we get past the numbers and into what life actually looks like for them, is some version of this:
“We really want to travel.”
Sometimes it’s said almost apologetically, like they’re confessing to something frivolous. As if wanting to see the world is somehow in conflict with being financially responsible.
It isn’t. And I want to be clear about that.
Travel isn’t a guilty pleasure you squeeze in between “real” financial goals. For many of my clients, it is the goal. It’s the point. And my job, as a Registered Life Planner (RLP®) and a CFP®, is to help you build a financial plan that actually reflects the life you want to live. Not a hypothetical future life. This one.
What Is Life Planning, and Why Does It Matter?
Most financial planning starts with a spreadsheet. Life planning starts with a conversation.
As a Registered Life Planner®, I’m trained to help clients get clear on what matters most to them before we ever talk about allocation strategies or portfolio rebalancing. That means asking deeper questions. What do you want your life to look like in five years? In twenty? What experiences do you want to make sure you don’t miss? What does “a good life” mean to you, specifically?
For a surprising number of people, the answers circle back to travel.
A couple who’s dreamed of spending a month in Southeast Asia. A solo traveler working toward a sabbatical year abroad. A family that does an annual cruise and wants to make sure that tradition never becomes a financial stressor. A retiree with a bucket list that includes every continent.
These aren’t edge cases. These are real people, and real plans I’ve built alongside clients. Travel is woven into their vision of a well-lived life, and so it gets woven into their financial plan.
Making Travel a Real Line Item (Not an Afterthought)
Here’s where things get practical.
Once I understand what travel means to a client…how often, how far, what kind of experience they’re after…we can actually plan for it. Not “hope for it” or “try to make room for it.” Plan for it.
That might look like:
• A dedicated travel fund built into your cash flow plan, sized to match your actual goals (not some vague “vacation budget” number).
• A sinking fund strategy for bigger trips, so you’re saving consistently rather than scrambling or putting it on a credit card.
• Thoughtful timing around when you take major trips in relation to tax events, retirement income, or other financial milestones.
• Building flexibility into your investment portfolio so that when the moment comes…the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, the spontaneous trip with friends, you can say yes without derailing everything else.
The goal isn’t to make travel cheap. The goal is to make it intentional. And when something is intentional in your financial plan, it stops being stressful and starts being something you can genuinely look forward to.
Every Travel Dream Looks Different. Your Plan Should Too.
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach here.
For some clients, travel means a long weekend every couple of months, like a road trip, a city getaway, something that recharges them without requiring a lot of advance planning. We make sure their cash flow supports that rhythm.
For others, it’s one big trip a year. An international adventure they spend months anticipating. We build toward that specifically.
And for some, it’s something more significant. A sabbatical, a year of slow travel, a bucket list journey that’s been decades in the making. For those clients, travel isn’t just a budget category. It shapes decisions about when to retire, how to structure income, even how to think about what “enough” looks like.
The point is that your travel goals are as individual as you are. And your financial plan should reflect that.
Don’t Wait Until “Someday”
One thing I’ve learned from doing this work is that “someday” is the most dangerous word in financial planning.
Someday we’ll travel. Someday when things settle down. Someday when we’ve saved enough. Someday after the kids are older, after the mortgage is paid, after retirement.
Someday has a way of not arriving.
I’m not suggesting you be reckless. I’m suggesting that if travel matters to you - truly matters - it deserves a place in your plan now. Not as a reward for getting everything else “right,” but as part of what right looks like for you.
Money is a tool. It’s meant to serve your life, not the other way around. And if your life includes standing on a glacier in Iceland, or watching the sunrise over Machu Picchu, or simply taking your grandkids to Disney World, that’s worth planning for.
Let’s make sure your financial plan gets you there.
Jonathan Horst is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ and Registered Life Planner® at The Horst Group, a fee-based financial planning firm serving women, LGBTQ+ individuals, and young professionals. To start a conversation about building a financial plan around the life you actually want, schedule a free consultation.