If you have a positive net worth, no debt, and you are contributing sufficient savings toward your retirement, then you’ve earned a vacation. Enjoy! Take a vacation from reading this article, too. I don’t want to harsh your well-deserved mellow.
Sadly, the above statement describes a vast minority of Canadians.
Time to get out the no-tear shampoo again, folks.
I am sick of reading Personal Finance blogs about people who have debt taking vacations that cost thousands of dollars.
If you are wallowing in debt you don’t deserve a vacation.
You already had the vacation. In most cases, you literally went on at least one vacation to an exotic or culturally-significant or fun-in-the-sun destination.
If you never went on a single vacation, you still had a vacation from real life. You spent more than you earned. You acquired debt. You paid for consumables with future hypothetical earnings.
A vacation is a consumable. It is not an asset. It won’t even hold its value as well as a Toronto condo, and those are money down the drain.
Vacations are the new opiate of the masses, because they allow sad, stressed people to escape the stinging reality of their lives. People in debt are more likely to desire such escapes. It’s psychologically understandable but entirely money-stupid.
The mentality that one “deserves” a vacation is emblematic of North America’s consumerist, socialist, entitlement lifestyle. If you’re indebted and you’ve said anything similar to “I deserve a vacation” then congratulations. You’ve drunk the Kool-Aid. I diagnose you with a bad case of marketingitis.
Learn to defer gratification the same way that your grandparents did. I’d single out GenY for being devoid of patience, except that the Boomers and GenX are terrible at waiting, too. Failure to defer gratification is endemic to our society. It’s the exact same reason that people “rent-to-own” furniture and get regrettable tattoos.
If the stress of life, besides your crushing debt, has gotten you down then I understand why you want a break. Fine. Take a staycation. That’s all you’re entitled to. It’s more relaxing to lay on your couch than go on a trip that will add to your debt anyway.
“You only live once,” is a true statement (with apologies to believers in re-incarnation). Some people wrongly think this statement justifies eloping from real life to embrace more debt. Consider this:
Vacations fuel your debtor lifestyle. They create debt and are a form of unhealthy escapism. Debt makes your net worth lower. Poor people die younger. It’s a fact almost as established as the fact that obese people die younger. The negative psychological (and therefore physiological) impacts of debt are killing you quicker than your vacations are healing you.
The best way to deal with stress? Work toward its resolution.
Get a new job. Take more shifts. Work longer. Pay off your debt.
Don’t bury your head in the tropical sand. That’s why debtors love exotic vacations in the first place.
Does anybody want a souvenir for reading this article?
“I’m Money-Stupid and all I got was this t-shirt and more debt.”
“The mentality that one “deserves” a vacation is emblematic of North America’s consumerist, socialist, entitlement lifestyle.”
Aside from the slightly surprising juxtaposition of “consumerist socialist”, as a US citizen living and working in Britain I really have to disagree. North Americans, particularly US Americans, have significantly less vacation time than nearly anywhere else in the world. The North American working culture is one of unhealthy long hours and diseases, such as mental illness and heart disease, brought on by stress and overwork.
Work-life balance is crucial to healthy living. I agree with your suggestion for ‘staycations’ and lower cost holidays, but those are still vacations (and still necessary). To call out people for stress relief is at best unhealthy and at worst literally deadly.
Canada and, to a lesser but increasing degree, America may appear to be not socialist, but perhaps that’s relative to your reference point – Europe – which is a collective of socialist basket cases (see Euro sovereign debt crisis, circa now). In America, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are zombies but consumerist socialism is alive and well in Canada by way of the CMHC. Sure, the end result of consumerist socialism is a disastrous transfer of wealth from the middle class to the wealthy, but every form of socialism ends disastrously for the middle class anyway.
Your objection is noted; the title is sensationalist because it gets more hits and comments from lovely visitors like you. Everybody should be able to take a vacation if they’re working but, as I noted, the only logically defensible vacation (if you’re trying to dig out of debt) is a staycation. If it involves travelling anywhere, then it’s money-stupid plain and simple.
Vacations can be wonderful experiences if paid in full; I’ve been abroad and I highly recommend travel based on my personal tastes. But if you’re money-smart and debt-free it’s much easier to have a good work/life balance, than if you’re in a bunch of debt and go on vacations.
Hmm, not to get into a debate about the eurozone crisis but it’s arguably the more capitalist countries that are leading it, and austerity (the opposite of socialism!) which is compounding it – the European countries on the more socialist end of the spectrum, such as the Scandinavian countries, are doing the best in terms of employment and GDP growth.
Interesting tidbits from the Greek constitution:
“Article 22
1. Work constitutes a right and shall enjoy the protection of the State, which shall seek to create conditions of employment for all citizens and shall pursue the moral and material advancement of the rural and urban working population.
All workers, irrespective of sex or other distinctions, shall be entitled to equal pay for work of equal value.
2. General working conditions shall be determined by law, supplemented by collective labour agreements contracted through free negotiations and, in case of the failure of such, by rules determined by arbitration.
3. Any form of compulsory work is prohibited.
Special laws shall determine the requisition of personal services in case of war or mobilization or to face defence needs of the country or urgent social emergencies resulting from disasters or liable to endanger public health, as well as the contribution of personal work to local government agencies to satisfy local needs.
4. The State shall care for the social security of the working people, as specified by law.
Interpretative clause:
The general working conditions include the definition of the manner of collection and the agent obliged to collect and return to trade unions membership fees, specified in their respective by-laws.”
It is a common sleight of hand to defend socialism by labeling its flaws as the errors of capitalism. Again, just look at Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac and the Federal Reserve — they created the housing bubble. Derivatives meant that a lot of people lost money, but if government hadn’t been involved, it would have been the private market’s risk. Meanwhile, people look at Wall Street and say “OMG those fat cats are collecting big pay cheques”. If a payday loan store goes bankrupt, do I care? No. Unless I’m the one backstopping it. Government intervention is prone to creating ‘moral hazards’ and ‘perverse incentives’. Banks respond to incentives in an efficient way (they’re profit maximizing); Canadian banks LOVE lending mortgages/HELOCs to ANYBODY they can, because the CMHC is backstopping it. It’s the Government’s fault. Government is effective and useful only insofar as it resolves collective action problems (prisoner’s dilemas). Roads are a good example; publicly-owned toll roads are an even better example of where governments can solve problems that no ‘free market’ could resolve.
I agree mostly, but the title is misleading. A vacation is a break. I think everyone needs a break from the daily grind regardless of their net worth.
There really is no reason to go into debt over that time off though.
Perhaps it should have been “No, You Don’t Deserve to Travel” instead of “a Vacation” but, judging the article not by its cover, I think the content rings true.
I’m not sick of it. I own their credit card issuer, probably own the resort they go to, might own the airline they fly on (unfortunately), and have a decent chance of owning the employer where they try to slowly pay this back. Their vacation pays for my vacation! Or it will in the future when I decide to take more.
Callous, but extremely important point. Companies (and petit bourgeois shareholders like you and I) profit much more from misery than enlightenment.
There’s an incentive to lie to people and tell them they deserve an exotic vacation. There’s no profit incentive for me to write a blog post that tells the truth. Peoples’ indignant responses should be toward irresponsible attitudes and advertisements, like the ones I’ve discussed, rather than my opinion. But human nature is oft bested by the brightest guys in the room: marketers.
Tell us how you really feel.
I often worry that all my hard work getting out of debt and saving for the future will be for naught. If I die young, i believe that i will be really pissed at myself for not going on more vacations (despite the money situation)
If you can be pissed at yourself after you die, it sounds like you don’t have to worry about only having one lifetime to enjoy
Nope just faith.
Leaving your family without debt and with assets is noble. It is, on the otherhand, greedy and ignoble to carpe diem while acquiring debt. If you are debt-free (except a mortgage; NO HELOCs ALLOWED) and you won’t get blown off your course by a vacation, you deserve it! I’m biased because I love travelling and I realize it’s not how everybody wants to spend their money, but vacations abroad can be very relaxing and enriching.
Yea, my favourite… ‘I deserve a vacation…’ is a new series of TD Ads spouting that you deserve and can take a MORTGAGE VACATION…. Honestly INSANE.. that future you will now have MORE principal to pay off.. have paid more interest.. and in the future I’ll have Government Bonds paying at least 14% and your mortgage vacation will be the cause of the 16 points PLUS you’re paying…
These people know NOTHING… Im gen Y and I can see the writing on the wall… That ‘vacation’ is one I couldn’t afford/wouldn’t take.
It’s an absolutely brilliant marketing to align peoples’ wants (to escape their miserable lives by going on vacation) with a mortgage product. They play people like fiddles. TD is upgraded to a Strong Buy.
Choosing staycations over vacations is a great way to save money even you’re not in debt; it helped us get through a year of mat leave and a bunch of home renovations without going into the red.
But I wanted to commend you on calling out the “entitlement lifestyle” that is so prevalent today. People need to be reminded of it more often, because it’s so insidious that it affects even otherwise responsible folks. I consider myself pretty wise to this whole consumerist/debt culture, yet occasionally I still catch myself deep in the entitlement trap. Vacations are a perfect example. Although I never went into debt over them, I used to take one (and sometimes two) exotic vacations a year … to the point that those vacations became one of those faux “necessities” without which I could not imagine life (insert eye roll). Having had to re-think some priorities in the last couple of years, I realized that this was entitled thinking at its best (worst?). Gave myself a kick in the backside, and an attitude adjustment. With that said, my husband and I are finally taking our first vacation in 2 years – and, boy, we have never appreciated it more!
Good for you. It’s so much easier to make excuses for things than to actually deal with it. Now you can enjoy a well-deserved vacation that you won’t be paying for in years to come.
I like this statement: “you still had a vacation from real life. You spent more than you earned. You acquired debt. You paid for consumables with future hypothetical earnings.”
I’m not a huge fan of souvenirs. I will buy magnets (I swear my fridge is the most decorated of all my friends). But those t-shirts? SO UGLY.
Vacations are expensive. I don’t have nearly enough vacation time to take all of the trips that I want to though…
I definitely agree with you that vacations should not be taken if you’re still in debt. But what about the people who have tens of thousands of dollars in professional (e.g. law or business) school debt?
Then again, this is coming from someone who has never been in debt.
An MD is the only professional degree that gives you a ticket to earn money nowadays. The LLB (or JD) and MBA are all awesome, but they’re not money-in-the-bank. If you needed to go into debt just to pay for your education in the first place, buckle down, pay it off, and then enjoy the fruits of your labour. Going on vacation with debt and just an MBA on the wall to show for it is the definition of ‘counting your chickens before the eggs hatch’. If you have a job in this disastrous economy, treasure it, and milk it while the milking’s good. Given your financial situation and job, you’re probably an excellent candidate to spend a crapload of money on a short vacation, to pack an optimal amount of enjoyment into a minimal amount of time; fly first class, yada yada. Somebody in their twenties who is earning 100k+ and has more than that in net worth, with zero familial obligations or debt, is in the perfect spot for this. Your time is worth it, but of course only if it’s something you’d enjoy.
But if I fly economy, I can take more vacations! I’ve already taken three trips so far this year (one each in January, February, and March) and have planned a fourth (June). I spent about $700 on March’s 48 hour trip :/ but it was fun! So I’m not super concerned. I used miles to pay for my June flights, which reduced the overall cost by about $600.
This is key: “Your time is worth it, but of course only if it’s something you’d enjoy.”
I’m slowly getting better at spending because of that. I’m already investing 20% of my gross income for retirement and have 6 months of emergency reserves. I decided I don’t care if it takes longer to buy a condo – I’m going to take the vacations that I want.
The trick though is finding people who have both the time and the money to do the same AND you want to travel with. Or to eat the cost and travel by yourself. I’m finally opting for the last one.
If I die tomorrow, I don’t want to regret not going to places that I wanted to see. But my ideas of places I want to see are different than other people’s, which drove me nuts until I stopped worrying about that.
Don’t mind me being pensive on your blog
There should be a website where you can like find a travel partner who wants to go to the same place at the same time, just to save money.
This! I got my LLB almost 7 years ago (yikes, I feel old typing that!), and it was a completely different playing field, job-wise, back then. People still assume a law degree is a money-minting license, and it’s not anymore … especially if you’re not willing to put in the time at a big firm. The growing importance of work-life balance for our generation (and the next) is making that a much less attractive proposition. Meanwhile, tuition just keeps going up …
I wrote my LSAT, then found out exactly what you said. I love lawyers; their help is critical to my work. But when I found out how risky, expensive, and time-consuming it is, I couldn’t justify pursuing that career.
It seems a vacation is emblematic of a consumerist, capitalist, entitlement lifestyle… not socialist. The ‘I-work-to-spend-to-work-to-pay-off-what-I-spent’ attitude is definitely not socialist.
Capitalism requires economic freedom.
Socialism is economic slavery. Debt is slavery. It’s socialism for the rich
I love the attitude of a staycation.
The other weekend when the weather was so amazing I went for a walk and I swear I just felt so much better even though we didn’t really go anywhere. Ok, so we bought and shared a huge slushie thing at DQ so it wasn’t the perfect textbook staycation but I don’t think under $4 is bad for such a nice break from reality that left me feeling rejuvenated. (Besides he paid for it!)
There are plenty of things you can do that feel like a vacation without spending money. Visiting family for example! Providing you can stand them it is really ideal. Call up some family with a guest room and go visit! Enjoy dinner, enjoy some good company and don’t spend a dime! (I love you Mom! 
lol)
I still have student debt (but it’ll be gone soon!) so I guess I don’t deserve a vacation. I can handle that but how about a freecation?
Thanks for adding these excellent, practical ideas
$17,000 owing in student loans, $3000 vacation booked for June.
Hate me, baby =)
A+! I hope you have a great time!