How do you find time for travel? (mortgage, how much)

[graceC]

For those of us who live in the US and work in a corporate environment, it can be really tricky to find enough time to travel to far away places. We generally get 2 weeks of annual leave here. The flight time itself may eat up 2-3 days due to time difference, and that's just 1 way. So husband and I generally combine the pitiful time off we have with long holidays (thanksgiving, christmas, etc) to get more out of it.

How much time annual leave do you have, and for those who have limited annual leave, how do you find time to travel?

[sponger42]

1. Sabbatical
2. Time off without pay. (LWOP)
3. Quit. No job is ever as rewarding as the travel that replaces it.

Of course, this means giving up the 3500sqft Mcmansion, 2 SUV's, pension plan (which would be taken away anyway), and having a life constantly lived frugally. However, once you get used to living cheaply, you find that it gives you the same amount of daily joy as being a spendthrift, it just costs less money.

[hkgal]

I completely agree with sponger42 - I've done all three. I've taken 6-8 weeks per year off work at least for the last 5 years (4 weeks paid leave and the rest LWOP). For most people on a semi-decent wage, you do have the freedom to travel as long as as you don't tie yourself down financially i.e. servicing unnecessary debts. Otherwise it's your employer and the bank that calls the shots - not you.

Here are a few other ideas for extending your travel time:
*Working abroad and combining it with travel (this is what most of my friends have done)
*Doing contract work and traveling between contracts
*Taking time off between jobs i.e. tell your new employer you can't start for 2 months and then take off somewhere. I did this a couple of times.

[Simple Living]

Time can always be found. It's coming up with the money to travel that's difficult.

[BlueWillowPlate]

In our youth, we did a lot of what sponger and hkgal mention:
Quit your job, combine travel with work, take time between jobs. I was a nanny abroad, the husband traveled for 5 months between jobs.
Some expats continue this all their lives.
Most of us eventually join the real world.

When we got married and ended up with babies and a mortgage, things changed.
(No, we did not have a Mcmansion, just a happy little home.)
For awhile, we just did not travel much, but we were too busy to notice, let alone care.

Then we got back to traveling again: we did not have nice furniture, we ate a lot of pasta, we saved some $.
At present, 3 weeks is all I want to do: we have household pets, plants etc.
This formula has worked.
Every now and then, my husband would get "in the hole" with vacation days, but he would make it up with overtime.

It all depends on how much you really want to travel, and what you want to get out of life.

[sponger42]

BWP has it right. Someday kids and a mortgage for us too. But not yet.

[graceC]

Thanks everyone for responding. We've been combining paid vacation days w/ LWOP so far, but if we need more than 3 weeks vacation time, I think going contract is the way to go for us so we can still travel and maintain a certain level of income that would pay for our travel

[orangeapple]

I get no paid vacation. I've taken up to 5 working days off unpaid, & even then my boss squawked and tried to call me & interrupt my vacation with stupid questions.
I now make them pay me for major holidays at least...
So no, I haven't figured out how to travel yet without putting my job in jeopardy.

[mdp_az]

I get 4 weeks + 13 holidays paid per year - and I take every last day. I rarely use a vacation day to stay home and get stuff done around the house - that's what evenings and weekends are for. We combine vacation days with holidays as much as possible. I also take red-eyes home from the west coast to the east and head straight to the office from the airport in order to save a vacation day.

Only 1.5 years until I qualify for my 5th week of vacation! I do work in the States, but I work for a British comapny that clearly understands the value in time away from work!

[graceC]

Originally Posted by mdp_az

I get 4 weeks + 13 holidays paid per year - and I take every last day. I rarely use a vacation day to stay home and get stuff done around the house - that's what evenings and weekends are for. We combine vacation days with holidays as much as possible. I also take red-eyes home from the west coast to the east and head straight to the office from the airport in order to save a vacation day.

Only 1.5 years until I qualify for my 5th week of vacation! I do work in the States, but I work for a British comapny that clearly understands the value in time away from work!

How I envy you!! Europe and Australia seem to be less work crazy than US. I remember chatting with a British couple during our trip to Goa, India a few years back. They told us 4 weeks paid vacation days are standard in UK, and the 4 weeks must be taken no matter what. Then my sister is Australia told me she has 7 weeks paid vacation days annually. Grrr!!