Top 5 Tips for Couples to Save Money to Travel

Travelers, I am so excited to be sharing this guest blog post with you from Erin Papworth with Nav.it! I virtually met Erin through Wanderful, an international women’s travel community, and through their Nav.It Podcast. Her tips on saving money for travel was something I knew you would appreciate and had to hear, and what better way than in her own words! Thank you Erin for sharing your knowledge. I hope you all enjoy her 5 tips for couples to save money to travel and can implement some of her ideas!

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By: Erin Papworth, CEO and Founder at Nav.it

At Nav.it we have a saying: True wealth is experiential. See, we believe that at the end of our lives we are the sum of our experiences, not our bank accounts. And that’s why we like to talk about money. Because money gives us a chance to do all those things we want to do –like travel in SE Asia for a month! — carefree and confident. When you understand how the financial system works, you understand how you can save for travel, how you can use rewards credit cards wisely to get you that free flight or upgrade, and you can know how and when you want to save or splurge as you explore the world. 

As a couple, travel is an exciting experience as it gives you and your partner a moment to learn about new places and people in the world together. It gives you a moment to get out of the routine of daily life and find a new perspective on those petty fights (who’s turn is it to take out the recycle?!). And as a team, it gives you a chance to plan, save money, and spend wisely with the goal of creating amazing memories that last you throughout your lives. So, without further ado, here are the

top 5 ways to save money as a couple to travel:

1. Save a little towards travel every month.

Even if you don’t have a destination in mind quite yet, if travel is a priority in your relationship, set aside an allotted amount every month that can be used when you want to pick up and go camping for the weekend or when you decide Bali is in your near future. This ensures you’re not getting sucked into credit card debt to achieve the lifestyle goals you both want, and it gives you something to plan for and bond over as a couple.

2. Download the Nav.it app to track your goals.

On the Nav.it app you can connect your accounts and set up a savings goal for travel or any other financial goal. You can break it down to daily, weekly, bi-weekly and monthly amounts you want to save. The more you hit those daily/weekly/monthly goals the more confident you become at your ability to achieve the total savings goal. As a couple, it can be very bonding to work towards and achieve a goal together. Both couples can download the app, connect the same account, and track your success towards the goal.

3. Be kind to yourself.

Seeing digestible savings amounts helps in keeping you on track towards a goal, but also, life happens. Don’t be hard on yourself (or your partner!) if you didn’t quite reach your goal one month; the point is to keep moving towards it and doing the best you can. If one month is harder than another for your partner, showing empathy and the ability to support him or her without placing blame or getting angry will go far to build trust and not derail you as a couple from achieving your overall goal of saving for travel. 

4. Review your progress of saving money for travel.

Savings towards something as exciting as travel is an awesome opportunity for open communication and review of your financial goals as a couple.  Date night, fun night. Set up a monthly date night (your time to splurge on your partner!) where you review the status of your travel goals, how you did that month, and what expenses you forsee next month.   

This gives you an opportunity to plan for events at home (a favorite concert next month?) and when you travel. It also gives you a chance to think about your spending. Do you really need HBO and Hulu and Netflix and Amazon Prime subscriptions? Can you both stand to only eat out once a week and once on the weekend? When you create a plan, you have a common goal that is known to be bonding for a couple and increases your ability to survive more complicated situations when they arise (enter kids, loss of a job, and retirement planning). The most important thing is that you act as a team, helping each other to reach a mutually agreed upon goal. If you can do that together, you can do anything. 

5. Map your top five destinations and open rewards travel credit cards to help you save.

Airlines and hotels often have credit cards that give you bonus reward points (60,000 miles Amex Delta!) when you open them. That’s at least one, if not two, domestic U.S. flights right there. The key to managing rewards travel is to spend only what you can afford and always pay off the total amount on your credit cards monthly. If you carry a balance, the credit card company keeps gaining on the interest, and you can’t save as much in the long run. That means less money for you to save towards travel. If you really want to go deep into reward travel, Nav.it partners with travel reward expert Jet Set Listette, who coaches people about how to maximize reward travel.  This is not for the unorganized, but it’s a great way to use the monthly spending you would spend anyway to get perks when you travel. 

*Note: a lot of the credit cards require you to hit a certain spending amount in the first month(s) you open the card, so make sure you can do that responsibly and get the bonus! 

#bonus: If either of you travel for work and you can swing it, make sure you maximize all the rewards points you can either on the airline you travel the most or hotel /rental car chains. 

Overall, saving for travel is all about prioritization and communication.  If you can achieve your travel lifestyle goals as a couple you will be able to navigate all the other issues that arise in couplehood!  Thus, go forth, save and travel!

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Thank you Erin for providing such great tips for couples on how to save money for travel! To learn more about Erin Papworth and Nav.it head to their website at www.nav.it, listen to their Podcast, or follow them on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

If you love to travel with your family, Exploring Through Life has some great tips on how to save money on family travel on her blog. Click here for these tips.

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