I was very surprised by the holiday budget. Less than 2500$ for 80% of the population? Does that mean that no one from these 80% stays in a Hotel or AirBnB for longer than a week with their family? No one travels overseas, or if so, only every 5 years or so? 2000$ is what you can easily spend on plane tickets for a family of 4.
I think this is a pretty good example of the vast disconnect between reasonably high wealth and low wealth families. If you're in the bottom bracket, it's very likely you don't even have a vacation in any meaningful way, at best you have time off. The lower you are in the division, the starker the difference.
Yes? How long has it been since you checked what income percentile you are in? I would expect most of the posters here to be in the top 5%, with a short tail of unemployed and retirees.
The number of Americans with passports is at an all time high of 48%, and some of that is simply for convenience ID for internal flights.
My partner and I are in the top 20-25% of Germany (looking at combined household income, we earn about the same). Not poor, but not (very) rich as well.
Note that income is not the definition of rich. It's just it's derivative. You may earn well, but that doesn't (necessarily) mean you possess much. Most wealth is inherited nowadays.
Income does not equal wealth and wealth is what this article is referring to. Wealth is a much better measurement for this kind of stuff, anyway. I'm living in Germany as well and I'm probably in the top 10% in terms of household wealth, but easily in the bottom 50% in terms of household income. My wealth is much more impactful in terms of how I live my life, compared to my income. I'd describe myself as rich.
I'd expect that if you look at your wealth instead of your income, you probably come to a similar conclusion. If you are in the top 20% income bracket but do not feel rich, my guess is that you are probably in a lower wealth bracket (i.e. you have a house but still a huge mortgage on that house and not a lot of other assets, putting you somewhere in the top 40-50% wealth bracket.
If your wealth puts you in a similar bracket as your income (i.e. top 20%) and you still don't feel rich, this is more a case of your perception being out of whack. Top 20% in terms of wealth in a society like Germany by definition makes you a very rich person. But even our millionaire future chancellor described himself once as "middle class", so this is a common mistake to make ;-).
Well yeah, European here so things might be a little different, but our family's budget for holydays was usually around 1500-2500$. As a result I've never travelled outside Europe. I've only flown to the Canary Islands twice and otherwise travelled by car. Big money saver. And also camping is cheaper compared to AirBnB and hotels. Though you can usually squeeze two weeks out of that budget.
I'm European too, and I also usually don't spend more than 2000€ on holidays per year, but when I compare myself to friends and colleagues, I always had the impression that how we go on holidays (camping, traveling by bicycle/train) was relatively uncommon. Therefore I didn't think that 80% of the population went on holidays like that.
Once I caught an old acquaintance of mine recycling their Swiss holiday photos on Instagram a year or two after the fact.
Basically, 2-3 classmates of mine shaped 90% of my view on what a normal family vacation is supposed to look like. Whereas actually, half my class didn't leave the country in any given year, especially if they had renovations or car repairs going on. I later learnt some of the parents were financing even the bus and cinema ticket for one of the girls on a one-afternoon class trip.
It's possible to stay in an Airbnb for longer than a week on that budget. But yes I think you have broadly understood what that means. I'm not an expert myself but it sounds about right to me. I would guess the fact it's shocking to you is an indication of how segregated society can be.
Those numbers exclude airfare and other transportation costs.
And you need both time and money for a vacation. The average American family probably can't take 2-3 weeks off to travel every year, which makes their vacations shorter and cheaper.
My first job (2018) provided 2 weeks of PTO, with an increase to 3 weeks expected after _five_ years. Folks in the U.S. can't quite comprehend having more than that (or any at all, depending on the job).
I am very grateful for my current company's "unlimited" PTO policy, it's life-changing.
How unlimited is it, really? How much do people take off in reality? I dislike these "benefits" that no one then dares to use in reality. We have 6 weeks off, and you are literally forced to take them. This basically prevents social norms from putting pressure on people to not go on holidays as much or not during certain times.
That's a fair point! Fortunately, our company culture plays a big role here - unless folks truly don't want to take much time off, everyone seems to take about 6 weeks off. Some teams even plan entire weeks off near holidays so that everyone gets rest and work can be planned/scheduled more easily. "Unlimited" means: assuming you get your work
done and are a reasonable team player - take all the time you need (which seems to be 6 weeks, ha)
It can be a slippery slope for sure, I think it only works when the entire team buys into the notion that life is always more important than work (which can feel rare over here).
Happy to say this has been working for me and if the attitude started to change, I like to think I would speak up pretty quickly.
In the Netherlands, a financial advisory board (NIBUD) advises people to save 10% of their income. The average yearly income being around € 45K comes to a € 4.5K yearly saving. Deduct unexpected costs + that you want to spend part of this on actual savings _and_ realizing that many people don't manage to save that much due to increasing prices + senseless spending (subscriptions, fast fashion, etc.) makes it much less surprising.
Also, Hotels and Airbnb's are incredibly expensive (even for me, working a decent job with a good income) for families. That's why i chose campings over hotels and bought a decent tent.
You can rent the 2 bedroom house across the street from me as a foreigner for $200 per month on the local platform. It is 200 meters from a nice empty beach. If you speak the local language and are willing to compromise (alley and 700 meters from the beach) then half that may be achievable.
Perhaps you see things differently because people here and in tech are generally near the top working class pay. The median individual pay in the US is 40K, and even that is a jump from just a few years ago. I don't know anyone that works in tech for $40K or less. Not to mention the other benefits that people making $40K don't get.
Sounds like my holiday budget. My primary school kid has never flown an airplane, nor been in a hotel, but a few airbnb's, road trips. I would say it's for climate reasons, but really it's the money.
I’ll refrain from piling on to signal that I, too, can travel on the cheap. But I did get a kick out of the shock and dismay that wealthy people might be good at managing their money.
If you’re not rich, but spend more than rich people do on stuff, you’re going to have a hard time getting rich.
Road trips for families is how you stay on a budget. It’s easy to get hotels for around $100 a night that include breakfast if you stay out of world-renowned destinations.
A lot of vacations also involve crashing at another family member or friends spare bedroom/fold out couch.
I grew up with family vacations like this (inflation adjusted) and I had a great time. It’s hard to wrap your mind around when you think vacations require significant travel.
100$ for four beds including breakfast? I live in Europe, perhaps that's why the prices feel off. I pay around 100$ per night without breakfast here in most places, for 2 people.
$100 for two queen beds and continental breakfast. The way my family did it is the parents would sleep in one bed and then the siblings would trade off sleeping in the other bed and sleeping in a sleeping bag/on a couch/on a cot.
There are also people who just don't ever travel, we lower that average holiday budget. I don't travel, and I think it's a bit weird how "normalized" it is. Not that it is wrong to travel, but people always ask me where did I go to this year, and are baffled when I tell them I didn't go anywhere.
