Cover Story
How To Fund Your Dream Holiday
International travel doesn’t come cheap, but there are ways
to fund such trips. Travellers should plan ahead and invest
for the goal instead of dipping into savings or taking a loan,
suggest Preeti Kulkarni & Priya Nair
Photo: Cox & Kings
A
n eight-day vacation to
the UK can easily cost
you `1.3 lakh, while a
six-day tour around Paris
and Switzerland could set you back
by `1.2 lakh. And a nine-day trip
to Eastern Europe can be yours
for `1.1 lakh – if you don’t mind
taking a package tour. These are
the approximate amounts you
may need to shell out for your
international summer holiday.
These are big spends that cannot be
funded through credit cards – after
all, you do not want to start your
holiday on borrowed money.
international holiday can cost
upwards of `1 lakh per person,
it calls for extensive planning to
ensure that your finances don’t
come under the very stress that you
are trying to beat.
So, the best way to fund your
holiday is to plan for it. And many
travel enthusiasts are choosing to
do just that of late. “People across
age groups are planning their travel
well in advance. Generally, retirees
are better equipped as they would
have a corpus, but youngsters may
not be adequately prepared,” says
Pankaj Mathpal, CEO, Optima
Money Managers.
“The ideal approach is to plan
well in advance – six months
to a year before your holiday.
Start a systematic investment
plan (SIP) dedicated to this goal
after estimating the cost of your
domestic or international tour,”
says certified financial planner
Bhakti Rasal. She recommends
parking money in liquid funds
for visa requirements as well as
emergency needs while travelling.
Once you have fixed your travel
budget – comprising tickets,
accommodation, and other
expenses – you should start saving
towards this goal. “You can start
Invest For A Stress-free Holiday
Despite the huge expenses
involved, there’s no escaping
the annual getaway. Financial
planners believe that holidays –
and expensive ones at that – have
lately become an integral part of
a family’s budget. Given that an
30
Invest Towards A Blissful Holiday
Monthly SIP
Period
Estimated rate of return in a liquid fund
Corpus at the end of 12 months
Outlook Money April 2018 www.outlookmoney.com
`10000
12 months
7 per cent
`1.24 lakh