Another thing is you can sell your “stuff” on eBay to recoup the cost when you’re done with them or you can gift them to others. You can’t sell your vacation memory later in life. I went on vacations and did a lot of travel many decades ago. It was great in the moment but I can’t even remember most of them now. Those experiences are totally useless to me now.
That’s why I consider it financial insanity to spend your 20s traveling the world and “finding yourself” instead of working and saving. A year of 401k contributions when you are 20 probably results in subtracting 3 years from your retirement age. Make hay while the sun shines.
As a 30y/o who’s took a very stable primary job with great benefits and who works 3 other jobs +- 1 (engineer during the day… mechanic, photographer, general contracting moonlighting) I also obsessed over retirement and saving for my future. I only try to buy things that maintain value or will be extremely useful or life improving to me. However, I also think that the experience of traveling, depending on how you do it, provides immeasurable value to our lives, even if they do live in our memories and fade over time. Keeping a journal helps with calling back those memories, feelings, and things learned. I traveled a lot in my early 20s while still contributing to some sort of IRA. But I traveled very cheaply. Hostels and splitting bills and it has taught me so much about people, history, and the world that it has shaped how I interact with people daily. I can relate to people of other cultures more easily and have something to connect with which I believe is the ultimate experience, once we acquire the main things that we need to survive day to day. I don’t have many material goods, but the ones fondest to me I’ve taken to these trips or have inherited from others with stories behind their gifts. Having said all that, yes, I think taking vacations at all inclusive expensive resorts or just going somewhere to get drunk is waste, or at least not an ideal way to spend travel money.
I think it’s important to learn about the world and take in many experiences while we are young and capable because too many people don’t make it to retirement or can’t physically do the things they wanted to when they were 20-40
Traveling has been very valuable to me because I get to see that some of the unpleasant behaviors that are common in my area are not universal, but just peculiarities of the spot I happen to live in. It's somehow comforting to know that things are different in different places.
That’s why I consider it financial insanity to spend your 20s traveling the world and “finding yourself” instead of working and saving. A year of 401k contributions when you are 20 probably results in subtracting 3 years from your retirement age. Make hay while the sun shines.