If you’re like I used to be, you probably read articles in travel and lifestyle blogs and roll your eyes.
The top international destinations to visit this year. Eye roll.
The four new credit cards you must apply for right now. Eye roll.
The perfect itinerary for a single day in Paris. Eye roll.
I mean, who can afford that? Who has that much time off? Isn’t anyone else in this great big world saddled with loan debt?!
Truthfully, I figured anyone living these high-flying fashion-forward always-active lifestyles had some kind of a trust fund they were drawing from. That is, until I got smart about saving, prioritized my interests and passions outside of work, and discovered that this kind of lifestyle was achievable on a working girl’s salary.
Now, I have to be transparent here: I am a single girl without debt or dependents, no pets, no mortgage – nothing that sucks my paychecks dry each month except for my stupidly high Washington, D.C. rent and related billz billz billz. This article is written firmly from that perspective, because I don’t know any other.
If you have a family, a big mortgage payment, or are buried in student loans, you have legitimate barriers to the kind of freewheeling lifestyle I currently live. By the way, I have mad respect for that. But if you find yourself in that category, you may have to work harder or longer to make that travel or other dream come true. I’m confident that there are still some nuggets of this advice in this article that you will find applicable.
For those who are wondering how to achieve a travel- and activity-focused lifestyle while still holding down the average nine-to-five, here are some practical tips from my own experience that enabled me to be more flexible and opportunistic in my life. I believe they can help you, too!

Walking out of a trés chic motel in Burbank, California. (Let’s face it, I can’t afford all the luxuries in life.)
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GET YOUR FINANCIAL HOUSE IN ORDER.
This is the first and most important piece of the puzzle, and there are many parts to it. Here are some key areas that I focused on to reach my goal of traveling more.
Set enough money to the side so you’re not totally abandoning your future for what you want to do today.
This might be the most critical piece of advice in this post. No matter your income level, you need to set aside money from each paycheck in a savings or investment account that you won’t touch.As a rule, I save between 15-20% of my salary each year (but I’d be lying if I claimed that I was saving that much five years ago when I was broke and paying high DC rent – so be true to your living circumstances). None of that money hits any bank accounts that I have eyeballs on, and instead goes directly into savings accounts and retirement investments. DO THIS and your future self will thank you. It will also mean that you can spend the rest of your income after rent and bills guilt-free.Minimize or eliminate any debt to improve your credit score.
I can’t stress enough how important good credit is, both now and for your future. It is essential in the United States to make just about any large purchase that requires monthly installments to pay off (car, house, etc.).The first and best way to improve your credit score is to pay your bills each month on time. Relatedly, always pay your credit card balances in full each month. This will significantly improve your credit utilization ratio which will have a positive effect on your credit score.If your credit score is less than stellar (below 700), you probably need to focus on cleaning that up first before you attempt to balance a lot of spending priorities and credit cards and travel costs. Here are some tips for improving your credit score, courtesy of FICO.
Get a top travel credit card.
Credit is tricky and can be dangerous. It takes someone who is skilled at managing their money to be able to effectively leverage credit cards for points. Admittedly, I am not always the most successful at that, but I always pay off my balances in full each month (critical for maintaining good credit and not getting bogged down with debt).If you are just getting started with credit cards, start small with one credit card and only a few charges each month. Track your spending closely because it is much more difficult to manage when your line of credit exceeds your monthly income. With that said, when used strategically, credit cards can be an effective way to manage money, build credit, and earn rewards. A good travel credit card like the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Chase Sapphire Reserve can earn you rewards quickly and provide protections when you travel. I signed up for the Chase Sapphire Preferred two years ago and, thanks in part to a 40,000-point bonus and 20% discount on flights booked with points through Chase’s website, I was able to snag a $961 flight to Argentina last year for 76,922 points – equivalent to $769.
I recently got the Chase Sapphire Reserve card which boasts one of the most impressive rewards for travelers of any credit card. A few of the many benefits include:
- 100,000-point bonus after spending $4,000 in the first three months (I ask family and friends if I can make big purchases for them to meet these spending amounts without digging myself into a financial hole). **IMPORTANT NOTE: This bonus has been discontinued, though the card still offers a 50,000-point bonus which is still quite valuable.**
- $300 annual travel credit to offset the $450 annual fee. You’re essentially paying $150/year for the card, but the rest of the perks more than make up for it
- 3x points on worldwide travel, dining, and transportation. 1x points on all other purchases.
- 50% additional value on travel redemption through Ultimate Rewards website with no blackout dates. What that means is 100 points, usually worth $1, have a 150-point value (or $1.50) when redeemed for travel. For example, a $750 flight would use 5,000 points instead of the standard 7,500. If redeemed for cash, those 5,000 points are worth $500 – so you get additional value from redeeming the points for travel versus cash.
Sick, right? Those benefits give me protections and straight-up cash in my pocket just for making purchases that I would have made anyway.
I try not to have too many credit cards, but I do also have the Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select card since I pretty much exclusively fly American (it has the most flight choices out of DCA). I use that only for American Airlines purchases so I can get a small miles boost each year.
Again, credit cards are not for everyone, but when used smartly, they can be an effective money management tool and provide benefits that are as good as cash for purchases you would already be making.
If you’re interested in learning more about credit card strategies, The Points Guy is one of the leading credit card resources out there.
Disclaimer: I am not a financial advisor. Seek professional advice if you are looking for financial management strategies that are tailored to your unique situation. Also, I am not being paid to endorse these credit cards, as much as I wish I were. Hey, Chase, can you show a girl some love?
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BE DELIBERATE ABOUT YOUR CHOICES FOR YOUR CAREER, VACATION AND PERSONAL TIME.
It all comes down to prioritizing what you want.
If possible, find a job that includes some travel.
This was a dream of mine from the time I graduated college. It took me three jobs and two cities, but I finally landed a job that I legitimately enjoy which enables me to travel frequently — meaning it’s not on my dime, and the travel which I naturally love counts as being on the clock.I know this particular piece of advice is easier said than done, and can take years to achieve. But if this is something you desire, start seeking it now so your payoff can come quicker.Use all of your vacation, rolling over one week MAX from year to year (if your employer allows it).
I don’t have to go over all the benefits of taking vacation here. It’s good for your health, it helps the economy, it will reduce your stress level, it increases productivity, and even if you do nothing but sit on the couch, it is important to step outside of your work zone for days at a time to reset.I often hear people in stressful job situations claim that they can’t take vacation because too many people are dependent on them, they never have a break between important projects, or too much work stacks up while they’re out. I don’t discount that. But in my opinion, you have to demand control of your time off, otherwise you will burn out. And that’s not good for anyone.One strategy I use is to plan my vacations well ahead of time – often 6 months or more in advance. That enables me to get the days approved and have travel booked well before projects come in that could be used as an excuse not to go. Also, it gives my employer a solid heads-up on when I’ll be out, and we can manage project schedules and resources accordingly. It works out for everyone that way, but more than anything, it ensures that I am able to use my hard-earned vacation days.
Be disciplined about how your spend your time away from the office.
This will enable you to be more assertive about when you begin and end work. For instance, if you begin an evening workout routine, you may not be able to work past 5:30 or 6:00 because you have to make it to your class on time.Once I structured my time immediately before and after work – blogging in the mornings, exercising straight after work in the evenings – I stopped letting my job bleed into my free time. As an added bonus, and out of necessity, I’ve actually became more productive during the eight to nine hours I spend in the office each day!
Another strategy I use is to put everything I’m doing into my calendar. If it looks like another meeting, chances are you’ll treat it like one!
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GET SMART ABOUT HOW YOU TRAVEL.
A whole new world opened up for me when I began seeking out ways to travel smarter and more frequently. Let’s all take a moment to give thanks to the glorious Internet, where there are loads of resources available help you with everything from finding cheap flights to learning about new places to visit to discovering what may be in your own backyard.Here are a few strategies I’ve used to become a smarter traveler.
Sign up for ALL THE REWARDS PROGRAMS.
Rewards programs are basically a form of currency. You pay for flights, hotel rooms, and car rentals no matter what, but if you’re a member of those brands’ rewards programs, you get additional points or miles that you can use to get free stuff. If you fly or stay at a hotel even once a year, it’s worth it to become a member. Just be mindful of when points expire.I play the long game with my rewards, meaning I’m working to bank up as many miles/points as I can before cashing them in (again, as long as they’re not at risk to expire). I’m hopeful that my future self will thank me when I’m able to take my children on a vacation that doesn’t completely break the bank. And if the points do end up expiring sooner from lack of loyalty to a particular brand? Hello to lots of free travel for moi!Points can also enable you to be flexible with last-minute travel arrangements. For instance, back in 2013, a close friend’s father unexpectedly passed away. The funeral was going to take place just a few days later, meaning flight prices would be through the roof. I was able to use my Delta SkyMiles – which I had been banking since I was 11 before Delta acquired Northwest – to fly me to Minnesota from Washington, D.C. It meant the world to me to be able to support my friend during the most difficult days of her life, and I was thankful not to have been in the position of having to decide whether or not to go because flights were so expensive.
Travel during off-peak times.
For anyone like me who works a full-time job and is on a strict budget, you’re probably looking for opportunities to do things at a discount. Shoulder seasons (spring and fall) are a great time to travel to many popular destinations – especially beach and mountain towns – because tourism has very distinct peaks in summer and winter.Truthfully, I don’t understand why more people don’t travel during shoulder seasons if they can swing it with their jobs. It basically means that you’re in a place when the weather is milder, crowds are thinner, and prices are lower (my recent visit to Martha’s Vineyard is proof of that). Who wouldn’t want that?
Prioritize visiting friends and family who can host you and give you an insider’s tour of where they live.
Another great tip for those on a budget: Leverage the people you know! I am always happy to host friends and family when they visit Washington, D.C., and I tend to prioritize my travels around the places I can go where I know people. For instance, on my aforementioned Argentina trip last year, I was able to stay with a good friend and not pay a dime for lodging the entire time I was in Mendoza. That saved me a boatload of money. It’s a great way to make expensive destinations affordable.Don’t know people in the city you’re visiting? Try Couchsurfing if you’re on a strict budget. You can literally sleep on someone’s couch for free at your destination.
Maximize your time at home: Join a local club that exposes you to events and activities in your area that you wouldn’t normally know about.
Can’t get away? There’s nothing stopping you from trying out new things at a local level! I joined a membership organization called Ivy which exposes me to events and activities in D.C. that I never would have known about otherwise. It’s been a great way to meet people and see the city in a new light. Ivy is in a number of U.S. cities, and other organizations such as Meetup offer numerous activities that will help you unleash your inner “local tourist.”
So there you have it: My strategies for saving money, traveling more, and taking back your work-life balance. If you made it this far, you deserve a beer and a pat on the back. Leave a comment to let me know what you thought!
Excellent post with great solid advice! Impressed that you stressed the importance of saving 15-20% of salary in “non-touchable” investments and savings accounts before doing anything else. Equally impressive was your advice to always pay credit card balances off – in full – each month. Based on my own experience, those are two critical keys to keeping ones financial house in order and ensuring ones future. Equally great tips on traveling during the off-season (you called it shoulder season) and using credit reward cards to your benefit. The Chase card sounds terrific…except for the yearly membership fee. Discover has cash back rewards with no yearly fee however you can’t earn frequent flyer points with any airlines. Will definitely check into the perks offered by other cards now that I’ve read your article. Again, excellent post with terrific advice!
Thank you, Diane! I’m glad you agree about the savings and credit card strategies. They are the foundation which enables me to live more freely (interesting how structure can actually be liberating – maybe I’ll write about that sometime ? ). I actually used to use a Discover card for my everyday purchases. It had a great cash back rewards program!
Thanks again for your comment. I truly appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts on the article!
Best,
Marissa
Dear Marissa,
thank you sooooo much for your super inspirational post on how you financially afford to travel so much, and still keep down that nine-to-five and save for later. You’re so wise about prioritizing, it blows me away.
I remember myself at my long-term nine-to-five (or 8.30-to-7, and on blackberry all night & weekend long – a Wall Street job as a money manager). I was in a relationship at the time, and that union meant the world to me (it was a bit like the house/mortgage/kids you mention in your post, minus all of the above). That love even meant more to me than being able to travel – which, thanks to the generous salaries we both brought home, we were able to do, twice a year for a week or two, on top of work travel. And work travel would have been plentiful, if I had been able to tolerate it at the time. So, while I was pretty similar to you in the financial department and in saving for retirement, trying to be smart about how I invested all of my resources, all my left-over cash eventually went into keeping myself healthy and balanced, when my beloved partner – also a banker – didn’t give a damn about his health or balance and drained me that way. Think in the direction of spending money on organic foods, acupuncture, Thai-massages (twice a week, for 2+ years), therapy, yoga teacher training, Reiki (treatments and training), once I’d figured out that nothing in conventional medicine would help me beat the constant fatigue, but only make it worse. This also meant that I completely shunned work travel (he, on the other hand, did loads of it, and always super stressed time-wise, and with poor food choices and far less sleep than he needed – but there must have been something he enjoyed about it, otherwise I don’t know why he didn’t arrange his work-life differently… I certainly did…).
Interestingly enough, to be able to handle it all, I ended up taking exactly some of the steps you describe: become clear about when you start to work and when you leave, take all your vacation days, give your workplace plenty of notice when you will be away, put the blackberry on auto-off/on at reasonable hours (my off-hours ended up being 7pm-7am and all weekends and vacation times) etc. I even went as far as biking to work (to get my workout in early in the day, and shut off after work) and as far as changing clothes (back into jeans) for lunch breaks; that meant I kept some business clothes and shoes at my workplace always, and scheduled in time to change. I also made a point to walk or bike to lunch away from the company cafeteria. If I took co-workers to lunch, I insisted we talk about personal matters exclusively, no work topics, and I never took lunch meetings with external business contacts. This was to signal to myself that I was on me-time and allow myself to recharge during times that I wasn’t being paid for anyway. And eventually, I said: f*** it, it’s all not worth it: I’ll work four days instead of five each week, because I need that extra day to recover. Did that for two years, and initially felt a bit guilty about switching off my blackberry from 7pm on Thursdays through 7am on a Monday. But: my boss and co-workers adjusted, and it all worked out beautifully and brought the enjoyment back to my job (I ran loads of client money, which is a great challenge and super rewarding if you do it right and responsibly, and actually end up making money for your clients!). As you said, we get more productive in the time we consciously allot to work once we dare to do it.
And then I found my personal sweetspot and had mastered it all… After that, I quickly got bored (with one of the most fascinating office jobs the world has to offer!), and left what used to be my dream job (and a few months later what used to be my dream partner, too).
What do I want to say? – Well, simply this: keep an open mind. Now that you’ve so obviously mastered your nine-to-five and passion for travel, life may have a few surprises up the sleeve for you. Whatever you end up doing, best of luck to you, and enjoy! And be sure that you will be able to use all your treasured skills along the way to keep creating the next satisfying adventure in your life – even if it might mean confusion and less than stellar finances for a little bit while you transition – we’re made for growth, after all, and to discover all the strength and joy that we hold inside, and apply it to all areas of life…
Take care! <3
Solveig Caroline
Hi Solveig Caroline,
Thank you so much for your thoughtful comment and for all that you shared! I agree: the key is to keep an open mind. I don’t pretend to have it all figured out – I have daily struggles that I work through as well. I think we’re all trying to figure out what balance works best for us each day, and what our passions are. My hope is to share some of what I’ve found to work with others. But who knows, something could happen that could throw me completely off-kilter and change my priorities. That is both the the magic and challenge of life. 🙂
Your parting advice is great – “we are made for growth, and to discover all the strength and joy that we hold inside, and apply it to all areas of life…” – I will carry that with me!
I wish you all the best,
Marissa
Hi Marissa,
Thank you so much for taking the time to write a meaningful response to my comment. 🙂 Oh, I never thought for a moment that you have it all figured out… I don’t think anyone ever really does – the deciding factor for our success (and happiness) is how we deal with adversity and set-backs, and come out stronger on the other side.
I know for a fact that a great article like your 10 strategies one can only be written and come across as authentic when the author has faced her share of challenges on the way to creating her life the way she wants it. These nuggets of wisdom in all their simplicity and clarity cannot come from someone who only theoretically tackles obstacles. It takes great self-knowledge and years of disciplined practice and refining, as well as lots of reflection and intelligent/creative problem-solving to come to the conclusions you’ve reached. Well done! And keep going! 🙂
Also: I didn’t mean to say your life HAS to bring you something that throws you completely off-kilter. It just might. Mine did – when I least expected it, too! My final dream is so much grander, more free and more beautiful than I ever dreamt in the first place while I was still working on Wall Street and holding on to that old relationship. It is also not one I share publicly anymore…
Anyway, I’ve found these highly structured confines that you and I both know so well from our corporate jobs tend to limit the scope of our creative thinking. And that’s even if we’re already being way more creative than our peers – we only ever get to play with and tweak to perfection what’s really in front of our noses every day, right? Not saying these confines are bad per se – on the contrary, from my experience tight structures and constraints are really helpful and freeing in perfecting our daily routines and gathering the priceless tools we need to create and follow our biggest dreams down the road.
All the best to you, too, and above all: happy travels!
Solveig Caroline
I used to use credit cards as little as possible until I got one linked into a loyalty programme. Now I charge as much as I can. It amazes me how few of my friends do this. One of my cards gives me FREE access to the pay-in lounge at my local airport, travel insurance, AND a chance for at least one free International flight a year. Having said that, I DO often have to book flights several months in advance, and I DO have to be flexible. What’s more, not all programmes are created equal. Some of the programmes seem deliberately designed to frustrate people to the extent that they give up and forfeit their miles. When all is said and done, however, you have nothing to lose. It’s especially good when you book an airline ticket using your card because you get both the cost of the ticket AND the miles! DOUBLE YOUR MONEY!!!
Some of the benefits are incredible! You make a good point that not all programs are created equal. I’ve gotten “5x points” offers and upon reading further, I’ve found that the points actually hold very little value. But when you lock into a good program (like the ones I mentioned in the article), it really does help to stretch your money so much further!