5 Reasons to Plan out vacation in January
Levi and I have a tradition where we get all of our vacation sorted (as best we can) the first month of the year. It doesn’t always work as seamlessly as it sounds, but for us, the month of January is a great time to dream about where we want to go, all the things we want to do and how to best achieve them.
To be completely honest, we start talking about this well before January, but January is the time we hold ourselves to making the dreams a reality. In our experience, waiting means it won’t happen OR something else will be sacrificed instead. By planning out the year, we are able to balance our needs at home with our time off.
Here are our top 5 reasons we plan out our vacation in January.
1. Time restrictions
Certain times of the year, it is nearly impossible to get time off of work. Levi works in finance, so March and April for him and because I have a retail space, Thanksgiving-Christmas is difficult for me.
In the summertime, we don’t really like to go anywhere because we have a pool and want to enjoy it as much as we possibly can.
2. Organizing care for our dog
We have been fortunate to have an arrangement with some friends who are very willing to take care of Finnegan while we’re out of town. He gets to go stay with them and play with their kiddos and we get regular updates on how he’s doing. Finnegan looks forward to his time there and we sleep better knowing he’s getting extra love from people we know and trust.
And the arrangement works both ways, we take care of their pup when they are out of town.
I feel it’s respectful to give them as much notice as possible, so I like to have my plans organized and send them potential dates. Of course, if our plans clash, we will board Finn as a place he goes to regularly and is loved there too. But so far, we haven’t had any conflicts on either side and I always appreciate their willingness and consistency with him and I hope they feel the same in return.
3. Budget
Yep, it’s nice to know where the dollars are going and make a plan around what’s possible financially. It’s just the way it goes.
4. Home Projects
We live in an old house and have regular projects we need to tackle on the house and yard. By planning our trips, we can also budget time and money towards the needs of the house.
5. PTO: Paid Time Off
This has been the hardest one! While I’m self-employed, my husband isn’t. As part of his salary, he gets PTO and at the end of the year, he can roll over a certain amount or lose time off.
What we have found is by making our plans at the beginning of the year, he can then plug in other days off to golf, work on a house project or more to ensure he’s utilizing as much of his PTO as he can.
It’s easy to not factor PTO into your salary and time allowance, but at the end of the day, you’re not going to regret taking the time off, you’re going to regret NOT taking the time off. And that in itself is a special type of currency.
What would you add to this list?
