As a physician, you work hard for your money—and hopefully, some of that money is being used to enjoy life.
I recently got back from a five-week road trip with my family through the Pacific Northwest. We drove the coastline, visited several national parks, and ventured into Canada to explore Victoria, Banff, and Jasper.
It was an incredible trip.
And even though I’ve worked in the financial industry for more than 20 years, I still came home with a few new lessons about how to spend money more wisely while traveling.
Some came from mistakes we made. Others were simple strategies that saved us hundreds of dollars without making the trip any less enjoyable. Over five weeks, they likely saved us thousands.
For physicians who love to travel—or simply want to make the most of their vacation budget—here are five financial lessons worth considering before your next trip.
Prefer to Watch?
1. Book Your Vacation Earlier Than You Think
If you’re planning to travel during peak season, booking early can make a significant difference.
Flights, hotels, rental cars, tours, and popular attractions tend to become more expensive as availability disappears. In destinations such as national parks, waiting too long can also mean missing out entirely on the lodging, tours, or experiences you wanted.
But for our family, the biggest benefit of planning ahead wasn’t necessarily the money we saved.
It was reducing stress.
Before we left home, we had most of our accommodations, park reservations, and major activities already planned. Instead of spending our evenings on vacation figuring out where we were going to stay or what we were going to do the next day, we could simply enjoy the trip.
That’s particularly valuable for physicians.
Your professional life probably already involves enough decisions, schedules, and time constraints. Vacation doesn’t need to become another project you’re managing in real time.
Planning ahead can save money, but it can also buy you something arguably more valuable: time and peace of mind.
2. Don’t Eat Every Meal at a Restaurant
I love food. Trying great local restaurants is one of my favorite parts of traveling.
But eating out three meals a day gets expensive very quickly—especially when you’re traveling as a family.
More importantly, we’ve found that many of those meals aren’t particularly memorable.
Whenever possible, we booked accommodations with a kitchenette or stayed somewhere with access to a kitchen. That allowed us to make breakfast, pack lunches, or put together a simple dinner.
Then we could spend more of our restaurant budget on places we were genuinely excited to try.
We also discovered another strategy I really like.
Sometimes there’s only one thing you really want from a restaurant.
Maybe it’s a famous pizza, a particular entrée, or an incredible dessert. Instead of ordering an entire restaurant meal for everyone, we’d occasionally put together something simple at our Airbnb and order that one specialty item for the family to share.
For example, we enjoyed an ahogado torta from Güero in Portland and the spicy pork noodles from Spork in Bend without necessarily turning every stop into a large restaurant bill.
We still got the experience we wanted while spending substantially less.
This is a principle that applies well beyond vacations: spend generously on the things you value and look for opportunities to spend less on the things you don’t.
3. Accept That You’ll Make Some Money Mistakes While Traveling
No matter how carefully you plan your vacation, you’re probably going to waste some money.
You might overpay for tickets.
You might choose an overpriced restaurant that isn’t very good.
You might take a toll road you didn’t need to take.
You might book the wrong hotel.
It happens.
One of the dangers of being financially responsible is feeling like every financial decision needs to be perfectly optimized. It doesn’t.
The goal isn’t perfection. The goal is learning.
Every trip teaches you something. Maybe you learn which expenses are worth splurging on and which aren’t. Maybe you discover a better way to book accommodations. Maybe you realize your family doesn’t actually enjoy something you’ve traditionally spent money on.
Take the lesson and use it the next time you travel.
A few inefficient decisions aren’t going to derail a strong financial plan.
4. Build Unexpected Expenses Into Your Vacation Budget
No vacation goes exactly according to plan.
We were reminded of that several times on our Pacific Northwest road trip.
Someone keyed our car. I accidentally dropped a glass bottle in a store and had to pay for it. We encountered some restaurant charges I hadn’t anticipated. We even changed lodging plans when better weather created an opportunity we didn’t want to miss.
None of these expenses were part of the original vacation budget.
But unexpected expenses are part of traveling.
Rather than creating a vacation budget that assumes everything will go perfectly, build a cushion into the budget from the beginning.
There isn’t necessarily one perfect percentage that every physician or family should use. The important thing is simply recognizing that your planned expenses probably won’t be your final expenses.
Having extra room in the budget means an unexpected cost can remain frustrating without becoming financially stressful.
And that distinction matters.
5. Be Strategic About Gas on a Road Trip
This one is simple, but the savings can really add up.
If you’re taking a long road trip, don’t wait until the gas light comes on and then pull into the nearest station.
Plan ahead.
I use GasBuddy to look for lower-cost gas stations along our route. If there’s a Costco that’s convenient, we’ll often plan a fuel stop there—and maybe grab a very inexpensive lunch at the food court while we’re at it.
During this trip, I was frequently finding gas that was 50 cents to $1 per gallon cheaper simply by looking ahead.
Over five weeks, we used more than 300 gallons of fuel.
Even saving an average of 50 cents per gallon would mean roughly $150 in savings. At $1 per gallon, that’s $300.
That’s enough to pay for several nice family meals, and all it took was a few minutes of planning.
Good Financial Planning Isn’t About Spending Less
This was probably my biggest financial takeaway from five weeks on the road.
Good financial planning isn’t about spending as little as possible. It’s about spending intentionally.
I’m happy to spend money creating incredible memories with my family.
I just don’t want to waste money on things that don’t actually make the experience any better.
The same principle applies to financial planning for physicians.
You don’t need to optimize every dollar or deprive yourself today so you can accumulate the largest possible investment portfolio decades from now.
Instead, a good financial plan should help you determine what matters to you and then use your resources accordingly.
That might mean aggressively saving for retirement while also taking a great family vacation every year. It might mean buying the house you’ve wanted, funding your children’s education, paying off student loans, or simply creating enough financial flexibility that you can spend more of your limited time doing what you enjoy.
The objective isn’t simply to have more money.
It’s to make sure your money is helping you build the life you’ve worked so hard to create.
Financial Planning for Physicians Who Want to Enjoy Their Money, Too
Physicians face a unique financial balancing act. You’re often earning a substantial income, but you’re also starting your highest-earning years later than many other professionals. You may be juggling student loans, retirement savings, taxes, insurance, a mortgage, college savings, and a growing family—all while trying to enjoy the life you’ve worked incredibly hard to achieve.
That’s where thoughtful financial planning can help.
At Panoramic Financial, we specialize in helping physicians and their families make smart, intentional decisions with their money. We provide ongoing financial planning and investment management designed around the financial lives of busy doctors.
If you’re a physician looking for a trusted financial partner, schedule a complimentary introductory call with Panoramic Financial.
We’ll learn more about you and your goals, answer your questions, and determine whether we’re the right fit to work together.