Recent grad.- travel or save?

[My English Castle]

as you can see

from my screen name, I love England. But a word of warning--Europe's more expensive than I can EVER remember it being in the past 25 years. Don't plan on buying a thing besides food, and even then, you're going to scrape.

I bought three magazines, a book, and some candy at Gatwick airport on Sunday and it cost me almost $90 because of the horrid exchange value of the dollar.

[Broken Arrow]

Let me try this again. Here's the deal:

Don't miss out on life, BUT...

Don't do it at the expense of your future, plus interest.

Is there something else that you can do that is also affordable?

Even if you don't go now, that doesn't mean you can't do it later. And who's to say that you won't have more fun later or that you'll never have an opportunity like this again in the future? If you are financially solvent enough later, you can CREATE more opportunities to travel, if that's what you want.

[InDebtInDC]

Save as much as you possibly can.

[parafly]

Easy answer: no way! Vacations and trips to Europe are luxeries, and you don't want to start off your post educational life on the wrong foot.

Have you considered getting a part time job for the next few months to save up for this trip? That would be the only responsible way to make this trip a reality.

[QueenOphelia]

Well, when I was young, I saved my money and by the time I was 21 years old, I purchased my first new house. It was the smartest financial move I ever made. Now, I can afford to go to Europe every year with my great husband!!

That's cool. How often do you and the hubby travel? Sounds like you're a globetrotter!

[vsjhoc]

Nearly all of my friends did the junior-year-abroad study thing. I had no interest (even though I was studying 3 foreign languages simultaneously). They said it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to travel and I would never have that chance again after I started working.

But life takes some interesting turns. I lived overseas for 10 years. So travel is not necessarily a now-or-never proposition.