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Learning to plan your dreams with Gustavo Cerbasi

Everything seems to be a financial issue but it is interesting to understand that finance (and travel) is a consequence of other principles

By Sut-Mie Guibert

Every family has its dreams of traveling to some of the most desirable destinations in the world. But how do you achieve these objectives, even more so as a family, when the budget must be calculated according to its size? We talked to Gustavo Cerbasi, a financial expert, consultant, speaker, best-selling author and, most importantly, father of 3 children and passionate about family travel (which is always discussed on his social networks). He helped us to understand how to set goals, objectives and strategies. Surprisingly, we discovered family economic planning and organizing a trip is not only about thinking of the financial side, but it is also, more importantly, about planning love, connection and education. Is there a better investment?

How to decide on a family trip?

It is important that people do not confuse planning with unlimited sacrifice. Many people believe that financial intelligence is related to the idea of making a large sacrifice in order to have something saved up for the future. However, there is a problem: this future may not turn out the way you imagined! So, we have to make plans to enjoy not for the distant future, but for the closest possible future: i.e., three months from now or six months from now, etc.

The future is an accumulation of several actual moments. I have to make ensure that my current moment in time is always good, taking care not to lose this experience of good living in the future. Consequently, travel planning is not the result of setting up a standard of living and if nothing goes wrong, being able to travel. It cannot be as follows: “if everything works out, I’m going on an international vacation. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll take a little trip around here.” If it was like this, life’s great experiences would end up only as a consequence of being either very lucky or not suffering from an unforeseen event.

Should we first think about how much money we have available or the dream?

It is better to invert the order of choices and understand that, throughout our lives, we will succeed in making more dreams come true if we ORGANIZE ourselves better. The first choice is: what are the dreams that I want to come true? This includes financial independence and retirement, but I also have to include short- and medium-term dreams: the trips I want to take on the weekend, the vacation I want to take each year, something special to celebrate our 10-year wedding anniversary, my daughter’s 15th birthday, my son’s graduation, etc… These are the significant events that will provide eternal memories for the family!

If I organize myself to have a regular budget for my trips they will be more frequent and I will have a certain pattern for the vacations in my life

Bonus: If I can earn extra money from work, I can improve my vacation. If I have an emergency reserve for unforeseen events and these do not take place, I can spend more money on my trip. The sin that many families commit is that they are only able to travel if they manage to free themselves from these numerous unforeseen events that are so very common among Brazilians.

The ideal model of a vacation is one in which I consider the trip not as an extra part of my life, but as a project that I pay for every month, in order for it to happen every six months or every year.
If everything goes well, the trip will be better organized, if my money needs to be used for some emergency, my trip will have to be more creative, but it will always take place, whatever happens!

What are your tips to improve vacation planning?

Start traveling more. People who take the most vacations are those who are more in contact with other travelers. Talk to these people and learn about the skills to travel more efficiently.

Exchanging information with someone who frequently takes vacations results in traveling more and spending less; it makes a trip more efficient: we learn to understand more about airline miles and regarding the right time to make a reservation at a hotel for the most advantageous price. With a group trip we can travel at a discount and a chartered flight is cheaper than a flight purchased at the last minute. Booking in advance means that you do not have to pay the extra for a late reservation…In this way I become more involved with the practice of traveling and with the practice of fulfilling the dream.

Now set the objective: is it money or defining a place to visit? If you regularly set aside money for family events, you’ll certainly travel more frequently. If you take more vacations, you will soon learn how to be increasingly sophisticated in your destinations and you will start to take trips that you thought you would not be able to afford. It is a combination of creativity and inspiration with the money that you have available.

What about the relationship of children with money during vacations?

We are in the habit of giving children a sum of money to spend as they please. Curiously, some come back from a trip without spending anything. The more interesting the trip, the less they will want to buy things.

It is interesting to see them learn to negotiate, to advance the other’s birthday present, for example, or to buy something together when their own money is not enough. If they have used their allowance and want to buy something else, then a negotiation such as: “are you going to deduct this from my pocket money for the next few months?” It is very important to have the notion of sacrifice. This is because they know that every perfect trip is a consequence of the sacrifice of the family of both time and money. They are entering into this logic that in order to have more things, then it is worth some small sacrifice. They now have the commitment to replenish the reserve if they spend more than expected.

We talked about dreaming, planning, having the notion of sacrifice and then celebrating. Where did your family most like to celebrate?

Everyone has their favorite vacation; but, for my youngest, despite having visited several countries throughout the world, and having known museums, amusement parks and educational experiences…she most enjoyed the trip to the Rio Quente Resort, here in the heart of Brazil, because she was there with her grandfather, just a few years before he died.

We can see that it doesn’t have to be an expensive vacation…

For the trip to be good, it needs to be rewarding, especially for children. What they expect from the holidays, maybe it’s what they do not have during the year: time they would like to have with their parents and playing around… Many parents are preoccupied about taking them to Disney or to visit a park, in a situation of virtual reality when, in fact, they could be just as happy playing with a ball on the beach. “But that’s what I do in Brazil”; then, all of a sudden, you are in the United States, playing American football or renting a bicycle…

The golden tip?

What we have to understand is: each trip will be better if we listen to what everybody wants to enjoy. I like to think about the pace of each child. When you think about the needs of each family member, you know that they will occasionally need some special attention and the pace of the trip may change. I may lose some options, but it’s going to be a much better trip with what remains. And you will only know this if you know your family well and there is a connection. This can be planned: are we going to think about the next destination together? Let’s see what is the most popular sport there or some history about the place? We can spend a lot of time talking on our car trips… We have a very large responsibility to educate our children and it is good to take advantage of these trips to teach them and to let them have a vision of a world without borders.

Before thinking about the Big Trip, consider what you want to provide for your family and your children in terms of learning, experience and love. This comes before the planning. What is important are the experiences, the bond and the love that is involved in their education. Deciding on a vacation means thinking about the family and arranging plans to be carried out and for everybody to come back more experienced.

What do you want to leave for your children? You don’t have to leave them a nest egg and don’t worry if you’re not leaving a pension plan. You must teach your children to build a better future and all this depends on how you educate them.

Watch an excerpt from our interview in the video below: