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A third of Australians choose overseas travel over a home

When asked to choose between being well travelled or owning a home, one in every three Australians values travel over home ownership.

That was the key finding from MEโ€™s recent travel survey which explored how important travel is to Australians.

The trade-off between buying a home and exploring the world was far more apparent among 18-24 years olds, with 50 per cent saying theyโ€™d rather be well-travelled than own a home.

MEโ€™s money expert Matt Read said younger people’s tendency to value travel more than home ownership could be a factor of youth, but also the current price of housing may be playing into the choice as home ownership becomes less attainable.

โ€œMEโ€™s survey highlights travel is a high spending priority for Australians, and given the costs associated, itโ€™s worth saving for in advance as you would for a car or home,” he said.

The survey further explored the importance of travel in the context of other life goals and found a third of Australians have delayed life goals โ€“ such as buying a home, having kids and getting married โ€“ in order to travel overseas.

Respondents were also willing to go into debt to travel. When analysing the experiences or big-ticket items worth going into debt for, 20 per cent said they would go into debt for travel, coming fourth behind a home (58 per cent), education (29 per cent) and business venture (28 per cent).

Nineteen per cent of respondents have gone into debt in order to travel overseas, and a further 14 per cent have taken an overseas holiday before paying off the debt on a previous trip.

The average spend on overseas holidays was $8,000 which is no measly amount. And when it comes to holiday costs, 48 per cent didnโ€™t add up how much they spent, and of those, 72 per cent said it was irrelevant because holidays cost what they cost.

A mighty 93 per cent said the experience of travel is worth the cost, and 89 per ccent have no regrets about what they spent overseas.

It wasnโ€™t uncommon for travel costs to blow out, with 26 per cent spending more than they planned, while 14 per cent didnโ€™t set a budget because they prefer to just spend whatโ€™s necessary while away.

Mr Reead said setting a goal and putting a small amount of money aside from every pay was a simple way to slowly build up enough savings to enjoy a holiday without the stress of coming back in debt.

โ€œTravel can also be costly given itโ€™s a highly emotional experience โ€“ itโ€™s easy to get swept up in the romanticism of spending on holidays,” he said.

“Being careful and putting some limits on your spending can ensure costs donโ€™t get too out of hand.

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