I'm 24 and I seriously do not understand this 'i have to see the entire world right now' mentality that everyone in their 20s seems to have.
Yes I understand that having kids, a mortgage, etc makes it harder to travel - but doesn't it make more sense to save as much as you can while you're young so that you can juggle kids, mortgage, travel, new cars, etc when you're older? I mean, while your young, your living expenses are generally quite low - you're not supporting a family, you can happily squeeze into a house with roommates (something you would probably not want to do in your 30s). There should be a lot of room to save - even more if you're lucky to be still living with your parents.
I feel so strongly about this because I look around at my friends who have spent the last few years traveling and they are flat broke, or are in debt as a result of loans for their trips. Yes I haven't traveled as much, but I am at a stage now where the investment returns I make every year is enough for several overseas trips. That being said, I have gone on a lot of interstate trips, ski trips every year and a holiday in Fiji for a week - all while saving up the capital base I have now.
My advice is look at how much you've saved up and how long it took you to save it. Then look at what you can get as a reasonable rate of return and ask yourself if it's worth forgoing that extra return for the sake of going on a trip now. I'd rather have an additional source of income growing every day than to see some foreign country filled with people living in poverty just so that I can come back and tell all my friends how 'changed' a person I am. Or to hit up some Asian beach with other westerners, getting smashed on buckets of alcohol.
Pfft... maybe i'm just cynical because I haven't had a 'rebirth' from an amazing overseas experience that opened my eyes and changed the way I live forever
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tl;dr
Delay Gratification to earn extra income vs holiday?