YT YouTube2Text

YouTube2Text → Transcripts → Most People Plan Vacations Backwards

Most People Plan Vacations Backwards — Transcript

by I Will Teach You To Be Rich · 8,185 words · 1,358 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

Open in transcriber Summarize with AI Download SRT/VTT

Full transcript

0:00By the time I take a vacation, I am not
0:03thinking about money.
0:04I am never going to walk into a
0:06restaurant at some resort
0:08beach area and be deciding,
0:10"Uh, can I afford the shrimp cocktail?"
0:13Never going to happen
0:14because I have made those decisions
0:17way, way back there. And over the years,
0:19as I've traveled from
0:20Kyoto to Morocco to Italy,
0:22I've developed a framework for planning
0:24trips that for me feels
0:26personal and intentional
0:28and creates unforgettable travel. And it
0:31works whether you are
0:32planning a weekend getaway or
0:34a $25,000 dream vacation. In this video,
0:38I am going to share examples
0:39that range the entire gamut of
0:42spending. But remember that great trips
0:44are not just about
0:45spending the most money. They're
0:47actually about deeply knowing what you
0:50want and even what you
0:51don't want, and then building a
0:53personal trip around that. That means
0:55spending extravagantly on
0:57the things you love. And it
0:58means cutting stuff you don't care about,
0:59even if other people think
1:01you should see it. And today,
1:02I'm going to show you exactly how I
1:05create these unforgettable trips. Why
1:07most people have boring
1:09vacations. If you want to create a
1:12magical trip, then you must avoid what
1:14most people do when they
1:16plan travel. And that is they do it
1:18completely backwards. They
1:19literally pick a random place
1:22that has no real connection to them. And
1:25then the first thing I do is
1:26they go on some random travel
1:27site and start figuring out how much
1:29things cost. That would be like you
1:31opening up your kitchen
1:32cupboard and going, okay, we have
1:34almonds, oh, coleslaw, that lettuce is a
1:37little rotten, but that'll do.
1:39And give me the jelly beans and pickles.
1:41Let's create a magical meal. It's
1:43freaking absurd. And
1:44yet that is how so many people travel.
1:46They start by figuring out
1:47logistics instead of asking,
1:49what do I want to experience on this
1:52travel? Have you ever asked yourself,
1:54what do I want to feel
1:56on this trip? No, you haven't. You asked
1:58if it's cheaper to go on
2:00Delta or United. Who gives a
2:01f***? That's not how you start planning a
2:03magical trip. That is how you
2:05go through a bunch of random
2:06checklists that make you end up at
2:08Disneyland complaining how
2:09expensive and hot it is. Stop it.
2:11We're going to start a different way. We
2:13are creating magic.
2:14And the first thing we do
2:15is we want to ask ourselves, what do we
2:17want to experience?
2:19Sometimes when we travel,
2:20we decide that we want complete
2:22relaxation. That means we're
2:25probably going to a resort.
2:26We are going to actually stay there most
2:28of the time. We're going to
2:30sit by the pool. We're going
2:31to eat. That's what we want to do. Other
2:33times we want adventure.
2:35We're going into the Medina
2:36in Morocco. We are going gorilla trekking
2:39in Rwanda and on safari,
2:41but we have to decide first,
2:43what do we want to experience? Sometimes
2:46we want to spend time with
2:47family. We're going to New
2:48Delhi. We are spending time, hours and
2:51hours every day with our
2:52family in their house. These
2:53are all different examples of trips and
2:56they can be magical, but you
2:58have to decide. Nobody else
3:00decides. You do. There's a big cost that
3:03many people do not
3:04recognize of just randomly picking
3:07a destination and getting there. And then
3:09you get off the airplane,
3:10you go, what should we do?
3:12Chat GPT. If you only get 10 days or two
3:16weeks off per year and you
3:18spent $4,000 on this trip,
3:20not only did you lose $4,000 on a trip
3:23that you're not going to remember,
3:25you lost the opportunity to create
3:27amazing memories. You lost time.
3:31Sometimes we don't even
3:33recognize that we deserve to have at
3:36least one moment of awe
3:38every quarter. And it could be as
3:41extravagant as watching a sunset with a
3:44sundowner in Kenya on safari.
3:47It could be as close to home
3:50as watching the sunset with your kids at
3:53the park as they're
3:54playing soccer. But you decide.
3:56Nobody is going to make that happen for
3:58you. We've all seen
3:59parents who go to Disneyland
4:00and they are irrationally angry at their
4:03kids who are throwing a
4:04tantrum. They're young and they're
4:05like, we spent all this money, all this
4:07time to come here and you can't even
4:09behave. Part of that
4:10is understandable. It costs a lot of
4:12money. It costs a lot of
4:13time. And so we build everything
4:15up into this one moment. And if it
4:17doesn't go perfectly, we become
4:19frustrated. What I would
4:20like to encourage us to do is to have a
4:22different relationship with
4:24our travel. One that is less
4:26about everything has to go perfect and
4:28more a simultaneous change of
4:31number one, lower the stakes.
4:33Not everything has to be perfect. In
4:35fact, things are going to go
4:36wrong and we're just going to
4:37laugh. That's life. And at the same time,
4:40when things go right, they
4:42should be magical. I am not
4:44on this planet to sit here and go to some
4:46museum I don't care about. Cause
4:48everybody else told me
4:49you should go see the museum. I don't
4:50care. I'm perfectly happy
4:51saying I'm not interested in that
4:53right now. On the other hand, there are
4:55things that I am deeply
4:57interested in to the point where
4:59it's weird. Like other people go, what
5:01the wrong with this guy?
5:02That's perfectly fine. I love them.
5:04That's why, for example, when I went to
5:06Tokyo, I created a special
5:09bespoke tour by a local person
5:11who lives in Kyoto. And I said, these are
5:14the things that I'm
5:14interested in and I want you to
5:16craft an experience for me. She
5:18encouraged me. I think we
5:19should go to a temple. It's really
5:20important. So you understand some of the
5:21aesthetics that we're going to, I said,
5:23if you really, really
5:25believe that we have to do it in order to
5:28understand this experience,
5:29fine. But frankly, I'm not
5:30interested in temples at this point and
5:32we didn't go. Remember your
5:33money is good money. You get to
5:35choose what you want to see and
5:38experience in order to have amazing
5:40trips. We never just land at a
5:43place and then start looking online to
5:45see what we should do. My wife
5:46and I plan our trips, usually
5:4812 to 18 months ahead of time. And what
5:51that means is we will create blocks of
5:54when we are going to
5:55travel and we have a general idea, a
5:58document of ideas of where we
6:00want to go. So every December,
6:01we're doing a rich life review and we are
6:03saying, okay, this is how
6:04many trips we like to take.
6:06Here's who we would like to bring. And
6:09here are the kind of places
6:10we would like to go. Of course,
6:12we need to look at the numbers and see if
6:14all of those things are
6:14possible, but we always start
6:16with the vision. Like what if, wouldn't
6:19it be cool if, and then we
6:22work on the logistics later. In
6:24terms of planning, usually planning a
6:26major trip, like a two to four week trip
6:30to Japan will probably
6:31take us two to three months, but it's
6:34really slow. We're in no rush. And I will
6:37tell you that I have
6:37a lot of pre-work already done. I already
6:40have a document of friends
6:42and family that we would like
6:43to invite to travel with us. I also have
6:45a list of hotels that I
6:47would like to stay at. I have a
6:49bookmark for virtually every country that
6:51I want to visit of things
6:52that I've been keeping track of
6:54that I would like to experience or eat
6:56there. These are all
6:57things that make travel easier,
6:59but it doesn't matter if it took me a
7:00year to plan it because I'm
7:02enjoying the process. A lot
7:03of people really do not enjoy the transit
7:06part of their vacation.
7:08Getting to the airport on time,
7:10lugging a bunch of bags. Maybe you got a
7:13car seat. Security's taken a
7:15long time and then the seat
7:17is super uncomfortable. And what I would
7:19encourage you to do is to think about,
7:21is that an important part of your trip?
7:24Because if it is, maybe you
7:25want to make it a little easier
7:27for yourself. Perhaps you want to book a
7:29car service so that you're
7:30not rushed finding parking.
7:32Perhaps you want to have something that
7:34expedites you through the
7:35security line. Perhaps you want
7:37to check your bags, even though everybody
7:38tells you, "Don't check a
7:39bag." Perhaps you want to
7:41upgrade your seat because you look at
7:42your guilt-free spending and
7:43you realize, "Hey, we can afford
7:45this and so we're going to land and we're
7:47going to be rested." Or you
7:49might say, "Look, we are going
7:50to intentionally get cheaper seats
7:53because it's going to allow
7:55us to stay for an extra day."
7:57That's also valid. It's up to you as what
7:59your rich life is, but
8:01you've got to own it. The world
8:02is not forcing you to get on a plane and
8:05go on vacation. You are
8:06choosing to. So make the
8:08trade-offs, make them explicit, agree if
8:10you're doing it together,
8:11and then own it. The first
8:13question I ask when I am planning a
8:15magical trip is never, "How much is this
8:18trip going to cost?"
8:19But rather, "What do we want this trip to
8:22feel like? Is it
8:23relaxing? Is it adventurous? Is it
8:26family or relationship-based?" What is
8:29it? Because that determines
8:30everything else. Remember,
8:31you can have a very, very inexpensive
8:33trip and have it be
8:34adventurous. You can also have a very,
8:36very expensive trip and have it be super
8:39relaxing. Cost and experience are
8:42slightly correlated,
8:43but not as much as you would think. In
8:45other words, decide on
8:46what you want to feel first,
8:49and the money part comes way down the
8:51road. A lot of people make the common
8:54mistake of defaulting
8:56into generic vacation mode. This is like
8:59when the financial industry
8:59asks people, "What are your
9:00financial goals?" And then all these
9:02people who have just been
9:03talking like normal people,
9:04suddenly they go like, "My financial
9:06goals are actually to retire quite
9:09diligently, and I would
9:10like to save at least four to five
9:12percent." Shut up. That's not
9:13your goal. Nobody even talks
9:14about goals. That's not how people think.
9:17And yet when you go on
9:17vacation, you suddenly turn into
9:19default vacation person who feels they
9:21need to see all the
9:22museums and all the sites,
9:24even if you haven't been a museum in the
9:26last seven years. Why do you
9:28care about a museum abroad?
9:30If you haven't been in a museum in your
9:32own hometown, maybe you
9:33just don't care about museums,
9:35and that's okay. You've got to decide
9:37what you want to do, and I'm
9:39giving you permission. It is
9:40totally okay to say we're just not
9:43interested in that, but here's what we
9:45are really interested in.
9:47What's really going on here is that when
9:49I ask people, "What is your
9:50rich life?" Many people are
9:52genuinely unable to answer it because
9:54most of us glide along
9:56through life as consumers. We do
9:59mimetically what other people do. We buy
10:02the same clothes. We buy
10:03the same car. We do the same
10:04activities, and so when we go on vacation
10:07for these rare, amazing
10:09opportunities that we have,
10:10we basically default into doing what
10:12everybody else is doing. I'm
10:13encouraging you to take this
10:15opportunity to sharpen your own knowledge
10:18of yourself. You have
10:20permission to make these
10:22trips as meaningful and magical as you
10:25want, and trust me, if you
10:27have a little bit of money to
10:28spend to hire somebody for two hours,
10:30they will happily take your
10:32money and share their life's
10:34work with you. If you haven't yet been
10:36able to take time to
10:38identify your real preferences,
10:40this is a great opportunity. Traveling is
10:42not just about seeing
10:43beaches. It's actually about
10:44helping you learn who you are. There's
10:47this magical phrase, "We
10:48are never as American as
10:49when we are abroad." That is because when
10:52you travel, you start to
10:53reflect on yourself in ways
10:54you would never be able to do in your
10:56hometown. You start to
10:57realize things you enjoy, things you
10:59don't, things you expect, things you
11:01never noticed, and I am asking you to do
11:03that before you travel
11:05so that you can have a magical
11:06experience. Sometimes people look at my
11:09videos on traveling,
11:10and they roll their eyes and go, "Must be
11:12nice. Oh, I realize I'm not
11:14in the same tax bracket as you.
11:15Give me something more relatable,
11:17Rameen." I actually think
11:18that that misses the point.
11:20Sure, you may not be able to travel to
11:22the same hotels that I
11:23travel to, but what I am really
11:25trying to show you is what is possible
11:28and how to be intentional about your
11:30travel. You can be just
11:32as intentional with half the money,
11:35one-tenth the money. You just adapt the
11:37principles to your needs.
11:39For example, when I wanted to spend
11:40quality time with some couples that we
11:43know, we sent an email
11:45to them. We told them exactly where we
11:47were going to go. We told them that we
11:49wanted to spend time
11:51with them, that it was important for us,
11:53and that my vision of the trip was one
11:56big dinner together,
11:58one excursion, and then a lot of chill
12:01time on your own. We set
12:04the expectation. We told them
12:06where we were going to go so they could
12:07look at the hotel and see if it was
12:09someplace they wanted
12:09to go, if they could afford it, and then
12:11we told them the dates. You
12:12could do that whether it's an
12:13expensive hotel or an inexpensive hostel.
12:17You can be that intentional, and the
12:19point of money is not
12:20simply to just throw it around
12:21extravagantly on everything. It is to
12:24spend extravagantly on the
12:25things you deeply love. We've taken a lot
12:28of relaxing trips. We've
12:30gone to the beach in Thailand.
12:32We've been to a beautiful resort in
12:34Mexico and many other places
12:35in between. At a certain point,
12:37my wife and I looked at each other, and
12:39when we asked ourselves, "How
12:40do we want to feel next year?"
12:42we realized we wanted to feel adventure.
12:45We were healthy. We were
12:46fit. We were ready. We knew,
12:49looking down the road, there are places
12:50we might not be able to
12:52visit one day. We said, "Let's do
12:54something adventurous," and we were both
12:56into it. We could just feel
12:57it. Then we said, "What does
12:59adventurous mean to you?" Because
13:01adventurous could be going to the
13:03mountainside of Japan and
13:05doing a cooking class or a ceramics class
13:07for three weeks. That's
13:09adventurous, but that wasn't
13:10what we had in mind. We started talking
13:13about it. I said, "I want
13:14to do something tactile,
13:15something a little physical," and she
13:17agreed, and we talked about it more and
13:19more. We have a list
13:20of countries that we want to visit, and
13:21we started looking at them,
13:22and it was so obvious. She said,
13:25"I think we should go see the gorillas in
13:28Rwanda," and I was like,
13:30"Yes, that's it. That would be so
13:34incredible." I asked her, "When would you
13:36want to go? What do you
13:37want to see?" As we started to
13:39plan it, you start to get into some
13:41details. How long do people go to Rwanda,
13:44for example? If you're
13:45going to be in Rwanda, which is quite a
13:47trek from the US, are there
13:49other things that we want to
13:50experience while we are there? Our trip
13:53became a very adventurous trip. We
13:56started in Rwanda. We
13:57went gorilla trekking. It was absolutely
13:59magical to be six feet from these
14:01gorillas, and they behave
14:04so similarly to humans. The little babies
14:07are running around.
14:08They're pulling everybody's hair,
14:10and they're just causing a ruckus. Then
14:11you have the adolescents
14:13who are going like this, "Oh,"
14:15and they're kind of like simulating,
14:17being big and strong. Then you have the
14:20silverback gorillas,
14:22and for the most part, they are huge, and
14:24they are just sitting
14:25there with their eyes closed,
14:27dozing. Once in a while, the young babies
14:30get too rambunctious, and
14:32the silverback opens one eye
14:33and goes, "Lil." The ground almost
14:38shakes, and the kids get quiet, and
14:40everybody knows who's in
14:42charge. We're watching this. We have our
14:45guides with us. We're
14:46taking photos and videos. It is
14:48hard to believe. You feel very connected
14:51to nature, and I felt a special sense of
14:54gratitude because we
14:55had been talking about this and planning
14:57this for years, and here we are. It's
15:01surreal. It is a trip
15:02I will never forget. It is also a trip
15:04that I know I will return to
15:06as we were walking and seeing
15:08these beautiful, lush settings that we
15:11were walking through, the tea plantation
15:12that we first crossed
15:13before we got to the more jungle area. I
15:16remember thinking, "This is
15:17exactly what we wanted to feel.
15:19We wanted to feel the wet grass. We
15:22wanted to be sweating. We
15:23wanted to be moving our bodies,"
15:26and at that time, money was the last
15:29thing on my mind. Trip
15:30planning is just one piece of a much
15:33bigger financial picture. The real
15:35question is whether your
15:37finances are set up to support the
15:39kind of life you want, and as your money
15:41gets more complex, the
15:43stakes get higher. That is where
15:44having expert guidance can make a big
15:46difference, and it's where
15:48our partners at Facet can help.
15:50Facet offers dynamic financial planning
15:52that evolves with you,
15:53including monthly check-ins
15:54to help you stay on track with your
15:56financial and retirement
15:57goals. All Facet planners are CFP
15:59professionals and fiduciaries supported
16:02by a team of specialists, and
16:04the best part is that unlike
16:05traditional advisors who charge a
16:08percentage of your assets, which can
16:10easily equal tens or even
16:12hundreds of thousands of dollars over
16:14your lifetime, Facet charges an
16:16affordable, flat membership fee
16:18for financial planning. I've actually
16:20worked with the Facet team to help many
16:22couples on my podcast,
16:23especially those who are getting close to
16:25retirement, so they can
16:26understand all of their
16:28specific scenarios. If you've ever wished
16:30you had a smart team to help
16:31guide your biggest financial
16:33decisions, check them out to see if
16:35financial planning is a fit
16:36for you. Head to facet.com
16:39slash remithe or click the link in the
16:41description below to learn more. That's
16:43facet.com slash remithe.
16:45Now, let's move on to my actual planning
16:48system. I love planning
16:51travel because I get to enjoy
16:53the trip three times. The first is
16:56planning it, and that's designing it in
16:58the way, almost like
16:59I want to bring a piece of art to life.
17:01The next is taking the trip, and that is
17:04especially enjoyable
17:05because I'm living the things that I have
17:07been planning for months,
17:09sometimes years. And then
17:11the third surprising one is when I post
17:13photos and videos of it and I get
17:16reactions. People say, "Oh
17:17my God, that's so beautiful. Where is
17:19that?" That allows me to relive that
17:22experience through your
17:24eyes. So travel is incredibly rewarding
17:27and it's not just being there. It is
17:29everything surrounding
17:31it that makes it even more special. I
17:33never plan travel from a blank page. Like
17:37if I asked you right
17:38now, "Hey, you're going to Bulgaria six
17:41months from now. What do you want to
17:42see?" Be like, "I don't
17:43know. I never thought about it." I don't
17:44have any idea of what to do
17:46in Bulgaria. When I am reading
17:49the things that I read on a daily basis,
17:51if I see something that looks
17:52interesting, I am saving it
17:54in my bookmark, whether it is for
17:56Amsterdam or Mexico City or New Delhi,
18:01whatever city it is in,
18:03I am saving that. So when the time comes
18:05for me to plan my next trip
18:07to New Delhi, I open up my
18:09bookmark and I have hundreds of
18:11experiences and restaurants
18:13and things to see. And now I can
18:16choose from this list which of these
18:17bookmarks fits the vision of
18:18the trip that we are taking.
18:20If you don't have this, I did a little
18:21test. I went to chat GPT and I told it,
18:25"My wife and I are into
18:26design this, that, et cetera. This is how
18:28old we are. This is what we
18:29care about. This is what we
18:30don't." Give me a five day itinerary in
18:32New York City, what you would suggest.
18:34And I wanted to test
18:35it because I know New York really well
18:37and it came back. It was
18:39like 80% good. It was a great
18:42place to start. It had a couple of
18:44restaurants that I thought
18:45were solid. It suggested a couple
18:47of hotels that were pretty good. Where I
18:49think it missed is that it
18:51did not give me something that
18:52would be ultra memorable for years to
18:56come. And that is what I am
18:57looking for when I travel.
18:59I don't care about a fine restaurant, a
19:01fine hotel. I don't care
19:03about that. It's just generic.
19:04When I'm traveling, I am looking for the
19:07different ends of the
19:08curve, almost like a barbell. I'm
19:10looking for an incredible restaurant and
19:13it could be somebody cooking in a back
19:14alley or it could be
19:15a super high end restaurant. I am looking
19:17for something that is
19:18personally relevant to me,
19:19like a textile shop because I love
19:21textiles and one where the owner will
19:24give me a tour behind
19:25the scenes of how they acquire their
19:27textiles. I am not looking
19:29for the middle ground. That's
19:31not what I'm interested in. I'm looking
19:33for the barbell, the things that are
19:34incredibly memorable,
19:36could be cheap, could be expensive, could
19:37be high end, low end, could be close,
19:39far. I'm looking for
19:40the things that are going to make me
19:42remember. What are your
19:43invisible scripts about traveling?
19:45I bet you have a bunch you've never even
19:47realized. It might be that
19:49we don't have enough time,
19:50it's going to be too expensive or we're
19:52going to come back tired
19:53and need a vacation from the
19:54vacation. Or maybe the idea is I am
19:57frustrated because I see
19:59other people taking these trips
20:00and we can't take trips the same way. We
20:04have three kids, we
20:05don't have enough money,
20:06we don't have enough time, et cetera. Or
20:08is your script, I'm easy,
20:10I'm easy going, whatever.
20:11I actually just like to wander around and
20:13see whatever's
20:14interesting. Or perhaps is it,
20:17I don't want to go to the tourist places,
20:19I want to go where the
20:20locals go. I think it's really
20:21important for you to interrogate your own
20:23invisible scripts, these deeply held
20:25beliefs that you have
20:26because they show up in what you do on
20:28your travel. For example,
20:30when I see people who book
20:32things minute by minute for 10 hours a
20:35day, I usually get the
20:37sense that there is scarcity
20:39involved, that they have an invisible
20:40belief. This is the only
20:42time we're going to be here,
20:43so we got to see everything. Maybe, but
20:45what if you change that
20:46invisible script to we're going
20:48to go here, we're going to have an
20:50incredible trip, and if we love it, we
20:52can always come back.
20:54That would dramatically change your
20:56experience. It would
20:57change your itinerary,
20:59and it would definitely change the way
21:00you feel about this trip.
21:02When you are planning your trip, this is
21:05the time to dream, not to
21:08immediately shut yourself down
21:10by coming up with reasons that it's too
21:11expensive or too unrealistic,
21:14or we don't have the time for
21:15it. No, this is actually the time to
21:18encourage yourself and
21:19optionally your partner to say,
21:21"What if it were even more magical?
21:23Wouldn't it be cool if? What
21:24would you do if we could do
21:25anything?" and really get those juices
21:28flowing. A lot of times people
21:30are afraid to do this because
21:31they think if they open the door to this
21:33type of conversation, that
21:35they are then going to let
21:36themselves or their partner down if they
21:39can't actually deliver on
21:40it. That's the wrong way to
21:41look at this. There's actually connective
21:43power in being able to
21:44dream together. It doesn't mean
21:47you have to do everything that you
21:49brainstorm about, but just
21:50putting ideas out there and then
21:52the two of you, if you're planning this
21:54in a partnership, decide
21:55on what makes sense for your
21:57vision, for your level of affordability,
21:59for your time. That is
22:01actually the magic of the whole thing.
22:03I find that people who have started on
22:05their personal finance
22:06journey sometimes do not know
22:09when they have done enough. They'll
22:11constantly ask, "What did I
22:12miss? I need to read 10 more
22:14subreddits. What about this one obscure
22:16thing that might happen?"
22:18and it doesn't feel good to
22:20constantly worry that you got something
22:22wrong. That is exactly
22:23why we created Rode to 100k.
22:26For most people, reaching your first
22:28$100,000 invested is a
22:31massive financial milestone.
22:33It's often the point where you stop
22:34feeling like you are guessing because you
22:36can finally see that
22:37the decisions you've made are really
22:39starting to add up. Inside
22:41Rode to 100k, you will get a
22:43personalized path based on your actual
22:45numbers, not generic advice.
22:47You'll see exactly where you
22:49stand today, what's holding you back, and
22:51what to focus on next. You
22:53will also get access to live
22:54coaching and a community of people
22:56working towards the same goal. If you are
22:59ready to start making
23:00real progress towards $100,000 invested,
23:04scan the QR code on
23:05screen or click the link below
23:07to learn about Rode to 100k. Let's talk
23:10about time and how to
23:12avoid being booked minute to
23:14minute to minute for your entire trip. I
23:17understand the temptation and I have to
23:19admit, I've done this
23:20myself. Early on in our relationship, my
23:22wife used to plan our travel
23:23itineraries. Once we were in
23:25Bangkok and we had been out all day and
23:28we were going to come home
23:29and take a nap before we went
23:31out for a nighttime food tour and things
23:33ran late and we ended up coming back.
23:35There was no time to
23:36take a nap. So we get back to the hotel
23:38room, we change our clothes,
23:39and then the food tour starts.
23:42I remember being so irritable. Like here
23:44we are, we're eating some of
23:46the best food in the world.
23:47Our travel guide was perfectly nice and I
23:49had a terrible food tour.
23:51It wasn't her, it wasn't the
23:54city, it was me. I was not at my best. I
23:57was really, really irritated. We're
23:58supposed to be having fun
23:59and I'm sweating and I don't enjoy any of
24:01this. She took the
24:02feedback, but then something really
24:04funny happened because we were planning
24:05our next trip and she goes,
24:07"Hey, can you take care of
24:09Thursday because I'm busy and can you
24:11just handle the Thursday part of the
24:12trip?" I said, "No problem.
24:14Thursday comes around on that trip." And
24:15I go, "Okay, here's what
24:16we're going to do today."
24:17And she just looks at me like, "I had
24:21packed that freaking day from morning to
24:24night the exact same
24:25way that she had done it." And I realized
24:27at that exact moment,
24:28like, "Oh my God, it's me."
24:30The person traveling often does the very
24:33thing that they themselves
24:35don't want to experience,
24:36which is from the comfort of their home,
24:38they go, "Oh, that would
24:39be cool. That would be cool.
24:40Let's do that." It's like eating at a
24:41buffet. It all seems free. You all take
24:43that. I'll take that.
24:44But the problem is you actually have to
24:46do that and you are simply
24:48choosing like a checklist
24:49instead of saying, "What is the
24:51experience that we want to create?" And
24:54this actually opened up
24:55an amazing conversation for my wife and
24:57me where we talked about
24:58what is our travel style?
25:00What do we want to feel? And we then
25:03created a new guideline for ourselves,
25:05which was we're going to
25:06one major activity per day. That might be
25:09a food tour. It might be
25:10going to see something.
25:12One major thing. You know what it is now?
25:14It's one every two days. That actually
25:17allows us to have so
25:18much open time. Now that role works
25:20specifically for us because we tend to be
25:22taking longer trips.
25:24If we were going somewhere for four days
25:26and we said one major
25:27thing every two days,
25:29I don't know. That's not really seeing a
25:31lot when you're all
25:32the way across the world.
25:33Some of our best travel memories have
25:34come from completely
25:35unscheduled time. We are not afraid of
25:39being unproductive when we travel. I love
25:42it. I find that when
25:44people think about just sitting
25:45around their hotel or just sometimes
25:48wandering, they go like, "Oh, I'm
25:49supposed to be doing
25:50something. I'm here. This is the only
25:51time we're going to be
25:51here." The way I think about it is
25:53I am recuperating. I'm rejuvenating. It's
25:57almost like when I'm
25:58sitting at home watching hours of
26:00TV. I don't feel lazy. I don't feel
26:02guilt. I know that like a lion who's
26:04sitting and relaxing in the
26:06sun, when time calls for me to be active
26:09and to deliver, I'm going
26:11to be ready. When we travel,
26:13we decide ahead of time how often we want
26:16to give ourselves time just
26:18to recover. Now, if you're
26:19taking a seven day trip, you're going to
26:20adapt this for your own
26:21needs. You might decide that
26:23two of the days we're going to have a
26:25late start in the
26:26morning so everybody can just
26:27chill and do their own thing. That I've
26:30found is really, really
26:31rewarding. You might decide if
26:32you're going with your parents that every
26:34afternoon there's going to
26:35be a big block where they can
26:36come back to the hotel and take a nap
26:38before you go out for
26:39dinner. You decide. By the way,
26:41this next part is the difference between
26:43a trip you remember forever
26:45and a trip that just feels
26:48like expensive logistics. Most people
26:51completely miss this. How I
26:53decide what's worth spending on.
26:55When I was in college, my friends and I
26:56decided to take a grand old
26:58trip to Las Vegas. And so we
27:00got on our cheap Southwest airlines for
27:02$59 or so and flew directly
27:05to Vegas. We got on the shuttle
27:07bus from the airport, which takes you to
27:08all the different resorts or
27:10whatever. And then we're the
27:11last ones left and the freaking bus
27:13driver gets on the mic and goes, and now
27:16for our high rollers
27:18at circus circus. And we're like, yo, did
27:21we just get roasted by a bus
27:22driver? What the but he was
27:24right because that was the worst hotel in
27:27Vegas. And I know circus
27:29circus because that's where my
27:30parents used to take us as kids. They
27:32would take us to the cheapest casino
27:34anywhere. And they had
27:35a place for kids, play these games. It
27:37would give us $20 and say, we'll see you
27:38back in about six hours.
27:39Have fun. Well, guess what? We had an
27:41amazing trip. We loved it.
27:43We still joke about that bus
27:44driver. And knowing that we were there
27:46with our friends, it didn't
27:48matter that there were fancier
27:49casinos with better food. We didn't care
27:51about that. We were there
27:52to hang with each other. This
27:54is why it's so important to know that
27:56just having more money does
27:58not create amazing memories.
28:00Your memories are going to be created by
28:02the feelings you have, the
28:04connection with the people
28:05you're with and the stories that you are
28:08creating. Now, my wife and I
28:10spend a lot more now than I
28:13spent on circus circus back in the day.
28:15But we've also learned that there are
28:16things we don't care
28:17about. For example, we've realized we
28:19don't care about fancy restaurants when
28:21we travel. We pretty
28:23much have our evenings completely clear
28:25because we're not making
28:26reservations for restaurants.
28:27It's just not that important to us, but
28:29we will happily spend tons of
28:32money on private experiences
28:35that are really relevant to what we like.
28:37For example, we went to
28:38tour a special home that an
28:40architect had designed. Normally, if it
28:42was a room, I would walk in, I
28:43would say, "Oh, that's really
28:44pretty," and I would leave. We spent over
28:46an hour in this small room,
28:48and I had the chance to ask
28:49this architect about lighting design. Why
28:52did you choose these lights
28:54and not that? How do you think
28:55about the light coming in in the
28:56afternoon, but what about when it gets
28:58dark? I asked him about
28:59the texture on the walls. We asked him
29:02about his own home because
29:03he has kids. How do you design
29:05your home when you have children and
29:08things get messy? So this was over an
29:11hour just in one tiny
29:12room, and this might seem insane to you.
29:14You're like, "I'm bored. I
29:15want to go see other stuff."
29:17Perfect. Your rich life should confuse
29:20other people because
29:21true luxury is about getting
29:24exactly what you want in a way that you
29:27couldn't even possibly
29:29imagine. Sometimes you choose not
29:31to experience what everybody else tells
29:33you to do because you realize
29:35you're not interested in it.
29:36When we were in Morocco, what do you know
29:38about Morocco? What do
29:39people do there? They go to see
29:40rugs. I've looked at Moroccan rugs. I'm
29:43not into them. I don't
29:44love the design. I much prefer
29:47Persian rugs or Indian design. So when we
29:49were offered multiple
29:50times to go look at different
29:51rug stores, I knew not into it. I'm going
29:54to skip that. Can you
29:55imagine going to Morocco and not
29:57going to see how the rugs are made? I can
30:00because that's exactly
30:01what I did. On the other hand,
30:03I went much deeper on different parts of
30:06that experience. I went to
30:08a textile store and got a
30:10coat made based on looking at all the
30:12different thread colors
30:13they had, choosing that one,
30:15seeing how they had people on the loom
30:17making these different
30:18clothing pieces, and then choosing
30:19my coat. I now have that coat and it
30:21feels incredibly
30:22meaningful to wear it knowing I saw
30:24how it was made. I went to a beautiful
30:26hotel and I took the general
30:28manager out for a walk and I
30:29asked him to tell me about the property.
30:31How was this property
30:32created? How did you staff it? How
30:34do you deliver the same service that you
30:36would deliver in India here
30:38in Morocco? Sounds freakishly
30:40weird, I know, but these are the things I
30:42love and your rich life
30:43should be doing more of the things
30:45you love. Here's how I save for these
30:48magical trips without
30:49feeling guilty. If I know that a
30:51trip is going to cost, let's say $12,000
30:54next year, and I'm going
30:55to go one year from now,
30:56then I divide by 12 and I automatically
30:58put aside $1,000 per month into a
31:02dedicated travel account
31:03and actually name that account. For
31:05example, Japan 2027 or
31:07family Italy trip. That way,
31:09by the time we get to take that trip, we
31:11already have saved for
31:13it. In fact, I intentionally
31:16oversave because I never want to be on
31:19vacation wondering if we
31:20can afford to have gelato when
31:23we're on this trip. Now, how do you know
31:25how much it's going to cost?
31:26When you are first beginning
31:27your plan, you can actually come up with
31:29a number in about 10 minutes.
31:31That's 85% accurate. The way
31:33you do this is you tackle the major cost
31:36drivers. For most people, those are
31:38flights and accommodations,
31:40and then there's some daily excursion or
31:42eating costs. But in
31:44general, if you get the flight part
31:45and the hotel part, that covers most of
31:47what your trip might entail.
31:49Over time, we have developed
31:51simple guidelines for how much we spend
31:53on a daily basis. This is
31:55really common, for example,
31:56in luxury travel. People will often ask
31:58luxury travel advisors,
31:59"Hey, how much should I plan to
32:01spend?" They basically say about $1,000
32:04to $2,000 per person per
32:06day. It used to be $1,000
32:08pre-COVID. Now it's about $2,000 per
32:10person per day because
32:11hotel rates have gone way up.
32:13But that's actually really helpful to
32:14know whatever the number
32:15is for you, that over time,
32:17you will be able to just approximate it
32:19by how many days you are
32:21going to stay. Remember,
32:22for most people, it is not anywhere near
32:24$2,000 per person per day.
32:26That's at a luxury level.
32:28Most people are not spending that much on
32:30hotels, et cetera. Now, I
32:32noticed that a lot of people
32:33have a very peculiar way of spending
32:36money, and that is throughout
32:38the year, they will spend on
32:40things randomly that they barely care
32:43about. "Hey, everybody, let's get this
32:45cool Tide Pod. It's so
32:47awesome." Then they become hyper frugal
32:50when they are vacationing on the very
32:53thing that they have
32:53been talking about for months and months.
32:55"I don't know if we can
32:56get that dull whip, honey.
32:59That's just too much for us." Why are you
33:01here? Why do you spend
33:02all this money mindlessly on
33:03things you don't even care about for 11.9
33:06months of the year? Then
33:08when you're here with dull whip,
33:09you become this grumpy old guy. It's
33:11always guys, too, at Disney. "Why are we
33:13here? I hate my wife.
33:15What is this bullsh--?" No, we actually
33:17want to focus on spending
33:19extravagantly on the things
33:20we love. If you have travel as one of
33:23your money dials, then it's
33:24important for you to make your
33:26money match that. That means not only are
33:28you going to plan, but
33:29you're actually going to overplan
33:31and oversave so that when you're there,
33:33you can have a sense of ease and
33:34abundance. One of the
33:36biggest rich life principles is using
33:38systems so that you can spend
33:41guilt-free. You don't have to
33:42feel guilty buying this dinner when
33:44you're traveling because
33:45you know you're automatically
33:46saving, you're automatically investing,
33:48and you manage your fixed costs
33:49carefully. That is why I
33:51always encourage people to get my
33:53conscious spending plan and know your
33:56numbers. You can grab
33:57that conscious spending plan right here.
34:00The secret to making a trip
34:01unforgettable. I had a
34:03really magical experience in my money
34:05coaching program. One of my students
34:07asked me this question,
34:08"Hey, I'm taking this trip with my family
34:10to Mexico and I want to
34:12do something extra special,
34:14but I just don't know what to do." Here's
34:16what I told them. You
34:18have the money, you have the
34:20opportunity to create an unforgettable
34:22trip, and the way you do
34:24it is by being thoughtful.
34:26The trip starts the second that your
34:28parents leave their house. That is why
34:30you are going to arrange
34:32a car pickup for them and a nice car, a
34:35black car. They're going to
34:36go outside and for the first
34:37time ever, they're going to get in a
34:38black car. It's going to
34:38feel like, "Whoa, wow. This is
34:41kind of special." Okay. Then when they
34:43get to the airport, you're
34:44going to have somebody waiting at
34:46the airport to help them with their bags.
34:48This is an international trip. They're
34:49not accustomed to it.
34:50They're not used to having to use their
34:52passports. No problem. You've
34:54spent $100, $150. It's not that
34:56expensive to have somebody greet them.
34:58When they arrive in Mexico, first time
35:01there, they're going
35:01to be a little bewildered. What's
35:03happening? Oh, I don't know where to go.
35:05Not a problem because
35:06you have somebody there with a sign with
35:08their name waiting to
35:09greet them. They take them to
35:11their SUV. In the SUV, they have cold
35:14water. They have beers if
35:16they want it, cold towels,
35:18and the driver, very professional,
35:20uniformed, tells them, "It'll be 25
35:22minutes until we get to the
35:23resort." As they arrive at the resort,
35:25they can't believe it. They feel
35:26comfortable. They're not
35:27sweating like they expected, and somebody
35:30helps them with their bags.
35:31They go, "No, no. I can take
35:32it," and you've reminded them before,
35:34"Let them help." They walk hands-free
35:37into a hotel. They're
35:38already greeted because the front desk
35:40knows who they are. They say, "Mr. and
35:42Mrs. Satie, welcome.
35:44We've been expecting you. In fact, we
35:45have a welcome drink for
35:46you here." They've got all
35:47their information. They say, "We have a
35:49note for you from your
35:51daughter," and here it is. It's a
35:54handwritten note. You've left it for
35:55them, and you say, "Mom, there's a spa
35:57appointment waiting for
35:58you. They'll take you there right now.
36:00Dad, we're over by the pool. They're
36:02going to bring you over
36:02to us right now." This is just the first
36:05few minutes of them being
36:07on this trip, and it has
36:08already become something like they've
36:10never experienced
36:11before. Over the next few days,
36:13you have leisurely breakfast, no rush.
36:16You have a cooking class at one point
36:17where everybody gets
36:18their hands dirty, and you're making
36:20this, and you eat it. You have a
36:22photographer set up to take
36:24pictures because these are rare moments
36:26where the entire family is
36:27together, and you want these
36:28photos captured professionally with these
36:30beautiful high res
36:31photos. At dinner, you have
36:34stories. Everybody tells a story about
36:37something that you have
36:38already thought about. You have
36:40photos of each of them when they were
36:42younger. You tell us about this story.
36:43What were you wearing
36:44here? What kind of clothes did people
36:45wear in the 70s, you're asking
36:46them, and you are remembering
36:48and creating new memories. This is more
36:51valuable than any larger
36:53hotel room ever will do because
36:56you did not simply throw money at the
36:59problem. You actually were thoughtful.
37:02That's what I would do.
37:03Ask for what you want. Now, I first want
37:05to say you don't have to be
37:06an a**hole when you ask for
37:07what you want. You can ask for what you
37:09want and be super respectful, and
37:11sometimes they can't give
37:12it to you, and that's okay as well. When
37:14I arrive at a hotel, for
37:16example, we have sent a pre-arrival
37:18letter at the type of hotels we stay at.
37:21They actually love
37:22receiving these because it helps
37:23them serve the guests better, and we tell
37:26them, for example, "Hey,
37:26we're not really into wine,"
37:28which typically they have a bottle of
37:30wine waiting in your room as a welcome
37:31gift. We much prefer
37:33berries or some local fruit. Amazing.
37:35We're asking. Now, sometimes
37:36they don't have local fruit.
37:38Fine, but at least we know what we like,
37:41and we're going to respectfully ask.
37:43Here's the principle.
37:44If you don't shape the experience
37:46yourself, you will usually
37:48end up with a mediocre version
37:50of what everybody else does. You have to
37:53remember that when you go on
37:54a trip, they are catering to
37:56the average traveler. Makes perfect
37:58sense. Most people, by definition, are
38:00average, but because
38:02you're watching my videos and you
38:03understand the concept of a
38:04rich life, you can actually be
38:06specific about what you want. As an
38:08example, one time my friend
38:10and I were taking a food tour,
38:12and the typical food tour was something
38:13like four hours. We said to them, "Look,
38:16we'd actually like to have this food tour
38:18be two and a half hours.
38:19Can you make that work?"
38:20It was a private tour. She goes, "Of
38:21course," and that's what we
38:23did. We could have ended up doing
38:25four hours, "Oh, God, another thing," and
38:28we have to be polite to
38:29this food tour person,
38:31but we actually just spoke up and told
38:33them ahead of time what
38:34we hoped we could achieve,
38:36and they were happy to do it. Every week,
38:39I go deep on the real math
38:40behind a rich life and how
38:43you can build one, especially for you.
38:46Subscribe to this channel to learn how.
38:48One of my favorite travel memories is
38:50when my wife and I decided to go to
38:52Rantambore, which is a
38:54tiger safari place in India, and because
38:57one of our core values is
38:58relationships, we decided to
39:00invite some of our family to come with
39:02us. We invited my mom and aunt, two
39:05sisters, to join us,
39:07and even though they were born and raised
39:09in India, they have
39:11never been there. We get on
39:12the train from New Delhi, and we're
39:14already having an adventure. We bought
39:16these first-class seats,
39:17and I thought first-class Delta? No. It
39:20was like first-class in an
39:22Indian train, which was a sleeper
39:24car, so we're like, "All right, this is
39:26not really what we
39:26expected," but they had clean sheets,
39:29we lay down, we wake up in the morning,
39:31and we're like, "Oh, this
39:32is okay. We're close here."
39:33We walk outside, and suddenly, there are
39:35multiple uniformed porters
39:38there. They take our bags,
39:40they guide us to these beautiful SUVs,
39:41and they drive us to the
39:43hotel. We were staying at the
39:44Oberoi. That's my favorite hotel brand,
39:46very high-end and ultra luxurious,
39:49especially in India.
39:50We get there, there's a greeting
39:51ceremony, and immediately,
39:52we let my mom and aunt know,
39:54"Don't worry about the bags. They'll take
39:56care of them. We have a spa
39:57appointment for you waiting."
39:59They have their own room. It's beautiful.
40:01It's luxurious. We go out
40:03for a Tiger Safari the next
40:05day. That's awesome. We didn't see any
40:07Tigers, unfortunately, but
40:08it was quite adventurous.
40:09We're all outside, and the road is bumpy.
40:11At the resort, I pulled
40:12the chef aside one night,
40:13and I said, "You know, I would love to
40:15create a special dinner for
40:17my family, my wife, my mom,
40:20my aunt. They're all here. I know where
40:22they grew up, and I
40:23know their favorite dishes,
40:25and I would love to create a meaningful
40:27menu based on where they are
40:29from." He loved it. He said,
40:32"Let's sit down. Tell me where they grew
40:33up. What's your wife's
40:35favorite dish, paneer?"
40:36He created this menu, and so I told them
40:38one night, I said, "You
40:39know what? For dinner this
40:40evening, just be ready around 6.30. I
40:43have something special for
40:44you." They were all like,
40:45"Hmm, okay. We don't really know what
40:46it's about." We're in the middle of
40:48nowhere, so it's clear
40:49we're not going somewhere else. We are on
40:51property. We get in a
40:52golf cart, and we are driven.
40:54So where are we going? And we turn a
40:56corner. There's hundreds of
40:58candles. There's beautiful
41:00Rajasthani music that starts playing, and
41:03they greet us, and there's
41:05the chefs over in the corner,
41:06and we are taken to our table, where the
41:09menu personalized for us
41:11that night is presented.
41:13And you can hear the surprise in my mom's
41:19voice, my aunt's voice, my wife's voice.
41:22The memory that I will never forget is my
41:24aunt saying, "Why did you do
41:27this for us?" And I thought
41:29to myself, like, "This is the whole point
41:30of money." And to be able to
41:32create these magical experiences
41:33to let people know that they are valued,
41:36that they are loved,
41:37that's it. That's a rich life.
41:38And if you can learn how to create one
41:41unforgettable meal, you can create one
41:44unforgettable trip. And if you can create
41:46one unforgettable trip,
41:48then you can learn how to
41:49create an unforgettable life. I want you
41:52to think about this. What is
41:54one specific thing that would
41:56make your next trip unforgettable? Not
41:59luxury, not business
42:01class, but something meaningful.
42:04Maybe it's a cooking class with your
42:05kids. Maybe it's a month in
42:08Tokyo. Maybe it's taking your
42:10parents somewhere they never imagined
42:12visiting and making it
42:14easy for them. Put that in the
42:16comments. And if you want to learn how I
42:18spend extravagantly on the things I love,
42:21without wasting money on the things I
42:23don't, watch this video next.

About this transcript

This page contains the full transcript of Most People Plan Vacations Backwards by I Will Teach You To Be Rich, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 8,185 words across 1,358 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.

What you can do with it

Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to translate the transcript into 100+ languages.

Free YouTube transcript tool

YouTube2Text is a free YouTube transcript generator — no signup, no daily limit. Paste any YouTube link and get the full transcript instantly, with timestamps, click-to-jump, translation to 100+ languages, AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and exports to TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown.