'Money doesn't grow on trees' a favorite line spoken to many wayward demanding children by their parents. If you never heard it either you were goody two shoes or you were damn rich. There are high chances though that your children will hear it from you, and if you start traveling the way you want to you will be hearing it from various people both related to you and plain strangers.

We are all constantly struggling to get our hands on money so that we can make our lives better. For some that could be the new I phone on the market or it might be that high end resort in Bali for a day or two, for us it is getting to travel a lot without feeling restricted at every step. We would love to go to those luxury resorts but we can't afford them, the best thing is that doesn't make us feel restricted. But thinking whether or not one of us can eat the food that they want to or having to think about getting one slightly expensive meal on our trip, does make us feel restricted.

All of 2013 we traveled within our regular resources, it did not matter much because

• We were travelling within India
• Our trips were almost all 3 days long
• We were not paying for our home loan for long

As we traveled more our hunger to travel went up the roof and now we were looking for 7-10 day long trips to other countries or far off areas in our own. As we booked our tickets for Sri Lanka which were not really much, it was time to look for ways to build our nest. When you are working full time saving is just another way of how you dispose off your salary. If you are not saving a part of your salary you my friend are in great trouble, to start building a reserve you need to know and practice saving to the max.

What is a travel nest

In simple words it is a reserve of money that you have saved up to support your travels so that your regular income or expenditures are not affected. If you support a family there are chances you need a certain amount to maintain requirements like a roof over your head, food, health and school related expenses and much more.

No matter how unreasonable it sounds to you try explaining to your SO or parents that they can't go to the club they have been frequenting for years because you want to use that money to travel. There is even less chances of surviving with your heart intact when you tell your child there is not going to be a huge birthday party like every year. I know you are the person earning this money, but that is no excuse however unfair it might be. Like everyone else you have to work hard to earn your travels, and for that you need to build your travel nest.

There are multiple ways to get the savings started choose whichever one makes sense to you. I do however believe the first one to be compulsory if you want to travel in peace or do anything for that matter.
Before we go on let me introduce the Make Money Work eBook for whose who want to take control of their money. You might have seen the cover on the site for a few days. If you are my subscriber you get 7$ off the book making it less than a latte's cost at 3$.

1. Sort out your debts

Here we are talking about sorting debts not going debt free in a jiffy. That would require a lot of dedicated work towards your debts. For those of you who already have the book hop on to Chapter 7 and follow up with 8 to get he most out of your money. If you don't own and don't want to own it no problem, we are starting a email series soon.

Every month after our compulsory expenses our installment is our primary concern. though it has not happened till now I am sure we will forgo any trip if it could hamper our installments. The biggest trick to live life and get out of debt is consistency, consistency in paying them back and a resolve to get into debt only if required.

If you are looking to sort your debts there are some simple ways:
1.1. Automate payments to debt accounts.
If you do not own a bank account which gives you the liberty to do so sign post dated cheques, or create envelopes where you can put in designated money as soon as the paycheck arrives.
1.2. Do not forgo installments for anything else.
You wanting to buy a new car or a jacket should never be at the cost of your  monthly installments. If you don't have money to buy stuff after paying off your monthly dues you don't buy them. Would you give away rent money to buy a new car? I really hope not.
1.3. Know your limit and redirect only when you can.
You have selected a payback scheme which requires you to deposit some amount every month for a certain period. The way to get these years down is to put in extra payment and reduce your debt. Though it is a great way to get out of debt you should approach it carefully.

If you do put in extra, but end up getting in another debt, that is not going to help anyone but the banks. Also when you restrict yourself too much there are always chances of binging. A word we relate to food and booze can be related to money too.

When you clench your fist too tight there is a big chance that as soon as you get some money in your hands you would be like the springing clown eager to buy all unnecessary things you want. Know what you can sustain and only then pay extra, there is no fun to devoid your best years off everything good.

2. Cut off addictions and useless expenses

Have calculated how much those packs of cigarettes and crates of beer set you back by? We did along with a few of our friends and it was huge. Last month we totaled over 35000 in expenses and more than 11000 of those were us eating out. Yes there were a few bad lunch at office days and definitely going out for a nice dinner on Diwali makes sense. These were barely 10 meals in 21 days. Compare this to under 3000 we spent for feeding our selves for remaining 50+ meals over the same period of time. This total included all our indulgences like some high priced chips or some really expensive fruits, still we spent less than a third of what we spent eating out. Our new resolve not eating out till we go off for Chadar Trek. Not only will it save us some good money I might finally loose some weight.

Find out where you are spending money which you can easily cut back on, you do not need to go off outside food completely but just by reducing it to half will help. if it is 100$ you save put it in your travel savings or put it in your debt account, it will serve you better than being spent on candy or processed junk.

Realizing your limit applies to this too. If it is very important for you to grab lunch with friends every once in a while maybe you can cut in other areas.


The MAKE MONEY WORK eBook takes you from trying to figure out what you are doing wrong to getting exactly where you are spending and how you can cut it. It sells for 10$ but for my subscribers I have brought the price down to 3$, so sign up.

3. Learn to cook

It might seem tedious but it repays you more than double in benefits than the time you spend on it.

• Not only you will be spending less by limiting your eating out days you will know what your are eating even if it is deep fried cheese.
• Additionally it gets you some light exercise, if anyone has ever cooked for a party they would know.
• If you know cooking you are laying a basis for long term travel or scenarios and places where you might not find readily available food.
• Not only that now you can actually use the kitchen in your rented apartment when you travel
• Try your hands at cooking local specialties or simply save money by cooking your self breakfast.

4. Get Proactive

People who respond to a situation usually perform worse than people who are prepared for the same situation. Here are some examples:

• If you have no clue where you want to go and when you will never be able to use the 50% off on flights deal but if you have planned you know what to do when those awesome discounts kick in.
• Similarly you want to get rid of baggage fees, get a weighing machine and weigh your bags before you go. Being prepared might not save all the extra baggage fee but it will not come as a surprise.
• If your airlines charges for check-in baggage fee get rid of checking baggage and get to the airport with just carry on.

This requires you to not only know what you can do and to ask the airlines if you are not sure. We needed to know what emirates rules were for carrying insulin so we called and asked no point getting to the checking counter or security check and being turned around to give the expensive medicine back to family waiting for you.

5. Don't miss the opportunities.

We discussed how people forgo free travel because they do not realize the opportunities waiting for them all around. From air miles to heavy discounts on other activities. Though many of the opportunities are available online these days many more can be found by simply asking.

If you sit down for a meal in a restaurant ask them if they have tied up with a bank card for discount or offers.

There is a chance that it will slip their mind while charging you for your meal or you might not use the card which can get you 10-20% off. We ate at Pizza hut few weeks ago before going for a movie. Asked the staff if we could get discount on our credit card, and were told that our order and total that day did not qualify but we could get 15% on ala carte with a total over 1000. A few days later at an office get together we paid with our card, nobody complained because we got the discount plus we got ourselves some good miles.
You can go over and read the missed opportunities post of the series to get a better hang of what you can work to get yourself some free travel.

If you want to get some cool tested and tried money saving tricks from us sign up here to get them in for just 3$. I am selling the eBook for 10$ each for everyone else.

Free travel is a dream for many simply because it means that they do not have to dish out a penny and still feed their wanderlust. This post focuses on travelling with your job, though most of the opportunities can be used by anyone. (This is the reason why WOOF and volunteering or working on a cruise ship are not a part of the post.) If you are interested in reading about sponsored travel head over here.


If you think free travel is reserved for eminent people or those higher up in the office hierarchy you are mistaken. What they get is business travel which not always includes free time and many have to work crazy hours to even be eligible for such perks. The kind of free travel we are looking at is the one which you can get and earn by doing a few things. These include free flights, free night stays and heavily discounted deals which can drastically bring down your travel expenses. Though if you are looking for an all inclusive trip, this is not about it. The post talks about different ways of getting free something for your travel adventures right from using credit cards to earning miles by spending nothing.

Credit Cards

We discussed the merit of holding a good Credit Card a few weeks ago but all good things should be repeated. Credit cards when chosen well and suitable to your purpose can change the way you travel. We for example check for the miles we have accumulated before we pull out our credit card to book tickets or rooms. If you are still not using or planning to get a good travel card you are putting a lot of money on table which could have happily stayed in your bank.

Signing up for miles

Most of the airlines have their own miles or loyalty programs. The biggest benefit of these are that even if the actual monetary price of the ticket goes up the miles required to buy a certain flight remain the same. If you have flown in one of the airlines which give you loyalty points and have not claimed any you are wasting your miles. For example we got two tickets from Chennai to Hyderabad for just 1200 (taxes which you have to pay) because we were wise enough to build our mile reserve on Jet Airways and there is nothing better than receiving bonus joining miles or online booking bonus. Just by signing up for loyalty programs you are opening yourself to future opportunities.

Claiming missing miles

I really hope you know about this if you already own a loyalty account with any airlines. Whether you fly for travel or for personal purposes, and no matter who books your tickets you are eligible to get miles for your travel. For example my office booked my return ticket to from Hyderabad to Kuala Lumpur with Malaysian Airlines. I did not spend a penny but I did end up getting Enrich miles for my travel when I claimed the same on their site. On the other hand one of my colleague who had taken two such return journeys did not claim these miles and was therefore at a loss.

Getting Double Miles

Most airlines form alliances and some partner with another to provide service to their customers when they want to fly a route the airline does not service. In such cases you stand to gain miles for flights taken with code-shared or partner airlines. The best part about this is that you also get miles with the airline you actually flew with. The KL flight above got me miles with both Malaysian Airlines and Jet Airways contributing to my miles kitty. If your airline allows transferring miles to or from their partner airlines you are in great luck.

Signing up for partner offers

Miles are just like money well at least for advertisers who join hands with their airlines to have their customers try or buy their products. There are chances you can earn miles just by writing reviews or by test driving a new car. or maybe by taking a insurance consultation. We benefited hugely by writing reviews of hotels on Tripdvisor, something we would have done anyways and earning over 40000 Jet miles including two bonus mile wins one for each one of us.

Getting free night stays through loyalty programs

Most hotel chains like airlines run their own loyalty program which you can subscribe for free. In many case just by the virtue of being a loyalty member you are eligible to get a free night's stay during some promotional offers. Apart form these promotional offers which might run from time to time you care eligible for free nights after clocking in certain nights. Here again, if your office pays for your stay you are eligible to get it on your loyalty card. Many of these hotel chains are also partners with airlines giving you another option to earn miles and points on both fronts.

Signing up for newsletter

Most companies now days have  a newsletter of sorts which gives out information related to various deals and promotions going on. Being on those can be the difference between paying full price or getting 50% off. This is what happened when we were leaving for Goa to get our SCUBA Certification. I got an email from awesome people over at Airbnb which gave me 3000 Rs off on any booking. We had already decided on a place which would cost us 700 a night for two people. For five nights we would have had to pay 3500 total but with our discount and including the service fee we had to pay around 1400 for five days stay for two. Same with Uber which has now become our wheels of choice. Not only is the service as it is cheap compared to standard taxi services they give out great discounts too on your mail.
You can sign up on Uber with this link and get Rs 300 off on your first ride or sign up for Airbnb using this link and get over 1500 in Airbnb credit.
Also when you sign up for the blog here yo will get our newsletter which contains many downloads, resources and deals.

Affiliate links

When we just started out I was scared of using affiliate links others had put up, simply because I was not sure if it was the right thing to do. Now I have realized that these links can help you even more than it helps the affiliate. Also as long as you are getting a good deal it should not matter to you how much it is earning the other person. For example if you do sign up on the Airbnb link above you will get around 25$ in credit while I will get 25$, a win for both of us.

Have you been giving up any of these opportunities?

We have all been duly warned about the dangers and pitfalls of credit cards. Why is it then that most of the travel hackers and experts swear by their favorite cards and some even recommend getting multiple cards. There are a few reasons for this

Everything in moderation and control can yield good to great results. Anyone who buys within their spending limits but routes it through heir credit card is going to do good no matter how bad the credit card fine print is.
No body tells you to buy run of the mill credit cards. The cards recommended are specific and suit one purpose or another.

Why should I get a credit Card?

Credit cards as their name suggest are a way of taking money from the bank for a small predetermined time, specified in the credit card agreements as billing cycle. These cards allow you to earn interest from your money and while receiving kickbacks for using the card. My first card was way back in 2010 when I needed it to book our honeymoon tickets. Completely oblivious to how it should work I would put money back in the card as soon as I spent anything. I never got in debt but I never used the card and its facilities to their fullest potential.
If you direct 10000 worth of expenses through your card and have to pay it back 40 days later you can earn around 30 bucks or so in interest. Someone good at accounting can probably give you an exact figure. Most of the cards provide much more incentives than just saving some interest.They might offer a 5% cash back, movie tickets or air miles which happen to be something most of us travelers are lusting after all throughout the year. If you still do not believe what I am saying let me tell you we flew from India to Sri Lanka and back for just 4000 combined because of the miles our regular expenses had saved us just like return flights for two people to Andaman cost us around 12000 while our friends had to pay over 13000 each for the same flights. We have taken multiple free flights in last year all because we found and use the right credit card and this is not including all the ones we paid half price for, like the one from Mumbai to Hyderabad in August while coming abck form Diu.
Did I mention it also gives the holder free access to many airport lounges around the country?

How can I select a credit card?

There are a few criteria to select a credit card which can best suit your requirement which stay true for any par of the world and any purpose. To decide on a credit card to buy look at these major points.

Annual Fees

This is perhaps the smallest of the criteria but it can be considered to be the biggest deal breaker for many. A free for life credit card is going to do nothing for you, you will not see flights or or that matter even get you a discount on a eCommerce site. As with most of the things in material life you get what you pay for. We pay 3000 a year for our card and it has more than made up for over five years of fees in past fifteen months. If you are still hell bent on the free card, go through the pointers below and then choose your card.
Another factor to remember is the waived off fee, which means when you accrue certain amount of expenditure on your card in a year they will waive off you annual fee. Just like fees is a deal breaker or many this clause is usually a deal breaker for me. What if for whatever reason I did not meet the amount and had to pay up the fees, more often than not these cards do carry a bigger fees one such I know of comes for 5000 a year double of what we currently hold but you can get it waived off if you spend 400000 or more in a year. If you are committing to these cards always consider the annual fee in you expenditures if it is waived off take it as a bonus.

Purpose of the card

Why do you want a credit card? Is it just because you want to have a means to pay at places where there is no other paying option, or you are looking to gain something from owning the card. If you are looking for the former it is best to go for lifetime free cards which offer minor discounts and offers along the way without burdening you with the  fees. If you are looking to get more out of the card ownership it is time to define exactly what you want and how yo wish to utilize the card.

There are card for everything from airlines to major shopping chains and some with their own points store where you can buy stuff for free once you have accumulated enough points to qualify through your spending. If your biggest expense if gas you might want to go ahead and look for a card which gives you free petrol. There is nothing better than leveraging your mandatory expenses to help reduce them and make your money stretch. No matter what way you save up it is finally going to go in the same kitty. One of my friend has a card which gives them loyalty points for a famous shopping chain, for him it means easy and cheaper shopping. There is no right purpose and you can want anything from free movie tickets to free flights it's all on you.

Kickback totals

This has to be the most important of all factors which should direct you towards a suitable card. Why? Because this is the reason why you are getting a card in the first place.
The card we own gives every new enrollment bonus 10000 miles which translate to 5000 Rs for a fees of 3000 Rs a year this doesn't seem like a bad deal. Additionally you will still be earning miles and getting those free flights. If you  do not want to take matters to next year feel free to cancel the card before your renewal date and use up your miles too.

Similarly there are cards which give you free nights at a hotel or a straight away domestic flight calculate what the total kickback as are worth and then you shall have the winner. Most of the benefits of the card in question are related to your original purpose that you defined in previous point. Remember there is nothing wrong in holding more than one card as long as the benefits are in your favor and they serve a purpose.

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If you are in US or hold a US address options are many and have been discussed in great lengths by many renowned travel hackers from The Points Guy to Nomadic Matt. But if you are in India not only are the available options too few and miserly they are usually not discussed in detail.

As we started travelling more in 2013 we were on a lookout for a good credit card which could get us the benefits I would hear everyone talking about but still fit our pockets. This meant we needed travel related cards but not those which had over 5000 as a yearly fees. There were a few cards that we considered mostly from the banks we had used over the years but we decided on Citibank Premier Miles to be the card of choice. If you are interested in other options or if for some reason you can't or won't get a Citibank card go ahead and have a look at the comparison here, a handy tool would be this calculator by the same person.

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Lets go ahead and see how this card did on our criteria scale.

1. Annual Fees 

The card has an annual fees set at 3000 which though a bit expensive wasn't something that we couldn't afford, or would burn a big size hole in our pockets.

2. Purpose of the Card

We were looking at travel card specifically those which would help us get enough miles for a few free flights in a year. We also wanted the liberty to not be chained to one airlines and have the option to book from whichever one was cheaper or had better deal going on. Additionally if we could use or convert those miles for hotels and other transport options that would be a plus. This cut out most of the other travel cards because they would bind us to one airline or another. This card allows us to book our tickets through various sites and rewards us with miles as well as allows us to redeem them on various sites including a dedicated portal.

Additionally we can use the miles to pay for hotel rooms and buses too. All in all a good deal for us with flexibility and freedom of use across various sites.
Another one of our criteria was to easily earn miles which is what this card gets you, this card makes it very easy to earn miles from your daily expenses and you get accelerated miles with most of the travel expenses.

3.Kickback Totals

Even though I call them kickbacks these benefits are the reason why we are interested in buying the card. Credit card is now not just a means to pay for your online expenses or delay paying for stuff you bought today it is a means to get the luxury you have been looking forward to.

This card gave us 10000 joining miles which translates to 5000 Rs for a joining fees of 3000 so it was a no brainer 2000 Rs earned by spending first 1000 on the card within 60 days. Every subsequent year you get 3000 miles whenever you pay your annual fees basically reducing the annual fees to 1500.

We earn 10 miles for every 100 spent on flights and some partner sites which include even online clothing and other shopping sites. For all other regular expenses we get 4 miles for every 100 sent. As a thumb rule we spend around 20,000 a month in groceries and around 10,000 quarterly in flights and other partner sites which gets us 3400 miles every quarter. In addition to this we also route our insurance through the card and most often we are the people who pay the bill and later split it with friends giving us around 1,00,000 in other expenses over the year. This comes to around 4000 miles earned a year or around 3900 miles every quarter. In one year we make 7,800 in actual money which we can then use to buy our free flights. Combined with 3000 miles earned for annual fees this the total comes to Rs.9300 which is more than three times of the annual fees we pay.

We usually try to book flight tickets for friends and family which helps us to get even more miles without spending any money.

Other benefits

The card allows the primary card holder to access multiple Airport lounges around the country for free. Our regular debit card also lets us access many of the same lounges but the card includes many more lounges and we have many a times saved over 500 per person by stuffing ourselves full in these lounges. With all the flying involved I would put this benefit at around 3000 a year at-least.

The kickback or benefit total for the card comes around 12000 a year which being a 300% profit over the 3000 Rs annual fees is a good deal.

Other factors we haven't used yet

Citibank allows you to convert your premier miles to other airline miles at quite a good rate more often than not these are converted at 1:1.

Cons of the card

Even though I love the card there is definitely one point which I find can be a disadvantage compared to regular airline miles. As the miles earned are directly related to money with a ratio of 1 mile=0.5 .45Rs it can be a problem when flight prices are too high. In most airline the miles required to fly a sector remain constant as long as the seats are available, but in premier miles you can end up paying considerably more if you do not book on time.

You can apply and get more details for the card here.

What credit card do you use? Are you now convinced to use a travel related credit card?

We have all been trained to worship our work; while there is nothing wrong in giving due importance to your work worshiping it is taking it a bit too far. Many will not agree with this especially in a country like mine where we are trained from childhood that there is only one sure shot way of being successful in life and that is by working day and night, and treating your job like your life. I am sure most of us have seen our parents working with his mindset and many of us do too. This post might come across as me deterring people from working and therefore succeeding in life, when I am trying to  lay foundation of a lifestyle which is not just sustainable it is also satisfying and you will end up hating your job a little less.

The first step is to realize that there is a lot more to life than work and chores. There is nothing wrong if your life revolves around your home and office, as long as that is what you want. In most cases we all want a little bit extra and some of us want a lot extra from life. None of us are wrong it is our life and we all have all the right to demand what you want from it as long as you are ready to work for it. It is easy to want to be  a guitarist (ask me) but to actually get to playing and practicing is a tough job. It means that you need to take out time and maybe some money and get to it. It also means that you stop procrastinating. The 'YOU' in these past few lines is me, it has been over 5 months since Aj bought me a guitar and it has been almost the same time since I have picked it up to learn or play. As of now I know more about how NASA works than how to play that guitar. It is still in my things to do but I haven't being doing this.

Meet David Robert Hogg Travelling with his two kids

It is more than just travel

Longing travel and Travel with job series are much more than travel, yes I believe travel is one of the best ways to claim your life but no one shoe fits all. This is about creating a change and impacting life of others both those close to you and those you barely know. Over past few years I have had people look at us travelling and say you must be earning good, do you have any work load and you must have the best boss in the world. We make decent pay but nothing out of the ordinary, in fact many who have asked that earn way more than us. We also have regular workload with spikes every few weeks, we just manage it better. We have to agree we have a great boss but that is because we rarely spring surprises on him.

So if we are in the same bracket as every one else why we can do it and they can't. Those who look at us and then run around looking for an excuse as to why they can't travel or so something else they want don't want it as bad. If for you life is fine if nothing happens then who am I to tell you otherwise. The saying that we deserve the politicians we have extends to this scenario too, if you have done nothing to change it you deserve the life you have.

Meet Cory Lee who is travelling the world on his wheelchair

How we got here

When I joined my first office in 2009 I had rosy dreams of travelling every weekend and living my life to the extreme. I had the dreams but working to realize them was too much and meant planning, getting around parents and their permissions and simply learning to stand on ,my own two feet. The change came when started travelling for GoUNESCO, on our very first trip to Ajanta-Ellora we came across a British couple who had sold off everything and were now travelling the world. Before them I had never heard anybody doing that and I vividly remember going all polite and treading around their property sell off story. Till March 2013 these things never existed in my immediate universe and by extension in the world.

Meet Lainie a single mom travelling with her son Miro

To my surprise they were happy and I envied their freedom, as we traveled more we felt drawn to traveling and experiencing something new every day. When I started this blog in May 2013 I had nobody reading it, some old colleagues would come across it and they would say it is a great blog. When I think back to my earlier posts they were terrible, ramblings of someone who just wanted to catalog her journey through a challenge. Had I known that simple act of travelling to World Heritage Sites for a day or two will change the way we look at travel and the world around us I would have done it earlier.

When it came together

For us it did not click till we came back from Srinagar with a trip which had been changed more times than any other trip ever. From a trip across northern India it became an unforgettable journey to be a pat of a friends marriage and experience Kashmiri hospitality first hand. We wanted to see all that there was to see, all that we could experience and take everything that he life throws at us in our stride. The decision of the British couple we didn't even exchange names with was making more sense. As we challenged ourselves to sleep in trains every night for a week or going to Sri Lanka without booking any accommodation we learnt more about ourselves than about the place or the journey.

Ajay with a Kehwa pot

It took us over a year to understand what we wanted from our lives, maybe we still don't know. Our future plans change every few days, one day we are working hard on a project and then we are hard pressed with office work. We know how quickly things can change and how fickle we ourselves are. We all behave like a kid in a candy store more times than we would like to admit. Let me be the first one to tell you it is OK, there is nothing wrong in wanting a lot. The truth is if you do not demand and want how will you work towards realizing it.

Take an action

You would know I am running a series which talks about the How of Traveling with your full time Jobs, I believe it is important that we understand the Why associated with it. For me the important thing is that you understand and accept that there is more to life, whether you want it or not and whether you work for it or not is your choice and I respect it. If the line ' I am supposed to ...' is how you wish to live you life no problem , but if you want to mold it on your terms and get your independence back it is time that you start and we are here to help you through it.

Tell us in comments what you want from your life and we will try to help the best we can.(on a side note we are broke ourselves.)

We tackled asking and getting leaves in the last installment of Travel with Job series it is now time to talk about advance planning. Even as I write this I can imagine a lot of you sighing and giving up. Don't! It is easy to plan for your travel and if you have a full time job and a boss you report to you there is no other way to get travel in your life.

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Before we start on the how of the planning let us talk about the Why's.

1. You know all the answers

There are a few questions which define any trip- When, Where, How, For How Long. If you have all your days free or dedicated to travel many of these questions might not be as important to you as someone who has to manage a job along with travel engagements. Unless you know and decide on all of these factors chances are you are not going anywhere.

2. You can schedule your obligations

Unless you go on to become a perpetual nomad you are going to have quite a few social and family obligations that you have to fulfill. right from grabbing a cup of coffee with your friend to throwing a dinner party for your parent's anniversary. It is all important and requires time. Most of these can be pushed around or decided last minute but  things like birthdays, and reunions do require some advance planning.

3. You can ask for leaves on time

If you have ever been a supervisor you know how irritating it can be to get a last minute leave application asking for a week off. Not only is it inconvenient for all parties concerned it can also lead to disagreement and unwanted strain in the work environment. For detailed reading about Leaves and how to ask for them read this.

4. You will save a lot of money

Have you ever heard that because you are booking jut a day in before the flight you will get a huge discount. Most probably not, because that does not happen. As you get closer to the D-day everything becomes expensive especially if it is the holiday season. I have seen 12000 Rs ($200)  flights get to 27000($450) during Diwali, Christmas or Durga Puja. If you want to be travelling on those dates you better plan early in the year. Even if you are not travelling during peak times it is better to decide early and book early.
We were able to book Hyderabad to Delhi flights for two for Rs 2400 because we knew our dates and took up the airlines on their offer as soon as it was launched. The same flight today are over Rs 6000, and we would have probably taken the train than spent 12000 total on flights. Everything is cheaper when booked in advance and you can take better advantage of deals floating around.

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Now that we are clear about why we need to plan in advance it is time to get to the planning part. For that you need a bucket list, no not the scrap of paper where you scribble all your wishes, instead you need something like what I have below. You can either make your own in a excel file or copy this Google Doc to fill your own.



Great now you have the biggest tool you need to increase your travel time and decrease your cancellations. Let us get started and go through how to get the most out of this Ultimate Bucket List.

1. Where

This is the basic question of any travel expedition whether it ranges from a few hours to a few days. Fill in the places you want to be visiting this year. Yes, the entire year and fill in only the places you can visit, be realistic you might not be able to trek in Nepal and go on a cruise to Antarctica in the same year so choose one and put it in. In general there should be 4-5 places where you can reach in maximum 4 hours journey and 2-3 places 8 hours or more away.

2. How

How do you plan on going to the place?
Will you drive, fly or take the train? This will change the category of the place and the time it takes to reach it. For example a flight to Andaman is just 2 hours but a cruise ride from mainland India can take nearly 3 days!

3. How Long

How long do you plan on spending at the place?
 Keep it real most of us would be lucky to get two 10 day trips in a year, so hoping you will get two months off to go ad explore turkey is not going to help anyone. But in case you can get those kind of leaves put it against the destination you have selected.
All of the above were your wishlist almost like the way bucket lists are supposed to work what follows now is the stuff which will make or break the deal and require you to do some extra work than jotting stuff on paper or your excel file.

4. When

When Do You plan to Travel?

When are you going to travel to a certain place? 
This will require you to take out the calendar ( You can get a printable calendar here) which shows holidays and can be used to mark your leaves. It can be both physical like a printout or table calendar or a digital one like Google calendar or Ical.
You should know when you can travel to the destination of your choice. Very few people would like to travel to Alaska in winters, or to a desert in summers. Here you need some basic but invaluable research which you can get by just entering Best time to go to---- in Google. Write it down in the best time column under when section of the list.

Look out for long weekends and situations where you can get 4-5 days total by taking a day or two off. Plan your longer trips next to the long weekend and smaller trips in the in-between months so that you do not feel deprived. Most people find it comfortable to travel for 3-4 days in a month with a week or ten day vacation once every three months.
By now you should have exact dates for your travels. Highlight your leaves on the calendar and enter the dates you want to be travelling in the bucket list.

5. How much

How Much will you be spending?
This factor can lead to quite a few changes in your previously prepared list, but it is important you take it up in the end. It is time now to decide how much is the trip going to cost you and what budget you want to assign to it. Take into consideration the time you have, time of the year you are travelling and how you plan on going there.
There are many books and blogs which will tell you how much you will end up spending in a destination. If it is too costly to fly at that time of the year change your dates or go somewhere else, and if you have to go there at that time look into cheaper stay and entertainment options.

All done

Now you have your travel plans and the days you are going to take off marked and clearly detailed. It is now time to get your leaves in order and start looking for great deals to book your travel and stay. Look out for the next post in the Travel with job series dealing with the best credit card to support your travels.

Most working individuals long to take some time off and destress there are those who manage to go off for a week or two in a year and then there are those who are either too scared to ask for a day off or who just want to save up their leaves. You can be in any one of these categories but since you are reading this it is more likely you are in the fourth category which wants to take leaves but doesn't know how to go around and ask for them.

We get 18 days of Annual earned leave, 7 days each of casual and sick leaves for a total of 32 days in a year. Looking around the world it can seem a good deal, or too less. France is known for weeks of off days while it is more of a norm to hear about 10 days of paid leave in US. If you get only 10 days off a year and you want more (naturally!!) you have a lot to do which may involve changing your job. More often than not it is quite possible to get a few days off to go and visit a close by destination. Actual problem is when you want more than a couple of days off to visit a place far away. Here's a guide on how to get those leaves without becoming a liability for your boss.

Know your contract

All of us have a certain number of leaves we can take in a year defined in our contracts or through company policy. It is very important for you to know what types of leaves you can take and under what requirements. Most offices allow you to call in sick for a day or two without a note from your doctor. While many restrict you to club sick leaves with annual paid vacation time. To use your leaves and avoid friction in office it is important you know what you are entitled to. There might be a case where your boss would let you combine a few things at her discretion but it is better to never bet on it.

Do your job well

It goes without saying that unless you work well your interests will never be considered important by the company. But there is a catch, if you do not delegate responsibility well and become the only person who knows about something, it will be difficult to get days off. Being a part of the team and contributing in it always pay off. If you do see people getting days off easily even if they are the slacking at their jobs, don't go on a tirade about it. Every employee is allowed to maintain their own kind of relationship with the employer and it is better to improve your's without commenting on other's.

Do not make it a habit to stay late.

Not only is it detrimental to all other employees it is not sustainable. If allowing you take a week off means the employer looses one and a half worth of work guess what you are going to find it really difficult to get leaves. We as architects have really weird schedule and are known to work huge number of hours a week. After my first office I realized it is not just possible to finish work in prescribed hours it is also difficult to get leaves when you are in office 12 hours a day. It doesn't matter if you are a bachelor or you have nothing to do, get out on time and find something to do with your life.

Plan your leaves in advance

To get the days you want it is important to know what days you want off. It might not be fair to other last minute planners but if you are the first person to declare your intentions there are high chances of your leaves not being declined. I know what you are going to say, I can't decide so much in advance, my wife has to finalize or my friends can't commit or what ever... Guess what mate, if you want a smooth leave approval it is better to know what all days you want off WAY in advance. And as far your friend are concerned ask them to commit now if they can't their loss. There are many benefits of advance planning and if you are not filthy rich you should be doing it anyway. Still not convinced sign up for the next post which is about how and why of planning.

Intimate your supervisor strategically

Great you now know by the 10th of January what all days you are going to take an off do not go and vomit the information on your supervisor. It is a strange psychological response to deny anyone who is asking for multiple things even if it is all justified. If you do not believe me think back to your childhood days when your mom would happily give you one thing but as soon as you got greedy and started asking for more, in a few cases she would even take the one she gave you back.
A good time is around 3 months for a week long holiday and a month or two for a couple of days or a long weekend. If it sounds way ahead of schedule and you worry that your supervisor will forget write a mail after verbal approval and ask her politely to confirm. That way even if your supervisor forgets you have some proof that you did inform them. We put up a calendar of our future leaves marked at our bosses table. If he forgets we just point to it.

Remind people of your leaves when the time comes near

Around two weeks before you are about to leave inform people concerned of your impending absence so that they cna clarify their doubts and priority work can be finished before you go. This will also make sure that there are less people looking for you when you are vacationing and you work will be in a better condition when you come back. There should never be a situation where your boss calls you up asking where you are and you remind him of your leave starting today.

Be Transparent

I have seen people lying to get leaves and if you are travelling in that time there are high chances your boss will know you lied. Pictures are almost every where on the internet and if one person form your office knows there are chances everyone knows. This is never good for any professional relation ship. Also remember these leaves are within your right you should not have to lie. If the only way to get leaves in your company is a health or family emergency rethink if you want to be working there in the first place.

Here's and Infographic showing how exactly to get what you want... leaves.

Be Firm yet Polite

If you want a day off and you are entitled to it there is no reason your company can stop you from taking it. If every day off is met by a veiled threat of being fired go to the last line of the previous point. As with any professional negotiation it pays to be firm. Remember you are just asking for a few days off  maybe a week or two, and plan on coming back and working with the same people. Being firm about your requirements does not mean you have to be rude or wave regulation in their face the moment you get in the discussion. Be civil and remember you are going to be working with these people even after you come back, there is no need to add strain.

Be clear about your accessibility while on leave

Can you be reached by phone or you will be off the grid? Can you and will you be working a few hours a day even if to reply to a few mails? All of these questions need to be answered if you are going off for a week or so. It is always better to inform relevant people you are not sure about connectivity and might not be available, if you are not sure you will be able to entertain any work related phone or mail. put up the out of office reminder so that your clients and colleagues know you will not be replying to them and they should approach someone else. This for one will help you get leaves in future much easily.

Be back on the day you promised

Unless you get stuck in some unavoidable circumstances or weather plays a spoil sport be back on the day you promised to be back. When you flippantly take additional days off your boss is definitely not going to be happy and in most cases will inform you in no uncertain words. If you are coming in late inform, if you are stuck or need another day call up and inform your boss if not you team. If you don't want to do that be there on the day you promised.

More often than not above pointers will get you the leaves you want. Remember every culture has a different view on days off and travelling, most of the old time views are not in our favor. It is our responsibility to train our employees and when our turn comes be generous with our employees.

A note to our employers

No one should be forced to work on days they don't want to. Unless there is a life and death situation let people live their lives you will have a place people will love coming to.

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