Two trains of thought, which are you?

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Go young and experience as much as possible even though financially it may be a strain?

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You're not guaranteed old age. Go for it in your youth.

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This, but I definitely try to find ways to travel cheaply. I like mountains, so I plan bomb arse trips for just $1,200 dollars. I also take advantage of travel credit cards.
There is not a chance in hell that you can keep me away from the Rockies or the Sierras for more than a year. Louisiana sucks!! What also sucks is my friends not being able to go on any trips with my girlfriend and I because they are all married with kids. I would not trade where I'm at in life. I'm 28.
Good thread

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This is pretty much me. Since my first real trip out West in 2015(I turn 29 in a week,) I've had some pretty serious wanderlust, and now I can't imagine not going out there at least once a year. Pretty obsessed with that part of the world. My GF and I have a pretty solid group of friends that share the same interests, and when we get about 5 people on board, it makes things cheaper as far as splitting costs when possible.

So, my suggestion is that, if you love traveling, just do it it, at whatever stage you find yourself at. There are ways to do it in a financially responsible way, you just have to play it smart.

I wish, I would love to have talked to my younger self about being an exchange student or volunteering while young.

Would love a job that offered the opportunity to travel, instead I'll settle for two months of travel

Yeah, right now it is great taking 20-28 day trips and really seeing a country.

In my life I have regretted not going on trips but I have never regretted going on one. For me it has been about gaining perspective. Maybe it is a different viewpoint, maybe it is becoming vulnerable and being ok with it because I don't know a language, or maybe it is about seeing things done differently.

I started international trips at age 18. It has helped accelerate my career. However I did it like a pauper when I went at a young age. It made me appreciate it and bust my arse so that now at 35 I fly first class overseas, experience the best food, and stay at exceptional places. You can do both for sure... but you have to know what tradeoffs you are willing to make to do it.

I tend to disagree with this...
If your someone who is relatively young you haven't learned the proper way to save. It doesn't have to be staying in first class establishments, it could be that a flight plus hostels would still cost 2-3k going overseas.
That doesn't include meals and sightseeing. So it isn't just planning it is money and a lot of people struggle with that. When accounting for car notes, house, student loans, credit cards.

I know this is TD where everyone is financially responsible but talking about the majority. Including myself as I could not travel overseas at 20-25 because of school and debt.

It is ok

I stretched (little vacation time and not much spare money) as much as I could to travel as widely as I could with Mrs. Füt who will not stay at a hostel. Now we have more of both and are loading up on the International travel while we both have no mobility issues.

I'd avocate pushing the envelope early, you never know what life will later throw at you.

Fortunate enough to not have much student debt between my wife and I. Engaged at 22. Married at 24. Only debt at 26 was a house and one car. Kid at 27. I'm 30 now.

But together we've been to Europe twice, Napa, New York, Disney about 8 times (we own DVC), Oregon, Hawaii, North Carolina, Virginia, Arizona, Maine, Tennessee, Washington, just to name the places more than a few hundred miles away. We've traveled in a variety of ways; varying lengths of stay; varying accommodations. We usually take a trip somewhere for our anniversary typically staying in B&Bs. My wife is also an avid runner whose goal is to run a marathon in every state so this helps force us into new experiences. The kid rarely goes on the trips outside of Disney.

We've always been an "experience over materials" couple where we'd rather spend our extra money on trips rather than items. We're in a moderate house driving moderate cars. And even if we didn't travel so much, we'd still probably live this way. We've been lucky not to have financial strain outside of last year's flood which means zero vacations this year. No complaints there though. 1 year off is a minimal sacrifice to help get us back whole thanks in large part to friends and family.