Are Your Clients Budgeting for Travel?

(Dive Travel Business News - July 8, 2010) -- Are your clients having difficulty committing to an upcoming group dive trip because of budgeting issues?  Voted "Best Budgeting Site" by Kiplinger's Magazine and  a "Top Pick" by Money Magazine, Mint.com has been helping spenders big and small set goals for their personal and household needs since 2007. In June, it launched a new tool to help travelers set a vacation goal and then save for it.

First, travelers establish how much they think their trip will cost. As a travel professional, you can start them off with package prices, air fare costs and daily spending estimates for their next dream vacation. 

Then with a new tool, Mint Goals, helps Mint users figure out how much they need to save every month to make their vacation goal by the travel deadline. Or, they can tell Mint how much they can save each month, and Mint lets them know when you can reasonably expect to be on that plane headed for their favorite dive destination.

Financial management website Mint.com can help them calculate how many lattes they would have to skip to pay for a plane ticket, resort or any other expenses for their next dive trip to the Caribbean. 

Mint works with travel sites like Expedia.com and Orbitz.com to provide travelers with planning tips and resources, and supplies other handy tips.  And it shows users how to cut back in other areas, such as dry cleaning or restaurant bills, to make the trip happen faster.

"It shows you where you are spending your money," says Mint's founder, Aaron Patzer. "Maybe you spend 25 percent of your money on rent, and however much on clothes and coffee. Going out to lunch every day at work? Maybe I can do that only two days a week."

Mint sends its users a progress report about once a month to keep them from drifting back to those costly lunches.

"It's like the elementary school fundraiser," said Patzer. "You can see if you're ahead or behind on your goal. If maybe it's a couple years out, and you forget to save, this gives you that discipline."

Travel is just one of eight common goals Mint has identified by surveying its users about their savings. Others include saving for college, remodeling a kitchen or bathroom, retiring by a certain age, and setting up an emergency fund.

Mint is free; the site makes its money from the referral fees paid by banks if the website's users open new accounts.  Once your clients have analyzed their spending at home, and vacation costs, they might find out they can afford two weeks diving in Tahiti, not just one. 

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