Where do you "park" your travel funds?

[Mr.Punch]

Like many Filipinos, I simply save whatever I can in a savings account until I need to use them for travel purposes.

Lately though, money market UITFs have caught my eye, and I might park travel funds there soon.

Why?  Short hold periods, not volatile, and grows at a rate that's better than the interest of a regular savings account (at at a shorter time too.)

Is there a better vehicle to put travel funds in?

[mameejhy]

I'm interested in the answers.

I cannot suggest anything though because we are based abroad and hubby has free family airfare (Qatar to Philippines) and that's our travel fund whether we actually go to the Philippines or elsewhere.

[artificialstar]

I placed mine in money market din. sayang din kase pag nasa savings account lang. let's see what the others can share about this. 

[little_princess]

Money market seems tempting now, minimum holdingperiod is just 7 days i think. haven't tried it as I am scared that I might end up with less than my initial invested.

another alternative which is also has the same risks would be alternative currencies like bitcoin. we invested a few hundred pounds and we have already returned our investment plus more than doubled our money

[Mr.Punch]

^ Yung BPI nga walang hold periods ang lahat ng UITF nila, not just their money Market Funds 

[ikaela]

Huwwat, bitcoin, a digital currency, is highly speculative. In fact, some say it's the ultimate in speculative investments. Not comparable to safe, boring money markets at all. But hanggaleng ha, you had the foresight to invest in bitcoin! Congrats on the 100%+ return!

[Mr.Punch]

^^ Sa money market ka pa natakot, eh mas delikado ang bitcoin.  hahaha

[little_princess]

LOL with bitcoin, we started with 100GBP and it's not really a big deal unlike sa money market na may minimum amount I guess we just got lucky

[MissChievous]

If you want to explore BitCoin, I suggest you use your "Play" Money muna. Hirap mag invest dun di pa stable. Dami news nung nakaraan about jan di ba. About its CEO.

Anyway, I'm looking din for parking lots for my money, not just travel funds.

Ganda yung BPI UITF kasi walang holding period. I think I'm going to park some money there. Kasi pag nag MF naman ako at kukunin ko na mga early next year, baka ma lugi pa ako. hehe. I'm contemplating whether to go for Money Market or other BPI Bond FUnds. Mas malaki NAVPu ng money market with a higher returns, pero pag bonds naman maliit NAVPu, medyo malaki [textspeak!] kita if ti-timingan mo yung pag withdraw ng account mo. Medyo tolerance naman ako ng risk. 1 yr lang time frame ko. Any advice?

Better do my research.

[JINJIN:*]

pag travel fund, i just put it in my savings account kase I travel once or twice a year, so ang ikli ng holding period ko kung ipapasok ko pa siya sa money market. Although I know meron naman walang holding period diba, yun lang kase hindi rin naman kikita ng bongga halimbawang 100k maximum lang naman ang travel fund ko tapos UITF in 6 months, kikita ng onti, although syempre mas ok rin na rin yung onti kesa sa wala diba. But still i dont bother to put it anywhere else apart from my savings account.

[melodymedley]

I park my travel funds in a regular savings account. The same account holds my emergency fund, emergency travel fund and short & long term travel funds. In that way, kapag nanghingi ng bank statements for visa purposes, convincing na yun yung balance talaga ng account ko.

Very small yung interest rate (less 20% final tax pa), but my plan for the fund is to spend it on travel, not for investment purposes. I don't want to risk it even just for a little more interest for just a short amount of time. I'll just get tired of monitoring and worrying about it.

[Annie M.]

I park mine in Citibank, kasi mataas ang interest rates (3%) and withdrawable any time.

[FOURever]

^hi sis. anong account sa citibank yan if i may ask?

[Cheesecak3]

I put mine at FOREX.

[Annie M.]

^hi sis. anong account sa citibank yan if i may ask?

Hi! Citibank E-Savings, sis.
Yung blue na card:

http://www.citibank.com.ph/gcb/promos/bank/1108_bundle.htm

[FOURever]

thank you sis. i will check that out

[london]

walang kwenta money market ngayon, ang baba ng rate. mas mataas pa td. grabe.

[Lianne@TheWiseLiving]

It would depend on the time, of course.

For example for me, it's 2014 right now. I'm planning to go to France on 2024. It's going to be around 10 years pa, so instead of putting it in a savings account, I put it in a balanced mutual fund instead. That way, it gains interest and offsets inflation. 

[cussler]

depende kung san kailan nyo gagamitin ang funds mo. shortterm sa banko nalang like kay Annie M sa citisaving. browse/search and inquire kung saan mas mataas ang interest. medium term kung travel mo ay in a year to 3 to 5yrs sa bond funds. pag mas matagal pa din dun na kayo sa equity fund.

[caterpillar-girl]

Just wondering how everyone saves for travel. Do you save up for particular trips, or do you have a general travel fund? I don't have a general travel fund. I only save up once I'm set on going to a particular destination. I calculate projected expenses, and that's the only time I start saving. I did have a "travel fund" once but I found it difficult to keep it untouched, especially when I didn't have particular trips planned. The travel fund became the shopping/salon fund hehe. So I never thought of putting travel funds anywhere other than savings. The longest I ever planned for a particular trip was around 10 months.  Definitely less than a year. I'm not sure if the effort of putting it in money markets is worth it if it's such a short time frame. Or is it?