Fish More by Maximizing Your Vacation Time in ‘24
For nearly 23 years I’ve been at a job that allows me to carry over up to 240 hours of vacation at the end of the year. This year, for the first time, I will hit that mark. Based on a 9-hour day, that’s almost 27 full days of annual leave in addition to what I’ll earn in 2024. That seems like a lot, but amortized over the course of my career, it’s just over a day per year.
That proves to me the value of being stingy with my time. If I’d just taken one more day of vacation each year, perhaps on a day when I “just wasn’t feeling it,” or when we’d returned from a long trip and I was tired, I’d have nothing in the tank. Over the remaining years of my career, I can either take some extra vacation each year, or cash out the value of the remaining time when I retire.
In the early days of this blog, I wrote about how to make the most of vacation time, providing a baker’s dozen ways to stretch your time off. Looking back on that article, I’m proud to say that I’ve done a good job of utilizing the options available to me and maximizing my vacation time.
It appears that others have taken heed of those same lessons (or else they’ve been following them all along). Recently the Washington Post discussed “How to get the most days off with your vacation time in 2024.” That article included the horrifying fact that half of Americans don’t use up their vacation time each year. That’s potentially both a personal and a societal failure.
However, the article also made clear that there are other obsessives like me, and implied that it was a healthy practice. In its most simplistic fashion, the obvious hack is to build around Federal holidays, if your workplace grants them. Depending on your math, some posters argue, you may be able to extend 15 days of PTO into more than 50. So, if there’s a holiday on Monday, leave the preceding Saturday, come home the following Sunday, and you’ve turned four days of vacation into nine. For people like me, who work a compressed schedule that provides every other Friday off, the possibilities may be even greater.
Here are some other articles along those lines:
Here’s How To Maximize Your PTO Days To Get 52 Days Off In 2024
Wanna Maximize Your Travel in 2024? Turn 11 Days of PTO into 44 Days of Vacation
Of course, most of this comes down to just using days that are granted to you as buffers or substitutes for days that would otherwise be charged. When possible, build around holidays. But the reverse is also true – if you’re going away for four days, don’t leave on a Monday and come home on a Thursday (assuming you work weekdays) unless you absolutely have to do so. Take four days instead of two five times, and you’ve wasted two full weeks of vacation for the same amount of fun.
Who Doesn’t Benefit from This Math?
Hanna and I don’t have kids, so we don’t have to build our vacation plans around school holidays, when you may not have a choice of when to go (and rates are often higher). You may not be in that same situation. You may be an educator or first responder with little schedule flexibility, or work for a business that provides few if any Federal holidays off or flexibility. Or maybe you’re an hourly worker with no paid time off.
Alternatively, if you own your own business or set your own schedule you might be handcuffed in a different way, the ultimate master of your domain but afraid to leave the business at certain times.
And of course people may have to use time off for illnesses (their own or those of a family member) or other events like weddings. In my opinion, that’s just all the more reason to maximize when you can.
So How Are We Doing?
In addition to my paid time off, I am fortunate that my job provides ample sick leave and 11 Federal Holidays. When possible, I try to build my vacation time around those dates. Sometimes, that’s not possible, like for the Bassmaster Classic (over which I have no control). Alternatively, we need to go on distant fishing trips during the appropriate season and when the boat, lodge or guide has availability. I’ve already missed utilizing the January 1st and January 15th days off, but after that let’s see what’s on the calendar:
January-February: Chicagoland Fishing, Travel and Outdoor Expo and Nashville Safari Club – I’ll miss four days of work, one of which is my Friday off.
March: Bassmaster Classic – I will be gone for five weekdays, one of which is my Friday off.
May: Panama – I’ll be gone for five weekdays, one of which is Memorial Day and one of which is my Friday off.
June: El Salto – I’ll miss a Federal holiday by one week, which irks me, but of the five weekdays I’ll be gone, one will be my Friday off.
September: Grosse Savanne – We’ll be gone for two weekdays, one of which will be Labor Day and I hope the other will be my Friday off. WINNING.
September: Bass Fishing Hall of Fame – I’ll be gone for three weekdays, one of which will be my Friday off.
November: Guatemala: I’ll miss another Federal holiday by one week, which irks me even more than the June one, but we didn’t reserve on time and missed out. I’ll be gone for five weekdays, one of which is my Friday off.
BOTTOM LINE: I’ll be gone on 29 days that could have been weekday workdays, but I’ll only have to take 20 days of vacation time. That leaves a little bit of wiggle room for a media trip, family obligation or something else to close out the year with a substantial carryover of vacation time.
Self Grade (on a curve) – A solid “B.” I probably could have had something overlap with the June, October and November Federal holidays, saving even more time, but given the seasonality of my hobby, and the limited spots at key times, we did OK.
Lessons Learned
My intuition to be stingy worked out. I’ve enjoyed a dozen years of amazing vacations with time left over.
Others are following these same strategies, so it pays to book even further in advance if you know what you want on key dates.
If you book far in advance, consider travel insurance to protect against changed circumstances – and know what it covers.
The less time you have off, the more critical it is to “hack” your calendar to maximize limited time off, but it’s still a strategy that can benefit everyone. More is just about always better.
As the end of my career nears, I will need to make some decisions about how and when to use my expected “overage” of time or whether to cash it out.
Vacation is important to long term happiness. For me, it’s about fishing with friends and seeing new places – for you, a “staycation” or something different might be the appropriate strategy.
