Saving for a holiday 4

Now that you've got some ideas of where you're going on your next holiday and you have an idea of the money you need to start saving for the trip,  you have one crucial step before we move on.

You need to work out whether you need travel insurance for your holiday.

If you are going overseas or to another country then travel insurance becomes a necessity and you just need to find the best value for money policy to cover you while you're away.

Travel insurance is like car insurance. You don't plan on having an accident, you're a really good driver having undergone advanced driver training courses but you just can't predict what will happen on the road every time you leave the house. That's where car insurance comes in, its there just in case something out of your control happens and you need it.

Travel insurance is the same, you don't plan on ever using it but you can't control everything around you and the last thing you or your family want is to be stuck in another country where you don't speak the language and you're sick or worse injured. Travel insurance is not optional to me when you're travelling overseas so start looking at the different policies to find out how much you need to save for this and add it to your costs worksheet.

You will hear plenty of horror stories at dinner parties of when people have had to use their travel insurance and yes I hate to say it I've got one of those stories as well. I have always had travel insurance when travelling overseas and for many years I never had to make a claim on those policies. They were just part of the cost of travelling, like having car insurance is just part of the cost of owning a car.

Maybe someday we'll share dinner and I can tell you my horror story where I was grateful I have always had travel insurance. Until then, take my word for it if you can't afford the travel insurance, you can't afford the holiday.