Thrifty Thinking: Saving on Travel

Trim is a startup building a holistic personal finance assistant that automates savings and financial decisions based on users' transactions. 

They just released a report on travel spending based on the more than 500 million transactions of their users and found:

• 7 in 10 people spent some amount of money on travel in the last year
• Residents of Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle spend the most on travel
• 35-44 year-olds spend the most on travel, about $1,300 annually

You can see more of the findings and read the full report here. 

I had a chance to do an interview to learn more.

What are some factors that contribute to higher levels of travel spending?

• The biggest factor contributing to higher levels of travel spending is the financial ability to spend. That's why we see that people who earn more money and have better credit spend more on travel.

Are people generally aware of how much they spend on travel?

• Our data doesn't tell us if people are aware of their spending on travel, but usually, travel and vacation is intentional and planned in advance. What we do know is that Trim users can determine how much they spend on Travel, as well as in other categories, using our dashboard.

How does Trim help people make financial decisions?

• Trim helps people make financial decisions by identifying savings opportunities and providing a clear and detailed view of their finances through automated notifications and dashboards.