Indians are some of the most overworked people in the world says who says a report from the international labor organization that Indians rank fifth among countries with the longest working hours according to the factories act the maximum hours one needs to provide is 48 hours a week which is about 8 hours a day if you work 6 days a week or almost 10 hours if you work 5 days a week rookie numbers if you ask me all jokes aside a recent study suggest that Indians work up upwards of 60 to 80 hours a week and
spend less than 10th of the day for leisurly activities me alone used to spend like 100 hours a week in KPMG and PWC it leads to huge stress which is why taking a break every once in a while is important unfortunately according to a survey done by Expedia India ranked fifth among the most vacation deprived countries in the world overwork and no vacations most of us are taking time bomb of stress and it's time we fix that so so in this video I'll tell you how you can take a vacation almost for free and why
you should have no gu whatsoever for skipping [Music] walk 96% of Indians feel burnt out at least one day a week leading to severe job stress and the early onset of chronic diseases like diabetes and blood pressure now you would ask me Sharon I would love to take a break and go for a vacation but I don't have so much time no there's no time well let me bust the myth real quick on an average Indians get around 20 days of paid leave in a year coupled with the state and national holidays you have more
than enough days to plan and execute a retreat for a week yes no need to hide your face now rather go and check the HR policy in your office for taking long leaves read through them carefully and apply for leaves strategically during offseason so as to ensure your leaves are granted EAS easily when you're done planning for leaves do the next best thing and start buttering up your coworkers to carry your work burden and emotionally blackmail your boss if you have to you anyway suddenly do it for a promotion so doing it for a vacation
would do you no harm and when you're done with buttering up too planning the destination for your vacation is the most important step that comes next unlike the countless trips you have planned with your friends and family only for it to fall through at the last moment after watching this video you will start TR traveling other than your closest hill station if you have a place in mind that's great but for the uninitiated I have a hack for you to select your favorite travel destination especially if you are on a budget the two most expensive
costs that you'll incur while traveling is the mode of transport and accommodation expenses to find a budget friendly destination use platforms like Skyscanner or Google flights for example you can get on Google flights and check the explore option and select the month you wish to go on a vacation on and check the the airfare to different parts of the country for those particular months this will give you an idea of short listing between different destinations quickly and also help you find hidden gems being Indians we love for the thrill of a bargain and flight tickets
are some of the only areas where we can get a good bargain while vacationing but actually make sure to first delete your cookies Airlines do not play fair and often times use your cookies against you and overcharge on flight tickets best practice would be to always browse on incognito mode here's how you find the best budget Airlines for you first check platforms like Skyscanner or Google flights for the month you plan to take your vacation along with the destination ideally book both arrival and return tickets separately most times you will find this as a cheaper
option in comparison to purchasing the tickets as a package if you're booking months in advance it might make sense to give some time and switch on price tracking that way when the prices drop you can purchase them for even cheaper prices make sure to use the lounge facility if your creditor or debit card gives you access to one here take my card another way to save big on air travel is to get a credit card that gives Air Miles as Reward Points like the Air India SBI signature card or the aess bank vistara signature card
both of these cards gives you Air Miles which can be utilized to purchase further tickets or upgrades to get better seats such as business or first class tickets if you want a video exclusively about which credit card gives you the best bang for your buck comment below accommodation is probably the biggest expense when we travel accommodation can be extremely expensive depending on the destination an easy way to get a cheaper accommodation is by staying in hostels hostels are perfect if you plan to backpack and plan for a cost effective vacation while you may not have
the Privacy you get to meet new people you can find hostels through aggregators like hosle World zostel Etc now if the hostiles are not for you you can always book an Airbnb if you're going as a large party you can find villas for cheaper rates than hotels with a lot more freedom now if you like me and and want to explore budget friendly options all across the board I suggest checking aggregator websites like booking.com and make my trip once you select the hotel of your choice check if they have a website number of their own
and contact them inquiring about rooms for the same day Boutique and similar hotels allow you to bargain with them on their prices which is how you can get a discount of upwards of 10% since they no longer have to pay commission to the aggregator sites similarly you can do the same for Airbnb rooms as well however discounts will be vary upon your bargaining skills so bring out your inner maradi when we think about vacations the first thing that comes to mind is how expensive they can be but planning your finances with vacation as a goal
can make it so much more simpler AA tell me do you maintain a vacation fund yeah I didn't think so vacation should be planned like any other Financial goal you have and it's necessary that you save up enough separately to make your trip instead of relying on your main savings vacation being a short term goal with a turnaround of under a year you should be investing 100% in debt and my recommendation would be an FD from a small Finance bank that gives attractive risk-free RS now if you're yet to save up for your vacation here's
a fun way you can set up a sweep facility with your bank most commercial banks in India offer an auto sweep facility the bank links your saving account to the auto sweep FD account based on the standing instruction you give to the bank any amount over the instructed balance is automatically transferred from your savings account to your auto sweep FD account the auto sweep FD account earns similar interest as a fixed deposit Which is higher than a regular savings account another added Advantage would be that if you ever overspent on your vacation you needed worry
about your minimum amount balance to be maintained when you have a sweep facility in place let me make it simpler for you let's say you have an FD of rupees 25,000 and your savings account balance has rup1 ,000 with a basement limit of 10,000 R now you pay an amount of 8,000 the bank will now automatically deduct 6,000 from your FD account and this will prevent your savings account going below the limit this way you don't fall short on funds because you're saving for a vacation while the balance in your FD will still earn some
interest how can I end a video without a tax hack funny thing is there's always a tax hack no matter what you do if you look hard enough have you ever looked at your pay slip and notice that you're getting different kinds of allowances one such allowance you might be receiving is called the leave travel allowance and your employer pays this to you every month you can probably guess by the name it's an exemption for any compensation or benefits the employer receives from his employer for travel while on your leave and unfortunately just like every
other allowance they're available only under the old tax regime for people who are filing their taxes under the new regime you guys can't take this benefit here's how you can maximize your LTA to save yourself some taxes while you are partying it up this allowance allows you to claim a tax exemption in the domestic travel expenditure incurred by you and your family members only travel expenses such as the employees plane rail or bus f are eligible for this exemption so expenses like Local transportation sightseeing Hotel stairs meals Etc do not qualify for this exemption but
then also a major chunk of it is taken care by your employ lawyer for example let's say your LTA is 40,000 rupees and the actual eligible leave travel is only 27,000 rupe then the unutilized 13,000 rupees will be added to your taxable salary although vacations are seldom planned purely to take advantage of tax advantages for example let's say your LT is 40,000 rupees and you spent around 27,000 rupees on your flights this year so if you're in the 30% income bracket you can save up to 9,000 rupees in taxes and the remaining LT amount will
be added to your taxable salary so always make sure to use your LTA completely but most people do not declare your travel expenses to your employer and you end up paying more in taxes now the catch is you can only do this twice in a block of four years so if you have a spouse and if he or she is also getting these LTA benefits you can plan it accordingly such that you can save taxes every single year so all in all I hope this video opened your eyes wide open and you're already on your
phone booking the tickets for your next vacation remember earning money and slogging for 8 to 12 hours in office is just as important as your life and youth no amount of time you sit in front of that laptop is going to come back again so take YOLO a bit too seriously and start vacationing already for more such videos you better subscribe to this Channel and share this with your friends and we see you on the next one go you go