My Coachella Dream
Growing up with older siblings always made me envious of all the privileges they got just because of their age. My older brother and sister always got to stay out later and travel with friends and most importantly, go to the coolest music festivals. When I was about 9 years old, my brother got to spend the weekend after spring break in California at Coachella. He was a senior in high school when him and all of his friends flew down to Palm Springs to listen to hundreds of musicians perform. My sister decided to attend the festival a year later and ever since I have been jealous of the both of them. A dream of mine is to be able to spend a weekend at Coachella with my closest friends and all on my own financially.
© Coachella Website 2015
Being able to listen to the most amazing artists in the most perfect environment with thousands of other people sounds like my dream come true. Not only did I first want to attend this festival because of my older siblings, but I have always had a passion for music. Music helps me get through tough days and is always there when I am making the best memories. I also grew up with a musical background. All of my cousins and siblings all played the piano, violin, and sang up until they left for college. My dream to attend Coachella Music Festival is one that I have thought about countless times. Every year is the same. I tell myself that I am going to save up and convince all my friends to do the same so that we can all make the journey down to the sunny California.
What finally got me inspired was my good friend Jane. Jane decided last summer to start saving for the festival. She put money away each month planning out her expenses for the experience. I asked Jane for some advice and she gave me her plan that successfully brought her to purchasing her Coachella ticket this past Thursday. I started by asking her how much she put away each month. She told me about this payment plan that she learned of the previous year. The total festival pass ticket is $450, which doesn’t include airfare, meals, or housing for the weekend. So for the ticket, there are monthly payments made of $50 for nine months. Jane went on to explain how she decided to put away $70 for nine months starting in the summer so that she would have a totally of $180 extra to go towards her other expenses.
© Coachella Website 2015
After talking to Jane, I decided to ask others how they were able to afford Coachella. I asked my siblings first. My brother told me how he put away his summer money, similar to Jane and then asked our parents for his plane ticket for his graduation present. My sister did something similar to my brother and Jane by putting away money for airfare, meals, and housing, but had won her ticket through her University by selling the most graduation tickets. After asking around I decided to ask one more reasonable person, my mom. My mom is an accountant and very organized and responsible when it comes to money. She knew how much I had wanted to go so she helped me think of a plan. But before she did, she warned me of all the possible barriers. She warned me about missing school days. Being a sophomore in college, education is only getting more and more important towards gaining me degree. My mom also warned me about having way less money to spend during the school year due to the Coachella funds.
After all the going back and forth on my decision to save, I decided to check with one more source. I decided to look up Coachella stories online. I researched and found the perfect place for information, “The Official Coachella Stories Thread.” I began reading and quickly got a load of information full of these amazing stories of people selling their cars to go the festival and people crowd surfing for the first time in their lives. So many sources of people telling me that being a little more poor for a year is worth the memorable experience of the Festival of the Desert. After my research I decided to make an excel spreadsheet and plan my yearly finances and finally purchase my pass to happiness.
Current Finances
Current FinancesDream Budget for 2016
Dream Budget 2016
Dream Budget 2016
For my dream budget, I plan on starting the savings during the beginning of Summer. I will be working full-time and will be able to save up about $110-120 per month to go towards my dream budget. With Travel Option 1, my four friends and I picked a nicer hotel. We chose to raise our food expenses for eating out every meal but to save money and use the shuttle. With Travel Option 2 we chose a more affordable hotel and chose to buy groceries for the weekend to save some money. The other change we made was to take a taxi because of the cheaper hotel being further away from the venue. Overall, my dream is an expensive trip, but I am confident that it is worth the experience. I know that dreams are important to fulfill and I am also proud of myself for waiting until I am able to finance it all by myself.
