It’s smart to start saving early. By now, holiday shopping is over, so the accompanying financial stress should be behind you soon. Thinking about summer now will help you create a vacation budget and start saving up. “You’ll do less damage to your overall financial picture if you do this,” Schrage says. “You save gradually through the year to stay ahead of the curve. The last thing you want after an amazing summer experience is to get nagged by a credit-card balance that you can’t pay off in time.”