Post Updated on June 4, 2026 by Taylor.
At Four Points Wealth Management, many of our clients are athletes and adventure-seekers, likely as a result of all the available outdoor activities in Colorado. I, myself, enjoy mountain biking and skiing in the great outdoors. I know from personal experience what an incredible thing it is to pursue a passion—but it can be a drain on the bank account, too.
If you’re an athlete or adventurer—even a hobbyist—you’ll need to cater your financial safety net, cash management, and emergency fund to accommodate your lifestyle.
This isn’t going to be your typical ‘savings tips’ article that says, “you need a thousand dollars in your emergency fund.” I tend to expect that most of my clientele have their ducks in a row when it comes to a traditional perspective on the importance of saving.
What I want to focus on are the ‘over-and-above’ pointers that apply specifically to you, the campers, hikers, mountain climbers, bikers, triathletes, surfers, paddle boarders, snowmobilers, skiers—athletes and adventurers of all kinds. One might say, The Weekend Warrior!
Here’s how you can manage your cash flow to ensure you get all the mileage you need where your passions are concerned, without stressing about your finances.
First things, first: cash is king.
In order to fully enjoy your lifestyle, you want to make sure you are able to afford it with available cash. You certainly don’t want to have to sell off an asset or investment in order to keep up with your interests. And dumping the expenses onto your credit cards is a recipe for disaster.
A tip I offer most of my clients is to set yourself up with a monthly contribution to a dedicated savings account that is specifically designed to fund your passions. Think of it as paying yourself an activity allowance. As the money grows, so do the possibilities for adventure. And here’s the thing, USE the funds as they were intended. Here’s a funny one for you: A client once came to me, eager to discuss strategies for saving up to buy an expensive bike. We set up a plan, and he diligently followed it, squirreling away every penny in a specific account, all earmarked for this dream purchase. Fast forward, the day finally came when he had saved enough to buy the bike. But instead of riding off into the sunset, he froze—unable to part with the very funds he’d been so meticulously saving for that exact purpose. It was like preparing for a bike race and then hesitating at the starting line. After I pointed out the irony, we both had a good laugh, and he realized sometimes you just have to let go and enjoy the ride—literally!
Regardless, setting aside a certain amount of money that is dedicated to the activities you love is a great strategy to ensure you never have to go into a deficit to pay for them.
A little planning goes a long way.
Cash might be king, but foresight is the king’s wise counsel. A little financial planning goes a long way. If you were to map out your year into seasons, when do you tend to engage in your preferred activities the most? Are you participating mostly in the summer? Or are you a multi-season kind of athlete, switching up the activity depending on the weather?
Take a look at your annual cash flow expenditure to see where your money is already being spent. What’s the average you pay for membership fees or recreational passes? How often do you spend on new gear? Take a moment to average that out. And pay close attention to the times of the year you see your adventure spending spike.
And then take a quick look into the future: a year-out is all you need. What are you hoping to do in the coming seasons? What kind of passes do you have your eye on? What travel expenses do you anticipate? Does it reflect what you did last year? If not, make some adjustments to your financial projections.
Foresight can help you get the best deals.
Upfront costs are common for a variety of outdoor activities—race sign ups, trail passes, etc. Getting ahead of what those projected costs could be for the coming year can help you manage your cash flow in the most efficient way.
In most cases, when it comes to gear and recreational passes, you can find the best deals at the tail-end of a season. Destinations that require passes want to lock-in members for the following season and gear companies want to offload their inventory.
Right now, at the end of August, my wife and I are mapping out what passes we need to make it through the next ski season. We decided not to take advantage of the end-of-season deals because we needed time to assess what would best work for our family the following year. We wanted to map out our travel plans, decide how much we intended to ski with our family, choose which passes are best for our kids, which resorts we’d be frequenting, and more.
With a growing family and lots of moving parts, it’s not always prudent to buy ahead. Especially if you need to allocate summer funds toward winter activities. But if you’ve developed a fairly regular routine of your activities, taking advantage of these deals is an excellent way to save money.
Take stock of your gear and how frequently you need to renew it.
Regardless of the athletic activities you pursue, gear is usually an essential part of it. From the clothing and shoes that you wear to the equipment you require, gear eventually gets old. You either have to maintain or replace what you use. This can be a major expense.
I’m a big mountain biker. My current mountain bike is about three seasons old and I ride it pretty hard. I’m considering next Spring as an opportunity to buy another bike.
This means, on average, I’m buying a new bike every four years. And it’s a pretty significant out-of-pocket expense. Bikes that I like to ride are $5,000, $6,000, upwards of $7,000. I don’t necessarily want to skimp on price because I want to make sure I have something reliable.
So, for me, I want to make sure I’m thinking about my cash management not just in today’s context but in terms of what it looks like next April, May, or June. How can I find the right opportunity to purchase the items that fit the specs I’m looking for? What do I need to save incrementally—ahead of time—to ensure I have the cash available when I need it?
If you’re thinking way ahead, you can incorporate this into your savings bucket. If I buy a $7,000 bike every four years, I’d have to stash approximately $150 per month into the account I use for mountain biking. That’s for the bike, alone. Circling back to those seasonal deals, gear is a great place to take advantage of them. A lot of people aren’t thinking about buying gear at exactly the time you use it less. It’s hard to fathom buying a new ski jacket at the beginning of June, but that discount could be worth it.
If you have a family, factor in your kids’ activities.
I see a lot of young, active, Millennial-led families here in Colorado doing the camping, hiking, biking, and skiing activities together. It’s a huge value-ad to share your interests with your kids, and getting them involved in summer camps and things of that nature are so rewarding. They’re also expensive.
It can feel like a shock to the system if you aren’t looking ahead. My wife and I experienced that when my daughter started preschool. It was an upset to our cash flow I wasn’t even seeing. And I’ve seen summer camps that run between $100-$200 per day. Not to mention: kids need gear, too.
Consider thinking about your summer expenses in January or February. Planning for those costs and setting aside the money for those things early makes it a far less painful experience when the time comes to actually spend on them.
And then of course, there’s healthcare.
As you already know, I’m sure, injuries are part of the adventure.
You’re out there mountain biking, doing it, and loving it—and then you take a big fall. You bang up a shoulder, maybe a knee… consider what that might look like financially.
I tell most of my active clients to consider having a high deductible with an HSA when it comes to health insurance. Having an HSA gives you great tax benefits. My recommendation is to keep the max out-of-pocket in your HSA in cash. So let’s just say your total family max out-of-pocket is $10,000. Make sure you have that amount, in cash, in the HSA. Any amount above that, you should invest.
For those with more of a Cadillac plan that has a lower deductible and lower out-of-pocket, it’s still important to ensure you have that max out-of-pocket cash available in some kind of savings account. Even though you get more first-dollar benefits. You’ll still want to have money on-hand to pay for medical expenses should they arise.
If you’re in Colorado: buy a fishing license.
This is a tip specifically for my back-country users, whether you’re a snowmobiler, motorcyclist, hiker, fisherman, or anyone who enjoys being off-grid. When you’re involved in an activity that takes you out of the boundary of a ‘resort’ or far from an accessible hospital—buy a fishing license.
If you don’t fish, you might think this advice sounds crazy. But here in Colorado, when you buy a fishing license, it’s attached to some really great search-and-rescue benefits. And you don’t have to be actively fishing to use it.
Let’s just say you’re out on a motorcycle trip and you fall, banging up a leg to the point where you can’t ride out of there. If you’re able to get in touch with a search-and-rescue organization, your fishing license covers a lot of the costs associated with getting someone out to retrieve you.
An active lifestyle is worth every penny. But it shouldn’t strain you financially.
I might be biased, but maintaining an active and athletic lifestyle has far more benefits than drawbacks. The positive effects on your mental and physical well-being are profound.
Making sure you’re managing your cash flow in the right way will help you manage those big seasonal jumps in expenses. Plan ahead, take stock of projected expenses, and set money aside to cover all those upfront and seasonal costs. Incorporating your pastimes into a comprehensive financial plan is what makes it so, dare I say, ‘comprehensive.’
This mentality will set you up for success when it comes to those fantastic adventures that you and your family get to do together.If you’re an active millennial and you want to take charge of your finances to ensure a comfortably athletic lifestyle, let’s chat. My team of Certified Financial Planners at Four Points Wealth Management, located in the greater Denver area, are experts at exactly that. Schedule your introduction call and we’ll make sure your runway toward adventure never gets cut short.
Four Points Wealth Management
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