Traveling now or later?

This is probably one of the hardest things about being a 20-something in graduate school is finding the money to travel. Sure I can take more time off and have more flexibility, but making $24k/year gross in a high cost of living eats that money up really fast. Thus the opportunity to travel is very little because of the costs involved.

I've been pondering this for about 7 years now since I finished college. Did I make a mistake? Should I have travelled immediately after college and gone into debt and figure out how to pay it off later? Should I have travelled while working and not bought a house? Should I have not saved for retirement, a car, and had CC and enjoyed life during my 20s?

I feel as though I've made my decision, right or wrong about it and I chose the conservative path of no debt. I decided to buy a home, not have CC debt, and travel when I can really afford it. Of course this has forced me to reevaluate traveling now in my mid-20s because I want to have children. Which is an huge undertaking financially as well as time wise.

But I am hoping that maybe I can take my kids traveling and give them the opportunity to see the world. And hopefully in my 50s after my years of childrearing are done, go exploring. Perhaps hiking Machu Pichu will be a bit more difficult, but it could be my motivating for staying in shape. Or perhaps we'll have jobs in the next 10 years which will force DH to travel and my wanderlust will be fufilled.

I don't know if I'll look back at 40 and regret having spent my 20s being responsible and cautious. Maybe I should have thrown caution to the wind and let the finances lie where they fall. It's a tough call. I hope I can blog about this in another 15 years.