On Debt, Wishful Thinking and Travel.

We're in it.

By varying degrees, it's not much, but we're in it nonetheless. We have a mortgage, we owe money on "Delilah" and both The Husband and I didn't make it out of Villanova scott-free.


Before I proceed further, whether with this post or digging myself into a ditch, remember this: I'm married to Mr. Financial. We live our lives based on Budgets and Spreadsheets. So much so, that it's safe to say The Husband may or may not have typed up The Proposal in true business proposal form before he popped the question. Pun intended.

It goes without saying that neither one of us is careless or frivolous when it comes to money. Sure, I'm more of a Spender and Husband, the Saver, but that is neither here nor there. We both work(ed) hard to earn our money, often putting in 12+ hour days whether in the hospital or in Corporate America and saved when saving was possible. There was even a stretch of time when I worked both nightshift and overtime just to stash away the differential as we saved for our wedding.

Saving was and is important to us.

.... Are you waiting for the other shoe to drop?

Here's where it gets gritty. I'm do-er. And a see-er. And a "life is short, let's see the world"-er. And not put any of that seeing and doing off so that we can pay off our student loans. Life is short and all that jazz. 

I know, I know. I'm quite sure that there are plenty of you out there that can both pay off your student loans AND see the world and this is me taking off my proverbial hat towards you.  However, I have zero patience when it comes to this sort of stuff and I had a lot of world-seeing and doing to be done before Carter came along.

Now, dontchya all go thinking that we're up to eyeballs in debt and that we forego paying important bills so that we can take vacations. And please, that is NOT the takeaway message of this post. Remember, I'm married to Mr. Financial and that's basically blasphemy in his book. 

Here, let me try this angle.

Do you know what a DINK is? No? It was The Husband and me approximately 387 days ago. Dual Income, No Kids. For us? It was amazing. Here's why:

{Looking back, I could have alternately sub-titled this portion of today's post, "The Many Hair Styles and Colors of AP."}

Pictured: Hawaii, Turks and Caicos, Ocean City, Bahamas, Chicago, Martha's Vineyard, Marco Island.
Not Pictured: California, more Ocean City, West Palm Beach, Dallas.

Do ya catch my drift?

The Husband and I were married for three {income-full and child-less} years before we started our family. Sure, we put money towards our debts. We even and often paid more than the monthly requirement. Although, I'll be the first to admit we certainly did not expend our resources to make sure our debts were paid off.

And the truth is? I'm glad we did.

I guess that's the point of this post. I'm kind of happy we're not debt free. There, I said it. Go ahead and pick your chin up from the floor. I'm happy we saw those places and did those things. Go ahead, stone me.

However, before you throw sticks and rocks...

Did you happen to notice that the bulk of our travel happened before 2010? Before the mortgage and the car payment and the baby? Go ahead. Go back and look again. It was all pre-Real Life. Between the years of 2007 and 2009. And it was glorious.

So what happened in 2010, you ask? Oh, that's right. I got knocked up, bought a house and decided to become a SAHM. Whew.

I think it goes without saying that we've been bit by the travel bug yet again and have been pouring over Budgets and Spreadsheets as if they're going out of style. With my new SAHM-hat, we knew there would be sacrifices to be made and I was all set to give up JCrew, Mr. Yurman and weekly Happy Hours at our favorite wine bar.

I wasn't prepared, however, to quit traveling cold turkey. To quit laying on warm sandy beaches, sipping umbrella drinks with The Husband. Immersing ourselves in cultures and tastes we've only read about time and again in travel magazines.

You're right.  Maybe I am telling you to make room for vacation. Skim a little off the top. And if you don't have kids? Wait, do I even have readers without kids? Are you still out there?

Go. Get out. Travel. Because I'll be the first to tell you, life is so much different after baby. See the world. Give in to the travel bug. And come back to thank me later.

 

Happy Tuesday, Loyals.