You may wonder how to get started on the path to reach your travel dreams and think how it seems like such a far-reaching goal.
Trust me when I say it was not easy for us. We had three children, lots of bills, mortgage, childcare expenses, etc., that were issues in our 20's and 30's. We did prioritize travel back then, but it was one family vacation per year and that was always somewhere we could drive, mainly Virginia Beach, Myrtle Beach....almost always the beach. There were times we wondered how we would pay our bills, only having about $1,000 in our savings account. How did we get to a comfortable place where we could begin the journey of making our travel dreams come true? One word, diligence!!
We started more when our children were a bit older, no longer requiring daily child care, except after school, when all were school-aged. We were a two-parent working couple. Thankfully, I worked for a company for much of those years in my 30's to 40's where I had a pension and a 401K and I took full advantage of every amount I could put away in the 401K. I fully subscribe to the Dave Ramsey way and, thanks to my company, they provided a series educational sessions (lunch and learns) of financial planning by Dave Ramsey. It was a great, eye-opening experience, that was truly life-changing. I learned that I should live like no one else now so I could live like no one else later.
When we were able to do so, we began doubling our mortgage payments. I sacrificed buying clothes, jewelry, and anything extra that was not necessary. I shopped for myself and the kids at places like Plato's Closet and other consignment stores and places like Marshall's and TJ Maxx became my friends. Basically, I did with what I had, no extras.
After Dave Ramsey, I began to put cash aside and budgeted everything, including for groceries each week, "mad money" for extras, and didn't spend any more than that. Eventually, when I found that I had to re-locate for a job in another state, my husband began to rent out rooms in our home to make extra money to help pay off our mortgage and help with travel expenses, pet boarding costs, and another mortgage we ended up taking on a home in Virginia. So, we had two homes, one in PA and one in VA. We purchased a small cottage (less than 1400 sq. ft.) in VA and to save costs, we purchased a home without a garage.
All that time, we put anything additional from our Airbnb business, not used for our extra expenses, into a travel fund.
When I turned 31, we decided to take a trip to Florida when our kids were smaller. It was a trip we decided to take with our wonderful foreign exchange student from Sweden. That was when we made our first purchase into the Starwood program and became proud owners of our first Starwood vacation (1 week a year). The reason we decided to take the plunge into this vacation ownership was really due to the fact that we had three kids. We could no longer go on vacation in hotel rooms, we needed a condo for our vacations. In this way, we could transfer this vacation ownership to Myrtle Beach each year, drive there, it would cost less for us and we could enjoy a family vacation each year in a beautiful resort area. We worked hard and we felt we deserved this time away with family each year. So, yes, we went into debt, but we didn't do say lightly. We talked it over and determined our budget and if we could truly afford it. We recognized that if we waited until we were older, the cost would only increase and we would just start later. We decided to start earlier in life to enjoying a vacation together with our kids while they were young. We paid off these vacation ownership expenses, with the exception of the annual maintenance fee, within 2-3 years each time we purchased a vacation, which turned out to be 3 (since we have 3 kids). These vacations can be passed down, generation after generation. The purpose of these vacations is to ensure an enjoyable vacation every year, not to sell for a profit. No one should do this if they believe they won't want to use these vacations each year, OR have someone else who may want to enjoy it every year, such as a family member or friends. We purchased two in Orlando (2 weeks per year) and one in Cancun. To this day, we use the one in Cancun every January/February to escape the cold reality of winter in the northeast.
In my next blog, I will explain how and when we got started with "playing" the game of credit cards to gain travel points and enhanced our travel experience exponentially. Caution!! This should only be started if you have excellent credit. Great credit is important to your life and you don't want to jeopardize that. Credit impacts the cost of just about everything, including the cost of insurance, the cost of a mortgage, taking loans out for vehicles, student loans or other types of loan or credit for which you may be applying. It is very important to keep this sacred to your life! Remember that every time someone taps to check your credit or you take out more credit, it impacts your credit negatively. We were very careful to keep a watchful eye on this and didn't take out any more credit than necessary to "play" this credit card game. In fact, I stopped using other credit completely. I cut up all my store credit cards and refused to take out any other store credit cards. I relied on one major credit card, one debit card from the same credit union and that was it! My husband, on the other hand, got busy playing the credit card game and often would take out more than one card at one time. More on how he played the game in my next blog. Excited to share this with you in the near future! Stay tuned travel gurus! Remember, life is a travel adventure in itself! Enjoy and I hope to see you soon!
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