It's that time of the year again. The weather starts warming up. Kids are out from school. Families look to take time off of work to visit relatives, see other places, and otherwise spend quality time together.
I want as much of this as possible for each and every person. Having time to enjoy the company of family and friends is a true joy to have.
What isn't a true joy is when that amazing time follows you home and you end up paying more for it in the long run by having charged everything to a card instead of planning and paying everything in cash.
Sometimes that is difficult in the moment. Friends want to spontaneously go out for drinks or dinner together. Family insists on driving to a spectacular viewing spot or nature trail. Kids beg and plead for ice cream, twice a day, every day for a two weeks.
While you can help set yourself up for success in these moments by planning a certain amount of fun money exclusively for these kinds of things, your desires tend to grow larger than your means anyway. Being able to say no for now for a bigger goal later sucks in the moment. However, Future You will be extremely glad you set things up for success instead of leaving a mess to be cleaned up.
So again, by all means, plan your trips, see your family and friends. I challenge and encourage you to think and plan each trip out so that you own the vacation and it doesn't end up owning you.
I've been living debt free for awhile now, what a great feeling THAT is! Giving up tobacco was the biggest saver. Cash is king, as they say ....
Thanks Todd, have a great weekend!