Balanced Lifestyle. Blessed are those that align their money and schedules with what they enjoy doing. The clock is ticking.
For me it’s about vacations. For the past fifteen years our kids school calendar drove our schedule to make time for vacations centered around Christmas and Easter school breaks. I’ve written about the great trips I’ve saved for and been able to take my family on. We usually go to a Mexican beach in the winter and a driving vacation over Spring Break. The memories will last a lifetime and I had wonderful picture books made for us to memorialize each trip.
Guys Trip
I recently returned from my other “favorite vacation”. It’s the one I spend every July with six or seven of my best high school friends. We do what we like to do and that is fish, play cards, enjoy the sunset and amazing star lit skies in Canada. The escape from the world that only comes from a guys getaway fishing trip. Sure, it’s like Groundhog Day, we fish from 8:00am-8:00pm, play cards from 9:00-midnight or later, get up the next day and start over. Five days of this and sharing the same old stories and jokes going back over thirty years leaves me bloated, battered and blessed. 
The best thing about these true friends is they know my warts and like me anyway. Of course, I feel the same way about all of them. If you know anything about a guys trip, we spend most of the time picking on one another and making fun of our character flaws and looking to point out any screw up we might make. We even have a “dope of the week” award that goes to the guy with the biggest goof up.
The point I want to relate to my readers is that we put this trip on our busy calendars months in advance and almost everybody makes every trip despite all having families and busy careers. This is about being proactive and not blowing in the wind when it comes to living our lives. It shouldn’t surprise you that I am the organizer in charge of setting up the place (usually Northwest Ontario, Canada), dates and reservation. Once we hit the road it is a total team effort.
We all have regrets about not doing things and we all have busy schedules. Most people I talk with can’t remember many highlights from 2018, with the exception of their vacation(s). My response; why aren’t you planning more of them or whatever it is you like to do? BE PROACTIVE WITH YOUR SCHEDULE AND MAKE NEW MEMORIES!
For some, the biggest issue is paying for the vacation. Start by putting it on the calendar, that will make it easier to say no to spending your money on lower priority things. Consider setting up an automatic savings plan so that your next vacation gets paid for ahead of other items. Saving for your next great memory becomes your most important bill.
For many, money’s not the issue, it’s finding the time. May I suggest if this sounds like you, look a year out and find time and book something new for 2019 to look forward to. Life is too short to put this off. If you have family or friend trip ideas put them on the calendar now. I promise you will never regret a family vacation.
Easy Way to Save
I’m planning a big one for my family to Europe. Yes, it will be very expensive. I’m using a new free app, called Acorn’s to help me pay for all the spending money. Every time I spend money with my credit or debit cards the change amount (if I pay $9.50 for something, then $0.50 x 3 =$1.50) is tripled and taken from my checking account and goes into my Acorn online investment account. I’ve been doing this for about 8 months and have $900 saved in it so far. I don’t think it’s growing fast enough to pay for all the spending money so I came up with another idea.
Every time I eat out for lunch, I’m going to add $10 to my account. It’s super easy to add money whenever you want with Acorn’s and it just takes a couple clicks on my phone.
My two kids over 18 years of age have Acorns are use it as their first exposure to saving and investing money. It’s a great easy way to get started.
The bottom line is that time is not standing still and I can’t stress enough that there are no promises about tomorrow. You can’t take it with you and need to have a balanced life.
That includes allocating your money and time to what you value. Get out your calendar and mark it up for the next 12 months and then start saving toward those things if you need to.
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