MONEY
Financial accessibility… There is the inevitable question of how we pay for this. The easy answer is that Rose grew up in the Philippines in what would considered by local standards as a middle class home on an unpaved road in a cute town, in the Batangas province on Luzon. Let’s just say she holds on to every dollar with an iron fist.
Rose and I have made choices in our lifestyle that make travels with children possible. It is not cheap. We sacrifice in other areas of our lives. In these photos I have a limited wardrobe. I wear the same clothes for years at a time. We have a job without too many perks. Wearing hospital scrubs is one of them, this saves money. I looked back and found a photo from ten years ago. I am wearing a sweatshirt that I still own and wear occasionally. It occurs to me that I have been wearing the same belt every day for 10 years. It’s a fine belt.
We don’t have pets. How much money do owners spend on food, vet, toys and grooming? Who takes care of the pets when we leave town? We almost never eat out as a family. While I do take the children to restaurants, Rose can hardly stand it. She reminds me that we have good food at home. She’s nice about it though. We don’t smoke cigarettes. Both of our cars are paid off and have about 175,000 miles. We will pay for the next cars with money we are saving now. She will pay cash for hers. I will strive to do the same.
We used every trick we could think of to lower our monthly housing payment. We chose a house that was down in size, to lower our monthly payment. Later we refinanced our mortgage at a lower interest rate.
We don’t watch or pay for commercial TV. We have Roku and with Netflix we find that it is quite adequate. We have a minimal data plan on our first and second-generation hand me down iPhones. We seek Wifi hotspots so that we don’t overuse our data plan.
There is very little jewelry in our house. I don’t wear a watch. Christmas is for the children. They get reasonable presents, the adults are likely to get our favorite shampoo or packs of t-shirts, or socks, or maybe a new shirt gift wrapped and under the tree. We don’t do this just so we can travel. Having the money to travel is a byproduct of our money management style.
This list and more adds up to the ability to enjoy major vacations a couple of times a year, plus the occasional side trip. I completely understand that many people simply cannot afford to travel as much as they would like.
May you find this web page with wonder and travel in its own right.
May you travel through this page to places you’ve never been.
My highest goal Dear Reader, is that you view this web page and find some degree of artistic value.