Sunday, June 22, 2014

Pack half the clothes, and bring twice the MONEY




Traveling ain't cheap!
So, as you're probably aware, traveling isn't cheap. Even when you do it on the cheap, such as backpacking, staying in hostels, cooking your own meals...the costs still add up. And the older I get, the less I'm inclined to backpack, stay in a hostel, cook my own meals on vacation....and most of my traveling companions want no part of that. This blog could be just about traveling-it is called "Melanie's Travel Bug" afterall. But, I want to write more often, and if I'm only writing about traveling, I won't be able to accomplish that. Which brings me to my point: Traveling costs money. Not only that, but plain and simple living costs money!

So I wanted to write a little bit about this topic that everyone avoids talking about. If you know me personally, you'll know that in the past year or two, I've gotten very interested in all aspects of money: debt payoff, emergency funds, living on a budget, saving for a down payment, retirement savings, etc. It has been a struggle for me the past few years balancing my travel bug, and the reality of what it costs to live. When I first started working full time, I saw my job as a great way to work for some time to save up for the next big backpacking trip. I had just returned from four months in South America, and my mind and heart were full of a dozen other awesome backpacking ideas. Little did I know...I had some maturing to do!

I'll touch on a few ideas here-I'll try not to geek out too much and lose the crowd. (Is there a crowd?! Anyone?!)

Dave Ramsey. Personal finance master. My financial guru. His book, "The Total Money Makeover" really changed my outlook on finances. He has seven baby steps which he teaches:
1. Save $1,000 in a beginner emergency fund.
2. Pay off all debt.
3. Put 3-6 months of expenses in savings.
    3b. Save your house down payment
4. Invest 15% of your household income.
5. Save for your children's college.
6. Pay off the house early.
7. Build wealth and give!

So, I began following his plan (but not exactly). I adopted some of the principles, but not all. I had Step 1 accomplished-$1,000 in savings. Next was to pay off all my debt-school loans, car loan, and personal loan to a family member. However, Dave teaches to use any savings you have above the $1,000 and put it towards the debt. I had a little nest egg that I didn't want to touch because my job is contractual and I needed that cushion for peace of mind. Also, Dave suggests holding off on retirement savings until your emergency fund is fully funded, and I just couldn't bring myself to stop saving for retirement.

However, I can totally see how accomplishing all these tasks before investing is a good plan. This is just my two cents. Anyway, sooo in 2013, I began living on a written budget. What this means to me is, EVERY.SINGLE.MONTH I do a written, pencil and paper plan of where my money for that month is going to go. I "spend" the money on paper before that month has begun. Do I always stick to the budget? No, but I try every single month. The nice thing about it is, every month is a chance to start fresh-to live below your means, accomplish goals, etc.

Living on a budget made it possible for me to pay off all my debt in 2013! It was a difficult process, and I changed my lifestyle and my spending, but month after month of both successes (and failures) led me to accomplishing that goal. . I didn't save a cent during that time, and practiced saying "No" over and over again  to fun invitations. I didn't take a trip in 2013. (Clearly a challenge in self discipline for me). Obviously this all depends on your income, your debt, your bills, etc-but I believe anyone can find success by simply finding a really good budget form and adopting this mentality with their money.
Right now, I'm a few months away from fully funding my six month emergency fund. If you saw my list of what my emergency fund consists of--typicals like rent, utilities, groceries, insurance, etc--but even down to six months of flea medication for Ava! :) Haha.

After this, I begin my down payment fund. And I'm PRETTY excited because all along up until about two weeks ago, I thought the condos in the area I may buy someday were $200K, but recently saw some decent ones for $100K...so perhaps I can be a home/condo owner much sooner than I may have imagined. First things first though, complete the emergency fund.

I've also adopted a crush on sinking funds. (Yes, my love life is wild!) A sinking fund is best explained with Christmas gift costs. Let's say it's January, and you think to yourself "Christmas is so expensive, this year I'm going to save each month, so when Christmas comes around, I'll have saved money to buy gifts with." Let's say you spend $1,000 each year on gifts and you have 11 months to save. Divide $1,000 by 11 months, and you'll learn you need to save $90/month for 11 months to have $1,000 saved by Christmas. Ta-da! Basically, it's planning ahead for purchases. If I can be successful if adopting that for all purchases in life (other than a home), hopefully I won't need to take out another loan ever again.

I'll leave you with one pretty amazing tidbit: If a 30 year old saves just $263 a month and invests this money with a 10% return...he/she will be a millionaire by age 65. (I heard this on "The Money Guy Show" podcast).

I think that's enough financial talk for now....and I think Ava agrees.
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Ava says: "This budgeting stuff is tiring" 

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Sea Isle City, NJ

Sea Isle City water tower
In June 2014, my coworker/friend and I were recently lucky enough to score a free night in a beautiful condo in Sea Isle City, NJ right before it got really busy with the tourist season. We only spent a little over 24 hours there, but it was a really nice overnight getaway, and a really cute beach town!
There was a cute coffee place in walking distance from where we stayed-RedWhite & Brew-which had some yummy flavored iced coffees, good breakfast sandwiches, and really good homemade muffins. Just a cute spot to grab some breakfast, from some really friendly people.
We spent some of the day walking around and checking out Sea Isle-really nice promenade/boardwalk with cute restaurants and shops. The beach was nice and clean, as well. In the afternoon, we shared some white wine with some wine and cheese & crackers and hummus while able to see the waves crashing from our deck. Not so bad!
Dinner was really the highlight at Mike’s Seafood Market & Dock Raw-Bar Restaurant which was a fun, outdoor, laid back, BYOB seafood restaurant. We sampled the steamed shrimp and the steamed scallops. We both had them steamed in an old bay butter sauce--with either red potatoes or corn on the cob, and coleslaw with both--yum! It was also Free Mussels Monday so they gave us some mussels in white wine for free! This was all pretty tasty with some white wine. Great dinner! We followed it up with some walking off our dinner and some icecream for dessert. :) (I guess the ice cream negated the walking, oops).
The next morning we had breakfast at Dock Mike’s Pancake House which was a cute local place.
We finished off our quick getaway with some sitting on the beach watching some waves and chit chatting.
Not a bad overnight trip! No pictures from this trip, but there's always the memories... :)

Thursday, June 5, 2014

Maui, May 2014

Gorgeous flowers
Last stop on this epic trip, the island of Maui.....

We saved the best for last. When we came to Hawaii five years previous, we loved Maui the best, and we agreed once again that it's our favorite island. We actually stayed at the same place as we did five years ago, which is a very nice condo right in Lahaina, about a five minute walk to Front Street, which has tons of art galleries, stores, restaurants, bars....perfect location! Once we arrived and checked in, we headed right to Front Street for some cocktails and appetizers while watching the sunset (it pains me to write that now, haha, being back to "reality"). Later we headed to the Lahaina Fish Company and had some yummy macadamia nut encrusted Mahi Mahi!

First night in Maui
Our first full day we headed to Ka'anapali Beach with our rental car, about 15 minutes away. We laid out for a while and then went to Duke's (yes, Duke's again!) and had an A'u fish sandwich-yum-o! Later we hung out by the pool....ah, vacation.

Let's just say, we did a lot of relaxing in Maui. Laying out, swimming, eating, drinking....what vacation is all about! We had a list of different things to do on the island, and chatted about what was a necessity, a possibility, or a pass. Overall, we really went with lounging by day, whether beach or pool, and dinner/drinks at night. Isn't it amazing when you're on vacation that those are your biggest problems: "Beach or pool? Which restaurant tonight?"

On Saturday night during our trip we went to the Old Lahaina Luau! My advice is that you must go to a luau when you go to Hawaii! We went to this same luau on our last trip and were lucky to get spots that opened up from someone cancelling...they were booked almost three weeks out! We had a great time at this (open bar) luau! :) After the luau we stopped at a hibachi restaurant turned into a karaoke bar and had some very wacky entertainment there!! We had some drinks and some good laughs!
Mom and I at the Old Lahaina Luau
Luau

The following day we had a little excursion to Napili Beach (about 20 minutes away)...absolutely beautiful! So, my goal was to find this hidden spot where you could snorkel with sea turtles. I did my research online and knew I had to look for a dirt path on one end of this beach. When we arrived, I did a little exploring up one path on one side of the beach, but it eventually led to nothing-the path just ended, so I turned around. I had rented some snorkel equipment, but had talked to some of the guys who worked right at the beach and they said visibility was crappy AND there was a tiger shark sighting somewhat recently...my odds of finding this hidden spot were not looking good, along with the sharks cramping my style!

Anyway, while I was on shore, I saw this big shadow swimming near all the swimmers, and it was swimming along the length of the beach from one end to the other. This shadow popped his little head up-a sea turtle! The people were oblivious so I'd yell out to them "Hey, look down!!" and they'd see this massive turtle swimming within inches of them. I was running like a major dork along the beach "following" this sea turtle--too scared to go in and swim near him because he was so big and I guess maybe nervous he'd bite me, haha. He was so cool when he'd pop his head up! Anyway, that got me all jazzed up and renewed my goal of finding this darn spot and getting my sea turtle experience!! I ran into a couple who were raving about their swim with the sea turtles "just over there" when they pointed to the opposite end of the beach I had explored-ah ha! So I gathered up my snorkel gear, and Mom, and we trekked over this sandy path, stony path, along some condos, through a gate that said "do not enter-no trespassing" and found the spot. The only thing was...I had to climb down slippery rocks to get to the entry spot, and this spot was the crashing point of some waves which swirled up a pretty serious current. Meaning, if you entered at the wrong time, you'd get smashed into the rocks. (No big deal). Mom was all nervous and such, and I was too..but I gave myself a little pep talk "Ah hello, you're right here, how often are you going to be in Hawaii at a spot to snorkel with sea turtles?! Get your butt in there!" and psyched myself up and got in. I timed the crashing waves and paddled out with no drama.

Napili Beach
Lo and behold, I started swimming around and within minutes, saw sea turtles swimming below me! It was this natural cove where they live/swim. It was AMAZING! The longer I stayed in, the more turtles I saw, and the more that I got to swim alongside...I'd even say hi to them.  It was honestly a really special moment and something that you can't say you get to do often! A true highlight of the trip. And, I didn't get smashed into the rocks on the way back in, either, so double score!

The following day was another beach in the AM, poolside by the afternoon kind of day. It was actually our second-to-last day, wahhh. We went to a fancy dinner that night, and picked up some ice cream on the way home. Oh, did I mention we got a little addicted to ice cream in Maui? Macadamia nut...coconut with macadamia nuts...chocolate with macadamia nuts...YUM! Not to mention that a pint was $10...woops.

Our last day was pretty awesome because our flight left at 10:30 pm so we had a full day of breakfast, shopping, pool lounging, staring at the palm trees while floating in the pool...just trying to sink it all in...let the sun warm us to the bones..Finished our trip with our final Mai Tais,and a gorgeous sunset.
Final sunset of our trip-in Maui

So...it was an amazing trip. Three islands, twelve nights....really a memorable and beautiful trip. When you're gone that long, you really do lose touch with reality a little-which works wonders! I didn't think about mundane things like paying bills, the work I needed to get done on the rust spot on my car, etc etc. I truly escaped and enjoyed each moment as much as possible. I'm so thankful my Mom and I are the best of travel buddies--we spent about two weeks together and had smiles on our faces for it all. We both agreed in the future, WHEN we go to Hawaii again, we'd probably do two islands maximum-Oahu and Maui-or even just Maui. There is so much to do and see if you have a rental car and a curiosity to see more of each island. So...until the next adventure....Aloha!