Easy Change

So, recently I went on the trip of a lifetime. I say that with a straight face because I truly think that I will never return to that part of the world in this lifetime for that kind of trip. The trip was to Monaco, Greece, Turkey, Italy and Cyprus. Originally it was to include Egypt and Israel but due to unrest in that part of the world, those destinations fell through. Since this is a money blog, I will say that this trip was quite expensive for us; there were four of us that went total, all friends from back in my college days. This trip last two full weeks and the cost I am including includes meals and tours and activities for each day. Most of the days were aboard a cruise where the food and lodging were provided as part of the cost. All told, this trip cost more than 5000 per person, USD. I am not saying that to brag, but merely to indicate the amount of difficulty for that kind of trip. Put simply, that was a serious percentage yearly earnings -- far more than I have ever spent ...

This week has been relatively relaxed for me and I will admit that I have really enjoyed it. By my nature, I am a doer. I like to feel like I accomplished something; this goes along with my work ethic I suppose. But one thing that sticks with me about vacations is something that my grandfather told me and it still rings true: Vacations can be expensive. What he means is simply that the more leisure time you have, the more things you'll want to do with that time that take money. This can be things that are hobbies, travel, or even home repair. All of these things take money -- money that you'd otherwise save if you had been working instead. So in that respect, unless you alone in a public park, homeless, and not eating food on your leisure time, leisure time is expensive. Well, this week I noticed that this still remains the case, but I feel like I did relatively well. For a full week off, I spent only about a hundred dollars for travel, food etc. Given that I normally spend abo...