When you have time you have no money. When you have money you have no time. When you have both, you have no energy.
To travel or not to travel?! I was adamant about traveling during college because I just KNEW those would be the last few years of my life where I would EVER get that long of a holiday break. The only other job I can imagine keeping such lengthy vacations is a teacher! It is not normal nor easy to find a job that gets you a 3 month break during the summer and a 1 month break in the winter. That being said, traveling abroad as a college student IS AN EXPERIENCE. Being a typical college student, you are poor even with a part time job and therefore even if I did buy my own plane ticket… hotels were definitely $30/night AirBNBs. My MIL on the other hand was adamant about my husband NOT traveling during college because she felt it was a critical time for him to focus on his studies. We obviously went against her and made a bunch of trips out during college but we really have no regrets!
Now that we are both working full time corporate jobs, the sad and cruel reality is that we ‘only’ get 28 days of PTO (paid time off) a year. I recognize this is actually pretty good and the national average for the US is only 14 days for those just starting their career. I remember at the company where I had my first internship, they actually only gave two weeks for new full time employees which is 10 days a year… now that is VERY LITTLE! Anyway, 28 days gets eaten up pretty quickly as we try to take two ‘long’ vacations each year for about 8-10 working days each time. The only way to get a long vacation in corporate America is to get extremely lucky to have a company bless you with a sabbatical (typically only offered to long time loyal employees). If I ever want to go on vacation for a month, I would DEFINITELY have to retire early – which IS the goal.
I made this chart below which shows why I personally think its important to travel earlier on in life because Time is something rare and also something you can’t get back when it’s gone. Money can come with time as you progress in your career. Energy is something you continue to lose as you get older. I traveled with my family in high school but it was mostly paid for and I had tons of time and energy but very little of my own money to go shopping. In college, I always kept a part time job so I did have some pocket change but I was nowhere near able to go on a big shopping spree nor stay in a nice hotel. Was literally limited to the $30/night AirBNBs AND we split this cost between two people! Jumping to full time work, I pushed the money amount much higher but you can see that the time value drops significantly because you are changing from about 4 months off in an academic lifestyle to about 30 days off a year. Energy is also going down because you would be surprised just how mentally draining a desk job can be… You’d think sitting in front of a computer for hours isn’t that tiring but oh boy – IT CAN BE SO EXHAUSTING. Add on the everyday stresses of adulthood like paying for your own bills and taking care of yourself or those around you… it makes you really question how some people are able to work for 40+ years and wait to retire at 67. Finally at 67 where the general population (and government) considers this the retirement age… YES you could have tons of money you’ve saved up during your career and also tons of time because you don’t need to work anymore but do you have the energy left? I don’t think that when I am 67+ I will be able to climb 1,000 stairs, go on long hikes, or hit 20,000 steps a day on vacation… it is just not that realistic for the average person.
My blog is about teaching you to think about things that will make you an informed consumer and individual. I do hope that any young readers take away the importance of living your life to the fullest with what you have in the moment! Do what you can comfortably, but please keep the above in mind! You don’t want to run out of energy before you hit the finish line of retirement but you also don’t want to just work so hard that you can’t enjoy yourself and experience life. The money you make is meant to be used and enjoyed.
I am so grateful to have my job which doesn’t give me too much stress and I can deal with the days off but I am the type that NEEDS something to look forward to. If I am ‘mindlessly’ working all day long, 5 days a week… I WILL be burnt out. Traveling is something most people enjoy and I can easily say that I have some of my best memories in life from vacation. Meeting new people, trying new things, and eating different food is so fun and exciting for me that it is worth every penny!
Comment your thoughts on this below and share your favorite travel location! See you in the next blog ❣