Hi! I’m back. I’ve missed talking with you in this space!
(The book draft is done and we’re on to the next phase. Thank you for your grace & patience while I wrote.)
Often I hear people talk about wanting to get out of debt. But they also want to do everything. They want the vacations, the concerts, the camps for their kids, the new van, the dream home, the kitchen remodel, etc.
But we can’t have it all, can we? Life is about a series of choices and we are more in control than we realize. When Blake & I said “I do” 10 years ago, we made our choice. We wanted family vacations, concerts, camps for the kids, the kitchen remodel. . .but without the financial burden of debt. We wanted choices, options to say yes to whatever came our way.
That brings me to our incredible cruise last week. We haven’t gotten away, just us two for a week, since our honeymoon. We’ve done weekend trips. Thanks to our amazing friends and family, our kids had a blast while we flew off to cruise around the Caribbean for a week.
We cash-flowed a 5-night cruise (including the deluxe drink package). What??!! Life is crazy and expensive with 4 kids but we tucked away the money every month. When it came to buying our cruise, we still tried to shop around for the best deal. This one ended up being through VacationsToGo. They were awesome!
The whole week I kept thinking about how those hard five years were worth this week of pure fun. All those sacrifices were so worth it. We enjoyed incredible food, drank a few mojitos, made friends with our amazing waitstaff from Indonesia, sang karaoke, went to the shows, laughed at the game shows, and slept in late. (Can you tell I’m in love with cruise vacations?)
So the point? I want to encourage you to keep fighting for what you really want. Don’t let go. Keep at it. You’ve got this! In the end, you’ll be so freaking proud of yourself.
And remember that your WHY is bigger, louder than any excuse in your mind. That’s what will keep you going until you can scream “I’m debt-free!”.
