It's appropriate after my last post about needing a vacation that I was thinking today about how important it is now to favor experiences over stuff, when it comes to spending "disposable" income. It's a shift in thinking that I've been making very slowly for probably 15 years, but it has really come to a head in the last five.
This is not a prioritization choice that comes from being older and having more income than I did when I was 25. Despite always trying to live in a fairly modest place and drive reasonable cars, even then I preferred to spend money on stuff (and usually on credit). I have many boxes of CD's and DVD's I've accumulated over the years, not to mention video game systems and gadgets that have long since made their way to recyclers or landfills.
I think one of the big turning points for me was maybe 2001, when my roller coaster nerdness was peaking, Stephanie and I did a big east coast amusement park tour. Again, it was still pretty early in my career, so I wasn't making all that much. We ended up visiting five amusement parks in four states over the course of five days (well, I did a sixth the day after, going to Cedar Point from home). It was a lot of hotels, tickets, a rental car and airfare (we started from BWI), and it was worth every penny. That trip was certainly more valuable to my memory than any of the stuff I bought in the same period of time.
Some years later, after the divorce and new marriage with Diana, moving to Seattle pushed me over the edge. In this particular case, the move technically didn't cost me anything, since Microsoft paid for it, but there were so many new and awesome experiences I had during that time. The rate at which memories were made accelerated a great deal.
A lot of this is about travel and tourism, and that makes sense to me. Even my childhood memories are dominated by camping trips and visits to other places, while memories of toys and possessions are far less prevalent. I'm completely embarrassed that at the age of 40 I haven't been to Europe or the far east. It was never an issue of cost, it was one of prioritization. I had friends in college that were just as poor as me who figured it out. That's why I'm highly motivated to do a Mediterranean cruise as soon as possible, so we can sample many different countries in a relatively short span of time, and then choose where to return to in future years.
After my complaining about a lack of time off, we hastily booked two three-night trips. It will be nice to get out of Orange County, however briefly.
The longer term challenge is that you still have to balance spending and saving, and since I've sucked at that most of my life, I have some catching up to do. Last year was one of the most incredible savings efforts of my life, but I'm using pretty much all of it on the new house. This year there will have some initial expenses to put some stuff into that house, but hopefully I can hit a solid saving rhythm again and find that balance. I don't know if there are more big trips in our future, but there are no shortage of experiences we can have around Florida, that's for sure.
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