Vacation anxiety

I have vacation anxiety. I'm anxious because I don't have a single vacation planned. That's entirely weird.

A year ago, we had just set up shop in Orange County, and honestly, it was a long time before we felt like we were not on vacation. I mean, when you first start to live in the place you spent so much time traveling to for leisure, it's an adjustment. If that weren't enough, we were in uber-saver mode so we could buy a house. We were free of any mortgage obligations from our previous houses, but had nothing to show for it, so I banked literally a third of my income. That meant we pretty much weren't traveling anywhere.

As we got close to buying the house, and were comfortable with what we saved, we took a sort of last minute cruise. At the same time, we booked a second one to take with our friends from Chicago in the late spring. We also planned two trips to Cincinnati and one to Cleveland. Last weekend we even did a child-free overnight locally. Basically, we've tried to make up a little for the non-travel of last year.

This has in many ways led to a different kind of anxiety, because we haven't really recovered from that savings purge with the house. And the funny thing is, we're paying significantly less than we did in the rental. However, while our monthly expenses are lower, there have been all of the little house things to buy that have added up, Simon's therapy bills, and obviously, the travel expenses. I have to remind myself that going to a regular salary job means I'm doing the 401k thing again, so I shouldn't be freaked out by the small savings.

Yes, I'm sure some people wish they had these kinds of problems. However, the financial makeover I've tried very hard to achieve over the last five or six years led me to the realization that I'm way behind for any kind of retirement, and having cash around is critical for emergencies when you're a one-income household and have a child. These rules would apply regardless of my level of income.

But getting out and seeing the world is also part of the life that I want. I spent too much time in my 20's buying crap instead of traveling, and that was stupid. The "where" in terms of travel isn't that important at this stage (largely because of Simon's age), as long as I'm making memories and enjoying myself with my little family and my highly distributed friends.

I have the anxiety until something is on the calendar. Some people look forward to weekends, but I look forward to the next trip.