Jon and I consider ourselves to be pretty good with money. Compared to most of our friends, we don’t eat out a lot. We both try to bring lunch to work four days a week. We don’t have cable. I almost never go out drinking and Jon … well, he’s good with money too.
But the problem with living in New York City is that you forget how different it is from the rest of the world. You start to think it’s impossible to raise a child without a nanny. You start to think $20 is a cheap dinner. You start to think it’s normal to eat every meal at a restaurant.
I had a small epiphany when I read this entry at Money Mythos. Jon (the one at Money Mythos, not my Jon) was shocked to discover his vacation with his wife was going to cost $2500. When I told that to Jon (my Jon), we had a good laugh. Our honeymoon cost $6000. Our trip to London and Paris this summer could easily cost the same amount, though I’m hoping it won’t.
I don’t regret spending the money; I know we’ll have kids in a few years, and so I want to travel as much as possible before then. But it made me realize how much lifestyle inflation I’ve had in the last few years. I never used to spend a lot of money on vacations. When I lived in Minnesota, my vacations always consisted of visiting friends in New York or Boston. Occasionally I’d go to San Francisco and stay with my sister. I still take those cheap vacations, but I’ve added lots of expensive ones, too.
The lifestyle inflation continues: Our honeymoon in Greece was the most expensive trip I’ve ever taken. Now, even a $4,000 vacation will seem relatively cheap.
3 Comments
June 18, 2008 at 11:57 am
If vacation is to re-create, then a person could recreate at a house on a lake, three hours from home for two weeks or a month or every weekend also…a vacation doesn’t have to be traveling somewhere exotic but only getting out of town, long walks, dinners out or not, camp fires etcetera – this can be a better vacation in terms of rest and refreshment. Sometimes when you (I?) travel far away you’re exhausted when you get home, even if you had a great time when you were there – wherever there was.
June 18, 2008 at 11:58 am
On the vacation front, I’d like to hear Monogamoney’s or anyone’s thoughts on the idea that in some modern corporations you can “take as much vacation as you want,” i.e., it’s all up to you. This seems to me a psychological trap. What do you think? Your readers?
July 21, 2008 at 8:00 pm
“Take as much vacation as you want” is a beautiful concept, but you must be a self-motivated person who is good at time-management. In most jobs (though not my current one), your work just piles up when you’re away on vacation. It’s not like someone else is doing your work, checking e-mails, returning phone calls, etc. for you while you’re away. So inevitably you end up working late the week you get back to catch up on all you’ve missed. While I wish someone *were* doing my work for me while I was away, I would gladly work late and extra hours while in town, if it meant I could go away more often and for longer periods of time.