Take the Long Way

I drive the same routes and roads over and over, I begin to notice signs to interesting sites. I mean, not interesting enough that I have made it to those sites before, but interesting enough to say to myself, "Huh...maybe I should check that out some

time." Of course, I never do and I just drive by the sign over and over again. Some of the Tucson signs I see are: "Rooster Cogburn's Ostrich Farm," "Biosphere 2," and

"Tucson Botanical Garden Butterfly Magic."

It's time to take an extra 10-20 minutes out of my travel to see the sites.
Recently, I was heading to Pinetop with some friends, and lo and behold, we see the "Biosphere 2" sign, and one of my friends suggested we check it out. I wrestled with my rigid commitment to promptness, and turned off the main drag to the side road.

I wish I had tales of Biosphere 2 to dazzle you with, but the truth is we arrived as it was closing and guffawed at the $20 per/person entry fee. But we had a great photo opp and curiosity was suppressed.

But most of all, we laughed together.

We shared an adventure and we laughed.

Take the side road for three reasons:

1. Quench curiosity (De-clutter the brain from the list of future "to do's" by just doing it)
2. Not be a slave to the clock (realize that taking 10 minutes out of the day won't end the world)
3. Laugh

The Vacation Account

Ashley and I are fans of INGDirect, and online bank, which usually has higher interest earnings than a traditional bank (though in the recent economy has caused the interest to take a hit). One of the reasons we like ING is because it takes about a week for withdrawn funds from ING to arrive in your traditional bank, so you really have to plan your finances.

The best thing is that you can open multiple savings accounts and label them for what you want the money to go toward. Thus, the vacation account!

Everyone has their priorities, and travel is one of ours, so we opened a vacation savings account that Ashley and I both deposit into monthly, about $100-$200 a month.

People ask us all the time how we can travel around the world. Ashley and I always say that everyone has their priorities that they choose to spend money on. We like to travel. Consequently, we don't go out to eat in nice restaurants, we don't see movies (outside the cheap theater), we don't have nice clothes or nice cars, etc.

In the end, Ashley and I decided that travel is an important enough part of our life that we have a savings account that we set aside money in so that we can travel without stressing about how to pay for our adventures. One of the best financial decisions we have made.