From Portugal, with love
When you receive this, I’ll be in flight after an amazing nine-day vacation in Portugal.
But in many ways the journey started many, many years ago.
Rewind to when my husband Mike and I were first dating and living in NYC. Just starting our lives together, we had to save for months just to take a weekend trip.
I vividly remember one such weekend when we decided to drive upstate to see the fall leaves. Being young and clueless, we didn’t realize that it was peak season when reservations were typically made months in advance and were well above our budget at that time. When we finally spotted a vacancy sign at a motel (and no, that’s not a typo; to be clear, this was a motel with an “m”), we were ecstatic, not only because they had a room available but it was one that we could afford. We were less ecstatic when we got to our dimly lit, run-down room straight out of a 20/20 news special on someone’s disappearance. “Double lock the door and don’t touch anything,” I remember thinking.
Fast forward to today to a once in a lifetime trip to Portugal…
But the truth is, it wasn’t so “fast.”
The truth is, since that road trip, there have been many, many years of hard work, saving, investing, choosing mindfully how to spend our money, being strategic about our career and lifestyle choices, and of course, a lot of good, old-fashioned luck.
It was Mike deciding to stay in a career that wasn’t exactly his “passion” but that paid well and he was good at.
It was me reinventing myself as a CFP®, increasing my earnings potential and returning to work part time, then full time.
It was us saying yes to vacations we could afford, but no to a home that would have made us house poor.
It was staying invested in the market in 2008 and rebalancing our portfolio regularly.
And, let’s not forget that last piece: good, old-fashioned luck. We always had family support, health and never lost our jobs – factors that we don’t take for granted and which certainly helped to bring about our current financial circumstances.
So, in many ways, our journey to Portugal didn’t actually start nine days ago but years before that, at a roadside motel in upstate NY, when we started to make good decisions and had a little Lady Luck on our side.
As I reflected on that trip long ago during this vacation, something else also struck me.
While it has been a long journey from a sketchy motel room in New York to a five-star hotel in Europe, in many ways, the trips are exactly the same.
As uncomfortable and even a little scared as I was that first night upstate, we ended up having an amazing trip. We drove along scenic roads, stopped for hot cider and came across unexpected little towns where we could browse local bookstores and antique markets.
The things we enjoyed most were not the things that cost us the most. It was true that we had to save up in order to rent a car and pay for some place to stay, but other than that, what we loved and remember doing hardly cost us a thing.
The same was true this time around. While it was obviously a bonus to enjoy a few fancy dinners and hotels, the things I will remember most are:
- A 5-mile bike ride from Cascais to Guincho ($15)
- Enjoying a cheap bottle of Rose and tapas with Mike on our first night in Porto ($30)
- Being completely immersed in my book Pachinko and finishing it in four hours ($12)
- Walking and people watching in Lisbon ($0)
- Binge watching two episodes of the show Billions (ironically!) after a day of sightseeing ($8)
- Hiking up a mountain in Sintra and finding our way after getting lost ($0)
- Exploring an 11th century Moorish castle ($6)
- Taking photos of buildings because we didn’t realize the museums and sights were all closed on Mondays ($0) (enjoy below!)
Looking back, as long as this journey has been – from motel to hotel – from an upstate road trip to Portugal – we have come full circle.
So, yes, save, budget, invest, earn, make good choices and pray for a little luck – all of that matters whatever stage of life you’re in.
But, in the end, making the best of your circumstances and enjoying the simple things are still the best part of any adventure.
