Travel Archives - Traveling Wallet

30Aug 2019 by The Roamer No Comments

Welcome New readers

I come to the FIRE movement from a different starting point and that's what makes my story different. It's been a wild ride since we left California for our Mini-Retirement. Different doors have opened since then and I am chasing down other opportunities. New struggles have also surfaced. I want to share my story and what I've learned. Currently, I am trying to do it through a different medium. Primarily speaking & podcasts. If you visit my goals you can see what I am working on this year. Here are the biggies Buying our first home, with a goal to house hack. I am looking to buy a multifamily home and I am taking Paula Pants course Your First Rental Property so that I make a smart purchasing decision.Helping more…

21Sep 2017 by The Roamer 2 Comments

Our plan: The 21 day California to Michigan road trip

Family, Mini Retirement series, Travel

In case you didn't know this SoCal family is relocating to Michigan. To kick off our mini retirement The Roamers are heading off on a 21 day cross country road trip from California to Michigan. The count down says I only have 9 days and 11 hrs until this adventure starts. I get asked why move to Michigan? [caption id="attachment_1692" align="alignright" width="169"] Michigan. Family? Check! Snowy Fun? Check! Happiness? Check![/caption] In Short: Family and property. Mr. Roamer & Jr's dad are both from Michigan and most of their families are there too. Moving to Michigan means we can re-plug ourselves into the family. As for property, California is a very prohibitive market. While we could take on a massive loan to buy a home here. We are choosing not to.…

04Sep 2017 by The Roamer No Comments

Our San Francisco Vacation and other July Expenditures

Family, Finance, Travel

July is long gone by now. School for my son has started and I am here playing catch up. My monthly expenses were previously reserved for email subscribers but with our up and coming 4 month mini retirement I wanted to share it here. Why? Since I am going to share how much this adventure costs us, you will need some baseline data to compare it against? Therefore, I will be including the July, August and September expenses here on the blog. (more…)

24May 2017 by The Roamer No Comments

Where have you been? Our travels so far

Family, Travel

Do you know everywhere you've been? I'd like to know. When I was around 5 years old, I flew out of the US to Ecuador where my father was born. I lived there for about 2 years in a house and went to school. Though I was young, the experience is etched in my mind. It's an important part of my identity and it ignited my desire to travel. As I grew up, I wanted to fly to El Salvador where my Mom was born. It would happen when I graduated high school, I told myself. Then it turned into after college and then it was just "some day". Someday I'll make that dream come true. Today is the day for that dream. (more…)

12Apr 2017 by The Roamer No Comments

Mini Retirement Monthly Update: Passports? Yes, please!

Family, Mini Retirement series, Travel

Hey there, if you're new I am going to be publishing a monthly series where I document our journey to this years One Goal. The goal: to take a Mini Retirement where we take 4 months off of work to travel internationally and permanently move to a new state. The launch date of this adventure is October 1, 2017. This is our first time going through the process of planning a mini retirement. By the end of this series I hope to have a tried and true checklist to go by for all our future mini retirements. Wish us luck and follow along on the journey. This year all I really need to focus on is getting from here to that mini retirement. A major component of the mini retirement is…

03Mar 2017 by The Roamer No Comments

My one goal this year

Family, Mini Retirement series, Retirement, Travel

Yearly goals are a thing for me. They have been since I got pregnant with my son in college. I really do attribute my success in finishing school, after having a kid, to the focus that goal setting gives me. Back then I used to do it every semester, but now I set yearly goals. I have a tendency to over do it, but this year I am not. This year I have ONE goal. Usually I separate goals into categories: family, money, work, travel. Then I choose 3 or 4 or more for each category. ( If you don't believe me, check out my goals for 2015) This year just ONE. The goal: (more…)

16Jan 2017 by The Roamer No Comments

2016 Goals: Year End Review

Finance, Reading, Saving, Travel, Yearly Review Series

It's January, and you know what that means. Goals for 2016 This past year I decided to try something new. I had read that I could be more focused if I just chose one goal and really bore down on it for a whole month. It sounded interesting and logical. It sounded like I would get more, deeper work done. It was also a way to avoid my natural tendency to overload myself with goals. The year before I had jot down 24. Instead this year I could only choose 12 goals for the year. (more…)

30Nov 2016 by The Roamer No Comments

5 Scholarships To Fund Your Study Abroad Term

Finance, Travel

I’ve wanted to travel the world for a long time. Now, I am finally taking steps to make that a reality. I am very excited about next year’s 3 month adventure. But I remember when I was in high school and learned about this wonderful thing. Study Abroad. A speaker came to my high school, and informed me that I could go to school, work on my degree. Then a year or two later, take time to go to a different country and visit, all while continuing to work on my degree. Say what? That is amazing! I was sold! And I have to admit that it was one of the main reasons why I wanted to go to university. But life happened, and I never got the chance to…

31Oct 2016 by The Roamer No Comments

Our California Road Trip and 4 must see views

Family, Parenthood, Travel

Mr. Roamer made a beautiful desktop background of our recent California road trip. I look at it and remember. Oh yeah, I still haven't told you how it went. So today lets talk travel & family. If you haven't heard. We are moving to Michigan in about 1 year. This caused us to rethink our yearly vacations. We decided to cancel our Michigan trip, in favor of checking out California. It's funny how that works. We've lived here for over 5 years and have only seen a few places. Opting instead to fly out of the state during our time off. This year was different. (more…)

30Sep 2016 by The Roamer 4 Comments

The BIG NEWS, A big international trip.

Family, Travel

I want to travel. Not jump on a plane, gone for a week living in a hotel travel. I want sell-all-your-stuff don't know when I'll be back, kind of travel. Reading about nomadic families seeing the world makes my heart burst. Mouth water, tingly all over. But lets face it. Or I guess I should say not "lets" but "I". I need to face it... Mr. and I just have different temperaments. Along with different upbringings. Non-stop travel is a super hard sell. For more reasons then you can even imagine. But I am soooo excited to say that we might just be heading in that direction. Our family won't be packing it up to go (more…)

11Aug 2016 by The Roamer 2 Comments

Our California road trip: The plan

Family, Travel

As a young adult in college hearing about a family's need to take yearly vacations was odd. Hearing about yearly cruises or trips to Disney world didn't make me think of the middle class. The people who spoke this way were surely raised in an upper class life style. Growing up our family took some vacations but they were not a yearly occurrence and we weren't jetting off to far off places. Actually they were few and far between and mostly involved camping. As a full fledged adult I have to admit that I have bought into this yearly travel lifestyle. Through all our challenges, traveling has always remained in the forefront. Even as we tackled our student debt and then became debt free. Even after a lay off. We continue…

04Mar 2016 by The Roamer No Comments

Vacations, Where to stay?

Family, Travel

We like to go on vacation. In that sense we are just like the average american. But googling "average american vacation budget" tells me that the average american spends way more then we do on vacation. What's up with that? This post is part of my 30 day writing challenge. Each week I will be focusing on one topic. This week I have chosen to focus on travel. If travel is your thing don't forget to come back everyday until Monday when I choose my new topic for the week. There are lots of costs associated with travel the plane tickets, food, knickknacks, activities. Oh yeah and accommodations. Accommodations the big surprise (more…)

03Mar 2016 by The Roamer 4 Comments

My single biggest tip for traveling with small kids

Parenthood, Travel

Becoming a new parent is filled with changes in how you live your life. There are things that will become more challenging, but that doesn't mean you can't do them anymore. Traveling is one of those things. You'll hear or see a lot of advice that recommends you get your traveling desires out before having kids. After you have kids you can kiss it all good bye. It will be just too inconvenient. Some of us didn't get the memo early enough to do that. While others of us actually want our kids to experience travel. Either way the truth is that traveling with kids does indeed add a different dynamic to the whole process. If someone tells you different nod politely, but be ready. Challenges do exist and the…

17Aug 2015 by The Roamer No Comments

Weekly Pain & Gain: No Siesta for you! And other adventures.

Parenthood, Travel, Weekly Pain & Gain

So much good this week, but don't worry I still have a pain to complain about. Pain Minnie Roamer is not resting during her standard nap time. She does once in a while but is now predominantly taking her siesta during our drive to work and to see papa Roamer. So instead of resting at 1 pm at home. She is resting at 3 in the car. This is a real pain because that time was usually used to spend 1 on 1 time with Jr. Roamer while he's in summer vacation. But during his school time. I could use the time to rest, work on ZTL hw., a blog post, and even read. But that only works if I'm not behind the wheel of a car. She is only…

28May 2015 by The Roamer 3 Comments

Quarter 1 review of goals

Earning, Family, Finance, Saving, Travel

Actually I guess its not a quarterly review as much as a trimester review. Jan- April. So part of making goals public is that they help you with accountability right? Well things have not been going well on all fronts. I am just going to hit these all fast and hard... Is what I was going to say, but who am I kidding :) Starting from the top and working my way down. [caption id="attachment_1136" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Picture of the goals I carry around in my planner. The one in my planner is actually all marked up.[/caption] Spiritual Awareness Let see what we have on here?.. Attend 4 churches in a year( attend 4 times a month ) 1 2 3 4 Write in Journal, reflect 15 min what…

15May 2015 by The Roamer 6 Comments

Family Travel: Colorado 2015

Family, Savvy Spending, Travel

The months are flying by and I am keenly aware of the fact that summer will be upon us. Summer is usually filled with lots of travel and high sticker prices to match. We enjoy travel ourselves but this year our trips were schedule outside the summer window. We took a trip to Colorado and we plan to take a trip to Michigan in winter this year as well. Traveling efficiently is something I am becoming more keen on. It wasn't something I use to worry much about. I could sleep in the car, travel in a bus or drive all night when I was younger but as I am now in the trenches of parenthood and marriage my trips require I take other certain things into consideration. Still I…

07Feb 2015 by The Roamer 5 Comments

Weekend Wanderings #3: Breaking Down Barriers

Counter Culture, Travel, Weekend Wanderings

New Readers Note: My Weekend Wandering series is a time I take to wander off the main focus of this blog and discuss any other topic. Usually including videos that I found inspirational, informative or controversial. But if you'd like to talk about money read about how we obliterated debt in just 3 years. Work has gotten crazy busy in the new year and if you read my first Weekend Wandering post then you know that Fridays is the day I set aside some time to be inspired and engaged. With the crazyness at work I had no time. Until last Friday! The videos I watched did not disappoint. Not me at least. The first video that caught my eye had the words tolerance and tourism in the title. hmm…

23Jan 2015 by The Roamer 5 Comments

2014 travel wrap up

Savvy Spending, Travel, Yearly Review Series

Guess what? For calling myself the Roamer and this site Traveling Wallet, In 2014 I had made no written goals that we were going to travel. It wasn't that we weren't planning to. We have a standing trip to the In-laws at least once a year. It just wasn't something I was going to focus my attention on. My baby hadn't even turned a year old so travel was not even on my mind. I mean how do you travel when you have what I would consider a newborn. (Less then a year is a newborn baby to me). So other then the trip home to Michigan which was required, specially because we had said baby, we had no other travel plans. Yet even like that, in 2014 we all…

27Oct 2014 by The Roamer 7 Comments

Fun on the Fly: How not to Vacation

Special Occasions, Travel

The fancy pants trip to Wisconsin. We recently returned form a very short adult only vacation. We traveled to Wisconsin from California to attend one of my friend's wedding. It was great to see people and catch up again. Since we were on vacation we threw caution to the wind and spent freely. I knew it was going to be painful to see the numbers added up later. [caption id="attachment_416" align="aligncenter" width="168" class=" "] It was lovely![/caption] Vacations can be very expensive when you get caught with your pant down. In other word when you're not prepared. I am not adept with purchasing flights with points but I still think we got a good deal with the flights. However, after that everything else was poorly planned. Trip Costs The Flights…

31Aug 2014 by The Roamer 1 Comment

Saving on a Vacation: Traveling alternatives

Travel

Its labor day weekend and so the summer officially ends. Many are out and about trying to get in their last stint of travel. We had the chance this year to explore some new territory but looking back I'm interested to see what the cost was and whether we could have done it differently. I'm not a travel hacker by any means. The travel I did when I was younger was largely due to school. Thinking about it I was able to do it for really cheap maybe at a cost of $100 or less for climbing trips to West Virginia and Kentucky. That was for about 3 nights with food and logging included. I would venture the trip to Chicago and Philadelphia for a conference where about the same.So now…

25May 2014 by The Roamer 2 Comments

7 years of travel: The power of looking back

Travel

How well do you remember your past? I would not consider myself a traveler. It is more a goal and aspiration. In comparison to some family members with less means than myself, I have been to fewer places. And I definitely learn a lot from travel hackers ( by default I guess that means I don't know a lot ) but I guess I haven't given myself enough credit. Sometimes looking in the past has it's benefits... During the application process for a job I was asked to provide my addresses for 7 year to do a background check. 7 years!I knew I moved around a lot for school but I guess I never thought of it before. As it turns out I had a really hard time coming up with 7…

05Apr 2014 by The Roamer 2 Comments

Break the Mold (Family, World and Riches)

Debt Destruction, Finance, Parenthood, Travel

Thanks for visiting me at traveling wallet. This Blog is about money and its relationship(role) to Parenthood, Travel and Early Retirement. (See tag line ;) ) I'm here to talk about my journey in working to optimize these 3 areas. Currently we (spouse and I ) are working parents. My current goals in life are to spend more time with my family( i.e. kids) and still save enough money to Travel and reach Early Retirement. But the first thing is to get rid of all my/our debt. The GOALS - Destroy Debt! - Actually raise our children -Travel (1-2 trips a year any combination of in state, out of state, and international) -Early Retirement (as in 50 or younger shooting for 45) So lets talk about why savvy spending and savvy saving…

Category: Travel