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…
Goals you either hate them or you love them. For me goal setting is what kept me on track once I got to university and had to be responsible for myself. With no parents around to make sure I did my homework and drank my milk I had to figure out a system. Back in university I would set goals every semester but now I simply set them at the beginning of the year. Goals are kind of like resolutions except they are less wishy-washy... Ever since then the habit has stuck because I have seen results. This year I decided to try something new for my yearly goals. (more…)
It's not a new story to open up your closet and find nothing to wear. I hate to admit it, but I was just like that. I was so frustrated once I even posted it on Facebook. I received a flood of comments, full of sympathy, so many of my female friends could relate. Had they been standing next to me I'm sure I would have seen their heads nodding up and down. Woe is us. Last year after connecting with the minimalist movement I learned about something else. Capsule wardrobes. When I first started my journey into capsule wardrobes all I knew was that it promised I wouldn't open up my closet and feel like I had nothing to wear. It was going to solve that problem. So I…
Hi, So it's about time for another net worth update. When I first posted my net worth out for the world to see, I wasn't so sure how I felt about it. Being transparent about you financials is a bit Taboo. It's probably not a surprise that as the sharer I feel like I am leaving myself a bit exposed. While I am not sharing my net worth here monthly it is something I keep and eye on. I decided that I felt that giving a yearly snap shot was probably not so bad. But I am running behind as these snap shots should be coming out during January. While I didn't get the post out I did make sure to record my stats. So in this post I will…
Last year we saved $72,360. (Deep breath) You have to give it a moment to let it sink in. (more…)
We've been living in our new apartment for 3 months now and moving can have many benefits. For us it was a great excuse to purge mercilessly any items we could so that we wouldn't have to move them. As I spoke about during the great moving purge. As I work towards minimalism, I am also trying to do it without waste. As I removed the excess I want to do so with this quote in mind. Use it up, Wear it out, Make it do, or do without. (more…)
While I don't think I had ever heard the term minimalism growing up the word hoarding I was familiar with. There were shows about it after all, and while our home never looked like that. There was enough clutter to make me feel anxious. (more…)
"Ireland, it's the one place on earth That heaven has kissed With melody, mirth, And meadow and mist."* Is St. Patrick's Day another hallmark holiday? (more…)
I was just working on our Net Worth post and I was looking at this graph. [caption id="attachment_1653" align="alignnone" width="313"] Traveling Wallet's asset allocation[/caption] and it just made me feel like man what a mistake! Your assets graph made you feel like what a mistake? Really?!?!? Yeah it did, and it's that little orange section right there. (more…)
I stared at the stack of 18 papers in front of me. What am I going to do? Maybe 18 pages doesn't sound that scary, but think about it this way. If you had to read an 18 page medical journal. Then present on it to prove that you understood it, well I'm sure you're probably feeling overwhelmed right now too. That's what it's like, after all, for most people. Ask them to read a 401K rollover document from their 401K provider and you might as well tell them to go rent a physics book from the library. Not only do they have no interest in reading on the topic. It's also seen as so high level that you're intimidated before you even start. It's a recipe for ....well, for…
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…)
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…
Systems What does that mean anyway? It means a set path. Following steps. That if you do A it will lead to B and then C. But I am having trouble with this one. See I'm taking an online course. Or should I say retaking it because last time I got stuck... Lost momentum and then stopped. Trust the system I said to myself after watching the video. What the heck does that mean anyways? (more…)
The one gift you always hope to receive before the holidays is more time off. Of course, that's paid time off. What you don't hope for is that you walk in at the start of your shift on Monday right before the holidays to receive a big fat lay off. Poor timing. It definitely wins the award for that. ..and while I was still in utter shock I was also trying really hard not to smile and shout, "see ya later suckers!!" . ( Of course Mommy would never say such bad things. Felt like I should address my kids there for some reason. Ha ha ha) But I didn't smile and I didn't utter any self aggrandizing phrases. Actually for all my joy, I was very much insulted. "You?!....…
You know that feeling you get, you know when you feel like "I just can't believe this is happening to me" and not in a good way. But in a Why me? way. That is how I was feeling lately. Why? Because of the Surprise! It wasn't even a good surprise. It was another unexpected, out of nowhere, break you expense. Well, it could have been, had we not been in the financial position we are today. Emergency fund, rainy day fund, unexpected expenses fund. It doesn't matter what it's called. Every one is touting be prepare. Like an 11 year old boy scout. But honestly most people just don't do it. One survey showed that up to 62% of people wouldn't be able to cover a $1,000 expense. While…
Its November and I am in the last month of my 2nd capsule wardrobe. But before we can talk about the 2nd go I want to share a recap. In September I completed my first capsule wardrobe challenge. This year I've really enjoyed taking on these monthly challenges. It's an organized way to try something new, and usually it's really fun too. So what's the benefit of a capsule wardrobe? How many items do you get? Is it going to benefit you financially? and most importantly what did you wear these past 3 months? 1st capsule outfits, Summer 2015 I'm so glad you asked. Well start with the easy one. Below you'll find a collage of my outfits. At work I wear a uniform (self imposed) which falls outside of my main…
Pain So I just wanted to let you know that I'm sorry I've fallen off my consistent posting schedule. agh! I was doing so good too. Lately I missed a lot of posts, which sucks because it was my goal to have 1 post a week . It's my fault I fell off the horse. But below is the reason why. Excuses, Excuses , Excuses I recently attended FinCon ( financial bloggers conference) for the first time and what can I say I needed some time to recoup and make up for all the family time I missed. Also I needed to make time to process all the info that I got at the conference. It was awesome but also very overwhelming. I have to make a game plan because when…
Kids can't live with them can't live without them. Seriously this week wasn't so bad but this weekend. Sheesh. I was an emotional wreck. Pain You know as the week progresses I like to make notes about what would be my gain and pain... So that I have some ideas to work with. My pain this week was going to be all financial. See I messed up and miss calculated my IRA numbers, which negates last weeks gain :( . I really thought I was going to be able to max it out... But I accidentally had one extra space, I was counting contributions for January as well... Hmm. So anyways that was going to be my pain for the week but then Sunday happen. We, (I?) Had a big…
Happy Labor Day everyone. I hope you all get to celebrate how you see fit. Make sure though you keep and eye on the dollar. I read a post that said most people spend more then what they are getting paid to have the day off. Say what?! So yeah have fun but make sure your asking yourself what the value proposition is? Don't just follow the crowd... if you think it has valued then go right ahead. Just taking the time to ask yourself the question and making sure your actions are in line with your values is where its at. Okay now for this past weeks update. Pain This past week I'd been anxiously awaiting the weekend so I could get to work on switching out my capsule.…
At some point this trimester I realized I needed to focus my efforts. It's not that it's impossible to work on multiple things at once. It was more the fact that I needed to do a lot of learning. See sometimes you have all the foundational knowledge to accomplish something you just need to take up the challenge to push yourself farther, harder. But that wasn't the case for a lot of what I was trying to do. I didn't have the background. So one task would split into several other smaller things that I needed to learn first. In essence my one goal might actually require me to jump 5 hurdles before even being able to address my goal. I knew that on some level. That was part of…
Pain Lots of waste this week. We didn't really follow our food menu and we ended up with lots of spoiled food. I know this is something most American households struggle with and I guess we aren't the exception. It's really disappointing to me. I know some weeks we do really well and other are so bad. It's something I am trying to improve by buying less food. We are still learning but its still chafes me to throw food out. Some people say its better to be safe then sorry and I agree but the question shouldn't be well what's more costly a doctors appointment or a head of lettuce. It just shouldn't get to that point period. Gain This past week we hosted my mother in-law at our…
Last week on Tuesday Jr went back to school. Not only that, I also realized I'm getting old he's getting old. I mean he's in 2nd grade! ( inhale ,exhale, inhale, exhale) What happened to the surprise baby. :( After the initial shock I had a thought. And it went like this. "Oh yeah, wasn't there a shopping thing I was supposed to do to get ready for today" I didn't prepare at all. I didn't even really think about preparing for it at all. Other then "oh Jr starts school next week ". Instead of think about it in regards to money and purchases. I thought about it in regards to time. How are our schedules going to change? Adjust? But wait a minute I want to go back to…
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…
Rollercoaster weeks seems to be the thing right now. We accomplished a lot but we also faced some difficult challenges. Pain My goals for this blog are to discuss traveling, parenting, and finances all how they relate to me. I realize I haven't really been touching on parenting too much and that's because that is my biggest challenge. This week, actually probably more like over a month, parenting has proved quite challenging. We have good days and then we have terrible days. But this week was really exposing as some of my poor parenting decision came full circle to bite me in the butt. I keep thinking I should probably take a break from reading all these finance articles and instead focus on parenting ones. Or at the very least…
Another weeks come and gone. Let's see what happened over at the Roamer household. Pain This pain is brought to you by none other then my life oppressing job. I was suffering from pangs of anxiety for sure. You see I had a meeting with a client towards the end of the week, and to say that I wasn't fully prepared would be an understatement. Usually the team puts everything together by Monday but this was my 1st time and I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off. Not only that other departments hadn't prepared early either but I got focused and found the people to tap to get my answers . Could I have prepared sooner and avoided all the stress? Maybe. But that's not…
Weekly columns are a nice quick way to give you all some updates on whats happening here at the Traveling Wallet HQ. This is specially useful if I can't seem to get a full post out on specific idea topic. I have seen lots of bloggers take part in a weekly update sort of post so I am going to give it a shot myself. I actually have been wanting to do one since tax season where I was going to talk about the awesome refund and whine about an unexpected charge but that one never made out into the public. I want to end on the happy note so I will discuss our pains and then our gains. Also since I am currently in the midst of a 3…
At the beginning of May Mr. Roamer and I decided to give the #minsgame another try. I am more and more drawn to minimalism and the idea of simplified living. [caption id="attachment_1213" align="alignright" width="169"] Round 2 of the Minsgame[/caption] We didn't make it to the end like last time. Actually comparatively we did a lot worse (as you can see in the picture). However, I am still happy with the results as the changes still yield compound benefits. In the sense of now I have less to clean up and I'm never going to have to organize that item(s) ever again. When I'm purging sometimes its very difficult. I can easily convince myself to keep stuff. I think someday I'll use it. But I have a secret weapon.... When I…
September Our San Francisco Vacation and other July Expenditures August Mini Retirement Update: July countdown July Capsule 8: Spring & 2 years of capsule wardrobesMini Retirement Update: June and growing worries. June Capsule 7: Winter and a wrap dress Mini Retirement Update: Slowly moving forward May Capsule 6 & A 10 x 10 Challenge Where have you been? Our travels so far Mini Retirement Monthly Update: Too much in my house April Capsule 5: Summer, No purchase necessary Mini Retirement Monthly Update: Passports? Yes, please! March My one goal this year February Home Tour & 2016 purge review January Expenses and the uber frugal month wrap up January 2017 2016 Goals: Year End Review Net Worth Update: Our growth in 2016 Uber Frugal Month Challenge, Well why not? December 2016…
We are on our way to Badassity. Monday we move on to a new challenge. Biking long distances with kids on a time constraint schedule with only one parent! The time part and the 1 parent here is the new piece. We spent time preparing for this trip by talking about it for a few weeks before hand and getting some of the logistical information. Like is there even a bike rack at the school?Answer. YES. [caption id="attachment_1050" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Minnie Roamer letting me know she is ready to ride her own bike.[/caption] So we woke up early got ready and set out. We rode the route we usually drive since it has a bike lane in some areas. The only adjustment we made was taking some different streets so…
Time to review our Financials. We were on track to reach our 3 financial goals. Pay off all Student loans by July Open MMA Celebrate with a splurge activity for the family As you can tell these are some measly goals. Is one of them really open up a new account ,in other word break up with my bank and take my funds earning less then .01% to a better place(Hey breaking up is hard, right?). So at the start of 2014 we had over 35K of Debt. Some of that was student loan debt. Student debt Mr. Had finished paying off his the year before and so we had a talk to discuss what we would do with the newly available funds. We deferred them to my student loans.…
