Plan in place

Watching my twelve year old surpass me in height in a matter of weeks. Seriously, it took him just a few weeks to go from barely reaching my height to surpassing me by a few inches. I watched my son grow right before my eyes, then the sass started and I thought WHAT, SLOW DOWN. I wan more time with my kids, I was to slow the clock and get in more time with my kids. Then, after planning an awesome get-away for my son with my mother, I knew I needed in. I wanted this too. Now determined that I was taking a summer off with my kids and husband to travel the world, I needed a plan. I work full time, a benefit providing job and leaving for three months to travel the world with my kids was not going to be an easy feat. It was too much to ask for, too much to accommodate, a leave of absense wasn't going to work, so it was time to make a decision. Now the real soul searching...did I want this leave bad enough that it was worth quitting a good job for?

Is it worth quiting?

My husband and I now really needed to answer that question. Afterall, I have the stable job, the benefits. Was it worth me quiting to go and have fun? To travel selfishly? Was it irresponsible? I gave myself the holidays to answer this question. Spending two weeks of holiday time with my kids was enough to give me the definitive yes we needed. Of course this was worth it. This wasn't just about having fun, it was about building memories, gaining perspective, seeing the world, living! Were my children getting any younger? Did I see a resonating yes, lingering for me in the near future that I should hang onto? What was I waiting for, if I didn't go now? I had my answer and in January I put in my notice. It was one of the toughest decisions I've ever made. I enjoy my job, I work with smart, solid, good people. I was supported and encouraged and had no reason to leave. However, this time with my kids at ideal ages (10 and 12), I needed this right now. I put my notice in, because this summer with my kids is something I can't go back to and get if I don't do it now. The one thing that was holding me back was FEAR and I didn't want fear to dictate why I wasn't making this big leap. So here I am...I'm going to do this.

Money

A trip for the one I want for a family of four costs money. I started off wanting to visit only one country for 10 weeks, Australia and roadtripping throughout the country in an RV. Then plans changed and the idea grew. I have neighbors that moved to Vietnam, so we decided that visiting them was a most. What a pity to lose out on the opportunity to visit with familiar faces while traveling internationally. Then being half way around the world, we would be flying right over Hawaii. Would a littlel layover hurt? My father in law has always wanted to go to Hwaii with us and do a similar trip with his grandchildren that he did with his own kids. We figured this was the right trip to do both. Then already in Asia, I really wanted to visit Thailand and see this world renowed ethical Elephant Santuary. The itinerary grew from here and alas we had quite the itinerary in mind. Adding countries, means adding flights, which means adding expenses. We needed a budget and then a goal for saving the money. Considering flights, lodging and fun for a family of four, we can up with a budget of $100 a day per person across 10 weeks (70 days). That is $28,000, we aim to come under, but I want to save the money to have options. K, time to save some money!

Ways to save money?

• Sky Miles, time to cash in on all hard earned Sky Miles from Delta and American Airlines. We have quite the collection.
• Hotel points, time to cash in on all hard earned Sky Miles from Delta and American Airlines. We have quite the collection.
• Air BnB, a way to stay among locals and often on a budget! Yes, this is right up my alley.
• Stay with Friends, in Vietnam we have friends that we'll stay with. Saving on a few nights of hotel, will help with the budget across the trip. The bad news here, is I know this will mean I can splurge elsewhere and that's exactly what I plan to do! Hence, it's going to be a wash for me.
• Cook some, I'm booking a bunch of places with kitchens. Cooking breakfast especially sends us off with full bellys at a budget and expedites us starting off for the day. When we go out for breakfast we often experience long lines and it slows down starting on actitivies early on. Also there's something nice about coming home to a home cooked meal after a long day of fun to snuggle up in bed and watch a movie. I want to do this a few times to slow us down and save a buck on dinner.
• Snacks, snacks, snacks. We do better when we're not on an empty stomache as a family. I plan to buy lots of snacks so we don't get to the point when we'll spend anything on something to eat. We have follow trap this before and it be costly and not the best dining experience.
• Use ATM. I've read (and experienced this) that withdrawing money from ATM's helps with the exchange rate and overhead exchange fees.

Preparing to come back

Putting in my notice of resignation was tough really tough. I've been at the same company for 15 years, I've made friends, I built a communitty for myself, although I chose to leave, it's my intention to come back. I want to be invited back. That means planting a lot of seeds to make sure something grows, I want a few doors are available to me to open and return to. I aimed to be real graceful in my departure, doing as much good as I could. I scheduled a lot of 1:1's, I created fun events for the team, I made introductions for career moves I felt was best for others and worked extra hard to make my transition out as seemless as possible. Now I'll leave feeling good about my departure. If there's no room for me when I return, I have confidence that I did what I could and that it's time to move onto a different chapter in life. This feels pretty good and gives me confidence.

Back up

We're small business owners, I've always held a day job on top of managing the accounting, payroll, taxes, licences, online orders, etc for JavaVino and Beanealogy. Steve has run point on the people management, customers, everything, everything else, which is a lot. I've always been afraid to put all our eggs in one basket. Coming back from this trip, the small business gig is something I'd like to try. Let's see if we have as a couple what it takes. I'd love to sell coffee at wholesale, heck I did sell a container of coffee to Australia (who we will visit on this trip). I can do it again and again. We have some pretty amazing coffee to see, but lack in the marketing and sales and don't always put in the investment and hard work it takes because at the end of a long work day for corporate America I am pretty beat.