how do you decide if you can afford a vacation?

[sugarnspicex4]

THIS!

My parents raised five children. My dad worked very hard to provide for us, my mom worked very hard caring for everyone. They had a house that was paid off before retirement & a good savings. My dad died at the age of 61 of pancreatic cancer, then my mom died at 64. They never did anything but work & take care of that house. They never had time to have fun & enjoy life & I still feel very sad for them, even now.

Life is just too short to spend it on all materialistic things. They are never really going to matter in the end, but how you live & what you do with your loved ones will. Go on the trip.

Your story is somewhat parallel to mine. My parents also raised five children and my dad died at age 62, also of pancreatic cancer. He worked hard but also loved his occasional vacations, so he visited Spain, South America, Mexico (3 times), and took us on road trips every summer to visit family. Mom would grumble about how he wasn't putting enough towards retirement and would often stay home and work while we went on the family road trips. After he was diagnosed with cancer, he quit his job and they took a trip to Hawaii. I'm so glad he didn't just sock away all his money. The times we spent together are precious memories for me that I will hold in my heart forever.

My mom, on the other hand, benefited from the life insurance and pension benefits he left her. She is now 70 years old and remarried and they are certainly not lacking for money now. But what she lacks is health and energy. She's got Type II Diabetes and unfortunately so out of shape she doesn't have any desire to travel now whatsoever.

My advice is to live a BALANCED life. Save some, spend some, but most of all, enjoy the time you have with the ones you love!

 

[ssawka]

Yes..only amnio will truly tell you.

Sorry, this off topic, but what would you do with the information gathered from the amnio? If knowing either way would not effect your course of action, then why risk the pregnancy by having the amnio performed? If the result would change your course of action, then absolutely have the test performed. If not, I don't think it is worth the cost or the risk. Granted, this is coming from a male perspective.

 

[JediBonas]

Sorry, this off topic, but what would you do with the information gathered from the amnio? If knowing either way would not effect your course of action, then why risk the pregnancy by having the amnio performed? If the result would change your course of action, then absolutely have the test performed. If not, I don't think it is worth the cost or the risk. Granted, this is coming from a male perspective.

These days the risk of miscarriage is less then 1% with amnio. Sometimes it's good to know what you may be in store for so you can prepare, even if the results won't change your course of action. We have friends that had no plans to terminate but knowing that there was an issue with their baby allowed them to mentally prepare and the drs also knew what possible complications the baby might have faced during and after delivery.

 

[ssawka]

These days the risk of miscarriage is less then 1% with amnio. Sometimes it's good to know what you may be in store for so you can prepare, even if the results won't change your course of action. We have friends that had no plans to terminate but knowing that there was an issue with their baby allowed them to mentally prepare and the drs also knew what possible complications the baby might have faced during and after delivery.

I guess, but as a parent of a child with DS, I can go either way on this issue. A part of me says that it would have been nice to be prepared for the birth of DD, however I also think that knowing before hand would have put unnecessary stress and worry on DW. Also, although the chances of a miscarriage due to amino is less than 1%, the chances of having a child with DS is about .1%, yet it still happens. Why take the risk unless it is medically necessary? Just my 2 cents! In either case, it is not an easy choice for a soon to be parent to make.

 

[Pooh2]

How do you all determine whether or not you can afford a vacation? I'm trying to decide right now if DH & I can squeeze in another trip pre-babies (no kids yet, but will happen in the next year or two). We are currently renting an apartment but are trying to save up to buy a condo or townhouse. We have about $35,000 in savings and a trip budget would be about $2000. Is this reasonable???

You've done a great job with the savings, take the $2,000 and have a nice prebaby vacation!

 

[crisi]

If they get to the point of fertility treatments, 2 grand is a drop in the bucket. And what OP is talking about is nothing like someone with a YOLO attitude, they are savers with a nice nest egg talking about a small vacation, not blowing it all.

For me, and I'm a significant saver, two grand is a month of saving. That's a month of postponement, a month of getting older, a month on a wait list for adoption.

I'm not saying they shouldn't go. I'm saying that they need to look at what they have in terms of savings, where they need to get in terms of savings to do what they want to do, and when they want to do it, and make sure they have an emergency fund on top of that. If they are ahead of schedule or on schedule, go for it.

But just because you have money in the bank doesn't mean you are ahead of where you need to be to meet your goals. And we here don't know what those goals are (other than house and baby - is this a $80k house in Nebraska or a $700k house in New Jersey) or what the timeline is (next month, next year, five years) or their savings rate (they saved $35k in a year off salary, the $35k is part of an inheritance and they have a negative savings rate if you are going off normal income).

 

[FINFAN]

for $2000 I'd go~ with 35 saved. I don't think 2 grand will make or break the house you may purchase. If it does, then you will have to apply awesome negotiating skills or leave out an upgrade or 2 if building. Life is what happens while you are making plans

 

[travelgirl06]

If you have enough for the anticipated downpayment, your emergency fund and vacation I would go. It's important to do couple vacations before and after kids. We prioritize vacations, and I just went through a rehash of our budget to figure out how to keep our vacation budget on track with some new expenses (new car, soon-to-be-second-child in daycare, etc.). I refuse to cut into emergency fund or retirement savings, so it means watching the unnecessary spending and eating out a lot less. We'll see how the updated budget works the next few mints (in advance of the new baby's arrival) and adjust as needed.

With babies (hopefully) in your near future, be sure to have child-rearing expenses on your radar. In our case, the biggie is daycare, and we have found many other baby/toddler items unnecessary or affordable attainable via swapping, buying used, shopping sales, making our own, etc. but you do need food, clothes, and a carseat for your little one . Just something to consider, especially as you look at what kind of mortgage payment makes sense for your family.