Our Eyes Deceive Us
One of my favorite parts about creating content is the fact it will, in theory, live forever. Every once in a while, I'll receive an e-mail, DM, or text from someone who recently stumbled upon something I published years ago. Those are always fun days for me. A few days ago, I had a similar experience when I ran into a close friend at an event.
"Travis, I can't believe you and Sarah spent $1,000/month on travel! That seems like a lot. An irresponsible a lot."
He was referring to episode 240 of our Meaning Over Money Podcast, which was published two years ago. His wife recently listened to the episode and now thinks they should budget $1,000/month for travel. Translation: He's semi-angry at me for causing his wife to want more travel money.
"And you think $1,000 is too much?" I asked him.
He confirmed that, yes, $1,000 is a stupid and reckless amount to spend on travel.
"It's funny you would say that, considering you and your wife easily spend 2-3x that amount."
He was confused. I could tell he wanted to be defensive, but he was waiting for what I had to say next.
"You just went to Disney, right? Let's do some mental math and figure out how much that trip cost."
About 90 seconds later, we landed on a total rough number: $13,000.
"And you and your wife went to a resort a few months ago, right?"
We did some more quick math: $5,000.
"What other trips have you taken in the last 12 months?"
He comes up with a handful of other trips, some small and some medium-ish.
It was a fun exercise. After about 10 minutes, we tallied what felt like a complete prior-12-month travel number: $41,000.
His eyes got pretty big. $41,000 on travel over a 12-month period! Put into monthly terms, that's about $3,400/month, every month, for the entire year. Remember, this conversation started with him believing my family's $1,000/month travel budget was irresponsible.
No, he wasn't trying to be a hypocrite. No, he wasn't trying to be a jerk to me. The truth is, our eyes deceive us. Our brains are wired in such a way that we easily lose context depending on how something is framed. In his financial life, things are framed through the lens of no budgeting, impulsive trips, and rampant credit card use. Therefore, no thought goes into their travel. They decide they want to go, they just go, they spend whatever they spend, then they pay it off upon returning.
$1,000/month feels like a lot of money because it happens every month. In his world, it looks more like $0, $0, $0, an unknown trip cost, $0, another unknown trip cost, $0, $0, yet another unknown trip cost, etc. It's a lot of zeroes and a lot of unknowns, which add up to $41,000 in no time.
Two key takeaways today: 1) We must continually strive to view things through a proper lens. Context always matters. 2) We need to be intentional, thoughtful, and disciplined with our finances. The absence of either creates chaos and leakage, but the presence of both leads to less stress, more peace, and a greater sense of meaning. Happy travels!
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