Afford the Unaffordable

MoneySmart — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 20:30:19 +0000

I spent seven weeks in New York City for an internship. My wife was there for four of those weeks. When including housing, food, entertainment, transportation, giving change to the homeless, and any other expense, the total cost of my trip was just over $4,600. Also, our vacant apartment back home still needed rent and utilities paid even though we weren’t using them. That’s another almost $1,500.

Now, this isn’t an incredible amount, but did I mention my internship was unpaid? Our trip to New York City was pure fun and excitement, but did it ever put a dent in our account. Luckily for us, we had been saving and saving as much as we could for the entire year and a half we were married.

Although we were saving so much, we never knew what we were saving for. I didn’t know until less than a month before I left for New York that I would be going. But because we planned ahead for the unknown future, we were able to pay for all of our expenses and still have enough to live on when we got back.

What would we have done if we were slightly shy of the cost needed to go? Totally disregard the experience and possibly never get connections needed for future success? That would be one choice. Another would have been to take out a small loan. A loan from a respectable lender would have given us exactly what we needed in order to enjoy our trip.

Don’t let petty things stop you from being successful. If you want to do something with your life, figure out a way to do it, and then execute. Start saving now for that unexpected opportunity. You never know when something great is going to drop into your lap.

Financial Accuracy » New York City

Afford the Unaffordable