Last month I had a week’s holiday on an island in the Dampier Archipelago, near Karratha where I used to live.
It was gloriously super relaxing. Lots of warm sunshine to soak up, and no Internet. Unless I was out on the boat, where I would rather look at the sun sparkling on the water, fish for squid, or daydream than my look at my phone!
Part of how I get away is discipline. I make sure that the things at work are covered so I don’t have to worry about it when I am gone.
The other part is making sure that the money for all the expected bills and expenses are tucked away and ready, and that filling the boat with fuel doesn’t break the bank! Over $700 and it wasn’t even a full tank!
How do we do it? Regular transfers into a bank account called Ronin (that’s the name of our boat).
We know that the money in that bank account is there to use for our boating holidays, from fuel to maintenance, insurance to upgrades.
Being out and about on our boat for holidays is an important part of our family traditions, so we prioritise money to make sure that we can do it as often as we want.
Would you like to know how we do this? My family had a discussion to talk about what we love to do on holidays, and how we can make it happen.
Here’s how we do it:
- Identify what you want
- Work out how much it will cost
- Set up a bank account for it
- Transfer regularly into that account so that it can cover your costs and start to build a small buffer (just in case fuel prices go up)
- Make sure you can also afford all the other things – and tweak it if it’s not working for you.
The process is a lot of fun, and it’s great to see the bank account going up even a little every pay day.
What is important for your family to spend your money on, and would you use my system to reach for it?
