I certainly don't, and I'm so tired of living in fear of it. I'm tired of popping tums like they're candy. I never took a single antacid in my life until about 9 weeks ago. Now I can barely enjoy my favorite foods thanks to all the heart burn and if I don't take at least six of the things a day, I can barely stand to swallow. This is ridiculous and totally unacceptable.
Instead of holing up and being constantly worried and afraid of something that I have no idea if or when it might happen, instead of living in fear, I've decided to live in preparation. I'm going to hedge my bets (even more than normal), make sure there's always a way out of any financial commits, but I'm not going to stop making them.
To this end, I'm cutting back on travel plans for the year. I'm cutting out all trips save two. Both are family vacations because Joel, Sage and I haven't been on one together in four years and this year we have the chance to go on two. I know this means I'll miss trips I was very much looking forward to, but that's why it's called sacrificing. I'd rather give up those trips for the family time we've all been missing for so long.
We'll go to the beach with my entire extended family and we'll go to Disney World. The former is a given regardless, the cost for that trip is very small thanks to my Aunt and Uncle. The later is dependent on my not ending up fired with no notice and no severance laid off.
We have scaled back the Disney trip to something smaller. We can always upgrade later. I've gone ahead and paid the deposit and we'll hang on to the balance until the last minute (balance is due 45 days prior). I've also checked and I can get a refund of everything but the deposit up to 7 days prior. I've paid the deposit and will be paying the balance out of my checking account instead of using a credit card as usual. I give up some of the insurance of using a credit card, but if I end up needing a refund, it'll go straight back into checking. If I need that refund, I'll need it in checking, not paying off a credit card.
I'm not going to stop living my life. I know things are so uncertain that the odds of our NOT being able to go on this trip are greater than the odds of us going, but we can't change our mind the other way later and we CAN change our minds this way. Last minute trips are much more expensive than planned ones and planned ones have refunds that last minute ones don't.
As things stand right now, if you need me August 1st through 8th, you can find me in Orlando. Subject to change without notice, of course.
[this is good] In it something is. Now all is clear, I thank for the information.
Posted by: Bryce Ferro | May 07, 2010 at 08:32 PM