Like (just about) everyone, my family struggles with personal finances. We have plenty to get by… but there’s certainly not enough to do everything we want. We’ve been fighting against debt; trying to get debt free – but it’s tough. But in general, I feel it’s the right thing to do.
However, I’m starting to think we should be doing all of the fun things we want to do. We should stop being so tight. Instead of putting our money in a savings account, take it and go to water park. Instead of paying down debt with our money, we should go to the movies and buy an extra large soda and popcorn. Instead of contributing to a 401k we should use that money to go to an amusement park – who says I’m going to retire anyways. We should start being a little more carefree and charge a trip to Disney World to our credit card.
Right now my wife and I are in our mid-twenties and we have 2 children. This is the time in our lives that we should be doing all of these fun things. We should be having the time of our lives instead of worrying about debt. We have the rest of our lives to pay it off.
I just don’t want to look back when my kids are in their twenties and say “We don’t have any memories of family vacations or doing fun things as a family…. but I’m really glad we paid down all that debt.”