Travel Archives - Page 3 of 28 - Making Sense Of Cents

My Year In Review – Looking Back at 2018 and Looking Forward to 2019!

January 7, 2019 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 32 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Looking back on the previous year is always a lot of fun, and it’s interesting to see everything laid out in a one year period. I get to see what I did and didn’t do, reflect on everything, etc. So, I am happy to present my 2018 year in review.

2018 was a crazy year. But don’t worry, it was good crazy!

One of the biggest reasons for the chaos is that we made a major change in 2018 – we went from RVing to living on a sailboat.

That big change made for an amazing year.

Before that switch, we traveled to many new areas in the RV. We also climbed mountains, rode our bikes a TON, hosted several family vacations, then we sold the RV, bought a sailboat, and more.

On top of all of that, Wes traveled even more than I did – he logged over 5,000 nautical miles, sailed all over Europe, as well as sailed the Caribbean. [Read more…]

45 Ways To Live Life To The Fullest in 2019

December 31, 2018 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 25 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

45 Ways To Live Life To The Fullest in 2019 #howtolivelifetothefullest #dreamlife Do you feel like your life isn’t going the way you want? And, do you want to start to live life to the fullest?

If you want to make a change for the better in the new year, one that will help you live life to the fullest, today is the day to start living the life you want.

2019 is the year for you to change your life for the better.

No matter how life is going for you, I believe that we are all in charge of our life. And, even when bad things happen, we get to decide how we handle those setbacks. Because of that, I believe that everyone can live life to the fullest like they want to.

If you feel that things are not going the way you want them to go, then change it! You can improve your life and how you perceive it by changing your actions and reactions.

For that reason, I’ve packed this post with my best and most actionable tips for 2019 so that you can learn how to live life to the fullest in the new year. I know that you can make this new year your best ever. Enjoy, and I hope this year is a great one for everyone. [Read more…]

What We’re Doing Now That We No Longer Have a Car

December 3, 2018 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 40 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

What We’re Doing Now That We No Longer Have a Car As I recently said in Welcome To Paradise – We’re Living On A Sailboat!, we no longer have our Jeep and have been car free since July. Since we are preparing to cruise and will soon be leaving the marina (eeek, this week!), we no longer have a need for full-time use of a land vehicle.

But, this has led to many of you asking what we’re doing now that we no longer have a car with us.

I’ve heard questions like:

How are you getting groceries?
How are you going to the store?
What are you doing for errands?
How do the dogs get to shore to use the bathroom? Not that a car would help in this instance anyways, haha!

Due to ditching our car, we are commuting by dinghy, folding bikes, walking and Lyft.

We haven't had a car for around four months now, and we are still very happy with our decision! [Read more…]

We Spent $43,486 To RV For One Year – How to Spend Way Too Much Full-Time RVing

August 24, 2018 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 23 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Michelle's quick note: Today, I have a great guest post from Brooke and Buddy Baum. As you all know, I absolutely loved RVing. However, it's not for everyone. So, when I had the opportunity to hear this RVing story, I jumped at the chance to share it with you all. Enjoy!

We're Brooke and Buddy Baum – digital nomads, bloggers, travelers and nature lovers. We recently ended a year-long stint of RV life that taught us so much about life, marriage, travel, freelance work … and the importance of making smarter financial decisions. If you are looking into RVing, we hope our story helps you make a better plan than we had!

We spent $43,486 to RV for just one year. Ouch.

We threw up in our mouths a little just typing that out. That's no small number, especially when you take into account that RVing was a budget move for us. And this total doesn't even include normal life expenses. It is only RV-related costs, including the down payment, RV payments, insurance, campgrounds, fuel, and the loss we took to sell it. [Read more…]

When was the last time you did something that scared you?

August 13, 2018 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 35 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Scaring yourself is a good thing – it means that you're pushing yourself to do something new and outside of your comfort zone. This can help you grow as a person and continue to improve. #scareyourself #motivation #dreamlife #lifetips I'd be lying to you if I said that our new sailing adventure didn't scare me.

We are currently around three months into our new boat life. We are very happy with our purchase and the huge life change that we have made.

We are excited for our future, all of the amazing places we will visit, and all of the learning experiences that we will get to have.

However, making this huge lifestyle change has been a little scary for me.

The first month of boat ownership was an interesting one. Before we bought our boat, we were constantly told that there are two best days in a boat owner’s life:

The day you buy you boat.
The day you sell it.

And, for a moment there, I thought that was right, haha!

Welcome To Paradise – We’re Living On A Sailboat!

July 17, 2018 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 96 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

It’s official, we’re now living on a sailboat!

To be specific, it’s a Lagoon 42 catamaran that we named Paradise.

Now, we are still very new to this lifestyle, but we are very excited!

We’ve wanted to move onto a boat for a while. In fact, we wanted to live on a sailboat before we even started RVing.

Our switch from RV life to living on sailboat started earlier this year, when we made the journey from Tucson, Arizona (where we were wintering in our RV) to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. We started looking at sailboats online, both on the west coast and east coast, but Florida just had so many more options.

We pulled up the RV jacks and made the long trek to Florida. Along the way, we stopped in multiple places, sort of a last RV trip hurrah to see our friends and family that live all over the U.S. [Read more…]

You Wouldn’t Work For Free, Right? So, Why Do You?

June 28, 2018 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 55 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

You Wouldn't Work For Free, Right? So, Why Do You? Do you often find yourself at the end of the year with unused vacation days?

If so, then you are essentially working for free.

According to CNN, 23% of workers surveyed said they used all of their vacation days in the previous 12 months. That means that 77% of people had unused vacation days!

Also, this same survey showed that the average U.S. worker uses less than HALF of their paid days off.

So, I did some more research because I find this subject so interesting. According to CNBC, on average, American workers gave up around $604 in lost benefits by ending the year with unused vacation days and other paid time off.

I find this topic interesting because when I used to work for others, I would never use all of my paid vacation days. [Read more…]

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