My Big Summer Goal - Budgeting Basics
After college, my daughter taught English in South Korea for two years. She returned to the USA in September. Woohoo!!!
Knowing my daughter was coming to visit me, I got to plan a summer vacation for the two of us. Yes, I’m a planning geek. I generated an itinerary of our trip, complete with an attached spreadsheet that I could reference, review, and modify! I fussed over my data frequently while I waited for my daughter to return to the USA.
Salt River 2025
Our summer vacation wasn’t fancy, but it was a treasure of time with my daughter and a breathtaking adventure as we visited a few destinations in Arizona. This was my Big Summer Goal! We kept the goal name simple and called it Salt River 2025, and oh-boy, did we have a blast!
The beginning of the trip included four additional friends who are also outdoor-type people. We met up at a hotel in Scottsdale for social time, dinner, and a place to crash. We got up early and headed out to catch good water and weather.
The Crew at Salt River 2025
One of the highlights of our Salt River trip was to spot the herds of wild horses that graze in the river. The horses wade in belly deep and stick their heads under the water to grab at the undulating grasses. I’m a horse girl, but I’ve never seen equine dining behavior like this, it was an amazing site!
Wild horses grazing on underwater grasses along the shoreline of the Salt River
Regardless if your travel goal is a lavish cruise, a trip to a foreign country, or a lazy paddle down a river to see wild horses graze on underwater grasses, start working toward your goal with a plan.
Goal Planning Basics:
Start with your Who, What, When, and Why. My daughter and I, wanted to take a road trip to the Salt River this summer to see the wild horses graze underwater. Your goal may be a backyard landscape project, paying off all of your debt, or helping your aging mom move into assisted living. The basics are the same.
Grab a pen and paper or a digital medium, and jot down a simple name of what you want to accomplish. We called our trip Salt River 2025. Sometimes it’s tempting to list 5 or 10 big goals, but then the overwhelm can set in. If you are new to goal setting, start with one goal at a time. Put your time and focus into seeing it to fruition. Then you can tackle the next goal you define.
Establish a timeline. I knew my daughter would arrive at my house on a certain date and that she would be exhausted from her long trip back from Korea. Before embarking on our adventure, we enjoyed a couple of downtime days on the water in Lake Havasu. After this brief recovery time, and at her request, I then had our route mapped out for a four-day road trip. I left the fifth day open so she could choose the return route if there was an additional site she wanted to experience.
Think through all costs. For Salt River 2025, I first researched and prebooked our hotels. With a route in hand, I could anticipate how many trips to the gas station we would need. Meals were considered (we stayed at hotels that offered a continental breakfast). Ordinarily, we SUP (Stand Up Paddle board), but for the 4-hour Salt River float, we knew we would be seated most of the time. Therefore, a few paddle board accessories were borrowed, like my husband’s kayak paddle and quick-attach seats that clipped to the boards.
*Paddle board enthusiasts tip: If you adventure out to a river with rocks or shallow rapids, I suggest purchasing a short fin, no more than 5 inches. I found one on Amazon for $15.88. It worked just fine. It didn’t offer a lot of directional control, and I felt side-to-side wobble while standing, but it kept me secure enough, and I didn’t damage my good paddle skimming through rocks and rapids. My daughter’s board has three fins, so we simply removed the longer center fin. We even accounted for day passes at the state park.
2025 Salt River paddle to see wild horses graze on underwater grasses. Did we set this summer vacation as part of our budget? Yes!
To learn more about creating your clear planning steps to achieve your goals, reach out to me, Marianne Nolte, CFP®, at imaginefinancialservices.com.
About the Author
Marianne Martini Nolte, CFP®, provides tax-savvy wealth management for women and couples.
View our Services & Fees HERE
CLICK HERE to book a free consultation.
Subscribe to the Imagine Financial Services monthly Newsletter HERE.
Check out financial videos on our YouTube channel HERE.
