The Writer’s Coin

I just got back from the beautiful island of Aruba (that’s a picture from our room) and I learned a few things about myself and about money on the trip. Aruba is a tourist destination and earns more than half its GDP thanks to it. It’s because of this that things are so expensive if you’re eating dinner or buying a drink within these “tourist” designated areas like near the big hotels or downtown (and especially on the beach). I have never seen prices to jacked up and there is really nothing you can do. Time and time again I found myself saying, “Well, that’s the price. If it costs me $10 to get an 8oz beer on the beach, then that’s what I have to pay. Anyway, I’m on vacation.”

I found myself repeating that last one a lot because I had to reason why I was spending this much money. And this doesn’t even take into account that my future parents in law paid for most of the stuff we did, so I really can’t complain.

So anyway, here are some things I learned about money while I was on vacation:

• We all have our priorities: Some of us save up our money for nice cars, nice clothes, the latest gadgets, or whatever. Some of us (like myself) save up money for traveling. That’s what I’d rather spend my money on. I could care less about what kind of car I have as long as I get to go somewhere new and take tons of pictures while I’m there. While I spent quite a bit of money, I came back with only one new “possession” besides my pictures—a free t-shirt the scuba diving place gave me. I bought nothing else, which kind of surprised me.
• Vacation is where I relax: I’m frugal in “real life,” and that means I try to save a penny in everything I do (with the exception of the occasional nice dinner with M). But when I go on vacation I don’t like to do that. I’m not throwing money around like a rapper with no friends, but I’m not thinking about how to save money while I’m on a trip. If I really want the lobster (which I rarely do), then by God have the lobster. I know some people think this is ridiculous, but I think I got it from my dad—when we traveled he turned into a different person. As kids, we loved it because we got to spend more money, and now as a grown up I kind of understand. That mental state of not worrying about money is incredible relaxing—I’m sure it’s how extremely wealthy people feel every day of their lives. Not that I’m jealous or anything.
• Tourists will get fleeced: That’s just the reality of going to a place like Aruba. It hurts to pay $100 for a poolside lunch and drinks for four, but it is what it is. If you don’t like it you should go to the supermarket (Ling Brothers is nice I hear) and go that route. Have fun.
• Vacation has different meanings: Some people like to do absolutely nothing—sit by the pool or beach and read a book, nap, go for a short swim, walk on the beach, whatever. That’s what I was picturing, but after one day of that I was seeing that the week was going to be really long if I did that every day. Then I started to feel like I was missing out. So we scuba dove, then we toured the northern part of the island (a desert with really cool stuff to see), and we went to Baby Beach (incredible). We did relax, but we had a nice balance of the nothing and the getting to know the place. It was also nice to get out of the “tourist area,” although the whole island is touristy.
• Jobs = Security: The unemployment rate here is very very low, which leads to a very very low crime rate. Like their license plates say, Aruba is indeed “One happy island.” You can feel it walking around and interacting with people. You won’t see the poverty you see in other countries and it’s impressive when the locals (for the most part) know three languages (Spanish, English, and their local dialect, Papiamento).

Going on vacation to a new place (or the same place) is one of those things in life that I really love. It’s more important to me than money and that’s why I don’t really put strict limits on myself when I do it. I figure I’m saving my money in order to travel—that’s my purpose. Without a purpose saving and being frugal would be pretty tedious and much harder to stick with.

Anyway, now comes the hard part: going back to reality and starting to save again so that we can plan out our next fantastic trip with great memories and even some lessons throws in there for good measure.

Tags: Aruba, priorities, scuba, spending money, Traveling