If you told me your finances were lagging and your dreams you planned for your family weren’t a reality yet, awesome you’re just like I was. I’ve been there before and I plan to never go back there again. You know what’s worse than not affording to take your whole family on a trip? Being able to afford taking 4 out of 5 and leaving one behind. This moment was the “game changer” for me.
Unbeknownst to you, my oldest son is extremely active in sports. Pretty much any sport he’s tried, he’s found an expensive interest in it. Football was his fave so when given an opportunity to travel and showcase his talent among the nation, me and Mrs. Simple FI scraped every last dollar we could to book him a ticket. We are very big proponents of following your passion. The story sounds pretty good so far.
The bad news? Baby brother wasn’t lucky to get a golden ticket. Instead he stayed back with Grandpa and Grandma Simple FI. We didn’t have the money nor did we have enough time to scramble and make more. We accepted the trip even on short notice. Now let me clarify, before we left I actually did have a long chat with Baby Brother. It seemed (more like I hoped) as though he understood. Any understanding I thought he had went right out the window when we were 3,500 miles away.
Every phone call. Every text. Every video chat. You could feel the tears deep within your soul. Nothing is worse than being the sole provider of your tribe and well…not providing. Witnessing your child weep when you can’t wipe their cheek. Absolutely gut wrenching.
It felt like the lowest of low periods of my parenthood. How did I allow us to be separated? Surely I could have done something different. But through this dark time, I found the “light”.
Here is the good great news. I looked at Mrs. and vowed to never let this happen again. Nothing will ever pull us apart from then on out. Not even a job relocation. When one goes, we all go. That’s kind of our motto.
How the heck do you expect to do that? Well if I want to preserve what cojones I had left, I best sit down and devise a plan. With another trip closely approaching, I jotted down the first ideas that popped up in my head.
#1. Fundraise Mrs. Simple FI’s luscious banana bread. The weird part about her baking her signature bread, my pants get tighter. For some reason, it always happens hah. Those who tried it had the same problem as me. Then it hit me, we need to turn our kitchen into a money-making-machine and get those into every single supermarket in mind! But instead we settled for friends and family which supplied a sufficient amount of funds for us. We had to give our time to bake them.
#2. Donate our time at the sport’s concession stand. This was a no-brainer. Show up, help everyone set up their station, get to work, close shop and split the profits. Every family supplied the upfront costs and divvied the balance evenly. Everyone gave whatever time they had to pick up shifts.
#3. Slash the dining out in half, save the balance. We all agreed that eating during our trip would be highly desirable over eating the same food we were used to. Whatever money we didn’t use went into a savings account never to be touched until our trip commenced. A huge plus side to this was being home more often for dinner spending quality time with the little FI’ers and the Mrs.
#4. Sell our unwanted items online. Not knowing anything about this but hearing it from every other YouTube video, thought what the heck? It couldn’t be that hard. It really wasn’t. Just set-up your online account, list the items, get a sale, and deliver to the post office. Hardest part was believing the market wanted our stuff. Rather than rely on that, I ended up reselling thrift store items to make a few extra bucks. Sure it took time out of my day but I had nothing else to do.
#5. Sell a non-vital organ. Thought this was pretty farfetched but come to find out it is done way more often than I thought. But first, how would you consider what is and isn’t’ vital? If my body was born with it, I’m keeping it. But the thought did cross my mind. Guess if times were extremely tough then maybe.
#6. Refinance the house. Kids’ sports are no joke. Heard a family actually did this exact thing for their son. It paid off because that boy might be a top five draft pick for the NFL. That family lucked out big time. I’d refi if I knew my kid was going pro someday right after he signs a contract splitting his signing bonus hah.
In the end, I knew what needed to be done for my promise to be upheld and not look like a sellout to my son. One word HUSTLE. There weren’t extra hours I could pick up at my job. Mrs. Simple FI couldn’t just apply for work just to quit a few months later because we’re too cheap for childcare. We had a pretty slim monthly budget at that point. So if money needed to be made, then time needed to be sacrificed. Time equals money. It just needed to be spent differently. And get to keep my non-vital organ and didn’t have to refi the house.
Leaving him back home while we traveled opened up my eyes to other possibilities I couldn’t think of while living our “comfortable” lives. Talk about a wake-up call. But now I’ve got a new set of eyes for opportunities I may be missing out on. They are everywhere, sometimes a little more hidden than others.
Like that little blue Disney monster said “Ohana means family. Family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten.” Unless you are like us and couldn’t afford it then the next option was looking at our time. Spend that more wisely. And if you lack motivation, your first option shouldn’t be to leave any family member behind. But if it really came down to it, that might be exactly what you need to unlock some crazy-hidden-potential-money-maker-thoughts.