I have a big problem for 2018. Money and time are no longer in great abundance for me. No, it’s not like I was swimming in $100 bills while sipping long island iced teas like I don’t have work tomorrow. But up until this point, I had a little bit more money and a little bit more time.
Before getting into my problem, first let me give a bit of background. While I won’t get into details about my job, just know that I’m an engineer in the aerospace industry. Since April 2015 until October 2017, I was sent to Japan seventeen times (!!!) for work. These trips usually lasted a week or two and culminated in a six-month assignment in 2017.
That’s crazy.
One of the reasons why it was easy to say yes to all these trips, besides the fact that Japan is pretty awesome, was the extra pay involved.
Ka. Ching.
Because of all the extra pay from these many trips to Japan, I was able to fund travels to many other places.
Just in Japan, I was able to visit Kyoto, Osaka, and Nagasaki.
Sydney, Australia. I have an aunt and uncle who live there.
San Diego, California. But I took the Amtrak train from north Texas all the way there, with a train switch in Los Angeles. I also visited San Diego as part of spending a weekend on both coasts (Washington, DC was the other) due to my nonrev standby travels.
Italy. Twice. Once for Mother Teresa’s canonization at the Vatican, and then for a week-long trip with my parents and brother to hit up Rome, Florence, Pisa, and Venice.
I weekended in Singapore. From Texas. It included a one-night stay in Hong Kong.
When I finished my last trip to Japan and returned home, I went on a trip to Hong Kong from Texas. Via Toronto, Canada.
I was also able to go to Fresno, California in order to attend a family reunion weekend.
These business trips to Japan also partially funded my World Youth Day 2016 pilgrimage to Krakow, Poland. This included Rome and Prague.
I don’t mention all these trips in order to brag, but rather to emphasize that these business trips to Japan were enablers for me to go places. 2015-2017 was intense and lit!
The problem
My problem for 2018? I have no business trips scheduled. Even then, company policies changed such that extra pay doesn’t happen anymore for typical business trips. -cry-
So, with no extra money, I don’t have good means to fund extra travels and pilgrimages.
Ok, kind of. At the end of 2017, I ended up booking three trans-Pacific trips costing me about $3500. Two are trips to visit family. One for fun. But, these trips were largely funded from my extra cash flow. The point is–I really don’t have extra money. And because the total amount of time these trips will cost me about two weeks of vacation, I also don’t have extra time in order to pull off long trips elsewhere.
Bottom line, if I want to go on more trips, especially pilgrimages, I need to be smart about how I spend my time and money.
I realize I have a unique situation that’s probably not relatable to most, but the challenges of time and money are the same.
Question for you–what are your challenges to traveling more?
If you’d like to follow along on how I try to go on pilgrimages for less time and less money, subscribe below!
JR is a full-time engineer working in the aerospace industry. Apart from having such a fly job, he flies unto the arms of Our Lady and the Church pursuing his faith and a relationship with Christ. Over the past several years, faith and flying via pilgrimages became a thing. When he’s not being fly, JR hangs out with family, friends, his chihuahua, and with thoughts of the next trip.
Where is your next Pilgrimage? I can have some money on what i have only here for you.. is what i can give to you.. tita wima
Hi Tita Wilma, I’m not sure when or where my next pilgrimage is. I think my pilgrimages will be mostly local this year in order to keep them low-cost. I don’t need your money, but thanks for the offer! 🙂