And my once dry, white, scratchy, kind of disgusting bottoms of my feet turned into just normal feet. Wow! I used to think that people just had naturally nice feet. But I now think some people just take care of their feet. Hey, I’m one of those people now!

I noticed my hair thinning, so I went to the dermatologist and she diagnosed my dry scalp. She said that the dryness irritates the hair follicles and prevents them from growing. So, I filled a prescription for some steroid shampoo and used it for a while. Six months later, my hair is noticeably thicker and my scalp is feeling healthier. Amazing!

The grass is greenest where you water it.

One more example that I think is a pretty big deal. I noticed my shoulders starting to hunch in pictures, so I read a bunch of books on posture.

After taking posture pictures, as one of the books recommended, I saw that my knees caved in. I did exercises and tried to remind myself a hundred times a day to stand tall and set my shoulders back. Don’t lock out my knees.

Mark pointed out that reading books about posture is a stupid way to correct posture.

So, I saw a physical therapist and had him watch me walk and stand and tested my range of motion and mobility on all the various joints. Apparently, I rest on the inside of my feet and not the middle of my feet.

Few things have been life-changing for me, you guys. Resolutions chart. Marie Kondo. Early retirement. Cognitive behavorial therapy. Now, I can add “knowing how to stand/walk properly” on that list.

After months and months and months of being conscious of it every day, I now plant my feet down the middle of my foot. I corrected my sunken knees!

My poor knees. They used to hurt when I was a child and young adult. I think I’ve been walking wrong my whole life. When I turned 35 and did my year of the body I told you about, I started working out and my knee pain disappeared. Mostly.

They still creaked and groaned and felt precarious. Especially when I was doing “pulsing” exercises at the gym. And they’d ache at night perhaps once a month.

Until I corrected my stance. Now my knees haven’t hurt since I’ve put more conscious effort into walking and standing correctly.

And it’s not just my knees. My hips are aligned. I find it easier to keep my core stable. All because I corrected my feet. So, I don’t pay attention to my knees; I think about how I start my step with my foot and make sure it doesn’t roll. When the foot is right, the knee and hip fall into place. I make sure my foot is angled correctly when I stand.

Let me tell you, folks, it is not easy to change your gait after forty plus years. I would go to the gym and walk on an incline on a treadmill for forty minutes and focus on my foot placement with each step. It took a lot of time and practice and mental energy. I’m sure it’s something I’ll have to practice at and think about for many more moons.

The grass is greenest where you water it.

Oh, and flossing! You stop flossing for just a few days and your gums bleed when you pick it up again. Without constant cleaning, your gums accumulate bacteria. Every night you have to get it off. You have to keep watering this shit.

Just some observations.

***

It is such a joy to write this blog. Thanks so much for reading.

The post The grass is greenest where you water it appeared first on The Power of Thrift.

I was wrong.

Turns out, making money after retirement is way harder than I thought it would be.

So, eleven years after quitting my job, I’ve made a ton of money from my investments. Those are, for now, still going strong and supporting me fully in my retirement. So, phew!

But my non-investment endeavors have been faring rather crappily. Crappedly?

First, I wrote and published a book. Eight years ago. I’m super proud of it and I love the fact that I did it, pouring my heart and everything I know into it. It’s bought me immense satisfaction, but it hasn’t brought me any dollars. I still haven’t made back the money I spent to create it.

I’ve done surveys in person and online, telling people what I like about this yogurt and what I dislike about this jelly label. I’ve earned perhaps $1,000 worth of gift cards over two years.

I opened an ebay store. I’ve made ~$1,100 on old jewelry and watches my family gave me.

I spent entire days as an election judge. I made less than $5,000 over two years.

Six years ago, I interviewed for a civil rights law firm. They offered $40 an hour.

It’s hardly the $300,000+ I made my last year at my law firm. It’s way harder to jump back into the workplace after a hiatus than it is to slide from one job to the next when you’re already working.

Just a thought. The opportunity cost is enormous.

Worth it. Absolutely, 100% worth it. Just enormous.

***

And, on the flip side, I did receive job offers that I’ve turned down. The civil rights firm, offers from friends who own their own businesses, requests from friends to manage their business.

I don’t want to work. I love not working. I’m beginning to think that’s rare.

The post Making money post retirement appeared first on The Power of Thrift.

Action Plan

First, the look. I’ll walk around my place making a giant wish list of things that I think would make everything look better. I’ll put nesting on my resolutions chart every month, and every day, I’ll work on an item from the wish list. I want to put up pictures and pick out art and put some color and comfort into my world. The goal is to make our home a haven tailored to me and Mark.

I’m going to Konmarie the space again and buy more organizers that look pretty. My house will turn more functional, cleaner, more beautiful.

Then, we’re hiring an interior designer to tell us how to make our space more homey. I don’t have an eye for that stuff and neither does Mark. We’ve hired her to do a few of our Airbnb units in the past and we’ve been very happy with the results and her taste.

I also mentally prepared myself for spending on a “flower budget” every couple of weeks.

Then, for smell, I plan to regularly light incense and candles and boil cinnamon sticks in water on the stove to make our home cozy.

Also, I’ll play music I like regularly. I’ve never been one to think about sounds. I only listen to people singing when I’m in the car and putting on the radio, but I like the idea of mood music in my life.

Nesting means enjoying my home city. We’re plotting visits to museums and booking monthly couple’s massages. I plan to cuddle the kitty regularly.

It’s going to be great.

Cost

I’ve never spent real money on furniture. I used to scour Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace for used stuff close to me and just hodge podged everything together. Nothing matched and nothing brought me joy. I could not create a cohesive theme. Mark bought all his furniture from Ikea. But, again, no joy.

I’ve also never scheduled monthly body maintenance like a regular massage. It’ll be a shift in mindset, for sure.

Spend out. Die with zero. I gave myself a budget for this project that made up for not traveling this year. We’ll see at the end of the year how close I came.

*I say year 2027, but it’s really late-October 2026 through late-October 2027. I don’t always start a year-of project on January 1st. Sometimes, I start on my birthday. Right now I’m doing it by year of marriage. Year three of marriage for us is nesting.

What else can I do for my year of nesting? Any ideas?

The post 2027 – The Year of Nesting appeared first on The Power of Thrift.

So, French Bee is a low cost carrier and flying with them comes with risks. About an hour before we were scheduled to leave for the airport, they delayed the flight…by 23 hours. That adjustment meant we would lose our day in Tahiti. Boo.

Please believe me when I say that this trip started out really cheap. $240 for an eight-hour flight is insane. Then we had to buy flights from Denver to San Francisco and back ($79 each; also reasonable). Then we had to find flights to and from Bora Bora and Tahiti ($368 each).

And then, your girl made a mistake. We bought an extravagant flight from Tahiti to San Francisco. This eight-hour chunk of time cost us $1,930. Each. Eeek! We might have flown business with the lay flat seats and the pods and the amazingness.

And you know what? Something inside of me broke. The one aspect of traveling that was less than ideal was always the flight itself. It’s hard to get comfortable. You feel a little like cattle. There’s not much room. I absolutely hate when I’m done eating my meal and need to wait twenty minutes for the flight attendants to clear it.

But flying business class seats completely eliminated those inconveniences. We didn’t have to wait in lines. We used the lounge before the flight that we wouldn’t otherwise have access to. I could eat on the plane whenever I felt like it. And yes, the flight attendants spirited away my tray as soon as I finished eating. It was glorious.

I’m ruined.

I spend way less than I’m “allowed” to spend each year per the four per cent rule, like, half. The power of compound interest made the amount a smaller percentage of my net worth. At what point can I say that business class is a reasonable regular splurge that makes my life so much better?

Because, in my opinion, upgrading on a flight is the ultimate splurge. It’s such a big reach financially for such a short amount of time and it’s really, really hard to justify.

But, oh, what a luxury. Being able to lie down in the air is a real treat when the flight flies overnight.

Since that Tahiti to San Francisco trip, we’ve flown business class once more going to Africa. Denver -> Istanbul -> Accra and back. It cost $3,000 round trip per person. For just about forty hours of flying.

I flew business class when I worked as a lawyer. We also flew business for our wedding to Cancun. It’s so hard going back to economy because, in my opinion, paying the extra money absolutely makes the trip at least three times better. The flight and the airport and the hours logged become an enjoyable part of the vacation and not something to just get through.

We’ve decided to take far fewer trips, but spend out on the trips we do take. So, my answer on how I justify business class seats really depends on the price. If it’s three to four times as expensive as economy class, I would consider it. If it was ten times more expensive than economy class, I probably wouldn’t. I could also see myself building trips around good business class seats that I find and then flying economy for the shorter legs.

This goes against my brand, but I do love this luxury. Don’t come at me. Travel is the only thing I spend money on.

The post On Business Class seats appeared first on The Power of Thrift.

I’ve visited Morocco and Egypt before, but this was my first foray into the middle part of Africa. I picked Ghana because they speak English and it’s safe. From what I’ve read. I picked Sao Tome because I’ve really started liking beach vacations since I learned to swim. And it’s safe. I always felt safe in both places when we were there.

I didn’t know what to expect exactly, but here’s my bucket list from that trip.

Ghana

See the door of no return

We went to the Cape Coast Castle in Ghana. It’s a terrifying castle where they held slaves before they were shipped off across the ocean.

Visit a street market

We went to the Osu night market in Accra where Mark ate some chicken. I didn’t eat anything there. I questioned the hygiene practices. The sewage smell deterred me.

Go on a canopy walk

We went to Kakum National Park and walked on bridge ropes suspended high up in the air, in the tree canopy. It was scary because the bridge was single-file and swayed a lot.

But it was fun. We hiked around there. I liked this part.

Try Ghanaian food

We ate banku (fermented maize) and red red (red beans) and kelewele (fried plantains) and waakye (rice and beans). The red red was terrific.

You’re supposed to just swallow the banku and not chew it, which feels weird. You eat it with slimy okra.

Observations

• People carry all sorts of things on their head here.
• You can get anything you need at busy intersections in Accra where people with wares on their head try to sell you those wares. Food. Water. Tissue paper. Puppies.
• There is most definitely a tourist tax here. Some restaurants even had separate menus for locals and foreigners.

Sao Tome

Sao Tome is an island nation off the coast of Gabon. It’s a former Portuguese colony. I had high hopes for this place, but the water isn’t that warm and the beach near our hotel was rocky.

Visit the equator?

We didn’t go see the equator. It was a 2 hour drive from our hotel and then another 20-minute boat ride to get to see the equator, which felt silly. Maybe we should have.

Cacao tour?

Didn’t do. We should have. I have no excuse.

Read a book on the beach

I’ve been reading a lot more lately. I started in January with 25 pages a day. In February, I read 33 a day. In March, 50. April 67. May 75. June 100. You get the point, I think.

By September, I was up to 150 pages a day. I’ve always fallen off reading when I’m on vacation, though. And this trip proved no different. I read only one book when I was out there. I had three on me, so I consider this a fail.

Observations:

• We rented a car and I’m glad we did. We drove around the island quite a bit. Well, Mark did. I don’t know how to drive stick.
• There are no Indian restaurants in Sao Tome. This is the first time I’ve encountered this defeat.
• There are no group fitness classes in Sao Tome.
• So. Much. Trash.

***

After I retired, I spent the next three years traveling and then, at the end of that three years, I was just kind of done with it and I picked Denver and took a break from the trips.

I started feeling that feeling again in Mongolia in the gurt. I’m spending all this money to do….this? And I found myself thinking that thought again before we went to Accra.

Getting a visa for Ghana is a huge pain in the butt. If I had realized how difficult the visa process was, I would not have picked Ghana to visit.

Mark didn’t have two consecutive blank pages in his passport book left, so he had to get a new passport. So right after we got back from Japan, we had to mail the old passport to the US government and pay for expedited processing and two-day mail returns.

Cost

And the visa itself! Girl! You need to create an online account and fill in an application, upload a picture, make a copy of your biodata page of the passport, create a travel itinerary, upload confirmed hotel bookings, upload a copy of your signature, pay the fees ($185 each).

We needed a multi-entry visa because we were visiting Sao Tome in the middle of the trip. Finally, we printed out the application, signed it, sent off our precious passports ($20 each), included a paid return envelope ($20 each), and hoped for the best.

There is an e-visa, but it’s nearly $500 each for multi-entry! That’s an absolutely absurd price for a visa.

We received everything back a few days later. And it was fine. I just like to complain.

We also needed yellow fever ($270) and typhoid fever vaccines ($40 each) and malaria pills and deet for our skin and permetherin for our clothes ($25) and antibiotics in case we got sick there. Plus, we paid for the travel clinic appointment ($70 each) just to get these prescriptions.

We splurged on flights because this is our last difficult trip for a while. And, because I just wanted a nice place to come home to after perhaps a hectic day, we stayed in nice hotels. We paid for an upgrade to a suite. We did tours.

It was expensive. You can visit Africa cheaply, but I didn’t want to do that. I’m so happy we splurged on everything. The hotel acted as a nice sanctuary. Business class seats made the long journey actually fun. I wanted the flight to go longer.

I’m not going to tell you the total price of the trip because I don’t want you to freak out. We spent out. No regrets, but we won’t be doing it again anytime soon.

Conclusion

These two places were country/territory/visited place number 102 and 103 for me. Visited place number 100 came and went without me realizing. They’re just numbers.

So, we’re sick of travel and we are starting the Year of Nesting soon! I’ll tell you about that in a bit. I have fun plans. It includes charts and lists and I’m so excited.

The post Ghana and Sao Tome Bucket List appeared first on The Power of Thrift.

5. Swim two laps using the breaststroke

I still can’t do this, guys.

The breaststroke is difficult because you have to turn your ankles outward and keep your knees outside your ankle. It’s the most technically complex of the strokes. Timing is key.

I’m not coordinated, so breaststroke is a real challenge for me. You have to breathe out through your nose when you’re underwater, which is not how I do it for the front crawl stroke, so I had to learn a whole new skill. And frankly, when I finally turned my attention to learning the breaststroke, I was three years into consistent swimming lessons and sort of done with the whole thing mentally, so I took some time off.

In the two years since, I’ve tried some more learning of this stroke and it still confounds me. I’ll keep trying, but not very hard. Mark says nobody cares about this stroke.

6. Touch the bottom of the deep end of the pool with my hand

This sub-bucket list item of touching the bottom of the deep end of the pool with my hand seemed impossible. First, I’m very buoyant and float easily, so getting down under the water is physically not that easy.

Second, and more importantly, I learned you have to exhale out all your air and then you’ll sink. Which sounds insane to me! If I breathe out all my air, won’t I not have air? That was my fundamental disconnect.

I touched the bottom of a five feet, two inches deep pool in July 2023 by kicking off the side of the pool, exhaling out most of my air, and then fighting like mad to get to the bottom. A year later, I was able to touch the bottom of a ten foot deep pool pretty easily. Now, years later, I do it without thinking; My favorite thing to do now is swim between people’s legs. Practice.

7. Jump off a diving board

Jumping off a diving board is like jumping into the deep end, except on steroids. I’m not afraid of heights, but the water at the end of the height made this one tricky. There was a diving board when we went to Glenwood Springs hot springs. I saw it, gathered up all my courage, climbed the ladder and then, before I had time to think, I jumped. I completed this goal in May 2024. The board was not super tall, maybe a few feet, but it was a majestic moment.

We’ve visited Glenwood a few times since then and I’ve jumped more. By early 2025, I was diving headfirst into a deep pool from the edge. Persistent, steady practice.

8. Go scuba diving

I took scuba diving classes in Denver at a deep pool. I’m all about the classes. It was scary at first, but if you trust the equipment, I guess it’s okay. I told you about this. I did it in May 2025.

***

Cost

I spent $497.75 on swimming lessons, taking eleven sets of lessons, two days a week, 30-45 minutes a day, four weeks at a time over three plus years from the Denver Parks and Rec center.

I can’t tell you how euphoric it is to learn something new, especially something you thought was impossible. It shakes off the plaque in the old brain cells and makes you feel alive again. I highly recommend.

You have to change your identity from a non-swimmer to a swimmer and that mindshift shift takes time.

I always felt like I was missing out when I was traveling because I couldn’t swim. Now I play in the pool, in the deep end. I jump in and I actually have fun. It’s amazing!

After all that, am I comfortable in the water? The answer, if I’m being honest with myself, is still no. I wouldn’t dream of going surfing or jumping off a high diving board. I now have a very healthy fear of the water instead of an incapacitating fear of the water.

And I know I say this a lot, but I don’t think I would have been able to achieve this goal if it weren’t for early retirement. I tried and took swimming lessons all throughout my adulthood. I couldn’t juggle so many balls while working, and a ball I initially hated – swimming – would drop pretty quickly when other things came up. Based on past experience.

***

What about you? Are you a good swimmer? Can you do all of the items I listed in these articles? Is there anything else I should add to the list? I could probably do with a few more lessons.

The post Learn to swim part II appeared first on The Power of Thrift.

Tokyo bucket list

1. Eat all the food in Tokyo.

Oh man. Tokyo knows food. Japan knows food. Every single thing we ate there delighted the senses. Souffle pancakes.

Real wasabi. Egg salad sandwiches from 7/11 every single morning. Onigiri. Sushi. Ramen. Guzman Y Gomez, a burrito place I used to frequent in Sydney, had a chain in Tokyo. We ate and ate and ate. Heaven and bliss and wonderful. I gained weight.

Head spa in Tokyo

We went to a head spa in Tokyo because they were invented there. This is a new thing. They wash your hair and analyze your scalp and massage your neck and noggin. It’s wonderful and something a little different to do than a normal body massage.

Team Labs

Team Labs is this incredible immersive experience with lights and sounds and smells and mirrors and angles. I’m doing a bad job of explaining it, but it was a good way to spend the afternoon. Pictures don’t turn out well. At least mine didn’t.

Walk around as much as possible

We walked tens of thousands of steps each day in Tokyo and it wasn’t awful even though the weather was scorching. They have so much greenery. Shrubs in the buildings and trees in the sidewalks and flowers everywhere you look. It’s a pretty city.

Mongolia Bucket List

See some wrestling at the Naadam festival

We went to Mongolia in July, the best month to visit, weather-wise. We went during the Naadam festival, which is when everyone comes to the capital (Ulaanbaatar), and eats the same street food from different vendors (pounded meat in a crepe like bread). They dress up in their finest garb and watch wrestling, (the favorite won and everyone was so happy), archery, and horse racing.

I did some good people watching. The horses in Mongolia are smaller than the horses I’m used to.

Stay in a yurt

We stayed with a nomadic family out in the middle of nowhere. They had a few camels laying next to the yurts that we saw in the evening, but were gone by the morning. The wild horses came and grazed next to the yurts and were gone in the morning, too. We asked the tour guide what happens with these animals and he said they just kind of wander off and take care of themselves and then wander back when they’re in the mood. They’re indoor/outdoor camels and horses.

Travel is about seeing how other people live. I’m not sure I would call the excursion fun. There was no wifi and no television, only a light bulb powered by a car battery and a small fridge powered by solar panels. The grandmother of the family cooked us a very simple meal of rice and potatoes and some sort of meat. When I said I didn’t eat meat, she made me a dish made of rice, cabbage, and potatoes. She offered us a parmesan-like hard cheese, stale bread, candy, and salted, warm milk. Possibly from a camel.

We didn’t think they gave us pillows and were using our backpacks and clothes until the grandmother came in, laughing at us, with bedding.

For breakfast, we had fried eggs, stale bread, and a spam-like meat. People in Mongolia may eat simply, but their portions are absolutely huge.

Ride a camel

I’m always torn about doing something with animals when I’m traveling. I don’t know how they’re treated when I’m not around and I’ve done some things I wish I hadn’t in the past. We rode two-humped camels here.

I’m not sure how to feel. They wander and roam and do pretty much what they want, but they have sticks through their noses. I think that’s their noses.

Massage

We like getting couples massages in foreign countries, but the one we got in Mongolia was odd. The table didn’t have a blanket. There was no music. The masseuse straddled me during the massage and didn’t seem like she was using any technique. She was pressing her hands into my face. My husband’s masseuse took a phone call in the middle of the massage and left. She also used cupping therapy, which was a first for him. She placed heated cups on him to create suction.

Trip goals

Go to the gym every day (except travel days)

There’s an F45 gym, my home gym, in Tokyo, so I thought going there would be an experience. I managed to make exercise my big rock in Japan, doing it every day as the sun came up. The instructors spoke in a mixture of Japanese and English, but the workouts were still intense and felt, you guessed it, wonderful.

I wasn’t as good in Mongolia, never making it to the hotel gym like I planned. I suppose I could have ran or did calisthenics in the steppe, but I did not.

Visit the third Eiffel Tower-like structure this year

In March, we went to see the Vegas Eiffel Tower, and in May, we went to see the original one, the Paris one. In July was the Tokyo one. Here they all are. Can you tell which is which?

Cost

I’m not going to tell you the cost of this trip because I don’t know it. Haha. This was the first time I did not calculate the final price of a trip — or even the components, and just let it ride. Another milestone for me in early retirement. We flew Zip Air and upgraded to a lay flat seat for $600 each. It’s the only economy-class full flat seat in the market. It doesn’t come with food or luggage space or even a blanket.

The hotel rooms in Japan cost us nothing because we used hotel points.

Mongolia was kind of expensive because we went during the Naadam festival when prices are high for hotels. The yurt stay and tours were pricey, too. I don’t know how much it was, but it was worth every penny.

I know I haven’t been telling you about life lately. It’s largely the same. This is the year of honeymooning. Since getting married last October, we’ve visited Bora Bora, French Polynesia; Puerto Escondido, Mexico; Dublin, Ireland; Bratislava, Slovakia; Budapest, Hungary; Belgrade, Serbia, Paris, France, and some domestic travel. We have plans for parts of Africa soon and I promise I’ll tell you about that trip afterwards.

The post Tokyo/Mongolia bucket list appeared first on The Power of Thrift.

The wedding was a three day affair in Cancun, Mexico from October 23 – October 26th, 2025 at the JW Marriott.

Pre-wedding days

Okay, we arrived Monday, October 20th and we spent two days in blissful harmony enjoying each other’s company solo.

On Wednesday, our families flew in and learned more about each other. We hung out by the pool and ate and drank and giggled. We all had dinner together.

Thursday

On Thursday, the official wedding start date, most everyone else arrived and settled into the hotel. I saw people at the pool I hadn’t seen in years and some I had seen recently. We swam (because I can do that now), we ate, we hung out, we caught up. I met some of Mark’s old friends whose paths I had yet to cross.

Thursday night, Mark and I hosted a welcome party. Waiters served hor d’oeuvres and drinks. Water drummers enticed the audience forward to make music and splashes. We ate, we conversed, we reminisced. I had an absolute blast.

Friday

The second day, a Friday, the morning started out at the pool again, greeting new people that arrived. I went and got my hair and makeup done because you can do that when you’re getting married. My sisters, mom, sister-in-law and mother-in-law all got their pretty on during this time as well.

I slipped into my lehenga and put on my earrings, my rings, my necklace, my bracelets, my nose ring, my nose to earring chain, my ring to bracelet chain, and my belly ring and waited by the hotel entrance.

Mark rode a horse to the top of the hill toward me while the guests danced around him for the baraat.

We hugged. Our families exchanged gifts. We made everyone follow us inside to the mehndi.

At this event, guests could get henna tattoos, eat Indian food, and drink to their hearts’ content. We had a fashion show for everyone to flaunt their Indian outfits; the winner received a massage to the hotel. We also did some Bollywood dancing.

I had a blast.

After the mehndi, I met a lot of my friends at the bar in the hotel. We drank and bonded. I met some family at a different hotel bar. We hung out and made new memories.

Saturday

The third and final day, a Saturday, I got my hair and makeup done too early in the morning, slipped on a not-so-traditional white dress that I told you about and my mother’s favorite earrings I’ve always admired, posed for about 1000 pictures, and then walked down the aisle of all my friends and family toward Mark.

We sipped some wine and broke a glass and walked seven steps and exchanged rings we already had and my cousin declared us married.

Saturday afternoon, we went back to the pool and had another blast out there. The weather was near perfect the whole weekend with only the occasional splash of rain.

Saturday evening, we hosted a cocktail hour. During that time, watercolor artist would take our guests’ pictures. There were drinks and our signature tamarind margarita that I drank two of. We walked into the reception as our new shared last name and then everyone closest to Mark and I reminisced about earlier days in the form of toasts. The DJ played music and we danced the night away. The painters painted. We did the hora. We ate and drank and caught up.

The after party was across the street at a bar where we shisha’d and drank and recollected and gossiped until 1:30am. We were in the lobby by 2 and Mark and I were back in our bathing suits in the hottub at 3am, sharing a lovely soak by ourselves, taking in the weekend.

On Sunday, we said goodbye to everyone over breakfast. And we stayed one more day until Monday with a few stragglers. Just breathing.

Finally, we flew home Monday night.

Perfection

It was, in a word, perfection on a stick. Sublime. The cat’s pajamas. I have no notes. The wedding of our dreams. Best week plus of my life.

I grew up thinking multi-day weddings were normal, so I felt entitled to one. Of course we’re going to have a henna party. I grew up in the USA watching and existing in its culture, so of course I wanted to walk down the aisle toward the love of my life.

I understand why people want to have a big wedding. It’s joyous. Everywhere I looked, I saw people I wanted to talk to, people from different stages of life. I saw all of Mark’s stages of life at the wedding, too, and it made us that much more closer. I know all the people in his stories and he knows all mine.

When do you ever get all the people who know and love you together in one place having a great time, vacationing together, and sharing happy times from the past, enjoying the happy time in the present, and planning happy times for the future? Never. Not when you’re alive, at least.

I was so darn happy all week, having so much fun. That was a depth of happiness I hadn’t yet experienced.

My motto was always Guests First. I read that in a book about wedding planning. All I wanted was for everyone to be comfortable and happy and spend time with us. I think the operation succeeded. It felt like I won everything that weekend. I married my best friend.

This is why I have money. Or, at least, this is why I have money. Relationships, travel, adventure, memories! Your “why” of life might be different, but that’s definitely mine.

The post We married! Want to see some pics? appeared first on The Power of Thrift.

I was actively dreading my scuba lessons. I haven’t actively dreaded something since I quit working. It’s an unpleasant feeling that I don’t miss.

Water is my Everest. Swimming is terrifying. I’ve been trying to learn for years with moderate success. I took adult swim lessons, tried Youtube videos, bought a program, downloaded apps. My development did not feel proportional to my efforts.

I still can’t do the breast stroke to save my life. Literally.

But I had made some progress on the other swimming bucket list items, like treading water and jumping into the deep end of the pool and swimming the front crawl, so I thought maybe I could tackle scuba. You don’t need to know how to swim to go scuba diving. It’s a very equipment-intense sport.

Lessons in a pool

I took private lessons in a nine-foot deep pool in Denver. I paid $75 for a Try Scuba lesson in September 2023, where you just put the gear on and glide through the water a bit. That was scary, but doable and I caught glimpses of fun.

Then I spent $550 for three days of classroom lessons and pool sessions in November 2023. These three days are how much training most people need. I received a 100% on the written test, but couldn’t do a lot of the excercises in the pool, like the giant stride entry into the water.

It all felt a little ridiculous.

“Step into the water.”

“I can’t.”

“It’s easy.”

“I know.”

“You’re in a wetsuit. You’ll float. You’ll bob right back up.”

“That’s true.”

I thought about quitting. I wrote this whole spiel in my head about reworking my bucket list — a living, breathing document — and removing scuba diving, and knowing your limits and all that jazz hands.

Isn’t this supposed to be fun?

But then I talked to my uncle who said I’d regret it if I didn’t try a little harder. I weighed that against what I remember my instructor saying.

“In forty years of scuba diving, more than five thousand dives, I’ve only seen one fatality. This person panicked, held their breath, and swam to the surface. Their lungs exploded.”

Oh. I panic in the water all the time.

So I paid another $150 for another three pool sessions a couple of months later in January 2024. Still anxious. I completed some of the requirements like taking out my regulator (breathing apparatus) in nine feet of water and putting it back in my mouth, but a lot of the exercises alluded me.

Ok. In April 2024, I paid another $50 to do another lesson and humbled myself even more. After many swim lessons and dozens of hours in the pool. I couldn’t do any of the exercises. My heart raced, my breathing was rapid, my eyes panicked. According to my instructor, anyway.

I felt pretty defeated at this point. I’d spent so much time in the water and I had crossed so many items off the “can you swim?” list. Mark swears I can swim well enough. But I still had this deep-seated dread around all things water.

So I took more swimming lessons and tried again, spending a lot of time in the pool.

It’s possible to be scared and brave at the same time.

I changed my thinking. Instead of the thought, “I have to go to the pool now,” I created the thought, “I get to go to the pool now.” Slowly, but surely, swimming became easier.

In December 2024, I paid $110 for two more scuba lessons in the pool and finally, something clicked. It didn’t seem as terrifying being underwater. It felt, dare I say, not terrible.

After that, I did Monday night pool practices with the scuba equipment for several months, acclimating myself further still, taking swimming lessons all along the way.

Scuba in the ocean

Then I had to do a real dive. In the wild. I did those with Mark and a private instructor in Bonaire in May 2025, spending $130 for myself.

Okay, it also cost the airfare and hotels, but I don’t include that because I would have gone there anyway.

In Bonair, you walk into the water for scuba diving. The equipment is heavy and it was intense. But it was also glorious and fun?

In total, I count $1,260 toward crossing this life bucket list item off. I mean ! $1,260! That’s a lot.

******

Expensive hobbies

On the one hand, I wanted to wait unti l was financially secure before I pursued certain goals. Don’t have expensive hobbies when you’re striding towards financial independence. It’s a lot easier to get there when your hobbies are free versus when they cost you hundreds in equipment and ongoing costs.

Looking over my bucket list, I see a few expensive possible hobbies. Skiing and scuba and sewing are the ones that stand out to me that I’ve waited to pursue until after I retired.

But on the other hand, I remember the book, Die with Zero. The author recommends taking on debt in your twenties to do things. If I had taken on debt to try skiing and scuba in my twenties, would I be struggling so hard now in my forties with these things?

Or even better yet, if I had learned these things as a kid, with no fear, like Mark did, would it be a non-issue? He skis and scuba dives regularly with no qualms.

But my mom said she had never even heard of skiing or scuba when she first had kids, so that was a non-option.

I don’t know what the answer is, but hey, I did it! It took me a long time and it cost me a bit of money, but I did it!

The post Life Bucket List Item Complete! #39 Go scuba diving appeared first on The Power of Thrift.

Every once in a while, though, I like to test my truths. Is a timeshare presentation a waste of time? I believe timeshares are, but what about the presentation? You know you can get a pretty cheap vacation out of them if you can say no to the sales pitch.

The Timeshare Presentation

Mark and I used the Hilton Grand Vacations Timeshare. We bought the vacation deal way back in January 2024 for $129 each ($258 total) for four days, three nights somewhere. We had the choice of Orlando, Las Vegas, or Myrtle Beach. I wanted to visit South Carolina as I’ve never been to that state, but a tropical storm thwarted our plans.

So, we picked Vegas and finally went there in March 2025.

Scheduling this trip was super annoying. It took many phone calls and much time on the phone.

But, I’ll give them props. Once we got there, the hotel was very nice. We paid for a one-bedroom and it was huge with a bathtub and a kitchen. We loved the room. It was right on the Las Vegas strip, so we could (and did) walk everywhere. $258 for three nights in this room was a steal.

As for the presentation itself, I was pleasantly surprised. It wasn’t high pressure at all. We arrived at our appointment, ate some snacks, waited around for a video to start, watched a 20 minute advertisement espousing the virtues of travel, then we talked one-on-one with a sales consultant who gave us some numbers that don’t mean a whole lot.

A package worth 11,200 points each year will cost $54,990 over the life of the loan. The interest rate depends on your credit score. There’s also maintenance fees and rollover fees that you pay each year. He calculated the monthly payment to be $897 – $962. We would need a down payment of $6,935 and we would get 22,000 bonus points if we signed on today.

He listed a lot of other numbers that just made my head hurt and I honestly couldn’t tell you what these points will get you. Financing a timeshare seems like a terrible idea. Instead of financing one trip on a credit card, you’re borrowing for all your trips right now! It just boggles my mind.

We said no politely and that was the end of it. We didn’t ask any questions and we just said we weren’t interested in learning a new points-based system and those seem to be the magic words.

The agent “sensed our vibe” and the whole ordeal — from snack time to pushing the elevator button to get out of there — lasted about an hour total.

Besides the cheap hotel for three nights in Vegas, they also gave us 50,000 Hilton points (not to be confused with the timeshare points, which is a completely separate system). We used those points to cover a night in a hotel in Omaha, Nebraska (a $142 value) a couple of weeks later.

All told, with transportation to and from the airports and flights and the hotel, we spent $466.32. I don’t count food because we would have needed to eat anyway. We did visit the Sphere and watch the show inside, which was another $200.

So, surprisingly, I would recommend a timeshare presentation. It’s a good way for a thrifty vacation!

The actual timeshare

Just don’t buy the actual timeshare.

Questions to consider (that we didn’t ask because we didn’t want to the meeting to last longer than necessary):

1. How can I get rid of it? What’s the market for selling them like?
2. What happens when I die? Will my estate have to pay anything?
3. What are the monthly maintenance fees? Are there any limits on how high that number can go?

A timeshare doesn’t make any sense for me because I don’t like the idea of paying money to have less flexibility for my vacation. I don’t want to go to the same place and I don’t want to be tied to one hotel chain for the rest of eternity.

So, it’s not for me. Is it for anyone?

I don’t know. I imagine there’s ways to maximize the points on travel, but I have a hard time picturing a scenario where it turns out to be a good idea. Especially when you consider financing. What if we get sick of traveling in a couple of years? What if we want to go somewhere Hilton doesn’t have a timeshare? Of the list of countries, the only new one would be St. Maarten for me. There are so many uncertainties.

You tell me. Am I wrong to be so skeptical of timeshares?

The post I went to a timeshare presentation so you don’t have to…unless you want to appeared first on The Power of Thrift.