The joy (and mechanics) of adventure planning

My favorite annual activity has commenced: the acquisition of a fresh, new, empty dry erase calendar showing the entire year at a glance. Woohoo! Seeing the blank calendar is like looking at a blank check.

Yes, most of the days will be a grind in corporate America, but it is all to fund the weekend warrior adventures, which gradually emerge in the little squares of the almighty calendar.

I'm a program manager by day, and have a sort of fetishistic bond to calendars, as some of my friends who have humored me with Calendly entries for social walks, or two-months-in-advance movie date plans will attest.

The promise inherent in an empty calendar.

Also, important, I'm still relatively new to marriage and traveling while married. This year Jason and I are more in tune with our differences: his passion is still for downhill and mine for cycling fitness with some outdoor thrill peppered in.

Lovely Infographic of 2024 Adventures!

But we share the "pioneer spirit" of wanting to go forth and try things. So we are kind of in it together for the most part.

Last year we had quite a few adventures, from a ski trip, to Vegas, the epic backcountry rides of Utahs, triathlons, metric centuries and cross country races.

We also had a blast in Sedona at MTB Fest.

So, with all this said about planning, I have to admit we exceeded our travel budget.

But the good news is, we were able to look at it objectively and figure out how to fund the additional costs as new opportunities arose. We are being careful in the new year to continue to think about trade offs so that we don't stress ourselves out financially.

Here we are in Las Vegas, Utah, Galveston (metric century Conquer the Coast), Sedona, Angel Fire and Bentonville at Little Sugar.

Budgeting for your Adventure Plans

While we are blessed with jobs related to technology, we don't have the most lucrative pay of software engineers, and Jason is raising three kids on his own. So we do have to get strategic about making things happen.

Pay yourself first

First things first, you have to get your financial priorities in line. If you are not familiar with Ramit Sethi's "Rich Life" philosophy, I recommend this and his podcast as a way to consider and plan your financial life. No kickbacks here, I just love Ramit's approach and recommend it.

Blog: "How to Live a Rich Life"

Book: "I Will Teach you to Be Rich" 

One thing I love about this is that I get to imagine what I want to be happy and included in my life and then prioritize my finances so that they reflect these desires.

For me, this means several trips a year, and lots of cycling trips.

That is more of an abundance mindset than the scarcity mindset that comes from not having a grip on what funds are coming in and where they are going. I use apps such as Rocket Money, Google Sheets and Empower to keep track of my big picture goals, operational spending and saving goals.

Gather Data

Living my "rich life" on a mountain bike

1. Gather data on how much previous trips cost. If you don't know, start tracking. I use a spreadsheet after getting burned by apps that get retired. Knowledge is power.

   1. extra tip: I group costs by lodging, air, ground transportation, sports, groceries, dining out and other. YMMV.

      
      

2. Classify trip ideas by cost. We do this by classifying trips into A, B and C class trips. A trips are the ones you can afford to do once a year, B trips twice a year, and C trips, more than twice a year. C trips are usually local and drivable such as a nearby area for a micro-adventure. For us in. Austin, San Antonio or Houston are examples.

   1. extra tip - leave breathing room in your plans for weddings or other new opportunities that come up during the year.

      
      

3. Select your trip mix. Eg, pick one A trip, two B trips, etc... Fit it roughly into your budget. Divide your budget into monthly chunks, and move that amount into a savings account every month. Keep it separate from other funds. Protect it like a baby endangered animal.

4. Carve out your expected travel costs. We put these into a shared bank account. We also got a shared credit card for travel costs that reward dining out, which we also use when we're traveling.

   Travel costs can be big hits to your monthly budget, so we like to amortize the costs with this method. That way, we do not feel guilty about paying for it because it's already budgeted and set aside for us.

There's way more to say about planning for adventure travel, but I'll leave it here for now. If I build more content, I'll break it into its own blog post.

And that’s what I can think of for now. Hope your new year is filled with tons of kinetic energy! Ride on, party on, rock on!