So, I completely missed my February progress checkin. And March. And April, and May, for that matter. The months just kept whizzing by, somehow.
So what’s going down?
For one, I’ve called it quits on Codeyear, the Javascript edition. It got to the point where I couldn’t see the value in it for me (which I figured would happen – it was fun to be able to make things happen, but front-end stuff is more relevant to me). But I have picked up their CSS lessons which are, so far, pretty awesome.
I seem to go through phases of posting photos regularly to my Tumblr. I also finally joined Instagram – how easy is it to make anything look good on that? – and dipped in and out of February/March Photo a Day. But really I want learn to take good photos without effects; I’m actually using my dSLR on full manual settings from time to time. That does make it a bit more arduous when uploading to Tumblr, though.
Remember how I emailed a few places about volunteering opportunities back in the summer? I FINALLY heard back months later – apparently they were swamped with interest. So, seeing as winter must then by logic be their quiet period, I should get back on the horse. I haven’t, though. Since that email arrived things have been super busy for me and T, and with days as short as these it kind of feels like I don’t have all that much time. KWIM?
Things I’m working on planning:
- our road trip later this year (all I really need to do now is sort out insurance, which I STILL haven’t done, and check out ski packages);
- our wedding (have made the first step: feeling out venues. I’ve made a list, which isn’t very long. We’ve looked at one possible ceremony venue, which I had stupidly high hopes for that were subsequently dashed. I’d quite like to get married outside of Auckland if we don’t find a place that suits our budget and needs, though I’m not really sure where or how to start looking. Any recommendations?);
- and honeymoon (sorta. had a quick chat to a travel agent and got a few questions answered about Europe. I’m still not ruling out running away for an extended period of round the world travel)
As for financials … I put my first couple of hundred dollars into index funds separately from Kiwisaver as Rabobank was doing a special deal where entry fees were slashed. Baby steps!
And as for those savings goals…
- Travel fund is fully funded. $10k
- Road trip fund is fully funded. $3k
- Wedding fund is… in progress. On track for completion by the end of the year. $5k
The one problem with an extended RTW honeymoon would be money. We definitely will not have enough saved to undertake something like that in 2013. A quick jaunt through budgetyourtrip.com suggests that would require $40k for two in NZ dollars. The site averages out travellers’ costs, so we could likely manage for less, but it’s always good to round up, and we’d have to incorporate things like departure taxes, internal transport (between countries/cities), etc. I also don’t know how many more days we’d realistically need to add on to factor in extra travel time. (Don’t get too snarky about my spreadsheet, please – it was all very much made up on the spot, so may not be uber realistic. I’ve probably wildly overstated the cost of hiring a car in the US, especially as your petrol prices are crazy low.)
How are your 2012 goals coming along?
well, wedding venues, what are you looking fr? religious, outside, numbers of guests?
Non religious. Indoor. 40-50. Ideally one place for both ceremony and reception. We’re pretty laid back people so not after something pristine and princessy. But by the same stroke, I’d like something more than just a backyard BBQ.
You’d probably be completely knackered taking a trip like that, especially when you factor in travel time. For example, with 2 days in Portugal, you’ll spend one day getting there, sleep, 1 day in Portugal, sleep, and off to your next destination. You could maybe break it up by area into 3 trips over the next 3 or 4 years? More to look forward to? Any way you do it though, it will be pretty amazing!
That is my original plan (as per my Goals page), although lately I have been considering doing it all in one extended period, as you can see – I don’t want to do the traditional OE but I definitely have the travel itch.
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My financial goals are pretty much right on track, which is great. My career goals kind of fell to the wayside a bit with the moving I’ve been doing, which is driving me nuts, but I am mentoring a few people right now which was one of my goals for the year.
Congrats on putting a few hundred dollars into index funds!
When are you guys planning on getting married?
Probably 2013, but not definitely – could be pushed back further.
I meant to comment earlier :S You can rent a car for a month for maybe $700 USD and gas is crazy cheap (regardless of what the Americans say — it’s still, by far, the cheapest means of transportation). $7000 per person for a month seems high to me. Canada and USA have about the same price level (USA is a bit cheaper) but you have your Canada days projected as being significantly less expensive than your American ones. All that being said, I think if you adjusted your numbers you’d see that it’s quite feasible to spend a month in the States 🙂
Well, that’s good to know! As I said, those are average numbers aggregated from Budget Your Trip. I imagine the numbers are higher in the US probably at least partly because of tourist attractions.