Money Lessons Learned in Paradise

In July, I was lucky enough to check off one of my travel goals from my bucket list. My husband, mother and father and I prepared for the long journey to Fiji. It took 15 hours of air travel, 3 hours in a bus ride, and 1 hour on a boat to get to the small island of Bega. The long travel was worth every moment of beauty and happiness. While I was there, I had plenty of time to think. Bega has little to no internet connection and no land lines. The island seems almost untouched. There were no roads, cars, bikes, or horses. The small island population is only 3,000 and people took boats to go from one village to another. 

I felt honored to be in this place. To be around people that smiled so deeply and laughed frequently. At night you could hear the songs of the forest accompanied by the laughter of the people. They were warm and welcoming. As I climbed mountains, rowed kayaks, read books in peace, learned about Fijian culture, made friends with the locals and ate every meal with my loved ones, I was reminded that moments like these come once in a lifetime. I was determined to cherish every minute. 

To get to Bega, Fiji, I put money into a fund every single month for close to a year. It was a savings plan, monitored by the group we went with, the Underwater Adventure Seekers, a club founded by my father Dr. Albert Jose Jones 60 years ago. In addition to this savings plan, I put more money away every month to pay for additional expenses for the trip. In the end, I went to paradise and came home with zero debt. Saving for a year, to take a trip I have been wanting to go on since I was a child, was well worth it. Putting the money aside every month never felt like a burden, because I would rather use my money to make my dreams come true than purchase material goods. 

In Bega I remembered how much power our dollars have. The patient planner can make their dreams come true, while the reactionary spender can give away their power to unmemorable materials. Your purchases can create a life of wonder and amazement. People often believe that if they are wealthy, they can’t live remarkable lives, but that simply isn’t true. It is not as much about how much money you earn in a year, as it is about how you treat the money you earn. I have a lot of respect for the power of my dollars. 

Admittedly, five years ago I didn’t know or realize that the way I was spending my dollars was not placing me in a position of having an amazing life. I often spent on things that we were expected to, basically to meet the societal status quo, on purchases that we don’t question, because they are seen as a “necessity”. Creating a life that is financially fulfilling took hard work. I often like to believe I have found small inexpensive joys, so that I can allocate my dollars toward big eye-opening rewards. 

What does that mean, spend your money on big eye-opening rewards? I will be honest, in the beginning I didn’t quite understand what would be worth my dollars. Partly because we are not taught to think of money in that way. We are taught to earn money and purchase the norms. The norms being cars, clothes and so forth. Many of these purchases are made “easier” to get because of our access to debt.

So, how do you determine what is considered an eye-opening reward? While away, I thought hard about this question. I looked at how my purchase power has changed and how rewarding it has been. I determined that I could bucket it into four categories. 

Growth- Personal growth is one of the best ways to spend your money. You can feel the effects of personal growth purchases for years to come. Unlike other purchases, you can’t simply spend your money on personal growth without working to reap the benefits. You can measure the rewards of personal growth in financial returns and/or intellectual enhancement that can create confidence and ease in an area. You might have experienced this if you ever purchased a book or a course that changed your outlook on life. Later, the knowledge becomes second nature.  

Adventure- Adventure has a similar effect has growth. Experiencing the world and moving outside of your comfort zone can add excitement and wonder to your life. The more out of your comfort zone you move, the bigger your world becomes. Adventure and growth help me to dream without limits. What was your last adventure? If you could go anywhere and do anything what would it be?

Give- Giving is the most rewarding way you can spend your money. Better yet, financial giving that you are contacted to brings an immense amount of fulfillment. When in Fiji, our group banned together to donate tons of school supplies to a village. Being there to hand over the gifts to the children and see the joy on their faces was irreplaceable. Many people cried, including me. It was by far the best moment of my trip. Giving of time and money can dramatically increase your emotional and physical health. In Arianna Huffington’s book, Thrive, she reviews a 2013 study by the UnitedHealth Group on the benefits of giving. The stats were compelling. One stat regarding employees that volunteered said, “More than 75 percent reported experiencing less stress.” 

Ease- Ease is a tricky one, because in our culture, many of our purchases are extremely convenient. This can be a down-fall in your budget. The key in this area is to choose only a couple things that you spend money on that will create ease and to not indulge in many purchases that are merely for convenience. Remember with convenience comes a surcharge. I get my groceries delivered twice a month. What are the regular tasks in your life that seem to be an inconvenience? Choose one that can be made easier, but don’t get carried away.

It is up to you to determine what would be considered valuable in enhancing your quality of life. Right now, for me material goods don’t enhance, but rather take away. Take time and analyze your spending. On the regular, do your dollars go toward any of these four buckets?