So many of you have told me that your kids make your Life Rich,

and I think this pic sent in of Izzy says it all!

Do the Small … Plan For the Big
the difference between creating a successful life experience trip and a disappointing can't wait to forget this flop

by Beau Henderson

Rita and Mark saved nearly two years for their family trip to Disney World. Their two boys were at the perfect age to experience the Magical Kingdom, and Grandma offered to keep the family dog. Everything was planned and paid for, the hotel, the meals, the all-day passes.

But when they got there, the boys were tired, irritable, and uncooperative. Rita didn’t like the way Mark was handling the situation, and they started fighting, blaming each other for failing to have a good time.

What went wrong? And how could this great disappointment have been prevented? A lot of time and energy can be spent planning for a big trip, but planning alone doesn’t make a trip successful.

What really makes a BIG TRIP so special
are all the small moments that come before it

If all you do to plan for your trip is work hard and save money, you’re missing out on some pretty great opportunities. These are the small investments that happen during the every-day, when the big trip is just a dream, or an idea in your head. It’s the unexpected walk after dinner, ordering that second bottle of wine, the cook-out in the back yard.

Set aside time to spend together while making your plans

Include the kids, talk about what you want to do and don’t want to do. You might still be in your old neighborhood, but together you are still creating a unique experience. Memories from small outings are just as valuable as the memories from your big ones. And both will be shared for the rest of your lives.

Experiences like this can be built into your every day. Little things as well as big can and should be planned for if you want to enter the realm of the RichLife.

Before he was published, my client Paul couldn’t afford to take his family on a summer vacation. So he bought a tent and set aside a week each summer to go camping. Sometimes it was just in their backyard, but they built a small fire and roasted marshmallows and created great family memories together.

When finally he sold the movie rights to his third book, Paul took the family on a two-week trip to the Grand Canyon. That trip was possible and enjoyable because of all the experiences the family had shared together before he “struck it big.”

Another client, Irene, worried about what to do with her granddaughter, Lucy. She wanted to come up with something really terrific because Lucy’s other Grandma had taken her on a trip to Florida. Irene’s economic situation was a lot different, so when Lucy got back from the trip, Irene questioned the girl, looking for clues as to how she could “one-up” the experience.

“Well? What was it like? What did you do? Was it fun?” she asked.
“Oh, yes!” replied the granddaughter. “Every morning for breakfast, we had these little boxes of cereal. There were all different kinds and Grandma would line them up on the counter and we got to pick whichever one we wanted!”

Often times the magic of a great experience is created through the little things. Like Lucy’s miniature boxes of cereal, it doesn’t always require large amounts of money. Often times the spontaneous outings are the ones we remember best.

Setting aside the time to spend is how memories are created, and you can begin doing that now, today, regardless of how much capital you have in the bank.

You wouldn’t necessarily think that a little box of cereal could become a lifelong memory, but the truth is, it can. If you schedule it in.

With regards to creating unique experiences on purpose, here is the key to starting now:

Begin by doing small things while planning together for the big!

You will be drawn closer together, and in the process, create the capital of shared experience, of memories. These memories also add to the value of your relationships accounts, making those investments only stronger.

With the holiday season coming up on us really soon, I know that lots of people have made travel plans. Here's the thing, that trip to Grand Ma's a couple of hours away or the big trip to visit with relatives thousands of miles away can be a unique RichLife experience that you and everyone else will hold near and dear to your hearts for the rest of your lives. And it all begins by doing all of the little things that will make the BIG TRIP worth it … TODAY!!

As always, I’m here to help you master your relationship with money, but the real art is in helping you make sure that you are investing in a RichLife.

Have you had any small investment stories that paid big dividends lately? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below!

Myra Meade at the Hall Book Exchange is so ADDICTED to the RichLife,

she has become a dealer!!

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