We Didn’t Need To Go To Disney World 9 Times

Yes, I said that correctly. We took our kids to Disney World nine times.

And were those trips amazing? Absolutely. Do we have great memories? Yes. Would my kids have survived if we had only gone three or four times? Also yes. 😂  But then we added to the mayhem and also took them to Mexico, Aruba, and the Bahamas multiple times. 

Younger me- “What the hell were you thinking?!”

One of the things I wish I knew sooner was the magic of compound interest. At 30 years old, it felt like forever until my kids would be going to college. But forever came faster than I thought. Now that I’m in the stage of life where the Disney trips are behind us and the reality of college bills are very much something we had to, or are having to deal with, I look back at a lot of things a little differently.

I wish someone had told me when my kids were little about the cost of college and how incredibly outrageous it is.

 It’s not just the tuition.

It’s the books, the dorm room set up, the trips to Starbucks and Raining Cain’s. It’s the sorority and fraternity dues, the cost of housing, gas, and everything else that comes with having a “poor, starving, college kid”. Let’s face it, the only ones who are poor and starving during the college years are THE PARENTS! Your kids will be dining like royalty and you will be home eating hot dogs if you don’t plan accordingly. 

Maybe one fewer vacation. Maybe a slightly less expensive hotel. Maybe putting the money from one trip into their 529 or investment account and letting it grow for 10 or 15 years would have been a little smarter. 

Because here’s the part you don’t fully understand when your kids are six and begging to meet Mickey: College comes faster than you think. I tell my friends who are in their 30’s with young kids this all the time. But I can tell by the glaze in their eyes that they aren’t listening. They are thinking pre school and after school activity costs are their biggest concerns. Meanwhile college is hiding around the corner with a six-figure invoice and a meal plan your kids will swear isn’t enough. 

Invest their birthday money, don’t just put it in a savings account for them, INVEST IT. Tell Grandparents not to give cards with cash, give them access to their 529’s. Compound all the interest you possibly can for their childhood years, because you will need it. 

And the little amounts you invest when they’re young have something you can’t buy later—time. And time equals compound interest.  I don’t regret the memories. Not for a second. But if I could go back, I’d probably tell my younger self: Take the trips. Make the memories. But maybe 3 times is enough! Because apparently…

we really didn’t need 9 trips to Disney World. 😂