The Vacation is Over! Now what?
The Vacation is over! Now what?
You’ve spent countless days waking up late, binge-watching favorite TV shows (which, for some of us, is a way to disconnect), soaked up a lot of sun at the beach or perhaps you had a more active trip and visited a few places and created unforgettable memories. I know I had a blast and was able to completely disconnect. Today is the first day back to work.
Here are my hacks to get you back in the groove:
Come back a day earlier
I know you want to extend your vacation as much as possible, but getting home a bit earlier will help you set the stage for getting back into your routine. You can catch up on sleep (if you are jetlagged from international travel), do laundry, buy groceries and go thru your mail.
Check your credit card bank accounts
Depending on where you traveled (domestically or internationally), reviewing your finances is a prudent 1st step, while everything is fresh in your mind. First, you want to know what the total “damage” is for this vacation. Provided you had already saved ahead of time for your vacation, then it will be much easier to handle the expenses (for example if you charged everything on credit card, then you can just pay it off. Jim and I shared some tips in our last episode of Live w/MainStreet.
If you are like most of us and aren’t as prepared with the savings component ahead of time, then you need to lay out a plan for how you will pay off the vacation balance. Perhaps you can set up increased automatic credit card payments for the next few months or find ways to earn extra money thru side hustles. That should help achieve your goal.
Mail and Email
Most of us put our mail on hold while traveling. Go thru it and figure out if there are any financial obligations that popped up. Is there a bill you need to pay? I am a big fan of setting up all my bills on auto payment (see our Money Flow Chart). It prevents me forgetting, and it also eliminates the mail delivery!
As for emails, I do check my emails every day and create a special folder for what I will have to follow up on when I return. Even though I would like to completely disconnect (at least for a few days), I don’t want to come back to a pile of unread emails.
And lastly, right about now is also a good time to start thinking about your next vacation! I know it’s a bit strange since you’ve just returned. Believe me, it’s gonna be here sooner than you expect and I would like you to be better prepared for it! Yuri and I typically discuss on the last day of our vacation where we might want to go next. I find this extremely motivating because it will help us plan ahead and start allocating our resources properly!
