Last year I wrote a blog post on “Work-Life Balance: Traveling the World One Step at a Time” explaining why you don’t need to quit your 9-5 just to fulfill your desire to travel. Perhaps I wrote the blog to convince myself that I’m doing the right thing.

For me, I don’t live pay check-to-pay cheque but I do find myself scrambling for vacation days. While each year Carl and I take a trip to San Diego to visit his parents from Boxing Day into the New Year, this year, I found us at home.  On New Years eve. In front of the TV. Had I gone to San Diego, I wouldn’t have enough vacation days for Hong Kong.

In my teens, I was told to pick a field of study to focus my career on. Early into my 20’s I was told to establish my career. I’ve done all that and now half way through, I feel I should thrive to have everything in check by my 30’s. I ask myself, ‘Should I be a grown up and take on a mortgage?’ Or ‘should I have fun in my 20’s and worry about the “grown up” stuff later?’ I always feel like I’m rushing to the next stage but I also don’t want to look back and realize I’ve fallen behind. Do I really have to wait another 40 years till retirement to really travel extensively? Will I even make it there?

I sit back and analyze. I know that home ownership has been my ultimate goal so I’d much rather have that now than later. Buying a house won’t affect my ability to travel but having limited vacation time does. My girlfriend told me that it’s not like I’d take 2 weeks off to travel to Hong Kong every year so there would be more flexibility to travel next year and the years after…which is true. I just can’t wait to step foot in Europe!

What are your thoughts on work-life balance? How have you juggled it?