On Why Alaskan Cruises are not for Weenies

I know what you’re thinking. “A week-long Alaskan cruise….yeah, real tough life there Buck-O…”

But before you get all judgy on me, cool your jets and allow me to explain. Here’s a bit of helpful advice, should you consider an Alaskan cruise of your own in the future (and you totally should).

1. Quit being a stubborn beast, swallow your cheap pride, and shell out the bucks for a waterproof (not water-repellent, not water-resistant, but fully waterproof) raincoat and waterproof duck shoes or rain boots. Decent ones on sale could easily run you about $50 each, but it is an investment well worth the cost. It poured in Juneau, it rained in Ketchikan, and it was windy as all get-out in Glacier Bay, so I cannot even begin to tell you how thankful I was for that Columbia waterproof rain jacket with hood and roomy zipper pockets (to keep the camera dry!) that I picked up for $50 on Amazon when it was on sale. I wore it every single day. Because I didn’t want to be a weenie or waste money, I opted not to invest in the supremely cute waterproof duck shoes I saw at L.L.Bean. What a mistake! Instead I wore thick socks and sneakers, which were both soaking wet and freezing cold approximately 30 minutes after docking in Juneau. I resorted to traipsing back to the ship, changing socks, and wrapping my feet in garbage bags to try to keep them dry for the rest of the day in port. This was stupid, uncomfortable, and ineffective. Rinse and repeat in Ketchikan. And my shoes stayed wet and smelly for at least two days thereafter. The lesson learned is don’t be cheap and just buy the cute, waterproof duck shoes. Or you can pull this little stunt and look like a dweeb – a cold, wet dweeb.

2. By the way, the later in the Alaskan cruise season (May-Sept.) that you go, the rainier it gets. I learned this in Juneau – a very good time to acquire this knowledge indeed. If you plan to cruise Alaska at the end of August when it’s not quite as frigid as it will be in May, I would highly suggest that you be in possession of said rain jacket and duck shoes. Or you can go in May when it’s freezing every day, but less likely to rain. Or you could just pick a random time to go and luck out completely. You really can’t control the weather, so my advice is to just be aware of its trends, pack appropriately, and don’t let the rain spoil your fun. It’s a part of Alaska, so soak it in!

3. I suppose I should also mention that the later it gets in the cruise season, the rougher the seas are. Let me repeat: Alaskan cruises are not for weenies!! I’d heard that Alaskan waters can be choppy, but I took this with little more than a grain of salt because I encountered virtually no motion sickness on my Caribbean cruise a few years ago where the waters were as placid as can be. Well, the Pacific Ocean can be a colossal beast and she’s no picnic at the end of August, I can assure you. By day two the barf bags were on full display by the mid-ship elevators, nobody could walk straight, the pools on deck were sloshing violently from side to side, and Bonine was our best friend. Bonine is the way to go in terms of a motion sickness drug. It’s dirt cheap, chewable, lasts all day, and helps even the queasiest of sailors. The seasickness patch that you stick behind your ear, on the other hand, is crazy expensive and kind of useless as we learned that the side effects are tiredness and dizziness. Dizzy, obviously, is exactly how you want to feel when you’re already feeling queasy. Am I right? So if you’re prone to the tortures of motion sickness (or even if you think you aren’t, because you will be), stock up on at least three boxes of Bonine. To be fair, the crew of the ms Oosterdam did say that the seas were unusually rocky, even for this late in the cruising season, so we may have just caught it on an “off” week. But if you think late August may be too much to handle, go in June. Or take your Bonine regularly and you’ll be feelin’ fine.

4. Invest in an excellent monocular or pair of binoculars. I’m talking about the good ones – a respectable brand, waterproof so the lenses don’t permanently fog up, fully multi-coated for extra clarity, and you’ll want a power of at least 10×42. Sure, you could drop $10 for a cheap pair of 8×25 binoculars, but be aware that you won’t be able to view any objects closer than 20 feet away, the images will be fuzzy instead of crisp, the eye hole will be smaller so you’ll see less, and it’ll be nearly impossible to hold it still for long enough on a moving ship to focus in on anything. We invested in two monoculars, one for each of us, that were high definition, 10×42, fully multi-coated, waterproof, and had a 6 ft. close focus. I say invested because they were costly, but we loved having them! We selected the Zen-Ray brand, a favorite among cruise message board forum members. We had incredible views of eagles, sea otters, islands, glaciers, mountain waterfalls, and so much more.

5. Lose 10 lbs before you go. Your pants may be sagging off your rump as you embark the ship, but don’t worry. You’ll eat it all back within a week and then you’ll be incredibly grateful to be one of only ten people who are able to leave the ship with clothes that still fit and not labeled as “cargo.”

6. Select your cruise ship based on itinerary. You’ll be on the ship for seven days, so it makes sense to select a cruise line that suits your wants and needs. You may be dreaming of a ship with a lavish spa with Turkish baths, spa services and a great salon, fabulous nightly entertainment of all kinds, wonderful musicians, art auctions, excellent food, a loose casino, a bingo tournament, a jogging track, basketball court, rock climbing wall, movie theatre, computer or cooking classes, bowling lanes, Wii gaming systems, dance clubs, a library, spacious staterooms, or any number of things. Every ship out there has something special to offer. Many cruise lines have a “label” – Carnival is the party cruise line, Holland America is for old people, Celebrity is for snobs, etc. I say ignore those labels, select the ship that offers the amenities that suite you the best, and take your itinerary into account! We chose Holland America because they’ve been cruising Alaska the longest and their ships are known for being just a touch smaller size-wise, so they can get a little closer to the glaciers. They also offered the longest amount of time in port each day for exploring Alaska, and they went to Sitka instead of Skagway and Glacier Bay instead of the Hubbard Glacier. Sitka is rarely visited by cruise ships, therefore it is a fairly un-commercial, small little Alaskan town where you can get a true sense of what life is like in Alaska. And from my research I’ve noted that Glacier Bay knocks the socks off of the Hubbard Glacier. We were debating between a cruise on the Norwegian Pearl or the Holland America Oosterdam, so we let the itinerary decide for us and I’m so glad we did.

7. Book adventurous excursions. Diamond shopping in Juneau, the city bus tour of Ketchikan, and a salmon feast in Sitka are not adventurous. They are overpriced and lame. You can do these things in Ohio, so why waste your time in Alaska shopping for jewelry when you could instead be doing something you may never have the opportunity to do otherwise? You don’t have to select the extreme 5-mile glacier hike or bear tracking deep in the woods of the Tongass National Park, but if you are physically capable, please attempt to select activities that require at least some sense of adventure and will illicit more than mere guffaws from your friends. This is the land of the great outdoors, of fire and ice, of wildlife, and of adventure – don’t be a weenie and spend it indoors watching a video about salmon runs. Get out there and watch the salmon run! Book the most unique, adventurous, and un-commerical excursions you can find (and don’t be afraid to book from outside companies – they often offer better excursions for a fraction of the price) and you’ll experience Alaska in a way you won’t soon forget.

You’re still here? Wow. Thanks for hanging in there! The pictures are coming soon – I promise! :-)

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15 Ways to Move It

As if the week before our trip wasn’t enough crazy for one lifetime, this week is proving to be even more of a chaotic mess with commitment after commitment after commitment. We’re running on a prayer here people. While I don’t want to skip out on the blog front completely this week because that just sucks the fun out of life, don’t expect to gleam any brilliant pearls of wisdom, okay? I promise I’ll get to the good stuff as soon as I can make it happen.

In the meanwhile, allow me to regale you an utterly enthralling list of all of the various modes of transportation we used on our trip. I know this seems like a dreadfully dull and unlikely topic, but when we were sitting in the Seattle airport awaiting our plane ride back to Cincy, it dawned on me that over the past week we had used quite a hefty number of modes of transportation, and that some of them were actually pretty cool! Allow me to elaborate:

  • Car
  • Plane
  • Helicopter
  • Shuttle
  • Skylink Airport Tram
  • Cruise Ship
  • Mountain Tram
  • Tender Boat
  • Inflatable Ocean Craft
  • Commercial Fishing Boat
  • Van
  • Bus
  • Dog Sled
  • ATV 4×4
  • Feet (definitely a lot of feet!!)

Pretty impressive, right? We were all over the place! I certainly have some good stories for you coming in the next few weeks… :-)

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We’re baaaack!

Wait, you didn’t even know I was gone?

Mission accomplished. ;-)

You may be wondering where exactly our little disappearing act landed us.

Well….

It landed us on an epic honeymoon/double birthday extravaganza…

…on Holland America’s ms Oosterdam…

…to Alaska!

More to come later, so stay tuned!

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End of Summer Book Club

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What books are you aching to read?

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The Goals of Fall

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Have I mentioned that I’m working four jobs starting in September?

Four.

Oh. Well, I am.

Clearly I’m a crazy person as the mayhem of four jobs just isn’t enough to cool my jets.

To be fair these are all part-time jobs, and more importantly, they’re jobs in my chosen field doing what I love to be doing. I may be supremely busy and making nothing more than mere pennies, but I’m very grateful and consider myself enormously lucky (most of the time) to have what I have.

Hey, nobody ever said making a living out of life in the theatre was going to be easy.

But it sure is fun.

Anyhow, that’s not the point. The point is that the blessing/curse of four jobs, a move from house to apartment, the responsibilities of marriage and maintaining a home, and the chaos of the seven different Google calendars needed to organize my activities evidently just isn’t enough.

Crazy, remember?

So to this endless list I am also adding two priorities all of my own. Two things that are just for me, because I love doing them. And though somehow working them in there may drive me off the deep end, they’re also a treat.

They are my two goals of fall.

1. I want to dance again.

I bet you didn’t know I can do the splits – left, right and center. Or that I danced in my college’s modern dance company and spent my wild and crazy college nights at the dance studio taking tap, jazz, ballet, and stretch and strengthen classes. Or that I own a full collection of leotards, dance tights, and dance shoes.

I’m not a natural born dancer, and I haven’t been dancing since diapers – far from it, in fact. And I certainly don’t claim to be a professional dancer by any means, but I can hold my own, and I’ve done my fair share of dancing, teaching and choreography for musicals. But most importantly, I love it. It makes me so incredibly happy. And you know what? I miss it. A lot. And though it may cost money that we don’t exactly have and take up valuable time that is in short supply, it is so worth it to me. So this fall I’m challenging myself to register for those dance classes and make it happen!

2. I want to love on the kitties.

Yes, kitty lovin’. As in, there are hundreds of cats across Cincinnati in shelters who are lonely, scared, abandoned, abused, and looking for their perfect family who could really use some love and affection. And then there’s me – a person who is unable to be that perfect family to a cat due to extenuating circumstance (but desperately wants to, make no mistake about that) who could really use some love and affection of her very own. It just works out.

When we lived in Michigan I spent my Monday afternoons volunteering at the local Lansing animal shelter. It was utterly therapeutic for me and the cats. They got the attention and affection they so obviously needed and deserved, and I was able to do something that I love, am hecka good at, and still participate in a good cause. Though the two Cincinnati area animal shelters are both really far away from where we live, and my time is in short supply, I think this is important for both my and the cats sanity and emotional health. And again, most importantly, I love it. It brings me the warm and fuzzies, make me a much nicer person to be around, and I can finally stop pestering Ted for a cat.

Win-win situation.

What are your goals of fall?

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Twenty-Five

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It’s the big one folks – the quarter century mark.

Yep, that’s me now! A freshly minted twenty-five.

Yay!

The number tells me that I am no longer in my early twenties, but my mid-twenties. A whole new category altogether. Isn’t that weird? Because I still feel 22. I will be officially described as a daughter/wife/friend in her mid-twenties. Spooky.

Does this mean I’m a real adult now?

(Or did that happen when I turned 18? Or moved away from home? Or got a big girl job? Or when I got married? Hmmm. I guess I really am an adult. When did that happen?)

Regardless, I’m ready for it and I’m stoked! Twenty-four was good to me in so many tremendous, life-altering ways and I sincerely hope that twenty-five is a blessing beyond belief as well – full of just as much joy, excitement, laughter, positivity, good eats, good times, love, and adventures as one can possibly cram into 365 days.

It’s also worth mentioning that yesterday was Ted’s birthday….30 again!

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A very happy birthday to my funny and weird, yet handsome and totally endearing husband! What a guy! :-)

Last year for his 31st birthday my mom sent him a Happy 30th Birthday card. We loved it. Ted will be turning 30 every year for the rest of his life, we decided. I only hope there’s a vast and stunning selection of brilliant 30th birthday cards to tide us over for the next seventy years.

This year we’re celebrating the birthdays in our own special way.

More on that later.

But it’s totally excellent, in case you were wondering. In fact, I cannot think of more spectacular way to ring it in.

While I’m at it I’m going to throw out a big old ball of birthday love to my mom, who is celebrating her birthday tomorrow!

Birthday love all around.

And cake. Lots of delicious cake.


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(mint chocolate ice cream’s my fave, if you’re sending it)

See, I told you I love August.

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Bridesmaids and Horses and Bourbon – Oh, my!

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I have another treat in store for you today! My, you’ve been lucky lately! No need to thank me, though I think you just might after meeting my fabulous friend and co-worker Sara and reading about all the awkward hilarity that is her life. Awkwardness follows her everywhere. It’s a talent. We bonded over our mutual obsession of Kate & William’s royal wedding shindig, blogging for the sake of sharing awkwardness and hilarity with the masses, and the extreme misery of dealing with some of the most obnoxious human beings God has ever put on his green earth. It’s amazing. So, without further ado, the lovely and talented Sara!

 Hello All!

When Lara asked me to write a post I, of course, being the type of person who loves to share my awkward life stories with as many people as possible, said yes. Hey, if my pain can bring you a little joy in this world then why the hell not? Unfortunately, I had no idea what to write about. I have my own blog, which is currently on hiatus due to immense writers block. I blame this on the fact that I am currently applying to grad school, a process that will steal your soul. Case in point: I almost had a coronary when I couldn’t figure out how to create an account for the application process. Fun Fact: I already had an account. Anyway, back to my conundrum about what to write. I have a very ridiculous life so I figured I could just write about that.

For instance, I just returned from the house of a very dear friend with whom I baked obscene party treats for a friend’s Bachelorette party this weekend. That’s right, I am currently in the perpetual bridesmaid stage of my life, which is fitting since I will be 23 in a month and live in a rural area. Surprisingly, I did not have even one wedding to attend to this past summer. However, I have four weddings this fall. FOUR! I am a bridesmaid in two of them, which is awesome of course. I love and adore all the people getting married, as well as their prospective spouses. However, I’m thinking that if I have to spend hundreds of dollars buying dresses, shoes, getting my hair did, and purchasing bridal shower gifts, bachelorette gifts and wedding gifts, I should at least get to come over and use that fancy quesadilla maker I bought you (I do so love quesadillas).

And I haven’t even mentioned the travel involved yet! This wedding season I have already been to New Orleans for a bachelorette trip, and I will be going to Louisville, KY (a city I swore I’d never visit being an ardent UK fan and alum), Nashville, TN (I’m quite looking forward to this one) and Paducah, KY (I plan on getting drunk and going to the World Quilt Museum, which I’ve heard is a fun time).

But before I sign off I figured I could leave you with an awkward story, since that is what my hiatus’d blog is about. So, here’s one for the ages – my run in with a New Orleans horse cop on Bourbon Street.

 I absolutely adored the city of New Orleans. It’s dirty, decrepitly southern, and the whole town seems drunk. I want to move there ASAP. By the way, alligator is delicious. When we were there on the first night of our trip we went to Bourbon Street, where the following exchange happened.

(Drunk me, FABULOUS bachelorette and soberish-friend that is smarter than all of us are stumbling down Bourbon Street, along with Mr. Handsy McBlue-Stater. There are two cops on horses in the middle of the street.)
Me: Hold my drink!
FABULOUS Bachelorette: HORSE!!!!!!
Sober-ish Friend: Leave the po-po alone!
Me: (to Annoyed Horse Cop) CAN I PET YOUR HORSE!?
Annoyed Horse Cop: No, he doesn’t like to be pet.
Me: (Already petting horse on the nose while holding a drink in the other hand) It’s okay, I’m from Kentucky.
Annoyed Horse Cop: Oh. Okay then.

I then proceeded to talk to the horse for the next ten minutes about how I wished I had a sugar cube or carrot for it, but alas there didn’t seem to be any on Bourbon Street. Apparently, being from Kentucky has convinced me, as well as the rest of the world, that I have innate horse skills – despite the fact that I’ve only ridden on a horse twice in my life. However, I love my state and will continue to try to convince Lara that she should stop looking for houses in Ohio and come over to Kentucky where everything is better. So, I leave with the hope that you have enjoyed this tangent blog post. Next time you’re at a wedding look for the bridesmaid in the pink dress hanging out at the bar. Come on over and I’ll tell you a story!

– Sara

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Fruit Hill

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We have a neighbor who likes to keep us informed.

By that I mean when she sees us outside walking up the driveway to our vehicles she likes to halt her endless yard work and rush over and inform us that the pile of mulch surrounding our pine trees needs to be moved at least 3″ away from the base immediately or the trees will die, or that our landlord ripped out the flowers but left the poison ivy in when he first acquired the house, or where exactly our property line is, or how the house got a new driveway, or that our basement’s foundation is unstable and leaks in from the front of the house (she knows this how?) or that the fallen tree branch in our front yard has been there an awfully long time, or that a tree fell in our backyard last night at 2 a.m. or that our landlord is incompetent and never fixed the toilet for the previous tenants, etc. As I said, she likes to keep us informed.

Sometimes we don’t quite know what to believe. She, oddly, seems to know an awful lot about everything, like our neighbors, their families, their homes, the layout and renovation of our home, our yard, our basement, and the area in general. But she also divulged upon our first meeting last November that she communicates with the spirits and that our little plot of land, apparently, is very spiritually active.

Okay.

Anyhow, like with the trees in our front yard surrounded by mulch that are, I guess, dying a slow cruel death (um, they’re fine)….we don’t always know what to believe. But I’ve always seen our little corner of the world notated as “Fruit Hill” on maps of Cincinnati. A few months ago she informed us as to why.

We do, indeed, live on a hill. Off a tiny little cut-through street at the end of a long driveway. We have quite a lot of land in the area and a lake a few feet back. The house is old, dating back to around the early 1930s, we think. Our landlord has no idea when the house was built while our neighbor, on the other hand, seemed to know exactly when it was built. She told us that our house used to be the old fruit stand way back when and that people came here when they needed fresh fruit. The whole area was a farm, owned by one family. From what I can remember of her tale, our house was built to be the fruit stand. Then the farmer’s built the house behind us and the family moved in there. Somehow this tale also involved the two houses in front of ours as well, but if this story is true, I’m proud that our house played such a vital role. Of course sections were added onto the house later when it became a living space. I’ve done a little research so far on our house and Fruit Hill, but unfortunately I’ve been unable to find anything more on it other than that the area used to be a fruit farm. I think one day I may spend some time in the library looking through some local files to see what I can find. I wonder what she looked like back then? I often wonder this. If I could find a photo of her back then it would be like Christmas Day to me!

But I love the history of this house. Fruit stands are pretty cool places to begin with, even more so back in the day when they were fairly important to the people who relied on them for their fresh produce. I’m proud that we were able to live here and contribute to her history for a year. Fruit Hill seems to suit us, and I’ll always remember our time here and the history of it fondly.

Does your house have a special story behind it?

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THIS is Who You Want Teaching Your Kid about Adjectives

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Meet Kelley.

She looks like Reese Witherspoon, doesn’t she? She totally does. In addition to being ridiculously pretty and having excellent taste in “car party” music, she’s also my second guest blogger! Kelley and I went to high school together, but we became close friends in college. Kelley is a teacher and has the best (by best I mean most ridiculous, insane, unbelievable, endearing, and laugh out loud funny) stories from the schools – especially the so-called sketchy inner city ones – she’s worked in. We’ve had many a memorable slumber party with our third musketeer Emily and tasteless movies, ice cream cupcakes, girly drinks, a night in downtown San Antonio dancing ourselves silly, and plenty of good clean Christmas break holiday entertainment fun. She’s a blast, and here she is!

Today is a big day. It is my 20th first day of school. It started pretty much the same as the first-first day of school (kindergarten). I arranged my supplies neatly, laid out a brand-new outfit, packed my lunch carefully, and didn’t sleep a wink. It’s really amazing no matter how much you grow up, how much actually stays the same. I, as a grown-up, go to a place that I went everyday as a kid- I go to school. Today was my 5th first day as a teacher, and boy, those days are NUTS. Finding your classes on a middle school campus as a student is NOTHING compared to being the teacher of 15 crying kindergarteners, crying parents, and all the preparation that goes into a new school year. But, it is so incredibly worth it. I love the fact that I get to look at a bright shiny boxes of Crayola crayons, markers and colored pencils (NOT map pencils) every August and bargain hunt for them like an extreme couponer. What is even more amazing every first day of school is looking out on 20-some odd pairs of eyes and seeing amazing little people, with dreams and hopes and ambitions. I don’t want to make this sappy and corny, and it wasn’t nearly as funny as I wanted, but just know this: Teaching on the “wrong” side of town is the best thing I’ve done in my life.

– Kelley

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Millionaire Estates In Our Future

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Today I’d like to introduce you to my awesome best friend Katie. In addition to being one of my best buddies and very first guest blogger (yay!), she was also the witness to the infamous shark tank incident on the high school aquatic science summer trip of 2003 (You remember, the chick rolling in the aquarium laughing so hard she was crying? Yeah, that one). We share an undying love for reading, snowcones, and alligators. She’s crazy smart and is an immensely talented writer. Back in college (before I even knew what blogging was!) she’d write a column called “Katie’s Kronicles” and email it out monthly. Boy, was that some good reading! Today she’s in grad school and the mother to a sweet little toddler. So, please welcome my friend Katie! She’s a real gem – I’m sure you’ll think so too!

Ever played the board game “Life”? You know, the one where you put your little blue or pink person into your free car, take a free $10,000 from the bank, and spin the wheel of opportunity that will decide your fate? While this game clearly represents real life to a T, it was often surprising at the end of the game which players could retire at Millionaire Estates and who shuffled off to the less cushy Countryside Acres. The person who drew the $100,000 salary card could land on all the wrong spaces, while someone with only half that salary could get lucky and end up with the most money at the end.

I was reminded of this game this week as I read “The Millionaire Next Door” by Thomas Stanley and William Danko. This book completely debunks the myth of what the life of a millionaire looks like. Most of us assume that only the Bill Gates and Tim Duncans of the world will ever see seven digits in their financial portfolio, but this is far from the truth. More than 80% of the country’s millionaires are ordinary people who have accumulated their wealth in one generation. These are the 7 common denominators among those who successfully build wealth:

1. They live well below their means. I think it’s important to emphasize here that they still live nice lives – we’re not talking Ramen noodles, rags for clothes, shivering in a cardboard box. They live comfortably. But they shop the sales and buy used cars. They live in middle-class neighborhoods. They track expenses, budget, set financial goals, and spend time planning for their financial futures. Sound familiar? Not so different from most of us (as-of-yet) nonmillionaires. Also, most of the wives of these men are planners and meticulous budgeters. My favorite quote from the whole book is “I can’t get my wife to spend any money!” Love it! My hubby can definitely relate to that one. Why would I buy a tea kettle when I can just boil my water in a pot? Who says I can’t get a toddler in and out of the backseat of a 2-door car? Let’s try eating vegan for awhile, babe – meat is so expensive! ;)

2. They allocate their time, energy, and money efficiently, in ways conducive to building wealth. They spend less time spending and more time investing, less time shopping and more time researching and managing their assets.

3. They believe that financial independence is more important than displaying high social status. The authors draw a distinction between those with high income and those with high net worth. Often, the driver of the Rolls Royce is one with high income/low net worth and high consumption habits. The one with high net worth is driving a 3-year-old Ford.

4. Their parents did not provide economic outpatient care. This goes back to the fact that most millionaires are first-generation wealthy. So while some may have received help with tuition, most did not receive any financial help from their parents once they reached adulthood.

5. Their adult children are economically self-sufficient. Even though they are wealthy, this population does not provide a life of leisure for their children. They teach their children to be independent, frugal, and achievement oriented, as opposed to the high consumption “one earns to spend” motto.

6. They are proficient in targeting market opportunities. With wealth growing nearly six times faster than the household population (at the time this was written in 1996), opportunities to serve the wealthy will be greater than ever.

7. They chose the right occupation. You can’t predict whether someone is a millionaire by the type of business they are in – people from ALL career fields are included in this population. But self-employed people are four times more likely to be millionaires than those who work for others. And education is valued by the wealthy, because in a worst case scenario, “They can take your business, but they can’t take your intellect.”

A couple rules of thumb from the book: If you’re not yet wealthy, but want to be someday, never purchase a home that requires a mortgage that is more than twice your household’s total annual realized income; set aside for investing purposes at least 15% of your pretax income each year; buy vehicles that are at least 2-3 years old, since they depreciate most quickly in those first couple years.

You may be asking, “Why do I want to become a millionaire if I don’t get to live the high life?” I love the fact that the authors use the term “financially independent” to describe the wealthy. This means that these people will never have to depend on anyone else for anything financial. If they become disabled; if their children require expensive medical care; if the government raises income taxes to 98%; if a volcano destroys their every possession; and if they are lucky enough to live to the ripe old age of 140 – they will always be able to care for themselves and their families. What a dream, huh?

Overall, this book was absolutely fascinating and hugely practical, as well as being a surprisingly quick, fun, and easy read. And since it’s not brand new, you probably won’t have to be number 227 on the hold list at the library for it. So Ms. Lara, shall we agree to meet for some underwater basket weaving at Millionaire Estates in about 50 years? I’ll see you there! ;)

– Katie

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