Travel Is Cheaper Than Divorce
"Travel is cheaper than divorce, I should know. My wife and I were at the door to it." - David Packer
In this podcast I share some of the places, experiences and moments that changed the dynamics of not only my marriage but also the relationship with my kids. Travel was a big key of growing together, becoming stronger as a family and truly saving my marriage with my wife.
I share with you, how you can gain and travel using points and other rewards programs to see and explore some of the most amazing places in the world. In this podcast I share some of the lessons both good and bad, that have guided me and my family as we have navigated the growth and expansion of a family unit.
TRAVEL IS POSSIBLE... when you do it smart. In this podcast I give the tips and tricks I have used and the secrets I teach others of using rewards & point programs to maximize the dollars you are already spending to create some unforgettable memories with your family.
Travel Is Cheaper Than Divorce
Reviving Love: How Travel Can Be the Ultimate Relationship Therapy
Ever wonder if a vacation could save your relationship? Explore how travel transforms into a unique form of relationship therapy, offering a reprieve from societal norms and daily routines. Through laughter-filled anecdotes like the infamous emoji game blunder, we highlight how stepping out of your comfort zone can foster authenticity and vulnerability. Hear how travel became my personal antidote to social anxieties, allowing me to engage with diverse cultures without the looming fear of long-term embarrassment. Discover how these experiences can empower you to be more open, ultimately enhancing relationships with loved ones.
But that's not all—travel isn't just about escaping; it's about reconnecting, especially for couples looking to rekindle their romance. We delve into the opportunities travel presents for couples to rediscover the love that brought them together, offering a refreshing alternative to the costly toll of divorce. Reflect on my journey from a high-pressure corporate job to a more laid-back profession, and how embracing authenticity—both personally and professionally—has led to satisfaction and success. Join us as we explore why investing in travel might just be the best gift you can give your relationships.
You are listening to. Travel is Cheaper than Divorce. This podcast for all those who may be struggling with their spouse or their children and the relationship with them. We help give you tips and tricks by using travel as the means to be able to help your relationships with your family. I'll provide those tricks and other ways to help travel with little or no cost. So let's get into it.
Speaker 1:Have you ever said something so dumb like in a group of friends? Dumb like in a group of friends, um, that lives on for infamy? Like just forever that you're known for something just because you said it once, um, and then, of course, you have to face those people again the next day. Yeah, it's just just not one of the funnest things to do in your life. This is one of the things that helped me Again.
Speaker 1:Traveling has done a lot for me, but one of the things that it's done has helped me get out of my shell and talk to people more, because when you start to travel around, you start seeing these other places and meeting people from sometimes all over the world, depending on where you go, obviously, you start meeting a bunch of people and then you start talking to them. Let me ask you this If you say something really dumb and stupid around somebody who's from a different country that you know you'll never see again, does it really matter that much? Not really right, I'll never see you again. You might feel dumb at the time, which is unfortunate, but overall you don't feel that dumb. You don't feel really that, that dumb as if you were saying something in front of your family or friends that you're going to, uh, see again. I mean, I got, let me. Let me tell you there was one night that, um, because I've never been the most emotional guy, I'm getting better there my family thought it would be funny, and to them it was.
Speaker 1:And then they end up showing a video to my extended family, my siblings and my parents of me. What they did is they airplayed or mirrored their phone to the projector we have in our house and they played a little game with me. They put an emoji on the screen and they said what does this emoji mean, the screen? And they said what does this emoji mean? And let's just say I'm very grateful that this video because it was a video was made to show to my extended family has not gone out into the interwebs, because it is somewhat embarrassing because to me, all the emojis can fall into like three categories, maybe four. So they put one on the screen, I say happy, and then the next one, like that, looks like happy too, just a different tint of happiness. And this is the thing going back and forth, and I and I and I challenged them because after they went through this and it was all good fun, but they were making fun of me most of the time because I don't understand all that. Then I said, oh yeah, let's see if you can do it. So we went through the entire thing again and of course they could all do it, which was very funny, eye-opening for me. It was really somewhat embarrassing, really, that they could do all those things and I couldn't.
Speaker 1:But that's also another another. You know another way of saying. You know that sometimes you're not as good as others at certain things, and that's okay, that's okay. But, um, but let's just say you're playing that same emoji game with somebody who you just met in Hawaii. I don't know why you do that, but let's just say you are, you're playing that same emoji game with them, and they knew all the answers and you did, and so basically, the same situation. Are you as embarrassed? Are you as embarrassed, or maybe, with a neighbor? Maybe you're doing it with a neighbor. Are you as embarrassed with the neighbor as you would be with somebody you'll never see again? Interesting to talk to other people and then and other and other things like that, and then you just logically have to tell yourself that you'll never see these people again. So it doesn't really matter what you necessarily say. Um, obviously you don't want to be offensive. I mean, that's just just a good rule anyways, in general, not to be necessarily offend on purpose. They still won't remember you, but I still don't think that's the right way to live as a human being, which is maybe a separate thing.
Speaker 1:One of the reasons I love to travel is that I can be myself, especially when I'm traveling with my spouse. Now, before I didn't feel like I could be myself around my spouse and that was more as an in retrospect, more my fault because I didn't show my heart. But when I'm with my spouse and we're traveling, I really feel like I can be more myself when I'm out, because it doesn't matter what other people think of me, because I'm never going to see any of them again in my entire life. Likely. You don't have to put a persona on when you're out and about traveling. You can just be yourself. You know, melanie and I have been to places that my extended family would be horrified if they knew that we went to those places. But they didn't know we were there and so it didn't matter. It didn't matter the other people who were there, it didn't matter to them. Never saw them again in my life.
Speaker 1:So yet another benefit of going out and getting out of your own environment is you don't have to worry about the people in your environment and you don't have to be a person for the people in the environment. We spend so much of our time trying to fit into a mold, a mold that other people want us to be. How freeing is it to be yourself somewhere else and you don't have to be in that mold? Well, you don't really have to be your mold at home either, and I'm gonna talk about an example of that in just a second. But when you're out and you're around people you don't know, you can relax. Why are vacations relaxing? Well, you're not working. I get that. That's one thing. You're away from your kids, hopefully, or sometimes with your kids, but even with your kids more relaxing and that is because that is because you're able to be yourself. It's more relaxing. You can lay down and be yourself.
Speaker 1:For the longest time I've worked in white collar America. White collar job is my pretty much my entire adult life and when I when I worked in those those fields, I put on a persona. I'm starting to realize this as I shifted away somewhat from white collar work into what I do now, which is to teach people how to travel for little or no cost. I'm not necessarily in an office and I'm not actually meeting with clients and all the stuff that I used to do. So I don't have to put on a persona, I don't have to put on a mask to pretend I'm professional. But the thing is I stopped doing that about, I would say, about 10 years ago. I left one of the firms I was working at to start my own firm and I had this firm for about 10 years yeah, about 10 years but when I left that other firm and I decided to start my own firm.
Speaker 1:So in the job and the career I was in, it's like you need to wear suit jackets and dress shirts and have marble floors in the office and other things like that, and I tried to do that persona. I tried to do that persona for the longest time. I don't really mind wearing a suit, necessarily, but then it just got to the point where, so okay, so I hired an assistant and this assistant that I worked with for about nine years of the 10. She, I told her she needed to wear basically a suit, just like I did. And then she started slowly and slowly not wearing a suit and realizing that people don't really care. I mean, they want you to be showered, you know, dressed and maybe just a little bit more professional than just walking off the street like you just walked off the beach. So we switched up and we started wearing more nice polo shirts and I did that through nine of my 10 years running my own firm.
Speaker 1:Before I left the other firm and started my own, I said to one of my coworkers I said I don't care, if people don't like me, then they won't work with me, but I'm not changing who I am, just so I can get the sale or just so I can get the account. So I stopped doing that from the very beginning and I ran a fairly successful firm for a while because I decided to be myself and I was in every meeting, so much so that there have been several times there was several times that my assistant would say you know, you probably shouldn't have said that and in retrospect I shouldn't say something. I used to say, like there was one point where, like you know, you can choose which way you want to do. You can work with us or not, I don't really care, I just want you to be comfortable. And she's like you probably shouldn't tell a prospective client that you don't care if they work with you. And I get that. I was just trying to, you know, just be loose a little bit and anyways. So there are. There are exceptions. You also want to watch your language a little bit.
Speaker 1:But I feel more free teaching people how to do this traveling stuff than I ever did running my own financial planning firm. I feel freer that I can just be because I do. I was talking about travel and learning about travel. It relaxes me and and I can be myself when I travel. I feel like I can be myself when I talk to my current clients who are clients of mine. In this new venture that I have, I feel freer than I have in a long time In fact, my wife will tell you. Since I decided, since I did eventually leave my firm or leave running it myself, then I have been a lot more relaxed because I don't have to hold up a certain persona. In fact, let me tell you another story.
Speaker 1:It got so bad at one point about personas. You know there are people who say you got to separate your work life from your personal life because you can't let your work life flow into your personal and you can't let your personal flow into your work life. It's so funny, the wisdom that people think is wisdom. I don't. I don't think that was really good wisdom. I think you need to be yourself, no matter where you're at. That's what I think. I think it's healthier. And so if you can't be yourself in your current career and I'm not telling you to leave, you know you can make that decision on your own. But I could just tell you from my experience now that I'm in a new career field, that I that I had new career field in a way that I've ever been, because my whole life I've been in banks and financial planning firms and it's it is different because I'm not in banks or financial planning firms for the first time in my life, but I am loving the opportunity to help people and just enjoying talking about travel and how to get them and travel and for free and other things that I'm doing right now. I just absolutely love doing right now. I just absolutely love it right now, love it. But I can tell you that the persona I don't have so when it came. So now my personal, my work life, they definitely flow together because I'm happier in what I do, I can be happier at home. So if you think you're really separating work and personal, if you come home because your work life was terrible and you're like I got to separate this, I'm just going to be happy. It flows, guys, it flows.
Speaker 1:I remember again when I was running my own financial planning firm by myself well, myself and an assistant. I ran it that way for a long time. I remember that every time I went to work, so my wife and I and this is before I started opening up emotionally and other things but we would, I would, we would be okay together and everything would be fine. I go to work. I worked from home a lot and I went to my home office and then I worked, worked, worked, worked and put my whole heart and soul Hmm, let's back that up I put my whole head and logic into into what I was doing, writing financial plans and such and doing investments. Then then I'd walk out of my home office and I come back to her a whole different person, because I fell so far into the logic spectrum and I was so much into this persona. That persona came home with me. I was already at home, I guess technically sometimes, but it came out of the office with me and that type of person, she didn't fall in love with that type of person. She fell in love with a different person. She fell in love with a different person.
Speaker 1:And so if your work life, if you're keeping up a persona, then traveling allows you to loosen that persona and be yourself. And it doesn't matter what people think of you, because you're never going to see them again. A lot of them, for me is none of them so far. Maybe I'll meet somebody someday on my travels that I end up calling and we end up connecting or something, but for now I've never really kind of connected with anybody on traveling, enough that I've been more focused on my family, my spouse, but anyway, you're never going to see them again. So that's another reason why you can connect so much better with your spouse if you're traveling, because if you're travel, you're yourself again. You're not have to be this persona that sometimes leaks into your personal life, so much so that your wife's, like I, don't even recognize who you are anymore, because the pursuit of money is so important, your job is so important that you had to keep up a persona, and then that comes home with you and maybe you're not ready to quit your job. All right, well, I'm not going to tell you what to do, but I will tell you that when you're on vacation, when you travel, then you're able to loosen that persona up and become that person again that your wife fell in love with. It brings you closer together. Just another reason why traveling is so important.
Speaker 1:And as far as I'm concerned, when it comes to your family and your relationship with your spouse, because even when I was running the financial planning firm, I was certainly a different person. When I was on vacay, when I was traveling with my spouse, I was. I just I didn't have to worry as much. You know, I didn't worry how to be this professional person. Nobody on that island. If I was on Hawaii because I do love Hawaii, so I always talk about island, but professional person, nobody on that island. If I was on hawaii because I do love hawaii, so I always talk about island. But if I was on that island and I, I can be just me, I didn't have to be david packer, financial advisor. I can just be david packer, and nobody on the island knows I'm a financial advisor. Nobody on the island. I'm not going to start selling to people because I really just want to be me. So I was.
Speaker 1:Now you can do really silly things, so silly that you become viral or something. But I never did that because most of the people who do that are just crazy drunk sometimes and since I don't drink, that doesn't seem to be an issue for me. But it's not just drinking, but people can get a little too crazy and then they go viral or whatever. But I've never had that experience. But I do believe and know I really just do really know that if you're able to just be yourself when you go around with your wife, or even if you could really just be yourself at home, that would be good too.
Speaker 1:But if you don't feel like you can get on the road in a plane, so you can get closer to your spouse, because then you can be yourself, and then it will never enter into your spouse's mind. She'll remember why, or he will remember why, she married you or he married you, and then divorce won't be there anymore and it'll be way, way, way more worth it the money you spent on there. And then you'll realize once again that travel is cheaper than divorce you have been listening to Travel is Cheaper Than Divorce. With David Packer, please let us know what you think about this episode or any other comments you might have, by visiting our website at wwwtravelpointdadcom. Please join us for our next episode, where we continue to explore how travel can help bring your family together.