Don’t Tell My Kids, But I Just Bought Us Tickets to See Taylor Swift in Europe
One of the least practical — but most exciting — decisions I’ve made.
I’m a deeply pragmatic person.
I’m a single mom with a mortgage and two teen kids, who want all the things. I live in a ridiculously expensive blue bubble of a city, which I love even as my budget does not. I take my finances very seriously, and assiduously set aside funds each month toward the future — college for each child, an eventual hopeful retirement for me.
I work a lot to earn that money, both at my demanding corporate job and my writing projects.
I know better than to make reckless financial decisions.
And yet…
And yet, my children have yet to go overseas. We’d planned our first trip over the ocean to celebrate my 50th with my expat birthday twin — who is four days older than I am — in her chosen hometown of Berlin. Unfortunately for us, as 1970 babies, the big 5–0 fell in 2020.
Not a great year for travel, as I recall.
Since then, I’ve started each year with the best of intentions to get us to Europe for summer vacation. But then I’ve panicked. Lay-offs in tech have run rampant, and my…
