As many of my classmates were figuring out what they wanted to do, I remember feeling relieved that I had it all “figured out”. I didn’t explore many other career options, I briefly looked into the journalism program at St. Thomas University in New Brunswick, and by briefly I mean I considered it for a day.

The massage therapy program was difficult, there was a lot to learn. I was the type of student in high school who didn’t have to study much to get good grades, and that was not the case in the massage therapy program. After some initial hiccups, I learned how to study and apply myself, and I graduated in 2010.

So there I am, graduating at 19 years old, while most of my high school classmates were only halfway through their undergrad.

I was an adult! I got offered the first massage therapy job I applied for, and signed the contract. Here in Nova Scotia, most massage therapists are hired as subcontractors, it is very rare to find a clinic that will hire you as an employee. And so I unwittingly became self employed.

There was definitely a learning curve to being self employed. Dealing with my income tax was the hardest, but I got a system down where I would automatically save money from my pay (read more about how I pay myself as a self employed person), and things settled down, until I made over $30,000. At that point I had to start remitting HST, which felt like a whole new learning curve, but I eventually got that down to a science too.

Although I was “self employed” the clinic took care of most things, like client billing, advertising, laundry, reminder calls, and booking. I was in charge of my schedule to a certain point, but not 100% in control. I could take time off whenever I needed it, but I couldn’t always work the days/hours that I wanted to.

Around 2015 I started feeling like I wanted more control. Mostly of my schedule, and of the way that my regular clients were treated by the front desk/administration. My husband was in paramedic school at the time, and I remember thinking that once he graduated and got his job that I might go out on my own.

That didn’t happen. He got his paramedic job, we bought a house, and I felt like it was too big of a financial risk to go out on my own doing massage. Our house wasn’t set up for me to treat at home, and so I stayed where I was. I was pretty happy with my job, most of the time, until about 2019. 

I started this blog in 2017, as a project to keep ourselves accountable when we were paying off my husband’s student loans, and because I loved to write. I won’t lie, I always had the intention of turning this blog into a business. I saw other people making money online and thought I could do that too! Although it’s not as simple as just starting a blog and money will magically show up, there is strategy involved, but I did make a little money in 2018/2019.

By 2019, I was feeling restless. I loved my massage therapy clients (and I miss them now), but quite frankly, I was bored. A lot of people come in with the same or similar complaint, and I was good at my job, and could operate on autopilot most of the time. 

Fast forward to the pandemic in March of 2020, massage therapy was shut down in Nova Scotia. I had so many emotions, because I was losing my income, I was definitely afraid of the virus, and knew I was going to miss seeing my coworkers and clients. In total we were shut down for 80 days, reopening on June 5th 2020.

I cannot explain to you the dread I felt when they announced massage therapy was going to reopen. I had spent the last 80 days working on my blog, working on myself, painting the house, and it still felt risky to reopen with the virus. I felt like everything I had worked on for the previous 80 days was being ripped away from me. I cried a lot, and decided to only go back part time.

The summer was okay, and by the fall I increased my massage hours, not because I wanted to, but financially I sort of had to. In November, a previous massage therapy client of mine posted on Facebook that she was looking for a virtual assistant to help her with her small business. I read what she needed, and thought “what the heck, I can do all of that!” So I sent her a message.

I literally sent her a message while we were driving to the Nordic Spa, and spent the rest of the day dreaming about where this new business could take me.

Although I didn’t technically have a VA business then, and I only had experience doing that work for myself, she gave me a chance and I started working with her. It wasn’t many hours, so I was easily able to squeeze them in around my massage practice. 

When we decided in late 2020 to sell our house in Lower Sackville, and move back to our hometown, I decided that my goal was to turn my little VA side business into my full time gig. Obviously to do that I needed more clients, and through personal connections and referrals, I was able to get enough work to make this business sustainable. 

I guess that brings us up until now! I am working as a virtual assistant at home, and it has been working out really well.

The first time I had to write “occupation” on a form since moving, it felt very odd to not write “RMT”. Being a massage therapist for 11 years, it was part of my identity, and it’s been difficult to untangle that from myself. 

Although I am still registered as a massage therapist in Nova Scotia until the end of 2021, I’m not really sure what I’m going to do with my license after that. I could renew as an inactive member, just in case I want to go back, or I could not re-register and let it go. I think when the time comes to register, I’ll be able to trust my gut and know what the right thing to do is. 

If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading.

You can learn more about my VA services here if you’re a business owner looking for help!

Chat soon,

I was never “good at money” as a child, I spent it all. My younger brother was the “saver”. I would spend it all on junk from the dollar store and when I was older, clothes, makeup, things at Claire (remember that place? Does it still exist?!), you know, all the stuff teenage girls spend money on.

My first trip on a plane was in May of 2002. We went to Texas. I remember a little about that trip, mostly that we had a lot of fun visiting with some family that lived there. We went to Disney in 2003, I had been wanting to go to Disney World ever since I knew it existed. We had an amazing trip. We went to Ottawa, Quebec City, Alberta, PEI, and New York City. My family loved to travel and so did I.

Fast forward a bit and I feel like I got “better” at money in my late teens and early 20s. I got a lot better when I graduated massage therapy college and started my “real adult job”. I knew I didn’t want to be paying my student loan for 10 years so I threw some extra money at it, and paid it off in 6 years. 

I definitely didn’t think I’d ever be self employed. I assumed I would go to college, get a job for a company and live happily ever after… spoiler alert – that didn’t happen.

Most massage therapy jobs (at least around here) are contract work. I took a contract with a national franchise (I never would have imagined I’d still be there 10 years later but that’s a whole other story!). Being that I work for a franchise, they handle all the marketing, and the billing. I handle things like treating my clients, submitting HST to the government and my own income tax. As a contractor, I only get paid if I have clients. Most of the time work is steady, but the varying and unpredictable income is a challenge.

In the meantime I started dating the man that would become my husband. We moved in together, and managed to save for a trip to Disney in 2011. We were in debt, and our income wasn’t much but we had saved for it and had a great trip. I knew I wanted to travel more, but with our student debt, and lower income. It was difficult. We managed a few trips though, saving as much as we could.

My husband went back to school, which of course added to his student debt, but in the long run he was able to make a higher income, so it worked out. I worked 6 days a week for a few years in order to pay for our wedding while he was in school. 

For a few years it felt like we were struggling to really get any traction. It felt like spinning our wheels and not getting anywhere. We wanted to buy a house, and we wanted to travel but it was so hard with student loan payments, and a car payment. 

I don’t remember the exact time when I realized that we needed to get out of debt if we ever wanted to travel more. But I do remember buying a house and then realizing that all of our “extra money” was gone to mortgage payments, property tax and house repairs. 

We needed to pay off the debt so that we could have that money back.

I started Will Save For Travel as a way to share our journey, to be accountable to “someone” and to show others that it was possible.

We started budgeting, paying off the student loans with small extra payments, and sometimes with big extra payments. We still traveled while we paid off debt by saving for it. Things started to look up…

You know how some moments will stick with you forever? I don’t know if I’ll ever forget when my parents told me that my step mom has cancer. Life comes to a screeching halt. My step mom is one of my favorite people in the whole world, and her influence is one of the major reasons I love to travel.

Over the last few years I’ve realized why I love travel so much, and as cheesy as it sounds it’s all the memories that I’ve made. I got to experience so many things with so many people through travel. 

Things I’ll never forget like our family trip to New York, seeing my first Broadway show. Visiting Iceland with my step mom and being frozen on a boat in the ocean looking for the Northern Lights (we didn’t see any). Seeing Disney decorated for Christmas with some of our best friends just this past December. Going to NYC for the best wedding ever. Going on a cruise with my Mom and step dad and finally dipping my toes in ocean water that doesn’t make you go numb. Going to see an NHL game with my best friend and falling in love with Minnesota. Seeing Chelsea FC play at Stamford Bridge. Long car drives with my brother and I in the back seat. Every trip with my husband that always leads to an adventure I didn’t expect. 

Some people might wonder how personal finance and travel could be related. How can I blog about responsible money management and then turn around and book a trip to Disney?

Well, my friends, without the money management I couldn’t have made some of these memories. Some of my favorite things I’ve ever done never would have happened (or maybe they did happen and then I was stressed about the crippling debt it created after). 

Travel is my WHY. Money is my HOW.

2010

I graduated massage therapy college in June of 2010, so for the first half of the year I was living on student loans and some money I had saved from my highschool job and from working in the summer. My husband and I had been dating for about a year and we moved in together in June 2010. It was a big year for us! 

I started my massage therapy career in August, and finally got my first “grownup” paycheck! It was slow going at first because I was new and still building my clientele, I was actually scared I had made a huge mistake! Over the last couple months my income started to increase as my clientele grew. 

When I graduated college, I had accumulated about $15,031.34 in student loan debt. My husband also had student loan debt from his 4 year university degree, and a brand new car – and the payment that came with it! It was definitely a struggle navigating paying back loans and getting our first apartment together. 

Between my student loan, my husband’s and his car our debt would be approximately $54,588.64

2011

As I settled into my career my income became more steady and I felt more confident managing my finances as a self employed massage therapist. I wasn’t making a lot but my husband and I split finances 50/50. Luckily at this time we weren’t taking on any consumer debt but we were struggling to get the student loans under control. In the spring we added a little poodle spaniel mix to our family: Ellie! We also took our first real trip as a couple this year – to Disney! I paid for the entire trip with tips, sort of a precursor to sinking funds! 

2012

Not much of note happened in 2012 as far as I can remember! My husband was trying to figure out his career and had worked a few jobs in a few different fields. We made enough to cover our bills and travel a little. I made my first trip to Thunder Bay to visit my best friend that year. We refinanced the car to TD instead of with Honda to save some money on interest.

2013

Early in the year we got to go back to one of my favorite cities – New York! My husband decided to go back to school in 2013 to take a paramedic program, which meant that I would be the only one working for about a year. It was a scary leap but I worked 6 days a week to cover the bills while my husband furthered his education. Unfortunately this meant adding $9450 to his student loans. We made it work and I even squeezed in a trip to Iceland with my step mom in October, which is still one of the best trips I have ever taken! 

2014

For the first half of 2014, my husband was still in school, and I was still working 6 days a week. On June 1st my then boyfriend became my fiance when he proposed on a hike in Cape Split (one of the best hikes in Nova Scotia!). This meant we started saving for a wedding and honeymoon. He graduated from his paramedic program in the late summer and began the hiring process (which lasts forever) and he worked a retail job in the meantime. It was so nice to have a second income again! 

2015

This is what you might call a banner year! 3/4s of the year was saving as much as we could for our wedding, honeymoon, and then for our house downpayment. My husband started his paramedic job and we were finally back to two full incomes. In June we started house shopping and we ended up putting an offer in on a house about 2 weeks before our wedding which was on August 1st! I can’t say I recommend that timeline! A week before our wedding we had the home inspection and we closed on September 15th, about 3 weeks before our 14 day Europe honeymoon began. Thanks to saving as much as we could and the generosity of our friends and family through wedding gifts we managed not to take on any debt from the wedding, or honeymoon. We had saved enough for a 5% downpayment on our house, and we took on $242,000 mortgage. 

Our honeymoon took us to Iceland, then London and Paris. We had such an amazing time, from seeing a Chelsea FC game to visiting Disneyland Paris I am so grateful we got to spend those 2 weeks together after the stress of a wedding and buying a house all within 45 days!

We also finally paid off Ryan’s car loan and I paid off the last of my student loans. 

2016

2016 was a quiet year compared to all the fun things we got to do in 2015! We settled in to home ownership by doing a few projects around the house – mostly finishing the fence in the backyard and then adding stairs off the deck so we could enjoy our little property. We did lots of local traveling because we had depleted all our savings the previous year. I did manage a trip to Thunder Bay and Minnesota to visit my BFF.

2017

We started the year by traveling to NYC in January for a friends wedding, and it was an amazing time and a great way to start the year! In the winter I started to think about writing a blog but I had no idea how to build a website or even buy a domain. I eventually mentioned it to my husband (I was so nervous that he’d think it was silly!!) but he responded with the fact that he was interested in learning code and he started learning and building my website. In June we finally got back to Disney World after 6 years, I had missed it so much. In July Will Save For Travel was born! Putting our lives and finances on the internet was one of the scariest things I have done but it has been such a positive in our lives. Of course in September 2017 I wrote that we were ready to seriously tackle our debt and we made a plan to pay it off in 2 years. Our debt was $26,556.14, not including the mortgage. 

We finally started budgeting more frequently (and successfully) and I was surprised at where our money was going.

2018

If you’ve been reading a while you probably know most of the next 2 years were full of paying off debt. After finally getting serious we managed to pay off $16,246.84 in one year. On the travel side of things I got to go to Las Vegas with my best friend in the Spring, which was an amazing trip and then back to Disney World in the fall with my Husband. Disney at Halloween was one of my favorite experiences! 

2019

We started this year on a Bahamas cruise and exploring Miami with my Mom and Step-Dad in early January. It was so much fun, and nice to be warm in January! In July we finally made our last ever student loan payment and became debt free except for the mortgage! It was such a great feeling, I was so relieved that part of our financial journey was over because it freed up so much room in our budget! In August we explored Toronto and Niagara Falls to celebrate our anniversary, birthdays and becoming debt free! We finished up our year by traveling to Disney once again – this time to see all the beautiful Christmas decor. 

The Next Decade

I hope the next decade will bring a lot more traveling (duh, why else would I name my blog Will Save For Travel?!). Other than that I’m not really sure what the decade holds. I believe I’ll make a career change in the next 10 years, and it’s possible that we will move. I’m excited to see what adventure life will throw at us!

Any highlights you want to share about the last decade?!

A few years ago, turning 29 seemed scary. It’s been ingrained in our culture for so long that your 20s are some of the best years of your life, so why would you be excited to leave them behind? My 20s have certainly been filled with amazing things; my engagement and wedding, meeting some of my best friends, buying our house, so many travel adventures, and becoming debt free! It’s also been filled with so much personal growth, that I refuse to believe that my 20s will be the “best years”! Here are some random thoughts I have on turning 29 that I thought I would share:

Just yesterday it dawned on me that I don’t wear makeup anymore, and I don’t really care to. To be completely fair, I do get eyelash extensions, but I haven’t worn makeup in months. I have never been skilled with makeup, and I used to be jealous of those that could flawlessly do their eyeshadow, and that gorgeous winged eyeliner. I’ve spent so much money on makeup to try and teach myself, only to give up and let it sit in my makeup bag for months – or years – before finally throwing it out. Not saying I’ll never wear makeup again but I’m grateful for the confidence that my late 20s have brought me.

Experiences make me happier than things. I am still learning this one, but as I look around my house and see all the “things” that we have, I know that most of my happiest times are not buying a pair of shoes, or a home decor item. It’s all the travel, playing board games with friends, and hanging out with my husband. When I go through my Joy Journal, I’ve barely ever written about a possession, and always write about the days spent on the deck with my family, cuddling with my dog, and time spent connecting with others. I’m still working on not buying “things”, but I’m trying to remember that they aren’t what makes me truly happy.

Finding your “tribe” is the best thing ever! In the past few years I’ve been lucky enough to connect with a lot of people over similar interests. Lots of new friends made, and reconnections over Disney, budgeting, blogging, and traveling in general. It’s such an amazing feeling to talk about Disney to other people who get it. Even if you can’t meet in person, a Facebook group, or an online chat is a great way to talk about the things you love.

It’s okay not to know what you want the rest of your life to look like. Will we live in Halifax forever? Move abroad? Have kids? Change careers? Honestly I have no idea! But I’m okay with the unknown for now. You don’t have to make all the decisions at once.

So there are some of the random thoughts bouncing around my head as I enter the last year of my 20s! Have an amazing weekend my friends, I’m grateful for each one of you that are reading.