If there is something I have learned, it’s always expecting some kind of obstacle.
I used to think that if I planned hard enough, that all of my issues would be resolved.
That is unfortunately not true, although it can reduce the likelihood of problems, it can’t get rid of all of them. A nice little example is what happened a few weeks ago. For the past year, I was saving up for a cruise. I wanted to be picky on what cruise I went on, so while I was saving, I was taking my time deciding. I was almost at 3k saved for a cruise, and the one I was interested in was around that amount for my kids and I. I had already taken work off for the selected days, and just when I was about to book it, my air conditioner started having issues. I had a heating and cooling repairman look at it, but it was in bad shape. Admittedly, I never had the A/C equipment looked at, so I had no idea what kind of condition it was in. The HVAC serviceman told me it would be better to just get a new one, which took a fair amount of my cruise money away. I used the days off that I had to have the HVAC installation, and my kids were pretty disappointed. Although this delayed us for a few months, it’s not like it’s the end of the world. We will still be going, it will just take a little longer. So that is the lesson I learned, and that there will always be obstacles to overcome, even if you plan everything really well.