My wife and I married at a young age and had little money while our children were growing up. While we lived in a modest, suburban area, we could not afford luxuries such as vacations and extravagancies. We felt pangs of regret each time we heard our friends discussing their camping trips and ventures to Disneyland, and vowed to try and save more money to do nice things with our family.

This is harder than it seems: both of our children had essentially grown up by the time we were able to afford a luxury vacation for the four of us. Our son, Mitchell, was 22 and about to start a graduate program. Our daughter, Gabrielle, was 19 and about to start her second year of college. We sprung the trip on them in April, asking them to each bring a friend as we traveled across the country, staying in hotels and relaxing for two weeks.