I realize that the decisions I make while I’m at home are keeping me from spending more of my life on the road. And mostly it comes down to financial decisions. I work a full-time corporate job with a better than average salary, but my inability (um…unwillingness) to compromise my lifestyle has a direct impact on my travel budget.

Yesterday I was faced with a big financial decision and I failed…miserably…again. After 9 years and only 78,000 miles my favorite little Audi decided it was time to go to the big impound lot in the sky. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ll remember the trouble started earlier this year on a trip to San Diego. The reality of living in LA is that I just can’t go without a car all together, especially since I drive 40 miles round trip to work each day. There’s no subway near my part of town and buses just aren’t a practical use of time in a city as spread out as LA.

Given the fact that I need a car, the true challenge for me is spending the minimal amount of money possible to get something safe that would also require little output for maintenance. I loved my Audi, but that sucker was in the shop more than in my garage over the last few months.

In 2012, my goal is to travel for a few months at a time and I definitely need to save up as much money as possible to allow me to take the time away from the corporate 9-5. Being able to travel internationally gives me such fulfillment, but the problem is I also have a weakness for pretty, shiny things. And when pretty, shiny things are right in front of me and fulfilling travel is six months away, I lack the will power to say no to “pretty, shiny”.

I can’t imagine I’m the only one who suffers from this problem. But I seem to know quite a few travelers who manage to keep their expenses to the bare minimum while they plan for that next trip. I’m not a big shopper for day to day things – I don’t spend a ton of money on clothes and shoes and I’m perfectly happy with that $5.99 bottle of wine. But I do find that I have a hard time resisting spending money on big ticket items (my apartment could be a lot smaller and did I truly need to buy all of those new Apple products this year?), which brings me back to my car shopping decision. Now you would think that after all this lead up, I had dropped a wad of cash on a brand new Mercedes E-class. I didn’t. I managed to show some restraint…I got a Honda Accord. I know, I know. Not exactly a sexy luxury car, but it was new and fully loaded (flat out HAD to have the leather seats – no discussion). Plus after all that time at the mechanic, I wanted to get a reliable Japanese car with all the maintenance covered.

I realize I didn’t get the most expensive car out there, but if I had shown more restraint, I could have gotten something used and/or more scaled back (cloth seats never killed anyone) that would have gotten me back and forth to work while also allowing me to save more for the Great Escape – Part III. The end result is I’m going to have to scrimp and save in other ways to get my budget back together to allow me to head off next spring. My original savings plan (OK – plan may be strong word…my savings idea) did not factor in a monthly car payment and a higher insurance premium. I know that the temptation will be to charge whatever I can’t afford when the time to leave rolls around, but that is not the smart way to do it.

There must be a way to keep travelling regularly while also not having to live a completely minimalist existence. Both on the road and while at home. It is my goal to perfect a lifestyle that will allow a comfortable standard in both worlds. When I achieve that goal, I may just have to make that the focus of this blog. But until then, I’ll keep searching for that perfect balance that works for me and share whatever insight I can.