It's always a good story worth sharing though. You see, with each trip come more qualifiers. He has to qualify on many different levels and he made this one by $22. On a Wednesday afternoon, 2 days before the qualification period was over, he called corporate to see if a client's policy went through in time. They confirmed that it would post the very next morning. Jay asked what the commission was on it, because he needed $50 in this one final category to earn this trip. They said it was $72. That was more than enough! They congratulated Jay over the phone and he called me to talk through details.
When he came home we decided that to go away on our next trip would be best over the Christmas holiday because we'd already be on break from school. Yes, even though I homeschool, I still do not like to take unnecessary time off during the school year. Academics come first and I'm pretty strict about that.
So, it looked like end December, right after Christmas, would be our trip.
Then to figure out where we could go. The trips book up quickly! The more veteran financial advisors earn these trips fairly easily and book them first. The young ones like Jay have to work a bit harder for them and qualify at the last minute. Because Jay earned this trip on the very last qualifying day, most trips were booked.
London or Rome? Those were both options for us. We had a little fun on Facebook and took a couple of polls. It was pretty even among the two. Yet from friends who had been to both locales, it seemed that Rome was the winner.
We are not taking the kids with us. The company and it's product partners pay for the financial advisor and spouse (we have to pay for food and incidentals/extras). They do not pay for the kids or family members. For our trip to Jackson Hole this summer, we paid for the kids and my mom and stepdad. It wasn't cheap! But we wanted to celebrate as a family and the memories were well worth the expenses!
My mother-in-law will come to watch the kids and Jay and I will be enjoying New Year's in Rome. It will be the first time we've been gone so long from any of our kids as a couple (remember, I traveled to China alone). But we're excited and the time away from the kids will surely be good for us as a couple.
Time to renew our passports! Lookout Rome, here we come!
