Monica and I booked a trip to Bora Bora, and the booking alone cost $16,039.06. We each work about 16 hours a week. We paid it off right away, and here is how we can afford it.
A lot of nurses post their fancy trips on social media. I have always wondered how much of those trips go on a credit card. That is why Monica and I try to be as open as we can about our money.
These numbers are from June 2024, when this was first written. Pay changes every year, so check current rates in Map My Pay.
How we used to travel
In 2022, we went to more than six places. We spent over $70,000 on travel and invested over $80,000.
That same year, we netted about $15,770 a month. Each of us worked 20 to 22 hours a week.
Why we cut back on overtime
Our son was born in 2021. We soon saw that we were spending less time with him than we wanted.
So in 2023, we stopped picking up as much overtime. That meant no more double time and no more runs. For me, it meant no overtime at all.
Since then, I still get my nice stretches of days off. Monica gets eleven days off in a row every other week. We are living life to the fullest.
It did come at a cost. Our income went down when we stopped working overtime.
Our average W-2 income is $12,857.01 a month. We are OK with that because each of us only works an average of 16.11 hours a week.
Booking Bora Bora
We were OK enough with it that in February we booked our first trip out of the country since the summer of 2023.
Bora Bora has been on our bucket list since before we were nurses. This trip costs more than most people spend on trips in a couple of years. The booking was $16,039.06, and that is before we even get there. I expect the full trip to cost at least $20,000.
We are not worried about it, for two reasons.
1. We saved for it
We put money into our savings account for at least six months to get ready for this trip.
We paid the $16,039.06 with our credit card. Then we paid off the card right away with money from our high-yield savings account.
So we earned about $300 in points for booking with our credit card. We also earned about $330 for keeping the money in our high-yield savings account.
2. Our business income
As of June 20, 2024, our business brings in an average of $7,302 a month. From late March to mid-June, we made over $27,000. That is more than half of what the business made since the start of the year.
Our total income and expenses
Between our W-2 jobs and our business, we gross an average of $27,772.55 a month. Our net income is about $19,415.99 a month.
Our personal expenses are about $11,833.93 a month. Before our son, they were around $8,500. We put him in preschool to help him make friends and to give us more time for the business.
A few years ago, we worked more hours and netted $16,000 to $18,000 a month. We still had lots left for trips and investing.
Now our expenses are higher and our hours are lower. We made up for that by growing our business income.
Today we spend an average of $14,658.83 a month on personal and business costs. Take that from the $19,415.99 we bring in, and we have about $4,757.16 left each month.
What comes next
Our goal is to keep widening the gap between what we make and what we spend.
We will keep holding off on the many trips and the $70,000 or more a year we spent on travel before 2023. We will focus on growing the business instead.
I think we are on the right track. Our business income has doubled or tripled each year since we started our YouTube channel in 2021.
To see how we work fewer hours without losing pay, read how to work less and earn more as a nurse. For our full numbers from earlier this year, read how much we made as nurses in 2024.
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Written by Jason, RN. I went from $37 an hour in New York to $143 an hour in California and paid off $128K of debt in under a year. I share our numbers in the Nurses to Riches newsletter and on YouTube.