re: Two trains of thought, which are you?

I would say I'm definitely closer to the first one, but I travel a good bit for my job. It can suck at times, but it has allowed me to see some pretty cool places. Of course, work travel allows me to earn plenty of miles/points and I definitley take advantage of travel credit cards. That helps us take plenty of vacations without having to spend nearly as much.

So really, we try to travel as much as possible and save as much as possible doing it. The biggest obstacle is my wife's limited vacation time.

ETA: we are both 29 and have 1 kid. We like to take him on some trips, but he loves getting spoiled with grandma for a week a couple times a year while we take other trips. Once he's in grade school, that probably can't happen so much.