STORY:
$10 x 10 years=New Year Dream Vacation

A Washington group of 31 saved for ten years to take a year 2000 Hawaiian vacation

(Everything2000) It didn't take much cash, just a little bit every month and it all added up to a trip to Hawaii for the New Year of the century. A group of 31 friends and family are swimming in the ocean off Maui today because they dreamed big and saved just a little. Did you know saving just $10 a month could add up to a trip to Hawaii? It can and did for a Washington State group.

It all started back in 1990 when Mike Boone, a Bellevue, Washington financial planner, decided with a group of friends to ring in the year 2000 in a splashy way. They wanted to leave the Northwest and the winter rain and head somewhere sunny. Maui was chosen and the plans started.

Boone had everyone put just $10 into a vacation fund every month. That's right just ten dollars, not much money at all. Boone then invested that money in an aggressive growth fund. How much can you save that way? After one decade this group saved up $70,000! That was more than enough money for a trip for 31 to Hawaii for eight days.

"When you pay a little at a time, it isn't as painful to watch the money go," Boone told the South County Journal.

Every family in the group will stay in a suite. Three nannies were hired for the trip so the children will be well taken of when the parents dance until dawn on New Year's Eve at a party at the Royal Lahaina hotel.

This was a plan that didn't miss a beat. The plane tickets were bought a year ago for just over $500. Today a plane ticket to Hawaii would cost $1,500.

"If there are any Y2K problems, how bad can it be to be stuck in Hawaii?" said Boone.

Every month since the planning began in January of 1990, Boone wrote a newsletter hyping the New Year's Eve trip and keeping people interested. Boone agrees that the plan was pretty bold since many marriages don't even last 10 years. The trip, says Boone, actually brought friends together with a common goal, and the group is closer than ever.

Things have changed in ten years. Some group members were bachelors when they began planning for the vacation. Many are now married, with children, and their families are coming along on the trip of a lifetime.

What hasn't changed? Dreaming big and making those dreams come true 10 bucks at a time.

Source: South County Journal

DATE: 12/30/99

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