Fran, I had a wake up moment a few years ago which made me decide that these trips were really important. My DH and I worked hard pre-kids to really smash our mortgage. When the kids came along we were still pretty much in the same mindset and saving for our big trip in 2015. Then I realized how magic toddlerhood is and started imagining how my kids would react to different things in
Disneyland. We decided we couldn't wait, so off we went to Japan. It was so fun (of course!) and some of those memories are burnt into my memory so strongly. The kids still talk about it and DH and I are always saying things like "imagine DS3 when he sees Mickey...". Our 2015 savings are still going strong, but now we have added Disneyland next year as well. The mortgage isn't decreasing as much, but it's just a house. We aren't going to have any lasting memories of reaching $200k on our mortgage, but our Mickey memories aren't going anywhere