I wrote this blog a couple of years ago, but I thought it might be helpful to revisit.
When I was a kid, my parents and I were set to leave on a family vacation. Our flight was scheduled to depart early the next morning. We had all our bags packed and we were ready to go. The next morning came and we overslept. Oh no! We thought we still had time to catch our flight so we rushed out the door. We quickly drove to the airport and arrived at the baggage drop off. The attendant looked up our flight information, quickly tagged our bags, and told us to rush to security. This was before 9/11 so the process of getting through security was faster. After we passed through security, we hurried to the gate. Upon arriving at the gate, the attendant checked our boarding passes and told us to "RUN down to the airplane". When we arrived, the plane had already started to pull away from the skybridge, but just barely. The attendant reached out and knocked on the window of the cockpit. The pilot brought the plane back to the skybridge, The attendant opened the door to the airplane and boarded the craft. Up until now, you probably thought this story was about me and my parents. What I have not told you yet is that the flight was FULL, including standby passengers. Yep, that's right. Three standby passengers had to be asked to exit the plane as we took what they rightfully thought were their seats. I can only imagine what was going through their minds as they were buckled in, finally relaxed in their seats, and the plane had moved slightly away from the gate for departure. The sense of accomplishment to have boarded a full flight on standby only to have that dashed at the last possible moment. I still feel bad about that to this day. I was only a kid so I did not have the full grasp of the situation.
I have to imagine that those travelers found their way to their destinations. I can only hope that their plans were flexible since they were flying standby.
How much flexibility have you built into your financial plan? How many contingencies do you have? Discipline is important but so is flexibility. The world changes and your plan should be flexible enough to adapt. Please let us know if we can help and feel free to share this with your friends.