Spending time and money with one of my best friends was the best investment of 2022

Like many millennials forged in the crucible of the 2008 world economic collapse, I recognize the potential for near term financial hardship and have been actively trying to make money moves to shield my family from the devastation we all experienced when I graduated college.

In practical terms, that means that, amongst other things, I’ve attempted to rejoin the ranks of DC landlords to create another stream of income, but rising interest rates have all but assured that we will be investing elsewhere in the near term.

Like Bruno Mars, I too yearn to be a billionaire but only so that I can rest knowing that my family and my progeny can pursue their passions and change the world in their own unique ways without putting money first. It’s a constant conversation in my household - an obsession really that sometimes means we forgo meaningful interactions with our loved ones for the sake of saving money.

It doesn’t help that the pandemic turned me into a surly recluse to the chagrin of my dear husband. People cause me anxiety, but once upon a time, I used to party with the best of them.

My former exchange brother, who is one of my best friends and is more like a real brother to me, came to visit us from Europe for a few weeks with his lovely girlfriend. It is rare to miss house guests, but both my husband and I miss them because they rekindled in us a joi-de-vivre that had been missing in our lives for a little while.

For starters, we were excited preparing for their arrival: getting the house ready, making sure there was food in the fridge, clean sheets on the guest bed, and a small welcome bag because we are the gays and that’s how we roll!

They finally arrived and it was like no time had passed since we’d last seen each other. My husband and I introduced our dear ones to some of the coolest spots in DC, brunch at “La Vie” on the southwest waterfront, the obligatory sojourn to the outlet center, a tour of America’s best cheeseburgers, a walk through old town Alexandria, dinner with one of the most breathtaking panoramas at “Vue restaurant” and take-out from one of the best Thai restaurants in Rockville. We even played “take me home countey road” as we made our way to Harper’s Ferry.

We had gone a little overboard and over budget, but our friends were going to Miami and had invited us to join them. Here’s the investment: we had gone over budget, sure, but our overall mental health and well-being skyrocketed being around our friends. For the first time, we realized just how homesick we were and knew that we wanted to spend as much time with our friends as possible. We were mostly just glad that they weren’t sick of being around us - and anyone who has been in the house with me snoring without a CPAP machine … well, let’s just say that they are true friends indeed.

So instead of a vacation to Miami, we saw this as an investment opportunity! Now, we traveled using points and sat in the literal last aisle of the plane, but we didn’t mind as much because we were going to spend quality time with our dear friends - yet another testament to the health and wellness benefits because we avoid coach like the Rona virus.

As expected, Miami did not disappoint. We did everything one should do: we went on a gator tour, spent time on the beach, walked up and down Ocean Avenue, caught a drag show at Palace and drank cocktails by the liter.

This wasn’t a luxury vacation, something I thought we needed to enjoy ourselves. Instead, this was a vacation with the right people at just the right time and I could not be happier.

Our friends came to the United States on vacation, but I think they could see that we were homesick and gave us a sense of what it was like to be back with our loved ones again.

I know the economy is rough, but these memories will last a lifetime. This trip was indeed the best investment of 2022 so far!