I saw a great article in the Wall Street Journal today about priorities. The “Yoder & Son” column (a weekly feature about personal finances from the point of view of a father and son) talked about their Christmas vacation in Slovakia this year, and whether they should have held back from this kind of spending, given the economy.

It’s the kind of question I see clients asking themselves all the time right now, and I think Stephen and Isaac Yoder sum it up nicely when they talk about priorities — it may not be important to spend money on “things” right now (expensive cars, fashion, etc.) but it’s still very important to them to invest in experiences.

What lesson is Isaac learning from this profligacy? I hope it’s that the world is too fascinating a place to miss, and that the lessons lost by staying home are often too pricey. I hope he has learned that it’s possible to live beneath your means and yet make whopping exceptions like this trips — when those exceptions pay back in immeasurable ways.

I couldn’t agree more! Even in an economy like this, I’ll never second-guess money spent on building memories with my family.