[DutchmenSport]

Perhaps the title of the thread should have been, "What adjustments are you making to your camping plans for 2023 that you normally do not do?"

If that is more in line with the OP's question, then that's a different matter.

No! I am not letting world politics or the world economy change anything I am "planning" for this year. We have some personal events happening that is altering our camping schedule for early this year, and based on the outcome of that, this is kind of delaying scheduling for a while.

We have started making reservations, and I am already scheduled for a camp host position for August 2023, and hoping I'll hear final word back for another host position. Until the "personal event thing" is over and I hear something (one way or the other) on the second camp host, we're hesitant to book reservations and then later end up canceling them (because we'd rather do the camp host position).

So, in our case, it's not world politics or world finances that's affecting us this year. We go camping as much as we can. If we can't get into one of our more "favored" parks, we simply keep searching until we find somewhere we can go. Because for us, it's not so much about the actual location (as long as it's a state park) as much as it is, we are "out there" camping somewhere.

We have only 1 hobby, we are RVers. We've both worked HARD all our lives. We've not spent money wildly over our younger working years. Our philosophy has always been, bills first, food second, everything else third. We don't use alcohol or tobacco or any kind of illegal drugs. We don't do concerts, go to bars, or gamble. We have always calculated our finances, provided for our children, and on many, many, many occasions, done without things to ensure a solid future.

We have, in the past, been in financial straights and had no clue how we'd get through some financial situations. But somehow, we always did. We made some life-long choices that we are now reaping the benefits from. At one point in my life, I was working 3 jobs (all at the same time), and my wife was working 2. We had 2 kids grade school age, and in debt so bad, we saw no way out. Bankruptcy was NEVER an option. Selling our house and using the profits from the house was! And we did. Sometimes, there were some REALLY hard decisions. My wife and I did not come into this world with a silver spoon in our mouths. We fought, we clawed, and scrimped, (we were even on county food assistance for a short while). But we also had the drive, determination, and bull headedness about to use those times of struggle to turn things around .... hard financial decisions, but in the end ... we're living a good life now. We made wise decisions and never compared our lives to others and never had any envy for anyone that had more than we did.

Over the course of my life, I changed "careers" (not just jobs, but actual "careers") 4 times in an effort to reach a better lifestyle. Each change was a little more successful than the one before. I wasn't going to settle for minimum wage and I got real tired of working 3 jobs at the same time and never seeing my 2 kids.

After a lifetime of struggle, fighting, and clawing, ..... yea .... I'm now living the life style I always dreamed about.

What about 2023? In my world, nothing is changing for me. I have learned from past experiences that adversity or advancement, neither is a reason to stop and simply quit! As always, whatever 2023 throws at me and my wife, we will use it to somehow make life a positive experience for us.