Andrea Chronopoulos for BI
Elizabeth Johnson and her husband hit the vacation circuit hard in 2023.
They went boating in Florida, hiking in the Swiss Alps, snorkeling in Hawaii, waterfall exploring in Oregon, and leaf peeping in Canada. They saw moose and orcas in Alaska, manatees in the Dominican Republic, and sheep in the Irish countryside.
"We also volunteer at a local food bank each month, go to comedy shows at Mall of America, routinely go to concerts," she said.
Neither Johnson nor her husband grew up wealthy, and the couple never expected to have such an indulgent lifestyle. Johnson's husband, in particular, faced "a very bleak outlook" for his career when he graduated from college in 2008 at the height of the Great Recession.