By Dr. James M. Dahle, WCI Founder
We had an eventful spring break here in Utah. In many ways, it didn't turn out like we'd planned. However, there were lots of lessons learned that anyone can apply in their lives. Forgive the personal nature of this post. Take what you find useful, and leave the rest.
Lesson #1 – Be Flexible
Our original plan for spring break was to go backpacking in Bears Ears National Monument. Through careful planning, we obtained not one but two difficult-to-obtain permits, and we were excited to take our kids into the wilderness and see how the ancient Puebloans lived. However, those who have been paying attention know the American West is having a bonkers winter. We're all very thankful, given the drought we have been in, but as of spring break, our local ski resort had received 877 inches (73 feet) of snow. The previous all-time record was 747 inches, and we still had a month of the season to go.
Bears Ears was covered in snow, and low temperatures were going to be in the 20s. As a family, we have a pretty high tolerance for suffering, but it's not that high. The suffering-to-fun ratio still needs to be reasonable, so we canceled those desirable permits and started looking at other plans. Meanwhile, a tournament hockey game was scheduled for Tuesday and a funeral for a friend and neighbor was scheduled for Friday, leaving us just Wednesday and Thursday for spring break. We pivoted to an overnight stay at a mountain lodge and an activity I had done many times as a teenager but that my kids had not: snowmachining (aka snowmobiling among those in the Lower 48).
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#2 Know Your Part
It's been a long season for our adult league hockey team, and we're not that good. We finished the season ranked 11th of 14 teams, and we were lined up against the No. 6 team. To make matters worse, our leading scorer was out of town on business. As the third-highest scoring player, I felt really bad about going out of town and missing the game, but by shortening our spring break trip, I could be there. The team captain asked me to play center, not my usual position. We only had two centers and three sets of wings, so I would be playing half the game (that's a lot in ice hockey) opposite our second-leading scorer (and, honestly, our best player). It turned out my role in the game was simply to keep our best player on the ice as much as possible, spelling him as needed and keeping anything too bad from happening when he wasn't out there. While I contributed an assist in our 6-4 victory, his five goals made all the difference. In life, you make your contribution when and where you can, but it's important to know your role.
#3 Rent Things You Don't Use Often
Everything you own owns a little piece of you. When I look at a snowmachine I think, “That would be really fun to own a couple of those, like we did when I was a kid.” But I've only been snowmachining once in the last 20 years. When you own an item like that (such as our boat), you feel like you need to use it frequently, squeezing other activities out of your life, AND you have to buy it (and a truck and trailer to transport it), maintain it, store it, repair it, and insure it. Earning the money you spent on it (and continue to spend on it) represents a certain portion of your life. Renting three machines for two days was really expensive but nowhere near as expensive as owning them.
#4 Never Give Up
After checking out the machines and receiving serious warnings not to leave the groomed trails due to conditions (3-4 feet of that famous fresh, fluffy Utah powder) and the fact that our rented machines were “trail machines” and not “powder machines,” we were off into the boondocks. I let my 13-year-old son drive, and a few minutes later, he hit a bump and bounced off the trail down a steep hill. By the time I got the machine stopped, we were 40 feet below the road, down a steep embankment in the deepest powder I had ever been in with a snowmachine.
While my family has never spent much time “sledding,” it wasn't a new activity to me, and I figured I could get it back up onto the road somehow. Over the next hour and a half, I got to put on a clinic for my wife, 16-year-old daughter, and 13-year-old son about how to get snowmobiles stuck and unstuck. I got it badly stuck a total of four times, and each time, it required much digging and turning of this 1,000-pound machine 90 to 180 degrees while we were in powder to our waist. My daughter started suggesting that it might be faster to call the rental shop and beg for rescue.
Finally, we worked out a plan that we thought would work. We tramped down a track in the waist-deep powder for about 75 yards to where the embankment up to the road wasn't quite so steep. Then, with my wife and daughter each pulling on a ski and me pushing and gunning the engine, we got it moving and blasted it down the track and back up onto the road. Luckily, I had the experience to know how to get a snowmachine out of trouble. As a teenager, my dad dropped his into a creek in the dead of an Alaskan winter. While standing in 18 inches of water, we built a ramp of snow to get out of that creek. Back then, I was the one suggesting we go get a rescue, but my father taught me to never give up. We eventually got the machine out, pulled our boots off at -10 degrees, wrung out our socks, and headed for home. Those lessons of hard work, self-sufficiency, and mindset came in handy.
#5 Know Yourself
When signing out the machines, they offered us a damage waiver for $50 a machine. Snowmobiles cost $13,000-$25,000. Having experience, I knew that someone on a snowmachining trip breaks something on a machine about every other day. I knew that $50 was a steal for the way I ride (no, I had no intention to keep the machines on the trail, even if I wasn't planning to go off trail at the location noted above). So, we bought $150 a day worth of damage waivers. I was really glad once I went through the windshield within an hour of leaving the rental shop while trying to get it back up on the road. The next day also involved a slightly bent ski and a torn snow flap.
While I don't usually recommend “consumer insurance,” I know a deal when I see one. Knowing we had that insurance made the whole trip a lot more fun because it allowed us to “drive it like a rental.” Eventually, we did find a great place to play in the powder off the trail. It was the highlight of the trip for the kids, and it gave them an amazing amount of confidence as they really learned how to ride a snowmachine.
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#6 Your Career Doesn't Matter That Much
A dear neighbor and friend passed away recently from cancer. At 70, he wasn't young, but he certainly wasn't old either. We set up chairs for 1,000 people at his funeral. His obituary ran nine paragraphs. There were only two sentences about his career. Sometimes, we think we are what we do. But if we want to have a successful life (and have hundreds of people at our funeral), perhaps we need to remember that the most important moments of our lives won't be spent at work.
#7 Your Hearse Won't Have a Trailer Hitch
I checked the hearse at the funeral. Like every other hearse I've ever seen, there was no trailer hitch. None of that stuff or those financial assets you're accumulating during your life will go with you when you die. Relationships are the key to life. Whether you have a handful of close friends and family like many introverts or whether you're known by thousands, remember where the real value is in life.
#8 Cash Is King
Financially speaking, April is always my least favorite month of the year, and that always adds some stress to spring break time. The cash flow challenges can be immense. Not only is our entire state income tax bill due, but any unpaid amount of federal taxes is also due. Plus, there's the first quarter estimated tax payment, and I know there will be another one of those due just 60 days later. I also need to come up with the profit-sharing portion of my partnership 401(k) which cannot be calculated until the K-1s are prepared at seemingly the last moment. In addition, the massive hotel bill from WCICON comes due.

Your hearse won't have a trailer hitch
Our bank (for the business and for the personal side) was also put on the “watch list” after the Silicon Valley Bank meltdown. Meanwhile, stocks are 17 months into a bear market (average bear market = 10 months), bonds are coming off their worst year ever, and rising interest rates are having serious impacts on real estate.
After a few years of April stress, I've learned my lesson. By February, I stop investing and start piling up cash, both personally and for the business. The business stops paying salaries to Katie and me to ensure that we can make payroll and meet our obligations to vendors and tax agencies.
When you need cash, nothing else will do. Don't invest money in long-term instruments that you will need in the short term. Sometimes the return of your principal is more important than the return on your principal.
Spring break sometimes turns into winter break, but with preparation, hard work, and perspective, you can get what you want out of life—for you and your loved ones.
What do you think? What did you do for spring break? Any recent experiences that taught you important life lessons? Comment below!
We booked a last minute trip to Machu Picchu and used a travel agent since the trip involved 3 cities, 2 trains and 5 flights. Normally I do multiple cost-benefit analysis for hotels and flight times and restaurants and I never imagined it would feel so good to write one check and have all those decisions out of my hands.
I would never have thought it would be worth the money to have private tours and transfers but it was wonderful. Not knowing how much each thing cost (because there was not time to do research) made the trip a lot more fun than if I was responsible for logistics. All the extras probably added ~$1500 over 9 days, but, again, not knowing exactly how much extra was amazing
Snowmachines! I initially thought you had got a snow-MAKING machine and was confused as to what was going on (Why would he need a snow making machine in Utah??). I grew up calling them snowmobiles! Thanks for sharing the post, and I hear you about the role on the hockey team, how’d the rest of the playoffs turn out?
Not great. Lost in the quarterfinals to a team I think we should have beat.
good morning
i have enjoyed your posts for several years now and you have become pretty much the author of my financial bible, but i have to beat you up just a little about this recent one. i live at the ski area as well and provide anesthesia for more winter trauma than i care to recall. i too engage in all the mountaineering activities with my family that you do, and the leader of our pack is a ridiculous safety freak. there is no chance i would ever have let my 13 year old attempt to manage a snowmachine. im sure you realize the end of this story could’ve been very different and that no amount of money would’ve fixed it. please be safe out there. let the rivers flow and move on to the bicycles. okay im done lecturing. thanks for sharing.
Interesting you feel this way. I started riding at 11 on my own machine with a rifle on my back and without a helmet so I obviously feel differently. But the place I grew up in has a generally different attitude about safety than the place we now live. “Hmmmm….got mauled by a bear while out jogging, should have been carrying a gun. His fault.”
I loved the article and especially #4 and #6 . However, I’m with Cheryl on this one, and I’m not surprised at all that she feels this way. I also grew up in a time and place where very few wore bike helmets, for instance, and were generally less concerned about safety. We would have never worn helmets while skiing. I never got seriously hurt either, like you didn’t snowmachining, but that doesn’t mean everyone got off unscathed. I now wear a helmet and make my kids wear their helmets when we get on our bikes or ski. One generation older than us probably says “When I was a kid we didn’t have seatbelts in cars and I never got hurt.” Great! I doubt many roll the dice and don’t make their kids buckle up now. It wouldn’t surprise me if there are things we’re letting our kids do today that parents in 30 years will say “I can’t believe we did that when we were kids back in the 2020’s”.
I don’t disagree, but we do need to make sure the pendulum doesn’t swing too far. I was legally driving a car when I was my son’s age (just turned 14) and Cheryl thinks he’s not old enough to drive a snowmobile with me on the back while wearing a helmet. I think that’s BS. She probably doesn’t think I should take him skiing, canyoneering, rappelling, mountaineering, rock climbing, wakesurfing, wakeboarding, water skiing, mountain biking, cliff diving, or shooting either. She probably doesn’t like us jumping off the back of the boat into the wake either and she probably wouldn’t approve of me letting him drive the boat while I’m standing right there too. She probably thinks we’re crazy to let our kids run the neighborhood too. I let him walk or bike to school himself (and have for years) and lots of parents think that’s nuts. Some people are just more comfortable with risk than others. It’s probably fine (different strokes for different folks) except at either extreme, but when we see someone who is at somewhere else on the spectrum of reasonable than where we’re at, it does seem strange and sometimes even worthy of comment.
As far as how I feel about “risky” activities, I feel about like Thoreau in this regard:
I came to WCI originally for the personal finance, but these are the kind of articles that keep me here. Thanks.
Love the story! Growing up in Fairbanks, the frozen Chena river was our highway for snowmachines.
Oh, yes. My husband rode on the frozen Eagle River every day after school in the winter.
Tax time of the year sucks when running small businesses. December has always been horrible for me based on how we do things. With March/April coming in a close second. Because of the way my business works, Q1 is also usually our worst quarter from a revenue standpoint. Most of my heavy investing comes between May and October every year. The other months I have to carry a lot of cash. It sucks, but is also a good problem to have.
Were you headed to Grand Gulch? It’s still covered in snow? Wow.
Yes. Our decision was based more on temps than snow cover, but I think there was still snow there the first week of April.
Great list!
I think that #3 is especially true of anything with an engine. I don’t use my skis very often, but the cost of renting them for 3-4 days equals the cost of buying them, so I keep them.
Getting a damage waiver on a machine of that value and put to that sort of use for $50/day is a steal. That seems very unusual.
I enjoyed the article from a human interest point of view. Never been on a snowmobile but can relate to getting stuck in the snow and mud with pickups. Glad you and family could salvage some of Spring break for a new adventure.
The other points are well taken.
I enjoyed #1 in this article as it hit home for me with our thwarted plans for spring break. I planned some canyoneering in Utah near St George and weather was not in favor for it. Sometimes we feel compelled to push things because of our limited time off and schedules. I’m sure you heard of the rescue in Buckskin Gulch this year (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/16/us/hikers-dead-buckskin-gulch-utah.html) but one of the two that passed was my same age (50) and specialty and I can’t help but think that sometimes we ignore the dangers of the elements as we think about things like “I already have the time off”; “I have this permit that is hard to come by”; “we have traveled so far to get here and we don’t have another time to do this”. This story really hit home with me because we always have to be flexible when mother nature is part of the equation in the outdoors. Its hard to let go of some great plans, but it is better to save it for another day. Somber lesson I learned in someone else’s misfortune. That will always stick in my mind when calculating future risk. Thanks for your insight and for a great blog.
That was a pretty sad story. Scary rescue too to go in there in the dark with nothing but a rim team for back up.
There was another canyon rescue this week too. Thankfully with a happier ending.
https://kutv.com/news/local/stranded-canyoneering-group-uses-iphone-feature-to-get-help-in-remote-utah-slot-canyon-the-squeeze-sos-text-message-deep-pools-cold-water-rescue-dps-utah-aero-bureau