NieNie Goes Europe

[Confused_by_religion]

Nie Nie's husband's family apparently went to Europe for about a week to research their Danish ancestors.

Now, apart from finding NieNie's writing style rather annoying (does she sound like a fourth grader to you, too?), I'm wondering how wealthy the Nielsens must be to afford such a trip on a whim, really.

My partner and I are solid middle class and have really good incomes, but we would not dream of paying 1,600 dollars for two flights to the US and then spending just a week there. We have two incomes, though, and only one kid.

How can Stephanie and Christian, who have one income and five kids, afford such a trip? How do they do it? Do their families support them financially? Is she rich now after writing her book? I can't imagine...

[lilwriter85]

There are different theories going around on GOMI about the Europe trip. One theory is that the trip was organized and possibly financed by Christian's parents. Christian and Nie do come from large families but it seems that their fathers made enough money for them to have comfortable lives growing up. On Nie's side, her sister CJane said last year on the blog that all of the Clark kids had trust funds. I get the feeling that the trust funds weren't extremely huge. I know Nie's father is a engineer and he had his own business.

I'm not sure what Christian's father did to make a living. But it seems that Christian and his 10 other siblings were comfortable growing up. IIRC, Christian's parents own 2 or 3 houses and there seems to be other wealth connected to the parents or other relatives because someone on Christian's side owns a huge ranch in New Mexico. Christian had student loan debt, my guess is that his father couldn't or wouldn't pay for his college education. I think if the dad paid for his kids to go on this Denmark trip, he could been saving for years or maybe found good deal to bring costs down.

As for Christian and Stephanie, I think they are able to afford trips mainly due to a combination of Christian's insurance business, Nie's blog income, and some money they get from speaking gigs. I haven't done sales research on Nie's book, but it might have done well for awhile. The book was heavily promoted through the media. Sometimes it awhile for authors to get royalties back. I get the feeling that the book hasn't made her mega rich. I think Nie makes a lot of money off her Mormon fanbase. Most of the speaking gigs she and Christian do are at LDS wards around the country. I think Nie's religion probably keeps her from getting more speaking gigs. I bet if Nie wasn't Mormon, but a mainstream Protestant type, she would be getting speaking gigs at various megachurches and other conferences. Overall, I think a lot of her income comes from her Mormon fanbase.

Christian and Nie were given a house by one of Nie's sisters. They might not have a mortgage, if Page bought the house in cash. They live in Provo where the cost of living is low. Their finances have always been questionable for years. Years ago, before the plane crash in many of Nie's postings she would talk about how Christian cut her hair and the kids' hair to save money, but yet they were always spending money on expensive things. She did some reflection post where she said worried about spending money on stuff like nuts for Christmas years ago. A few months back on the blog, she said something about them trying a cash only budget system. I remember wondering if she and Christian were facing financial problems, but sometime after that they went on a California trip to Disneyland and Universal Studios and they recently went back to California a few weeks ago. With their recent Cali trip, they stayed with Christian's relatives which probably brought costs down.

I think there will always be some mystery with how Stephanie and Christian finance their lifestyle. They won't always be celebs in Mormon land. Some Mormons are sick of them and at some point the speaking gigs at LDS wards will dry up. Mormon land will find other "inspirational" Mormons to swoon over in the next few years.

[punkiepie]

Nie Nie's husband's family apparently went to Europe for about a week to research their Danish ancestors.

Now, apart from finding NieNie's writing style rather annoying (does she sound like a fourth grader to you, too?), I'm wondering how wealthy the Nielsens must be to afford such a trip on a whim, really.

My partner and I are solid middle class and have really good incomes, but we would not dream of paying 1,600 dollars for two flights to the US and then spending just a week there. We have two incomes, though, and only one kid.

How can Stephanie and Christian, who have one income and five kids, afford such a trip? How do they do it? Do their families support them financially? Is she rich now after writing her book? I can't imagine...

I'm not Nie white knighter, but they have been planning this trip for about a year and half. If you go back in the archives, she's been talking about since before Charlotte was born. And it was 10 days- they left last Wednesday and are coming back on Sunday. I think that's pretty standard for Europe trips, maybe two weeks, unless you're backpacking and staying in hostels.

[lilwriter85]

I've found some Nie's postings titled "Letters to the Little Nies" to be a bit annoying and some on GOMI think baby Charlotte's is Nie's favorite. I sort of think that too.

[August]

If you put groceries on a card that gets FF miles it's not hard to earn enough points. We get about one ticket to Europe's worth per year.

[bionicmlle]

I just REALLY wish she would learn to use apostrophes appropriately. I know. I'm a bitch.

[Cheetah]

I just REALLY wish she would learn to use apostrophes appropriately. I know. I'm a bitch.

I totally agree (with the apostrophes :-)... not that you are a bitch :-)).

[Cheetah]

I've found some Nie's postings titled "Letters to the Little Nies" to be a bit annoying and some on GOMI think baby Charlotte's is Nie's favorite. I sort of think that too.

So I can totally see why she misses the baby more than the big kids... because at this stage, she spends so much time with the baby and the big kids are much more independent... and I don't think it means she loves the baby more. That said, I don't think it's a good idea to keep talking about how much she misses the baby in the letters to all of her kids. That's the sort of feeling that should be felt but not trotted out to everyone.... the big kids aren't old enough to understand why she misses the baby more.

[Confused_by_religion]

So I can totally see why she misses the baby more than the big kids... because at this stage, she spends so much time with the baby and the big kids are much more independent... and I don't think it means she loves the baby more. That said, I don't think it's a good idea to keep talking about how much she misses the baby in the letters to all of her kids. That's the sort of feeling that should be felt but not trotted out to everyone.... the big kids aren't old enough to understand why she misses the baby more.

I totally agree, I do believe she is a very devoted mother and loves all her kids a lot, but of course leaving your baby behind while you are on vacation is a whole different story from leaving much older kis. That said, I think Charlotte is her very special "miracle baby" and will always have a special place in her heart as the one that miraculously got born after the whole accident as part of her healing process, maybe.