I'm scared. To fully understand why, I need to go back a couple decades to explain. When I was about 10 or 11 my oldest brother and his friends were going to go to a fireworks show the county did every year. I counted my change I had and found that I had barely enough to go with him. I asked him if I could go and he said he would think about it. Later that night I noticed my sister was getting ready to go. I again asked him and he told me to save my money for my mission and took my sister instead. I still remember them staring out our window to a brand new car pulling in the driveway. (His friend had just bought a new car) Although it hurt I wasn't heartbroken and I sincerely thought he meant what he said. The very next year my sister went again with cousin's. There was no room for me. The next year my sister was once again invited to go with my grandma. I finally complained made my case to my mom and my mom told my sister that it was my turn. I waited for my grandma to arrive. She never did. My mom said that she probably just forgot. I found out later she heard about us arguing and decided not to pick me up because she thought I started it. O.k. So I was let down 3 years in a row. No big deal right?
Pepsi had a promotion if you collected phrases on bottle caps you could win prizes. The one prize I wanted was a snowboard trip for 4 to Colorado and 5000 dollars spending money. The phrase was "As If" I believe I had "If" which was the easier one. A guy at school said excitedly that he found "As" in a 24 pack box. We started making plans but he never brang it to school. He claims his sister got into a fight with him and hid the game piece. He probably was lieing about the whole thing but then again I was still Let Down
My wife tells me this story. She once had a 1000 dollar winning game piece for a taco bell game. She kept it on her dresser and wanted to cash it in. After school one day her mom came home with a newer car. She asked her if she had seen the winning game piece she said no. Years later after talking to one of her mom's friend she found out her mom had cashed the 1000 dollars and used it as a down payment on a car.
She was let down
After meeting my future wife having a blast at college and heading home for a semester not knowing what to do my wife's parents decided they wanted to go to Disneyland. After hearing I had never been they asked my wife if she wanted to come and invite me. She excitedly told me the news and again we started planning. Weeks before the day arrived her parents back tracked, more than likely due to money problems, and instead of telling us straight up more swept it under the rug and said it was an idea not an actual plan. Let down again.
My wife received an exciting offer to do a simple house sitting job near new york
She was going to be paid thousands of dollars to be flown to Staten Island NY and watch cats. (Seriously rich people have way to much money it's made them insane) She decided to invite me along and to top it all off we applied and got a job offer to be summer camp counselors in New Jersey. The plan was to stay at the Staten Island house (alone;) and after 3 weeks head to new Jersey make a little and fly back to Arizona and continue college but if you haven't guessed, we both were Let down.
Apparently this rich lady who hasn't had to work since the 50s thought the cats would not adjust to a new sitter.
I have alot more examples and maybe I am biased but I do feel I have had more than my fair share of let downs to the point where I basically kick my shoes against the ground and say there's always tomorrow only wishing that things would get better with no actual plan or relief in site. Year after year there is some hope and help but then something happens like a vehicle break down or a medical emergency that once again stalls our financial goals.
So why am I scared??
For the first time our financial situation has improved drastically. Our financial outlook looks incredible and to top it all off. My horrible credit score has increased over 100 points!
This is not normal for me. I'm scared of what it means. Will I lose alot of money in one day to be punished for writing assumptions that aren't true. Will I let go on our spending habits and go back to living a hard core budgeting life? Will I be independently wealthy? Will my family dislike me because of that? Will my in laws ask me for loans and be upset when we don't loan them the money? Yes I'm getting ahead of myself and there are alot of assumptions in the air but the facts are there too. AND THEY SCARE ME!
Here are the facts.
1. For the last 5-6 years my average income was between 32 and 40 thousand.
2. If you add all of our income without our tax return this year including our projected income for March we are averaging 100 thousand dollars a year.
That is a fact! I did the calculation!
3. If you add our tax return the average jumps up to 136 thousand. (I have basically made my yearly net income in 3 months)
4. My car is paid off! Make that 3! I'm set for minor car break downs. If one breaks we will simply move to the next one till that one is fixed. (Just had one this week. Car had a flat don't have time till this weekend to fix it so I moved to my 2nd van)
5. My credit card debt has went from around 92% debt limit to around 25%.
6. It could drop to zero before the end of the month! But. We have decided to start a down payment fund.
7. Thats right, By the end of March we will have 5000 dollars in our savings exclusively for a down payment towards our new house!
I don't know what to think of it. Maybe it's a spur of good luck. The horizon looks really good from here and I hope it's just as good when we get there but I have been let down alot. That is why I'm still writing my thoughts and ideas. I haven't and won't be in a rich careless mindset. I have to know where my money is going. My 7 goals that I wrote about could be done alot sooner than I thought.
Enough pondering.
I won't believe it till I see it anyways.
Happy pie day to all the nerds:)
Or the day after pie day.
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