Dave Ramsey - Love Em' Hate Em'

Over 2 years ago, Kevin and I were living a completely different life. We were what we fondly call 'Dinks'. That's 'dual income, no kids' for those who have never heard the term. We lived on a loose budget, but knew that it was time to get serious about our finances. The more you look into your finances, the more you realize how badly we all spend our money. We discussed, researched, and came to the conclusion that Dave Ramsey would be our main man. If you don't know who he is (then you must live under a rock) then you should look up his website at http://www.daveramsey.com. Dave's ideas are not always the popular ones and to live on his plan is a hard way. His motto is "if you live like no one else, later you can live like no one else". The basics are no credit cards, live only on basics and within your means, and no debt.

(1) Start a $1000 savings fund and get on a budget. We'll neither of us had credit cards to give up, and we already had a good savings fund started. We've always lived on a budget, so the first step was no step at all.

(2) Pay off ALL debt. For us, we were once again very blessed on this step. No credit cards, equaled no credit card debit. First we finished off Kevin's student loans, then his Ford Explorer, last and most painful was my Impala. Life took a swing of events, and we found out we were pregnant with Clare. We realized our 'dink' lifestyle was coming to an end quickly. Every month we trimmed the budget more. $200 here a $100 there. No more cable t.v., no more expensive home improvements, no more home phone line, less new clothes, and way less eating out. We were determined to get on a one income budget and pay off our last debt before Clare was born. Just two short months before she rocked our world, I signed the check on our last car payment. Like all the excited callers on Dave's radio show, we were able to yell out, "WE'RE DEBT FREE"!!!

(3) Save up an Emergency fund of 3 to 6 months savings. Now I have never met anyone who started on Dave's plan who have actually gotten past this step, so I knew it would be a hard one. Here was our fledgling family, who once lived high on the hog with two incomes, now down to only one. Kevin had been laid off for a few months when I was pregnant with Clare, so we know how important this emergency fund is, especially now that he is the only bread winner. We agreed to err on the side of caution and not stop saving till we hit our 6 month mark. Months seem to crawl by when your at the beginning of a new step. $200 here and there make it hard to hit a 5 digit number. I'm proud to announce, that with the help of our tax refund, we have finally hit our savings goal last month! I never thought I would ever see a number that big in our banking account. At this point, it is hard not to get swept up with "Joneses" and see that money as a new vacuum, weed eater, or even a van. All those things are things we want, but do not qualify in Dave's plan as a emergency. That little nest egg is there to stay and not be touched. We pray to God that Kevin doesn't get laid off so unexpectedly ever again, but we can sleep well at night knowing we will survive 6 months of job searching if it comes to it.

(4) Invest 15% of your Gross Income into a Roth IRA. I don't know why I was naive enough to think that at this point in Dave's plan, things would get easier and not harder. Just last night, Kevin and I researched what it will take to start our own Roth IRA. With an already too tight budget, we have to shave more money out of it to put into our retirement. I tried to think that Dave's plan was too ambitious, so I researched on our Bank of America Retirement planner to see their numbers. Much to my sadness, they were the same. I hate getting a reality check when it comes to money. I much prefer to live in the la-la-land that Kevin's 6% 401(k) will see us to our golden years. The reality is that today out of 100 people age 65, 97 of them can't write a check for $600, 54 of them are still working, and only 3 are financially secure.

The next steps are:
(5) College funding for Children
(6) Pay off home early
(7) Build wealth and give like never before

I make no promises to myself that I'll ever finish step 6, but I do know my reality for now. No cable t.v., no expensive groceries, no more fancy cruises (that was not part of Dave's plan b.t.w.), and no big van till we save up and are able to pay for it all in cash! In the mean time, we try to focus on what we have instead of what we want. I have a wonderful small house, great husband, lovely child, fridge full of food, bank account full of money, car full of gas, and no worries about our future. We can't live high on the hog right now, but that doesn't mean we don't live high on life.

Cruisin' for a Bruisin'

Okay, so this post has nothing to do with beating someone up, but all about Kevin and my cruise! Kevin and I were blessed enough to scrape enough cash together to go on a vacation. Add on that I was in my 2nd trimester of pregnancy (the only good time to travel) and my retired parents offered to come up to babysit Clare for a week, It was the perfect timing. I don't do any kind of fun vacations if there is not sun, tropical feelings, and more sun, so Kevin booked us on the Carnival Ecstasy out of the Galveston Port.

Our tropical paradise awaited us as we drove 4 hours in solid rain to get to the port. We then waited in line for about 2 hours to actually get on the ship. I couldn't help but laugh at all the signs warning you not to take pictures or video of the 3,000 people stuffed in a dock trying to get on a ship to start their vacation. I guess they don't like people to see the ugly side of cruising, but soon we were on our boat and out to sea.

I really loved our cabin. It was not too small, and had the perk of a king size bed. We have a queen at home, and it was amazing to flop around like a fish on land all night without slapping Kevin in the face. The ship it self was impressive, but let's be honest here. To cram thousands of people on one boat, means that you are going to be around groups of strangers all the time. Old people, kids, teens, models, over weight people, and (my personal favorite) frat boys using sleazy lines to try and have random hook-ups with the pretty girls. The pool was always over-run with kids and the deck chairs by brown-to-a-crisp women.

After a day at sea, we made our first stop in Progresso, Mexico. Being pregnant and a hater of all things requiring physical activity, We choose the "Corona Beach Party" for our shore excursion. This entailed a small stretch of beach, open bar, loud music, and more drunk college students than you have ever seen in your life. But hey, it was an open bar, and I would be right there with them if I could. Instead, Kevin and I left the party scene to stroll down the beach.

We shopped and ate some fabulous authentic Mexican food. Kevin enjoyed the free mini margaritas, and I wolfed down the tacos. Honestly, I found what looked like dog hairs in the beans, but I'm disgusting enough to just pick them out and continue eating. It was wonderful!

The next day (and the first really warm day of the cruise), we stopped at beautiful Cozumel, Mexico. Kevin and I loved it so much, that we wish we could have stayed longer. For this stop, we signed up for a full package with only one other family joining us. I guess not having an open bar kept the college crowd from signing up. We were assigned an amazing tour guide named David. We first stopped at a museum called Discover Mexico. It had videos, art displays, and miniature replicas of Mexico's history. I think we weirded out our guide by knowing most of the answers to his questions. We tried to explain that being Catholic and from New Mexico and Texas gave us a lot of exposure to the Hispanic culture.

Then we headed to Chankanaab Park. It was like Sea World for cool people. You could relax on the white sandy beach, swim with dolphins, manatee, or sting rays, take a picture hugging a seal or snorkel off the shore. We chose the snorkeling, and our guide David took us out to see the good spots. Being a little prone to anxiety attacks, I had some trouble calming my breathing as we bobbed in the waves, but enjoyed it all. The fish would literally swim through your finger tips and around your legs. And I didn't get nauseous like when we snorkeled in Hawaii. They had some buried religious statues that you were supposed to 'get a wish' granted if you touched them. The first was a tiny Virgin Mary that was swarmed by people, so we didn't try to get close to it. The next was a Jesus statue. As we swam near it, I was completely freaked out. This wasn't some tiny statue. It was larger than life and scary.

You can not tell me that this doesn't look like a starved, beaten up Jesus tied to a cement block and dumped in the ocean to die. I couldn't even get close to it, because it freaked me out so bad. Kevin, on the other hand, decided to dive down and touch it. While he did make it, he lost the breathing part of his snorkel mask in the process. Luckily we were almost done, so we floated back to the shore, ate, and then headed back to the ship.

All in all we loved Mexico, but got tired of spending 3 days on the ship and only 14 hours on land. I guess I'm just not a cruise person. What I was a fan of was 5 whole nights of sleeping and waking up without once hearing the sound of a baby crying. It's what I imagine heaven will be like! When we got back to our car, after spending 3 hours getting off the boat and customs, we were excited that we had a vacation with just the two of us, but at the same time couldn't wait to get back to our ClareBear. I will always cherish the good memories Kevin and I had together on this trip, because who knows when our next child-free adventure will come. For know I'm left with this calming mental picture.

 

Finding Love in Lent - Part 1

As Holy Week is upon us, I can’t help but think about how I spent Lent this year. Half-hearted, slacking, and detached. But honestly, that’s how I probably spend most of my Lenten seasons. They say to get something out of your faith; you must actually make the effort to put something into it. One year I did do that, and it was the most amazing Lenten season of my life. This is the story of Lent 2004. Beware, it’s a long story, but trust me, it is all worth it.

Here is the list of characters (Names have been changed to protect the innocent):

Me- A junior at Texas Tech University, and everything else about me you already know.

Ricardo – Just imagine a Hispanic George Clooney. Handsome, full of charm, suave, great with the ladies, but never has been seen pinned down to one girl. I fell for him the first time I saw him. We had known each other since our first year at Tech.

Jack – Mr. All-American, boy next door. He was popular, funny, on every leadership team, knew everyone’s name, upperclassman, was at every social event, and could get into a conversation with a blind/mute person if given enough time. I had also met him my first year, but Jack knew everyone, so that wasn’t unusual.

What was unusual with Jack was that we actually became friends. Back in the day, we young folks spent all our time instant messaging on AIM. We became love advisors to each other. He was trying to start a relationship with his friend, and I was working on a rocky relationship with my boyfriend at the time. Jack’s relationship ended in a blaze of glory before it even started and mine just got worse and worse. After being dumped twice by the same loser (I can call him that because he’s not on facebook to read this), I was out on the market again. Word apparently spread quickly. Just a few days later, one of Ricardo’s close friends asked me if I’d be interested in dating again if Ricardo asked. I think it took me a good five minutes to wipe the dumb founded look off my face. Are you kidding me? The guy I’ve had a crush on for years is thinking about asking me out! I tried to pull it together and casually say, “Sure, if he wants too.” I excitedly anticipated every run in with Ricardo after that, but nothing seemed to happen.

What did happen threw me for a loop. After Jack and my love advice failed miserably, we still kept talking regularly. He was a great friend, and the perfect person to talk to. Always so easy going and relaxed. Then it happened before I could realize what was going on. I was dropping him off at his apartment after a concert, when the relaxed, easy talking Jack flipped a major nervous switch and said in one hasty breath, “So I was wondering if sometime you might want to go out with me, I mean I don’t know how it would go, or if it would be any fun, but maybe it could be, and, I don’t know, if you’re interested, we should go out on a date.” It caught me so off guard, and I had never seen him act like this. I honestly can say, that while Jack and I were great friends, I never thought of us dating. In my dumbfound state, I said the thing I had just told another guy few days ago, but with completely different feeling. “Sure, if you want too.” Finally, relief poured over Jack’s face like he had just ripped off a band-aid. We said we’d talk later, and he left me in my car to try and pick up my jaw.

*** To continue on with the story, please find part 2 & 3 ***