It's amazing when you look back over your life to see the blessings you've been given. This week I've been contemplating the financial blessings that Clayton and I have had in our life together. When we first met and started dating, I was working full-time and had finished my Masters degree just a few months prior. Clayton was in his last semester at ASU. We were still dating when he graduated. He had a hard time finding a full-time job, but was blessed to find a temporary job that wasn't too horrible. He had already decided that he wanted to ask me to marry him, but kept putting it off because he had been raised that the man is to financially provide for the family and he couldn't do that on his temp pay. After a couple of months, he finally took the leap of faith and asked me anyway. About the same time, he received an email from a career advisor at ASU about a job at Intel for recent graduates - the last email sent from the advisor as he was quitting to take a new positon elsewhere. Clayton sent in his resume and didn't hear anything. A month later, he was called for an interview. We were both shocked to hear from Intel as it had been so long. He had a phone interview and then an in-person interview. Then we didn't hear anything for a while again. We were out to dinner with his grandpa and siblings when he got a call offering him the job. At first we were hesitant about him taking the job as it was an unconventional work schedule and would make our time together very limited. But when we heard what the salary was, we couldn't turn it down. It was far more than we both expected him to be able to make in his first "real" job after graduation.
He started at Intel the day we returned from our honeymoon. I was still working, but things at my job had deteriorated. I had a boss who was threatened by me, I guess, and started to pull responsibilities from me. We decided I would quit, take a month or so to put our married life in order, and then I would look for a new job. A week after I quit, I found out I was pregnant with Andrew. We decided I would just stay home since I would quit when the baby was born anyway. With the exception of a month, we have lived on one income our entire married life.
Clayton is smart and hard working and did well at his job. A year ago he received a new position that was a pay grade higher than his current pay grade. It put him in a great position for this year to receive a pay grade promotion, but we didn't count on getting it after what we had heard some areas were getting for pay increases. He met with his manager this week and was given his promotion. She's super impressed with how quickly he picks things up (I think she used the word sponge) and how he's willing to share what he learns with the rest of his group in order to better the group as a whole. So we knew the promotion usually comes with a relatively sizable pay increase, but once again we kept our expectations low if he did get promoted. Let's just say we were both pleasantly SHOCKED! He got a very sizable pay increase. What a blessing with another mouth to feed coming shortly. We are also trying to pay off dept and increase our savings for the future.
Clayton and I have always paid tithing. It's never been a question. We just paid it, no questions asked. We have always been able to pay our bills and put food on the table. And we are continuting to see the blessings of making this a priority. We realize that it may not always be this way, but we know that paying tithing leads to blessings.
30 March 2011
25 March 2011
Breaking the chains!
When Clayton and I got married, we both had student loans we were paying on. We both had to put ourselves through college. I also had a car payment. Neither one of us really had any debts that were outside of what the Church has said go be "good" debt - school, a home, a car. We've never really had any credit card debt to speak of. We use them to buy things that we pay off right away just to keep our credit good.
We decided right from the get go, we wanted to get everything paid off as quickly as possible. I've seen what debt can do to a person's life and I wanted nothing to do with it. I hate having it hanging over my head. It stresses me out. It took us a while to develop a plan of action, but after getting a copy of "One for the Money" put out by the Church, we decided that was the program we were going to follow. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, it's very, very similar to the plan out there used by Dave Ramsey.
The premise of the program is to pay off the debt with the highest interest rate first. Then you take the money that you were paying on that one and roll it to the next highest interest rate, etc., etc. until you have paid everything off. You are already used to that money going to something else so you don't miss it. It also suggests using a budget. I had already been using one before we got married, so we just adjusted it for our current situation and we still use it to this day.
I used my mad Excel skills and made up a debt repayment calendar as suggested in the program so we could see just how long it would take for us to pay everything off. We paid off my car loan, two student loans. We are extraordinarily close to seeing the fruits of our labors. We have one more payment on our final student loan. It means we will have paid off Clayton's loans more than 4 years early. We had a bit of a hiccup in our plan. That payment was supposed to leave us without any debt other than our mortgage. However, life decided to throw us a bit of a curveball with the car situation. We weren't planning on having a car payment again for a couple of years, but couldn't find a car that met our needs in our cash budget. So we decided to get something a little more expensive that will last us for several years and we have a car payment again. It's nothing too huge. We've formulated a plan that will allow us to pay it off in September. And it will allow us to start putting some of out debt reduction money into savings also. We could pay it off sooner if we didn't put the money in savings, but with the economy the way it is, we decided it would be smart to start using some of that to build our emergency funds up a little more.
One thing that I know has helped us out in our pursuit is that we are neither one of us BIG spenders. We'll buy nice things every once in a while, but we don't have to have the biggest and best the second it comes out. We often wait until something dies before replacing it. I'm not as faithful as I could be, but I discovered the fun and savings of using coupons. Even Clayton gets excited when we are able to save a ton of money on groceries. After this pregnancy is over and I'm back on me feet, my plan is to go full on into it. We have a pretty decent supply of food, etc. but we aren't where we want to be with our year's supply. We are working on it. A lot of our problem is due to lack of storage space in our house. We need to do some rearranging and decluttering to make more room for our long term storage needs and reorganize the shorter term food. I've been working on that the past couple of weeks as well as putting together a supply list of what we need to get to where we want to be.
Over the years, we have seen significant blessings because of our willingness to follow the teachings of the prophets and get out of debt. It has also helped that we always pay our tithing. We still have our burdens, like a house that is so far underwater that I don't know that we'll ever get out from under it, but even through these difficult economic times, we've never had to worry about where our next meal will come from.
I can't wait to enter into the light at the end of the tunnel...the one that will mean we are out of debt other than our mortgage. The one that means more money for savings and retirement. The one that means we will be able to help others more who are in need. The one that means we can finally be free from the chains.
We decided right from the get go, we wanted to get everything paid off as quickly as possible. I've seen what debt can do to a person's life and I wanted nothing to do with it. I hate having it hanging over my head. It stresses me out. It took us a while to develop a plan of action, but after getting a copy of "One for the Money" put out by the Church, we decided that was the program we were going to follow. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, it's very, very similar to the plan out there used by Dave Ramsey.
The premise of the program is to pay off the debt with the highest interest rate first. Then you take the money that you were paying on that one and roll it to the next highest interest rate, etc., etc. until you have paid everything off. You are already used to that money going to something else so you don't miss it. It also suggests using a budget. I had already been using one before we got married, so we just adjusted it for our current situation and we still use it to this day.
I used my mad Excel skills and made up a debt repayment calendar as suggested in the program so we could see just how long it would take for us to pay everything off. We paid off my car loan, two student loans. We are extraordinarily close to seeing the fruits of our labors. We have one more payment on our final student loan. It means we will have paid off Clayton's loans more than 4 years early. We had a bit of a hiccup in our plan. That payment was supposed to leave us without any debt other than our mortgage. However, life decided to throw us a bit of a curveball with the car situation. We weren't planning on having a car payment again for a couple of years, but couldn't find a car that met our needs in our cash budget. So we decided to get something a little more expensive that will last us for several years and we have a car payment again. It's nothing too huge. We've formulated a plan that will allow us to pay it off in September. And it will allow us to start putting some of out debt reduction money into savings also. We could pay it off sooner if we didn't put the money in savings, but with the economy the way it is, we decided it would be smart to start using some of that to build our emergency funds up a little more.
One thing that I know has helped us out in our pursuit is that we are neither one of us BIG spenders. We'll buy nice things every once in a while, but we don't have to have the biggest and best the second it comes out. We often wait until something dies before replacing it. I'm not as faithful as I could be, but I discovered the fun and savings of using coupons. Even Clayton gets excited when we are able to save a ton of money on groceries. After this pregnancy is over and I'm back on me feet, my plan is to go full on into it. We have a pretty decent supply of food, etc. but we aren't where we want to be with our year's supply. We are working on it. A lot of our problem is due to lack of storage space in our house. We need to do some rearranging and decluttering to make more room for our long term storage needs and reorganize the shorter term food. I've been working on that the past couple of weeks as well as putting together a supply list of what we need to get to where we want to be.
Over the years, we have seen significant blessings because of our willingness to follow the teachings of the prophets and get out of debt. It has also helped that we always pay our tithing. We still have our burdens, like a house that is so far underwater that I don't know that we'll ever get out from under it, but even through these difficult economic times, we've never had to worry about where our next meal will come from.
I can't wait to enter into the light at the end of the tunnel...the one that will mean we are out of debt other than our mortgage. The one that means more money for savings and retirement. The one that means we will be able to help others more who are in need. The one that means we can finally be free from the chains.
02 March 2011
So much for keeping up...
I'm sure it happens to all of us. We start off with the best of intentions. The life gets in the way. That's what has happened around here with me and my blog. I was so determined to keep up and then life happened. Andrew got sick in January. Then I got sick...more so than I have been in a long time. Then Andrew got sick. Now Luke and I are sick again. I'm not even sure I fully recovered from the last round.
So, here's a quick update on what's going on with the Myers Clan. Sorry for the long, verbose post. A lot can happen in 6 weeks.
Clayton: He's been SUPER busy at work. It's been a change from what it was like for the first 5 years we were married. Most of the time he was sitting at work with nothing to do so we would get online and chat off and on throughout the day. Now he's so busy that I'm lucky if he gets a lunch break to call me during. It makes my days a little more slow and a lot more lonely. He's doing really well though. His boss is happy with the progress he's made in the time he's been in his new position. He's extremely smart and picks things up quickly. He usually only needs to be shown how to do something once, maybe twice. It has been nice with the new M-F, 8-5 schedule. He's been able to carpool with a friend from church. It's helped with gas money, and the last few weeks have been a lifesaver. We lost our car to a seemingly minor accident so we are down to one car. We've been looking for almost 3 weeks now, but with gas prices soaring, now is not a good time to be trying to find an economical commuter car. We will call on a car that's been posted for less than an hour and it will already be sold. And living out in the middle of the sticks doesn't help either. We don't want to drive an hour, just to find out that a car is not a good fit or to find that it's already been sold. Clayton was released from what we thought would be his eternal calling in the Elders Quorum. The Church has been working on keeping families from being overburdened by having both parents in time intensive callings. Now he's one of three men teaching the Valiant 10/11 year old class. Honestly, this is my favorite. We are both in the Primary now. Before, I could rely on him hearing what's going on around the ward and keep me up to date. Now neither one of us knows what's going and it makes me feel even more isolated that I already did. He's one of those that will do whatever and doesn't complain so I think he likes his calling, but I'm not really sure. :o)
Andrew: Andrew will be 5 years old this Saturday. I can't believe how the time flies. He's as...energetic as ever. He loves going to preschool and playing with friends. He's kind of past learning anything new though. He's a super smart kid. He reads exceptionally well for his age. He started really picking it up last summer, really on his own, and has blown us all away with his ability. He is to the point that he can read a column out of the scriptures by himself with minimal, if any, help with words. Most of the time when he does need help, it's because he's come across an unfamiliar, unusual scripture name. He can count to 100 without really much help. He knows all his letter, shapes, colors. I'm a little worried about kindergarten next year. I have had family members who have gotten in trouble in school simply because they were bored and weren't being challenged. I'm positive that's what will happen to Andrew if he's not kept busy and engaged. It is kind of crazy that my oldest is going to Kindergarten. It was a bit surreal when I stopped by the school to pick up the registration packet. Sometimes it seems like it's been forever since he was born. But that day it made me feel like it just couldn't have been that long. He can either be super helpful (clearing and rinsing everyone's dishes without being asked) or can be a bit of a pill, picking on his brother and not listening to anything anyone tells him. You have to love this age.
Luke: My baby isn't so much a baby anymore, turning 2 in January. He's an independent little guy who is a miniature of his brother. He copies everything Andrew does and says. That's not always a good thing. His latest is calling everyone a "coo coo brain". The only other person in this house who has ever used that term is...yep, Andrew. It is kind of funny when Andrew gets mad at Luke for calling him a name that he has called Luke over and over again for months. And Luke doesn't really understand that it's not nice, no matter how often we remind him. Luke has also taken to biting his brother when he doesn't get what he wants. We've had a lot of time outs around here lately.
Baby: The baby is growing nicely. I'm 32 weeks and 5 days along. I can't wait to be done. I feel like there just isn't any more room in me for this little guy to grow. Fortunately, I have the best OB in the world. Because of my history of big babies (Andrew was 8 lbs 13 oz and Luke was 8 lbs 9 oz and were both induced a week and a half early), Dr. is going to do an ultrasound in 3 or 4 weeks to see how big the baby is getting. He won't let the baby get too big. As long as I make it to 38 weeks (considered full term) and because I respond well to induction, he doesn't see any reason to let the baby get to be huge just because. So hopefully, I'll have some baby pics to post in a few weeks. And no matter what, he's already told me he won't let me go past my April 22 due date. Have I said how much I LOVE my OB?!?!
Me: Other than being sick and uncomfortable in the last weeks of my pregnancy, everything is just chugging along. I'm still the 2nd Counselor in the Primary, a calling that is completely out of my comfort zone. Even as a young girl/woman, I was never really interested in watching or interacting with others' kids. I did babysit a little, but not nearly as much as most girls my age did. And I didn't really enjoy it. It was most always as a favor for one of my parents' friends. And now here I am dealing with everyone's kids. I struggle a lot with how to interact with them. I'm not comfortable going up and giving kids hugs and asking how they are doing. I do much better behind the scenes. I guess that's why we are given callings sometimes, to push us to grow. I've definitely gotten into the nesting stage of my pregnancy. It always comes at the end when I'm too big to do anything that I really want to do and have to wait around for Clayton to help me. We did a lot of purging recently and had a very successful garage sale. It was more to get rid of stuff than to make money, but we did make a tidy little sum. Far more than I expected considering we really didn't have much by way of big ticket items. We got to talk to a lot of really fun, and funny people. I think that was my favorite part. Just talking to the people. I did learn a couple of valuable garage sale lessons. 1st off: Don't open your garage door until you are ready to have people going through your stuff. Clayton went out at 6:30am to put up the signs for our sale that started at 7:30am. He had two gentlemen follow him as he put up the signs. I opened the garage door so Clayton could get in. Even though we told them we weren't "open" yet, they were rifling through our stuff at 6:45am. We sold a lot of stuff that I'm sure they made far more money off later just to get them out of our hair. Next time, I'm not letting anyone buy anything until I'm ready. You can come back later or not at all. 2nd: If you have stuff left over at the end of your sale you don't want to have to deal with or haul off, put up a sign saying all remaining stuff is free. I think we had fewer than 10 small items left when all was said and done. People will take stuff they probably wouldn't buy just because it's free. 3rd: Stuff sells better if it doesn't have a price tag on it. The first day we had a lot of stuff left. I decided to take all the tags off of everything. And it started to sell. I expected people to see a price and try to talk us down. Most of them looked at the price and kept walking. But if they have to ask, it starts the bartering process. I'm already planning the next sale in my head for next fall. I didn't really have the time or the energy to go through the kids' toys so those will go. I'm also going to begin purging of baby clothes, etc. This is our last and we don't have room to keep things we don't need.
So, I think that about sums up what's been going on around here. We have a busy couple of months ahead and I'm sure the baby will be here before we all know it.
So, here's a quick update on what's going on with the Myers Clan. Sorry for the long, verbose post. A lot can happen in 6 weeks.
Clayton: He's been SUPER busy at work. It's been a change from what it was like for the first 5 years we were married. Most of the time he was sitting at work with nothing to do so we would get online and chat off and on throughout the day. Now he's so busy that I'm lucky if he gets a lunch break to call me during. It makes my days a little more slow and a lot more lonely. He's doing really well though. His boss is happy with the progress he's made in the time he's been in his new position. He's extremely smart and picks things up quickly. He usually only needs to be shown how to do something once, maybe twice. It has been nice with the new M-F, 8-5 schedule. He's been able to carpool with a friend from church. It's helped with gas money, and the last few weeks have been a lifesaver. We lost our car to a seemingly minor accident so we are down to one car. We've been looking for almost 3 weeks now, but with gas prices soaring, now is not a good time to be trying to find an economical commuter car. We will call on a car that's been posted for less than an hour and it will already be sold. And living out in the middle of the sticks doesn't help either. We don't want to drive an hour, just to find out that a car is not a good fit or to find that it's already been sold. Clayton was released from what we thought would be his eternal calling in the Elders Quorum. The Church has been working on keeping families from being overburdened by having both parents in time intensive callings. Now he's one of three men teaching the Valiant 10/11 year old class. Honestly, this is my favorite. We are both in the Primary now. Before, I could rely on him hearing what's going on around the ward and keep me up to date. Now neither one of us knows what's going and it makes me feel even more isolated that I already did. He's one of those that will do whatever and doesn't complain so I think he likes his calling, but I'm not really sure. :o)
Andrew: Andrew will be 5 years old this Saturday. I can't believe how the time flies. He's as...energetic as ever. He loves going to preschool and playing with friends. He's kind of past learning anything new though. He's a super smart kid. He reads exceptionally well for his age. He started really picking it up last summer, really on his own, and has blown us all away with his ability. He is to the point that he can read a column out of the scriptures by himself with minimal, if any, help with words. Most of the time when he does need help, it's because he's come across an unfamiliar, unusual scripture name. He can count to 100 without really much help. He knows all his letter, shapes, colors. I'm a little worried about kindergarten next year. I have had family members who have gotten in trouble in school simply because they were bored and weren't being challenged. I'm positive that's what will happen to Andrew if he's not kept busy and engaged. It is kind of crazy that my oldest is going to Kindergarten. It was a bit surreal when I stopped by the school to pick up the registration packet. Sometimes it seems like it's been forever since he was born. But that day it made me feel like it just couldn't have been that long. He can either be super helpful (clearing and rinsing everyone's dishes without being asked) or can be a bit of a pill, picking on his brother and not listening to anything anyone tells him. You have to love this age.
Luke: My baby isn't so much a baby anymore, turning 2 in January. He's an independent little guy who is a miniature of his brother. He copies everything Andrew does and says. That's not always a good thing. His latest is calling everyone a "coo coo brain". The only other person in this house who has ever used that term is...yep, Andrew. It is kind of funny when Andrew gets mad at Luke for calling him a name that he has called Luke over and over again for months. And Luke doesn't really understand that it's not nice, no matter how often we remind him. Luke has also taken to biting his brother when he doesn't get what he wants. We've had a lot of time outs around here lately.
Baby: The baby is growing nicely. I'm 32 weeks and 5 days along. I can't wait to be done. I feel like there just isn't any more room in me for this little guy to grow. Fortunately, I have the best OB in the world. Because of my history of big babies (Andrew was 8 lbs 13 oz and Luke was 8 lbs 9 oz and were both induced a week and a half early), Dr. is going to do an ultrasound in 3 or 4 weeks to see how big the baby is getting. He won't let the baby get too big. As long as I make it to 38 weeks (considered full term) and because I respond well to induction, he doesn't see any reason to let the baby get to be huge just because. So hopefully, I'll have some baby pics to post in a few weeks. And no matter what, he's already told me he won't let me go past my April 22 due date. Have I said how much I LOVE my OB?!?!
Me: Other than being sick and uncomfortable in the last weeks of my pregnancy, everything is just chugging along. I'm still the 2nd Counselor in the Primary, a calling that is completely out of my comfort zone. Even as a young girl/woman, I was never really interested in watching or interacting with others' kids. I did babysit a little, but not nearly as much as most girls my age did. And I didn't really enjoy it. It was most always as a favor for one of my parents' friends. And now here I am dealing with everyone's kids. I struggle a lot with how to interact with them. I'm not comfortable going up and giving kids hugs and asking how they are doing. I do much better behind the scenes. I guess that's why we are given callings sometimes, to push us to grow. I've definitely gotten into the nesting stage of my pregnancy. It always comes at the end when I'm too big to do anything that I really want to do and have to wait around for Clayton to help me. We did a lot of purging recently and had a very successful garage sale. It was more to get rid of stuff than to make money, but we did make a tidy little sum. Far more than I expected considering we really didn't have much by way of big ticket items. We got to talk to a lot of really fun, and funny people. I think that was my favorite part. Just talking to the people. I did learn a couple of valuable garage sale lessons. 1st off: Don't open your garage door until you are ready to have people going through your stuff. Clayton went out at 6:30am to put up the signs for our sale that started at 7:30am. He had two gentlemen follow him as he put up the signs. I opened the garage door so Clayton could get in. Even though we told them we weren't "open" yet, they were rifling through our stuff at 6:45am. We sold a lot of stuff that I'm sure they made far more money off later just to get them out of our hair. Next time, I'm not letting anyone buy anything until I'm ready. You can come back later or not at all. 2nd: If you have stuff left over at the end of your sale you don't want to have to deal with or haul off, put up a sign saying all remaining stuff is free. I think we had fewer than 10 small items left when all was said and done. People will take stuff they probably wouldn't buy just because it's free. 3rd: Stuff sells better if it doesn't have a price tag on it. The first day we had a lot of stuff left. I decided to take all the tags off of everything. And it started to sell. I expected people to see a price and try to talk us down. Most of them looked at the price and kept walking. But if they have to ask, it starts the bartering process. I'm already planning the next sale in my head for next fall. I didn't really have the time or the energy to go through the kids' toys so those will go. I'm also going to begin purging of baby clothes, etc. This is our last and we don't have room to keep things we don't need.
So, I think that about sums up what's been going on around here. We have a busy couple of months ahead and I'm sure the baby will be here before we all know it.
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