A New Year

Happy New Year to everyone. Don and I had a great 2008. I think it is safe to say that it has been our best year yet. We got settled into life in California. Our careers have finally surpassed the entry/mid level and are both on a great path. Don was promoted yet again to an outside sales position and I landed my job with a great company that I plan to be with for a long time. My first management position! And we can't complain about the salaries we are making, not to mention all of the nice perks and bonuses that come with Don's job.

With the new jobs came our first major purchase as a couple – Don’s Mini Cooper. As an outside sales rep, the Ranger was no longer a practical car. Given the amount of time Don spends in his car all day, the high mileage, lack of a working air conditioner, and zero cab space were no longer working for him. As soon as I landed my new job and had stable income again, we started shopping for Don’s dream car – the Mini. It is no secret that Don and I have different values and opinions when it comes to cars, but we found some commonalities in the Mini that we could both get behind – good gas mileage, not too expensive, and retains value better than just about any other car I’ve seen on the market. And even though I made my limits clear, for the most part this was Don’s decision. This is his car and he earned it. I’m proud of him and what the car represents for all he’s worked towards. Every once in a while when we are driving along I catch myself thinking, I can’t believe this is our car and our life. How did we get so lucky?!
We've also reached a milestone in our financial strategy. Since we started our life together with a pretty significant amount of debt, our financial focus for the last five years has been tackling that debt. A couple of months ago we paid off the last of our credit card debt, some household items, and the last of our smaller student loans. I can't say that we are completely debt free as we still have a couple of long term low interest student loans. Technically we also have the car loan but Don's car bonus more than adequately covers that. This morning I dug into our old files and pulled out the debt schedule we put together when Don and I first got engaged and sat down together to determine our financial strategy. The total balance at the time nearly gave us a heart attack and we wondered how we would ever pay it off. But after five years of putting all of our surplus income to our debt, we've managed to pay off $56K in debt, cross eight out of the ten items off the list, on top of financing a new bed, laptop, refrigerator, and our $10K move to California.

Thinking back to the first several years of our marriage when we were just starting off with our low wage jobs making nearly a third of what we make now, I wonder how it was that we ever managed to carve out $1000 a month toward our debt. But we made it a priority and now, with our minimum monthly payments slashed down to less than 4% of our income, for the first time in our lives, our financial focus has shifted from paying off debt to saving and investing. Of course our first big investment we are working towards will be the purchase of our first home. It has taken us a long time to get to the place where we could start to think about being homeowners. We definitely wanted to free up our debts first and geographic stability has not exactly been a common thread for us. We have lived in 6 different apartments/houses in the last five years. But the timing has definitely worked out in our favor. Given the current market conditions, foreclosure crisis, and declining home values, by the time Don and I are finally ready to purchase in the next 6 to 12 months, housing prices will be at a record low and we will actually be able to afford a SoCal house in the Valley as a first time homebuyer.

The trick of course will be coming up with a down payment and closing costs which down here are considerably more expensive. We figure about $25K is a good number to shoot for though we may be able to make do with less. So we’ve got the fundraising thermometer on the fridge and we’re working on cutting back expenses and saving everything we possibly can. We started with $1000 and so far in the first week we’ve managed to save an additional $500! Don gets paid weekly which is great because we can continually stay focused and see the payoff in the short term. The biggest thing we did this year to help us reach our goal was move (once again!) a few blocks down the street to a significantly cheaper rental house. Not only are we saving an extra $700 a month cash, but the shared yard and nosy neighbors have helped us realize just how much we are ready to be in our own space with our own property and have no one to answer to but ourselves. By this time next year we will have a house of our very own!

And of course with the new year, there are always goals to continue to achieve better health. Our weight loss contest at work has been a lot of fun and good motivator to keep diet and exercise in check. Though I’m not going to win the contest by any means, I’ve built some stronger foundations that will carry through to the long term particularly when it comes to my diet. I’ve become for the first time in many years a breakfast eater. Turkey bacon is my new best friend. I’ve also all but eliminated fried fast foods from my diet (vacation excluded). Subway and Quiznos are my new best friend. And I’ve discovered that the best thing I can do to stay fit and healthy is make an effort to walk the dogs every morning. It’s a quick and easy 200 calories at the start of every day and then I can squeeze in other more intense workouts here and there, but at least this way I’m consistent.

I have the pleasure of starting off my new year with a four day weekend so I’m going to make the most of it of course by doing a major house cleaning, organizing, errands, and planning. To all of our family and friends, I wish you a safe, happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year.

Love,
Cindy