Hey y’all! I want to start a short guest blogger series, so I invited a couple friends and family members to share their perspective on debt and budget issues.
As I mentioned in one of our very first posts, our friends and family are all over the map as far as income, debt, and attitudes towards money. Each influences me in their own way, each has their unique perspective and way of dealing with money. I lean on them to teach me and counsel me when I want to stick my head in the sand. *Side note here, did anyone see New Girl? Nick has a box where he puts all the things he never wants to deal with (mostly bills). Another side note, googling this episode brought me to this dangerous article: http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/americans-selling-hair-kidneys-eggs-financial-woes-report-article-1.1486316
Without further side notes, here’s our first guest, my dad, Mickey. He teaches high school drafting, does architectural work, referees basketball, and owns an extra summer lake home they rent out for additional income. He’s a pretty busy guy! Amazingly, he’s always made time for my sister and I and now all the grand kids.
And here’s what he had to say:
I have a love-hate relationship with our money. I love the fact that it brings me the opportunity to share, give, and enjoy material things, but I hate the struggle and confinement that comes from having to earn money. This struggle is more complicated as I approach retirement, I realize that our lifestyle has to change and that we must now live a life of conservative spending or I am obligated to continue to work on a year to year basis. As of today, the joy that I receive from the pleasures of money far outweighs the hardships of teaching 100 high school kids everyday. So for now, it is all good: I love my job, earn a good salary, enjoy spending our excess, and feel healthy and productive.
Most of our money that we earn is spent on major purchases. Visiting our children and grandchildren in Texas is a huge priority for us. We travel 4 or 5 times a year from Indiana to Texas by air, rent a car, stay in a rented house, and purchase numerous items for our stay. We chose to be generous during our week long vacation and love blessing our children with luxuries that they normally can’t afford. A $2500 vacation times 4 or 5 can be a huge budgetary expense on an annual basis. For example, this year we chose to fly our children home for a week and it was cheaper for us than to visit Texas again. Our other major expense usually involves something for our lake homes. Roofs, decks, floors, windows, all seem to be a non-ending need for each of our lake homes. This year, our major purchase was to buy a pedal pontoon boat (Paddle Qwest). This pedal pontoon was the best purchase that we have made in years because it allows us to enjoy the beauty of the lake, talk without interruptions (no cell phones), exercise, swim, and makes for a great venue for entertaining friends and family.
We have tried to be a living example for our children of managing our finances responsibly. We have an affordable debt (mortgage only), save a percentage of our income, and resist the urge to borrow money as much as possible. We make it a priority to support our local church, give to those in need, and to be flexible when opporutnities arise unexpectedly.
Welcome Mickey!
Sounds like you’d make a great role model for anyone. As with most things a balanced, thoughtful approach is often the best. No drama, no theatrics, just a clear eye on what is important to you and what is not. Like it or not, where and how we allocate our resources says a lot about our priorities and personalities.
Just curious, do you plan to be mortgage free before retiring? I’ve read a lot recently about the high numbers of people retiring with debt. I can’t imagine doing it myself but perhaps it wouldn’t seem so risky if I had a guaranteed pension to offset that guaranteed expense. I’m not sure what your situation is, but teachers in this part of the world (Ontario, Canada) have about the best pensions in the country. I have 6 teachers in my family, so I get my info first hand. I personally have no company pension so other than government benefits, it’s all up to me, and I know eliminating the mortgage it just as important as accumulating retirement funds. When I’ve eliminated the mortgage and reached my savings goal I can pull the plug and walk away. I’m working toward age 57, but ever hopefull that I can shave a little more off that date. Knowing that every extra mortgage payment I make gets me a little closer makes sticking to my frugal budget relatively easy. Just keep my eyes on the prize.
Sounds good! I’ve given a lot of thought as to a retirement plan. We’ve wrestled with the idea of a vacation home. Right now our plan, were still about 18 years away from retirement, is to get an r.v. It is with the hope to see our kids, travel and most likely ship it overseas to the E.U. There we can travel and store it as need be. We were also thinking the kids and their families could use it. I’ve looked into buying an apartment in the south of france. But, then you have reno expenses, theft, insurance, and taxes. Right now DH has a job in AZ. We are in the midst of thousands of snow birds, taxes are low, cost of living isn’t too high. So, we’re just socking away as much as we can. We paid our home off and are helping our kids get through college. P.s. I love the idea of a peddle boat. They are fun to fish from also.