This post is overdue by a few months, but it catches several significant financial milestones all in one. On April 19, we paid off one of my grad school loans that was split off from the others. On May 19, we paid off the last remnants of my undergrad loans which were being paid off at a snail’s pace after bing thrown in with the other two grad school loans. Someone where in that month, our net worth clicked over to the positive side, too. Woo-hoo. These all feel like big accomplishments and the celebration from hitting these three is going to have to sustain for a long season as we sink our teeth into the meat of graduate school debt.
An ignominious end came to this season and their careers at the hands of Virginia Commonwealth University. These extremely talented men had a star-crossed college career. With their immense individual succes and strong teams, each year they were bested in the Big Ten regular season race. And the loss of Robbie Hummell both for last year’s NCAA tournament and then again for this entire season. And then Kelsey Barlow’s suspension for the tournament. Sad to see them go and and a heaviness after today’s humbling loss.
Driving home along Aurora Avenue this evening my wife pointed out the decor on the back of the vehicle beside us. The black Silverado’s back window was adorned with two Darwinized Jesus fish–with one mounting the other from behind. At first glnce, it looked two Anklyosaurus’ getting it on which causes me to wonder more about dinosaur reproduction. But, like most sarcastic Seattle statements, much passive agressive anger lied beneath the surface of the humor. I was trying to imagine the owner of the truck taking the time to think of that design and the affixing the images. And, like with many of the thousands (nay, millions) of bumper stickers on cars in Seattle, I wonder what motivates the driver to paste their statements on their vehicles.
More specifically, is the idea that evolutionists have sex? That they have better sex than Christians? Ah, such good dialogue that is possible in this new era of civility.
We have been waiting to hear from the preschool that we applied to for our oldest daughter. We toured the place about a month ago and it was so fun to watch her jump right into the classrooms that we were visiting. She is a really sharp kid and highly verbal–it was more than apparent that she was ready for this transition (Actually, the main hold-up has been the late onset of potty skills. We’ve been working on this one in various forms for nearly two years). This particular school was a Montessori preschool attached to a Catholic elementary school about 20 blocks from our house. I wanted there to be a religious/spiritual flavor to the experience and was impressed with the Montessori portions of the curriculum.
Today we received that she was not placed in the program. Definitely some sadness as I liked the place and was excited about the prospects of being associated there. So, while we remain in the wait pool, we now need to search on. And with the preschool being so sought after in this city, we don’t know what’s left to get.
I’m getting closer to finishing several refinishing projects and unveiling them to the world. Two of these were not just simply refinishing, but stripping several coats of paint off dressers. I can become obsessed with getting all of the paint off of something. Seeing wood revealed under old paint is an unbelievably satisfying experience. But the obsession goes deeper than that as my stray thoughts drift to unfinished projects and I fall asleep with visions of stripping paint. I’ve incorporated my three-year-old into this in helping apply stripper (biodegradable, indoor safe) and peel off the long pieces of paint that come loose. Also having to fight off the urge to acquire more pieces to refinish while there are still 5 pieces in process. After a long lag in my productivity, I took a trip to Rockler hardware with some hot cash from our household envelope (thank you, Dave Ramsey). What an awesome place. I took a tabletop with me from an end table that I’m working on. The guy there jumped right in and show me some techniques and tools and a new brand of stripper that works awesome, doesn’t smell like Gojo and is clear. I came away from that impromptu twenty minute tutoring session full of enthusiasm to jump head long back into the fray. Hopefully, soon there’ll be much to showcase.
A week or so ago I read that the longest surviving American serviceman from the World War I era passed away.
Frank Buckles, who lied about his age at 16 to enlist in the U.S. Army in 1917 and served until 1920. He did not see combat, but served as a part of the war effort. He was a remarkable man for his longevity (110 years old) maybe moreso than his service in the armed services. But, after I read of his death, I was struck by the symbolic loss. The last of a generation has passed. There are no more voices to speak of that war that experienced it firsthand. Frank’s passing is representative of not only the men that died in combat, but the millions that volunteered and served in World War I. The Great War began 97 years ago and the U.S. entered 94 years ago–and the details of that war have been obscured by time and the horrors of the Second World War. Still I am saddened by his death and think of the faces of his comrades-in-arms that I’ve seen in pictures, videos and the few vets that were around when I was a kid. That war heralded the movement of the United States from a primarily rural nation to a primarily urban one, from an isolated rising world power to an industrial dynamo intertwined with Europe, introduced millions of U.S. farmboys to Europe. The line from the song of the era–”How you going to keep him down on the farm once he’s see Paris?”
While Buckles was certainly not a World War I hero, his passing is worth noting. The House and Senate leaders resolved to have him lie in a special location at Arlington prior to being interred, which has stirred controversy. In fact, the kerfuffle may be over by now. Count me among those that are in favor of him being honored. I can only imagine that his fellow soldiers that have passed on would be in favor and their souls may well pass in review as his body lies there. Rest in Peace, Frank.
My observance of Lent this year will deviate from my usual “giving up” of something and will be an “engaging” something. In the past, I have given up caffeine, chocolate (3 times, I think), television. This time around, I am going to write every day of Lent. And, this blog will be a large part of that. I may not write here every day, I am going to either blog or journal or reflect each day. This used to be a practice that I did routinely but Kid #1 and Kid #2 have caused that to drop off. Another inspiration for this was what I heard myself say the other day. I had just finished stripping the paint off yet another dresser the other day and the feeling of satisfaction of a long labor being finished was amazing. I’ve finally managed to get the backlog of furniture pieces in our parking garage stripped and ready to be finished. i often take on large tasks like this, labor through them off and on, and then feel immense relief when I finally finish them. After noticing that feeling, I said to myself, “It’d be cool to have this feeling after finishing a novel rather than other things I put off and let pile up.” Whoa!
So, who knows where this writing will go, but I know it’s something I need to engage in and will between now and Ressurection Sunday.
Last month, we completed the second kill on our debt snownball–we paid a final huge chunk on our loan for the minivan. What a giddy feeling!! The title arrived about 3 weeks later, a tangible piece to showcase that we no longer owed someone else for the vehicle we drove. Our desire and determination is to never borrow for a vehicle again. So this payoff is monumental.
This means, in addition to the the numerous medical bills we paid off all at once in the beginning, this is our second big kill. We have three big kills left, all in the student loan category. The first one is a chunk of my grad student loans that were not purchased by Sallie Mae. We should have good new on that front by April. Then we enter what promises to be a longer slog prior to paying off larger balances. I’ve had to invent other benchmarks to track progress along the way.
One is to celebrate when my undergrad loans (which were rolled into the grad school loans) are paid off. The next will be to celebrate when our net worth tips over to positive territory. Needless to say, it is amazing the progress that we have made in not quite a year. We’re counting March 17 as the end of our first year of crazy, debt-dumping, snowballing, Dave Ramsey madness. Can’t wait to see what our oneyear total is.
Last Friday, we sent off our final payment to Citicards, our final payment to any credit cards. What a feeling! Our goal to be debt free began last March as we focused all of our efforts on one goal—get out of debt. We temporarily halted retirement savings, began detailed budgeting, cashed in investments with poor rates of return (i.e. savings bonds) and developed a plan focused on debt reduction. Much of our initial efforts were gobbled up by outstanding medical bills from my surgery and from the birth of our second child. While it was nice to say goodbye to all of those bills, the credit cards were haunting me. The existence of credit card debt was like this voice constantly saying “You can’t control your money.” While the medical bills were just that—bills—the credit card debt was more like the undead, a zombie that was hacking at our door with an axe because it needed to eat our flesh.
We labored over the last six months, hacking away with regular budgeted payments as well as every extra nickel we could scrape up and unexpected income to get Citi out of our life. And, five days after sending the last payment, we are still marveling. It feels so good to have worked toward this goal and actually accomplished it. And we don’t have to pay them any more. It’s amazing how when financial hopelessness sets in, debts can begin to feel like permanent chains. Prior to our financial rebirth last spring, I seriously thought it would take us three years to pay that card off. But when you quit adding to debt and then pay it off, it goes away. Like discovering that a bad house guest, who has tried to convince you that he is a permanent resident, can actually be told to leave.
Now we turn our aim toward a car loan. This next goal has much less emotion attached to it for a couple of reasons. First, we have only had it for seven months or so—thus not a lot of emotional history to this debt. Secondly, there is an actual possession that is attached to this loan. With the credit cards, it more represented a “death by a thousand cuts.” We might have been paying off a plane ticket from 2 years ago, or trip to eat out from 8 months back or that beautiful, glossy, black Kitchen Aid mixer that so gracefully adorns our kitchen counter. Nonetheless, it will feel good to pay off this vehicle.
Applied the finishing touches to the first major piece of furniture that I have redone. This new hobby that I’ve stumbled across was as much an example of mission creeep as anything. In May, I picked up a little night stand that I like the design of but not the salmon color that it was painted. I set about sanding it by hand and realized within a few minutes that this would be a much more arduous process than I had thought (Things happen with such ease in my imagination. 
). My friend, whose porch I was working on then graciously began trotting out all of his cool sanding power tools, including a rotary sander, a square electric sander and an amazing sanding tool made by Fein. Over the next few weeks, that small project was finished and the bug had gotten into me (us) for redoing furniture. In the meantime, I had picked up a homely, yet sturdy dresser sitting on the side of the road. As we were plotting how to refurbish this one, we came across the piece I initially referred to. (pictured below)
This venture wich was initially thought of to earn some spare cash soon took on the status of a labor of love. Late nights, early mornings, kids’ nap times. And learning which types of sandpaper worked best , wood conditioners, stains, final coats. I thought I knew something about these items, but to walk down a Home Depot aisle housing these products is enough to make your head spin. By far, though, the most difficult portion was navigating the ribbed millwork on the ends of the piece.
Since we brought it upstairs, I can’t stop staring at it and just enjoying it. Each time I walk by, I feel the finish and admire the grain. What a piece!
