Abject poverty is not as fun or glamourous as I thought it might be.
We're down to our last $150. Total. That's work and personal checking. That's liquid funds.
I still have my 401K, which has lost $11,000 of value over the last, oh, 9 months. As soon as I put a big percentage of it into Hill stock, it tanked. I seem to have a talent for buying high and selling low (though I haven't sold it--I'll hold on at least until I'm forced to cash it out), for buying a house when the market is peaking and selling it when no one is buying. Although...we did sell it pretty fast, I must say, but only after dropping thousands of dollars on it for last-minute improvements (roof, carpet, mulch).
So there's some good news here. And in just 8 years of marriage we've paid off one debt, racked up another, and paid that off, too, before racking up this new incredible total. I've always had this thing with money--it always seemed to appear just when I needed it most. And Kevin and I have proved a very scrappy team that pulls out the stops when it comes to paying off land, buying a house, paying off a credit card debt.
My confidence is wavering a bit. Just a bit. And only because the size of the debt, compared with our income, is intimidating. Back when I was pulling in $1,800 every two weeks (net), a few thousand dollars didn't seem so big. Now, I make $10 hour, part-time. It'll be $13 in the spring, but still. We continue to sell things at the shop, but the winter lull has been very lully. (Come, Spring!) That's a fact of life in this business.
Still, we're getting to the end of our credit card limits and I find myself having to juggle--which one still has enough on it to pay this bill? For the last 4 months, we've had to put our $800-$900 electric bill on a credit card. I HATE having to pay bills with a loan! (Those enormous electric bills will only last for another 7 months, and it's because we had to pay to have a 3-phase transformer put in--we're not using that much electricity.) We've streamlined even when I thought there was no room to streamline. We kept Netflix, but that is our entire entertainment budget. I had to buy hay for the animals the other day. That just has to be done, and the animals are not going anywhere. I figure we've saved enough to buy the hay by not eating lunch out in the last two months.
I needed to vent this, people. I'm not asking for handouts or pity. I said I would document what it was really like for regular people to give up "real" jobs and start a small business. This is nothing more than what we've always heard is to be expected. It's only when you're in the thick of it, though, that you really get what that means.
I've got to go pick up Stevie from school. I'll leave you with this: I think I'm going to apply for the newly-open executive director position at the Chamber of Commerce. It's part-time despite their efforts to create a full-time position. I've been talking to people and we all think that if I took the job, I could merge it with my existing tourism position and eliminate a lot of the overlap between the two positions. I'm also the only person in town who is in the position to make this happen. Interesting!
I don't want a full-time job, but it's time to get scrappy. Our silent partner can take over my important but meager job duties in our business. And I could finally become the overlord that I was born to be.
I still have my 401K, which has lost $11,000 of value over the last, oh, 9 months. As soon as I put a big percentage of it into Hill stock, it tanked. I seem to have a talent for buying high and selling low (though I haven't sold it--I'll hold on at least until I'm forced to cash it out), for buying a house when the market is peaking and selling it when no one is buying. Although...we did sell it pretty fast, I must say, but only after dropping thousands of dollars on it for last-minute improvements (roof, carpet, mulch).
So there's some good news here. And in just 8 years of marriage we've paid off one debt, racked up another, and paid that off, too, before racking up this new incredible total. I've always had this thing with money--it always seemed to appear just when I needed it most. And Kevin and I have proved a very scrappy team that pulls out the stops when it comes to paying off land, buying a house, paying off a credit card debt.
My confidence is wavering a bit. Just a bit. And only because the size of the debt, compared with our income, is intimidating. Back when I was pulling in $1,800 every two weeks (net), a few thousand dollars didn't seem so big. Now, I make $10 hour, part-time. It'll be $13 in the spring, but still. We continue to sell things at the shop, but the winter lull has been very lully. (Come, Spring!) That's a fact of life in this business.
Still, we're getting to the end of our credit card limits and I find myself having to juggle--which one still has enough on it to pay this bill? For the last 4 months, we've had to put our $800-$900 electric bill on a credit card. I HATE having to pay bills with a loan! (Those enormous electric bills will only last for another 7 months, and it's because we had to pay to have a 3-phase transformer put in--we're not using that much electricity.) We've streamlined even when I thought there was no room to streamline. We kept Netflix, but that is our entire entertainment budget. I had to buy hay for the animals the other day. That just has to be done, and the animals are not going anywhere. I figure we've saved enough to buy the hay by not eating lunch out in the last two months.
I needed to vent this, people. I'm not asking for handouts or pity. I said I would document what it was really like for regular people to give up "real" jobs and start a small business. This is nothing more than what we've always heard is to be expected. It's only when you're in the thick of it, though, that you really get what that means.
I've got to go pick up Stevie from school. I'll leave you with this: I think I'm going to apply for the newly-open executive director position at the Chamber of Commerce. It's part-time despite their efforts to create a full-time position. I've been talking to people and we all think that if I took the job, I could merge it with my existing tourism position and eliminate a lot of the overlap between the two positions. I'm also the only person in town who is in the position to make this happen. Interesting!
I don't want a full-time job, but it's time to get scrappy. Our silent partner can take over my important but meager job duties in our business. And I could finally become the overlord that I was born to be.
posted by lulu | 12:31 PM
3 Comments:
I would tell you not to overextend yourself, but you probably won't listen to me.
Maybe you could sell some quilts, but you'd have to find time to make them--and it doesn't seem that you have much of that at your disposal.
I wish I could help more than just send good thoughts and well wishes your way. (I suppose I could order a headstone . . .)
I wqould take 150$ right now. Count one's blessings, they are more than one may think.
I have nothing to offer on the subject of material goods, wealth, etc. However, on the subject of adversity, I got a million cliches you've already heard and all of which are true. But if the Universe is testing you, mark my words: the scrappiest gal on the block is about to make something happen.
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