Let's Talk Money

Welcome to my life on a budget!

A little bit about me...I am a mother of 2 young boys.  My husband works full time and I work as a nurse 1 day/week.  I consider myself a stay-at-home mom (SAHM) due to the fact that we don't use childcare, although I still work part-time.  I schedule my work based on days that my husband can stay home with the kids.  I am 35 years old and, up until I got pregnant with my 2 1/2 year old son, I thought of myself as a career woman.  I spent my whole adult life hoping to become a flight nurse on a medical helicopter, but after 4 years of flying, I changed my mind.  When I went back to work after my maternity leave, I knew I wanted to be a SAHM.  About 5 months later, I was able to go part-time doing ground transport only.

Most people think that money is a taboo subject and that it is an inappropriate subject to share with people.  I, on the other hand, feel that the more you talk about money, the more informed and educated you become.  It also makes you hold yourself accountable for your financial actions.  In my experience, when other people know your plans, you tend to stick to them.

I grew up saving my birthday money in a passbook savings account.  I was told early on that if I saved up enough money to pay for my first year of car insurance, then my parents would pay for it the rest of the time I was in college.  When I was 16 years old, my mother taught me how to balance a checkbook and at 17 (when preparing to move to college), I opened my first checking account and got my first credit card.  My parents had some great advice for me when I moved out.  My mother taught me how to budget using a budget book with ledger pages (I still have it and use it) and my father told me his views on retirement.  He said that he didn't think that social security would be around when I retired and that the key to saving for retirement would be starting early.  He always talked about the power of compounding interest.  Amazing advice coming from a union electrician (hello, IBEW local 98!) who doesn't even know how to write a check. :)  I opened an annuity at the age of 20.  When I was eligible for a 403b in 1998, I stopped contributing to the annuity and contributed enough to the 403b to get the employer match.  I got married in 1999...and that's when things started to go down hill.

4 years, a divorce, and about $5000 in credit card debt later, I was starting over.  I got my name off of the mortgage that I was pretty sure he would default on.  I took my bed, my kitchen table, my vehicle, 1/2 of our credit card debt, and my retirement fund and I left.  Luckily, we split amicably, before he had a chance to destroy my credit like he ended up destroying his.  The credit card debt meant that, not only was I starting over, but I was in the hole...except that I still had my retirement fund.  (Thanks, Daddy!)

Then I met Mr. Right.  We moved in together and started getting our finances on track.  I started contributing 25% of my income to my 403b and a 457 account combined.  Mr. Right was contributing the minimum to get the employer match through his 403b.  We bought a house (well, I bought a house and he lived there too...LOL.)  We worked a ton of overtime so that we could pay off our credit cards and pay for a wedding in cash, which is exactly what we did.  Once we got married, the only debt we had left was our mortgage and our car payments.  When it came time to have a baby, we knew that with our work hours, daycare wouldn't be an option.  We planned to work opposite shifts so that one of us could always be home.  The original plan was for me to work full-time since I made about $9/hr. more than my husband, and he would work part-time.  It was after my maternity leave that I realized I wanted it to be ME working part-time and my husband working full-time.  We put our heads together and came up with a plan.  If we could work as much overtime as possible for a couple of months, and drop my 403b and 457 contributions back to 4%, we could have our vehicles paid off, which would save us almost $1,200 a month.  Then I could go part-time.

It took 5 months, but we were able to pay off all of our debt, with the exception of our mortgage.  I've been a SAHM working 1 day/week ever since...and I don't regret it for a minute.  Somethings ARE more important than money. :)