about me

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Denver, Colorado, United States
i'm 33. i live with my husband, baby daughter 2 dogs and 1 kitty. i'm a chemical engineer with an MBA and work in technical sales. i tend to bite off more than i *think* i can chew and end up with a full bulging mouth for awhile before i can finally swallow. i thrive in chaos, but strive for order.

9.07.2009

it's been an expensive year

so i've always thought that any anxiety or stress i felt was directly related to the events that occur in my life. i also always thought that when those events are over, the stress will go away. what i'm realizing now is that it's just replaced by something equally stressful. 2009 has been a very anxiety-ridden year so far. a little run down.

january-april: spent all our free time fixing up the quitman rental and maxed out our credit cards doing so.
february: huge tree in our backyard falls down in the wind storm, causing $8K worth of damage and a month of dealing with the insurance company.
april: jared proposes (yay!) - start planning wedding and figuring out where we'll get the money
leak in fenton rental leads to mold growth in basement and months of dealing with contractors and insurance.
may: j gets into a car accident and it costs $2k to fix his jeep. i find out that j owes 3 years of back taxes.
june: tenants in fenton house get kicked out by social services and the city says that the house is uninhabitable. this is a blessing in disguise, as the tenants were HORRID, BUT we can't afford to have an empty house right now.
july: j's jeep broke down and we were forced to buy a new car. we got a used subaru forester and now have another car payment. j finally gets his crotchrocket into the shop so we can get it fixed up to sell and it costs $1700 to get it running again.
july-august: months dealing with contracts and insurance adjustors lead to a $18K insurance payment, but the work still hasn't started because the check is made out to the mortgage company and i have to jump through all their hoops to get things fixed.
august: we decide to put the quitman house on the market, and have to deal with the annoyances of trying to sell a tenant occupied house.

do you see a pattern here?

some reasons why we appear to make good money on paper, yet have none.
*i have not yet received a commission check this year because i am about 40K behind my sales goal.
*j was forced to take a 20% paycut at his job
*we have been paying two mortgages for 6 out of the last 8 months.
*we have paid cash for the following:2 insurance deductibles ($1000 each), 3 separate vehicle repairs ($4500 total), an engagement ring ($3000), and wedding downpayments ($2500).

now we have drained our savings, maxed our cards, and have 2 houses, a jeep, and a bike that we desperately want to sell.

too bad no one is buying..

1 comment:

  1. You know it'll all pay off in the end and you'll have a year that you sell a bunch of houses/motorcycles AND both make fat loot and then you'll be blogging about how the government took 50% of your income because you made too much money! It's tough out there but you know the sacrifices you make now will afford you relaxation in the future. And, look, we've almost weathered the storm so things can only go up from here!

    P.S. You're a financial genius anyway, so why are you stressin'? :)

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