Enough About Cars Already!!

Ok!! I forgot all about the Jetta. I am sure I forgot because it was one of the most impulsive car purchases we ever did. That is of course until we made the impulsive car purchase one night after dinner after we moved to San Diego and I got my first teaching job. You know the feeling,…we thought we were loaded because someone told me I would be making 22,000 a year. That combined with Pete’s salary we thought we owned the world and we instantly needed another car to go with the new job. Never mind we had not collected one red cent from me teaching and we had already spent more than ½ of it.

I am getting WAY ahead of myself here. I realize from the way things look right now Pete and I were not exactly the sharpest tacks…especially when it came to car purchases. And for the life of me I am not sure why we felt the need to keep swapping out cars. Neither of us are big car people. We are not the type who asks for new rims for Christmas..so why the need to keep swapping cars?? I think when you are first getting your feet planted in the world as an independent adult the fastest way to show people you have arrived is to actual have a nice car to arrive in.

I have since LOWERED my standards GREATLY and now drive a 2001 Suburban with 115,000 miles on it that we have owned for 7 years. We are growing out of it quickly and things are literally falling apart on a weekly basis but the car runs like a champ, is very reliable and I feel like she is part of the family. She has brought home 4 of the 5 babies I made (none in the car..hehee).

Anyway, off the whole car thing for a moment. Let’s get back to 1998 after we bought the Jetta where soon after Pete got accepted into flight school. At the very same time he was supposed to be checking into Pensacola his ship was being deployed for another 3 months and they would not let him leave until after they returned from deployment. But you see I was a girl on a mission at this point in my own life. Because falling in love with Pete put me behind in my own schooling I was now focused on wrapping up this teaching degree that I had taken out about 20,000 in student loans for. I wanted to finish my degree while Pete got his wings. I applied to University of West Florida and decided I would leave right away, while he was on deployment, set up house until he was able to come. I always have a solution and it usually requires one of us to do something VERY quickly. That person is usually me!! Hey, God made me that way…I move fast and sometimes make lots of mistakes on the way. Other times I am moving so fast I have no time for mistakes. You be the judge this time!

A few things stand out to me that happened in P’cola that pertain to our Financial Love Story. I will say this before ending , we had no investments, student loan debt adding up , a leased car, a wife who like to spend money. I mostly spent money on having a good time. I wish I could say I was spending money on fine jewels and high fashion clothing. But as I look back at some of my pictures during this time period it looks to me like I was eating and drinking all of our money ….(notice how there are NO pictures of me during this time period).

That’s all for now. Let me know what you guys are thinking…