Post by CTGull on Feb 2, 2024 13:23:10 GMT -5
NO, I’m not retiring anytime soon! My wife has been a teacher for about 40 years and the amount of paperwork, BS, no accountability, and no one on any side seems to care anymore, has become overwhelming and her health has suffered for many years. She is retiring July 1st at 62. BUT!! We still have plenty of bills and a mortgage for the next 12.5 years!! She will get a good state pension, about half of her regular pay, but that will still leave us maybe $3000 short per month. She had elected to spread her pay out over 12 months, even though they have 2+ months off in the summer, and she’s been told she will get that in a lump sum, and I assume the government will take a big chunk.
So, she will get a big relief from the stress of her long time job. So she thinks. But this will leave us in a huge financial hole, which she doesn’t fully understand. She’s been trying to pay some of the bills off, but some of them ( home improvement loans) will take a few (1 to 6) years. She said she would take the lump some and pay off some of the bills, but she doesn’t seem to get that will only reduce the debt by a few hundred dollars, still leaving a huge chunk that we would not be able to pay each month. Yesterday she said she wants to take 3-6 months off (before finding another job) for her health!! WAAAA??? After 6 months we’ll be living in a cardboard box after getting foreclosed!!
My wife has always been a “nickel and dimer”, buying lots of little things that eventually add up to a lot at the end of the month. Most of it went on credit cards. Every 4-5 years she’d take out a loan to pay them off, then start the cycle over. Revolving debt. But she denied it. We also refinanced the house twice to pay off her depts. We’ve been in the house for 30 years, it should be paid off, now owing slightly more than what it originally cost.
Of course, I’ve had my share of expenses. I’ve spent A LOT of guitars and tools, but my hobby/side business slightly more than pays for itself. I have WAY TOO MANY GUITARS!! I need to STOP buying them (even the rescues) and do more fixing and selling. I also have nearly every useful tool Stew Mac sells. So, there’s no excuse that I can’t dramatically cut my spending. So yesterday (2/2/2024) I deleted all the automatic notification saved searches on eBay and Reverb, stopped looking at ShopGoodwill (which I’ve looked at daily for possibly 10 years), and deleted all the emails from those places. Eliminating the automatic emails and going there will greatly eliminate the chance of buying more guitars. I’m sure Stew Mac will come out with something new that I can’t live without, but we will see. Last month I had been considering buying a desktop CNC, as a toy and a tool to make stuff. That will not happen. They are a big money pit. I have the Harbor Freight mini-mill, it will have to do for now.
Now I have to get it thru to my wife for her to stop looking at Temu, Wish, Amazon, Wayfair, etc. She’s always “looking” (so she says), but the daily packages keep coming. She claims they’ve been on order for months. Then the cheap crap from China isn’t what she ordered, the wrong size, or it’s total crap (which she won’t admit), and most of it goes into bags and into piles. Hoarding.
Speaking of hoarding. 2 days ago I started to clean up my mess on my side of the garage. They are literally hundreds of pounds of scrap wood, metal, and hardware that I’ve had for years and will never use. Most of it needs to go. While my enthusiasm is high, the temp is low out there, and it’s tough to work for long before getting too cold (wearing a sweatshirt). But I will keep at it.
She needs to do the same with her crap, which is much more than I have.
Do I have a chance of surviving into 2025??
So, she will get a big relief from the stress of her long time job. So she thinks. But this will leave us in a huge financial hole, which she doesn’t fully understand. She’s been trying to pay some of the bills off, but some of them ( home improvement loans) will take a few (1 to 6) years. She said she would take the lump some and pay off some of the bills, but she doesn’t seem to get that will only reduce the debt by a few hundred dollars, still leaving a huge chunk that we would not be able to pay each month. Yesterday she said she wants to take 3-6 months off (before finding another job) for her health!! WAAAA??? After 6 months we’ll be living in a cardboard box after getting foreclosed!!
My wife has always been a “nickel and dimer”, buying lots of little things that eventually add up to a lot at the end of the month. Most of it went on credit cards. Every 4-5 years she’d take out a loan to pay them off, then start the cycle over. Revolving debt. But she denied it. We also refinanced the house twice to pay off her depts. We’ve been in the house for 30 years, it should be paid off, now owing slightly more than what it originally cost.
Of course, I’ve had my share of expenses. I’ve spent A LOT of guitars and tools, but my hobby/side business slightly more than pays for itself. I have WAY TOO MANY GUITARS!! I need to STOP buying them (even the rescues) and do more fixing and selling. I also have nearly every useful tool Stew Mac sells. So, there’s no excuse that I can’t dramatically cut my spending. So yesterday (2/2/2024) I deleted all the automatic notification saved searches on eBay and Reverb, stopped looking at ShopGoodwill (which I’ve looked at daily for possibly 10 years), and deleted all the emails from those places. Eliminating the automatic emails and going there will greatly eliminate the chance of buying more guitars. I’m sure Stew Mac will come out with something new that I can’t live without, but we will see. Last month I had been considering buying a desktop CNC, as a toy and a tool to make stuff. That will not happen. They are a big money pit. I have the Harbor Freight mini-mill, it will have to do for now.
Now I have to get it thru to my wife for her to stop looking at Temu, Wish, Amazon, Wayfair, etc. She’s always “looking” (so she says), but the daily packages keep coming. She claims they’ve been on order for months. Then the cheap crap from China isn’t what she ordered, the wrong size, or it’s total crap (which she won’t admit), and most of it goes into bags and into piles. Hoarding.
Speaking of hoarding. 2 days ago I started to clean up my mess on my side of the garage. They are literally hundreds of pounds of scrap wood, metal, and hardware that I’ve had for years and will never use. Most of it needs to go. While my enthusiasm is high, the temp is low out there, and it’s tough to work for long before getting too cold (wearing a sweatshirt). But I will keep at it.
She needs to do the same with her crap, which is much more than I have.
Do I have a chance of surviving into 2025??
