Its been quite a week or so since I last posted on here, with lots of things going on (or at least things I consider to be going on, and may only be happening in my head). First, one of the partners here at work has been out of town for half of last week and all of this week, leaving me to cover his scheduled appointments and handle any client matters that occur while he's gone. He's off with his son who is playing in basketball tournaments where he is/will be recruited for some small colleges (Division II, III). So, I'm here to cover his stuff, which gives me good experience in some areas of law I wouldn't otherwise touch (business law, for one), but makes me pretty busy. Point in case, this blog post has taken about 3 days to write for want of trying to find a good time to piece it altogether. Anyway, suffice to say that work has been very busy the past week and a half, and will probably continue to be so for another week as I finish up the covering attorney duties and play catch up on some of my own stuff.
August was always going to be a big month for us...Jackie's b
eloved Pontiac G6's lease is up, and is returned at the end of August, and we had planned all year that this month would be the month that we have enough money saved to possibly get our dining room floor redone - replace old carpet with some wood laminate that would match the kitchen. We have been planning and saving for that pretty much all year. Enter Ellie....
Around the first of July or so, we notice that she would occasionally pick up her back left leg when she was "jogging" outside. At first, it only occurred outside, she never expressed any pain or discomfort when you would prod the area, and she would still go pedal to the metal when playing. As the month progressed, we notice it happening more and more, to where it would occur even inside the house (ruling out any type of weird character quirk), and when we would look for it, you could tell she wasn't placing too much weight on the leg. So, as one does when you have pets that might be injured or ill, we called the vet.
(There's is a very lengthy story about this initial process with the vet, resulting in us actually having the diagnosis done by our old vet in Fort Wayne, and why we will be looking for another vet in the near future. Generally, it has to do with being grossly overcharged to the diagnostic work, to the tune of 300% more than what we paid at our old vet)
So we eventually learn that Ellie has Femoral Head Necrosis, a good summary of and discussion of it can be found here. Needless to say, our little pup needs surgery, and we have it as of August 11, the soonest we could get her in. From all accounts from some stuff you read online and from the vet, the surgery should take care of the problem, and while it will cost a pretty penny, its not as bad as it could be considering its a hip problem in a dog.
Even as though this is the obvious course of action to take, it immediately makes everything else more complicated. For starters, one more thing to deal with is, well, one more thing to juggle. From the financial side, it means the most likely abandonment, at least temporarily, of our plan to have the dining room floor redone. There's only so much money to go around. It also brings the car decision into greater focus, primarily financial focus and how that, while always a primary factor, essentially becomes the deciding factor as we work to reduce monthly expenses to save more, pay off debt, work on the house, blah, blah, blah.
I have to admit, and I believe Jackie feels the same way, there is some initial disappointment. I think its natural...saving, working hard, planning on something for nine months, only to have to abandon it because of something unexpected, is hard to swallow. But I guess that's where the whole being an "adult" comes in, doing the responsible thing, even it means sacrificing things you want. The easy thing would be to use credit, in one fashion or another, to still purchase the new floor and have Ellie's surgery. I know this, because it is often what we have done in the past when confronted with making difficult choices, choosing to do what we need as well as what we want, and pay for it in the future. This has worked with myriad levels of success, but ultimately, we made a committed effort at the beginning of this year to no longer do that, to work so that we would have little to no credit debt, so that we could pay of student loans faster, and generally have more disposable income.
This was the first major step, saving for the long time to get something we wanted, waiting patiently. Now, we will have to wait longer. But, despite the initial disappointment, there is plenty to be "proud" of and grateful for. We stuck to our guns on being patient, so we know we can do it again. We are making the difficult choice here, and while we will still get a quote for the floor just so we know where we have to get to, we won't rush to get it at the expense of the coming year. We have enough money saved to handle Ellie's surgery without resorting to credit, and potentially enough left over to do something else for the house, or have a head start on saving for the floor again. That is something for us to be both proud of, our ability to save for that length of time, and to be grateful for, that we are able to save when so many in our community face such dire circumstances.
The same rings true for the car decision. We are coming at from the perspective of what makes the most financial sense, what enables us to do best financially for the next 5 years, not what will make us feel good when we look at the car.
These are obviously simple things, but for those of us who are still in that phase in our twenties, that are still recently married, having only purchased a car one or two times, only have one house, don't have kids, these are the big decisions, and the decisions that give us practice for the tough ones to follow. And truthfully, these decisions have lasting impact, they effect how things will be for us in five years, ten years. Its connected, its interrelated, and to understand that is to understand the weight that each these decisions, and comparable one, carry; to not understand that is to continue to make short-sighted decisions, and never really taking steps forward.
So, as July closes and August progresses, I will be wrestling with the finances to get Ellie's surgery taken care of, working on researching used cars and getting something that both Jackie and I will like, and figuring out other home improvement projects that can be done with what's left over, all the time hoping that we continue to work our way towards where we want to be financially in five, ten years.
I'm an adult, when did this happen and how do I make it stop. That phrase always seems appropriate to me at times like this.
On one small side note...this is the type of stuff I literally digest and mull and chew on over and over and over and over again each day, just so I can make a decision the very instant I need to. I think everyone should have a new profound respect and admiration for Jackie as she deals with this everyday, and hasn't gone crazy, left, or killed me yet.
August was always going to be a big month for us...Jackie's b
eloved Pontiac G6's lease is up, and is returned at the end of August, and we had planned all year that this month would be the month that we have enough money saved to possibly get our dining room floor redone - replace old carpet with some wood laminate that would match the kitchen. We have been planning and saving for that pretty much all year. Enter Ellie....Around the first of July or so, we notice that she would occasionally pick up her back left leg when she was "jogging" outside. At first, it only occurred outside, she never expressed any pain or discomfort when you would prod the area, and she would still go pedal to the metal when playing. As the month progressed, we notice it happening more and more, to where it would occur even inside the house (ruling out any type of weird character quirk), and when we would look for it, you could tell she wasn't placing too much weight on the leg. So, as one does when you have pets that might be injured or ill, we called the vet.
(There's is a very lengthy story about this initial process with the vet, resulting in us actually having the diagnosis done by our old vet in Fort Wayne, and why we will be looking for another vet in the near future. Generally, it has to do with being grossly overcharged to the diagnostic work, to the tune of 300% more than what we paid at our old vet)
So we eventually learn that Ellie has Femoral Head Necrosis, a good summary of and discussion of it can be found here. Needless to say, our little pup needs surgery, and we have it as of August 11, the soonest we could get her in. From all accounts from some stuff you read online and from the vet, the surgery should take care of the problem, and while it will cost a pretty penny, its not as bad as it could be considering its a hip problem in a dog.
Even as though this is the obvious course of action to take, it immediately makes everything else more complicated. For starters, one more thing to deal with is, well, one more thing to juggle. From the financial side, it means the most likely abandonment, at least temporarily, of our plan to have the dining room floor redone. There's only so much money to go around. It also brings the car decision into greater focus, primarily financial focus and how that, while always a primary factor, essentially becomes the deciding factor as we work to reduce monthly expenses to save more, pay off debt, work on the house, blah, blah, blah.
I have to admit, and I believe Jackie feels the same way, there is some initial disappointment. I think its natural...saving, working hard, planning on something for nine months, only to have to abandon it because of something unexpected, is hard to swallow. But I guess that's where the whole being an "adult" comes in, doing the responsible thing, even it means sacrificing things you want. The easy thing would be to use credit, in one fashion or another, to still purchase the new floor and have Ellie's surgery. I know this, because it is often what we have done in the past when confronted with making difficult choices, choosing to do what we need as well as what we want, and pay for it in the future. This has worked with myriad levels of success, but ultimately, we made a committed effort at the beginning of this year to no longer do that, to work so that we would have little to no credit debt, so that we could pay of student loans faster, and generally have more disposable income.
This was the first major step, saving for the long time to get something we wanted, waiting patiently. Now, we will have to wait longer. But, despite the initial disappointment, there is plenty to be "proud" of and grateful for. We stuck to our guns on being patient, so we know we can do it again. We are making the difficult choice here, and while we will still get a quote for the floor just so we know where we have to get to, we won't rush to get it at the expense of the coming year. We have enough money saved to handle Ellie's surgery without resorting to credit, and potentially enough left over to do something else for the house, or have a head start on saving for the floor again. That is something for us to be both proud of, our ability to save for that length of time, and to be grateful for, that we are able to save when so many in our community face such dire circumstances.
The same rings true for the car decision. We are coming at from the perspective of what makes the most financial sense, what enables us to do best financially for the next 5 years, not what will make us feel good when we look at the car.
These are obviously simple things, but for those of us who are still in that phase in our twenties, that are still recently married, having only purchased a car one or two times, only have one house, don't have kids, these are the big decisions, and the decisions that give us practice for the tough ones to follow. And truthfully, these decisions have lasting impact, they effect how things will be for us in five years, ten years. Its connected, its interrelated, and to understand that is to understand the weight that each these decisions, and comparable one, carry; to not understand that is to continue to make short-sighted decisions, and never really taking steps forward.
So, as July closes and August progresses, I will be wrestling with the finances to get Ellie's surgery taken care of, working on researching used cars and getting something that both Jackie and I will like, and figuring out other home improvement projects that can be done with what's left over, all the time hoping that we continue to work our way towards where we want to be financially in five, ten years.
I'm an adult, when did this happen and how do I make it stop. That phrase always seems appropriate to me at times like this.
On one small side note...this is the type of stuff I literally digest and mull and chew on over and over and over and over again each day, just so I can make a decision the very instant I need to. I think everyone should have a new profound respect and admiration for Jackie as she deals with this everyday, and hasn't gone crazy, left, or killed me yet.
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