Goal 2009 Update #19

This was a 3 paycheck month so finances were unusually good. I was able to repay the Emergency Fund and get it back to $7,000. We paid for a new washing machine after the old one died beyond any hope of resusitation. And we were able to add $2700 in extra principal to the November 1 house payment. So now the mortgage down to $16,604. If everyone stays healthy and employed and if the car doesn't die, 4-6 months and I can breathe again.

Afghanistan

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/26/AR2009102603394.html?wpisrc=newsletter

One person speaks out against the idiotic war in Afghanistan and it makes the Washington Post. Hallelujah! I suppose I should be grateful for that. But I'm not--I am furious that we are such utter sheeple that we are being led down this primrose path AGAIN. God how I wish we would bring back the draft so that everyone would have a stake in whether to continue this madness or not. How I wish we were forced to pay in full every year what this costs. But of course we won't--we will continue the war because you really don't have to send your children to be killed or maimed and we can continue with our tax cuts and piddling around with health care because we simply borrow more money from China.
There is no "win" in Afghanistan; we will simply keep pouring more beautiful young men into that bottomless pit and the ones that aren't swallowed up will be sold to the highest bidder to repay all the money we borrowed to finance the war in the first place.
Same goes for Iraq.

Families can be complicated

My DH is the oldest of 5 boys. Yesterday Brother #2 hosted the annual family fish fry. Brother #3 has boycotted the rest of the family for years and yesterday was no exception; however, his ex-wife was there with their 2 children and grandchildren and it was great--we always preferred her over him anyway... There were 50+ people there and it was just a pleasant evening of reminiscing and laughing about trying to figure out who was related to whom. The longest marriage there was 56 years and the youngest child there was 3. The food was terrific--I never made it to the actual fried fish because I couldn't get enough of SIL #2's gumbo. I brought my Chocolate-Chocolate cake. There was a whole table of desserts and a table of salads--potato, corn, cabbage. Very nice evening indeed.

We Are Doomed by John Derbyshire

Although I am referred to as the family pessimist--I fully anticipate the repairman will be late, if he comes at all, and things will definitely cost more and take longer than planned, and if something can be spilled, broken, or tripped over, of course it will be-- I prefer to think of myself as a realist. I thought when I picked up John Derbyshire's We Are Doomed that I had found a kindred spirit and it is true that we have points in common. However, I am not as fatalistic as he because I come at things from the perspective that of course things will be a total fiasco while we work through the difficulties but eventually things get sorted out. He doesn't--he comes to a full stop in the lake of the dismal swamp. I wish him well but prefer to slog my way out of the swamp and come out on the other side--a bit splattered but in a better place.

Over the $1 Million Dollar Mark

I finally got around to doing the 3rd quarter numbers and things were considerably improved in the retirement accounts and in the mortgage categories. We have gone over the $1 million mark in net worth which is nice but it doesn't really change anything. My plans and budget stay just where they are for the next 3 months until the house is paid off; then we will adjust the budget for saving for vehicles, working my way down my To Do List, and increasing our charitable giving. Who knows, maybe we'll hit 1.5 million before we retire??
People who know us in real life would have no idea of our net worth and that is just the way I want it.

You can't go home again.

Today we drove down to Galveston. It was the first time that we have been there since Hurricane Ike went through last year. Considering the terrible flooding and wind damage, the island on the whole looked better than I had anticipated. What looked much, much worse than I had anticipated was my old home where I grew up. After Hurricane Carla, my parents raised the house 5 feet on concrete blocks and I had hoped that this would have protected it. But it did not. The house is gutted and abandoned with windows open and siding sagging. I haven't lived there in over 30 years but it was like a punch in the stomach to see it like that. There were several houses which were in the process of being raised and several others that were in the same shape as my old house. Poor house, I hope someone comes to buy it and love it back to life but it won't be me--after Carla, I made up my mind that I will never live right on the coast again.
We drove around and saw many of the old familiar sights. The island is being re-built and is coming back to life... until the next big storm.

Chocolate Cake for breakfast

And it was good too! So there.

Goal 2009 Update #18

We are down to $21,153 left on the house. While I am very disappointed that we will not make the goal of paying it off by the end of the year, I am pleased that we have made so much progress this year; this time last year, we owed $93,288. If we had not paid down the principal and were just making the scheduled monthly payments, we would still owe $263,156.
Never, ever again will I have a mortgage.