Well, Damn.

I know there are a lot of positives that I can focus on. I have a beautiful family of almost 4, a great job with wonderful hours and days, I own my own house and I'm only 28 years old--29 here in a few days. But I'll be damned if my truck didn't blow a timing chain/belt on the way home from school today. That wouldn't be so bad if one of our other cars hadn't been in the shop since October. What day is it? I know, I know I do have a nice new minivan; but this just happens to be the month that Big Daddy wants his money for me being able to own property. That, despite the fact that I've already paid the man once when I bought the stinkin' thing in the form of sales tax.

I'd be excited about earning my Master's Degree in School Administration because of the professional opportunities and especially the 10% raise that comes along with it. But the raise that I will receive will go towards repaying my student loans. All of those folks who proclaim college to be a great investment and student loan debt to be good debt... I think they must not have become public school teachers. And, oh yeah, did I mention that the standard test that I have to take to get the license required to get the raise is costing me $465 clams. Screw you ETS.

And one more thing before I cease bitching and moaning. $400 each month from my paycheck goes to fund my health care premium. That's right, $5000 a year just for the premium... just for the opportunity to have coverage. I still pay hundreds of dollars in deductibles and other out of pocket expenses. By making the responsible decision to have one parent stay home with our children I am penalized in a couple of ways. Is there a tax credit for stay at home moms? No. But there is a tax credit for people who decide not to and then send their kids to daycare. So I pay high premiums for those irresponsible enough--or less fortunate enough, whatever your slant--to have health insurance but are still having children while those same people get the tax credits for sending their kids to day care.

Ok, through venting--maybe.

It's just all triggered an avalanche of thoughts. What do we spend our money on? Is it possible/practical to be a one car family? When did individual mobility become such a need in our society? How much money would I save on gas/maintenance/repair/insurance if we only had one vehicle?

We're already pretty frugal (I misspelled that word in the 5th grade spelling bee--mallet in the 6th) with our funds. Eating out and traveling are all we really do extra. Ok, ok and crown royal for me. There just aren't that many other corners to cut and maintain the same standard of living that we have. Don't get me wrong, I know we live like kings compared to most of the world. But I'm working my butt off trying to finish school and teach school; my wife is carrying our second child, teaches part time at GWU, works as a freelance editor for HA, cares for/educates/disciplines/puts up with our 3 year old on a daily basis... kinda makes my job look simple... but we do all that and--look I'm glad the minimum wagers are going to get a 2 dollar increase--but well, what about folks like me? I'm not asking for the government to step in and give me stuff--hell we'd probably qualify for medicaid if we applied. I just want fewer penalties. Please do something about the Health Care costs. Give me a break on paying property taxes on my van after I've already paid sales taxes on it. Give me the option to pay into Social Security if I want to... and Medicare for that matter.

I wonder what our grandfathers and great grandfathers would say/do to me after reading this rant. Probably something like "come back and see me when you're forced to pull the head off your only chicken to make it through the winter and work 60 hours a week just to get by..." You know, back when "times was rough."

dt