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Oct 15, 2010    |       4 comments

Goodbye Venice!!!

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It’s our last night in Venice and I’m so sad to leave. I don’t care what anyone says about this city being dirty, I absolutely love it here. We were only here for a day and a half and we are on our way to Florence tomorrow.

On our second to last night in Ireland, we stayed in a particularly awful hostel. It was filthy and the windowless bathroom lights didn’t work so you had to leave the door open. People saw a lot more of me than I’d like. At 4:45am someone set the fire alarm off. The fire department arrived 20 minutes later and one of the fire fighters asked us if we were taking a carriage ride in the morning. We were scheduled to take the ride but I was confused as to why a firefighter knew or cared. He shined his flashlight in my husbands face and said, “You better be there”. A few hours later, we couldn’t help but laugh as the same firefighter showed up driving a carriage to give us a ride around the tiny town – so tiny the firefighters are the horsemen, the butchers, and the bartenders. Gotta love them!

Oct 15, 2010    |       21 comments

Mortgage Ratios…

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I was listening to Dave Ramsey last night while taking Hutch for a run and was flabbergasted as a man told Dave he couldn’t survive on what he was making. The man was pulling in just over $6,000 net each month and was carrying a $2,400 mortgage.

Dave said it was a tight budget but he should be able to survive on it.

‘Are you absolutely kidding me?!?!?’ I shouted as I ran.

I can’t imagine these kinds of outbursts make me popular with the neighbors – nor does it give them any sort of confidence in my sanity… but what else is new?

Without giving away too much about our income or mortgage amount, I’ll just put it this way, my husband and I make less than $6,000 net a month and our payment on the first mortgage alone is more than $2,400 a month. Not only do we survive on this, we reduce debt – and we’ve been doing it for two years.

Forgive me for being callus, but if you can’t survive on $3,600 a month after paying a mortgage, there’s a bigger problem than the mortgage.

BUT, I’m trying to change my paradigm and reduce the judgmental side of my personality. Do you need more than $3,600 to survive after your mortgage is paid? If so, why? (Not counting any medical problems or child care. The guy didn’t have medical problems and didn’t pay for child care)

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