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Finding Something You Truly Love

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You have may heard of Chris Gardner. He’s the gentleman who was homeless with a two-year old son and he managed to work his way up and become a very successful business man. His journey was even shared with the world in the movie, “In the Pursuit of Happiness”.

I haven’t seen the movie yet (I’m waiting until it goes to 99 cents at my local video store), but I have watched Chris Gardner in interviews. Something always struck me about him. You hear him talk and you want to listen. I thought it was because of his rags to riches story. But after reading an article on Yahoo today, I think there’s another reason.

Passion

Passion defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary is

Intense, driving, or overmastering feeling or conviction.

Chris Gardner was so intense when he spoke. You could tell that he loved what he accomplished and he loves what he does. He credits everything to one simple thing…passion.

Quoting from the Yahoo article

“Passion is everything. In fact, you’ve got to be borderline fanatical about what you do.” Gardner says he was fortunate to find something he truly loved, something where he couldn’t wait for the sun to rise so he could do it again.

After reading the article, I started thinking about my passions. I had an opportunity to follow one of them, but I let money affect my decision and I didn’t pursue it. I followed dollar signs instead of my heart. Of course, if I followed that passion, my life would be completely different today and I wouldn’t have my husband or son. So I am glad life turned out as it did.

Sometimes, though, when I close my eyes at night I think about that passion and try to brainstorm ways to make it come to life. It would be difficult at this point in my life, but still possible.

If you haven’t already, read the Yahoo article. It is a very good read.

It’s Official, Our Debt Load Has Increased by $1,600

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A while ago, I mentioned that there was a mistake on our 2005 taxes. After fixing it, it showed that we owed over $2,000 to the IRS. I sent as big of a payment as we could at the time (a little over $600), filed the amended return and waited for the official word from the IRS about penalty and interest.

Well, we got word. The total owed is a little over $1,600 and that’s about what I thought it would be. I am also pleased that the interest rate is at 8%. While not the best rate (the best rate is 0%, of course 😉 ), I can live with that.

I still haven’t received information regarding the payment plan that I wanted in place for the debt. I am hoping that information will arrive soon so we can start paying on it. The thought did cross my mind to use a balance transfer check to pay it in full, but I still have that feeling to hold off on doing any balance transfers for a little bit.

The big question is whether I should include it in our credit card debt total. Technically, we are paying back part of a refund that we received. That refund went towards our credit card debt. In a way, I probably should add it back into our credit card debt total. The other thing I could do is track it separately with my NetWorth IQ profile. I still have to think about it some more.

I’m actually glad the bill arrived, because now that we have concrete numbers, I can plug that into a debt reduction calculator and gauge how we are progressing. While this added debt will set us back a little bit, I’m not about to give up trying to meet our goal date of May 2009.