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End of the Month Updates

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Today is the last day if I want to put more money towards our savings account. I had wanted to get to $2,500 by the end of this month. Unfortunately, it isn’t going to happen. In fact, as the clock clicks closer to midnight, it’s become clear that I won’t be able to put any more money towards our savings for a while.

My husband’s temporary job has hit a lull and he didn’t have any work last week and he only had eight hours the week before. That was bringing in around $1,000/month when he was working the max hours/week on a project. It hurts to see it drying up. It should start back up again shortly once his boss has the time to get him going on another project. But his boss is a busy, busy man and now we are at his mercy.

I also thought we were going to get a refund this year from our taxes. I was very wrong. This is the first year where we do not qualify for the earned income credit and man…that hurt. The withholding on my job is actually taking out more than it should and I thought it would cover the smaller jobs that my husband is doing and the income from this blog. I still have to finalize the numbers and file so I’m not sure of the exact damage yet. It’s definitely in the hundreds range and thankfully not in the thousands.

Then, there is the major financial setback. Again, I am still finalizing that one and when I know more I’ll give more information. This one will add to our debt load.

There is a lot here that isn’t good news. That’s life, and there are bound to be bad times. We had a great 2006 with paying off our debt and if it means we have to take a few steps backwards before we start heading forward again, so be it. It adds to the fuel to get my idea from the other day going.

At this point, I’m not sure what else I can do.

Lessons to Learn from Mae Laborde

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I’ve never heard of 97 year-old Mae Laborde before today. She was highlighted in a Yahoo article and I couldn’t help but smile the entire time I was reading it. What an amazing woman.

Mae Laborde via Yahoo.com.

There’s much to be said about life and what you can do with it. Since this is a personal finance blog, I’ll highlight a tidbit related to finance I found in the article:

“A Girl Scout leader for her daughter’s troop, she has kept in touch with most of her daughter’s friends. Now in their 70s, they’ll ask her for secrets to living a long life. She’ll tell them to never retire.

When she was 89 Laborde took a police training course just for fun, and she still cooks for herself, paints and raises tomatoes in her garden that she sells to a local restaurant.”

A police training course when she was 89? She’s amazing.

I’m still smiling…what more can I say?