In the latter half of 2010, I was somewhat angsty about our financial conditions. I was kind of angry, kind of stressed, and kind of feeling trapped in my current situations. So I decided to go back to school, to make myself the most appealing-looking journalism prospect the world has ever seen. And then, I decided to apply for a job at the Tribune and now here I am. Still poor, but at least the ends are meeting, or they aren't so distant from one another.
But, one of the biggest lessons that I learned in 2011 was that there is no sense being stressed over something you can't control. And to not try to control everything. I needed to learn that it was not my job to get Kelly get a job. I needed to learn to give up life's luxuries, and really be OK with that. I needed to learn that even though I took home a paycheck, it doesn't entitle me to anything more than the other person in my family.
But, now, it is nearly 2012, and we are armed with all the right things. I feel good about my employment. I feel good about continuing school. Kelly is licensed and searching for jobs. He is also finishing up school, and earning his bachelor's.
So we made the resolution in 2012 to work on getting out of debt and managing money better. (But student loans/house doesn't count.) Since I hope to God that 2012 will inevitable bring Kelly a higher paying job than I have, we can really aggressively target the credit cards, the little loans we've had to borrow from family, and pay off my car. Hopefully that won't take too long (we don't really have that much debt, but it will be a relieving feeling) and then we can focus on building our savings so that we can buy a second car, (the green machine finally died) add the concrete porch to our yard that we dug out last year, and maybe even go on a vacation.
I can just feel it -- 2012 is going to be a better, brighter year for the Millers!
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