Chasing the Bull

This weekend, my father-in-law and I went mining for Gems in North Carolina. I must admit I had been looking forward to it for a long time. My father-in-law has been interested in geology for the past 30 years, and his enthusiasm has totally captivated me. Needless to say I was excited about the trip.

I did not want to do the whole tourist thing. My original plan was to find a mountain and go exploring. I did not realize that there was more to it than that; a whole lot more. In my ignorance, I believed I would automatically be able to distinguish a gem from a rock. It was a good thing Mel was with me. I would have been extremely frustrated in about 30 minutes.

Mel suggested that we first visit a commercial mine. After looking through our maps (which were from the 1960s no less), we settled on The Cherokee Ruby Mine. What naturally drew me to this mine over any of the others, was the fact that it was not “salted”. This means that you may or may not find any gems. The dirt is not searched and then sprinkled with chips or other such nonsense. Being the adventurer that I am, this appeased my sense of the unknown challenge.

Within 10 minutes, I was thankful for Mel’s expertise. All rocks look like rocks. Heck, all gems look like rocks, unless you know what you are looking for. This is where Cherokee truly shines. The owner is a gentleman named Tony. What an incredibly nice guy! I have never felt so welcomed in my life. Tony takes the time to re-look through all of your stones once you are done to ensure you do not throw away any gems. He found 3 small gems that to me looked like pebbles that I had discarded.

After spending 4 hours, and only $25 total, I left Cherokee really satisfied with my experience. If you are ever in the Franklin, North Carolina area, I highly recommend Tony’s little mine. You will have a great time and will learn a ton about the native gems of North Carolina.

Next Adventure: The place I call Garnet Falls!

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As you know, my wife and I are following Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover Plan. So far, we have cut out a good deal of stupid spending and have concentrated on only buying things that are in our budget. Additionally, as part of Dave’s plan, we are focusing on eliminating our debt. With that in mine, this week I sold some stock in a cash account in which I was testing out some of my investing theories. The proceeds from this sale arrived this morning, and by noon, my wife had deposited the money AND sent a check off for our personal loan.

I have got to tell you that it feels pretty good to have done that. Scratch $5,155 off of our consumer debt. We will never let that happen to us again.

Current Update:
Personal Loan: $2,480.17
Student Loan: $10,368.65

In the next few days I am anticipating our economic stimulus check. Once this arrives, we will apply the $1,500 to our personal loan, which will leave a balance of $980.17. If we make the minimum payment, it will take us just over 2 months to pay that debt off. Then we will attack the student loan.

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In order to get the debt snowball rolling, Dave Ramsey suggests getting a second job. Of all the wonderful suggestions found within his writings, this is the one I have the biggest issue with.

Yes, I have debt. I also have an awesome family, with which, I love to spend my free time. Hanging out with my wife and son each night is truly the highlight of my day. After reading The The Total Money Makeover, I almost feel as if I am letting my family down by not finding a second job. I have also read numerous personal finance blogs that advocate the same thing.

With someone of my credentials, I could easily start a new business and make a decent amount of money rather quickly ($200 an hour would not be out of the question). This would mean I would have to start working on nights and weekends. The problem is that I value my time with my family more than that. This is the reason I took the job that I have now instead of continuing the career path I was on. I traded 100+ hour weeks, for reading Elmo to my son. I traded 200+ nights in a hotel each year, for mowing the grass on a Wednesday night. I traded money for peace and I am sure I made the correct decision.

What would you do if you were me? Would you start a new business, knowing that you could eliminate all of your debt within 12 months, or would you continue to budget and enjoy your rather enjoyable family life?

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