After reading Dave Ramsey’s book,The Total Money Makeover, my wife and I decided to do something about our finances. We started attending The Financial Peace University (a friend lent us their copy of the program), made a budget, started quickly, and thought we were off to the races.

We completed baby step #1, which tells you to save $1,000 cash as fast as you can. We did that and immediately proceeded to Step #2 - Start the Debt Snowball by Jabbing (Paid Twice calls it snowflaking). This is the step that we are currently on, and where, the weather turned nasty.

In addition to trying to get our finances in shape, I decided it would be a good idea to get my body in shape as well. As luck would have it, my church was forming a Softball League. What fun, or so I thought. Someone should have reminded me that I am not 18 years old and I cannot do the things I used to do. The first few weeks were not that bad; a slightly pulled hamstring the first game with a sore shoulder thrown in for good measure. Other than these minor issues, things were going well, until Wednesday night.

Boy did I mess things up then! In reaching back to capture my youth again, I decided it would be a good idea to dive on a ball hit up the middle. Wow, did I look smooth! I fielded the ball so nicely, scrambled quickly to my knees, and fired a strike to first base. You should have seen me! Unfortunately, you could have just as easily heard the loud POP coming from my right knee.

Being the hard-headed middle-aged man that I am, I played the rest of the game. I even hit a nice shot into the left field alley and hobbled my way to a long single. I figured that with a few days of rest, coupled with absolutely no physical activity, I would be fine. I could not have been any further from the truth had I tried.

My knee is killing me. I cannot walk up any stairs without wincing and my 30-pound son feels like a champion sumo wrestler. The swelling has gone done, but I am almost sure something is torn. My internist was closed today, and I have meetings all day tomorrow, so I will have to wait until Tuesday to get it looked at.

I am just so upset with myself. If something is actually torn, it will mean thousands of dollars diverted from our debt reduction plan into some doctor’s club house dues (not that I blame the doctors for our current medical system).

Unfortunately, my insurance plan is absolutely terrible. My former employer, a Big 4 Accounting Firm, had the best insurance in the world (IMO). My wife had 2 surgeries and my son, all for the cost of the weekly co-pay ($20). My new insurance (with my current employer) has a higher deductible and a maximum out-of-pocket of $3,500 per year.

We are scheduled to receive our economic stimulus package within the next few days. It should be around $1,500. Should we hold onto this money for a few more weeks to see what happens with my knee, or should we proceed with our plan of playing down our debt with it?

I would love to hear your opinions on this!

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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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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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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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I stumbled across a website today, however, that tells you what your page rank is. I have to admit, I was suddenly interested. I have almost zero technical skills when it comes to the internet. I do not even know how to promote this blog. SEO? Might as well be Japanese! I have had this blog for only 2 months and I have done absolutely nothing to promote it and it receives almost no traffic. With these things in mind, I was pretty happy with a Page Rank of 2.

Now that I actually have a Page Rank, I want a better one, but I really do not know how to increase it. I would appreciate any help you could provide in this matter. I would love to get a few thousand visitors a day. Anyone?

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