Cash Money II

David Cook, David Cook, David Cook.

OMG!! 95 million votes and 10 of them were mine. Yes I said it. I voted. And when Simon and all the others started talking about how great the other David was, I voted more.
He won by 12 million votes. He won by 25% it wasn't even close.
Susie, do not mess with me...I know talent.

Okay, focus. MONEY.
Where were we....we were talking about our budget. We are down to a ridiculous amount of money and we have only paid like 5 bills.

Lets get going. We are down to $38,000 dollars with most of the fix expenses.
So now I broke down some of the other random once a year expenses.



$38,000
Miscellaneous
Real estate tax 3,500
Financial advice 1,600
Termite bond 500
Home owners association 200
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32,100


I know there is probably more stuff but this is what I could think about off the top of my head.
I pay for financial advice because I don't know doo doo about prime rates or if prime plus a point is good. Or if I pay 3 points and only pay this percentage rate for the loan.
Or if I should pay down my mortgage or my student loan first. Or blah, blah, blah. I can try to keep my dentistry under control and let this guy pick the best malpractice insurance for me. Or read the fine print on my flood insurance.
Termite bond...just try to do without it in Florida.

Now lets go over the once a month bills

$31,100
Cable 25 For basic cable (because I can't afford the good
stuff. You laugh but I am about to show you)
Pest Control 30 For the inside of your house, ie roaches, big ones
Weed Control 60 Can't do without it in Florida
Pool Chemicals 15
Alarm 25
Telephone 120
home
cell
Electric 175 I laugh at $175 now
Water and trash 50
Kids college fund 250 This is for 2 kids, I am hoping one of the
three doesn't make it.
=============================================
22,100

Now we have 22,100 left.
This breaks down into $1842 a month.
Well lets eat. $1842

What are our non fixed costs.
Gas (before the hike) $175
Food (2 adults, 2 kids) 450
Man is it going fast
How about Entertainment?
Going to dinner with the family
or the friends or just with the wife.
What about just going to a Magic game
(just so you know, lower bowl tickets
distal to the foul line are $100 a piece)
or a Gator game. How about the movies?
How about a concert? $300

Do you bring your lunch to work?
You are a doctor...you have money to
eat out everyday, don't you?
$10-15 per day. $250-375
Miscellaneous
How about presents?
You get invited to a wedding. Your
daughters birthday (don't mind the
party with the bounce house and the
clown). How about Christmas?
Easter? $150-1000

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+517 to -458

Don't forget you are the big doctor now. You get invited to everything. One time I got invited to a wedding and I had no idea who these people were. My wife was a friend of a friend of the bride.
So if you get invited to a wedding you are screwed. You either have to go and bring a gift or if you don't go you still are required (by some unwritten law) to send a gift.
I get invited to about 5 high school graduations a year and about 3 college graduations a year.
At Christmas time the list of people that we buy for is ridiculous. I have cousins coming out the woodwork.
I get asked to sponsor band, theaters, walk-a-thons, relays, water polo, EVERYTHING. This has to come out of the budget.
Don't get me wrong. I love that people think of me. I am blessed beyond belief and I like giving. But....

We make $150,000 a year and on a good month we have $500 left over (and on a bad month we are flat broke).

Now what have we NOT talked about?

Cars,
who has money for a car payment. Let alone have money for a Mercedes or a sports car.
For the record, I have a 7 year old Ford F-150 truck. I love it. But I do get to feeling a little small when I roll up to a study club and I have the only American made car there. The parking lot looks like a luxury car dealership.
Boats.
What? Are you kidding me? Some of these boats I see are so sweet but...$40,000 for a boat. I can't even afford my truck and mini-van.
Jewelry.
Where is the BLING BLING?
Rolex, Tag, Rado, Raymond Weil. Don't tell me you don't notice people's wrist.
Dude you make $150,000, you can afford a cool watch. OH NO YOU CAN'T (and it sucks).
How about a vacation?
You are just scrapping by, you can't take time off.
What about fine art in the house?
Garage sales dude.
But the most troubling thing for me was....
I had no money to buy a practice.
How on earth was I suppose to save up to buy the one thing that might help me move up in the earning bracket?

Very depressing. I am sorry.
So trust me there was some serious fight at the Gammichia house about money.
Honey we make ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS, what do you mean we don't have any money.
"You went to the stupid Magic game with your stupid friends and now we don't have any stupid money!"
"Well you had to go and buy that stupid purse. Like you need another stupid purse"
Have you been there?
I am laughing just thinking about it.

I have a lot of thought on this but let me stop there.
I will sum it all up next week. Like I want to talk about priorities. And how if you look at my checkbook you can see what kind of guy I am.
If you look at the things I refuse to get into debt over, you can see my character.
I want to talk to you about debt and how going to work with debt is different than going to work debt free.
Imagine life without debt. I can but it takes discipline people.
I have to stop. We will get into some tough talk next week.

Memorial Day on Monday.
It is a special day for me (not because I have lost anyone in the armed services) because I love this country.
I thank God for all the men and woman who paid the ultimate sacrifice for MY freedom.

Have a great weekend,
I might or might not be able to write on Monday.
I am going to Miami for family stuff and a Marlins game.
Then we have a graduation party on Monday (see what I mean) afternoon.
john