- We met Dan Morehead this weekend. He is a friend of a friend and he is a professional fisherman. I was pretty incredulous when my friend told me this. "You mean he gets PAID to fish??" Yep, in fact he does. I'm sure there are plenty of people who would love to quit their job and get paid to fish. This is one man (among many, apparently) who have done just that. I love it when I see people living their dreams. Amazing!
- I saw this article in the paper yesterday (actually the online version of the paper because it's free) and thought back to when we were in that position. As we learned and they learned, in order to get out of debt you have to: radically change your lifestyle and spending habits, pay cash for everything, and realize that if you can't afford to pay cash for something, you can't buy it. Simple, boring tips but they absolutely work!
- I have been working on my new goal list for this year. To date, I have been able to achieve a few of the goals absolutely free. One of my goals was to go to the Medieval Times restaurant which we have never been to. At this point, I really didn't want to spend $50 per person on dinner, but it just so happens that they were having a two for one special and when I told the hubby that I wanted to go there for my birthday, my SIL overheard me and said she would pay for it. A fun, interesting goal completed for free! Another goal was to watch ten TED talks which I did for free online (they have some truly amazing speakers!) here. I also want to read a classic novel each month so I downloaded the free Kindle e-reader to my computer then downloaded Jane Eyre (also free since many classics are offered at no charge) which I just finished--the book is WAY better than the movie! Finally, I have been watching a Korean soap opera that I only caught a few episodes of a some years back. I thought I would have to rent the entire 35-episode set but fortunately (after looking at many websites that either didn't play the videos or weren't complete) I was able to find it here where I can watch the whole series for free (complete with great video quality and very good translation).
- I know a couple of soon to be high school graduates who are still scrambling for college money so I sent them this interesting list of scholarships to apply for.
- Finally, we are debating what to do/where to go next. We are still in Atlanta for another six weeks or so. Our plan was to go to Connecticut next to visit family for a month or two then head back to Seattle before we go to Asia this fall. Unfortunately we are getting a bit tired of being professional "couch surfers" and I really miss having my own place (although getting free rent for four months really can't be beat!). It kind of takes all of the fun out of going on vacation when you are permanently on vacation... So we are trying to weight the pluses and minuses of our decision. If we go to CT we will again get free rent for a month or two which saves a lot of money, on the other hand, we will have to drive to all of the places we want to go there as there is no public transportation where our family lives and the cost of gas in the area is more than $4 a gallon! Plus, since the hubby is the oldest of the clan, it often falls on him to pay for a lot of activities that the family does (I know we can opt out but culturally that is just the way things are) so these would be added expenses. If we go back to Seattle we can get a small apartment until we decided if/when/where to buy another house. The good thing is that this way we will have our own place and get to use a very good public transportation system as well as have more control over our expenses (with the big clan in CT there is always places people want to go so we often find ourselves going to the casinos, nightclubs, shopping, restaurants, heading over to Boston or New York for shopping etc. Hubby is thinking of all of these expenses and cringing).
So that's where we stand now. Plans seem to change on a daily basis around here so who knows where we will end up!
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