Thursday, May 5, 2011

The Good Life

I'm sitting here on the couch watching my cat stretch his soul all over my red rug. Not a care in the world besides the number of birds teasing him through the window panes, the timeliness of his meals, and if he gets a good scratch behind the ear.

I've had an unfortunate trait since I was a small child. It's the fast forward syndrome. I've always been looking ahead, looking forward to the next stage of my life. The problem started in middle school, became more of a disease in high school, and settled into a comfortable prognosis in college. My mom would advise me to live in the present, don't wish your life away.

Well, in case you are wondering, I have an excellent life. I live in one of the best states, in one of the best countries in the world. I have a killer best friend, who stands by me as we face our goals, trials, and joys. I come from a solid family who taught me how to love. In an uncertain economy, we are blessed to have jobs that provide us with more than we need. I was raised in a powerful faith to know who I am, where I came from, and where I can go. I have an education from one of the best universities in the country. I am healthy.

But, I still sometimes get so excited when I think about the future that I have a difficult time focusing on the present. Right now, Cory and I are feverishly paying off his student loans so that we can begin saving for our first home. We are very anxious to be in our first house that is ours. We will be finished paying off our student loans and couch loan soon. We were originally saving less than 25% of our income. However, as our self control and income have increased, we have been able to increase our savings to around 37%. I'm hoping this month we can save 42%. It feels good to live on much less than what we earn.

My point is that we will be finished paying off the loans and our couch in mid July! I am unbelievably excited. Then, after that, we would like to save up 3 months of living expenses by the end of November. After that, the goal is to save up 20% down for a house.

Meanwhile, although we are not quite ready to start having children, it is exciting to think about getting closer to that stage. We are feeling more mature, more financially fit, and more rooted in our relationship to take that step. It won't be for a while longer, but in a couple years I will hopefully be in the stage that I think will be the most fun--getting to stay home with our kids.

So, can you blame me for loving the present but getting excited for the future? We will be debt free this summer. After that, all the money we save will be like paying ourselves. Which is totally awesome.

In other news, do you ever have recurring dreams? When I was a kid, I had lots of nightmares. It got to the point that my mom kept a miniature baby mattress next to her bed for me to sleep on when I came down in the night. I think I am cursed to always have school dreams. I recently had a dream I often have. I'm in a class in college/high school and I never attend the class, take any of the tests, do the homework, etc. During the dream, I am cursed to stress the entire time about how on earth I am going to get an A in the class. I start worrying about how "I've never failed a class! How could I have let this happen without noticing! This is so irresponsible..." It's always a major relief when the dream is over. Nerd alert!

And...tomorrow is Friday! Let's hope the Mavericks continue to perform because it keeps Cory happy.

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