Freedom From Debt

I have always been a little OCD with it comes to money. I always know how much I have in my checking account at any given moment and have never over drafted my account. I have all my automatic payments memorized so much to the fact that I have to write them all down for Becca so she would know what was going on if something happened to me. I have written posts in the pasts about paying down debt in the form of Becca’s wedding ring. This time it’s her car that we have recently paid off. The thing is paying off debt is one of the most rewarding things we can do. It’s not easy and there will always be choices of where to take the money from but once it’s done it just feels so darn good. As of July 16th, 2010 the only debt Becca and I have is my student loans. No credit cards, car payments, or 90 day interest free purchases. Some of you may know that on August 1st I will start working for Brookside Church here in BG. I have felt a calling to this work for some time and because Becca and I have been diligent with our finances and budgeting I now have the opportunity to leave a good paying job and take a step of faith to work for Brookside (and yes they are paying me to just not as much as my current position). If we had credit cards bills or even a nicer apartment I simply would not be able to follow my calling. The point I am getting at is debt and living above your means are like GIANT HANDCUFFS! People hear the word “budget” and think that they will never be able to do anything fun or have nice things. I hear budget and I think I can golf, buy a video game, take Becca on a date and know that we can afford it and there will be no guilt spending that money. If you are up to your eye balls in debt or simply can’t be trusted with a credit card it may be time to take a serious look at your financial situation. Websites like Mint.com can be great but ultimately it comes down to making some difficult choices and having self control. I hope this post encourages you that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and know that the freedom from debt is one of the biggest weights that can be lifted!

Yes I'm Siskel, yes I'm Ebert....

It’s fun to try new things right? I think so! There for I am unveiling my first “So This Is Life” movie review. This weekend I saw the new Robin Hood with some friends. I will say I was extremely excited as one of my all time favorites was Gladiator and RH paired Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott together again. Maybe it was unfair to go in and expect that kind of awesomeness again, but I did. I was certainly let down. However, that’s not to say this wasn’t a good movie. I definitely enjoyed it. Good acting, fairly interesting story line, and good actions scenes. These are the makings for any good movie in my opinion. Overall I would give it a B and because the BG mall only charges 4.50 a person I certainly wasn’t angry I spent the money. If you are expecting another academy award winner you certainly won’t be getting that but as I said a solid B movie (On a scale from A-F).


It should be noted my favorite Robin Hood is still

We're men, we're men in tights, tight tights...

12 Months Interest Free

It was one year ago this month that I bought Becca’s engagement ring. It certainly was not cheap but in the “worlds eyes” it was probably just a drop in the bucket. This was easily the biggest purchase I had ever made and I needed to finance the ring because I obviously did not have the money to pay for it up front. Now there is something you need to know about me, I HATE debt. I never had a credit card all through college and I operated on the theory that may seem crazy but if I didn’t have the money for something I didn’t buy it. I know shocking! I just hate the idea of owing money that I don’t have. So it would seem odd that I would finance an entire engagement ring. However, in this situation the extremely generous people at Kay Jewelers are just so kind [sarcasm] that they are willing to giving you 12 months interest free! Obviously there is quite a bit of fine print in this deal. The thing most people fail to realize in a situation like this is if I missed a payment, was late on a payment, or failed to pay my minimum payment the friendly folks at Kay would then apply interest to the account at 22% and also apply the interest to principal already paid! Great deal for them because odds are a 22 year old buying a ring in the middle of a recession will slip up once over 12 months. Well luckily I never did and as of today April 15, 2010 I am no longer in debt with Kay Jewelers and because I never messed up I did not pay one cent of interest on a several thousand dollar purchase! Like I said I HATE debt but I LOVE an interest free loan even more! Sorry Kay you couldn’t make 22% off this guy but something tells me you are doing just fine.

*Though I poke fun at the people at Kay they actually have been amazing to work with and the people in their store are really awesome! Sure they work on commission but just learn to say no thanks to what you do not need and you’ll have a great experience.

Here is a picture of both of our rings from our wedding both furnished by Kay. Mine was a bit cheaper!



Photo by Love is Greater Photo

I only make $1,500 a week...Part 2

I must say that if you have not read part 1 on this story you will be a bit lost.

At that we continue…

When we arrive at the apartment the young women and I enter and began to talk about the different features of the apartment and I began to discuss the application and approval process. She began say that the reason she works where she does is so that she can take care of her two kids during the week. I asked another personal question as to whether she was receiving any child support for either child (as that would factor into the approval process for the apartment). She responded that both of this children had “deadbeat dads” and she was on her own to take care of her children. She then said that because she stripped and only worked the weekends it allowed her act as a stay at home mom and spend tons of time with her two children. This is where I really began to see this young woman in a different light. She was asking all of the same kinds of questions that any other mom would such as school district, safety, and noise at night. She was just another person who is doing her best to take care of her kids. I then realized that she was a mom that happened to be a stripper and not a stripper that had a couple of kids. She was doing her best to give her kids everything they needed and for her dancing for men was how she was managing to do that now. It was at this point where I was able to treat this young woman no different than any other person who walked in my door. It did certainly break my heart that this woman had to dance for a bunch of horney dudes to feed her family and I couldn’t imagine the way that must play on the way she views herself. But she was doing what she had to do. As we left the apartment into the snow storm I had a new respect for my prospective tenant and we entered my car talking about our childhoods and growing up in Toledo. My back window was snow covered but because we were just on property I did not think anything of it and I believed there was no car behind me. I backed out slowly and bumped into the car behind me. As the kids are saying “fail”. The young women concerned asked if what I wanted her to do and I told her to sit tight to check for damage (fortunately a 1MPH crash causes no damage). We made our way up to the office and chatted a bit more as she waited for her ride to come get her. I couldn’t help but want to get her a job doing anything else but I knew that this was the choice she had made and one she was obviously committed to. I told her good luck and have not seen her again.

This whole story has made me really reflect on what we put weight on in our culture. That a woman can make my monthly salary in a weekend for taking off her clothes at a bachelor party. That she was forced to make this choice as it was either feed her children or let them go hungry. And finally I realized that I will never have a snap judgment of a woman like this again as there are so many things that I am not aware of and have no right to ever look down on someone for the way they provide for their family. I do hope this woman can find some other way to do but it is not my place to worry or suggest. I am here to just be a smile and offer answers about the apartment community…

The whole experience brought an old song to mind.

Check it out, I think you know where I am going with this.

I only make $1,500 a week... PART 1

Me: Baby I backed into a car today at work and umm I kinda had a stripper in the car...
Becca: Haha quit lying!
Me: [silence]...I should probable explain huh?
Becca: I think so...

Gotta love conversations around the dinner table! This happens to be one Becca and I had back in mid February. I guess I should probably clear up this conversation before you get the wrong idea just as my wife did. I work at an apartment complex and had a women come in for a tour on one of the days where it just snowed and snowed. As with most people I ask them if they are working or in school this particular young lady responded with work. I then asked where she was working. After a few moments of silence I got “I work for a company…” I could tell there was something up so I responded with “I work for a company to, what do you do for this company”. She looked at me and must have been deciding whether she should be honest or not and responded with “well this company kinda sends dancers to parties to well uhhh strip…” This literally had about a thousand of thoughts in my head instantly but the one that came through most was do not let this young women think you are judging her [she was obviously worried about that otherwise she would have just come out and said she strips for a living]. I said “ok so do you make pretty good money?” She then responded with “well I only work Saturday and Sunday so I only make around 1,500 a weekend.” The key word there is ONLY! I informed her she would most certainly quality income wise and we proceeds to discuss her different apartment options. As we went to head out of the office into the blizzard like conditions I informed her she could follow me over to the model apartment and that I was in the gold Buick. It is important to note that I NEVER take people in my car with my on tours. It is actually against our company policy and if they do not have a car we are supposed to walk to the model unit [it can be a long walk as we have a 32 acre property]. Today though I was not going to walk in the middle of this weather and asked the women if she would be comfortable riding with me to which she responded “of course” and she ran and jumped in my front seat. At that we began our drive over to the apartment in the silent car.

This is where the story gets interesting!

I will continue with what happened once we got to the model apartment alone, the car crash and my other thoughts in a blog post to follow later. Don’t tell me you are not interested at this point!

Lost a lease...Saved a marriage...Or Not...

Divorce is a touchy subject in America. With some rates estimating that 1 in every 2 marriages ending in divorce is easy to see why. Every one of us knows at least one person affected by divorce. Maybe they were the child of divorced parents or even have been divorced themselves. I remember laughing with my mom not too long ago about an episode of “Leave it to Beaver”. Beaver had a friend who spent the night but was dropped off by his uncle. When the parents of Beaver asked the young boy why his uncle dropped him off the boy responded “I live with them now, you see my parents are divorced.” This then created to awkward situation of how to explain to their children the idea of divorce. I remember just laughing and joking with my mom “Will you explain divorce to me mom?”. You see my parents are still married but I was just like everyone else growing up having best friends with divorced parents. This idea seems odd that divorce would need to be explained to anyone anymore. Odd and very sad. The reason I write about this topic is because I had a recent experience at work with a women who was leaving her husband. She was literally crying as she read the lease and was explaining to me that once she signed this it for sure meant that she was done with him as she would be finally moving away [read: uncomfortable moment for the 22 year old newly married leasing agent aka … me]. I just simply said if she was comfortable signing the lease and had any doubt certainly do not sign it. She read on and eventually told me she could not sign it and she had to call and talk with her husband one last time to make sure that this was not going to work. I was thinking I would gladly loose a lease and a commission if it saved yet another married on the rocks. I encouraged her to talk with her husband and take any means necessary to reconcile. She left and I felt strongly that for some reason her marriage might work out. Unfortunately I will for sure be moving in that same young women tomorrow. I obviously did not ask for details but apparently that conversation did not go well. It really broke my heart. Here is a woman who obviously still has strong feelings for this man [other wise she would not have had so much anguish over signing the lease] but yet she is still leaving him. I know I have only been married for 4 months now. I claim to be no expert and I realize Becca and I are really just getting into marriage. But I still don’t understand divorce. This post is more just about my heart breaking over the issue. There are so many men and women that have massive amounts of hurt and anger as well as baggage that they are forced to take with them from relationship to relationship because of divorce. This blog has no answer to divorce and I am not going to sit here on a high horse and claim no divorce is warranted. I just had to write it down my thoughs as I have not been able to stop thinking about the women who sat and cried in my office because she was now leaving her husband. Because of this my heart breaks...

I dont wanna grow up I wanna be a toy-r-us kid!

Life has been…well… uneventful lately. I am a person who through college was constantly doing something. Even going back to high school I was involved in everything I could be [read: sucked at sports so I had nothing else to do]. Life has really calmed down for me lately. My weeks used to be filled by several different meetings or hanging out with a different friend and I guess there was some school in there to. Now my life pretty much consists of the same old routine. Get up go to work, come home eat dinner, spend time with Becca, watch TV, go to bed. Then the next day it starts all over! It is a pretty tough transition the “adult” life style. And it should be noted if this is the only life style and adult can live you can count on me never fully becoming an “adult”. For the most part to be completely honest I am bored! Now don’t get me wrong I love hanging out with Becca and really enjoy our time together. But I am now living a life that looks really different from the one I used to live! In this environment I am constantly coming up with new idea on what I might want to do with my life. One day its work for a church and the next its being a property manager for the company I currently work for. To be honest if I could leave it all now and do what I wanted I would take Becca and move somewhere and work for a young but strong church in whatever role they would have me. The problem is that is not really an option as I do not have churches beating down my door asking to employee me. So for not I will enjoy this time in life where Becca and I learn more about each other, marriage, and how to be a better partner. I thank God for the job I have and try and be content in the fact that this is where he has the Flacks for now. I stress the for now part of that last sentence. Some people look forward to this life style after college but I am not one of them. So for now I will certainly enjoy it and make the best of it. But that is because I know eventually I will break out of this routine and on that day rest assured you will get a nice new blog post!


Becca and I love this picture. It makes me think that we are looking out at the world and we have no idea whats going to happen but were ready to go together.