Welcome!

For the past couple of years, my husband and I have been scrambling to find a way to convey to our only child just how lucky we are.

We can put food on our table and not have to choose between groceries or medicine to do it.  We keep her and ourselves well clothed and have some money left over to do the things we want to do on a regular basis.  Honestly, we live very happy, fulfilled and comfortable lives.

And because we'd like to continue to do so, we save everything we can for retirement while also trying to plan for her college expenses and make sure we cover all our bases by also popping savings where we can for an emergency fund.  In short, we try to plan ahead for the worst case scenario while also living well in the present.

But we want our daughter to understand why we do this:  that we both grew up knowing what having a whole lot less felt like, sometimes all too closely for too many people in our own families.  That you have to plan, be careful with your money, work hard, and also that with this life you also have a responsibility to give back to folks in need in your own community and beyond.

It's a lot to explain to an 8 year old.  Frankly, it's a lot for two adults to wrangle as well.

So this blog is our attempt to wrestle with our own financial issues.  For example:

-- We'd like to get a better handle on our spending, so that when retirement comes, we will be living comfortably while spending well under our income level.  That will allow us to stretch our retirement dollars a lot further, and to perhaps do a little of the traveling we always say we want to finally have time to do.


-- We'd like to also spend less in order to have more to give to groups in our community that could use more of a hand.  Where we can shave off some expenses, we want to give to our local humane society, to groups that work with women and families in crisis, to our daughter's school, and to a whole host of other groups.  And we want our daughter to not only see us do this, but to come to understand why it is important to us and to those we seek to help.  We want her to understand why we all have a responsibility in our own communities to extend a hand wherever we can.

-- We want to teach our child how to budget, to save for her own future, and why not spending money like it is water is such a great habit to nurture from the start.

There are a whole lot of other reasons this is important for us.  I'm sure we'll talk about them along the way.  But for now?  Let's just say that we are hoping to lead a more sensible (or cents-ible) life going forward, and to teach our child to do the same.

We hope you'll join us on the journey.

(Photo by Christy Hardin Smith.)