Weight Loss and Money

Today started the first day of my diet. Well at least that is what my wife and my employees at my Peoria store told me. I know you are probably thinking that you would never tell your boss to go on a diet. Well they did not really tell me to go on a diet they just told me I was going to be in a contest with the rest of the office. I have 9 employees in the store and they all decided to go on a 8 week diet to see who could lose the most. If you looked at the folks in my office you would quickly come to the realization that it would not be a fair contest if I really put my heart into it. Most of the folks in my office are women, and most have like 10 pounds tops that they could actually lose. I on the other hand have a fair amount of weight that I could shed. So it makes perfect sense that I would want to lose weight. I am traveling to Hawaii to show off my body in 8 weeks, there is $180 as a prize, and I could get back to my old studly self of my college days. I guess I should put some effort into this. I think start by going eat some pretzels and cheese. FYI - The picture has absolutely nothing to do with my blog but it seemed like the right picture to post in this situation.

The Money Trap

Over the last two months I have spent most of my weekends working on a house that I am currently selling. During this time I have, painted almost everything, fixed 3 windows, put in a new vanity, refinished the upstairs bathroom, refinished the hardwood floors in our front room, fixed my wives and my own closet door, re plastered a ceiling that had water damage, fixed the ceiling on our porch, replaced all the gas lines in the house, fixed a broken water line, and repainted and resealed all the windows on our front porch. I still have on my list fixing our oven and replacing the fan belt for our house fan. (Both which recently broke) The silly part about it all is that my house is looking "great". Its to bad that I didn't do all this while I was still planning on living in it.

My tip of the day, don't wait to make those improvements to your house until you are selling it. Make them now so you can enjoy them!

You have a problem!

My wife while I was driving my family home from Springfield yesterday told me that "you have a problem in life, and its me"

The funny part about this line is that she was not joking, she realized sitting next to me in the car that she can be a pain in the butt! I figured a moment like this is worth writing down.

Work, Family, and Money

So in my life it seems that I am stuck in a constant struggle to accomplish the goal of being a good father and husband. In my head it seems that to be a good father and husband it means that I need to provide for the needs of my family. I want to see my child go to college. I want to raise him in a great house and neighborhood. I want to see what is out there in the world and to take my wife and family on great vacations. I want to provide all the comforts that come with the "American Dream". Yet as I spend my days working hard at a corporate job to climb that ladder of success, I find myself working even harder to get myself back home. When 4p.m. roles around each day I let my mind race at the idea of trying to go home early and still get enough work done that I would not fall behind tomorrow. It just doesn't make sense. I mean I left a job that I only had to work 35 hours a week to a new job that I need to put in 60 hours a week. This new jobs comes with a bigger pay check and more benefits so that I can financially take better care of my family, but at what cost? I mean I spend get to spend 2800 hours a year away from my family working hard to climb that corporate ladder. To accomplish the goal of making a company that I work for lots of money so that my bosses can all give themselves raises and my CEO can get a 8 million dollar bonus this year instead of a 7 million like last year. I keep thinking to myself that in the end after I put in my 40 - 60 years of work, retire, and hopefully make enough to feed my wife and I until we die is it really worth it?

I guess in the end it all comes down to a few simple things.

1. Life is about more than your job (in the end even if you put in 40 years your company will throw you a 2-3 hour party and say thank you for all your hard work, that very next morning you will be replaced and in a few years no one will even remember you worked there).

2. Money is paper that buys you items made out of byproducts of oil.

3. What really matters is who is waiting at home for you at night (if no one is waiting there for you then its time to make some drastic changes)

4. Life is a struggle to work hard to get home early so you don't miss out on your family.