Where will you be in one year? How about 5 or 10? They ask you this when you interview for college, when you interview for a job, the bookies ask when you place a bet at the sports book (ok, just kidding Vegas hasn't changed us that much). This has been The Big Topic at the E household for months now, and from the sounds of it at the W and R households, too.
When we first moved to LV it was a fairly random decision based on money, fun, being sick of snow, and did I mention money? We had the "Five-Year Plan," which wasn't really a plan but it sounded good. In our fantasy we would own a "3 bdrm 2.5bth central a/c 2-car gar w/pool GOTTA SEE IT" within, oh, 6 months. Just thinking back on that makes me laugh hysterically, only...here we are 3 years later and it's not so funny. Reality hit the first time we pulled into one of the 5 billion new construction developments in LV. The houses were of decent size and the community was gated (being newbies in LV, we thought that was tres chic only to find out that even trailer parks here are "gated."). When the salesperson asked my occupation and I said I was a vet, his eyes lit up and he went into the spiel about how these homes would be perfect for us. And they were. Again, being newbies at this whole game we were suitably impressed with all of the upgrades, not realizing that the actual basic house would look more like an Army barracks than the episode of "Cribs" that was presented. But I digress. Long story short, visions of granite counters and built-in barbecues danced in our heads ...until they whipped out the price sheet. Holy. Crap. (substitute your own epithet here).
So we re-grouped. We made plans to "save some money" and figured we'd have enough for a down payment in a year or so. And then, of course, life intervened: The jobs for TH were slim pickins for a while, after a few months The Dreaded Vet School Student Loans (also known as Dark Lord Bloodsucker, my archenemy) kicked in, I started to realize just how many hours of work at My Former Job were required to keep up with the cost of living here, J was conceived, health issues sprang up from out of the woodwork....and here we are. Still renting at 30, with no end in sight. We make "good money." We don't have credit cards anymore. Our bills are paid on time. But when a 20% down payment on an average house around here can run almost $60,000, well, you do the math.
So, the dilemma. Life is good and we are definitely blessed, don't get me wrong. But as usual the future is pretty murky. It seems like every year we're saying, "maybe next year we'll finally settle down and have an idea of where we're headed." And then another year rolls around and we're still on the road, but we haven't figured out the destination. Do we stay here for a few more years? Is it time to end the Great Desert Experiment and hightail it back to Colorado? Is this how it always is, you make plans to make more plans? When do you get to a point where you stop waiting to exhale and you frigging exhale, already? Sigh...Maybe I should consult the Magic 8 ball...
Practice makes perfect
14 years ago
2 comments:
Ahhhhh yes! The five year question. Well, I never in my wildest dreams envisioned us living in LV, let alone purchasing a house. Alas, j was born and the game changed. You can't just pick-up & move like you once did. Ish takes alot of time, thought process, and planning (if you know what I mean). You can't just slide in & out of statess like you do "the good stuff" (if you know what I mean). So you begin to plan about making the "great escape," but you think about the jobs you & the wifey have, the time (or lack thereof) you have with one particular job. You think about insurance (best believe you have to have insurance if you have a family, homeslice). Then time goes on and before you know, BAMMMMMMM, 3 years are in and about to be 4. And all thought was discussed and planned don't mean ish, because you can't plan for the unexpected. Take life as it comes, that's what I say. All things in due (is that do as in "just do it," take the plung and set up roots in LV or pay your dues as in patience grasshopper, patience) time people. This comment is turning into a blog and we simply cannot have that. Trust in God and leave everything to him. Why? Because there are too many things that we are not in control of than things we are. Though we all want to be at "that point," truth is once you reach one plateau, you begin looking immediately at the next "thing" that you/he/she/we desire to accomplish. Okay, for real though, I going to stop "monopolizing (her) blog." That is a direct quote, people. No lie. Peace.
Like you said, this is one of those questions that we seem to be asking ourselves all the time lately, though I will say that for the first time in a few years we feel really settled, and it's good. After LD lost his job with United, the future seemed not only bleak but really scary, and it was like standing on the edge of cliff getting ready to tumble off. But this year has seen the fruition of a couple of years of hard work that is paying off, and we feel really fortunate. LD has his new career and I have mine, we are in a good place financially, and we feel ready for the next five years. What's funny is that even with the ups and downs, we're basically where we thought we would be. Ten years ago when we got married, we talked a lot about what we would do and what we wanted, and we've accomplished pretty much everything we planned. The details may be different, but the outcome is the same. We wanted two kids (check), a house (check), stable jobs that we enjoy (check), good friends (check), maybe some fun and vacation once in a while (check). Five years from now? Who knows? I want my children to be healthy and growing and exploring life (and they will be nearly teenagers *shudder*), my marriage to be strong, my job to be stable, and my bills mostly paid. And that's it.
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