by Randy Dyess
“Ok, Ok. You don’t think we are mistreating Cheyenne and Dakota by downsizing to save money for something that may or may not happen?”
This role reversal was common in the Turner household. Mark often picked up on new ideas and ran with them full steam but quickly lost that steam as he started second guessing himself. Kelly was the opposite. It took her a long time to get started, but once she did, she wouldn’t let it go easy. “No. You said yesterday we were lucky when we were talking about selling the stocks. I think we are lucky in more than those few ways.”
“What do you mean?” Mark asked.
“Well, for one thing, our kids are still young. They are not as spoiled as other kids. I mean, I sit around the spa listening to other mothers complaining about the things their kids do and want. Everyone wants $200 jeans, $500 purses, cell phones which they constantly break or lose and have to be replaced at hundreds of dollars apiece. They even brag about buying their kids cars that cost more than ours. We may be adjusting our kids’ lives down a little. At least we are doing this before they become accustomed to having more than any fifteen year old should ever have. We can thank our parents for that. They basically raised them and kept them grounded. If we had been actually raising them, we would have a couple of spoilt brats. They would drive us crazy about not having the latest smart phone with an unlimited text plan by the time they are ten.”
Mark got into the conversation by adding, “They would also probably be going to a private school somewhere if they were a little older. I know we talked about how the elementary schools were fine for Cheyenne and Dakota now, so we haven’t sent them anywhere else yet. But if they were in middle school or high school they would be in private school. The change from a private school costing tens of thousands of dollars a year to public school would be a big shock. Once again, we can be thankful of where we live as the schools here in Frisco are not really that bad compared to other places.”
“Also,” Kelly took the conversation over, “think about some of the kids’ parties we see being thrown around here. I bet some of those parents are spending thousands of dollars to give a one-year-old a birthday party.”
“I guess you’re right. I am having a little buyer’s remorse about changing things and feeling like we are going ‘backwards’. I have to stop thinking in such a negative way and start thinking that we are just getting back on the track we should have been on all the time.”
“Let’s take the kids to school and then come back and discuss the house and what else we need to do.”
Mark took the kids to school and daycare. Once he came back in the door, he got comfortable with Kelly in the dining room and continued their conversation from earlier in the morning. “Ok. Let’s pick up where we left off this morning.”
They looked at the final numbers from the stock sales and initiated the process to have all the money in their stock accounts sent to their bank accounts. They wanted the money available on a day-to-day basis. They figured this would take the rest of next week. Until they had the money in the bank they would need to verify the amount they owed each time a bill came in. Mark believed they should set up a bank account to put the 15% he thought would be needed to pay taxes from the sale. He said this should be more than what they would need. Because most of the stocks they were selling at a loss compared to what they paid for them, they would pay less taxes. Any money left over in the account after they paid the tax bill next year would be used for future living. The would be a good foundation for having six months or more of living expenses put away should something happen before they were ready.
The Turners also figured they would stop the automatic payment of bills. They wanted to see the bills each month to track their spending better. Both hoped this would keep them on track and neither would go back to the “spend because we think it’s there” lifestyle they were currently on. What Mark and Kelly did not realize was from now on, they would question every purchase. Every time one of them pulled out a card to pay for something they would question both the purchase and the use of a credit card. As they became aware of the amount of credit card interest being paid each month, they started paying cash for items to reduce interest charges. They also hoped paying with cash and not credit would make them start living according to their budget.
Mark and Kelly both knew it would be extremely hard to keep their enthusiasm up for their new financial way of life over the following months. It would be easy to convince themselves they were being stupid and nothing bad would happen. They both knew they needed ways to keep on track and not fall back into old habits. Kelly reminded Mark of his earlier suggestion about removing all cards from their wallets except for a debit card and one emergency credit card. This would leave them with a way to pay for things they needed and a fallback in case some emergency came up. She thought this would keep them from being tempted to fall back on old habits. Kelly also got Mark to agree to set up two new bank accounts where they would transfer a limited amount of money into each month. One account was for Mark and another for Kelly and each would get to use their “allowance” on a few of the luxuries they were used to.
Over time, the amount put into these accounts would be reduced until they had trained themselves not to spend money because money was available. Living on a budget was something they had never done in their lives. Kelly believed the first time one of their cards was denied because the accounts were empty would help to reinforce this agreement and get them back on track. Mark and Kelly also decided they would also set up an account in a different bank to hold the money they needed to pay off their debts. Mark hoped having the money in a different bank would prevent them from transferring the money to one of their current accounts. He hoped this would slow them down and stop them from spending money on something besides paying off debts. He knew most of the debts could be paid off online. He wanted to put the only card they had to access the account in the safe to keep the card out of their hands. They both needed to learn to control themselves a little better than they did today. They agreed the money they saved each month through their cut-backs, saved from the reduction in debt payments, and leftover stock money would go into this account. The card would be used for expenses they would need to get ready for their future way of life. Kelly suggested all bonuses and tax refunds should be put into the account as well. Mark came up with the idea they should wrap the card and the checkbook for this account with pictures of the kids. He was hoping this would slow them down if they were tempted to use the money for something besides the original intention.
“Great,” Mark said. “Now what about the 800lb gorilla in the room we have been ignoring?”
“The house,” Kelly frowned.
“Yeah, the house. Should we sell? Should we keep the house and attempt to pay it off? Should we keep it and not pay it off and just continue making payments?”
“What are the pros and cons of each?” Kelly asked.
Mark thought about it for a moment and started listing off the pros of selling the house. “If we look at this from a financial standpoint and not an emotional standpoint, the pros for selling the house are pretty strong. We don’t need something this big. We could make do with something half the size and not notice the size difference. Cutting the size down by half and not having a house on a golf course or in a fancy subdivision would save us 60-70% in mortgage payments or rent. Selling would also cut the utility bills to about half or more of what we pay on this oversized abode. Selling would save us about $1,000 in monthly homeowner’s fees, maintenance, and other upkeep like the pool maintenance. It would force us to move to a more ‘grounded’ neighborhood and we wouldn’t feel the pressure of owning expensive cars or spending thousands of dollars on birthday parties. Another plus is, if we sold now we might be able to sell the thing and break-even or make a profit. If we wait until the market slows down more we might lose money on the sale. Plus, if the economy starts going down even more we might not even be able to sell the house at all. I know we would be lo
sing money if you think about what we paid for it and the money we have put into it. The days of recovering your costs after selling your house are over. If we make enough to pay the fees and the mortgage off, we will come out way ahead of most people. Many are upside down on their loans and still owe money after they sell.”
“All of your pros sound great to me. Now, what are your cons to selling?” Kelly asked.
“The emotional side of selling our dream house is the biggest con. This is the type of house we always looked at when we drove around while we were in college dreaming of making it big someday. Also, the house is set up perfect for the parties we want to have to acquaint ourselves with family and friends.”
“So the house is a show piece?”
“Yes,” Mark said before he knew he walked into a trap.
“You sure have changed a lot this week,” he told Kelly lovingly.
Kelly smiled and said, “I have. Once you showed me the logic of the error in our ways. My heart flipped and knew something like this house, our cars, or the phony person I had become was not right. I have come around and now believe that as long as I have you, Cheyenne and Dakota, then I am complete.”
Mark smiled and replied, “You are one smart cookie, my love. Then there is no reason not to put the house up for sale, is there? If we can sell it, we move on to something we can always afford or rent something we can afford until we make up our minds about the future.”
“That’s the way I see it. I’ll call a couple of realtors next week and get things started. We can decide on what and where we are going to live once we get an offer on this house.”
“That does it then,” Mark said and started summarizing everything they came up with the last two days. “We have set up a good plan to pay off everything we can. We will sell the house and downsize to a smaller one. We will also start learning to live off what would be half of our current salary. We will also put everything we save, left over from the stock sale into an account to use for the future and not for stupid stuff we don’t need. We will also stop wasting money on car leases and buy something outright we can keep if money becomes tight. We cancel our vacation this year and use the money to prepare for the future. We do one of those ‘staycations’ that everyone talked about a few years ago.”
“I’m a little scared, nervous, and a lot of other things, but I agree,” Kelly said. She looked at Mark with a smile and glanced at the stairs to their bedroom. “How are we going to spend the rest of the day before the girls come home?”
Chapter 9
Once Mark returned to work on Monday and caught up on the massive amounts of emails he had ignored last week. After reading through his emails, he realized no one missed him last week. Most American workers are under the false impression the world would stop if they took their vacations. Mark believed the same until this week. The fact no one missed him might have bothered him before his insight. The nagging thoughts of how much time he gave the company and the price he paid for that time kept entering his head as he worked. Mark did find a few spare minutes and took time to start fulfilling most of the promises made last week. He opened his jump drive and started creating a set of jpegs to use for a screen saver.
To create the pictures, Mark started Microsoft PowerPoint and imported the pictures he had brought with him on a flash drive. The next step was to put a text box on each picture saying, “Remember Your Promises.” He might occasionally need to explain the screen saver to others when they saw them. He told himself, he would just make something up about not forgetting anymore soccer games or something most people see as normal. After copying the pictures to a flash card, he copied a set of them to his laptop. He then set his screen savers to display the pictures and reminders on both his computers. Mark didn’t stop there. He created a series of repeating private meetings in his calendar that would pop up throughout the day with the same meeting topic, “Remember Your Promise.” After doing that, he created blank meetings to fill his time from 5PM to 10PM every weekday. About the time Mark had finished with his computer, Owen stepped in to say hello.
“Remember Your Promises,” Owen said. “What’s that mean?”
“Well, I am going to tell everyone else that I made a promise to stop missing my girls soccer games. I’m going to go out on a limb and tell you the real story since I owe you for filling me in on the fuel shortage issue.”
“What are you talking about?” Owen asked.
“Once you told me about the fuel shortage and how they were planning this IT off-shoring project on top of it, I started doing a little research. I found out we suffered fuel shortages more than once and they were able to hide them with various excuses, both real and manufactured. I also found out we are not the only ones who have cancelled flights due to fuel issues.”
Owen interrupted by asking, “How did you find it out?”
“Some of it was easy with the right internet research. Some can only be found if you now our systems,” Mark smiled.
“My research showed a few holes in our security we may need to button up,” Mark said not believing they should button up the security. He still hoped others would find out what was going on since he felt guilty for not telling them their jobs might be gone in a few years. He had changed in the last few weeks since Owen had told him about the fuel shortage.
“Ok. I’ll forget you told me about the security, if you forget where you found out about the shortage first,” Owen smiled.
“Agreed,” Mark chuckled. “I realize that after the move is complete, I will no longer be safe here. I may be able to last a year or so after the move, but after that period is over they will get wise and will let me go.”
“So, I made a promise to myself I would never let my job come before my family again. You may not want to hear this, but I will no longer work after 5:30 each day. I will also not be working on the weekend on a regular basis as well. I’ve spent twenty years with Plains and I’m a little pissed a big company would treat everyone like this. There are quite a few people out there who have given this company their life. They are going to be dumped on the curb in less than a year and dumped without much notice. I don’t know if I even want to give them the hope we will try to find another job for them here. I want to try, and if it happens, I want it to be an exception and not something everyone is hoping for. This strategy might hurt us if some of them leave early, but I can’t stop them if I know there will not be anything left after the move.”
Mark gave Owen a cold stare as he continued, “You can fire me for what I’m telling you here, but I want you to remember something. If I get fired and do not get a huge severance package, I’ll let everyone know about the real reason for the move. I’ll tell everyone in the IT department and in any other departments they’re going to dump as well. I may even splash the real reason to any reporter I can find. Let’s see how the brass fares if the market and government finds out they are lying about the flight cancellations.” At this point Mark was getting angry and releasing his anger on Owen who represented Plains Airlines.
Owen just took the heat from Mark and then held up his hands. “Slow down. Take a breath.”
“Sorry. I was taking everything out on you and you’ve done nothing but warn me and help me out,” said Mark as he made himself cool off some.
“Understandable. So you figured it out? When they told me about the fuel situation, I did some of the same research you have done and figured everything out right before I told you about it. I’ve been trying every way I can to try to give others hints about what was going on without getting attention from the brass and getting fired. So far, you’ve been the only one who has taken my hint seriously enough to do any research to figure out how bad things are getting. I’ve been spending the last few months trying to find out how to extract myself from the company before the brass gets caught. I do not want to go down the drain with them. Sorry for lying to you last month but I also they will boot everyone once the move is complete. I’ve had time to work this out and have s
tarted to fast track my ‘retirement’ plans to allow for the loss of this job.”
Mark looked at Owen for a moment and replied, “That was what I did all last week. Kelly is with me on this and we both spent last week trying to figure out a plan to survive after I lose my job. To tell the truth, I figure Plains will have trouble with the fuel shortage and they will cause this company to fold. The fuel shortage will cause everyone to adjust to a new way of life. Higher gas prices will not only affect companies like Plains, it will affect companies like Kelly’s as well. We are trying to figure out plans to live on a lot less money than we do now.”
Owen looked at Mark with a small look of surprise, “So if I use the term TEOTWAWKI, you would know what I mean?”
Mark glanced at Owen and chuckled, “Yes, but I’m not fully there yet.”
Owen gave Mark a serious look and said, “I’ve been there for a few years now. I’ve been prepping for the collapse for about five years and I’m much deeper into this than you seem to be. My plans have gone further than a simple reduction in salary.”
Mark had a puzzled look on his face when he said, “I’d love to talk to you about everything. I’ve been dying to let our coworkers in on my news. I haven’t figured out how to tell them without them either thinking I’m crazy or that I have some nefarious reason for telling them.”
“I understand what you mean. I’ve got to go to another wasted meeting now, but why don’t we get together somewhere else one day and talk.”
“Come over for dinner on Saturday. We can let the kids play in the pool while we talk. They’ll make so much noise they won’t hear anything we say.”
