A Little House Cleaning

I have read that the best way to keep from accumulating a lot of junk in your house is to move every 5 to 10 years. A move of the house forces you to evaluate every item in the house and decide whether it is worth the effort to relocate the item or is its best purpose in life is a spot on the pre-move lawn sale. Box after box of items that you have not been opened or looked at since the last move. In my Navy days with a move every couple of years we had boxes that had 3 or 4 stickers on them, each identifying it as a passenger on a different moving van.

What does this have to do with anything? No, I am not planning on moving just to justify getting rid of some of my junk. I'd rather build a garage so I could store even more. Or even better a barn, like my father in law. What got me thinking about this was having gone through several forced job changes in the past decade. Having lost or soon to loose two jobs in the past 7 years through no fault of my own (I hope) has changed the way I handle my personal finances. Having experienced the loss of that paycheck has firmly implanted in my brain the fact that just because you have a pay check this week is no guarantee that it will be there again next payday. It has forced me to clean out my financial closet. Just like cleaning out the basement or the attic this has been a good thing.

The loss of a job changes ones comfort level with debt. It forces you (or at least it should) to better prepare for that day when the money stops flowing. I will be the first to admit that as a young adult I was not very smart with money. I spent most dollars that came my way and quite a few that had not arrived yet. I purchased my first new car when I was only 21 and I could not have told you what I paid for it or what the interest rate was or even the length of the loan. The only thing I could have told you was what the monthly payment was and that it would still allow me enough money to buy gas and beer.

After my first child was born and that shiny sports car was not big enough to fit my expanding family I had to trade it in on something bigger. That was the day I learned about being upside down in a loan. The car was not worth what I still owed on it. So I had to roll that unpaid debt onto my next car loan. It was a debt snowball going in the wrong direction. That is only one example of my bad money sense and there are many more.

I was lucky enough in those early years and subsequent to that to be able to out earn my stupidity. I was able to cover my mistakes by earning a good living. I was never was behind in my bills and had a good credit rating. But I also never got ahead. The savings never seemed to grow and the debt never seem to get less in-fact it usually grew. As I paid off one thing I just transferred the debt to something else, another car, a boat, furniture, always something.

When I lost my job 7 years ago we started making better decisions. We began a slow focus on limiting debt and building our savings. We did not see the light overnight and it was a gradual process but slowly the light bulb came on. Lucky for us we had a pretty good warning this time around and we have known for over a year that my job was in jeopardy. This was a second wake up call and we prepared even better this time to be able to weather the loss of income. That preparation helped me sleep at night knowing that we would survive until another source of income would come along.

Here is the best part of the financial house cleaning. Each time we have been forced to "clean house" it has made us stronger, smarter and more financially resilient. Seven years ago I was fortunate to move directly from one good job to another. I did not have to use my emergency savings. Now if things go as they seem they might, I may be able to move directly to another good job. It is as if the better prepared you are to weather a storm the less likely you are to encounter one. Is this the inverse of "Murphy's Law"?

If I am lucky and the income continues to flow, will I revert back to my old spending ways? No way! Because I know that nothing is forever and you best be prepared for the worst (while hoping for the best). I just feel sorry for those of you who have never been lucky enough to lose your job. But then again you are probebly smarter than me and didn't need to be hit over the head by life to learn.

This and That

This blog has become depressing! It seems that all I have been posting is doom and gloom and if you want to read that you could just pick up a news paper. So this post will only be cheerful and uplifting.

This weekend I picked up a truck load of the best wood in the world. What you ask is the best wood in the word? Cut, Split and Free. There is nothing better than free heat except maybe free food or free beer or.....

Sunday was cold with a stiff wind but the sun was out and we took the opportunity to take a hike with the dogs. One of our favorite local hikes is on the coast at Dodge Point. I don't know how long of a hike it is but it takes about an hour and half to walk the loop if one does not linger too long. The trail makes its way down to waters edge then follows the shore to make a loop back to the parking area. The dogs were some happy to go hiking and the cold and the wind did not stop them from going for a swim in the salt water. With in minutes of exiting the water both dogs had "freeze dried" and had ice hanging from their fur. Once again I found myself out without my camera. I want to purchase a small pocket digital camera that will go with me everywhere and when I find a little extra cash I will make that purchase.

Here is a question for you. Imagine you are having financial problems such that your outgoing cash flow is greater than your incoming cash. You are a month behind on your car payment. You are behind on your mortgage payment. You are behind on your child support. You can not afford health insurance for your family. What would you do? How can you improve your financial situation? Well one enterprising individual I know figured the best thing he could do is purchase a new $30K pickup truck. Yes sir. Get behind on your payments? Just trade it in for a new one and you will be all caught up. This is so sad, I found it funny. (This does not count as doom and gloom because it is not me).

Speaking of income, I did go on a job interview last week and I am waiting to see if bears fruit. It was strange being on the other side of the interview table again. You would think it would be easier to interview after having been the one doing interviewing for the past few years but I found it just as awkward as ever. It is hard to gain much knowledge about a person in one hour and it is also hard to prove your worth in a hour. Keep your fingers crossed though because it would cut over an hour out of my round trip commute each day. It would be like gaining 6 hours each week. It would also be nice to know I had another job waiting.

We watched the movie Cinderella Man last night and I really enjoyed the message. A true story of a mans battle against all odds and his fight to be able to provide for his family. If you haven't seen it, you might want to check it out.

Happy Presidents Day!

Bad Day at the Office

I knew it was coming. They knew it was coming. Why then was it so hard? On Thursday five of the 9 remaining employees at my plant were laid off. Two of the five had been there since day one with me and another two almost that long.

On Wednesday the bankruptcy judge approved the "sale" of the plant to the paper mill. The sale is to close on or before March 15th. Next week the process of turning over the facility begins. The owners of the mill have stated that they have no intention of retaining any of the plants current staff. I suspect it is because they have no intention of operating the plant.

All employees were gathered into the lunch room and given the news as a group. They were told that four people would remain to transition the facility and that for the rest it would be their last day. You could see the pain on their faces. A couple who already had jobs to go to were relieved to finally be let go.

I saw many people "let go" at the end of my last job but it did not feel the same as there were over 500 employees there and it was not as personal. We had 17 employees max and most of them had been there since the plant was constructed. As much as work can seem like family they felt like family.

We have been in this "limbo" land at work for 15 months. Having your future up in the air for so long can drain on a person. Almost half of the staff could not stand the wait and chose to move on sooner rather than later. The rest of us chose to wait it out knowing that in the greatest probability what has come to pass was what was what was most likely. While I am grateful for all the opportunity my present job had allowed, I am ready for something new. A fresh start. A new commute. New faces and most of all new challenges. The next month of turning the facility over will be painful but I am ready for the end.

The Other Shoe Drops

Calpine Plans to Lay Off 300 Workers

As I drove to work on Wednesday I wondered what it would feel like to wake up on a week day morning and have no where I was supposed to be. I have had a job (sometimes two) everyday since I was 18. The last time I did not have a job was the summer before I entered the Navy and I had already enlisted so I knew what my future was going to be (sort of). That is well over 20 years of continuous employment.

As I drove that morning I knew that about 300 fellow employees where going to wake up tomorrow and discover what it feels like to have no place of employment. I also wondered how many of them had no idea what was in store for them that day. Of course when you work for a bankrupt company you should know that your job could be in jeopardy but people have a way of rationalizing that it will not happen to them.

There is irony here and I love irony. The irony is that my plant has been in bankruptcy for over a year, almost a year longer than our parent company. No one at my plant was laid off on Wednesday. We out lasted 300 other employees at various other locations. Amazing. Though we were to find out that it will be a short lived "victory".

On Wednesday the employees here were finally told that the plant is to be turned over to the papermill and that the mill currently has no intention to retain any of the staff. It is just a matter of time and we will join the ranks of the 300 unemployed. They would have let us go on Wednesday but the court has yet to approve the transfer of the asset. The court date is the coming up in a couple of weeks then all bets are 0ff.

The mood at work has changed from hopeful to one of defeat. Even though everyone had been told that the future of the facility look grim they still rationalized (see above) that it would all work out. Now that hope has been removed. It was good that they were told as now they (and I) can focus on what it is to come next. I for one am ready for a change as the last year has been really boring!

The phone rarely rings, the emails have slowed to a snails pace, so much so I even look forward to spam. Even the vendors we owe money to don't call any more. Thank god for my satellite radio as it keeps me entertained through the day. One can not search the internet for jobs all day long. It is too depressing. mmmmmm I suppose that now that we are to lose our jobs it can't do much harm to search for porn........oh, got to go.