Kristi's 75 Year Plan

Second 'Bottle Rocket' reference in a week. For those of you counting.

I have a blue 88 cent spiral notebook. I bought it in January. I take it to work with me on the weekends (more on that later). Let me share some of it's contents with you:

story ideas (someday I'm going to get a children's book published, don't you know?)
investment ideas
the phrase SBA
my name, elaborately decorated with hearts and flowers
the text of birthday party invitations, later typed up on the computer
stock purchases to research
birthday party lists
the word 'tax liens'
a list of these books, which I'm supposed to use as a guide when I go to the library
the phrase 'ebay drop off store'
the phrase 'pay us first'
a 75 year plan to wealth

See a pattern here? In case you didn't catch it, I'm going back to put the pattern in bold. The 75 year plan, by the way, actually only goes into 2008. But it's written in pencil on a blue spiral notebook and it made Will snicker when he saw it.

Here's a story for some background. San Antonio, July 1997. We had been married oohhhh...about a month. Will starts saying things like, "I wish I didn't have to work." And "Working is not for me." Imagine my shock. Imagine my horror. Imagine what I was imagining: My husband is a lazy bones and I'm in big trouble. Big trouble.

Cut to 1999. Will is still working to support us, still complaining. We have Charlie. I've finished school and I'm staying home with our new baby. Will has an idea. He calls it "Auction Banker." The idea is that Ebay customers could use their credit cards on a secure third site, run by us. We'd get a flat rate on every purchase made through our site. He buys the domain name and enlists our friend Kyle to design a page. I start to get a glimpse of a different kind of life...one where we are the owners and not just the workers. I'm intrigued. Needless to say the whole thing didn't work out. And a year later we see someone else offering the exact same service. They called it "Paypal".

I can not tell you the collateral Will earned with me with Auction Banker. First of all, I finally understood what he meant all those years when he said he didn't want to work. He didn't mean 'I'm poor and lazy and I don't want to work.' He wanted 'I'm fabulously wealthy and I don't have to work." Except he would never say 'fabulously'. So everytime he comes up with a new idea (and there have been many) I say to myself...Will invented Paypal. And I try to support him. I might troubleshoot the ideas and ask lots of questions...but I never discourage him from coming up with stuff.

Cut to 2003. Same friend Kyle and his wife, Leigh, previously referred to as 'Precious Mom' tell us they are done with credit forever. They are budgeting to the bare bones to pay off all their debt. Then they're going to take the money previously used on credit payments and invest it like crazy. They have a plan for financial freedom. We don't have a plan. We steal their plan.

2004 - We take 'Financial Freedom' classes at our church and get serious about paying off debt. Coincidentally, we buy house this same year, therefore adding $120,000+ to our liability column. We think our house is an asset. During these years Will toys with several ideas: a truck modification I don't understand, a engine modification that I don't understand but the engineer at our church gets, and a few other things that don't make it off the ground. I say, "Will invented Paypal" and encourage him to keep going.

2005 - We move to Idaho. Lose a salary. Can't sell the house.

2006 -Find a renter. Property taxes go up. We're losing several hundred dollars a month on the house. I get a job on the weekends at the local newspaper. I answer phones and read and write in my notebook.

Summer 2006 - I turn 30. Time is flying and we have done nothing, nothing to create wealth for future security. So over the past month or so I've become a little frantic about the future. The brief flirtation with business ownership gave me a revelation...we don't want to be workers! We want to be owners! (Like how I shouted that?) I look around my posh little neighborhood. That guy owns the flower store. Those guys own the Mexican restaurant. The lady walking with that lady owns the baked potato place (it's called Spuds and it's expensive...don't make fun). They. are. owners. They sail and garden and walk their dogs all the damn day long because they don't have to work.

I've caught the fever. And the only cure is more more money. And cowbell.

August 2006 - I'm reading books and making plans. We are going to approach this as a team. Will's job is to work on his business ideas and come up with new ones. He's also working on a web page supporting 3rd party candidates to break the 2 party stronghold on politics. My job is to juggle the budget so we are paying off debt and simultaneously investing. My newspaper money pays off debt. My babysitting (I can't believe I'm 30 and I just said 'babysitting') money gets invested. It's a plan. I have a list of which debts are getting paid off each year into 2008. I have a list of stocks and sectors I'm going to research as possible investments.

This is why I buy Cover Girl make up. This is why I want to cut our losses with our house and sell it and never mortgage a house again. I don't want to go anywhere for our 10 year anniversary next year. I don't want to exchange gifts at Christmas. I bought most of our curriculum used. I haven't bought a new pair of jeans in almost 2 years. I don't care anymore. I want stocks. I want property. I want real estate. I want to know I will not be working at the age of 70.

Have you thought about these things? I'm afraid some of these posts come across as self righteous drivel. "I'm soooo awesome because I homeschool and I don't use credit cards and you suck because you're not me." This is not my intention. But I do believe the American economy is one big stack of cards, precariously perched on a wobbly coffee table, with two 5 year olds playing tag all around it. It won't last. It's not sustainable. I don't know if it takes 5 years or 30 years but this easy credit nonsense is going to shake the house down.

And I want to be ready when it does.

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