School is about to begin. This will be the final year of school for our son. It is a day we spent years thinking about and it’s a surreal moment as well as a milestone of sorts. Even more surreal is the fact that he has begun applying for admittance at colleges. But in reality, only one College matters to him. The others are back up plans that he has no intention of pursuing unless absolutely necessary.

While we prepare ourselves for this next year we are also trying to prepare and plan for the next steps after this school year. Over the past few years we have downsized our lives in many ways, like selling our 3000+ square foot home and moving into a small townhouse. However, we have also taken on a lot of extras in place of what we have given up. Some of these decisions, like purchasing a large and costly new RV, have been expensive up front but were done with an eye to the future. Other decisions have been made in the moment which isn’t usually the best way to make sound financial decisions. We are prime examples of impulse buyers and that has cost us quite a bit of money. One thing is for sure, we need to find a way to further cut back our monthly expenses and increase our savings rate which is currently topped out at 22%.

One of the ideas we had to lower expenses is on hold for the time being while I try and get my work life in order. We were considering selling one of our cars to get rid of the payment, insurance and every other expense associated with owning a vehicle. But it turns out my new venture will require a reliable vehicle, so we need to hold onto it for now. There will also be some tax savings for the use of the vehicle for business purposes once I get started.

Speaking of my new venture, I’m still waiting to get my state exam results. This is turning into an excruciating process for someone who has little to no patience for waiting on things. Hopefully I will here something in the next week, and hopefully it’s good news, so I can begin getting some infrastructure set up. I have a lot of plans I would like to set into motion but everything is predicated on passing this exam.

Some of this stuff can get really frustrating. At times it feels like we are just stuck in a rut. It’s as if we are always waiting one thing or another and we are never able to make real progress. It also feels that every time something positive happens there is an offsetting negative. For example, we are getting our cell phone bill lowered by about $60 a month. Good news right? Well it was until we received notice that the storage rate for our RV is increasing by about the same amount. So a small victory has now been washed away. I would move our RV to another storage but it’s not that easy to do. Most places have a waiting list for rigs the size of ours and the cost is about the same.

To combat some of this frustration we need to keep our eyes on the goal and remember to also live in the moment. We only have one kid so there is no second opportunity for us to have some of these experiences. As for finances, we need to try and be smarter with our decisions and control what is within our ability to control. Once my work situation becomes a little clearer I’m sure there will be things we can take advantage of to offset some of these costs.

It’s hard to believe we are already nearing the end of August. There is a lot of uncertainty going on in the world and that is impacting everyone’s finances in some way.

Is anyone else tired of hearing the words “trade war” and “tariffs”? I know I am!

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More to come………………..