Finances: Our History and Current State

So before you start reading, I wanted to preface this blog entry by saying that I am nervous to write about this topic. I get so excited talking about personal finances, but I was worried that no one else would care (and that still might be true) so I asked my husband if he thought people would be interested in me writing about finances. He laughed and said of course people would care because people love to talk about sex, money, religion and politics. With that said, here I go to start the discussion of money on my blog. (And maybe more to come if people really are interested!) And no, I don't think I will be discussing sex anytime soon on my blog, I'll keep it to money!

Our Financial History and Current State

The Beginning

Early in our marriage, Brian and I decided we wanted to avoid debt as much as possible in a world where it seems most people are comfortable having loads of debt. We were fortunate to get married without any debt and we both were able to avoid debt in our undergraduate degrees by working, scholarships, and grants.

Our Debt and Money Issues

We first went into debt when Brian started law school. It was a calculated choice since Brian could not work for most of law school and I was staying home with James. We also bought a home here in Las Vegas for under $70K. We lived very frugally during those three years and we were very creative with our spending and saving of money. What creative tips do you have for staying out of debt? Or stretching a dollar?

Soon after Brian graduated from law school, Christina was born. We had health insurance with a high deductible so my prenatal care and the birth were several thousand, but not atypical prices with insurance. However, baby Christina's cost became astronomical in only a matter of minutes. A stint in the NICU will cost you several thousand per day. Yes, thousands per day! She stayed in the NICU for 19 days and her final bill was over $100,000. So after a little math, her stay cost well over $5,000 per day! And I don't say all this to say "Woe is me" but on the contrary because we had insurance. (If you don't have health insurance, go buy it today! You cannot afford to not have it!) We only had to pay a mere fraction of that! But even with only a fraction of that due, it was still a lot of expense and Brian wasn't a licensed attorney yet and was making minimal money. It was the first time that we didn't have any money in the bank because we had exhausted all of our savings and even our emergency fund to pay for the birth and NICU bill. Even after baby Christina was discharged from the NICU she had LOTS of specialty doctors and surgeries and the costs still seemed never ending. At the rate it was going we feared that we would never financially get ahead of it! And luckily we were able to avoid debt, but it was month to month for a couple months until we were able to get ahead! And we can thank monthly budgeting and Brian's increase in salary to that! I mentioned in a previous post how I hated budgeting but at that point I knew something had to change. We had been hearers of the word (Dave Ramsey's word that is), but not doers of the word. In the last six months we have been able to get very ahead and we feel very in control of our money. Do you worry about money month to month? Do you budget each month? Do you hate it like I used to? Or are you a nerd and love to watch your money?

Our Current Choices

And I stress the word choices because as we control our money and our debt we are able to have more choices and I can't wait until all of our debt is gone and all the choices we will have then! But back to the point, our only debt is our mortgage. Our current choices are to knock out our mortgage as fast as we can or to invest 15 percent of our income in retirement (401K and Roth IRA). Currently we are only contributing about 10 percent. Dave Ramsey (our favorite financial adviser and author of The Total Money Makeover) suggests at the point we are at to invest 15 percent into retirement before paying off the house. The reason we are debating the issue is that we want to be moving to a better area and to a bigger house in the next two years and we want to have as much money into our mortgage so that when we sell we can have a big chunk of our next house paid for. What are you thoughts? Are you putting money away for retirement? How much? Should we be more aggressive with retirement savings, as Dave says to do? Or with our mortgage, as the Nelsons want to do?

Random Facts

Most of our blog entries are kid-centric so I thought it might be fun to do a different kind of blog entry. Here are just some random, boring or maybe interesting facts about Brian and me.

Christina

1. Every night I take a bath and listen to the Dave Ramsey podcast.
2. I wear high heels almost everyday.
3. My name was Amy until I was about a month old and my parents had my name legally changed to Christina.
4. I never drink juice or sugar soda.
5. Since I've had kids, besides driving I don't do anything that has high physical risk, e.g., skiing, hiking, skydiving, and I always wear a life vest if I'm forced on a boat! 
6. I don't have a smart phone and I hate even having a cell phone and I never answer it but I take it with me in case of emergency and I sometimes text.
7. I got married at nineteen. 
8. I hate wash cloths in the kitchen or to clean the house with. I prefer to use (and waste) paper towels for all cleaning. 
9. I don't like to be surprised, so I buy for Brian all of my birthday, anniversary, and Christmas gifts.
10. I wish I knew how to grill.
11. I hate horror movies and even the previews make me terrified.
12. I know how to play the piano but I hate to play for people and prefer to play when I'm all alone.
13. I hate doing arts and crafts.
14. My favorite song of all time: John Rutter's A Gaelic Blessing.
15. I'm not shy and often lack discretion. (Which makes me fun!)
16. I want to start a beauty and fashion blog/YouTube channel, but I've been too scared to do it.
17. I am not a morning person, but I wish I was. I love the idea of everyday waking up early, going for a morning run, then getting my Diet Coke fountain drink at the gas station, and getting showered and dressed all before 7 AM. But I'm lucky if I roll out of bed before 8 AM, with none of those things done!
18. The nicest thing I own is a Dolce & Gabbana evening coat.
19. I love to go thrift shopping and I got that Dolce & Gabbana coat for $10 at a thrift store.
20. I can't whistle in tune.
21. My three favorite books: The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, and The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands by Dr. Laura Schlessinger.
22. I cannot drive standard and at this point I refuse to learn.
23. I would love to go to law school once all my kids are in all day school.
24. I love to wear leather and fur and all black.
25. I let Brian believe I was going to dump him only to soften the blow when I told him I have a balanced translocation.
26. The perfume I wear the most is Chanel Coco Mademoiselle.
27. My favorite scripture: "Be still, and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10.
28. I don't believe in horoscopes. I love the quote from Stacy in Phineas and Ferb when she says: "I am a woman of science, at least that's what my horoscope said."
29. If I'm having a really bad day buying a Diet Coke from tap and a new lipstick help lift my mood.
30. I love fresh, new school supplies and I get so excited when school starts again in the Fall and I'm jealous of all the little elementary age kids with their new shoes and backpacks filled with new pencils, notebooks and folders as they file onto the school bus.

Brian

1. My favorite author is William Shakespeare.
2. My favorite Shakespeare work is The Merchant of Venice.
3. I am good at making paper airplanes.
4. I am a probate and guardianship attorney. 
5. My life goal is to become a judge.
6. I lived in Quebec Canada for two years where I served a LDS mission.
7. I am pretty decent at drawing on an Etch-O-Sketch.
8. If I'm not wearing my dress shoes, I'm wearing my Rainbows, year round.
9. My favorite movie is Life is Beautiful.
10. I enjoy construction and would love to build a house someday.
11. My grandmother was born in Mexico so our family recipes have some Mexican flare and I can make yummy beef enchiladas.
12. I speak French fluently.
13. Christina proposed to me after six weeks of dating, and I of course said yes!
14. I'm related to Mitt Romney, he is my second cousin once removed.
15. I've meet and chatted with Zachary Levi. He assumed I was a Chuck fan, but at the time I'd never even heard of the show and I said I knew him from the movie Shades of Ray (NOT to be confused with 50 Shades of Grey) and he was surprised because the movie was a small, low budget film (A really good movie by the way!)
16. I used to flip furniture on Craigslist to pay for rent and utilities.
17. I have a goal to build a cabin near Cedar City and I hope to have it nice enough that I can get Christina to go to it.
18. I had Bell's Palsy as a teenager.
19. I was homecoming king in high school.
20. I've learned everything I know about women from Phil Dunphy.
21. I love Dwight Shrute from The Office. My favorite quote from him: "Before I do anything I ask myself  'Would an idiot do that?' And if the answer is yes, I do not do that thing."
22. I've lived in Vegas for four years and I've never gambled.
23. I love modern medicine and the miracles it has brought to my family, but I can't stand working with doctors, luckily my wife is really good at that!
24. My wife is embarrassed by this, but I enjoy rollerblading.
25. My wife and I were married in Boston, Massachusetts.
26. When we have a spare garage my dream is to restore a 1969 Corvette.
27. I can't remember the last time I had the hiccups, but it has been years.
28. I love Netflix and I plan to never have cable television.
29. I am a very loyal In-N-Out and Costco fan.
30. I am ridiculously good at Super Smash Brothers on N64. (It's almost embarrassing, I must have played a lot as a kid)

Baby Christina Laughing

Baby Christina didn't start smiling until she was over six months old and now at almost eight months old she has finally started to laugh and giggle! And to hear that from this little girl is just so wonderful since she doesn't show much reaction to us. But the fact that she's now laughing means she has a fun, little personality in there bursting to get out! We got her on video cackling and it is just so scrumptious! And the more wild I threw her, the harder she laughed! She is a little thrill seeker! (Sorry about the quality of the video, we keep our house pretty dark for baby girl, so it's quite dark in the video.)

Busy, busy weekend Pt. 2

We quickly snuck off to California after Christina's surgery, scared her doctor would advise against it. But she was a happy camper the whole trip down and during the mini-vacation. She really is such a pleasant baby and she's happy to go along with whatever we're doing as long as she can stay in the dark, literally. 

We had so much fun with all the cousins, aunts and uncles, and of course Grandma and Grandpa! We celebrated the Easter weekend with a little egg hunt, then went to the beach and then to church on Sunday. Every time we got in the car James would just crash! I guess he was having too much fun!

James and mommy's selfies before we hit the road back home. We already miss California and all our family!

Busy, busy weekend Pt. 1

This weekend was a very busy one for the Nelsons! Baby Christina finally had her third eye surgery. She was supposed to have it several weeks ago but due to issues with obtaining the required equipment for her specialized care it took several weeks to happen. The eye surgery was to her left eye to treat the glaucoma that had developed (she already had surgery to treat her right eye for glaucoma). Secondly, she had her eyes semi-permanently sutured closed to protect her eyes that always remain open. She did wonderfully and recovered very quickly after surgery. We were out of the hospital and into morning rush hour traffic. (Although we did arrive at the hospital just after 5 AM.)

Just after her surgery we were able to meet up with some friends for a couple hours that were visiting in Vegas. Brian's dearest friend James treated our James to a snow cone which James classically dropped as he took his first bite! And sadly we didn't get a picture with James' beautiful wife Karly! We had so much fun catching up with our friends before we headed off to California.