Not Dead Yet

I'm back - it has been a long while. Everything is fine. Financial freak outs still happen, but everything seems a lot better since spring came back. Isn't it amazing how much of a difference that makes? Seriously.

So I'm still tracking our finances - have abandoned Microsoft Money and now just keep a simple spreadsheet every month to track where we are. So far, the line is going up (slowly). So that's good.

Short version: since March 1 we've managed to increase our net worth by about 18,000. Sweet. But we're still not paying down the debt as fast as we need to. As it is, we're on a 30 year payoff plan for student loans, and that's not acceptable. So we're looking for ways to increase income and take steps professionally. As it is I'm a federal government employee, which gives me fantastic work/life balance, a lot of security, and just enough pay to squeek by on. However, if I'm willing to give a little on the balance for three to five years, I could more than double my salary over that time period, pay off a great deal of debt, and advance in my field. A win win. the scary unknown is, of course, will going to the private sector feel like going to prison with increased work load and decreased stability.

Risk to go. Risk to stay. What to do? Take a risk I say - pay down debt, increase savings, hold expenses down in the meantime and create options for ourselves.

My new mantra is "the key to this whole deal is keeping expenses down." And it is.