“ANYTHING BUT ORDINARY”



Here we are...your average, run-of-the mill American family.  We are a dad, a mom, two kids, one dog and five cats; all living in an average home in Oregon. 

But I think that’s where the “average, run-of-the-mill” part may end.

My husband, Andy, and I have taken turns going on paternity/maternity/child rearing leaves.  Amongst our family and friends, we are not known so much for "what we do as a living" as much as "what we do".  

As a family (minus the one dog and five cats), we have traveled, volunteered in South America, lived abroad in Spain for a year and couchsurfed our way through much of Europe.  We've done all of this (and more), all while living off the equivalent of *less than one **average American salary.  (at the bottom of the blog I've explained the * and **)

In fact, as I write this, we are living off the equivalent of less than one-half of an average American salary. That’s right, one-half of an average American salary is now supporting a family of four, one dog, five cats with all of our living expenses.

How?  Honestly, not easily, but more on that later.

However, we have come to the conclusion that our family, friends, co-workers and acquaintances must believe that somewhere we have a hidden stash of gold (or maybe a hidden stash of something else), or that we are independently wealthy, or that perhaps we lead secret and double lives as secret agents.  How else could we do what we do and live the way we live?
 

In fact, after each of our travels or adventures, our family and friends always say to us: “Oh, I wish we could do that.  I wish we had the money to do what you do."   To which I say “You do...you can...you have – it’s all about choices.”
 

I’ll tell you the secret to our ability to survive on such paltry earnings.
 

No, we don’t have any hidden stashes of anything, we're not independently wealthy (geez, wouldn’t that be nice!) and we're not double agents (at least I'm not...).  I’ll tell you how we live on so little and how we do so much, but here's the thing.  You need to believe us. You need to accept that what I’m telling you is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
 

Okay, so no pot of gold; there’s no tricks up the sleeve; there’s no ace in the hole and there’s no magic, hocus pocus. I swear on a ***mountain of cat fur.

Okay, so what’s our magic secret? How can we possibly exist on one-half of a salary??

First off, I will tell you that life on one-half of a salary isn’t exactly our ideal financial situation. We’re not aspiring to live with such austere financial constraints.  Life happens and when it does one adapts accordingly. 
 

Next, our one-half of a salary does not include supplemental income we derive from other things we do or have done.  That's called being resourceful and that too is another topic for discussion.
 

And after all of that hype, I’m probably going to disappoint you by stating that there really isn’t any magic, and the reality is - that it isn’t much of a secret either.
 

There are two very simple (but perhaps not so simple) rules that we abide by faithfully, fervently, religiously. That’s it – nothing more. Nothing fancy, nothing sexy and nothing that you can’t do.

Before I continue, here's my first disclaimer.  I’ve decided to write this blog “Living on a Golden Shoestring” because I know so many people who earn substantial sums of money and as I stated earlier, have said to us “I wish I could do what you do. I wish I could travel and live abroad for a year like you did.”

They also say things like:“I can’t…I don’t make enough money”…or...”I spend too much money”…or...”I have too much debt”.  

I sometimes scratch my head and wonder to myself "So what is it that we do so differently than others?  How can we manage to earn relatively little money, yet live such enriching lives?" 

I think I know some of the reasons and I've been thinking that perhaps there's an opportunity to share the things we do (or the things we don't do).  I've also been thinking that perhaps by sharing, there's an opportunity to help others who are struggling.
 

I'm interested in creating a space to not only discuss what we do or don't do, and how we do what we do or how we do what we don't do, but also to create a community dialogue around issues of obstacles (real or perceived) dreams, desires and financial burdens.  Furthermore, I want to find ways for each of us to help one another with our common dreams and struggles.  I love to write and I especially love to write about things I’m passionate about. 
 

Okay -- Let’s go back to this thing of choices and I’ll explain a bit more about how we manage to do what we do.
 

Rule #1 is this: WE DON’T SPEND MORE THAN WE EARN.
 

That’s it. This should seem super duper simple, but somehow it isn’t. Our lust of stuff, our wanton need to be surrounded by material possessions often makes this first tenet untenable. Does it mean we don’t have stuff?  Oh, we have stuff and plenty of it. We have laptop computers and iPods and cell phones and clothing and books and cat fur – but we don’t have excess (except the cat fur) and the way we buy things – well, that’s a topic for another blog entry. Simple as pie, easy as 1-2-3. We just don’t spend more money than we earn.  I do want to spend much more time with this topic in other blog entries.  My goal for this initial blog is to just lay out the basics.
 

Next comes our Rule #2.  Rule #2 is directly related to Rule #1 (see that bolded underlined text up there)
 

Rule #2 is this: WE DON’T LIVE WITH ANY DEBT.
 

Okay, I lied just a little bit about this rule. We do have mortgage debt, you know the “good kind of debt”. We can argue about good debt versus bad debt, carrying a mortgage versus renting, but the bottom line is that have no credit card debt.
 

How?
 

You want to know how?  Simple – we pay off our credit card balance every month. We can have another discussion about the benefits or detriments of using a credit card. We use our credit card for our daily purchases (fuel, food, etc.) and primarily as a means to earn points. The points can then be used toward frequent flyer miles, to purchase stuff, or for the redemption of a gift card (which can then be used as cash).
 

Every month, when we look at our credit card bill and it shows the minimum amount we can pay or the balance, guess what we do…we pay the balance. Does it take discipline? Yes. Is it a lot of money to pay? Yes. Is it the right thing to do? Yes.
 

There you have it. Simple as that:
 

• WE DON’T SPEND MORE THAN YOU EARN

• WE DON’T LIVE WITH ANY DEBT (slight disclaimer noted for mortgage debt)

I know it’s not as simple as that for the vast majority of people. Once you develop certain buying habits and have accrued a mountain of debt, it’s very, very difficult to get out from under it all. So, what I want to do is to develop blog entries about ways to slowly change habits to eventually get to this point (what we’ll call liberally call “debt-free, unencumbered living”).
 

In the meantime, what’s on your mind?  What are your thoughts on these topics?  Other thoughts?

My goal is to try to post one blog entry per week.  I want to delve into each of these topics in much more detail, as well as talk more about other things. 

You can either subscribe to the blog or leave comments at the bottom.  Let's have a hearty and healthy dialogue, but please, please, please -- let's keep it civil and spam-a-lot free.
 

It's time for another disclaimer:
 

I’m not a financial planner, nor am I a business guru. What I am is a very practical person with (as my mother always said) “a good head on her shoulders”.  I have good common sense and am old enough to trust my inner core and follow my instincts.

Yet one more disclaimer (otherwise known as *, ** and ***):

*Our salaries have varied from a low of less than one-half of one salary to a high of slightly over one average US salary, throughout our many years of parenthood.  In times of plenty and when circumstances have provided monetary gain, we live by the "rainy day fund" philosophy.  More on that in another entry.
 

**The median (average) household income in the United States is about $50,000.

***We have at least one mountain of cat fur in any given week.  Any ideas on what to do with cat fur?