Anxiously Awaiting

The weather is so incredibly nice this time of the year. Usually for about three weeks in September and October, Georgia becomes a west coast style paradise with cool breezes and temperatures around 70F. This is prime riding weather =). Unfortunately because of life’s obligations I have only been able to ride once in the past week. I would love to go every day. Riding is a great stress reliever, and it get’s my mind off the mundane routine of my day-to-day. I am going to try to ride at least twice this week. I would like to take advantage of this weather while I can.

Long time.

I have a good job. I am not lacking in anything material–as a matter of fact I have spent quite a bit of money on some things that I don’t need. Take a click at the gear section of my site and you can see what I’m talking about. Recently I realized that sometimes I spend in an unbridled way on the mundane. Is this a big problem? Actually, no. I can afford it and still have quite a bit of money left over–the balance on my savings account proves that to me. But what happens if I lose my job? Since it is in the realm of possibility that I go from eating out every week to living off PB&J in an instant, I think I need to soften that potential standard of living shock a bit. I am not in danger of losing my job, but I think I need to cut back a bit and get into the habit of living off a budget for my own future financial good.

Previously, my budget consisted of whatever I spent during the month. I am not a lavish liver. I don’t buy expensive clothes, I don’t spend money on partying, bars, alcohol, or other often worthless money sinks, and I am very careful about going into debt or making large purchases. Recently I considered buying a new car–a Toyota RAV4–but I eventually backed out because the car I have works just fine. Well other than the AC being broken, but hey, it’s winter now. I’m good ;). The point is, I could be content with the car I have or go into debt to live more comfortably. I chose no debt.

My point is to underscore that even though one can be well off and have decent spending habits in some areas there is still a need for universal financial discipline and self imposed limits. My standard of living has indeed been kicked up a notch in some areas; I eat out more and spend money on things that I really want or enjoy like my lovely Macbook Pro, my bike, guitar toys, good concerts, and my friends. Nevertheless, I believe I should pay more attention to the budget I have established and get into the habit of enforcing it. Yodlee has an awesome budgeting tool (among other great features) that tracks how much you have spent during the month versus your goals in an intuitive graphical way. It’s a great tool for visual people like me to use to get a handle on how much money I have left in the monthly budget. I highly recommend it.

Unfortunately, it looks like I am really close to my limit on eating out (which is a problem area according to my transaction history), so please excuse me while I go to the store and buy some PB&J. Hooray for self imposed discipline!

Where to begin. Life. Has. Been. Busy. From attending my 4th wedding of the summer with my lady friend to working on my project proposal for my only grad school class; I barely have enough time to breath. Honestly, it’s good for me. I often thrive in high energy situations. I still stay in touch with old friends, and enjoy making new ones. I have stepped down from a lot of the reponsibilities I had at First Baptist. It was made clear to me by the Lord that I needed to give some of that up and move on in my leadership there. The lady and I celebrated 6 months of dating–a big deal to us, and we are looking forward to our future (whatever that may be). My boss of approximately 1 year has decided to move on to another section of the vast empire that is MSFT. Oh, and eric is making a come back (w00t) to the blogging world. Life is good.

I haven’t played much music lately. I’m more or less just plinking around when I have time. I wish that my music was more of a priority in my life, but it doesn’t look like that’s possible right now. Last night the lady asked me: “Have been playing guitar any lately?” My answer was “a little,” but obviously not as much as I would like. I need to make some time for some creative song writing, but I feel ill equipped. It’s hard to record stuff in my room at the D10’s because I’m afraid I’ll disturb someone. My amp sounds better cranked from about 12 to 2 o’ clock; and that’s just loud enough to be obnoxious. Plus I really really need a desk and a decent chair (or medicine ball) in there, I just have no clue where or how to fit it. Since being gainfully employed I have acquired a decent amount of stuff. Stuff I never thought I would own; like a Les Paul, two Firebirds, some other nice guitar toys, and a rockin Orange amp ;).

I’m doing really well financially despite the economic slowdown. I do hate that gas is so incredibly expensive, because that directly effects how much I can go and hang out with my lady. I like her a lot, so even if gas were $6.00 a gallon–and that may happen soon–I would still go see her. I have plenty of money saved up as a cushion in case something should happen, but currently I don’t have a goal to save towards. I don’t want a house, I don’t need a car, and I have all the guitars that I want. Well, almost. I still want a 56 Les Paul gold top, but those are expensive and I really don’t need it. The only big expense in my world right now is grad school. At over $700 a class, that can get a little pricey times two classes per semester (my self imposed maximum limit). I do get reimbursed after I pass the class, so it’s not a huge problem. I front the moniez and MSFT pays up at the end. I like this relationship despite my grumblings against the evil empire.

Anyway, that’s all that’s new with me. I’m going to try and be a little more consistent with updating here, just so that I don’t have to do these massive brain dumps. I expect that most of you will probably TLDR this unless you are really interested in my life. In which case I say: get one of your own!

Adieu.