by Hope
Last fall things got really, really tight. I had lost my dream corporate job in the summer of 2022. Then my contract job was a significant cut in pay. Then it ended versus becoming a full time position in February of 2023. And finally I had a 20 hour per week job beginning in March of 2023.
My finances were a mess and super, super tight. And it came to head last fall when I was at risk of not being able to pay our auto insurance along with Gymnast car payment and so on.
Some of you are probably familiar with this phase of my roller coaster of a life. And what I did…
The History
As with each of my kids, I had agreed to help Gymnast get on his feet post high school (or school) completion by paying some of his bills for 6 months. In his case, it was his car payment and auto insurance. He moved to Texas as soon as he turned 18 and that started the clock for the 6 months.
But I ran out of money and the ability to pay the bills about 2 months early. So I made the difficult call to let him know. I held out as long as I could. And probably waited too long. Because it did blindside him.
The Resolution
Thankfully, he had listened and was making fantastic financial decisions. And without question, he sent me the money not just to pay his car payment, but also to catch up and cover the entirety of the family auto insurance bill. He didn’t blink. He didn’t blame. He didn’t wait to be asked. He just did it.
I was beyond floored. And so proud. And I told him I would pay him back.
Fast Forward to Now
Gymnast has continued to refuse my offer to pay him back. And I know he’s been stressed over the heavy load that is his car payment and car insurance. (He has had 3 car wrecks which he’s covered as well.)
But now we’ve been able to refinance the car getting the interest rate down to a reasonable rate. And our insurance premium has dropped with this next renewal. And he has the lofty and from what I’ve seen very achievable goal of paying his car loan in full in the next 6 months. And I now have stable and solid full time income again.
So I’ve decided to HELP him in another way that will hopefully give him a bit of relief and the push to really meet his goal of paying off his car. I am going to pay his portion of the family auto insurance policy from August (yes, last month) through December. This is why the kid’s contribution was significantly less that budgeted last month.
The total of this will be just slightly more than the amount he covered last year so it’s just a different way of paying him back for something I had planned to cover. And hopefully…it will help him get that much closer to being completed debt free. With a nice and reliable car to carry him through these young adult years!
Hope is a creative, solutions-focused business manager helping clients grow their business and work more efficiently by leveraging expertise in project management, digital marketing, & tech solutions. She’s recently become an empty nester as her 5 foster/adoptive kids have spread their wings. She lives with her 3 dogs in a small town in NE Georgia and prefers the mountains to the beaches any day. She struggles with the travel bug and is doing her best to help each of her kids as their finish schooling and become independent (but it’s hard!) She has run her own consulting company for almost twenty years! Hope began sharing her journey with the BAD community in the Spring of 2015 and feels like she has finally in a place to really focus on making wise financial decisions.