Money Autobiography

One of my earliest memories is sitting outside of my grandparents' house on a very cold night in an orange VW bus and freezing because there was no heater in that car. Looking back, those seem like pretty humble beginnings, but - as they say - we've come a long way, baby.

As I understand it, we did a lot of moving around when I was younger. My dad was in the Air Force, initially on active duty, but then when I was only a couple of years old, went to reserves and got a day job. I think my mom worked some before I was born, but she and dad decided that mom would stay home with me once I was born, so as far as I knew, my dad was always the bread-winner in our house and that role was modeled to me growing up.

I can most vividly remember our story starting when we moved into a huge house in Greentown, IN. It was a small town and we moved into this house at a time when the area was still pretty rural. Going to the closest town of 40,000 10 miles away was almost considered a treat (except that it usually meant that you were shopping), but it was always the place where we purchased our goods such as groceries. Going an hour and half away to the "big city" - Indianapolis - was a rarity and considered fairly unnecessary most of the time. So this was a rural town where it was fairly accepted that you didn't have a lot of money, but you were close to family and making due.

My dad during this time worked for Delco Electronics and continued as a reservist at Grissom Air Force Base. He made a very good living and I think enjoyed his work. We always had enough money for doing many of the things that we wanted to do. I had two younger brothers and we all were involved in many different activities, although I think we were the most active as my family spent a small fortune travelling around, eating out, and staying in hotels for my swimming meets on many weekends. My point here is that I cannot remember a time ever going without. In fact, I can remember many Christmases with gifts scattered across the floor (keep in mind there were three of us) when - after I found out the digs on Santa - I thought that it really must have cost quite a lot of all of those gifts.

We always had pretty nice cars, usually some type of 4-door Oldsmobile or (God-forbid) a grocery-getting station wagon. All in all, though, we didn't seem much different from everyone else in our little town.

I'm trying to describe an average little family in a small town because, in truth, I have no idea how much money my dad made. That point actually was intentional. I can remember several times being told that the family's finances were none of my business and that I had several other things to concern myself with. I can remember one time, specifically, coming down late in the evening to my parents paying bills, trying to look at what was happening, and the papers being pulled back and shuffled to obscure my view of what was on the table.

I don't have ill feelings about any of this. I think that these reactions were a product of their parents who lived through the depression where money was something to be held close to the vest, to be used wisely, not flaunted nor discussed. As an example of this, I remember my grandpa telling me how he was disgusted with some of the gas stations in town and how one would raise prices and the rest would go right along with them. He said he would drive five miles across town to find the cheapest gas because he wanted to reward those businesses that kept their prices low with his business. It seems extreme, but this is also a man who lived poorly as a boy - again during the depression - selling (I believe) newspapers from one person to the next trying to make a small amount of money to contribute to his own well-being.

Around this time as I was growing up, my grandparents on my mom's side farmed for a living. My aunt and uncle also worked closely with them and it was a family affair. I can remember many times going to the farm to help during planting and harvesting times as my parents would drive a tractor or help out in some other way. They had quite an operation going at the time and I know that there was a decision to try and expand by buying newer equipment that could handle farming more land in a quicker amount of time. Shortly after purchasing this equipment, though, agricultural prices on the market dropped through the floor and they weren't able to sell their grains or livestock for the prices that were needed to keep the farming business afloat. I didn't understand all of this until much later - again, very little was explained to us - but I do remember selling off much of the equipment and their getting out of the corn and beans business. I didn't realize until this last year that they had actually gone bankrupt in the business, but I did know that my uncle was going to find another job, and that it seemed that the family was trying to scrape by at times by working for other farming operations in the area that had survived the market fall. That side of my family has never been the same. Looking back, I've realized that when we lost the commonality of purpose with the farm, there seems to be a lot of loss of relationship amongst the family members that has lingering effects even today.

When I was in high school, we moved around to several different places, some because of the problems with the schools, and some because of my dad taking a new job with Delta Airlines. He started off as a "third-seat" engineer in the 727 which is the bottom of the totem pole, but I think that the move still gave him a raise in salary. It was also during this time that my Dad went to Desert Storm. I think he was a Lieutenant Colonel at the time and helped coordinate and command many of the flights happening out of Saudi Arabia into Iraq. Again, I don't know too much about the financial situation here, but I do remember my mom saying that of course she missed dad terribly, but the active duty and "in harm's way" pay sure did help us at home.

After dad returned home, we made another move into southern Indiana where we moved into one of the biggest houses I had ever been in, let alone lived in. We had never lived in shacks before, but the houses were frequently rented as we moved each year during high school. This house, though, had just been built and was incredible for its size and just being a nice home. I really felt that, for some reason, we had made it. Beyond just having a nice home, mom and dad also put a lot of nice touches on the house by adding a nice in-ground pool and fenced-in area, a great basketball goal/court in the driveway, and lots of other touches in and around the house. My parents had also just purchased a car for me, so it really seemed that we were on our way up.

During this time, I had been accepted to a couple of colleges, although not for my original choice at Purdue. I was going to try for the aviation program there, but in the early nineties, it was a very competitive atmosphere to get into this program. My SATs weren't very high and this kept me out of this school as well as the Air Force Academy and some other schools I had applied to such as Princeton and others like it for sports scholarships.

I decided that something I enjoyed and thought I could do for the rest of my life was music, specifically teaching music as a band director. I went to school the first year with a very small scholarship and my parents picking up the rest of the tab without my thinking of it. I was very grateful at the time and - especially since Gina and I have paid for her student loan - continue to be to this day. This motivated me to work hard through my college years, at times taking more classes and hours than advised so I could graduate on time, even with a semester's worth of student teaching in the mix of courses I had to take.

In my last summer break before the end of college, I worked for a company called Triple A Student Painters where I managed several employees and, over the course of three or four months, was able to gross approximately $41,000 in sales. I didn't really realize the accomplishment of that amount at the time because that was the goal that the company put up as the bar for a successful summer. Looking back, though, I wonder if I would be able to do the same today. It did teach me the lesson of hard work being the one of the top keys to financial success because I knew nothing of the business I was in. It was sheer physical effort and a commitment to being a success that brought me to the place where I was able to achieve at that level.

My wife and I graduated from college and were married shortly after this and I was able to pay for her ring out of the money I made with Student Painters that previous summer. Since that time, I have been much less steady in my job selection than she has. I was going to be a band director, but shortly learned that I wanted nothing to do with this job (no money, long-long hours, and an incredible bureaucracy). I looked at driving trucks, tried Amway for a short time, sold cars, and waited tables. Of course I wanted to make a lot of money, but the two things that were most important to me were to make sure to make enough to help support Gina and I and to figure out what I enjoyed doing to be passionate about it for the rest of my life. I figured that if I was happy with and passionate about my vocation, I certainly have a better chance at making the type of living that I had hoped for.

I can't say that I have necessarily achieved those goals of making my vocation something that I am passionate about, but I do make a good living. In 1997, I found a headhunter who placed me in the publishing industry. I had this background with Student Painters, so they figured that I had an aptitude to sell, plus I was an education major, so they also thought that I could fit in with college professors.

After working for a couple of years as an inside rep, we wanted to buy a house in Indianapolis. We thought that the most economical way to do this was to build a new home from the set of tracts that a building company offered in the area. We had put down $500 to hold our lot as earnest money, began to select our options for the home and the foundational footers had just gone in when Macmillan offered me a job as an outside rep in the St. Louis area. We had to do a lot of quick backpedaling with the building company, offering to give them the $500 if they let us out of the contract that would have charged us $10,000 (or something like that) for breaking our deal with them. I think they understood that we were young and dumb and allowed us out of the contract, keeping our $500.

At the time Macmillan offered me the job, they also offered me $10,000 to move. I couldn't believe that I was hearing that they were willing to offer me that amount of money, so I confirmed it with my manager and sure enough - that was the number. We immediately went to St. Louis, found a house that we really liked, then spent the next two weeks wrangling over a price. We were ready to move a few weeks later when I received a call from the Vice President at Macmillan who told me that they weren't going to pay me the 10k after all, but would be willing to reimburse me that amount of money in moving expenses. That put a different spin on the deal because I had pledged a good-sized portion of that money as a down-payment on the house. After more wrangling and being threatened with a lawsuit for backing out of the contract, we decided to ask our parents for the down-payment on the loan and Gina's parents decided that they would help us. This all happened in a matter of two or three days, so we felt very fortunate indeed. I'm not sure how, but we were able, over the next six months, to pay off that $5000 to them and it hasn't been spoken of since.

I worked for Macmillan as an outside rep for three months when the company was sold and I was eventually out of a job. I ended up finding another position pretty quickly as this was at the height of the internet boom. I worked for an web development company for nine months when I again lost my job as the company went under. Two months later I found another job back in publishing, this time with the company that forced me out of the industry in the first place. All during this time, either because of severance payments, late-paid bonus money, or signing bonuses, we never missed a paycheck. It was a time where I learned that even in a helpless position, God would take care of us.

During this time, Gina and I also learned the value of the tithe. This hadn't been modeled for either of us growing up, but we decided that we needed to be faithful in our giving with at least 10% of our income going to God. At first we started by tithing off of the our net income, but shortly thereafter moved to tithing from the gross. It stretched us each time we made the decision and we ended up having to rebudget our monthly allowances but always making things work. We've also given to missionaries and other Christian works as we thought were appropriate. In total, I would say that we have been giving approximately 13% of our income over the last couple of years.

When Hannah came along, I didn't know if we were ready to have a baby or not. We were sure that we wanted Gina to stay home with her, to raise the baby full-time, but I had always heard that babies were very expensive and that I was in for sticker-shock when I started to see how much diapers would cost. Gina at the time was working for Discovery Church and she was allowed to work from our home part-time. Luckily for me, I didn't have to worry about the sticker-shock with the diapers because, since she was going to be home all of the time, she was also going to begin taking on the finances, paying the bills, etc.

A few months later, Gina resigned her position at Discovery and we have since tightened the belt even further to do away with much of our eating out or spending on most frivolous types of expenses. While we haven't liked it, there have been times when we have had to use the credit card and pay for groceries or just regular essentials - toothpaste, soap, or other sundries. We continued to be taken care of, though, because during this time my salary has slowly crept up to the point where I have been able to meet all of our expenses at just over $50,000 per year.

A lot of our decisions - to buy a new house, to purchase this car or get this item - have increased our expenses to the point where we have not been able to save anything. Our situation currently is that we have no savings whatsoever with a little debt (at least as far as most people go). Certainly it can be said that we live perilously with our finances. While we do have insurance coverages with my company, we don't have anything saved in the case of me losing my job or some other type of change in our situation. This came back to bite us for the first time recently as we applied for a loan to open a new business. Looking at our finances, the banks said that they would not be willing to loan us the money because there were no resources from which we could draw if our monies were to temporarily dry up in the business.

We have recently begun to make moves to change the situation we are in, though. In a couple of months we will pay off all of our debts save the mortgage on our house. Regarding the house, we were able to refinance the mortgage to the place of saving a couple-hundred dollars per month, so between those two actions we are going to be able to give more money to people who are in need and begin saving approximately $500 per month. Obviously, we're very excited about these possibilies and really looking forward to seeing where we will head in the future.

Generally, I've always felt like money was a tool, that it was simply a means to an end. I've never (obviously) hoarded it or coveted my possessions in what I would consider an unhealthy fashion. I prefer to be generous with my money as I like to be able to pick up restaurant checks or other expenses, but I have felt at times that we have been limited in this capacity. In truth, we have a lot of the things we have - computer, a van, gas and insurance for the van, office, etc. because of the job I have and the company picking up the tab on many of these items. I don't feel that I deserve much of what I have been given and try to hold onto my possessions as loosely as possible without being foolish or a bad steward of what I have been given. I don't know that I accomplish this all or even much of the time, but being someone who tries to live out "what is mine is yours", I can say that it is very purposeful in my thoughts about money. All in all, while it sounds like "Christian-ese", I do believe that God has given me all that I have and has sustained me through the most difficult and uncertain of times. Like many things, then, it is simply my job to be the conduit through which God will move to utilize these resources.