Bad News

May 1, 2008 by
Filed under: Life, Religion, Work 

I got some bad news at work.  Most of it is “company classified”, but there is one piece that I feel pretty free to share.  No raises this year for anybody.  No layoffs yet either … for now.

This left me in the unfortunate position of having to send an e-mail to our church’s “guy who tracks pledges” reducing my budget pledge for the year (but not the capital pledge – I already paid that in full).  In the fall we had been exhorted to pledge boldly (even recklessly) believing that God would provide.  One of the stewardship team actually made that his Minute at the beginning of worship.  He talked about how when his personal finances were stressed he chose to pledge boldly and how God provided good financial news later in the year.  Let’s just say that it hasn’t happened for me yet – it’s going the other way.  So I have to take back the 20% pledge increase over last year and give at last year’s rate for the rest of the year.  Even so, I know that other families in the church are hurting more.

We’re not in dire financial straits yet.  We are still saving at the same rate, but the “unbudgeted” savings that resulted from the times that the paycheck was bringing in more than expenses (minus the planned savings) aren’t happening.  A surprise bonus from work (from last year’s project work) and the tax refund both went in and out of the checking account at such speed that other papers were sent flying in their wake.  We’re not quite at the point where we need to reduce the saving rate, but we are at the point where the rest of the budget is just breaking even.  I’ve already taken the step of eliminating an expensive hobby (flying) and I’m holding off on buying ham radio equipment for the new hobby.  We’re right at the point where we’ve reduced discretionary expenses as much as possible, and if things get worse (pay cut, job loss, even more expensive food or gas) we’ll need to start making lifestyle cuts.  There is still a lot of room to make lifestyle cuts before we reach the point that some families are in – mainly because Carolyn and I (mostly Carolyn) are VERY conservative with money.  Our mortgage is fixed at a very comfortable rate and we have ZERO credit card debt (thanks, Mom and Dad for teaching fiscal responsibility).
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I think we’ll survive the downturn intact and probably better than most, but only because we’re prepared.

But it still hurts.  If we’re feeling the pinch, how much worse can it be for those who didn’t collect their nuts for the winter?  (Or even those whose nuts were stolen by others?)

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