Come along...

I would like to invite you along on a journey of financial turmoil. My husband and I are in a position that is not as uncommon as we're all pretending. We are both college graduates, we are young professionals; we're all in all, upstanding citizens. We're also broke and have trouble seeing the way out of a pit of bills, student loan debt, credit card debt, and a house we bought in need of lots of home improvement projects.

The objective of this blog is to provide a little group therapy, some hope, possibly inspiration, definitely comic relief, and above all else the knowledge that you are not alone. Someone else out there is struggling too. So come on along, we’ll cry together when we overdraw our checking accounts, we’ll high-five when we pay off credit cards, we’ll vent our anger at the credit system, we’ll laugh at the mess we’re in and courageously move forward one day at time. Or perhaps one paycheck at a time.

One thing I want to focus on is that money does not buy happiness. We all say that, and I truly believe that, but living that mantra has proved to be quite a bit more difficult. Recently I was watching a show that featured children in impoverished India. These children were in rags, running through streets buried in trash, their dark eyes filled with hunger, yet were laughing and playing with the biggest smiles on their faces like a fat kid at a pie eating contest. Where is this joy coming from? How dare I worry about money while they worry about clean water.

I want my life’s focus to be on happiness and love. I want to find ways to live better, with less. I want to not worry. I want to not want.

So our adventure ensues, to battle for financial security in an economic insecure time and to pursue the kind of joy only children who don’t pay bills seem to have.