The times, they are a changing.
Posted
Friday, August 22, 2008 7:19 AM
For the past two years, life has been somewhat on hold for us. It feels as if so many decisions are still up in the air until I finish school next year. For starters, we're not sure if we want to stay in Erie due to the possibility of limited job opportunities for me, we're not sure if we'll buy a house or just stay in the one we currently live in for awhile longer, Mike is growing unhappy with his job and isn't sure what he wants to do or where he wants to work, and the list goes on and on. Now, to throw even more confusion into the mix, Mike decided yesturday that he wants to apply for an apprenticeship program at a national corporation in our area. With the job that he currently has, he'll have the skills and the training to do well at the corporation and I'm very supportive of him switching jobs if it's what he wants to do. The most exciting part of this revelation is that the apprenticeship program will pay 100% for him to go back to school to finish his Mechanial Engineering Technology degree and will contract with him to guarantee him a job for 4 years after he's graduated. I'm floored! I place a very high value on education personally and have really wanted him to go back for years now but I knew that he had to want to go back for himself or it would just be a waste of time. Apparantly, his older brother went through this program and has been with the company for over 10 years now and truly loves his job. I told Mike I would help him update his resume this weekend so wish him luck!
We've also been tossing around another big idea. Mike suggested that it might be wise of us to purchase our current home from his mom since we've really been fixing up the place and really do love the home. That way, we could build some equity and then sell it when the time comes for us to move to the country (or out of state as the case may be). I almost always tell MM posters not to mix business and family and I have to admit, I really don't want to potentially ruin our relationship with his parents. According to my MIL, she would be willing to sell us the house for a fraction of what it is worth and we would simply make payments to her rather than going through a bank for the mortgage. She would also give us an interest rate of around 3%. Lucky for us, MIL is very much a "no strings attached" person but I've already warned Mike that if this is the course we decide to take, that I'm going to consider the transaction as strictly business and conduct myself as if MIL was not family. There are alot of major things that need to be done to the home still that, as renters, we were not planning on fixing due to the cost such as: all of the windows are original to the home and need to be replaced, there is some water damage in the basement that will need to be taken care of, and the back part of the driveway is starting to get some major cracks and will need to eventually be replaced. All of these factors will play into what I'd be willing to pay for the home. If we did go this route, I would want a professional appraiser to come in so that we could get a non-partial figure as to what the house is actually worth. We'd also have to consider getting a lawyer to draw up a contract for us should anything go south. Obviously, we've got alot to consider here before jumping in.
It all just makes me wonder where a baby is going to fit into all of this. If I'm not pregnant by the time I secure another job next year, then we're going to have to put TTC on hold for a year until I'll qualify for FMLA. But, if I get pregnant beforehand and can stay at my current job long enough to come back from maternity leave, the clock will be ticking for me as I'll have (hopefully) passed my CFP exam next July and will only have 5 years to work 3 years in the field before becoming fully certified. Then there's grad school. It's all just so confusing. I feel like I want it all and all at the same time which obviously isn't possible.
I'm actually glad that we don't have many plans for this weekend as it seems as if we've got alot of discussing to do.