Paying The Bills

Ocho Cinco has made millions and millions of dollars during the last 7 years of making highlights in Paul Brown Stadium, a facility built entirely with Hamilton County taxpayers' dollars. And yet, somehow, he's been unable to pay his property taxes on his Walnut Hills condo. $13k to Ocho Broke-o is approximately equivalent to the nickels and dimes in my Pimp Boat's ashtray. Chump change.

Michael Jackson has obviously lost his mind, if he ever had it to begin with. And although he's made hundreds of millions of dollars over the course of his musical/weirdo career, he's been unable to pay the bills at his molestation lair carnival home.

Jose Canseco, Ed McMahon, Evander Holyfield, Latrell Sprewell -- these are just the most recent ones off the top of my head -- are in the same boat... well... Sprewell's boat was repossessed, but you get my point.

According to the most recent IRS stats I've seen, my household's income is about 33% less than the national average. (For those of you who are not stat geeks, that is a VERY statistically-significant percentage.) While having a middle-class income, we've managed to always pay our bills. We've never paid even a penny of credit card interest. We've never visited one of the dreaded payday theives lenders. And as long as nothing catastrophic happens, our house will be paid off before Toby graduates from high school.

How is this possible?! Well, as Dave Ramsey suggests, we act our wage. On our income level, we can't afford expensive homes or vehicles. We bought a home that requires a $600-ish monthly mortgage for 15 years. We have a used 2000 Toyota and a very used filthy, disgusting, how in the world is it still alive? 1994 Pimp Boat. When these die, we'll obtain some sort of other affordable transportation.

Sure, we go out to eat sometimes, and we buy stuff, but we try not to be too whimsical about it. We communicate with each other before we buy anything that isn't a budgeted necessity. (Within reason, of course. Robyn doesn't need "permission" to get pictures developed, nor do I to pick up guitar strings. It's not a strict budget, and there is some cushion, but we're on the same page: we don't want debt, and we should be able to avoid it.

I hope I don't lose my job tomorrow. If I did, things would certainly tighten up. But we've set ourselves up (with affordable housing and transportation) to be able to survive for awhile, debt-free, even in case of an emergency season of life.

How the Chad Johnsons, Jose Cansecos, and Ed McMahons of the world and their multi-million dollar income levels aren't able to do the same is incomprehensible to me. It's not the easiest thing in the world, but it's not that hard, either.

(It wouldn't be fair to the elder members of my family if I didn't at least mention them in this post. My parents and grandparents don't share identical financial beliefs as my wife and me, but their example of fiscal responsibility certainly deserves some of the credit for my family being in reasonable financial standing. I can't really imagine being where we are today without their sometimes extreme example.)