I live, write, and garden in the PNW with my husband of 27 years, disabled daughter, college-aged son, and my 84-year-old mother. We have paid off $250,000.00 worth of debt (if you include the interest) in the last fifteen years and as of 6/12/2020 are 100% DEBT FREE!!!!DH had his performance review today and life suddenly got a whole lot easier. His boss, his boss's boss, and the company president were all there for the review. The company freaking president. It was a massively glowing review. DH probably could have been seen from space, it was so glowing.
Now, previously his boss had told him to expect something that would make him fall on the floor if he got what was put in for. My response to that when DH told me was that the only thing that would make me fall on the floor would be going up to $150K, but I'd be happy with anything to help with the massive inflation.
Well, my dears, they didn't even hesitate to sign off on what was requested. Let's just say that we have both collapsed in a heap. DH got a $22,624 a year raise. That is 17.8%. So is that $150K salary? No, but that's quibbling. It's $149,816 a year. So close enough in my mind! Plus he works several weeks of 10 to 20 hours of overtime a year, so it'll probably be closer to $160K when all is said and done.
DH said the amount of his raise was the amount of his salary the very first year he started at an engineering company fresh out of technical college, about six months before we got married. I remember living on that and deciding to have a baby. We lived on love, faith, and hope. Well, we aren't living on hope anymore. We're back to being on dry land, no more treading water and no more sinking.
DH is now where he was while working in Alaska in 2015 before the lay off that wiped out our savings and put us years behind where we could have been if all had gone well. Only now he's not on hazard pay, he's home, the benefits are better, he's pretty much guaranteed a job for the rest of his working life assuming the company stays solid, and we don't have to pay for airfare to get to Alaska or a mortgage or a car payment or any debt at all. And when we do inherit the house from my mother, we will be able to pay the property taxes. It's like a massive weight has been taken off my shoulders. I praise God for this so much. DH has worked so hard for this company, they've noticed, and it has paid off in spades.
But the biggest, most important thing in this is that if the appeal to keep our daughter on DH's medical due to disability doesn't work, we can afford to pay for her insurance without wiping out our entire emergency fund and still have money leftover. And that feels like the weight of the world has been lifted off of all of our shoulders.
And now I can rebuild the Emergency Fund. I had to take out $7000 for repairing a rotten bathroom floor and fixing a plumbing leak. We will probably have to completely rip out the bathroom/shower and put in a new one, too. But at least we didn't drain the fund. There is still $13,285.51 in it. We will get it back up again.
Then maybe we can save up so DS can go to school and become an electrician or engineer like he is interested in. We haven't been able to afford it since this is such a high cost of living area. Now maybe we can. Technical college is not as expensive as other colleges and ours offers a bachelor's degree in engineering at a third of the cost as our university does.
And after that, I want to get a solar system for the house. That has always seemed like a pipedream, but who knows now? If we can replace at least half of our energy costs for the year, that would be great. Maybe we can get one by 2030. I don't want to get too far ahead of myself, but yeah. Maybe.
Anyway, I am raising a glass of cyber champagne high. Cheers!
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