My fellow maintenance profesional and I were in the office this morning talking about a sweet gas powered RC boat he used to own.  It was in the racing style and almost 5 feet in length!  being a craftsman of sorts I was really drawn to the challenge of building a boat of this sort.  Seeing your idea come to life has always been somthing I really liked.  But then I got thinking, were would I put such a boat once it was built?  How would I come up with the thousand dollars in materials and parts it would take to construct somthing this bad ass?  what sacrifices would I have to make and would they be justified by the joy and satisfaction it delivered to me?  

    Once I purchased a brand new 2003 Harley Davidson Road King.  It was the only time I have ever got a new vehicle and man, was she somthing!  It had the looks, power, and comfort.  Everything I had ever wanted in a motorcycle!  Life was good with my roadie till I took on a house and a family.  In my single days the money didn't seem to matter.  In my family days it was a healthy burden.  Although the bike gave me pleasure on a ride it was causeing a reduction in my real income every minute of every day.  In the middle of winter I was still making that bike payment.  If somebody would have walked up to me at the dealership and said to me "hey pal, ill give you a 4 dollar an hour raise for the next 5 years if you don't buy that bike" I would have been walking right out of there.  But, that is pretty much exactly what that bike did to me.  It removed a chunk of income from me that was hard to justify.  

    Sure I sold that bike for a lot of money but it still ended up costing me about 7 grand to own a nice harley for like 4 years.  I could have spent that money on a trip around europe and it would have been much more memorable.  Or I could have put it in an IRA and retired about 4 years early......wow.

    So needless to say, I won't be starting construction on my new rc cigarette boat anytime soon.  I feel like the better I become at recognizing my irrational desire to aquire things the easyer it will be to avoid.  And then I will have money i can spend in a way more compatable with my new lifestyle.

    One thing you may not know about me is I work at a retirement home.  I am a maintenance man at a 80 bed facility in the upper midwest.  One of my many jobs is to move residents in, out, or from one room to the next.  Aside from the ocational hoarder, most of these residents travel pretty light.  Usually you can move someone in two cart loads or less.  When a resident goes to hospice, they seldom take more then a change of cloths and maybe a picture or two.  

     I have noticed the older a resident is when they arrive here, the less they tend to bring with them.  The trend has led me to ponder materialism more then once, but today I was considering the subject in a little more depth. 

     Certainly, a common saying in life is "you can't take it with you".  I feel like that is a little misleading.  It should read more like "you will have to give it away or throw it away later"  or maybe "work hard to collect a pile of crap for your kids to deal with".  The fact is, you will spend the twilight of your life downsizing.

     I wonder how many items these people look at once they are no longer of any use and say "boy, that was a waste of money".  Every item you thought was so important at the time of perchase will be meaningless.  At some point you will let it all go.  There will come a day when you will lie in a bed with little more than a change of cloths and a few photographs, and none of those silly possesions will matter.  

   Yesterday I joined a Fitness club.  I was undeceded for a very long time as to what route to take on this one.  Anytime Fitness was really calling out to me.  The 24/7 schedual not only would mean I could shower or use the rest room any time, day or night.  It also meant I could camp out in the parking lot and not be viewed as suspicious.  As an added bonus, I could use any one of thousands of anytime fitness centers across the country wile I traveled.

   Option #2 was West Hills fitness center.  Its a local operation that is managed by the city of Owatonna.  They have weekday hours of 6 am to 9 pm.  Pluses include a large locker room with multiple showers (anytime just had a bathroom with a shower in it), a swimming pool and sauna, and a running track and basketball courts.

    The biggest benifit though was the contract or lack thereof.  At west hills I can go monthly were at Anytime I have to buy a year!  I am sorry, but I just am not in the mood for a commitment right now and I feel confident that I will have plenty of parking options. Not to mention west hills is WAY less crowded even during January!  I think it will be a good match for my needs and at $38.50 per month out the door price I feel like that is a bargan.  And if it proves not to be?  Well, at least I am not stuck in a contract!

    The one thing i am really concerned about with my van living plans is putting all my eggs in one basket.  If something were to happen to my van it would be devistating!  that could come in an array of forms from hitting a deer to outright theft.  In my mind, I dissmissed this by considering that savings from my new, cheap as dirt, lifestyle would easily offset setbacks and repairs i would encounter.  

    Then this morning came along.  Creeping across the gas station parking lot and pop, there goes my brakes.  It is going to be a $500 bill to replace two bad lines and wheel cyclinders and shoes and drums.  Thats money I really don't have right now!  What happens if they hold my vehicle?  I just do not have a finacial cushion to absorb these bumps at this time. The good news is they have a firestone credit card i can charge the repairs to.  

     So how does this effect the big picture?  What changes can i make to decrease the likelyhood of getting myself into situations like this in the future and how can I better prepare myself for their inevitable arrival?  Any time the van moves it is at risk of being wrecked or breaking down.  Any time I leave the van it could get towed away by some self righteous buisness owner or broken into.  The more i think about it the more concerning it becomes.

    Until something else occurred to me.  bad things happen to people in all sorts of living situations.  Apartments get broken into, and houses burn down.  The major difference being: if I move into an apartment I will be financially drained all the time.  I would have even less of a safety net then i have right now!  My goal must be to get my money in order as soon as possible so i can mitigate these impacts.  As master Yoda teaches, learn to let go of all you fear to lose.  If I do that, even if I need to start over buying a new van, I will have the credit and income to cover it.   

     I hope to talk more on this blog about money and how it impacts us real people in the real world.  For now, just wish me luck down at the repair shop this afternoon!

     Last night we were in for a decent looking ice storm for southern Minnesota.  I figured it would be logical to crash out at work so I didn't have to worry about the road conditions come morning.  This would be a good time to see how my efforts had paid off.

     In our parking lot there was no good place to park that was not under some pretty heavy lighting.  even so, it was not dreadfully bright inside the van.  The furnace performed flawlessly through the night and it was quiet and comfortable.  I could have had a better pillow but thats a minor detail.  I have been meaning to build a shelf for the window side of the bunk.  I think i will add a short curtain to that shelf to cover the window.  I didn't feel like the light entering the front window was very offputting though

     This morning at work I had a coworker comment on how she was discussing my van with another coworker.  They were asking if we had a homeless person living in our parking lot.  It would seem that I will not be able to stay at work if i am to keep my van living situation out of conversations.  Its too bad too.  The lot at work would have been crime free and quiet.  Not to mention very handy when i am on call and need to respond to a problem.