Money Problem Numero Uno

Ignorance is bliss, isn't that what they say? Aahhh...how blissful my life has been the past 25 years. That is, until I woke up one day and realized, "Crap. I'm getting old." I want a house! I want kids! I want to start thinking about retirement even though I have only been workin for 3 years and damn the teacher retirement system and their ridiculous belief that I have to work 35 years. (Don't worry! Only 32 years left...)

In other words, I had long-terms goals that I want to achieve now, now, NOW. And I am in no position to reach them. This is because I am extremely ignorant about money. When I mean ignorant, I mean like Megan on Rock of Love. Oh come on. I know you watch it, too.

Until recently, like last week, I didn't even know what we had in our bank account. And neither did my husband! It's pathetic. We just spend money. And it's not like we have money to spend. We don't! He is starting out in a new career and is currently on the "Bitch" level. And, hello, I'm a teacher!

My husband has no 401K and he is 28. I have no idea about retirement money except I contribute to a fund but I'm pretty sure the corrupt IL government has sucked the money out of the TRS fund. I don't even know. Hopefully 32 years from now I will just start receiving checks because that is what I'm banking on.

Since we don't know how much money we have, it's clear that we don't have a budget. We just spend whatever we want on whatever we want. We live in a house rent-free, so it's not like we have a house payment...therefore, I want new Coach purse, I get new Coach purse. (And I LOVE Coach purses, so it's worked out really well for me.) However, now I need to look beyond my purse, as it has recently occured to me that I cannot live in my purse. Yes people, that took 25 years to realize.

Therefore, we are beginning our adventure by trying to start a budget. However, before we actually start a budget we are just trying to track our spending for a month to see where the money is going. Then, next month we can see how much we spend on bills (damn you, bills) and ridiculous things (damn you, Taco Bell).

I mean, with two incomes (very, very small incomes, though) and no house payment, we should be saving more money than we are right now....

And that, my friends, is the first problem that Mrs. Young and Broke is experiencing: Ignorance. But fear not, I am on my way to knowledge. Semi-knowledge really, but knowledge nonetheless.

Ciao!