Today

Today:

Husband has staff meeting till 9 pm tonight - great. boooo.

On a happy note, I am 100% done with finals!

Please let it be Saturday already! [Utah bound] 

We are ready for Christmas around here!

Big News..

So we have some big news to tell everyone!!  

Are you ready??

Let me spoil it right now for some of you: NO, I'm not pregnant.

HAHA.

But it is big news, really!

Mitch's contract with Teach for America is a two year deal.  That two years is over in May of 2013. 

So many people have asked, "Why is he teaching, anyway?"  Mitch is a Business Strategy major, and teaching was a temporary thing 2-year thing - Teach for America is good to get into grad school and give back to the community.  Most people who do it aren't actually teaching majors, but rather business, pre-med, etc.

So, knowing that, he started looking a few months ago for our next job (something in business/consulting) to prep us for grad school.

The smarty pants got three offers within weeks:

1) Epic - Madison, Wisconsin

2) Deloitte Consulting - Austin, Texas

3) Cicero Group - Salt Lake City, Utah

They were all great offers, really.  We felt overwhelmed with how blessed we were, knowing that having the opportunity to choose between job offers is so rare in this economy. 

That said, it was an incredibly difficult decision.

After much thought, we decided our hearts were set on Austin.  Never have we been so in love with a city!  That was Mitch's dream job since he started college, the people he would work with were unbelievably nice, and University of Texas is my dream college. It was perfect!

But something was pulling us towards the job in Salt Lake.  Throughout numerous experiences, we felt like it was undoubtedly the place we are supposed to be.  

So, in short, we are moving to Salt Lake City.

We are really excited, and most of all we know that it is where we are supposed to be.  

Education is so, so important to Mitch. Seriously, I have never met anyone who loves learning as much as he does.  When he starts his job there, he also gets to start a degree in Master's of Predictive Analytics from Northwestern University. 

[proud wife]

After that, he gets another opportunity to get his MBA as well. 

Cicero is in the heart of Salt Lake City.  So that is most likely the area where we will live.  This company is awesome.  They value everything Mitch values. I think he will excel there just as he has here. We are really happy!

Meanwhile, I will finish up my degree in Marriage & Family Studies.  Afterwards, I'll get my Master's in Marriage and Family Therapy and my dream would be to be able to have my own practice.

We are so blessed!  I am grateful for a husband who knows the meaning of hard work and the value of education. He is the ultimate example for me!

We are sooo excited to be with our close friends and families again. But we will also have an immense amount of heartache leaving these wonderful people and this wonderful place we have loved to call home.

Those are what our next few years look like, and we are thrilled!

While Cleaning Out My Facebook...

While attempting to clean out my facebook friends/messages/invites/everything [I feel like it is so cluttered.. OCD?] I found this little gem:

I like this for three reasons.
One) It is so UNLIKE Mitch to have asked me out on our first date via Facebook. Although he did do it all coyly.
Two) It is so LIKE Mitch to not plan ahead and not ask me in advance, rather ask me out on a date for that same day. Therefore why I couldn't go.
Three) After I responded, we just used our phones from then on.  But this next random Facebook message made my day.
      a) One day he found out my middle name and from that day forth my nickname has been Rish.  That was so Mitch.
      b)It is the shortest and simplest message ever. And just because he said it, made me get butterflies.  He can do that.
      c)The whole 'without wax', I learned later, had some huge historical story behind it and why he said it.  No one has ever heard that before.  Sooo Mitch.



He is one of a kind.  And I am really glad he sent that message.

Good day.

My entire day consisted of sitting in front of my cricut for about 4 1/2 hours, glue on every finger,  followed by a last minute run to HEB to get desserts for tonight and somewhere in between, pulling myself together to be at least somewhat presentable.

I love my calling.

This is a combination of my YW leader's creativity from when I was in Young Women's (now my mother in law) and my mother's. Thank you, thank you very much. [haha!]

This girl is golden. Let's talk about being the only member of your family, starting at age 15.  She is now 17 and is completing Personal Progress for the second time.  She literally blows me away. Blessed to even know her.

(oh and that cute face in the middle is the sweetest thing in the whole entire world.. love you missy)

Strong connection with these two beauties!!

My beautiful girls.  They did an amazing job tonight.

Are you jealous?! :)

What do you love about your ward/calling? 

finally.

While sitting in the airport, alone, an older lady came and sat by me.

My thought process: Great. I guarantee she is going to ask me some question, I'll answer, and then she will correct my improper Spanish as most older ones do.

Look, I speak Spanish, and I speak the Spanish I know.  To sum it up, I was never taught the mega-proper, original Spanish. Not that I wouldn't want to, it is just a whole different story.

Sure enough she asked me a question, as most old people do, and I responded. Waiting for the forthcoming attack on this generation and the lack of respect when it comes to addressing your elders.
...

"Que bueno, mijita."

TADA!!

.... I did it?  I spoke right? Could it be I am starting to acclimate to this culture and language?

My Not-So-Expert Advice

This is for a few girls who asked me how I manage our money, and I decided to explain our money routine here because it is a lot easier than typing it on a teeny little instagram screen!

So first of all... I am in no way an expert at this haha.. so I am quite flattered that anyone would care to ask! We do, however, manage to have a good lifestyle on a modest, recent-grad salary.
So, I will do my best to explain!

Now I do all of our budgeting off of a percent system.  I will give a breakdown for you at the end, I promise.

For Starters

I'll start with basic living expenses.

Experts recommend that rent/housing should be in the ballpark of 25-30% of your net income.  Our rent falls at 21%, and we use another 3 ish% for other housing expenses, like electricity and renter's insurance.

Total housing= 24%, roughly.  Also depending on summer or winter utilities.
We are left with essentially 75% of our income after housing. That should be most people's goal.

Cars

The recommended percentage for transportation is at 15% of your net income.

We have no car payments.  That is a biggie- some people spend a lottt of $$$ on cars. We have been fortunate that way.

Insurance- we have full coverage on our Acura, and just liability on our Mazda.  We did that because our Acura is a nicer and far more expensive car, and our Mazda.. well.. we would probably thank someone if they stole it.  Car insurance comes out to $98 a month for both - a way good deal after hours of searching one day.

I plan on having both our cars' oil changed every 3 months give or take.  Since Mitch refuses to take our cars anywhere but the dealership to get their maintenance done (after a bad experience at a local shop), it is a tad pricier than normal.  I keep $20 a month for car maintenance.  When the time comes, its not an unexpected, big expense.

We spend 4% of our income on our cars themselves.

(pretty good ;) )

Gas is another story. Our Acura is an SUV and gets okay mpg, but my Mazda will go and go.  We end up spending about 9% of our income on gas.

Total for cars, around 13% of our net income.

Food

We love good food.  Like I mean seriously- we love love love food.  We go out a ton to eat at both favorite and new places.  We love ethnic and different food and exploring different cultures... it's a hobby of ours.  We love to try new things together.  Mitch served his mission in the West Indies (by Barbados) and since then, he will eat anything. Since marrying him, I've come around to enjoying some of those things myself.  Some.

Mitch in Suriname

Needless to say, this is a large expense, as it is what a large majority of our entertainment comes from.  Groceries vary week to week, but I have set a budget of 11% of our income per month for groceries.. about $100 dollars a week.  Now before saying "That is way too much!", #1) ALL detergents, soaps, toiletries, filters, cleaners, etc comes from that.  Basically anything I would get at a normal grocery store, has to fall into that budget.  #2) I am not into couponing... but I would love to learn sometime.

Eating out- when I was working, we ate out a lot more because the last thing I wanted to do was come home and work more! Since being at home and doing school, I have more time to cook.  

Bottom line, we usually eat out once a week usually on a weekend, and occasionally one more time during the week we will get take out. So usually one- but occasionally one + a low cost take out.  I'll go ahead and say that the weekend meal is usually around $30+ for just the two of us, and the take out around $15 ish.  Another percent, I know, but this is 6% or so of our income.

Total for food- around 17%.

That is on the high side, like I said! But so worth it:)

Okay.  So far, we have housing, transportation, and food covered- basic necessities.  We still have 54% left of our income!! 

What's left?  Entertainment (besides eating out:) ), savings, school, and of course tithing. 

Entertainment

Now, there are two parts to this.

A big part of this budget is monthly things, that we plan on and are entertainment: TV satellite, netflix, subscriptions, etc. This is about 3% of our income.

The second part are things that vary week to week like going to the movies, any date really. Anything that is fun, or a variable or an unexpected thing goes into entertainment- clothes and any shopping, getting a pedicure, a random trip to target or anything like that to our entertainment budget. Also, gas for roadtrips don't go to our gas budget- I take it out of entertainment, as it is part of taking us to our activity! This whole second part, being such a large base/covering so many different things, has a percentage of 11% of our income (about $100/week.. you would be surprised how fast it goes!)  Again that is besides eating out.

Total entertainment for the month- 14%

Savings, School, Tithing

Although these are the last things I am talking about, right when we get paid these are the first things to be budgeted.  If not, I've learned it won't happen.  

Tithing- of course 10% + fast offering.  We end up at about 12%.

School - Mitch has no debt.  I am in school, with no debt, but continually paying each semester.  That has to be budgeted. I figured out how much school costs as an average per month, and it is 6% of our income.

Savings- A base of 8%, no matter what. Plus any left over not spent from the month.

BUT................

have you been keeping track? Of course not.  Way too many percents.  So here is the breakdown:

Housing-           24%

Cars-                13%

Food-               17%

Entertainment-  14%

Tithing-            12%

School-              6%

Base Savings-     8%

Total-               94%

We only budget 94% of our income, including savings.. not 100%.  I have learned this to be so important!  

So, we have a nice 6% cushion that I let rollover in our checking account every month unless needed.  This attributes nicely to trips back to Utah or just extra that I add to our savings account if I notice a lot extra in our checking account after a few months. ( or it buys a nice unexpected surprise of $800 all new tires for your car... ;( you never really know. )

I believe it is important to live so that you don't bind yourself to a certain way of living.. for example, looking at my budget, though small, I can definitely see a large number of things I can cut down on should the need arise.  That way, we never get stuck and wind up in a mound of debt.

Last Word of Advice

We don't use our debit card.

At all. 

We use credit cards.

[[[[[insert gasps here from anti credit card people]]]]]

Let me say two things. 

1) this piece of advice is not for those who cannot manage money well haha

2) if you do manage money well, and are responsible and use it like a debit card, you can make money.

We use two cards.

1) the Chase Freedom card- for all expenses such as gas, food, entertainment.

2) American Express Blue Sky card - for all airline tickets.

I check and manage balances on these every day!  The budgets in place above are for these cards, so I never spend more than what I have allotted. I pay them off every month straight from our checking account, in full.  That way we are using them just like a debit card. 

We never ever ever ever ever carry a balance- in other words, we never buy things that we say 'oh we will pay for it next month, or make payments.' 

My routine

So why do we use them? 

1) Because on each card, we get FIVE percent back on what we spend if we pay it off every month. So, we basically make money for using it like a debit card.

We make $75+ a month.  They literally send it to us in a check. Every month. That pays for our TV, or one week of gas, etc.

But it only works if you are smart!

Cool right???!?!

Second cool reason- it raises your credit score like CRAZY!!!! I have posted before about my favorite credit-monitoring site before.  It is free, it DOES NOT hurt your credit whatsoever.  Promise.  It will also give you tips on what you personally should do that will raise it. It is amazing.  So since we started budgeting the way we do, our score jumped 7 points.  Good credit is critical to have.

again--- DO IT! creditkarma.com.

Last reason, fraud protection.  If someone jacks your debit card, that money is gone, forever.  Savings accounts are linked to checking accounts! Our savings are too precious to risk that. With a credit card, you literally call the credit card company, and it is taken care of.  No loss. 

There it is- all of my grand advice:) 

I feel the need to express that we have been so incredibly blessed in this aspect of our lives.  I hope this post has come off neither bragging or complaining.  We feel so fortunate to be able to have what we have.

The most important thing ever..... 

It is really easy to just live on love!  And that is the best, ever!

Basically I have the cutest little teacher ever!!! We will be sad to leave in June!

What do you think of this system - is it too crazy?  What do you guys do?

Hello Again

I am bad at blogging.  But that's okay... it means I'm busy doing real life stuff instead, right??

So lets start over.

For those of you who don't know, Mitchell and I got married in July of 2011, went on our honeymoon to Cancun, and moved straight to McAllen, Texas for his job.

[go ahead and google McAllen, Texas.

Ya.]

We have lived here for a year now.  I have had been busy with school, Young Women's Presidency, worked for about 6 months of this last year, and have been keeping in touch with our lovely beach.
It's a hard life.

Mitchell is in the process of studying [okay. madly, madly studying] for the GMAT so he can go to grad school. And of course too much work.

I just want to say something.




If you are married and have the opportunity to move away from your family and place you know as home, I suggest jumping and seizing that opportunity as fast as you can.




There is nothing like being in your own little world with your new husband/wife. Nothing!  We got lucky, because we moved to a pretty sweet place [see right sidebar] and basically live in a tropical Mexican heaven.

Backyard

Beach at the Island

[[if you have speakers, i would suggest turning them up now]]

But not everyone who lives here think that it is an ideal place to live.

In fact, most of the natives say "...What??? You like living here?" followed by, "Ay, mijita.. you haven't lived here long enough."

Reasons why some think it is not ideal:

• Hot, like REALLY REALLY hot almost year round, minus a couple months of 70's-80's in November-January.  Like so hot that like you can't go outside. At all.  For 3 months.

• It is two miles from Mexico- that is one large category for many reasons why people don't like it here.
• Extreme poverty level; like, extreme.  Really, really crazy living conditions that I had no idea people lived in, in the US (well, we're kinda in the US) literally like some sheet metal houses with no electricity and dirt floors. 
• A branch off of extreme poverty level - highest concentrated city of people on government       assistance such as welfare, medicaid, and WIC.

•    No English.  No. English. Okay you almost can't go to the grocery store without being able to speak Spanish. At school for me, a large part of it is in Spanish even though it is supposedly English. Yes, I speak Spanish or I would not be alive right now. But this has been a real struggle for some people I know, it has made it hard for them to adjust.  At my job at the dental office, I bet I had to speak around 80% Spanish.  It can be hard for Mitch when we go out with the missionaries, because a large number of investigators speak only Spanish.

•    It is so far out of the way from everywhere else in the US. For example, the closest Temple is 4 1/2 hours away in San Antonio.  Flights are also insane.

• Schools.  Some crazy number like 18% of the adult population in San Juan (10 min away) graduated from high school and received some college.  It is just not something that is not the norm. [that is where Mitch's job comes in - a two year contract for him to go to a high poverty area with a low graduation rate and see if he can help increase it, by teaching high school for two years before grad school - he is a really cute teacher even though he would never be a teacher for a living]  Therefore, why we are living here.

• Violence and nearness to the border- yes it is true, we live exactly two miles from the US-Mexico Border.

Blue Dot: our house.
Black Line: US border.
true story

I have learned two things from living in different places throughout my life:
1) There will be really crappy and bad things about every single place you live.  Every single one.
2) I have also learned that there are 3 months of bad weather anywhere you live.  Anywhere.

Knowing that, why bother focusing on it?  PEOPLE - life will suck if that is what your thoughts and attitudes revolve around.  You can't always choose your situation or where you will live. Rarely is that in your control.  So why not roll with it, and grow? Have experiences!  Find yourself!  Develop your relationship!  Make new friends! Learn about, accept, and learn to love other cultures- make them adopt you as their own!  Actually find out what you like and don't like, instead of assuming what you like and don't like, and thinking that for the rest of your life.  Because you really don't know until you have experienced it.

That is how you become happy.  That is how you live!!