Transparency ... Accountability

As almost everyone who knows us already knows, Beth and I have been living on "the envelope system" for almost one year. We have cut up our credit cards, "given every dollar a name" at the end of each month, and have tried to work quickly to reduce our debt. As anyone who reads this blog knows, we have not completely deprived ourselves of travel and entertainment, but I assure you that our primary focus for the past five-plus years has been on eliminating our debt.

We use Google Documents to create and manage our budgets. It's a fantastic program and its web-based nature allows us to do our budgeting from anywhere we can find an internet connection (we did our March budget from Barcelona).

This pie chart is tied directly to the numbers in our Google Spreadsheet budget. They reflect actual dollars allocated toward various categories (some of the money is not yet spent, but it's all been "given a name" as Dave Ramsey says) (btw, we have a few more budget categories than this...some have been consolidated for the chart). As our budgets change over the next few months/years, this pie chart will automatically reflect the changes.

Beth and I will finally have our last student loan paid off by this time next year. You may notice that "Loans" is a big part of our budget. One of the challenges that we will face after paying that last loan is how we will use the excess money. We could put it into Housing...perhaps get a bigger place, or move to a better neighborhood. We could put it into Fun/Big Buys...get new furniture and electronics, take expensive vacations. We could create a new pie category called Savings...we still need to build up our emergency fund and eventually save some more money for retirement (full disclosure: we have a 401k that is not part of the budget). We could shrink the size of the pie...if my work becomes unhealthy for some reason, I could take a different job or work fewer hours, even if it meant a pay cut.

Some of those are good options, and we might choose to do all of those things to some degree. But our hope -- and the reason to create this blog post and provide some transparency into our financial life -- is that we will be able to greatly increase that Giving wedge. Please keep an eye on it -- we're counting on you.

Zuper Respect!

On our last day in Barcelona, we drove to Parc Guell. The parking is very limited in this area, so unless you want to walk several kilometers you must be a fearless parker. Observe my masterful parking job in the attached photo! Manual transmission on a hill! A German tourist walking by as I was finishing parking exclaimed, "Zuper!"

Stop #8

Saint Pierre des Champs / Carcassonne. We rented a car and pressed ahead to the beautiful Le Roc Sur L'orbieu guesthouse located in Saint Pierre des Champs. This guesthouse is a 1100 year-old castle in the French countryside, surrounded by acres of vineyards. We plan to come back here as often as possible over the remainder of our lives! It was a beautiful old building with surprisingly comfortable accommodations and a charming hostess named Helen. Helen cooked dinner for us and the two French men who were also staying at the guest house (on a fishing holiday) named Serge and Patrice. The six of us had a wonderful evening as we shared about four hours of discussion over many delicious courses. Serge and Patrice were two extremes – Patrice was quiet and Serge was a character. When we sat down at the beautifully-prepared table, he remarked, “oooh... french table... very competiteev!”

Stop #7 (unplanned)

Saillagouse. After turning around in Andorra, we finally made it to France, albeit later than expected. So it was almost 11 PM when our car suddenly decided to die. We were on a mountain road in the middle of nowhere, 30km from Saillagouse and 20km from Prades. We moved the car to a somewhat safe spot off the road (hard to tell for sure in the darkness) and after a few unsuccessful attempts to flag down a car, we finally got one to stop... and thankfully it was a pair of firemen with a radio! After determining that we don’t know any French and they don’t know any English, we found that we all knew a little Spanish. They took a look under the hood and tried to start the car, but couldn’t determine the problem. After a while, they offered to give us a ride to Saillagouse and hand us off to the police. This was a very small town with only two hotels, both of which were closed at this late hour. However, the police contacted the owner of Planotel, a 110 year-old hotel in town, and asked him to open up for us. They also gave us information for contacting a local garage to fix the car. All of the French people we met were beyond nice, beyond friendly, ... they were magnifiques.

Stop #6

Andorra is a small country in the Pyrenees between Spain and France. Since we were crossing from Spain to France it made sense to check out this neighboring country which is a renowned ski spot. We quickly located their famous spa and pool facility – Caldea – and treated ourselves to a few relaxing hours. My favorite part was the pool’s tunnel to the outdoors where we could look up at the mountains as the snow fell on us...amazing. Unfortunately, the road we had planned to take to France was snowed in, so we had to backtrack through Spain.

Stop #5

Tossa de Mar / Roses. We drove through many small towns along the Costa Brava. Each one was unique and beautiful. We stopped in Tossa de Mar for lunch, where we walked through the old fort (castle?) and along the beach. I was shocked by the blueness of the water of the Mediterranean.

Stop #4

Montserrat. We drove from Barca into the mountains north of the city to Montserrat. We walked the grounds of the monastery and listened to a service of singing from the famous boys choir. It was a transcendent experience.

Language

I did not brush up on my spanish in anticipation of my trip to Barcelona. My spanish isn't very good to begin with, but it's sufficient to get directions, order a drink, and do most of the day-to-day things a tourist does.

What language do you think is used in the subway advertisement in the photo???

Yep, after spending a few days in Barca, I'm very glad I didn't invest any time brushing up on my spanish -- it wouldn't have done me any good.

Stop #3

Barca! What a great city -- beautiful parks, beautiful beaches, beautiful streets, and simply amazing buildings. I will have to devote several future posts to the details, but for now I'll just say that stop #3 is beautiful Barcelona.

Stop #2

I arrived in Amsterdam last weekend. It's such a pleasant, quiet little city compared to London (or NY of course). It feels good to be back. My days have been very full: lots of projects to work on, then drinks and dinner with colleagues after work, then more work from the hotel (the New York workday continues to about midnight CET). I haven't had any opportunity for tourist activities this trip.

It's been a good trip, but I'm really missing my wife! Good thing I'll see her tonight!