Family Business = Risky Business

I'll change gears a bit here.

So, the transmission went out on Missy's 2002 Ford Exploder as you may have heard. I couldnt' believe the price on that thing.....$2200 COST! For a less than connected person it would cost over $3k to get that thing put in.

Yes, there's probably cheaper tranny's to get, but noone beats the warranty with the Jasper.

So, to scrounge up the cash to pay for this, I sold our old Honda Accord today. I've been sittin on it for awhile not sure what to do with it. It runs good, and we got about 100k worry free miles out of it as 2nd owners. With 180k miles it's at it's half-life if it gets taken care of properly.

The car has been well serviced. Timing belts replaced religously, we flushed the tranny, the transaxles are pretty new....new tires, new exhaust etc. Low book on it was $1850. The car has been parked at the shop and I've had countless people make offers and inquire about buying it.

NOW, on with it right? Missy's brother and his "fiance" just had a baby this past week. Missy had questioned the foresight of them buying the jacked up Jeep a mere six months ago, but hey, those are their decisions. Now the baby shows up and low and behold a baby seat doesn't do so well in the back of a lifted jeep, or the extra-cab jumper seats of a toyata tacoma.

So, her brother brings the Jeep down to the shop, we put a for-sale sign in it and park it out front. I even made him raise the price $600 bucks b/c I knew it would sell in less than a week. It sold, but Heide (the fiance) came off the price pretty quick and discounted it $500....so at least I made them $100 extra. Turns out the same guy they bought it from, bought it back.

So, they'd been asking about this Honda. I hate selling a car to family, so I kept hoping they'd be able to find something 'Better' but it's hard to beat a nice old Honda Accord. Family deals are way too risky. You sell low, and if something goes wrong, you get the buy the broken car back as if you'd warrantied the thing for 90 days. So, I told them I'd sell it to them for $1500. They gave us $1700 b/c they called the bank and got the book values.

That's cool.

I hope we get through the 90 day implied warranty and then were in the clear.

Somebody came by and asked about the bus today. If could get the $15k I'm looking for my next "investment opportunity" I'd sell that thing....maybe 10k...but no less than that.

I'm plannning on commuting in the bus next year.

A Liberty Tax Billboard on wheels!!!!!

Jay Jay - A friend to love.

I've got just a second.

We went to Aspen's kindergarten orientation this morning. With Brighton paving the way to stardom, I think she'll especially find favor at school with the teachers and principal.

Apart from us dropping Brighton off in our disastrously messy vehicles, Brighton leaves a good impression on the the principal and her teachers. She's always dressed very cute, her blond curls are meticulously prepared, she's been taught to greet the Principal with a loud "Good Morning Dr. Garber!" She's certain to have her moments in class, after all, she won the "Most Dramatic" award in her kindergarten class, but overall she's really sweet and treats her classmates with kindness.

Last year, in Brighton's kindergarten class, she has a classmate named JayJay. Beings that I'm semi-retired, I would often catch a field trip or class activity and got to know most of the kids by name. JayJay was one that always needed special attention. It's apparent that he comes from humble circumstances. He was often wearing some tattered sweat pants, second hand sneakers, and smelled of cigarette smoke. JayJay shows signs of ADHD, or something to that effect. He's one of those kids that you wish you take home with you.

Brighton would often come home that year with stories of JayJay picking on her. Pulling her hair, or kicking her leg, or giving her a push while they were lining up. She'd noticed that JayJay didn't have a lot of friends, and that he was often a bit messy at lunch.

I would tell her that JayJay liked her and thought she was pretty. She was confused because kicking and pulling hair didn't seem like the way to say such a thing. I told her that boys were pretty silly that way. I'd also gently encourage her to be nice to JayJay and be a friend.

So, today as we walked through the school to go find Brighton in the 1st grade and surprise her, we first came across the other 1st grade class. When JayJay saw me he came running at me full speed and gave me the biggest hug and said: "HI buddy!" It was a nice moment.

Missy then told me that back in February, when she asked Brighton if she wanted to give any Valentines to anyone in Mrs. Hoy's Class (the other 1st grade class) she said:

"I guess I should give one to JayJay."

One of my favorite things my mission president left with me was this quote:

"Look at others through the eyes of those that love that person."

If can teach my children one thing, it will be that. Look at others through the eyes of the mother, the father, or even Jesus Christ himself. NO matter what the situation or circumstances, you can always find a set of eyes of a person that loves that person unconditionally.

Energy is neither created nor destroyed!

1st Law of Thermo....at least if memory serves, and if I'm wrong, it's obvious that I don't feel like looking it up.

Well, I'd say that the first law of thermo holds true in the realm of physics as well as the realm of emotions. E-MOTION, stands for energy in motion.

So, this evening, on the way back from our business trip down in Virginia Beach, I transferred all of my negative energy over to my wife Missy. Yes, that makes me "jerk husband of the week."

I don't do it on purpose, but having made this same error multiple times during our ten years of marriage, I'd say it qualifies me as a jerk husband of the week. I'll take it in stride, and stand up for the guys on this one. Sometimes, we deserve to be jerks once in awhile.

I got invited down to Liberty's Corporate HQ in VA Beach to hear "The Opportunity" also know as "the sales pitch" for another level of investment into LTS. Generally, I go to these things solo, but Missy decided she'd go with me and accompany me. I think she felt sorry for me after my terrible day on Monday where I had some miserable issues at the office, and then to cap off the day I totaled the beautiful red truck of my dad's, or was it Joseph's....or was it his wife's???? I'll elaborate another day.

Anyways, I digress. Missy decided she'd go with me to VB and hear the pitch. They put us up in one of the fanciest hotels down there, we were on the 12th floor, the bathroom had not only a bath tub, but a fancy stand-up shower with glass doors and walls, and it even had two shower heads. Don't let your mind race too much, I noticed the dual shower heads solo, so we really didn't take full advantage of them.

So, I was excited to spend some alone time with Missy, get jazzed up on Liberty again, watch some HD cable television (watched LOST in REAL time on a widescreen t.v.!!!!!) and escape EVERYTHING ELSE for nearly 72 Hours, from Thursday afternoon to Saturday Morning. Corporate paid for Thurs night, and Friday night, checkout isn't until 12.

We made the last minute arrangements to have Magra, Papa, Joseph and Alicia pitch in to watch the kids, which included getting Brighton to school and then loaded our stuff up and headed down. Conversation was good on the way down for the most part, except for the normal annoyances of me eating the ice from Chick-fil-a lemonade and Missy harassing me about driving too fast.

Overall the trip was going well. Missy was a champ for coming. She only nagged me here and there about talking too much or stop clicking my pen compulsively and only told me once to not follow the CEO John Hewitt around like a lost puppy...which I didn't' do.

Missy really wanted to come home Friday evening, rather than get up early at 6am (morning sickness) and drive back to make it for her church duties for the Young Women's basketball tournament. This frustrated me a bit but, I conceded with a "As you wish" like Wesley would have said from The Princess Bride. (BTW - One of Missy's favorite movies that she practically has memorized. I NOW hate the film b/c Missy's serious boyfriend that I stole her from when I got home from my mission was named Wesley. That ruined the movie for me and ruined a good family name I had picked out.)

So, once we got on the road, at 5:30pm Friday evening and start heading back, and after we got through the busiest of the traffic, (Hampton Roads Tunnel Friday Rush Hour vs. 6:30 AM Saturday Morning!!!!! COME ON!!!! Urrrrgggh) I decided I wanted to discuss some of my frustration with my dear wife. I thought I was civil about it, which I was. DIRECT and POLITE. I wasn't all emotional about it, BUT, I did transfer all of my negative energy to her. That wasn't my inital goal, I just wanted to express some of my dissatisfaction and try to come to a sensible compromise for future events.

My wife is tough as nails, and if you know her, you know that about her. But, if there's anyone that knows her soft spots that's me. And so, after having her go out of her way to be with me, and after she gave up a day of time with our precious children...which honestly, that's a testament as to how great a mother Missy is....she's not excited to "Get Away" from the children at all, she's quite the opposite and would much rather stay with the kids than to take these excursions with me......

I could have said, "Thanks for coming with me." Or "you're the hottest wife in the world" or "thanks for a great night even though you're pregnant and I nauseate you."

NOPE!! I BLEW IT!!!!!

I asked her if we could talk about some of the things that she does that REALLY annoys me.

I'm such an IDIOT! But, that's what us guys are good at...being idiots and nauseating you.

After that, there wasn't much conversation on the 3 hour ride home. So I wanted to get us home as quickly as possible so that we could get past the sounds of silence. And since I'd already ticked her off, and since she wasn't speaking to me, I figured I'd drive the way I like to drive when she's not in the car with me.....it gives new meaning to "The fast and the furious."

Again, I'm void of emotion during this drive. It's not that I was angry in any way. Remember, I transferred all of my negative energy to Missy. E-motion, energy in motion.

SO, I bump through traffic between 80 and 90mph. No wrecks on this day friends, the wreck story from early this week will be saved for later. But, there were speeds and maneuvers that on most ANY other day I would have surely heard this from my shotgun companion:

"How fast are you going?" (Like she can't look over at the speed odometer)

"Or, YOU"RE GONNA BREAK THE CAR!" (This comes during a hard downshift and sudden burst of acceleration when trying to jump over into quicker moving lanes)


So, away we go. I get to zoom through traffic and enjoy myself without hearing a word from her. I guess it's a side benefit of the energy transfer. Plus I'm feeling especially free and pretty manly for taking up for myself and trying to unload some of the crap that gets built up on a husbands mind....so my driving reflects some of the aggression too. Again, no energy was created nor destroyed, I wasn't frustrated anymore, Missy was holding it all.

My driving wasn't excessive in anyway.....I do tend to drive this way when I don't have other passengers in the vehicle. PLUS I didn't forget that I have very large and very visible Liberty Tax Service stickers on the car, so I was a little bit aggressive AND YET polite at the same time as a driver..........the way I felt I was with Missy.....a little bit aggressive and POLITE!

On more than one occasion I KNEW she just wanted to say something about my driving....but she'd mentally taken her oath and vow of silence. I knew that if I got a speeding ticket she'd probably just laugh.

SO - THEN...when we were almost home. Missy finally transferred the negative energy back to me!!!!!!!

UNBELIEVABLE!!! I don't know how she did it, but somehow, someway, without saying a word, without lifting a finger she shifted all that negative energy back into my brains. She made the transmission to our car start acting up right at the end of our trip as we pulled into town.

GREAT! Another aggravation for me to deal with. I destroyed a truck this week, and it looks like I get to add a blown up transmission to the list!!!!!!

Karma I guess.


I love my wife. She's incredible. I love her because she's as tough as nails, as stubborn as a mule, as pretty as (insert Hot supermodel name here), the greatest mother on earth, smarter than Einstein, AND she'll follow me to the ends of the earth as I chase down dreams....what more could a guy want?

What can I say...I'm just a guy....I can figure out a lot of things like physics, calculus, accounting, finance, partial differential equations.............................................

I just can't figure out women. It's been ten years so far. I think I learn more and more everyday....I just wish I could say I have it all figured out.

Maybe someday.

I love you sweetie and I'm sorry I'm such a big, fat, jerk. I promise I'll work on it.....I'll go to the gym five times this week.

The Lights came down today!

Everyone will be pleased to know that the lights came down TODAY...March 11th.....
I hadn't even read my wife's post...http://some-times-i-wish.blogspot.com/2008/03/my-house-was-free-of-christmas-lights.html, but I did hear Rachel call and tell Missy she was going to come take the lights down....

I took my neighbor up on his offer to let me use his ladder and took them down today. It took all of 10 minutes so yes, it's embarassing to to be taking them down in March, but I'm glad it's done.
I almost took them down between Christmas and New Years, but thought that was too quick. In hindsight, that's what should have been done. This year won't be as bad b/c I'm not planning on opening any new offices.

Tax Season is an excuse, but that's all it really is. An excuse.

I'm still planning on putting up lights this year after Thanksgiving...........I'm not making any promises as to when they come down.

Next year Missy won't be pregnant, so we'll see what happens.

Getting old and fat............

I want financial freedom at forty, but I'd like to have phsical freedom now. I'm getting old and fat, and losing my hair. And Missy is pretty quick to remind me of these things.

Tonight, my good friend Matt called and reminded me about basketball at the church. It was fun, even though every game I played I lost. I was such a loser! It felt like I had sawdust and fiberglass in my lungs..........

One funny thing that happened was when we were shooting for teams. We shoot free-throws to see who gets to play the next game. So, as I calmly stroll to the free throw line, and began to share a little story from back in the glory days of my varsity basketball stardom.

With a cocked smile, and a little bit of arrogance, I told them about the time I was the lead scorer in the season opener against Fort Defiance my senior year. As I went through my free throw ritual, seven dribbles, feet rocking gently, knees slightly bent, I told them the tale. This is the detailed version.

I played basketball from Little Leage to Varsity. On Varsity, I wasn't a starter, or six man, or anything really. I just made the team. So I was pretty much a bench warmer and a practice guy. But not only was I a bench warmer, I warmed the bench for a team that wasn't all that good. I mostly blame the coaching.

AS freshman we lost one game to Lee Highschool. We traded wins with Lee, which is something b/c Lee is a state championship team. On JV's we would go about .500 for the season. Then come varsity it was one win for the entire season against a team so far away that nobody believed us when we told them we won. It was all the same guys pretty much on the teams from Freshman to varsity, and yes, some grew more than others, but we should have been competitive.

Well, for the season opener of my Senior year we played Fort Defiance. They came out at us hard with a full court press defense. I watched my teammates get their arces handed to them from a comfortable seat at the end of the bench.

With like 2 minutes left in the game, and our team down by like a hundred points, Coach decided to finally let the srubs have a go at it. Finally, my moment to shine! I got on the court, did my hussle, took the ball hard to the basket and got fouled. Dropped two free throws. Nothing but net. In practice, our routine was to shoot free throws at every basket in the gym, the rotation included 24 free throws. I consisently would go 23/24 in practice.

Back to the big game. With just two minutes left, I didn't have much of a chance to make up for the 200 point deficit, but I was able to get to the free throw line a few times. I went 6 for 6. That got my name in the paper because that made me one of our teams leading scorers in just two minutes of play.

It was pretty much the same routine throughout the season. I get put in the game once we down my an infinite number of points. Draw and foul and score points. If the other team would have just let me try and shoot without fouling chances are I missed. But the free-throws I had nailed. I went 16 for 16 and then I think I finally missed my 17th free throw.

So after, telling the guys how good I was at free-throws, and telling them how I was the leading scorer of our opener against Fort Defiance..........

I went through my routine, seven dribbles, feet rocking gently, knees slightly bent, long exhale, full extension of my arm, plenty of back spin........and BRICK!

I sat out that game.....and boy was I happy to be back on the bench!

From Crashomatic to Cashomatic

So for my second post I'll link to some interesting money articles about being rich or becoming rich. http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/RetirementandWills/EscapeTheRatRace/JustHowRichIsRichReally.aspx
For some, the thoughts of becoming rich seem a bit naughty. You don't have to become obessed with it and lose your spiritual foundation, but you do need a plan and need goals.

My goal IS NOT to be the richest man in the world measured in dollars. http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/News/GatesDethronedBuffettIsRichest.aspx?GT1=33009
Although I consider Warren Buffet one of my mentors, I already consider myself one of the richest men in world with my faith, my family and having all my basic needs covered. Seriuosly, have you seen how HOT my wife is and how pretty my kids are? What more could I ever ask for? Ten to twenty million in the bank wouldn't be so bad either but to be quite honest, there are folks that have ten to twenty million in the bank and still can't afford to buy themselves what I have.

To be rich truly is a state of mind. To be poor is a state of mind. And to be broke is something different all together. One of my favorite things to say is: "There's a huge difference between being broke and being poor. Broke is temporary, poor is forever."

I'll often find myself broke towards the end of the year. With Christmas spending, and tax season being so far behind us, the coffers are pretty empty. But, I'm anxiously looking towards the upcoming tax season and how to make it better than the previous. When I committed myself to doing Liberty Tax, I knew that I'd be lucky to make it from season one to season two, and EVEN luckier to make it all the way to season three. And if we made it through season three, I knew that we'd pretty much made it. We're not rich yet after season three, but we're gonna make it to season 4.

One of my fondest memories of 2007 was about a week before Christmas and Missy called me from the grocery store and says: "My credit card is maxed out and I can't buy anything."

I said: "Well, it sounds like you're out of money honey. We're broke!"

And that's what we were from about Christmas 2007 to the middle of January 2008. All the cards were maxed, the $55k home equity line was maxed out, the $20k business line of credit maxed out..........dead broke.

I was a little nervous, and as usual, I had diahrea of the mouth and told some of my employees I wasn't sure if I'd have enough cashflow to make payroll...but in the end, the checks cleared.

That's why I love what I do. It reminds me so much of my dirtbike racing days. The excitement of not knowing what's coming up around the next corner, the adrenaline from leaping 90 foot jumps without being able to see where you're going to land.

When I was just getting started in the business I told my buddy Jeryl Harman that I felt like I was jumping off a cliff and had no idea how I was going to land. I'll save that story for another day.

For now, I've got to get some work done. I've already aggravated Missy enough by sitting here for the last 30 mins creating this post.

I hope you guys get something out of all this and when YOU get rich someday, you remember me because I could very well be BROKE at the time and need to borrow some money. But don't worry, I'll pay you back......some day.


Jarrett

Intro

Ahem......

I've finally arrived. I'll be the first of the MEN, to officially blog and join the wives club. I'll be offering a voice from the male perspective. I've chosen a black background to exude my manliness.

In the past, I've posted on webboards made up of a collection of motocross junkies like myself at various sites under the screename crashomatic. Often times my posts were more like blogs, longwinded and preachy. And so, once Missy started blogging on her blog, I saw a better forum for me to direct my focus and attention. I kept wanting her to let me post on her blog, and make it a family blog, but she didn't seem too keen on that idea, so, here it is after midnight, I'm gonna let it all hang out, and create my very own blog.

So why crashomatic? Well, it's my screen name that i've always used online. MSN messenger and the likes carry my screen name. From whence did I adopt this name? It's from my days of riding motocross. At the track, I was one to always push my personal limits. If I didn't crash at least once I wasn't riding hard enough.

My friends gave me the name crashomatic.

I've often approached life in similar fashion. It's full steam ahead once I've made my mind up and committed to something. And now, to explain Freedom at Forty. I've committed myself to becoming rich. I did so at my grandmother's funeral in November of 2002. I'll share that story later. But, what you will often see from me and my posts are a philosophy of a person destined to becoming independently wealthy. It hasn't happened yet, but the foundation has been laid, and my goal is to be financially free by the time I turn 40....or 2016 thereabouts. When I state my goal in conversation, I often get a sarcastic response of ...."Yea right, good luck with that kid!"

I also love Henry Ford quotes, one of which is: "If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a think, YOU'RE PROBABLY RIGHT." Another one of my favorite Henry Ford quotes is: "Thinking is the hardest work there is, that's why so few choose to engage in it."

And so, my wife is behind me 100%, which is the first step to achieving my goal. We are well aware of the consequences of our actions. We'll either be pretty comfortable, or we'll be living in our bus flat broke when I turn 40. Hopefully we'll be fantastically wealthy and have to convice our kids that we're really poor......it seems it's family tradiditon or something if you check out my wifes blog: http://some-times-i-wish.blogspot.com/2007/11/some-times-i-wish.html

With a solid foundation of faith, I find no objections to a man pursuing wealth. One of my favorite scriptures in the Book of Mormon is in Jacob chapter 2 which says....

"18 But before ye seek for riches, seek ye for the kingdom of God.

19 And after ye have obtained a hope in Christ ye shall obtain riches, if ye seek them; and ye will seek them for the intent to do good—to clothe the naked, and to feed the hungry, and to liberate the captive, and administer relief to the sick and the afflicted."

That sums it up for now.


So now all I have to do is get Missy to show me how to jazz this up a little with some photos, links, and one of those cool maps.