… aka Can I Have All That Money Back That I’ve Wasted Over The Past Few Years?<\/p>\n
It’s 10 days A.J. (After Jaia), and I’ll start by saying that fatherhood is an amazing experience. I’m so happy to finally meet the baby who’s been brewing for 10 long months. She’s a cutie, and I couldn’t be happier.<\/p>\n
However, life has changed a lot. Some changes were expected (Shannen’s pay cut for mat leave), but others have been a surprise (80 diapers in 9 days – that’salotta poop).<\/p>\n
The biggest change is in our priorities. As people, we have time and money. Some time must be devoted to making money. How you spend the rest of your time, and the money you bring in, is then up to you.<\/p>\n
The past few years we have definitely lived at or above our means, which is quite an accomplishment for two people with good jobs. We’ve bought and furnished two houses, went on several vacations, drive fairly new cars, and have more gadgets than we can find. Jaia’s arrival has been an opportunity to review our lifestyle and rethink where our cash should really be going. We can’t get back the money we spent on some less-than-useful things, and I have no regrets about the traveling we were able to do. But we can change what we do going forward, and we have to start living below our means to get out of debt and ensure our financial security for the future.<\/p>\n
We had a look at all of our recurring expenses and here are some of the things we found:<\/p>\n