A Car Update....and more...

Recently, alot of people have been asking me if I had bought my car yet :) The answer is still no...For a long while I have been wanting to buy a new car....and I still do want to buy a new car....however my priorities have changed recently. If you seen the last few posts, you'll see my shift in priorities and in order to make those priorities happen, it will require a shift in resources (eg...money and lots of it...hey who doesnt like more money?!). Basically, I have gone from saving for a new car to saving to pay off loans very quickly. Because I have a finance and technology background, my cash flow situation (after-tax dollars available after expenses et all) sucks because of the loans. This is one of the reasons I am going to pay off early (or at least as much as possible). I do have a goal of reaching 30K this year to pay off. Its going to be very close if I can obtain that goal...(alot will depend on raises and bonuses) but I am going to at least try and even if i don't make 30, I will make 25 or get somewhere around there and 25 is still a huge chunk of change to pay off at one time. I am still going to get a car. I don't think it will happen until 2006 though and late 2006 at that. Also my list of cars keeps changing....I won't go into what has all been on the list, but basically the cars i would consider now are the following in no particular order --> CRV, RAV4, or the Mazda3, and of course if i did make it to california ( a 2005/2006/2007 mustang!).

Overall things are starting to improve...it does take time....and it does suck alot of the time but I have once again started traveling (although more sporadically) ... I will be in Milwaukee the week of June 13 and then in Detroit for 3 weeks (one week is personal travel, two weeks is business travel)... The outlook after the 4th of July looks pretty good as well...i am also thinking about flying down to phoenix for 1 weekend this summer (probably late july) to see a friend who is down there for the summer...I am definitely interested to meet his female roommate and all of her friends...:) Also in early August (8-12), I will be attending the firm wide Advisory U in Orlando, FL. That should be a good time as well.

Also I talked to some people in Minneapolis about moving...and the people who count support me and will try to get it done, whenever I am ready to attempt to move which wont be for another 2+ years (I think at least).

Finally, a thanks to all my friends out there...you know who you are. I don't think I've ever had a more difficult time in my personal life then right now. Its just kind of an odd feeling to go through because I've never been challenged like this before. For the most part, I am a very optimistic person most of the time (although I play by the phrase "expect the worst, hope for the best" as well) and for the most part everything has worked out (job, friends, school, family life, etc) for me.