Liability

I remember when I was in high school and I desperately wanted a car. My parents said no - they said a car is a liability not an asset. Yeah, yeah, yeah I remember thinking, I just want a car.

Fast forward 16 years.....

Thursday morning Michael hopped in his truck to take Hannah to the bus stop on his way to work (6:25am). He inserted the key into the ignition and turned the key....nothing. He tried again and received an error in the odometer reading. I get awoken to, "Mommy, Daddy's truck won't start and I missed the bus."

Michael tries to get his truck started in the dark with no luck. He gets on the Internet to search for the error code. Meanwhile, I throw on some clothes and take Hannah to school. She is freaking out, thinking she is going to be late. I'm freaking out because I think I'm going to be late for work, too.

When I get back home Michael tells me that the problem is with the computer in his truck and the only place it can be fixed is at the dealership. $$$ flash in my mind. We had a heated discussion, the stress of the unknown and the fact that we are both going to be late for work spews from our mouths onto each other.

It was decided that we would tow the truck to the dealership, I would take him to work in Quincy (20 miles away) and then I would go to work. All in all, I was only 30 minutes late for work...so I stayed 30 minutes later.

We received the dreaded call on Friday....$1,000+ to fix the truck.

This would not be a problem at all, if we had money in savings. For the past couple weeks I have been listening to Dave Ramsey on the radio when I get a chance. The first thing he tells people to do is get $1,000 fast for an emergency fund. I thought that was a great idea, in theory. Now reality has hit me and I can fully appreciate Ramsey's point. God was gently tapping me on the shoulder and when I didn't listen, he had to be a little more forceful with his tap........

It's Monday morning...I don't go into the office on Mondays. Michael took the van to work and my mom is going to do the afternoon carpool for me. Michael has a call in to the mechanic to find out the real damage. No stress this morning, it was a calm morning here. Tuesday, tomorrow, will be another story......not looking forward to it.

So, yes, automobiles are a liability and need to be planned for accordingly. We are back to learning lessons we've already been taught. I guess we didn't really learn them the first 100 times.