More to our Story

When we first got married, we were both making pretty good money, so we decided to get a truck.  We wanted to get something that we could taking camping and that would have enough space for a family we wanted to have.  Buck had gone over our income and expenses and figured out about how much we could afford.  We went with a brand new Dodge Dakota 4 door.  We loved it.

What I didn't love however was my job.  I dreaded going to work every morning.  I made good money, but I couldn't imagine making a career out of it.  I started looking for something else.  I have always been interested in photography, so I found a job in the photography field.  I took about a $4/hr pay cut.  Not only that, but I ended up not getting the hours I was hoping for.  Things started to get tight, so I also picked up a Christmas job to get through the season.

After Christmas, we decided to look into Buck going back to school to get a Master's Degree.  We decided to move in with his parents who lived a few hours away.  We found new jobs, and Buck applied for school.  He didn't get in.  He was working about 20 hours a week and I was working full time at a retail camera store.  A few months later I got pregnant.  The day after we found out I was expecting, we totalled the truck.  We received some money from the insurance, but not enough to pay off the truck. We were suppose to be living with his parents for a couple months, but with everything that happened, we stayed for over a year.

While we were staying with them, we decided to find a way to increase our income.  We read Robert Kiyosaki's Rich Dad, Poor Dad.  We learned about being an employee, self-employed, a business owner, and an investor.  We decided to start a vending machine business.  We took out a loan and bought 32 quarter vending machines.  We placed the machines in small business around town.  Small business in small towns do not seem to get a lot of customers.  We were barely making enough from the machines to pay the loan each month. 

By this time, our little boy was born, and we needed a space of our own.  We bought a condo.  The mortgage said that we couldn't lease out the condo for a year, we had to live in it.  We also couldn't sell if for two years.  We were okay with that since we were planning on being there for a while.

--Susan