Realtors and Education

Recent days have been a consistent dawning for me that the student loans are no more.  What a relief.  What a constant state of realization that a huge weight has been lifted and there is no seemingly infinite black hole our income continues to be dumped into.  Praise the Lord!

YB and I sat down and talked after the loans were paid off.  What did we want to do?  What did we now want to work toward or save for.  For me, this is the first time in my adult life I have not owed anyone anything.  Sure there's rent and health insurance, but it's not like you get your wages garnished if you don't pay.  You can move on and find something else.  You can go to another insurer and a policy with them.

Next year Gman will be starting school, or at least be at the age where traditionally kids start school.  YB and I have been discussing his schooling since before he was born but now was the time where the rubber would be meeting the road and we would actually have to move on a decision.  What do we do for his education?

With the Supremes being stupid and all YB was very intent on a private education and had one picked out, at least to look at, run by a Baptist Church.  I had heard about an elementary school in our area that was supposed to be really, really good and was pretty intent about checking it out.  In addition to asking the normal questions about teacher/student relations, teacher age, class size, we would now have to ask the RIDICULOUS questions which include what age they start teaching sex ed, what will your curriculum include (if any), and, more importantly, at what age will you start teaching that homosexual marriage is a lifestyle choice and should not be looked at as wrong.

YB called the Baptist School and set up a tour the same day.  I wasn't completely on board until we sat with the Principal, talked and saw the school, asked about the curriculum, class size, uniforms, security...everything we could think.  Some things he brought up.  Everything we could think of to ask was answered directly which was about 95%.

Gman has a new school.

In this new time of not being a debtor (PRAISE THE LORD) we've also had a realtor over who was recommended by some folks at church.  I try and stay away from these kinds of recommendations but this time it was a great experience.  YB and I were very upfront, "We have nothing to buy with right now and probably won't for a couple years".  No problem for him.  We had him over and talked for a couple hours about financial policies, the current state of the market, how it works in this our new area, how he proceeds with representing buyers and sellers, establishing an idea of what a buyer is capable of purchasing.  He is a second gen realtor, in business with his dad and is very big on the idea of not purchasing the amount of house you qualify for but the amount you can actually pay for.  YB and I are big on that.  It was a very nice conversation.  In a couple year's time we will probably be in touch.

If there are two things I've learned in the past couple of weeks, they are these:

1. It's such a relief when you don't owe anybody anything.
2. Being an adult is way more fun when #1 is true.