Money Rant
So, I know you're not supposed to talk about money, but I'm totally going to. Anyway, I'm mostly talking about money other people have, anyway.
So my parents live in Libya. I know that my dad is making over $160,000 a year and my mom is making $4000 a month, both tax free. Like, no taxes whatsoever. And all of their living expenses are paid over there, as well as any plane tickets home, random vacations to Malta or Italy because they need their visas renewed, etc. So basically they are banking all money that they are making over two years. This on top of the fact that their home is paid off, they have no other debt, and they inherited over $1,000,000 from my grandparents that they have invested and set to double every 7 years which started about 6 years ago.
My parents paid for my brother Scott's education at a techinical university, as well as bought him and his wife a brand new $40,000 RV a few years back.
My parents paid for my sister Lisa's education at Purdue, and bought her a brand new car when she finished.
My parents have given my sister Kay money continuously because she has sort of messed up her life (I totally get her situation, but I'm just stating it in here anyway).
And um, me... let's see, well I got a full ride scholarship (including room and board) to college, yet my mom complained about "having a child in school" all the time. They bought me a shit lemon car when I graduated that cost $3000 initially, and broke down every month costing me on average $6-700 a month. Oh, and they paid for $1500 of Ryan and I's $10,000 wedding. And gave us $100 for a wedding gift.
That's pretty much all that they've given us. Not much at all compared to what everyone else has gotten.
Anyway, so my parents are coming home to Indiana and really want Ryan and I to come home. They said they would pay $168 for one plane ticket, because that was the going rate for plane tickets when they looked them up over 2 months ago. Ok, so there's the plane tickets (which will probably be around $300 a piece over Christmas), boarding BJ over Christmas at at least $50 a day(that's the regular rate... not sure the holiday rate), airport parking, renting a car, eating, checked baggage fees, gas to get around, etc.
I am grad student working at a coffee shop, so clearly I am taking out more loans than I am paying at the moment. We also just had about $4000 in medical bills, which luckily we had saved, but still. We also lost $1400 on a house deal that we thought we were going to buy. We still have a little in savings, but nothing like we originally had. Ryan's a little worried about job security, as the construction industry is really starting to be hit by the economy, and then there's the part where I'm a grad student, and we're paying for the education.
So I told mom we didn't have $1000+ to come home this year. Maybe we could drive 18+ hours each way, but then there's the hotel issue, gas, food, and BJ. Not a lot of savings, plus who knows what winter weather will be like in my little focus.
If I'm going to go into credit card debt, I'm certainly not going to do it over a trip to Indiana.
So tonight on skype my mom said to me regarding the whole situation "I guess it just depends how badly you want to come home."
P.S. I recently took a trip to Door County, Wisconsin with Ryan's family. Ryan's mom paid for my whole trip because she wanted to do something nice after the whole cancer thing. Hmm, my family? Didn't even get a card. Ryan's family has hardly any money at all. This whole situation makes me want to not have money, because I'd way rather be generous with what little money I do have than be a complete tightwad asshole who won't help your kid out and make them feel guilty about not going to see them even though they live on the other side of the world. No matter how much I want to come home, I still don't have the friggin money. The end.
So my parents live in Libya. I know that my dad is making over $160,000 a year and my mom is making $4000 a month, both tax free. Like, no taxes whatsoever. And all of their living expenses are paid over there, as well as any plane tickets home, random vacations to Malta or Italy because they need their visas renewed, etc. So basically they are banking all money that they are making over two years. This on top of the fact that their home is paid off, they have no other debt, and they inherited over $1,000,000 from my grandparents that they have invested and set to double every 7 years which started about 6 years ago.
My parents paid for my brother Scott's education at a techinical university, as well as bought him and his wife a brand new $40,000 RV a few years back.
My parents paid for my sister Lisa's education at Purdue, and bought her a brand new car when she finished.
My parents have given my sister Kay money continuously because she has sort of messed up her life (I totally get her situation, but I'm just stating it in here anyway).
And um, me... let's see, well I got a full ride scholarship (including room and board) to college, yet my mom complained about "having a child in school" all the time. They bought me a shit lemon car when I graduated that cost $3000 initially, and broke down every month costing me on average $6-700 a month. Oh, and they paid for $1500 of Ryan and I's $10,000 wedding. And gave us $100 for a wedding gift.
That's pretty much all that they've given us. Not much at all compared to what everyone else has gotten.
Anyway, so my parents are coming home to Indiana and really want Ryan and I to come home. They said they would pay $168 for one plane ticket, because that was the going rate for plane tickets when they looked them up over 2 months ago. Ok, so there's the plane tickets (which will probably be around $300 a piece over Christmas), boarding BJ over Christmas at at least $50 a day(that's the regular rate... not sure the holiday rate), airport parking, renting a car, eating, checked baggage fees, gas to get around, etc.
I am grad student working at a coffee shop, so clearly I am taking out more loans than I am paying at the moment. We also just had about $4000 in medical bills, which luckily we had saved, but still. We also lost $1400 on a house deal that we thought we were going to buy. We still have a little in savings, but nothing like we originally had. Ryan's a little worried about job security, as the construction industry is really starting to be hit by the economy, and then there's the part where I'm a grad student, and we're paying for the education.
So I told mom we didn't have $1000+ to come home this year. Maybe we could drive 18+ hours each way, but then there's the hotel issue, gas, food, and BJ. Not a lot of savings, plus who knows what winter weather will be like in my little focus.
If I'm going to go into credit card debt, I'm certainly not going to do it over a trip to Indiana.
So tonight on skype my mom said to me regarding the whole situation "I guess it just depends how badly you want to come home."
P.S. I recently took a trip to Door County, Wisconsin with Ryan's family. Ryan's mom paid for my whole trip because she wanted to do something nice after the whole cancer thing. Hmm, my family? Didn't even get a card. Ryan's family has hardly any money at all. This whole situation makes me want to not have money, because I'd way rather be generous with what little money I do have than be a complete tightwad asshole who won't help your kid out and make them feel guilty about not going to see them even though they live on the other side of the world. No matter how much I want to come home, I still don't have the friggin money. The end.