[speaker001:] [Static] Your turn.
[speaker002:] Oh, I, I start. Okay. Well, uh, we keep a budget to an extent. Uh, and really, i-, i-, we were really forced into keeping a budget because I'm, I'm paid once a month which sort of, sort of forces some, uh, uh, restrictions and you need to make sure all your bills are paid. Uh, about yourself?
[speaker001:] Well, I have to say I really don't have a budget. Both my wife and I, uh, grew up in, uh, families of rather modest means and, uh, our family income, at this point, is comfortable. Upper middle class I guess you might say. And, uh, we're both so, uh, frugal that, uh, we really don't need a budget, you know. We just sort of invest the money and go on vacations and always never seem to have any money problems which I guess is a comfortable thing.
[speaker002:] Yeah. Well I guess that really is sort of, uh, keeping a budget, you know. You stay within your, uh
[speaker001:] Well we stay within our means but we
[speaker002:] within your means.
[speaker001:] don't do it, uh, by conscious effort. It just sort of happens automatically.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] Although we just moved to California and, uh, the cost of living here in California is, uh, I would say rather pathological [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] Yes [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] Uh, housing prices are, you know, like from four to ten times more expensive than, uh, uh, [pause] [lipsmack] they were where I came from in, uh, Dallas.
[speaker002:] Oh, you moved from Dallas to San Francisco.
[speaker001:] Yeah. So, uh
[speaker002:] That is a hugh difference.
[speaker001:] uh, that presents a, a real shock [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] Ac-, ac-, actually our standard of living has gone down somewhat since we've moved to California but,
[speaker002:] But you have good sour dough and it's a beautiful place to live [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] Yeah. It's God's country.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] Uh, and one way you know that is that only God can afford it [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]. * Labelled as an indep slash unit since A's next turn is so voluminous before B.24
[speaker001:] Uh, so budget is not a problem for us. Uh, at least it hasn't been. It may, may be at this point. But, uh, up until this point it really hasn't been [inhaling]. When I, uh, was in, uh, undergraduate school a long, long time ago, I, uh, noted that the monthly salary, starting average monthly salary [mispronounced] salary for engineers that, you know, in my discipline, was like [lipsmack] oh, six hundred ten dollars a month or something like that.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh. * See B.22 note
[speaker001:] And, uh, I noted at that point that I was, you know, if that's what my salary was that I drew then I would be making almost twice as much as my father made during his best year ever. So I stopped worrying about money.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] And it, never have worried about money since then.
[speaker002:] Well, that, that's a system too.
[speaker001:] Sometimes, uh, it's a bit of a, a problem, you know, because I guess I don't really manage my money the way I should. But, uh, I suppose I've lost money on not taking good advantage of, of, uh, investments but,
[speaker002:] Well then again, you know, you said you, you are able to take trips. And you do, obviously, have enough to live on so I guess you're indirectly budgeting.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] Uh, just bye-bye the fact that you said you're both very frugal, uh, in spending the money. So, I mean that's, that's a form of budgeting I would think [pause]. It's, it's kind of a strange topic to, to try to, for two people who don't really have a budget to talk about budgeting and how they manage their money.
[speaker001:] Well, I guess we're both lucky in that regard then.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] How big is your family?
[speaker002:] Uh, well we're, we have one on the way.
[speaker001:] I see.
[speaker002:] Uh, my wife, and then, we're, we're having one on the way in, uh, in, uh, September.
[speaker001:] [Pause] So how, you, whe-, once you get ten children though, you may have,
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER] No I think it's just going to be one.
[speaker001:] Oh, all right [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER] How about yourself?
[speaker001:] I have two kids. Uh, one
[speaker002:] Oh.
[speaker001:] nine and one thirteen and they are beginning to be a budget problem but, uh, have not been really up until this, up to this point.
[speaker002:] Do they budget at all? I mean do you have them on an allowance?
[speaker001:] I give them a, I give them an allowance and they, {F uh, I basically give my son ten dollars a week and I put half of it in the bank and I give, give him the other half in cold cash.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] And, uh, he has a teller card so he can, uh, do what he wi-, do what he wishes with the money that I put in the bank. But, at least, it isn't, you know, burning a hole in his pocket.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] If he wants to use it, he has to go get it and that usually [static],