[speaker001:] Get us going.
[speaker002:] Okay.
[speaker001:] Are, are you at T I Austin or,
[speaker002:] Well, I left T I in January but I signed up for this before I did.
[speaker001:] Oh, that's great. No, uh, uh, my daughter has talked to, my daughter up here with us, I have another one, and she's talked to students, uh, so I guess they have, uh, sent this to their customers and people in colleges and things. So they're, if you're a computer user, so my daughter has talked to two students, uh, that were non,
[speaker002:] Oh, I think that's a,
[speaker001:] T I -ers. So I guess,
[speaker002:] that's a good idea.
[speaker001:] Oh, yeah.
[speaker002:] All right.
[speaker001:] W-, we're on finances, have you, have you retired or, uh,
[speaker002:] Oh, no, no, no, no [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] Oh.
[speaker002:] Actually I left T I, um, had basically set my sights to leave T I when they announced there would be no salary increases in ninety-one, because I, I def-, definitely need to make a little more money,
[speaker001:] Oh, yeah.
[speaker002:] and, uh, I haven't really accomplished that yet, but I'm trying.
[speaker001:] Oh, yeah, it's, uh, that's, the finances, I guess we're on the subject of finances, it is tough. Uh, I've been with T I, I'm just going to be fifteen years this year and, and that's a tough thing, uh, the salary thing. T I doesn't quite always do it right. Well, what about our, our, our financial budget. Well, you, you should have a lot of information on a budget, then, if you're, uh,
[speaker002:] I wish I did. I, I hope you're, you're a person who does things better than, I, I don't have a budget. That's one of my goals for this year is to try to get myself in a good, oh, long-range planning budget mode. Um, I'm a single mom and I've been just, uh, trying to get,
[speaker001:] Well, you, you, you deserve an honor for that, a gold star for that, I guess [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER] Thank you, it's nice to have someone understand that.
[speaker001:] Right, sure.
[speaker002:] H-, how about yourself, do you have a budget you live by?
[speaker001:] Well, I guess I do, I do have a long-term budget bec-, I got a daughter in college and one going to be in college so that, I've been thinking about that for quite a while. Now mo-, monthly, no. I'll tell you a funny story about budgeting, and [swallowing] I've been married twenty-six years and I did, you know, that the macho thing, the man always did the bills for,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] I don't know, fifteen years or more, and I got so sick of it, trying to balance the budget, uh, one, and I always tried to show my wife, you know, here's how you, once a year I'd say, here's how you do the budget in case I get sick, or here's how you do the checks, you know.
[speaker002:] Right.
[speaker001:] One day I gave her the checkbook and I said, I'm not doing this anymore. You do it, you learn it, and I've been happy ever since.
[speaker002:] Well, that's great. How about your,
[speaker001:] She does it all now for about ten years, and I don't even, she complains to me about it, she threatens me to give it back to me,
[speaker002:] .
[speaker001:] and I said, I've been a happy man since I haven't,
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] fooled with that checkbook, you know [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER] Oh.
[speaker001:] So I know it's a big pain to try to do that.
[speaker002:] It really is. It, it really is. You know, that was always a, a major problem in our marriage. What I have always identified is I am basically good with money. It, I don't really need a budget to tell me not to spend it. I,
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] think that comes from never having enough. You know, I'm always afraid of [LAUGHTER] [breathing] I'm going to need some and where will it be.
[speaker001:] Right, oh, yeah.
[speaker002:] So, um, no, I, I've, I've finally worked myself into a spot where I can budget. When I, when I was first divorced, I had, um, I sat down and budgeted and I had outgo that was wha-, much higher than what I had coming in.
[speaker001:] Yes, I think, uh, that that is a tough, uh, we all, seems to th-, seems to be that way.
[speaker002:] I tried to hang onto a house that was way too expensive for me, and,
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] and so now that I've gotten, you know, I lost the house. Now that I've gotten past that, I can sit down and say, okay, this is the reality. This is how much money I have each month. The scary thing is, as far as long term, I don't have anything. I don't know if you have an I R A or, uh, you know, and I've got two girls, also, and I haven't saved anything for their college and,
[speaker001:] Yeah, that's, you need to do that. I'll, I'll, I'll give you a hint. I don't know if you're a ta-, a radio talk, uh, person listener. Do you listen to radio talk shows?
[speaker002:] Sometimes I have.
[speaker001:] Listen to Bruce Williams, uh, for financial advice.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] He's on, oh, I don't know what he's going to be in Austin. He's on five seventy here. Inter-, oh, he's nationally famous. He's a college graduate type guy. He's been in all, he's an entrepreneur and he gives very practical financial advice about cars, very, you know, not, not nothing college level, basic stuff. His name is Bruce Williams, he's on national radio. Uh, I don't know,
[speaker002:] [Doorbell].
[speaker001:] what it would be down there. You might want to, whatever your radio talk shows are down there, he's on that channel. It's,
[speaker002:] Well, I'll check that out.
[speaker001:] uh, it's five seventy up here.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] And I'd listen to talk shows for everything, for gardening and everything, just when I'm doing chores, and, uh,
[speaker002:] You've learned a lot.
[speaker001:] he gives a wealth of information, very practical stuff and, and he will help you avoid a lot of little things, uh, financially.
[speaker002:] Well, that's, that's good to know how,
[speaker001:] Yeah, there, there's a lot of advice out there for how to get a budget. And I, I'm not expert, again, because,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] I don't really do it monthly.
[speaker002:] Well, you must have done something. You're, you're helping your children in school and you're
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] you know.
[speaker001:] I did start a college fund. I'm not, uh, I have one again at U T down there now,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] her first year,
[speaker002:] [Doorbell] [breathing].
[speaker001:] and she's almost gone through her whole college fund, you know [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] Excuse me, Jim, could you hold on? I have someone at the door.
[speaker001:] Sure, go ahead.
[speaker002:] I'll be right back.
[speaker001:] Sure.
[speaker002:] [Long pause] [Voices in background] Thank you. I think we might have just screwed up the computer but we'll find out.
[speaker001:] Oh, no, yeah, right, they give us ten minutes, uh.
[speaker002:] Oh.
[speaker001:] Uh, the only advice I give you on college would be, there's a lot of scholarship money out there. My daughter got a little bit, not much, only first year she got about two thousand dollars worth, and you ought to, well, as your daughters approach the college age, uh, start finding out about the scholarship monies because there is a lot of money out there and, uh,
[speaker002:] And, and how did your daughter get scholarship money on?
[speaker001:] Uh, band. She got, you know, five hundred dollars at a, at a clip through bands, through leadership. Uh, there's all kinds of civic organ-, organizations that will give you, you know, one shot money. Uh, you get a president's award if you're, you're in, in high school doing cer-, this up by, here in Arlington. Uh, there's a lot of, and, of course, you, if you, you score high on the S A T,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] you can get, you know, two thousand a year, you know, or more.
[speaker002:] Wow.
[speaker001:] You can get yearly money as long as you keep up your grades. She, she did very well in school and, uh, but she only got first year money. She got about two thousand dollars. It was only five hundred,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] dollars at a clip from this organization. We called. There were, there were two or three people, there was some little civic organization in Dallas that gave money away and only two or three people applied. She applied and got five hundred dollars from that.
[speaker002:] Wow,
[speaker001:] So,
[speaker002:] oh, I'm definitely going to be
[speaker001:] look into that bit,
[speaker002:] actively looking into that.
[speaker001:] The year that they graduate, you know, before, though, you know, while they're graduating, there's all kinds of little bitty money that little clubs will give away, churches and everything, and they don't even have a dozen applicants because, uh, uh, the kids are going off after the big money.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] Uh, of course, you have to have some sort of record in high school, uh, of, of achievement and everything, but sometimes it's just, uh, like our band gave money away. We're a band booster club. We gave, we give, uh, two five hundred dollar scholarships just to kids, uh, who we think were worthy, you know so,
[speaker002:] Well, that's great to know.
[speaker001:] There's money out there.
[speaker002:] Yeah, that's good.
[speaker001:] Go ahead, you can talk. I, I don't want to, I want to chew up the whole line here.
[speaker002:] Oh, well, you're doing, you're doing just fine, and, and, uh, actually I, when I talk I usually like to ask a lot of questions. I was wondering what you do at T I.
[speaker001:] Oh, I'm an engineer. I'm, uh, in fact, I'm working the night because of the cutbacks and everything. Uh, my job, there were three managers jobs that were just dissolved and so they put me on nights. I, I call this my recession job.
[speaker002:] Oh, goodness.
[speaker001:] And I'm working nights just kind of covering, uh, shutdown equipment and everything,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] and just being available,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] here. I don't mind. Uh, it beats being laid off and everything. And, uh, you,
[speaker002:] Oh, absolutely.
[speaker001:] you got to be a little flexible.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] Uh, in my old age I'm trying to just hang in there until I get my kids through school and then I'd like to teach, maybe mathematics or something. I'm trying to study for that now.
[speaker002:] Oh, I hope you can do that.
[speaker001:] Right, uh,
[speaker002:] What, what I did is I was approached and, and I've, I went to T I just right at the time that, uh, my marriage was ending. I had been a, a stay at home mom and,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] and I, I mo-, was very fortunate in starting, and I really enjoyed it while I was at T I, but, you know, the cutbacks were really getting to be rather frightening and I had less than five years and, also, I wanted to make a little bit more money. So I decided I'd like to go out and try sales.
[speaker001:] Oh, yeah.
[speaker002:] And, uh, I'm, I'm out trying to sell telephone systems to businesses.
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] And the potential there is fantastic.
[speaker001:] Oh, sure.
[speaker002:] The reality of it is it's tough [LAUGHTER]. [Background voices.]
[speaker001:] Well, it's tough right now for everybody.
[speaker002:] Exactly.
[speaker001:] [Background voices] Up here in the Dallas Metroplex it's awful. Hey, I've got another clue for you for college.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] Another clue for you for college money.
[speaker002:] Okay.
[speaker001:] Go to work for U T. Uh, we have a friend who works, who is a secretary for T C U, you know, up here?
[speaker002:] Yes.
[speaker001:] They give you scholarship, a hundred percent, if you're, if you work for T C U.
[speaker002:] They do?
[speaker001:] Yes. So
[speaker002:] I'm going to check that. I've got,
[speaker001:] check that one out, you know.
[speaker002:] I've got two friends that work at, at U T. I didn't know that all.
[speaker001:] Ask them about it. Call them.
[speaker002:] Definitely, I will.
[speaker001:] And, because it's full, full scholarship. Now, it's, uh, not room and board,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] but it's tuition, full tuition paid if your parent works at T C U.
[speaker002:] Well, that sounds fantastic. [Background voices.]
[speaker001:] And her, her mother went over there just for that...