[speaker001:] so uh describe your family budget
[speaker002:] well I've uh for a lot of years I I've pretty much flied without one and uh just recently uh we we set up a budget and and we're trying to stick to it we just bought a new house so we've got everything you know pretty much we know what our uh our fixed expenses are per month and then we've got some ones that are variable that that pretty much stay within a certain range and then uh then there's the ones that you never know anything about and that's the the food budget but that
[speaker001:] well yeah and to some extent uh utilities I imagine
[speaker002:] yeah well the utilities they're pretty much uh uh you can pretty much uh figure what they're going to be and one of the nice things here is the electric company has a plan where they'll average them out for you
[speaker001:] uh they have that to some extent here but it's not quite as good and
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] uh transportation expenses I guess you own a car
[speaker002:] yes sir
[speaker001:] and you know how much you're going to drive every week
[speaker002:] well I used to um I used to know uh fairly close to exactly how many miles I drove because I I was very convenient I lived uh uh nine tenths of a mile from work
[speaker001:] huh
[speaker002:] so so was uh you know two miles a day to and from work so it kind of cut my transportation costs a lot but now I've just bought a new house and I'm a half hour
[speaker001:] uh
[speaker002:] and so my uh transportation costs have gone up by uh five times
[speaker001:] yeah I understand that we we have a real similar situation ours uh quintupled at least uh so there is a real family budget
[speaker002:] yeah pretty much um the problem is there never seems to be enough money uh I have three children and uh it seems like the more money you make the more money you have the more things that they seem to need and uh of course nothing ever goes down I mean uh I remember you know I have five children total I have three left in the house
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] and I can remember years ago when uh school would start and I'd go buy all five kids you know shoes and I could get out of the out of the uh shoe store without spending more than thirty five dollars nowadays thirty five dollars buys about one pair of shoes
[speaker001:] if you're lucky
[speaker002:] yeah so I mean things have just really gone out of sight in the last uh I guess about the last ten years
[speaker001:] exempt or nonexempt
[speaker002:] I'm exempt
[speaker001:] wow must be nice part of the high price spread uh no uh well we don't we do but we don't have a family budget we have the fixed things that we have to pay
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] and we have the things that are extras but it seems that by and large the extras just don't exist
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] and well you know the auto budget car payment sucks a hell of a lot of it dry
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] and insurance is insurance bad there
[speaker002:] um I've got uh two older cars there both one's a seventy seven and one's a seventy eight
[speaker001:] well we've got one eighty nine
[speaker002:] and uh my insurance is about uh it was running about four hundred dollars a year but when I moved to the new town I live in because it's a different county which has less crime and uh less you know less highways and so it's a cheaper place to live as far as the insurance company's concerned so my my I think my insurance dropped about uh sixty dollars a year
[speaker001:] wow that's that's not bad four hundred and something a year that's that's
[speaker002:] well it's actually three hundred and forty for each one of the cars so
[speaker001:] that's cheaper than we pay
[speaker002:] yeah yeah I was down in Texas for two years and I was paying unbelievable rates for both car insurance and for home insurance um they
[speaker001:] well here in Colorado it's even worse because we have uh no fault
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] do you have that there
[speaker002:] uh in Maryland they uh they have no fault in Maryland also
[speaker001:] well no fault's rather funny in Colorado because uh it seems that everyone pays all the time
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] instead of just the guilty party pays
[speaker002:] um-hum yeah it's kind of it's kind of strange here the way things go uh here if you have an accident and no one's injured the police won't even show up
[speaker001:] you're kidding
[speaker002:] nope they tell you if nobody's injured you all exchange names and take it up with your insurance company
[speaker001:] God
[speaker002:] well if you I don't know how familiar you are with Maryland but uh especially the the center part of Maryland where I ninety five runs through it is really heavily populated
[speaker001:] not at all
[speaker002:] and there's just so many people and so many accidents every single day that it take another police force just to answer the traffic
[speaker001:] they don't even try to keep up with it
[speaker002:] no
[speaker001:] God so you lived in Texas for a while
[speaker002:] not a bit yes sir
[speaker001:] huh
[speaker002:] I spent uh couple years down there moved down there in eighty seven and moved out in eighty nine
[speaker001:] are where you from originally
[speaker002:] uh right here in Maryland
[speaker001:] huh so you just basically went home when you had a chance
[speaker002:] and my family yeah my family uh didn't like Texas and I had a chance to uh transfer up TI bought a company about seven months after I moved to Texas right here in Hunt Valley
[speaker001:] uh that's nice
[speaker002:] so I got an opportunity to transfer back and I took it
[speaker001:] God that's great uh no I'm a native Texan
[speaker002:] yeah um-hum
[speaker001:] west Texan
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] there is a difference
[speaker002:] yeah believe me I know there is I lived in Plano and I don't know if you're familiar with Plano but Plano maybe five percent of the Plano actually were from Texas
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] everybody else was an import
[speaker001:] well I'm I'm a west Texan Lubbock Midland Odessa
[speaker002:] um-hum yes
[speaker001:] Amarillo Dumas Panhandle
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] a different world from down there
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] so uh Colorado's been fun but they have a real problem
[speaker002:] um
[speaker001:] next to every window the state seems to have put up a turnstile and every time you look at a look at the mountains
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] or think about looking at the mountains you got to throw in a dollar or or so it seems I I may just be paranoid but that state income tax is just eating me alive
[speaker002:] yeah yeah they have a state income tax in Maryland but I noticed when I was in the in the in Texas they didn't have a state income tax but they sure nailed you on those darn county taxes and school taxes and property taxes
[speaker001:] yeah yeah property taxes and yeah well Colorado
[speaker002:] oh my God ate you alive
[speaker001:] inspection you know they have the state income tax
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] but then they also have property taxes and they also have sales taxes and they just and they just get you every direction they can
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] and I just don't know sir but they it seems like they trying to get you every which way
[speaker002:] yeah it sure does um there's uh some good books that I've read um that you might be interested in um Charles D Gibbons is the guy who runs some ads on light night TV and he's got seminars you can go to and they try to hook you into his organization which costs about four hundred bucks
[speaker001:] oh yeah
[speaker002:] but he's got a couple of books out one of them is called um Wealth Without Risk
[speaker001:] I've heard of the book
[speaker002:] yes it's a very good book it's tells you how to cut money on your taxes and on your insurance and then what to do
[speaker001:] legally
[speaker002:] what to do with the money that you save
[speaker001:] legally cut money on your taxes huh
[speaker002:] yes yes sir legally legally cut money on your taxes and on your uh insurance and then he tells you how to invest that money in order to uh uh you know be wealthier uh he also has a new book out that I purchased right before I moved and haven't had a chance to uh crack it open yet um Financial Self Defense I believe is the name of it uh the man uh has a lot of good ideas some of them I already knew about some of them I had already practiced but I suggest it to anyone who wants to be better off financially to read it because uh
[speaker001:] and that includes everyone at TI
[speaker002:] yes yes I'm one of the ones that had my salary frozen for ninety one yes
[speaker001:] well even the you know the non exempts technically yet we haven't had our salary frozen yet
[speaker002:] yet
[speaker001:] but when you're only at living wage it doesn't matter
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] you know survival is a funny state
[speaker002:] yeah I know what you mean I uh when I was in Dallas I was supervisor and I had uh four non exempts um under me
[speaker001:] yes
[speaker002:] and uh I I was appalled at what the hell they were paying them I just couldn't believe it
[speaker001:] did well I've been with the company sixteen years now I was a WF for several years
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] it just never never seems to improve it it and it doesn't seem to get much better for the exempts either unless you're twenty eight or above
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] it's really a shame
[speaker002:] well I I've this company that they bought they ended up buying a very high payroll
[speaker001:] oh
[speaker002:] and uh the you know uh I thought I was making a good wage you know high wage till I came