Reality Check

We finally got our W2's yesterday. We can do taxes! Although there isn't income tax in Alaska, so I'm not sure there will be any refund of any kind.

So I open the W2's. I'm still in my school, no real jobs, below the poverty line mentality. Now I know how much we've been making and I'm fully aware that we are following a budget. But for some reason I had never actually considered the full, yearly salaries we are currently making.

I don't particularly care about money, except to be able to get rid of school debt and save up for an adoption...so it isn't really about the money. It is just about a reality check. In other words, this post isn't about how much money we do or don't have, but more about a shock to my system.

Reality check: Kennan made more in 4 1/2 months than we have made total in any other year of our marriage, which really means any other year of our lives. In the grand scheme of life we are so rich that it is nuts. Compared to many people in the US we are living low but compared to most of the world we are living large.

Reality check: We need to be careful with our money and make concerted efforts to give, save, and serve with it instead of waste it away because we finally have it. Can anyone say - stop going out to eat?

Reality check: Tax refunds probably aren't going to happen again. Unless we adopt, so I guess they will happen again. But not for awhile.

Reality check: Life is expensive. So is paying for school.