I know I said I would try to blog more often. But it just hasn't happened!
It's been a busy summer. July was really busy. We had been looking at options since Bill has not been able to find a job. There are a few jobs out there, but not really what his degree is for. He has been looking, but what we discovered is that his degree in Electronics Engineering is not going to amount for much, if there are no jobs in that field. When he got his degree, electronics was projected to be the up and coming field and the job outlook was very good. It didn't turn out that way. Computers were supposed to also be a very good field, and they were for a while. But then as things evolved, the computers and electronics devices became cheaper to replace than to repair. Which really limited any employment futures. We didn't realize that until Bill started putting out feelers to look for another job, which he started doing when we realized that things were going bad as his then-job.
After his job was eliminated, which was a blessing from God considering the really bad situation it had become, he qualified for the buy-out they were offering and we also were able to access the teacher's retirement which he had been part of because he worked for a school district. We have our own retirement program set up, we had gotten out of the teacher's program several years ago because it was not well administered and it looked for a while like it might actually disappear. It did not disappear, but our plan was/is much better so we stayed with ours. What we had put in to the teacher's plan sat there for years and it drew some interest.
We have spent the last several months building up the pachinko repair/restoration business and using the retirement funds as a supplement. We were thinking he would be able to find a job before this, but as I mentioned - the jobs just are not there. Unless he wants to work for minimum wage in an electronics assembly job, for literally not enough $ to pay for the gasoline to get there and back. So, we decided to look at our options. We talked about selling the house, but we decided we don't want to do that.
What we have done is to refinance our house instead. We refinanced about 9 years ago, with a 15 year mortgage. The idea was that it would be paid off about the time we hit retirement age. But the payments were pretty high. We talked to the bank and they said that we would have no problem refinancing, even though Bill has been out of work for 16 months. He's been able to bring in some $ with the pachinko business, and I am in a job I have held for 23 years. We have not been late on anything and we have a good credit rating. So, we decided to go for it. We had a couple of other things we paid down/off and the upshot is that yes, we have a 30 year mortgage but we have a much lower payment. Which means that with what Bill is bringing in with the business, he can stay self-employed and continue to concentrate of building our business. We don't intend to let the mortgage go 30 years, we can (and will) pay extra towards the principal.
This is another instance of what we see very strongly as God's hand.
That's the leap of faith we took. It's been a series of leaps and we've taken them.
