Practice What You Preach!

Ok, I admit it, I have all kinds of great advice for my little cousin, but apparently I don't always follow my own advice.

So, Cousin Courtney has been staying with us for a couple months while he decides if Virginia is really the place for him, before he signs a long-term lease somewhere. This comes with an added side benefit of being able to save some money for move-in costs for him and some readily accessible and trustworthy babysitting for us. Courtney has been looking at places to rent, some far more expensive than I feel are prudent (like I'm his Mom or something-not).

So, I keep telling him to base his decisions on the money he has now, not on what he thinks it will be in the future. Turns out, I am apparently guilty of this same thinking.

When we bid on our upcoming post, we chose it because: the school had a great reputation; Tak could continue on with hockey there; I could have a break from worrying about Malaria and Dengue Fever; and, lets just be frank, MONEY.

You see the post offered a 20% pay increase becuase of its hardship status and therefore also qualified for student loan reimbursement. Well, guess what, they just lowered the hardship to 10% and, so now, post no longer qualifies for the student loan repayment either. Talk about counting my chickens, guess I'm guilty as the next guy. Oh well, it's certainly not the end of the world, but certainly a blow to our day. There's always our next post.