Murphy Time

Talk about Murphy's Law! Ol' Murph has taken up residence in the Burton household the last couple of weeks. First, the refrigerator went out and we had to have a repair man come and fix it. The ink wasn't even dry on the check when the heater went out on my truck. We had to get a new thermostat and assorted other repairs. The very next day, a latch on the car door went bad and a whole new unit had to be installed. In the midst of these annoyances, our snow blower broke down. And in Northern Maine that's a bad thing. The warranty was up 10 days before the problem. We had to get it repaired on a Saturday during a snow storm. Now, the battery in my truck is dead!

Any one of these things is a nuisance, and has the potential to be a budget buster. But all of them together would have spelled disaster just a few short years ago. But, thankfully, we have an emergency fund and they were just a pain in the tootie.

While I will never look forward to these little blips on the radar, and while I will always hate spending money on repairs and inconveniences, because we've planned ahead I don't have to panic.

Please, start the new year right! Get on the IOU NO MORE plan today. Read the book. Start an emergency fund. Begin a spending plan. Make 08 great!

Happy New Year to all. Except Murphy.