I Found Money and Something Else..
Have you ever felt this way?
Money is tight. It feels like Murphy lives in your house, and the world is against you.
That’s how I felt five years ago. We were moving from upstate New York to New Hampshire. We couldn’t buy a house in New Hampshire because I didn’t have a job. But we didn’t rent because we had two large dogs and we couldn’t find any rentals that would take them too.
So we decided to buy an old seasonal camp, keep my job and the current house. It wasn’t a smart idea to have two mortgages at the age of 23! I was lucky enough to find a new job, but we couldn’t sell the house in New York.
We bought a 1960’s camp. The owner of the camp had died and we bought it as is. It had wood paneling?and furniture from the seventies.
It was 560 square feet, mouse infested?and was lacking insulation. We were going to make it our year round home.
It was a miserable experience. Broke, and living in a tiny camp with mouse droppings everywhere.
A Ray of Sunshine
Every weekend we were throwing out tons of junk that the owner had left. One day we were breaking up wood furniture to burn. My husband was about to throw a small coffee table in the fire, but my friend stopped him.
There was a $50 bill rolled up and stuck underneath the table! I have no idea why $50 bucks would be under the coffee table, but I was so happy to have found it.
It’s Partly Sunny
About two weeks later, we were cleaning up the bedroom. We were painting and there was a funny old shelf attached to the wall. I was on a step ladder to paint and noticed an envelope.
It looked like it had money in it.
My husband and I just stared at each other with excitement in our eyes.
I took out a $100 bill and handed it to him. He smiled. I took out another $100 bill. He looked amazed. I took out three more $100 bills and his jaw dropped.
We found $500 in cash! We felt so abundant. It came right at the right time.
A New Attitude that Trumps the Weather
A few days later we were cleaning and found a little box. In the box was a number and a key. The key had a number attached to it and it said Bank of America on it. It was a safety deposit key.
We knew we couldn’t keep whatever might be in that box. But we felt like we were in a movie and things were turning around. Our whole outlook changed. We were always looking to find something good.
It’s amazing how these experiences changed my attitude. I realized that good things could happen at any moment.
Usually, we dwell on the bad things that can happen at any moment, but wonderful things can happen too.
Let’s start to dwell on the good things.
What is a good moment that you have had? Was there a happy moment that changed your thinking?
Tags: Debt Free, debt freedom, finances, Motivation
Categories: Budgeting, Debt, Debt Freedom, Finances
Hi I’m Jaime. Each and every week I bring you the top business advice from the people who know best.
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5 responses
cool story! did you find out what was in the box?
We went to the bank and apparently the box was drilled out because they couldn’t find the key 🙂
At least the previous owner had a great hiding place!
I read a LOT of personal finance blogs. I have never come across yours until today. I really like your style – very polished. Also you come across as very energetic and interesting. Thanks for the story!
I’ll have to say a happy moment for me was when the tax credit ended. Not that I don’t want everyone to get $8,000. I do. The problem was it created thousands of buyers and before long, there were not a lot of homes on the market for everyone who wanted one. Can you imagine showing houses for a year and barely getting any in escrow because there were just too many offers on every house? It was like working in futility. Now I can show a house, put in an offer for my buyer and actually have a reasonable chance it will get accepted. That takes a big weight off my shoulders.