New Job

Life never goes the way you plan. After Michael passed his first actuarial exam last November, we made big plans for ourselves:

He was going to get a job by February or March. We were going to re-locate to wherever it was he got that job. I was going to get a travel position which would give us a lot of extra money and free housing as long as I was working for that company. This would give us the opportunity to save, save, save, and after 6 months or so, we would have enough money for a sizable down-payment on our future home which we would move in to and live happily ever after.

Reality:

After 8 months of applying for actuarial positions all over the country, and being told that entry level jobs require "more experience," Michael got a new job as a data analyst at 1-800-Contacts (which is where he has been working for the past 2 years). It is not an actuarial position, but it is in the statistics field, which will give him the "experience" he needs. I will not be taking a travel job since we will not be moving , which takes away from my potential to save, save, save. We are looking to get into a new house pretty soon, where we hope to live happily ever after... for a little while... until we can get something better. Oh yeah, and now we are going to have a baby...

So the moral of the story is don't count on your plan. It rarely works out. The good thing about it is that a lot of times it works out better. We are very happy that Michael found a job in his field and now we will get to be close to family when the baby comes. Maybe this way is better... We'll see.