Friday, January 27, 2012

We continued to make minimum payments to the credit card companies each month while our family breathed a little easier. The company that I worked for got absorbed by another company, and then that one was absorbed by a larger company. This was the life of contracting. The big fish ate the smaller fish. With each take-over, I got a small cost of living increase. It was never really a raise—none of us got raises. This went on for 5 years. Over those 5 years we had made headway on our debt on occasion, but there were “emergencies” that sprang up that “required” more credit card use. I remember one such emergency when we took the family to Disney World. We were obviously still undisciplined.

Contract work has its stressors. The contracts that I worked were open for rebid frequently. When those times came, we all got very spiritual and prayed that things would go well. “Well” meant that you still had a job next month. With no actual raises in 5 years, I jumped ship. I began working for another small defense contractor, and I got a substantial raise. The only down side was that my new contract was rebid annually. Every September I feel the stress.