Hello World!

I’m a 37 year old father of three children ages 16, 13, and 12. In September when the markets decided to go belly up, one of my worst nightmares became true. How can I raise three teenagers in a recession? My wife and I are both teachers, she teaches Elementary Spanish and myself High School English, so funds were not, should we say, unlimited. On top of that we have humongous credit card debt when my wife stayed home to home school our children for 10 years. We constantly relied on more credit during this time than being frugal and making tough decisions when problems arose in the course of life. This blog is going to be about my struggles raising three teenagers and going into credit detox.

My goals are:
1) How do I reduce my debt?
2) How do I build up my emergency savings account?
3) How do I fund three kids’ college education?
4) How do I save for retirement?
5) How do I help pay for the kids to drive/text/etc.?

You may notice that my goals are listed as questions. I don't know how I'm to accomplish the goals, but I must give it a shot in order to be able to live with myself. You will find links to sites I find helpful and quotes from books. Along the way you will meet my family because that is the reason I have these goals. I hope that each of you will join me on this journey to find the wizard and keep everyone happy. I know it will be near impossible, but we will give it a shot.