A big decision for me was to decide if I should go to college to get a degree. I wanted to change my
life. I left an abusive relationship and found the love of my life. I did not know what career path I
wanted to go down. After my husband and I sat down and discussed it thoroughly, I realized it was
my best option. I was tired of working at a dead-end job that barely paid anything. Living pay check
to pay check is a nightmare that I wanted to escape from more than anything. At the end of 2017, I
made up my mind and committed to going back to school to better myself. Deciding what course, I
wanted to go in was a difficult task. I had to decide because the choices were to stay on my current
path as a server or try to get into something new and frightening to me. I did not have any
experience in accounting or much of any job besides a server and stay-at-home mom. I knew that
after finishing my degree, I had to find a job willing to train me since I lacked experience. I knew the
second option was one I had to take, and I started looking at programs that interested me. The
decision process was not easy, but the steps are what make the decision process easier. The main
decision to go back to college was to grow and be proud of myself and make something of myself. It
is not easy; having dyslexia makes things hard. I had to put my life in order and put things on hold to
complete my classes with a grade I was proud of.
One of my most recent decisions in my personal life was to buy a new vehicle. One of the largest
quantitative factors was the price of gas. I had a large, V8 SUV and my boyfriend has a diesel truck.
Both were getting decent gas mileage for their size but with my boyfriend driving one hour both
ways to work, we had to come up with a better option. The second reason for looking into a new
vehicle was both of our vehicles are older and needing more work. All together, we have 5 kids to
transport, so we need something that will seat 7 but was better on gas than our current ones.
We first discussed buying a new car because I was pregnant and wanting something a little better
than the 15-year-old vehicle I had and gas prices were increasing and we wanted to lower that cost.
We shopped around for pricing and looked at the specs of all vehicles fitting the criteria we were
looking for. We decided we did not want anything too old but something that was low in miles so it
would last us a longer time. I work from home, so I can run around town in one of the larger cars
and my boyfriend can take the new one for the longer trips to work. After purchasing a new car, I
recognize that the price of gas and the payment made on the car even out for the extra we would
have paid in gas in the older vehicles. Overall, I wanted it for my daughter so that we have a reliable
car to transport her in.
One opportunity cost of this decision is that the oldest child will be able to inherit one of the larger
cars and will be able to transport her siblings if needed. We have also saved on gas (I have been
trying to use rewards as much as possible) for the most part. The qualitative factors did outweigh
the quantitative because we purchased a vehicle during a time where used car prices were up and
probably paid the original price of the car in the year it was made versus now.
My boyfriend is always looking for a job closer to home but cannot find anything that pays as well. If
this would have happened, we probably would have stuck driving the gas guzzlers for a while. Like I
said, I work from home, so I do not drive my daughter around much. Getting the car for her is just
something I wanted to do so that when she is older, I do not have to purchase one at that time and
can put my money towards providing her opportunities of her own.
