Disposable income? yeah right!

During a recent camping trip I was looking around at all our ‘neighbors’, noticing all the trucks/jet skis/boats/etc they had. Being a friendly guy (for the most part) I spoke with several of them and they don’t make a ton of money or have a large inheritance but they can afford all of this stuff. So I got to thinking... I make more money than many of them and yet there’s no way I can afford this stuff. So where does the money go? Granted, we live in San Francisco where it’s really expensive, but we rarely eat out, we don’t go to amusement parks, or plays, or the opera. We do, from time to time, take smaller day trips but that doesn’t really add up to much. That’s when I realized where much of my disposable income goes – medical costs!

I have pretty good insurance (thankfully!) but that doesn’t cover 100% of everything. I sat down and roughly guestimated what we spend out of pocket and it comes to somewhere in the neighborhood of $400+ per month when you average it out over the year. That includes prescriptions, medical tests, co-pays, therapeutic care, eye and dental care, etc. It’s scary how quickly all those co-pays add up. And that doesn’t include the larger, occasional expenses such as surgeries, inpatient care, braces (oh yeah, ODD is due for those too), and of course Vet bills (did I mention we have 3 cats and 2 dogs?). Of course, compared to many other special needs parents, this is nothing more than a drop in the bucket - I've spoken with some who pay thousands per month easily. But, we do it for our kids so to me it's worth every penny.

But... there goes my new truck and jet ski. I wonder if my doctor will let me borrow hers? After all… We paid for it!