A Poet’s Testimony (Part 5)
I left work nine
months short of a bridge to full retirement, with an eleven month continuation
of my monthly salary (a month for every
two years of service), and the after-tax cash buy-out of my contributions to the
retirement fund. Essentially, I could continue living as I had been for about a
year before my world would collapse.
It is always inevitable
that as companies grow, regulations increase, and profits become more important
than people, success comes with employing new technologies, streamlining tasks,
and down-sizing the workforce. Previous
to losing my job, I had survived five company down-sizing efforts and over the
course of five years, watched many of my friends and peers lose their jobs. After
watching so many of my friends lose their jobs, I decided to make myself
financially liquid two years prior to losing my own job. I sold my retirement
home on the river and used the profits to put a down payment on two duplex
apartment buildings and bought a third larger and newer duplex in the country
with no money down on a 30 year VA loan. The third duplex in the country was
the one we called home.
Our medical insurance
was transferred over to Cobra and skyrocketed to nearly a thousand dollars a
month. Seeking another source of income to help pay the bills when my monthly
salary would expire in a year, I took the buy-out from my retirement and put 20%
down on two additional duplex apartments. We now had a total of five duplexes. As
I rushed to remodel the two newly purchased duplexes, it became apparent that
we would not be able to keep up with the mortgage on our duplex in the country.
We put it up for sale, sold it and came just short of breaking even. Then we
moved into one of the apartments I was renovating. By the grace of God, we
managed to get the remaining apartments remodeled and rented just before the
cash ran out.
Then the new year and
income tax time rolled around and we received the shocker of our lives. My
after-tax cash buy-out was now taxable as income towards the purchase of our newly
acquired duplexes. I had a reported income greater than what I paid taxes on, I
owed the IRS $40,000 and interest was accumulating at $80 a day. I had no money
to speak of, minimum income from the apartments, and no way to pay them off. I
was forced to sell off one of my earlier duplexes that I had put a large down
payment on for a loss. When I first attempted to pay off the IRS, they would
not accept the check because three days interest had accumulated while it was
in the mail and it was not considered payment in full. I ended up having to
overpay them and wait another two years to get my money back.
Shortly after paying
off the IRS, a couple of roof rafters collapsed from the weight of snow in the
apartment we were living in and we awoke to water running all over my wife’s cherry
dining-room table and chairs. I managed to get the roof rafters jacked back up
and secured from inside the attic and paid some kids to shovel off the roof. We
were thankful that it did not happen at one of the units we were renting.
Before losing my job,
I was a collector of animal graphic ginger beer bottles from the 1800s. I had acquired every animal graphic made in
Canada, the U.S., and most from England; as well as a few from Australia, New
Zealand, and South Africa. Considering my circumstances, I quickly realized
that the fun had been in the collecting, not the owning. The internet was
changing everything; eBay was just coming into its own and some of the rarer
bottles that I had paid $50 or $60 for were now selling for $300 to $1200. I
began selling off my collection that had taken me since college to acquire; a
bottle at a time to help pay the bills.
We had purchased and
sold enough properties by that time that my wife had become friends with a few
of the realtors. When a couple of the ladies broke off to start their own
real-estate company, they asked my wife to come along, and so she tried her
hand at real estate. She was the low gal on the totem pole in a start-up
company so there unfortunately weren’t a lot of profits to be made in the
short-term.
By the end of my
second year of being out of work, I had flown out of state for several job
interviews and had countless phone interviews, but no job offers. Then one day,
long after all the profitable bottles had been sold, my wife was leaving for
work and told me that we had only $800.00 in the bank and that she had no idea
how we would be able to buy groceries and make our mortgage payments that
month. This was the first time that she had shown any outward sign of fear or
worry since I had been out of work. I broke down as soon as she pulled out of
the driveway and fell to my knees in prayer, “My God, haven’t I done all that
you asked of me? What more can I do? My wife is afraid and I have no way to
comfort or reassure her. How can I provide for her? My life and subsistence is in
your hands.”
Ten minutes later, the
phone rang with what would turn out to be the best job offer of my entire life from an interview
that I had had three days previous. I got off the phone and was driven to my
knees by the power of the Holy Spirit. I lifted my arms and began to weep. I
praised God for His mercy and grace. This was a job in Wisconsin and it took
every bit of our $800.00 to get out there and get set-up. My first paycheck was
just in time to pay the mortgages and buy some groceries.
Once there, God spoke
to my heart through the power of the Holy Spirit; saying, “This is your time on
the mountain. Use it wisely.” This was an answering to prayer and I knew then
that my time alone was meant to serve God. I began to pen First Vespers and God
again spoke to me through the power of the Holy Spirit to reassure me of my
path. The miracles that I have seen are more than this testimony and too many
to list. By the grace of God, Jesus has stood in my filthy, dirty house and He
has washed it clean with the brightness of His light.
