Going back into insurance is a big deal for me. I know I've shared this story previously, but it has been a while, and there are a lot of new readers on the blog, so I'm going to give the quick version. When I graduated high school, I dreamed of going big in my parents' insurance company. I worked part-time throughout college, making decent money, and planned to go full-time when I graduated, which I did. That didn't work out as well, though. At the same time I graduated, my boyfriend (now husband) returned to Florida for training when the base finally reopened after Hurricane Michael.

Dreams cost money to achieve. That is always going to be a piece of the puzzle. The dream of becoming a doctor that heals the sick means paying for medical school. The dream of traveling to Italy means paying for flights, hotels, and excursions. The dream of a fancy car means loan payments, insurance, and maintenance costs.

I think these resources are all great options to help manage the cost of a PCS. These conversations are important to have. As couples managing military life together, we need to be on the same page. But time and time again, as I researched ways to help with these expenses, I came across the same variations of advice: save up for it.

Let’s finish the conversation on preparations that need to be made before a PCS. These are good things to discuss and prepare for, regardless of whether a PCS is on the immediate horizon for our families. We just moved, and it’s really unlikely that we’ll move again before our three years here are up, given my husband’s career field. But we are fresh off a PCS, which means that hard parts are at the forefront of our minds, and we are in a better position to understand and prepare for next time.

When researching for financial aid during a PCS, two types of results popped up. The first were programs, which we already talked about, and the second was more along the lines of preparations that individual families should make. This is important to discuss and prepare for, so let's go over these recommendations. 

Here is part two of programs that help offset a PCS’s cost. Making this list has been very helpful to me, given the fact that we just PCSd a few weeks ago. I’ve found extra funds that we qualify for that we wouldn’t have known about without this research. Hopefully, you’ve been better informed than I have about programs that help with PCSing, or you’ve found something useful in this list to help with the expenses.

When researching how to manage the cost of a PCS, two different types of information pop up. The first is programs or resources in place that can help offset these costs. The second are discussions and preparations that should be made. To start, let’s talk about the programs in place.

We’re going to finish out the list of unexpected PCS costs today. On Monday, I’ll share some resources I found to help with those costs, along with their pros and cons, if there are any. A lot of this stuff may seem like more minor expenses. $20 here and $30 there isn’t really anything that breaks the budget, but all this stuff adds up. And across multiple PCS’s we start talking about much bigger numbers because none of these costs are going away no matter where we end up moving to.

Continuing with the hidden costs of a PCS, let’s tackle some more of that list today. I’m sure I will miss things, so hopefully, you can point out my blind spots. I am primarily making this list from the perspective of a military-covered move rather than a PPM or DITY, but most of these things pop up after the move. No matter how we get to our new station, we incur these fees that are not covered by the military.

One of the big myths surrounding military life is that the military pays for everything when it comes to moving (there are other myths along the same lines regarding pay, but that’s not what I want to tackle right now). There are a lot of hidden costs to a PCS that families may not know about or be prepared for. I certainly hadn’t thought about them before this move.

We are 12 days into the New Year, which, for a lot of people, means that every resolution they made has fallen off the books. Hitting the gym at 6 am, reading every day, or cutting out sugar often gets thrown out the window the second we slip up on our new habit. It's something people face every year as they make life-changing habits that either aren't sustainable for their stage of life or are a lot harder than they were ready to handle. It's going to take more than a few weeks to undo decades of opposing habits.

We’ve officially been in Georgia for a week. Today, I drove to Target and back without GPS, so it is starting to feel like home. The boxes are slowly getting broken down, and pretty soon, it will look like a place we’ve always lived. It’s been hard, though. Living amongst boxes and trying to decide where everything goes is stressful, and so is facing the reality that our friendships have changed significantly. We are very fortunate that multiple friends followed us, but our group looks very different from what it did before.

On Wednesday of last week, we arrived at our new house. We set up the air mattress, pack-n-play, and unloaded the cars. We had dinner with friends that we had not seen in a few months. And I managed to get some writing in. My mom and brother arrived late that night at a hotel in town to help with the movers.

There are a couple of significant factors in our success. One is consistency, which I know I have hammered (and will continue to hammer). Another is a partner. It's always just ourselves that bears the responsibility for our dreams, but that doesn't mean we have to do it alone. I know that sounds like a contradiction, but one of the biggest factors to our success will be the support we find along the way.

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a great time celebrating. We were in bed by 10 p.m., which is just how I like it, and we started the new year by completing the first leg of our PCS journey. We drove 6 hours to Memphis today. We’ll do three hours to Nashville tomorrow to see some friends. Then, we arrive at our brand new house on Wednesday, just in time for our household goods to be delivered on Thursday (the timing works out like that when you spend three weeks living out of suitcases before moving).

This is the last post before the New Year, which probably means everyone is busy thinking about their resolutions. Those 12 goals are my resolutions, but it is not enough to set them. We have to actually create a plan to achieve them and find ways to navigate and maintain that plan even when life is hard. I know we’ve all had years in the past where we made resolutions that quickly fell off the books as soon as we missed a day or got a bad night’s sleep.

I saw this reel the other day and totally fell in love with the idea. You can watch it here: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C1IHVoQgbxI/?igsh=ZTcxMWMzOWQ1OA%3D%3. The text says, “This is your sign to your 2024 goal on champagne bottles so you can pop them & celebrate when you reach your goal.” I think this is a great idea, and I fully plan on doing it when I get to Georgia.

I'm going to keep it short today since it is Christmas, but taking today off from writing felt like looking for an excuse not to focus on my dream. I've taken enough days off this year already, and honestly, today just feels like a day to me. This definitely won't go down in the books as my favorite Christmas. We aren't with family. There were no decorations and no gifts. We are running on fumes after getting back to our friend's guest room at about 1:30 last night. It's been a draining day, and that's really all it's felt like. I'm very lucky that I have my spouse home, though, and I am holding on to that fact, as well as knowing that next Christmas will look very different with so many amazing firsts. I know some people had the best Christmas ever, and others are really struggling, so I just want to say:

The second AJR song that speaks about the sacrifices of a military spouse comes from their most recent album, The Maybe Man. They have the third installment of the song Turning Out on this album. Listen to it here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVAXNmZQdQc This series has talked about how views of love grow and change through each stage of life.

Since we talked about sacrifices on Monday, I wanted to continue that chain with two of my favorite songs by the band AJR. They recently released a new album, and we'll talk about that song on Friday. Today, I want to focus on the song Christmas in June from the OK Orchestra album, which came out two years ago.