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A collection of thoughts related to faith, finances, food, environment, and other sporadic thoughts.

And I also get paid

In the first year that I taught mathematics at Central College, one day I walked over to get my mail with my colleague and chair, Don Meyer. As we opened our mailboxes at about the same time, we both noticed the envelope that indicated that our check and paystub was enclosed. For me, I had anticipated it would be there that day, since I knew when it would arrive. For Don, he stated (holding his envelope) "What a deal! I have a great job of teaching mathematics, and I also get paid for it."

Upon hearing Don, I had two takeaways that immediately came to my mind, and I have remembered them since that day about 35 years ago.

  1. The first thing that struck me was that he loved his job so much that getting paid was a fringe benefit. I had often had this attitude in the past, but I had never intentionally stated it in such an articulate manner. This impressed me about Don's commitment to his work, and it was an ongoing inspiration for me through my years of teaching at Central College.
  2. The second thing that I observed, in contrast to my anticipation of the check, was that he was surprised by it. This told me that Don was operating his life so that he was not living paycheck to paycheck. In other words, he had his life organized so that he didn't NEED the check, at least not right then. In other words, I deduced that he had saved well enough so that his financial life didn't depend just on this one check. That inspired me to have an emergency fund and live frugally so that I too wouldn't be thinking of the calendar and planning for when I got paid.

Thanks, Don, for being a light in your words, actions, and faith.

Published 2025-08-12.

If you find any errors in the text, please let me know. Thanks. Contact me with errors or comments using hibbardac@gmail.com. [Back to the top] [About the author, Al]

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