Kenneth Wilson:  

I lived the single life for 11 years following graduation in 1978, had a blast during the 1980's, and bought my first brand new 1,525 square-foot 3/2/2 Pulte starter home ("the bachelor pad") in the Concord Bridge subdivision outside of Jersey Village on December 11, 1983 at 24 years old. I made a small fortune in overtime pay working storm damage repair for Southwestern Bell Telephone after Hurricane Alicia, so I decided to invest those extra funds and used them as a down payment on the house, which I owned and lived in for almost 20 years. Table soccer (foosball) became a passion of mine in the mid-70's and I actually traveled the Midwest USTSA professional circuit as both a player and an official for five years beginning in 1983. `The objective for each tournament was always the same.... finish high enough in the open events to pay for the trip and bring home a little extra cash. At the time I retired from the pro tour in 1988, I had achieved a ranking of 12th in the USTSA national points standings. However, in 1988 I was closing in on 30 years old, so it was time to settle down and start planning a family. Nancy Miller and I met at a foosball tournament in July, 1987, we married in August, 1989, and we celebrated our 30-year wedding anniversary in 2019. Our only child (Erin) was born in November 1990 and she is now 33 years old, married, and with a child of her own. Nancy and I became proud grandparents of a beautiful granddaughter (Hannah Lynn) in December, 2017. I was employed with Southwestern Bell Telephone in 1976 at 16 years old as a part time employee while I was a sophomore at Northbrook, and I continued my career with the phone company for almost 34 years. After considering veterinary medicine courses at Texas A&M, Stephen F. Austin, and Sam Houston State, I decided to continue my employment with the phone company and I went straight into the full-time workforce after graduating high school. This is when my 45-year career in telecommunications began. I spent 2+ years as a 411 directory assistance operator, 19+ years in the field as an installation/repair technician, and 11+ years in management as a Senior Project Manager on the Network Distribution Services Vice President's staff for southeast Texas. In the summer of 2009, AT&T informed me that as of January 11, 2010, I would no longer have the option of taking my retirement pension in a lump sum and that I would be forced into a monthly retirement annuity. I crunched the numbers for a couple of months, decided to submit my resignation letter in September, trained my replacement every day for the entire month of October, and at 50 years old, I voluntarily left AT&T in November of 2009 with 33 years, six months, and eight days of service. I also left with 18 consecutive years of perfect attendance. I still miss some of the people I worked with, but I don't miss the long hours and high stress that went with the job. After a brief three month "retirement", I went to work in the Information Technology industry as a network maintenance technician at a small, family-owned telecommunications company. Rising quickly through the management ranks as a bid estimator and a project manager, I became the Vice President of SudeCom in February, 2013. Without a doubt, it was the most rewarding job I ever had and the 12 years that I worked there made me appreciate being separated from the big corporate environment. Beyond that, my broker was able to grow my lump sum pension IRA in ways that Fidelity Investments could never do while my retirement funds were bottled up in my AT&T 401K. Leaving AT&T and putting myself out into the open market proved to be the right choice. One of the best financial decisions I've ever made. Now for one of the worst financial decisions I've ever made. We moved from the Concord Bridge bachelor pad to a 3,000 square-foot, 4/3/2 two-story home on a quiet cul-de-sac in the Jamestown Colony subdivision back in October, 2003. Originally built 14 years earlier as one of David Weekley's custom-built model homes, I commonly refer to this house as the "money pit mansion" because there was always something that needed to be replaced, cleaned, repaired, or upgraded. It was a beautiful, spacious, and palatial home... just very expensive to live in and time-consuming to maintain. It wasn't very energy efficient, ei...Expand for more