Our New Piano

Although I consider myself a SAHM, I do make a little extra money each month teaching my seven piano students. I drive to my student’s houses and then teach lessons while their parents watch my toddler. As I started reflecting on the changes the birth of another child would bring I realized it would be hard to load both kids in the car to take to lessons. So my husband and I decided to accelerate our piano savings so that I could teach piano from home.

We started saving in early January and waited to buy a piano until after we had moved apartments, so that we would only have to move a piano once. While we were waiting I frequented craigslist.com to learn good prices and deals in the area. We quickly saved up the money I earned from teaching lessons and then waited for the move and the right piano to come along.

A week or two after we moved I found a great piano on Craigslist for $50 under our budget. We called them up and (thanks to wonderful friends) we were able to get a trailer and 3 more guys that same day to help move the piano. We felt blessed that we didn’t need to pay for a piano moving service, although we would have if we had bought a baby grand or spent substantially more money than we did. But our friends did a wonderful job carrying the piano to our second story apartment.

We also had set aside a little money for piano tuning, since we knew a trip across town and up a flight of stairs is brutal for a piano. The piano tuner came last month and did a wonderful job, so now my piano is ready for students. I will start teaching students at home about a month after the baby is born.

Sometimes it takes a little money put into a wise investment (like a piano) to boost your money-earning potential. I was fortunate that I could start saving the money I made by teaching and bootstrap my small piano teaching venture and I didn’t have to put down the money at the beginning.

In addition, buying a piano right now was a wise purchase as we had purchased an asset, an item that would retain its value and possibly increase in value, instead of a liability which would just drain the money. I will quickly make back the money spent on the piano and then earn more income from the purchase. In addition, if we needed to move cross-country in the next few years I could most likely sell the piano for close to what I paid for it, as pianos retain their value.

Perhaps the most important thing about purchasing the piano is that it wasn’t only a wise business move, but a purchase that would bring joy to our family for years to come, even if I stopped teaching piano lessons. Many people have a hobby and talents, I’m just blessed that I can make money pursuing mine.