Trying to clear ice off the wipers (for the third time) under an I-80 overpass.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Blog catch-up
Sorry folks, the blog has fallen by the way-side the past couple of weeks while I prepared for the holidays. I threw a Christmas party at my home and I had a lot to do to get myself and the house ready. Nothing makes you finish up home improvement projects like inviting a bunch of people over--so I matted and framed eight photos from Europe and got them on the wall, had the fireplace chimney cleaned so I could have a nice cozy fire, cleaned the house and yards up and did the grocery shopping and food preparation for the party. The party was tons of fun, it was great to have some of my friends that hadn't met each other able to find out who these mysterious people are I have been talking about.
This weekend I did a little holiday party hopping myself and spent most of the weekend visiting with friends. Today I finally had a chance to clean up after my own party last week and pick up the leaf mess in the backyard. Here are some pics I took this weekend.
My crazy psychodelic blue house:
Crazy psychodelic blue Christmas tree:
And finally a temporarily clean backyard:
This weekend I did a little holiday party hopping myself and spent most of the weekend visiting with friends. Today I finally had a chance to clean up after my own party last week and pick up the leaf mess in the backyard. Here are some pics I took this weekend.
My crazy psychodelic blue house:
Crazy psychodelic blue Christmas tree:
And finally a temporarily clean backyard:
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
the holidays
The holidays are a busy time for everyone and surprisingly that is still true even though I am only working four days per week. Beyond the usual social calendar and trips to the gym I have a couple of winter projects going on at home. One simple housing project always involves five more associated projects, i.e. the Jeremy Clarkson "how hard can it be?" syndrome. For example, I am adding lighting above my kitchen cabinets to illuminate the soffit and while I'm at it I might as well add lighting under the cabinets to light up the countertops. So I need to make room for one switch on the wall--no problem, I will consolidate a separate ceiling fan and light switch into one multi-switch. But to do that I have to upgrade from the existing toggle-type switches to the newer flat paddle type switches. And while I'm buying switches I might as well add the nice dimmer switches now that I am converting to LED recessed lighting. Which means a new wall plate, which happens to be 5mm larger than the old one and requires removing, trimming, repainting and reinstalling the wall moulding to accomodate it. Wow, a simple project made not-so-simple; that's how I roll, apparently.
Among all of the not-done things I did manage to complete a few seasonal projects. Christmas lights and Christmas trees are pretty uncool items to have in February so I figured I might as well get moving on those. Christmas tree up and decorated, check. Christmas lights on house, check. I made a day of Christmas tree shopping with my friends Mike & Marin and Marin's sister Shannon and husband Dave and their children. We went to a tree farm near Placerville that lets you pick out your tree, cut it yourself, then you can hang out and drink hot apple cider and roast marshmallows around one of two firepits. We followed up with a stop at Z-Pie in Placerville and then home to get the tree situated. The tree is now up and decorated and the house smells great between the douglas fir tree smell and the fires I've been running in the fireplace.
Tonight I will pick up some 5x5, 8x10 and 11x17 photos I had printed of my trip to Europe. I already purchased frames and mats so there's another project to add to the list.
The Thanksgiving holiday was wonderful--great food, family and fun. Hope you all had a good one as well.
Among all of the not-done things I did manage to complete a few seasonal projects. Christmas lights and Christmas trees are pretty uncool items to have in February so I figured I might as well get moving on those. Christmas tree up and decorated, check. Christmas lights on house, check. I made a day of Christmas tree shopping with my friends Mike & Marin and Marin's sister Shannon and husband Dave and their children. We went to a tree farm near Placerville that lets you pick out your tree, cut it yourself, then you can hang out and drink hot apple cider and roast marshmallows around one of two firepits. We followed up with a stop at Z-Pie in Placerville and then home to get the tree situated. The tree is now up and decorated and the house smells great between the douglas fir tree smell and the fires I've been running in the fireplace.
Tonight I will pick up some 5x5, 8x10 and 11x17 photos I had printed of my trip to Europe. I already purchased frames and mats so there's another project to add to the list.
The Thanksgiving holiday was wonderful--great food, family and fun. Hope you all had a good one as well.
Friday, November 12, 2010
cash for.... ???
When life brings you lemons, make lemonade; and likewise, when the economy is in the toilet, take advantage of every stimulus package you can. (Without putting yourself in debt, of course.) I am taking some good friendly ribbing at work for it, so now I've made it my mission to take every one I can. It started with the controversial first time home buyer's tax rebate--I was on the fence about buying a house in declining economic times, and especially after taking a paycut while I was shopping for a home. That stimulus package ultimately gave me the confidence to pull the trigger.
Next was the 'cash for clunkers' program which I certainly would have used had I owned a clunker. You have read about my involvement in Roseville's 'cash for grass' program and that worked out super well for me. I spent just under $300 on plants from the UC Davis Arboretum, $50 on irrigation supplies and $150 on mulch, or around $500 total. The City wrote me a check for $445, covering nearly the entire cost. [Speaking of which--the City did their final inspection last week and they asked if they could come back next spring and photograph my yard (if the plants are still alive, LOL) and use my house in their marketing material--that made me happy.] I would not have initiated this project had it not been for the City program.
Yesterday I took advantage of the 'cash for appliances' program. I had been using an old 18 cu.ft. refrigerator that I bought used from the previous tenant of my east sac house. It was old, small, inefficient and noisy and looked silly in my kitchen. My countertops and cabinets left a hole 11" wider and 7" taller than my old fridge, so it looked like the equivalent of a smartcar parked in a Cadillac Brougham parking spot. I really liked the appearance and features of the Samsung models but I nearly blew a heart valve when I saw the multi-thousand dollar price tag of the counter-depth model refrigerators. I shopped around and found the exact Samsung model I wanted at Sears Outlet--it was new in box, but had a ding in the side that you can't even see. I paid one-half of retail price and it still carries the full warranty because it is new. Throw in another 5% off for the Sears card, plus both the State and City of Roseville energy efficiency rebates and I got a sweet new fridge for way less than the going-rate. I never thought I would be excited about a fridge, but I rather like this one. It's a french door style, full LED-lit interior and control panel, purified water and ice in the door and has a unique dual compressor arrangement (which is nearly silent, btw) so the freezer and refrigerator have completely separate systems. When you open a door and let the cool air out it only has to run one small compressor to cool that side rather than running one large compressor to make up for the lost air. And because the air circulation is separate, the smell of your chicken in the fridge can't pass into the freezer and make your ice taste like chicken. (I like chicken, but chicken-flavored ice is a bit much.) If you need appliances, check out Sears Outlet before you buy anywhere else.
There are two more programs coming up that I would like to be involved in. The Senate is expected to pass a new 'cash for caulkers' program that allows rebates for further energy efficiency upgrades. They will help pay for a tech to come to your house and use FLIR (forward looking infared) to scan your attic and walls for air leaks. I have always wanted to do this because simple and easy to repair air leaks around windows and in HVAC ducting can kill your home's energy efficiency. And next spring the City of Roseville will initiate a new water efficiency program. Their focus is changing out sprinkler heads for new technology that reduces leaks and malfunctions and new sprinkler timers that use a combination of an outside temperature probe and/or soil moisture meters to change irrigation water schedules based on the weather. I would love this since I take extended summertime trips and have to over-water the duration of my absence. The City of Roseville told me that due to this year's cool summer, people's water use was way down over past years. Then we saw three consecutive days over 100-degrees where water use ramped up by nearly 50%. The City staff told me that people never re-adjusted their sprinklers after that event, so water use stayed at those ultra-high levels through the remainder of the summer. The new sprinkler controller technology would prevent such waste.
Beyond the various incentive programs I've been finding that printable online coupons are becoming much more common. I'm talking about coupons for big stuff from places like Home Depot, Lowes, Pier1/World Market, Sears, etc. I'll throw some examples out there--yesterday I used both a sale ad and a 20% off coupon at Harbor Freight to buy a handtruck for moving the refrigerator. None of my friends owned one and U-haul wanted $12/day just to rent one. I paid $31 for a new one at HF. I've been using these coupons at Lowes and Home Depot as well, got nearly half-off on my TV (thanks to a co-worker) and a super deal on photo prints and frames thanks to an online link from my sister.
I know some people disagree with these various economic incentives. I'm going to be one-sided here because I can, but the first time home buyer's rebate likely saved my home from becoming another slum-lord rental house or worse-yet, a vacant bank-owned home waiting to be vandalized. The various energy and water efficiency rebates will reduce my carbon footprint as well as my water and fertilizer use. As energy use rises the utility companies have to make costly investments for new infrastructure, which always have environmental impacts and, as ratepayers, we have to pay for that infrastructure via higher utility rates. I read that if U.S. citizens were to reduce energy consumption by 1% per year, the U.S. could meet its current and future energy needs without building new facilities. These incentives also encourage spending, which helps pump money into the economy that otherwise wouldn't be there.
Next was the 'cash for clunkers' program which I certainly would have used had I owned a clunker. You have read about my involvement in Roseville's 'cash for grass' program and that worked out super well for me. I spent just under $300 on plants from the UC Davis Arboretum, $50 on irrigation supplies and $150 on mulch, or around $500 total. The City wrote me a check for $445, covering nearly the entire cost. [Speaking of which--the City did their final inspection last week and they asked if they could come back next spring and photograph my yard (if the plants are still alive, LOL) and use my house in their marketing material--that made me happy.] I would not have initiated this project had it not been for the City program.
Yesterday I took advantage of the 'cash for appliances' program. I had been using an old 18 cu.ft. refrigerator that I bought used from the previous tenant of my east sac house. It was old, small, inefficient and noisy and looked silly in my kitchen. My countertops and cabinets left a hole 11" wider and 7" taller than my old fridge, so it looked like the equivalent of a smartcar parked in a Cadillac Brougham parking spot. I really liked the appearance and features of the Samsung models but I nearly blew a heart valve when I saw the multi-thousand dollar price tag of the counter-depth model refrigerators. I shopped around and found the exact Samsung model I wanted at Sears Outlet--it was new in box, but had a ding in the side that you can't even see. I paid one-half of retail price and it still carries the full warranty because it is new. Throw in another 5% off for the Sears card, plus both the State and City of Roseville energy efficiency rebates and I got a sweet new fridge for way less than the going-rate. I never thought I would be excited about a fridge, but I rather like this one. It's a french door style, full LED-lit interior and control panel, purified water and ice in the door and has a unique dual compressor arrangement (which is nearly silent, btw) so the freezer and refrigerator have completely separate systems. When you open a door and let the cool air out it only has to run one small compressor to cool that side rather than running one large compressor to make up for the lost air. And because the air circulation is separate, the smell of your chicken in the fridge can't pass into the freezer and make your ice taste like chicken. (I like chicken, but chicken-flavored ice is a bit much.) If you need appliances, check out Sears Outlet before you buy anywhere else.
There are two more programs coming up that I would like to be involved in. The Senate is expected to pass a new 'cash for caulkers' program that allows rebates for further energy efficiency upgrades. They will help pay for a tech to come to your house and use FLIR (forward looking infared) to scan your attic and walls for air leaks. I have always wanted to do this because simple and easy to repair air leaks around windows and in HVAC ducting can kill your home's energy efficiency. And next spring the City of Roseville will initiate a new water efficiency program. Their focus is changing out sprinkler heads for new technology that reduces leaks and malfunctions and new sprinkler timers that use a combination of an outside temperature probe and/or soil moisture meters to change irrigation water schedules based on the weather. I would love this since I take extended summertime trips and have to over-water the duration of my absence. The City of Roseville told me that due to this year's cool summer, people's water use was way down over past years. Then we saw three consecutive days over 100-degrees where water use ramped up by nearly 50%. The City staff told me that people never re-adjusted their sprinklers after that event, so water use stayed at those ultra-high levels through the remainder of the summer. The new sprinkler controller technology would prevent such waste.
Beyond the various incentive programs I've been finding that printable online coupons are becoming much more common. I'm talking about coupons for big stuff from places like Home Depot, Lowes, Pier1/World Market, Sears, etc. I'll throw some examples out there--yesterday I used both a sale ad and a 20% off coupon at Harbor Freight to buy a handtruck for moving the refrigerator. None of my friends owned one and U-haul wanted $12/day just to rent one. I paid $31 for a new one at HF. I've been using these coupons at Lowes and Home Depot as well, got nearly half-off on my TV (thanks to a co-worker) and a super deal on photo prints and frames thanks to an online link from my sister.
I know some people disagree with these various economic incentives. I'm going to be one-sided here because I can, but the first time home buyer's rebate likely saved my home from becoming another slum-lord rental house or worse-yet, a vacant bank-owned home waiting to be vandalized. The various energy and water efficiency rebates will reduce my carbon footprint as well as my water and fertilizer use. As energy use rises the utility companies have to make costly investments for new infrastructure, which always have environmental impacts and, as ratepayers, we have to pay for that infrastructure via higher utility rates. I read that if U.S. citizens were to reduce energy consumption by 1% per year, the U.S. could meet its current and future energy needs without building new facilities. These incentives also encourage spending, which helps pump money into the economy that otherwise wouldn't be there.
Friday, October 22, 2010
done...now I can relax
My day started at 7:00am when a triple axle big rig showed up at my house (1 hour early, by the way) to deliver a massive load of shredded cedar bark/mulch. I planted the remaining 14 plants, now 30 total. My buddy Bill came over and engineered a cool water energy dissipator so all of the tile drain water from my backyard now filters through a subsurface gravel area rather than pouring over the top of my bark and putting muddy water on the sidewalk. The whole area was covered in bark and my yardage calculations came out exactly as hoped--I had enough leftover bark to fill every planter box in my front and backyards.
It doesn't look like much now--the plants are are horribly small but most of them grow to around 1-2 feet in height and 2-3 feet in diameter. I finished today right as the rain started, a perfect ending to a long, tiring project. Best of all, no more mowing that ridiculous slope!
I still have some work to do around the utility box in the foreground. Contrary to any photos you may have seen in the past, the grass that used to be in this location really didn't look very good--there was lots of clover, crabgrass and spotted spurge. If things go to plan then I will likely apply for this program again next year to convert the remainder of the sideyard grass to native vegetation.
It doesn't look like much now--the plants are are horribly small but most of them grow to around 1-2 feet in height and 2-3 feet in diameter. I finished today right as the rain started, a perfect ending to a long, tiring project. Best of all, no more mowing that ridiculous slope!
I still have some work to do around the utility box in the foreground. Contrary to any photos you may have seen in the past, the grass that used to be in this location really didn't look very good--there was lots of clover, crabgrass and spotted spurge. If things go to plan then I will likely apply for this program again next year to convert the remainder of the sideyard grass to native vegetation.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
There's no going back now...
I jumped both feet first into a huge project. As of last Friday I am participating in the City of Roseville's "Cash for Grass" program where I agreed to rip out 340 square feet of lawn and replace it with low water use native vegetation. I sort of forgot how many weekend commitments I have through the rest of October and November, thus I decided to take this week off work to get a jump on the project before we are hit with six days of rain starting this Saturday.
Last Friday I met with City staff at my home and they took measurements, photos and gave me a run-down of what they would like to see done. They pay $1 for each square foot of grass removed, so I expect I will be able to do this project for a minimal investment. I already had a pretty good idea what I wanted to do but the City staff were very helpful in providing ideas and left me some schwag like some native landscaping books, a really nice plant selection DVD, an adjustable hose nozzle/gun thingy and a soil moisture probe. I've had such pleasant dealings with the City and this experience was no exception.
My home is on a corner lot so I have a lot of grass to mow. There's a strip 10 feet wide and 120-feet long on the outside of my fence that is a real pain to mow. The slope raises six feet in height over 8 feet of horizontal distance, so you can imagine how high the suckage factor is for mowing. I like the slope though, it puts my house well above street level and gives a nice level of privacy in my backyard. The goal is to remove the grass so I don't have to mow it, fertilize and water it and ultimately I hope the native vegetation offers lower maintenance and a nice visual appearance.
I basically chose all UC Davis Arboretum "All Star" plants. These are 100 plants selected by people that know a whole lot more about plants than I will ever know and these plants are either native to California or grow like natives--in other words, they are selected for their hardiness, resistance to our high summer temperatures and our poor soils. I figure my chances of actually keeping these suckers alive for any length of time are much better if I go the All-Stars route. My Aunt is in town from Seattle and she accompanied me on Saturday to pick up a truckload of plants at the UCD Arboretum native plant sale. I had pre-selected the plants and drew up a proposed planting map so the decisions were made prior to the plant sale.
I am sitting here on the computer because a full day of tearing out grass really wore me out. It took two days to remove the old grass and I lined the bottom of the slope with about a half a ton of large river rock boulders. I am having to dig up the old sprinklers and separate irrigation zones and am converting a portion of the system to drip. This part is going slowly. I changed my plans and will start planting tomorrow and will deal with the irrigation later. The plants need to go in the ground now before we are hit with a week of rain.
So here's how it looked when I was half-done.
Tomorrow will be another hard day of digging and planting. Hopefully I'll have good news to share at the end of the week. If you get bored and feel like helping drop plants in the ground, you know where to find me!
Last Friday I met with City staff at my home and they took measurements, photos and gave me a run-down of what they would like to see done. They pay $1 for each square foot of grass removed, so I expect I will be able to do this project for a minimal investment. I already had a pretty good idea what I wanted to do but the City staff were very helpful in providing ideas and left me some schwag like some native landscaping books, a really nice plant selection DVD, an adjustable hose nozzle/gun thingy and a soil moisture probe. I've had such pleasant dealings with the City and this experience was no exception.
My home is on a corner lot so I have a lot of grass to mow. There's a strip 10 feet wide and 120-feet long on the outside of my fence that is a real pain to mow. The slope raises six feet in height over 8 feet of horizontal distance, so you can imagine how high the suckage factor is for mowing. I like the slope though, it puts my house well above street level and gives a nice level of privacy in my backyard. The goal is to remove the grass so I don't have to mow it, fertilize and water it and ultimately I hope the native vegetation offers lower maintenance and a nice visual appearance.
I basically chose all UC Davis Arboretum "All Star" plants. These are 100 plants selected by people that know a whole lot more about plants than I will ever know and these plants are either native to California or grow like natives--in other words, they are selected for their hardiness, resistance to our high summer temperatures and our poor soils. I figure my chances of actually keeping these suckers alive for any length of time are much better if I go the All-Stars route. My Aunt is in town from Seattle and she accompanied me on Saturday to pick up a truckload of plants at the UCD Arboretum native plant sale. I had pre-selected the plants and drew up a proposed planting map so the decisions were made prior to the plant sale.
I am sitting here on the computer because a full day of tearing out grass really wore me out. It took two days to remove the old grass and I lined the bottom of the slope with about a half a ton of large river rock boulders. I am having to dig up the old sprinklers and separate irrigation zones and am converting a portion of the system to drip. This part is going slowly. I changed my plans and will start planting tomorrow and will deal with the irrigation later. The plants need to go in the ground now before we are hit with a week of rain.
So here's how it looked when I was half-done.
Tomorrow will be another hard day of digging and planting. Hopefully I'll have good news to share at the end of the week. If you get bored and feel like helping drop plants in the ground, you know where to find me!
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
The economy and managing finances
I have always enjoyed managing money by moving savings around to the highest yield accounts and purchasing my own stocks and deciding where to invest extra income for retirement. The ‘extra income’ part of the equation isn’t what it used to be, partly due the costs of home ownership and my interest in trying to furnish, landscape and upgrade my first home, and partly because the governor’s office is still playing around with the state’s furlough program. And each time I feel like I am doing a pretty good job of managing it all I meet with my financial planner and my world is turned upside down. Tonight was one of those nights.
A good financial planner will look at all aspects of your financial life. They should evaluate your insurance policies for life, auto and home and make sure you are adequately covered. After all, how much sense does it make for a financial planner to make you money, only to lose it because you had inadequate insurance to cover some sort of accident? He made significant changes to all of my policies a couple of years ago, so no insurance changes this time-around. He is requiring that I photograph or video my possessions and store that media content somewhere other my own home. Three years ago when my home in East Sacramento was robbed, I struggled to determine what I owned and what might (or might not) have been taken. Photos would help jog your memory for filing insurance claims.
Apparently this combination of furlough pay, a full year’s worth of mortgage interest on my home and my contributions to tax-sheltered retirement programs means that by August of this year I had already completely paid my 2010 state and federal income tax obligations. He changed my withholdings to ‘Married’ with 15(!!) dependents and even with that I will still have a sizeable tax return this year. That’s cool, as long as I don’t have to produce 15 dependents. This will increase the size of my monthly income, balance my budget and allow more money to be invested each month. And he’s pretty dead-set on not letting the government collect interest on my tax money each year.
Retirement planning is where the largest and most surprising changes are being made. I have been contributing pretty heavy to a 401(k) since I was 24 years old and he is now recommending I cut that to 1/3 of my current contribution. Not only that but he has changed the deferrals to different asset classes (like a combination of international stocks, small/mid/large cap stocks, etc.) and moved entire balances from one fund to another. I tend to get lazy and let my retirement deferrals stay where they are while he evaluates the performance of each fund for current and future predicted performance and makes changes accordingly. (For you fellow state employees, he says our CalPERS retirement programs is “one of the best run pension programs on the planet.” And we get 2% at age 55 compared to the federal govt that pays only 1% at age 62!) He calculated that I am over-investing in tax-deferred retirement and I need to increase my contribution to post-tax retirement, as well as non-retirement investments.
Earlier this year my planner directed me write a really big check that I didn’t want to write for a Roth IRA and now he set up my account to auto-pay into this Roth each month. At least now I don’t have to write that ugly check each year. Finally, tonight he opened four new non-retirement mutual fund portfolios for me. Each one had a $1,000 minimum opening deposit (x4, OUCH, another big check I had to write!!!) and is allocating money I used to put into 401(k) into these non-retirement portfolios via automatic withdrawal from my checking account. These are all big changes for me. At first I wasn’t sure what to think as we sat down, opened new accounts and money starting pouring out of my savings like blood from a headwound, but the more I think about it, the more sense it makes. In the middle of 2008 I was making over $100 per month in bank interest alone. At today’s bank interest rate I make less than 1/10th that amount. It makes more sense to invest money at economic times like this (and buy many shares cheaply) than it does to make 0.4% interest in the bank. And unlike my retirement accounts, if a disaster occurred and I had already exhausted my savings account I can still cash-out non-retirement portfolios without penalties, unlike retirement accounts. I am excited about these new changes.
As I thought this all through, I realized this weird economy may have actually helped me. Sure, my income is reduced but it made me evaluate what I truly need and made me purge monthly expenditures that were unnecessary. It allowed me to accumulate retirement and stock shares at a very low price. But most of all it made me realize that I don’t need a large income to be happy. That said, I am certainly hopeful that the economy makes a turn for the better…I have cut everything left to cut and salary increases will be necessary to plan for my future. It’s difficult to justify paying for a financial planner at a time like this, however this might be the time when financial planning is most important.
A good financial planner will look at all aspects of your financial life. They should evaluate your insurance policies for life, auto and home and make sure you are adequately covered. After all, how much sense does it make for a financial planner to make you money, only to lose it because you had inadequate insurance to cover some sort of accident? He made significant changes to all of my policies a couple of years ago, so no insurance changes this time-around. He is requiring that I photograph or video my possessions and store that media content somewhere other my own home. Three years ago when my home in East Sacramento was robbed, I struggled to determine what I owned and what might (or might not) have been taken. Photos would help jog your memory for filing insurance claims.
Apparently this combination of furlough pay, a full year’s worth of mortgage interest on my home and my contributions to tax-sheltered retirement programs means that by August of this year I had already completely paid my 2010 state and federal income tax obligations. He changed my withholdings to ‘Married’ with 15(!!) dependents and even with that I will still have a sizeable tax return this year. That’s cool, as long as I don’t have to produce 15 dependents. This will increase the size of my monthly income, balance my budget and allow more money to be invested each month. And he’s pretty dead-set on not letting the government collect interest on my tax money each year.
Retirement planning is where the largest and most surprising changes are being made. I have been contributing pretty heavy to a 401(k) since I was 24 years old and he is now recommending I cut that to 1/3 of my current contribution. Not only that but he has changed the deferrals to different asset classes (like a combination of international stocks, small/mid/large cap stocks, etc.) and moved entire balances from one fund to another. I tend to get lazy and let my retirement deferrals stay where they are while he evaluates the performance of each fund for current and future predicted performance and makes changes accordingly. (For you fellow state employees, he says our CalPERS retirement programs is “one of the best run pension programs on the planet.” And we get 2% at age 55 compared to the federal govt that pays only 1% at age 62!) He calculated that I am over-investing in tax-deferred retirement and I need to increase my contribution to post-tax retirement, as well as non-retirement investments.
Earlier this year my planner directed me write a really big check that I didn’t want to write for a Roth IRA and now he set up my account to auto-pay into this Roth each month. At least now I don’t have to write that ugly check each year. Finally, tonight he opened four new non-retirement mutual fund portfolios for me. Each one had a $1,000 minimum opening deposit (x4, OUCH, another big check I had to write!!!) and is allocating money I used to put into 401(k) into these non-retirement portfolios via automatic withdrawal from my checking account. These are all big changes for me. At first I wasn’t sure what to think as we sat down, opened new accounts and money starting pouring out of my savings like blood from a headwound, but the more I think about it, the more sense it makes. In the middle of 2008 I was making over $100 per month in bank interest alone. At today’s bank interest rate I make less than 1/10th that amount. It makes more sense to invest money at economic times like this (and buy many shares cheaply) than it does to make 0.4% interest in the bank. And unlike my retirement accounts, if a disaster occurred and I had already exhausted my savings account I can still cash-out non-retirement portfolios without penalties, unlike retirement accounts. I am excited about these new changes.
As I thought this all through, I realized this weird economy may have actually helped me. Sure, my income is reduced but it made me evaluate what I truly need and made me purge monthly expenditures that were unnecessary. It allowed me to accumulate retirement and stock shares at a very low price. But most of all it made me realize that I don’t need a large income to be happy. That said, I am certainly hopeful that the economy makes a turn for the better…I have cut everything left to cut and salary increases will be necessary to plan for my future. It’s difficult to justify paying for a financial planner at a time like this, however this might be the time when financial planning is most important.
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