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Implementing Plan & A Trade

January 11th, 2008 at 03:51 pm

Well it is almost official. Waiting for the cash to appear in my checking today, and then transferring the money over to our retirement plans.

So will be officially maxed out for 2007.

I think it's cool that we could probably employ the same strategy for 2008. & max out again. We'll see.

By 2009 I would hope we were well into maxing out anyway.

So though the money is just as much efund as retirement right now, I am mostly keeping it separate in my mind.

But if I get to leave it in there...

Puts me at exactly one years' salary in retirement vehicles.

My plan to have double that in 4 years is looking a little more likely now as well. Big Grin

I think when I started to freak out we had $5k in savings. When I joined this site and tried to get our butts back in gear. After having a spendy couple of years.

The way I look at it I now have a good $5k in efund still sitting in my bank in cash.

BUT I also have almost $2k in other cash and should have $10k in other cash come summer. So in the grand scheme of things I am still oodles above where we started. As such, I am really optimistic this retirement efund thing will stay in retirement. Certainly no worse off in the interim. It feels the same with $5k cash. But I have to remember we had NO other cash before. & that was way too outside of our comfort level. This is a little different...

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In other news, dh was to sell the carseat for retirement monies. (Or more likely monthly expenses since I am a tad short for the month).

Somehow, now he is trading it for a PSP. LOL. Don't even ask. It wasn't him. They offered. How did they know? I said I thought it was fishy that they would KNOW that that is just the kind of trade he would love.

He's all excited. Now he wants to buy a memory card, (and probably games though he has credit at the used store). & he wants to pay a small one-time fee to TIVO for some feature. (Download shows? Play games remotely? Both? I am not sure).

He also wants to buy a new surround sound receiver. His new thing. HE bought surround sound like a decade ago when he lived at home. That's part of our theater system that just didn't cost much (none of it really did) since we just put a lot of "old" stuff in there. Probably fair. He is saving up his allowance pennies for ALL this stuff.

I told him once we drop preschool we can talk too about upping our allowances a bit. Then he can buy more of this crap with his allowance and stop stressing me out all the time. For now it's just $50/month and he really stretches it out pretty well. $100/month would be nicer! Big Grin Maybe next year...

This stuff is fine, but he also wants a HD TIVO (or 2) and a new computer. The stressful part.

The bigger allowances we can justify, the better this stuff will go.

Anyway, I have a really nice crib bedding set to sell. Around $300 brand new (& yes, probably what I paid. I was a little crazy). Apparently I am not the only one. I saw all this stuff listed on Craigslist for $75-$200. So, I figure I start $100 and see. Don't expect that much. But who knows??????

Maybe I will make some decent cash this month after all.

I have a lava lamp to sell. They are only going for $10. But will probably be worth it. I lied, my price limit is not $20. I guess in a more desperate month it is worth selling smaller items.

But I am doubtful any of this will go to retirement.

Then again, I am pleased overall dh worked out a good trade. He said he had his eye on a new $200 PSP anyway. Not sure he would have bought one anytime soon, as he has been talking about other stuff. But I only expected $75 for the carseat, and now he gets the PSP with no cash. So oh well. He even agreed to deduct $75 from his allowance likewise. I don't think I will. But maybe I should. Hmmmmm.

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Oh yeah, and he told me last night we could sell the van for a fun car. LOL. I am not so sold. I said you know that would be a 3-car average for me. (Sold the convertible for kids - bought before kids were even on the horizon. Bought a really old Saturn for interim but was a great car and drove 3 years. Then got the van, which was the end goal). Anyway, with gas prices, we just rarely drive the van. Dh had a point. If I sell this one after 2 years, we're not any different than our friends/neighbors who upgrade every 2-3 years anyway. LOL.

He has a point. No one would probably blink an eye.

I feel we made a dumb decision, we should stick with it. Plus, well, I like the van. I told dh I wasn't sold on dropping it. I really want 3 cars. & am willing to wait. Love having the van and the subcompact. Best of both worlds. We already shelled out the money, why give it up.

But I did tell dh that was vey dangerous. To offer that to me. I might have the van sold at the end of the day. LOL.

This is where going used is nice. We didn't lose much in appreciation in 2 years. We could probably sell for a good $12k ($10k if we are ultra conservative).

I could buy a pretty nice car in the $8k range and have plenty to spare. We could fund our IRA in 2008 easy peasy then. Big Grin

But I also like having the van as a nice secondary emergency fund. Sure we don't need such a nice car. We never have. But likewise we could enjoy it now and sell it in a heartbeat, if need be.

Oh, don't tempt me.!!!

I think I will resist the urge.

The funniest thing of all is we replaced the windshield on the saturn shortly before we decided to sell it.

I told dh, well with the cracked windshield on the van, maybe that's the sign. Time to sell. Wink

But yeah, as tempting as it is. I can't justify a non-kid-friendly car for a second car. Which is why I dropped my convertible in the first place. !! We could have kept it, but dropping to one income and upping our insurance just didn't make sense at the time. It makes a little more sense now, but not much. I think I have a few more years...

Plus the weather is terrible here. In the spring it may be harder to resist! Wink

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