Not sure what this was about - but I was behind this vehicle on the freeway. I actually got right behind it because I was trying to figure out what the heck it all was.



It was a pickup truck piled HIGH with soda and beer cans.

Um, interesting?

More interesting - the vehicle had Oregon plates. Though I highly doubt the cans were driven from Oregon to California. But, who knows?

But yeah - not sure I have seen a pickup truck so piled high with, anything, before! Was a sight!

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I also took a lot of pictures of the kids playing in the creek behind Grandma's home:



We have a river by our house, but any river access as close as this is bordered by private homes, so it is not very accessible from our home. Kind of made me wish we lived closer to a creek. The kids were in heaven. (& flood wise, think I'd prefer a creek!)

Though since I lived over there, they have put in a man-made pond. & I think the kids almost liked the pond more than the creek. They liked picking the cat tails and using them as swords. They liked watching all the birds and fish, and climbing all over the rocks.

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It could be years before I can transfer the kids' money over - yeesh. I need their accounts to hit $3k so I can do the change, and I need an up stock market day so I know that they will still have $3k when the trade is executed the next day. I think today is a fail, with the market down.

It could be Monday. It could be next year, at this rate. I am tired of keeping a sharp eye on it.

I did a little research and decided to with with the Target Retirement funds. It's about 70/30 stocks/bonds. It's about 55% Total Stock market index, plus some international funds, and a bond fund. I looked at the LifeStrategy funds, but they were more expensive. I didn't like the underlying funds as much, either.

"Target Retirement" fund it is. I think this is the better choice.

I tried to web search some ideas for college savings (outside 529s) and didn't see much. I came across an article from some guy that said all college money should be saved in CDs.

Um, no thanks???? Literally - it was like - 18 years to college? Your only option is CASH! Boy, I thought I was conservative... Not taking that advice.

529s come with lots of fees and limits. My strategy for now is to keep the kids' accounts in UGMAs as long as they pay no taxes. We can transfer them to a 529 once we have a better idea on the college costs, etc. (or if we need to for financial aid, etc.) Though not sure I would see the point either. All that is far off in the future.

(The kids have a few thousand in a 529 already, anyway - from Grandma).

I like ESAs a LOT better. They are pretty much like any other IRA. BUT my professional understanding is they have fallen politically and future contributions are up in the air. I think 2010 is a big expiration year for current limits, so we are kind of wait and see on those. If I thought they would actually be around for a while, we would consider an ESA once we hit "taxable earnings" on the UGMAs. For now, we find the UGMAs simple - they don't make enough, now, to have any tax consequences.

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Surewest came by and talked my dh into switching over. They did already, but they never showed up!!!!! & him and I argued about it so much. This was maybe 3 months ago?

I can't tell you why we argued so much. We both think they lowered their prices. We are getting 2 months free, TV, internet, phone (VOIP). Internet is fiber optic!!!!! 6 months promotional price, then to full price.

Thing is, full price is only $15 more per month than we are paying now.

I told dh last time I was really annoyed by the whole thing, and this time I don't really care. I think the price was WAY higher before. WAY higher!!! So, interesting. $15 premium for fibre optic? What's to complain about? Before it was a decent deal in the interim and some insane price after that. Which I totally understand they may rise the price astronomically again at some point. But we will see... We are really fed up with our DSL service anyway. Not sure what other options there are.

& to ditch DISH? IS this a dream? Actually, dh has not heard great about their TV service, so we doubt we will stick with it. But free trial comes with free installation and promotional prices, so sure, we will give it a try. I can't imagine it can be worse than Dish.

Anyway, before Surewest told us we had to sign a contract. Now we don't. I am thrilled about this too.

But yeah - heard great things about their phone/internet - so will be a nice change. Moving on up!

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Little financial headaches:

**Disputing double $20 charge on credit card.

**Dish replaced our DVR because it stopped working. They told dh there was no charge, but then put a $49 charge on our bill. Yeah!

Dh is busy following up on all this.

Our ATT modem went out recently and so I think we are ready to replace both ATT and Dish. But I do have the feeling this will be more expensive in the end. BUT, if the stuff works and doesn't break every 5 minutes, it will be an improvement.

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Reminds me, I signed up for ymail when we changed to ATT just one year ago. Nothing good to say about it - too many ads.

I use gmail with an alias for this blog and I LOVE it. So I am going to switch all my e-mail over to gmail. I am tired of maintaining so many e-mail addresses. Will probably phase out my yahoo and ymail accounts. Will only use Surewest as a "backup/real" address for gmail and such.