**Well, my 5.5% CD matures in September. I thought it was October. Glad I was on top of things - it was end of September. Ack. But got all the paperwork in to roll it over to my brokerage. It is a CD in a ROTH.

So, I made out well for the short time that interest rates were "decent." They haven't been most of my adulthood, that is for sure.

(I Also spent most of 2007/2008 earning 6% on credit card arbitrage).

I was actually going to roll my CD into a mutual fund in 2006, but at the time, I saw a great deal on this CD - for THREE years. I decided to go for it. I had a feeling this whole housing mess would implode. I didn't expect it to be so hard and fast. Funny enough, I regretted this decision early on...

Of course, the market has been so hot lately. I don't know. I am just transferring it into cash. If the market is significantly lower than 2006 (hard to say without looking at it) I will just buy into stocks. If not, I may slowly buy in. I have a little research to do.

Has my attempt at market timing panned out? Perhaps. All I know is I am consolidating my retirement accounts further, and don't plan to chase CD rates any further. It's pretty much a PITA. When rates improve, I will chase them in my taxable accounts. But no more of this CD ROTH business.

This CD is an old relic from my "young and saving my retirement in cash, because I didn't know any better" days. I am ready to move on.

(Hmmmm, DOW was 10,600 in Sep '06 and is currently 9,600. I can't help but feel I Would be better off waiting a bit though. But, I don't know. Will see where the DOW is at when the money appears in my account!)

Truth is, I have come out ahead and should just invest it! I shouldn't be greedy - I already leveraged this CD for some low stock buying - in the DOW 7k range. I took some liquid ROTH cash and bought at some of the low points. This CD will refill my ROTH Efund Cash reserves. I am relieved it is maturing, for that reason.

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**Education - isn't that a hot topic lately?

I am so PLEASED with BM's education right now. 1st grade has far exceeded my expectations. I am sure this is one of those areas where "luck" plays a part, but GOOD, affordable education is extremely important to dh and I. It is something we will always strive for. Certainly didn't fall into our laps. While so many friends and acquaintances were so concerned with "appearances," our attention to true substance has paid off.

But yes, the school has certainly talked to talk. Their walk has exceeded my expectations and I am so happy for that.

I also feel extremely alone in my feelings. When I rolled my eyes about acquaintances misinformed ideology on class sizes, I realized this year maybe I Was too narrow minded in my thinking. With the economy as it is, and budgets being slashed, class sizes are growing once again. (All schools in our district have increased class sizes, but the Charters who are hanging on to small class sizes for dear life).

Maybe the private school crowd had it right? Or did they? I have friends who are leaving Private schools because they are so under-enrolled this year. Isn't that interesting? My one friend actually prefers public school, but the private school is cheaper for full-time care (cheaper than after school public care). So, she has stayed, but she is worried about there only being a handful of children in the class. Her school is not known for doing well with the higher grades though. She just wants out before her child hits 3rd or 4th grade. & also doesn't want going from a class size of 10 - to 30 - to be a shock. !

Anyway, everyone seems to have educational worries these days. Public private, etc.

It's not all roses for us. The assigned middle school leaves much to be desired. But, that is so far off. I can only take one thing at a time. Who knows, those whoas may all be resolved in 5 years anyway... & there are certainly other affordable options than our "assigned public school."

(I forgot to mention - because of my friend I did look up after school care costs. Yowsers!!!!! More affordable than preschool childcare? Yes, but not by much. Dh can stay home a few more years. Yeesh).

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**Um, I learned something new?

When I last checked my credit report, it occured to me that some of that stuff should start dropping off soon. Didn't we refi out of our first mortgage in 2000? Why would that still be on our credit report, anyway?

I went on a quest to learn more about credit history and such.

I was surprised to learn that "bad stuff" drops off your report after 7 years, but "good stuff" stays on for 10 years, after an account is closed.

Seriously?

I had no idea.

I am continually perplexed by the misinformation out there about credit history, etc. But the truth is this, nothing has ever dropped off of our credit report. Everything we have ever had is still on there. Our many mortgages, and our many credit cards.

No wonder closing old cards hasn't amounted to a hill of beans as far as our FICO.

I also read uninformed forum talk about how it can take 20 years to build a 800+ credit score. Okay, yes it CAN. But if you pay all your bills on time, it is possible to get there in just a few years. It does NOT take 20 years!!! The discussion was about how fast it could happen. Seriously.

So basically, since I always close an old card when I open a new one, and none have dropped off my report, than my FICO score is none the wiser. Thing is, by the time my 10-years-closed cards drop off, I have already built 10 more years of credit history.

So, does it really matter? My experience has been no, but this points out why.

Obviously everyone's situation is different. There are other factors at play. But, yeah, I learned something new.

I guess our first mortgage will drop off our credit reports in the middle of 2010. But we have 10 years of on-time payments to show for it, since.

What will be interesting to see is what happens when my first credit card drops off. I closed it around 2006, after having it for over a decade? Then again, I tend to keep my cards about 10 years before something better comes along. Could be worse if I switched cards every year? But averaging 10 years doesn't seem to matter much.

Yeah, I am not losing sleep over it...

------------------------------------

**Extra-Curricular Stuff

BM is worn out by karate. He LOVES it, but it is on a bad day. The long school day isn't jiving with it.

I am sure I could find him more expensive classes elsewhere. On a better day. Ugh. But I really don't want to. Will see! (Price just doubled since he turned 5, as is. For 2 hours vs. 0.5 hours per week. HE only goes one hour a week since it's a bit of a drive though).

He did get into his other extra-curricular class, after all. The school opened more classes due to high demand. Another $80 down the drain.

Of course, that was before this karate development? At least this class is less physical.

Piano... Was I supposed to be teaching him that? It's been frustrating getting into homework habits and practice habits. Too much at once?

BM always begs to stay after school with "the other kids." But he whines when he can't come home and crash. Which is understandable - such a long school day for a small child. I'm afraid he doesn't know what he wants.

We didn't sign him up for soccer because it started at the same time school let out. ! I now think it was for the best.

I am definitely not one to over-book my child. He loves sports. We think it's important he learns music (he is interested). & he's still at that stage where we are just "trying new things." I guess it just happens, huh? I guess dh and I hated sports, so we didn't have to choose. BM has more to juggle in that regard. Throw in a long school day, and here we are.

Just looking at my year-to-date returns. I keep track in yahoo. I enter my fund shares at the end of every year. The performance I track is everything I had invested as of 12/31 of prior year. I can track more current progress in Quicken.

My first thought is I wonder when some people who "Cashed out" at the low are going to bother to get back in. Some relatives come to mind. Not counting new money, my portfolio is up about 25% for the year. There's certainly been a lot of upside!

Secondly, one my my funds really stood out as I was perusing them today. I have a T Rowe Target Retirement fund that is up 25%. It's having a good run this year. The funny thing is the only reason I bought it was because I could invest T Rowe with a mere $50/month (& no other initial investment). Today I have almost $4k in there. I chose the Target retirement fund because it had a slew of high performing managed funds for a low expense ratio. IT hasn't always beat the market by a mile, but this year it is kicking the other Target funds' butts! Ironically, it has a more conservative mix than most the others for the same target date.

Other things of note? I have considered selling my Dodge & Cox fund because all I hear is how these funds were awesome in their hey dey, but that they are so bloated with assets that the fund is no longer very manageable.

Today, I am glad I didn't listen. Highest performing fund of ours, up 36% for the year. I am a long-term investor and wasn't ready to just sell. Though I was looking at it critically in recent months.

---------------------------------

Any surprises in YOUR portfolio?

LM's account hit $3k yesterday, AND the stock market was up this morning. So I executed a trade, for today. Trading his Star fund for Vanguard's 2025 Retirement (He'll hit college age in 2023).

Success! I have been keeping an eye on this for 2 weeks. It's been frustrating.

This changes his stock/bond mix from 65/35 to 80/20. But also is a cheaper expense ratio, and I can put on auto pilot if I like (gets more conservative as 2025 approaches).

For now, just not enough to spread out any more (can't buy more than one fund!). I may prefer to manage it more as the balance grows.

BM is not so lucky. His account was like $5 short today. Bummer.

If August wasn't such an atrociously expensive month, I'd probably transfer $50 over to his account, and be done. I just don't feel I have a dime to spare for it. & I figure, whatever, if the market tanks, may be better to exchange it later. Will see. Maybe in October I will have $50 to spare.

We are also considering matching the kids' gifts going forward. All of their college money is pretty much funded by one grandparent. But they are retiring and we can probably match it starting 2011. (Next year is iffy - match will be easier once both kids are in school). I figure it's good to match it as there may be nothing to match, eventually, as they retire, etc. Then we can take over where they left off.

Dh and I spent pennies on our college, so though I think it's important to save up for it, I also don't feel the sheer panic that most parents do. Colleges here remain abundant and cheap, even today, where we live. (The abundance of colleges means kids won't have to go away to college, etc. Just means plenty of less expensive options).

We also have an entire second income to tap if the kids decide they are destined to be doctors or lawyers. From every angle, I Don't sweat it. BUT it will be nice to put a little aside. IT's been hard to justify until now. (Or until next year, I should say).

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Today I updated all of our savings balances through 9/30, etc. I have an idea since we don't pay most our bills (Credit card) until the following month. I think I got a handle on August bills (though admittedly, the month is not over).

& was pleased to see a $23,500+ balance in our savings.

$25k is so close I can almost taste it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

$30k is my goal. $25k is a pretty nice "we are almost there" point, though. Once we reached $30k, we wanted to splurge on a trip to Hawaii. (Well, wanted to reach a little more - did not want to drop below $30k for HAwaii trip).

With all these car repairs, not feeling optimistic on making it next year, after all. But still quite confident that Hawaii in 2011 can be the backup plan. Will see.

So I will enjoy my balance for another month. & I am pleased that even with all these car expenses coming up, that we can probably keep our cash upwards of $20k. That is a pretty nice feeling. Not a feeling we've really had since having kids.

For now the balance is broken down as:

$ 7k ROTH Efund
$ 5k Cash Efund
$ 2k Medical Fund (Deductible)
$ 9k House/Car Fund
$0.5k short-term
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$23,500 TOTAL
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One thing that helps is I just paid the last of the regular short-term expenses (auto insurance) for the year. Well, about $4k of expenses is due in December (property taxes and insurance). But that will build during the next 3 months and make my cash balance appear cheerier than it really is, in the interim.

I still may get the Mid-Term savings (house/car fund) to $10k this year, regardless of all this. I can hope! The balance on 1/1 was something along the lines of $0.

Today I feel like it's been 3 steps forward, and one step back. I can deal with that. That is the whole point of my savings goals - to stay ahead of the curve.

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In other news, kids had clean bill of health (teeth), BUT we were officially told LM will need braces, eventually.

No surprise there!

Funny, they never mentioned for BM. There could still be hope??? (He's older!)

They got my genes and LM's mouth is clearly a mess. I've already been saving up for that, too. IT's just a little more official, I guess.

One thing I may be less prepared for is little kids orthodontia. I didn't get my braces until I Was 10. It seems these days, they start with baby teeth. Will see. I hope I can wait a few more years! But if they can start earlier and if he didn't have to have braces for like 7 years (like I did!), I guess I won't complain. I hear it is a lot easier these days. LEss painful and less ugly. Still, poor kid. It's kind of a bummer.

The short answer is that I keep most of my cash in one account. I keep a $1k cushion in my credit union savings account - which I can withdraw or transfer (to my checking) immediately if I needed it. I keep some cash in my ROTHs (will explain below). I do keep most of it in one Online Money Market Account. For the long run I will probably invest in CDs. For now, there is really no reason to (low interest rates, etc.).

I do keep my cash readily accessible (I can write checks from my money market savings) BUT it's not something that tempts me. I don't personally need to "hide it" so I don't spend it.

I do prefer to keep at least $5k cash readily accessible, for emergency. I think my $5k is like Dave Ramsey's version of the $1k mini-emergency fund. I don't think I have ever had less than $5k cash in a savings account, in my adult life.

Right now I am all in money market cash, so to speak, because we have been "low" on cash and I haven't felt comfortable tying any of it up. As the balance grows to my goals, we will need to ladder some CDs, etc. We may even look at some bond funds - I just haven't gotten to that point yet.

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But, let me go back to the beginning. I've said before, our parents were wonderful financial mentors, but taught neither of us about investing. So WHEN we had $50k+ cash in the past, we were really stupid. IT was sitting in our low-interest savings accounts. Our worst financial mistake ever.

I also had an IRA sitting in cash. No one ever advised me to invest it. !

It was around 2006 and more difficult financial times that we decided to earn some interest on our money. Which was ironic since we had blown through most of it by then. But we opened a couple of high-yield money market accounts since then, and that is where most our savings has sat, since. (We had some CDs when we did some credit card arbitrage - CD interest rates were "high" then).

I was also going to invest my pathetic IRA cash, BUT in 2006 interest rates were higher than I had ever seen them as an adult, AND the writing was on the wall with the economy. We were knee deep in the housing bubble and it didn't look good (just as we had been knee deep in the tech bubble a few years before - we lived in the tech capital and my spouse worked in tech). The writing was on the wall so I took a gamble and converted my IRA into a ROTH and then stuck it in a 5.5% CD for 3 years. Turned out to be a good move. IT matures in 2 months and I will probably be able to invest it at much lower stock prices than I would have been able to in 2006. That's the story on that.

Anyway, as we tried to rebuild our cash reserves, from our $5k low in 2006, we didn't have a lot of money to go around. But I Received a $5k gift a couple of years back and was able to max out our ROTHs that year. I was very intent on building up our cash, but I felt comfortable with this because I knew I could access the ROTH in extreme emergency. So I actually currently have about $7k cash in my ROTH which is designated for emergency. The thing is, for me, maxing out the ROTHs right now is like putting away 23% of my gross income to retirement. Far more than we NEED to put away. But I will do it if I can access the cash in extreme emergency. I don't recommend this strategy if your retirement savings contribution is only 1% - 15% of your income, say. Or if your idea of an emergency is a car repair or a vet bill. I think hell will freeze over before I actually tap my ROTH for cash, honestly. My idea of emergency is prolonged job loss or loss of home (i.e. natural disaster).

Ideally, we will probably keep $10k cash in our ROTH, of our $15k total Efund. Keep $5k accessible cash for mini-efund. So, we may max out our ROTHs this year, with that philosophy.

The ROTH cash is in that CD I mentioned, and in MMFFs. I'll be able to invest a portion of the CD though. We have more cash than I prefer in our ROTHs, simply because my prediction on the recession. (It isn't much - nothing that will make us rich. Like $10k? )

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That's the long and the short of it.

The short answer is that all our money is in Money Market accounts, earning as much interest as possible. When we reach our $30k goal we will probably start shopping CDs and developing more of a long-term cash savings plan. Will probably be $10k in ROTH, $1k in Credit Union, $19k in Online Savings. Anything above that can be tied up in CDs. We will start formulating a long-term plan when we get there. I am a "one thing at a time" type gal.

Investing cash well is not an area I have a lot of experience in though. I have some learning to do.

I changed our retirement contributions around.

I made my last 2008 contribution on Monday. We maxed out 2007 due to a windfall but didn't even bother trying in 2008. But I always put as much as I can into the prior year. So if we were to have another windfall, or dh were to return to work, we don't let go of ROTH contributions foolishly.

Anyway, since January I have been contributing $350 per month to MY ROTH simply because it was the only financial institution I Could figure out how to make 2008 contributions to automatically, during 2009.

Dh and I view our retirement (As everything else) merely as "one." That being said, he does not work and I have a pretty awesome retirement plan at work. The only downside, and it is a big one, is that if something happens to me, dh only gets something like 50%. I didn't even necessarily realize this until rather recently when I updated my paperwork to add my children as secondary beneficiaries.

Anyway, so between those 2 factors, I think it is a priority to plump up his ROTH. I will probably get $8k in my work plan this year. We will probably only put $4k-$5k into the ROTHs. Seems fair that it should go to him. (In the meantime, life insurance makes up for this unfortunate fact).

That being said, my boss will retire in a few years and I can roll my work retirement into an IRA. So this is certainly not the situation forever.

I am contributing $50/month, going forward, to my ROTH. Just to keep it rolling. I am contributing $300/month to dh's ROTH starting in May. I just set it all up for automatic contributions. Since the last couple of years we have only been contributing around $100/month max, we have stuck to the "retirement funds" and "Total stock indexes." As I changed things around my $50 continues to go to a "retirement fund" and dh's contributions are 50% total stock index/ 25% international index / 25% balanced fund. We haven't bought much international since the market dropped, so it's good to jump back in at lower prices.

I read something the other day like those Retirement funds are risky. Some are down 50%! Well, sure, if you just contributed once, at the peak, and never looked back. Dollar cost averaging significantly smooths those bumps. My "retirement fund" is down 20% today. I have contributed every month since mid 2007. I became a fan of dollar cost averaging when I had my 401k at my last job. It REALLY helps when the market slides anyway. We've unfortunately contributed most of our retirement monies in 2000-2001 and 2007-2008. Great! Right before the busts. But the dollar cost averaging makes it manageable. The losses are significantly muted. Being able to continue to contribute while the market is in the toilet, does pay off in the long run. WE are literally about breakeven - the balance in our retirement today reflect the initial contributions we have put in the last decade. Which kind of sucks that we don't have gains - but happy to say we truly have not "lost" much.

-------------------------------------

This year has been good to us. We met our 15% gross to retirement and 10% gross to cash savings goals in one fell swoop. I was hoping to meet these goals when LM garduated preschool. Our home refinance and his unplanned switch to a much cheaper school has made these possible about 18 months of schedule.

So I have been stepping back and looking at our startegy. My goals are clear. The best way to achieve them are not.

Maxing out the ROTH (basically, maxing out a second one) is clearly a priority. WE are still in a virtually zero tax bracket and we would be crazy not to take advantage.

Other goals are to save for college and to pay down the mortgage ahead of schedule. I will put up with a mortgage that is reasonable and cheaper than renting, in the short term. In the long run we are extremely debt adverse and want it paid off well before retirement.

I am worried about affording our health care, as usual. But besides those types of expected expense increases there is not a lot on the horizon. WE are very content with our "Wants" spending at present. I know dh wants more gadgets and we talk about more grand vacations when the children are older. But those things can wait for a second income or a big raise. In the meantime we are quite content. The nice thing for our wants wish list is most of them are one time expenses. Nothing we necessarily need a permanently increased income for.

I have personally been tempted to stop or greatly reduce ROTH contributions just long enough to get our cash savings up to snuff. It is TEMPTING!!!!!! IF we had $30k in the bank I think our current $5k annual cash contributions would suffice. But with the market in such a tizzy, dh and I decided to continue the ROTH contributions as is. We are instead nearing $20k in the bank, and so have a decent amount of cathing up to do. But for now we are optimistic we can max out one ROTH and get our savings up to snuff in the next year or 2.

As far as maxing out the second ROTH? If we can avoid using our medical deductible, we can max out a second ROTH, maybe in 2010. We could contribute that money to a HSA but I like HSAs about as much as 529s. Lots of fees and little flexibility. Which leaves me of the opinion that HSAs and 529s will be our friend when my spouse returns to work and we have more savings than we know what to do with (& when our income tax rates are higher). In the meantime? Not ready to contribute to a HSA or a 529. They make little sense for people in our situation.

Which leads me to thoughts on college. No one in my family has spent much on college, and prices are still quite reasonable in California. In fact, my parents did not save a dime of money for me for college and since dh's parents are huge college money gifters, my kids have about as much money as my entire college education cost (a whopping $10k) at age 3 & 5. IT's not something I particularly sweat, and is another reason I would not save TONS in a 529. BEcause you get penalized on the money that is not used for college.

I have been thinking about it and maxing out our ROTH would put us about 25% contributions to retirement. Clearly more than necessary (we have always put away 10% - 15%, since we graduated college). As long as we are in this position I have decided not to contribute more money to the kids. The one exception is I may contribute a little more so I Can diversify their funds a bit more. (Since every fund needs a certain minimum). Aside from that, the ROTHs will become triple purposed. They hold some of our cash emergency fund, they hold a decent amount of our true retirement funds, and now they will hold a decent amount of investments for college in the offchance our kids "must" go to Stanford or something along those lines. In the meantime, truth is, their college will probably be paid for by the grandparents anyway. So even if dh returned to work, not sure we would go the 529 route... I view it more as contributing to retirement, but I can still sleep well at night if I am REALLY wrong about the whole college thing.

Which means simply, after thinking about it, the only true goal we have once our retirement vehicles are maxed, is to pay off the house.

Dh's income literally went about 100% to our house when he worked (down payment). & I think we will resume this plan when/if he returns to work. Literally, take his paycheck and pay down the house. It's amazing to me what a huge difference a mere $5k a year in income could make. That would be quite a dent. But yes, I think we have come full circle.

I tend to be extremely idealistic so we shall see. One thing at a time...

I just wanted to share my thinking with my current goals. They always seem to be evolving as circumstances change.

I just moved $3k cash into the market.

IT was money I have in a CD to plow back into the market at a later time (cash from 2006 - I could smell this coming and my gut told me not to invest it).

Anyway, today the gut says, "INVEST!!!!!" It was whispering this to me yesterday and I thought, "Eh, too much trouble."

But today my gut is screaming at me.

IT's extremely complicated, but since my catastrophic efund (about half of it anyway) is sitting in MMMFs (Cash) in our ROTHs, I was able to execute a buy this mornings. VG Total Stock Index, wherever it lands at the end of the day. (No lower price since I have been an investing adult, just about. I don't expect much from the market today. The DOW is not going to jump to 12k anyway).

Now, after this buy, a chunk of my efund is sitting in a CD elsewhere (ROTH), but I don't have to break it right now. Essentially, that's what I did. I still have my efund - it is now in a CD that matures next year.

The IRS rules are so convoluted though, if I do need it due to emergency, I will have to roll it over to my Fidelity account, and then withdraw it, to be tax free. Which could take weeks. Simply because the CD is a rollover and I can not take it out tax-free. But my ROTH at Fidelity has enough direct contributions to withdraw tax-free monies from.

Gotta love it...

I am okay with this. I am happy I do not have to break the dang CD right now.

Just a whole lot of tax complicated shuffling...

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Because of my gut I Was more 75/25 stock/cash before all this mess and today I Am at about 80/20 which is pretty much my comfort level. All I really did was rebalance. I would have waited it out a bit otherwise. Well, I don't know, I may have rebalanced anyway today, with all these lows. Selling off some bonds and cash...

What a rebalance it was!

$3k may not seem much, but it's all I got. I am not compromising my efund as a whole, or my long-term investment plan. & anyway, $3k is a decent chunk of my portfolio. So it is a lot to me. A good opportunity. I would consider buying in another $1k if things get lower.

The annoying thing about mutual funds is I won't know my price until around 3pm here (west coast). I guess the plus side is I don't have to wait so long, being on the west coast.

-----------------------

I also dropped my VG MMMF to below the initial minimum ($3k). Does it matter? A lot of my funds have dropped below minimums due to the market. Most of them are no fees. (Like Vanguard - no fees for electronic statements - a while since I read all that fine print). So I don't know what that means. I've never dropped below for selling a chunk. I have just about $1k left. I may invest it too. We'll see...

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P.S. Not attempting to time the bottom. I have a 30-year+ investment horizon and this is simply a great deal...

P.S.S. My efund is now $5k liquid cash, $4k ROTH MMMFs, and $3k ROTH CD. There is another $3k in that CD which makes up a cash part of my actual retirement portfolio (sans efund monies). Oy vey. I haven't decided how to keep track of all this... It's getting too complicated for my tastes. I guess it's all moot when the CD matures. One more year.

Switching to Cash May Feel Safe, but Risks Remain
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/09/business/yourmoney/09money...

Most interestingly, and something I was already well aware of:

"From 1963 to 2004, the index of American stocks he tested gained 10.84 percent annually in a geometric average, which avoided overstating the true performance. For people who missed the 90 biggest-gaining days in that period, however, the annual return fell to just 3.2 percent. Less than 1 percent of the trading days accounted for 96 percent of the market gains. "

"Selling now and moving to cash could mean guaranteeing a lower standard of living for the rest of your life, because you’d be locking in your losses. "

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I mentioned earlier that dh's parents took ALL their money out of stocks Monday.

I deleted the post because it had a lot of personal info. But I did want to share.

But yeah, this is why I Cringe for them.

They told dh they will buy back in when things are better. Yeouch.

You could argue we put too many of our eggs in the house bucket in our 20s, but I have no regrets. Doing so, for one, means we aren't in the mess most of our fellow young Californians are in. (We put a lot of cash down but refused to pay $600k for a home, all the same).

But even as housing tumbles and rents are rocky, we still pay far less for our home than it would be to rent something comparable (always have).

So there is a large measure of method to our madness.

BUT, I am pleased to report that I was glancing at my net worth schedule, and as of July we have only $1k more in cash equity in our house than we have in cash and investments.

!!

Which means, by the end of the year, we should have more cash/investments that cash paid on our home.

I think that is an interesting milestone. For the longest time it seemed most of our assets went to our home... We saved dh's salary for years, to pay off as much as we have.

It runs something like $91k in investments and $92k cash paid on home. Today.

For the long run, I expect our investments to blow the mortgage out of the water. I am only 30. (TIME is most definitely on our side).

You could argue if we should have paid down more aggressively, or invested more instead, but I am VERY happy with this balance. I think we did the right amount of both.

I am also pretty darn close to hitting six figures in my savings and retirement, which is another neat milestone.

But anyway, though we felt it was important to load up the house basket while we were young, I am glad to move past that. I didn't want all my net worth made up of equity, forever. Though there is little I can do as far as equity equity. If it wants to stay super high, I won't stress that my investments are less. Worse problems to have. (We still probably have a solid $150k of equity in our home, today. But for measuring purposes I am more concerned what we paid on the home, particularly since there is a risk the value of our home will fall significantly more).

P.S. I do look REALLY forward to when my mortgage balance is LESS than my investments. Have a ways to go on that one...

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July is VERY spendy!!!! Ugh...

$85 to school for supplies/field trips
$100 on uniforms/backpack/start up costs
$105 Indian cooking lessons
$110 Swim Lessons
$75 new cell phone (rebate to come)
$30 Hands free head set (new law)
$200 Birthday Party
$100 Car Repair
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$805

These are all under the Misc. category which I usually budget something like $150 for.

The rest would be covered under short-term savings (birthdays, car repairs and such) but it seems like I have been pulling more out than I have been putting in lately.

All this would be fine, for one month, but I have some potential, very unexpected, dental bills for BM. Ugh!

So I am feeling the pinch this month.

I was really looking forward to saving $200 this month - portion of preschool savings. But I have decided to put that savings off one more month. For Kindergarten start up costs. (I did divert $100/month to the short-term fund for this kind of stuff, so will be prepared next year. Just not prepared coming immediately off pricey preschool/daycare).

I keep telling myself that the extra $3600/year will help. I just have to give it some time to build. (No plans but to save it all).

Also, I am eyeing the medical deductible fund, as far as dental expenses, to ease my financial stress level. Our HMO is terribly slow to bill, and though I am quite sure we will hit our full deductible (murphy's law of course), it isn't set in stone. There may be some extra cash there. In the meantime there is plenty of float. The $1k cash I have should cover the dental.

These are the budget gymnastics I am going through to make July work.

Dh's extra money has helped much though. I don't want to rely on it, but it helps in a crazy month like this.

Extra money to the ROTHs? Yeesh. One of these days...

This was, thankfully, an extraordinarily spendy month. Not the norm! It just feels a little overwhelming.

I am ready for a slow/calm spend month. Here's to August.

I was just updating Quicken and noticed our retirement balance is a solid $75k. For now anyway.

This is actually my gross salary for the year. So one years' saved!

Of course, the interesting thing about measuring your goals in terms of salary, is that I for one, had already met this goal last year (maybe the year before). Likewise, in past years I way exceeded this goal (because my income was much smaller...)

So though $75k is a new milestone for me, I can't say the one year salary saved is a new or exciting milestone... It is turning into an impossible moving target that makes me feel a little at a standstill.

If dh returned to work tomorrow it would be a long road to save up one year of salary.

Which probably illustrates much why I so love the idea of measuring progress against "annual expenses."

I guess this idea particularly makes sense for us.

In school we both made $10k annually. Out of school we made $60k combined, and that quickly climbed to $100k.

But then we slowed down for kids and lived a couple of years on $45k (the years I took maternity leave anyway). But my full salary was a mere $50k when I had my first child. In the meantime, my income has ballooned to $75k rather quickly. Though a good chunk of the last decade we really made less than $60k. So it is hard to measure progress in terms of an ever growing income.

Of course, no complaints on the ever-growing income.

But our expenses, on the other hand, have remained rather steady. Probably a bit of a jump when we bought our first home (okay, a significant jump since we lived on pennies before that). & probably a bit of a jump when we had kids. But overall our expenses have remained rather steady and predictable. So we find that a much better measure of our forward progress.

We generally live on $50k-$60k annually (after taxes) so we are trying to grow our net worth half of that, annually. ($25k-$30k/year). If our income grows astronomically (possible, could double if dh returned to work) and our expenses remain the same (possible) than we really need to work on goals that support our lifestyle, not our income. So this is where a lot of our thinking on expenses comes in. Income means little to us. (Which is the ideal!)

But $75k is a milestone, indeed. Of course, I was wondering, recently, when our cash and retirement would hit $100k. I think we will probably hit it in 2009. Not so sure on 2008. But we'll see. (We have a fair amount of cash, in addition to our retirement investments).

We've also paid a good $90k off our house. So our more liquid assets seem to be neck and neck with how much we have invested in our house.

I expect that to change greatly in the future. Our goal in the nearer future is to put away $10k/year to retirement, in addition to 10% contributed at my job. So ideally our retirement will be growing $18k/year or so, plus investment returns, while we are only paying the minimum on our mortgage, about $4k principal every year.

I think our 20s was our decade of home ownership. & we have accomplished a chunk there. I would like our 30s to be the decade of retirement funding. Which is also why I don't sweat the mortgage prepayment. We worked very hard while young to keep our mortgage costs down (putting a chunk down and paying it off aggressively). That work will save us tens of thousands, if not more, in the long run. So it feels like it is off to the next battle - Retirement!

Likewise, I look forward to do the day our cash/investments far exceed our mortgage.

Well, we're getting there.

Anyway, I don't think we will put $10k to our IRAs anytime REAL soon. My goal is about $1500 this year, and $5k next year. But I think we may make it in 2011, when LM is entirely out of preschool. Working up to it. So though our goal is $10k/year, to IRAs, we got a ways to go.

Of course, in our 20s, retirement was only a mere afterthought, after the token 10% contributions we have always done. So I look forward to what we can do with retirement as the forethought. I expect to zoom ahead rather quickly... In fact, my roundabout goal has been $150k in retirement by age 35... (So doubled in 4 years?). Kind of aggressive, but doable.

Rain??????????

Last night I was talking to my mom and she said tornadoes has obliterated a little town near Denver (my grandma lives in Denver). I guess they were peeved it got little media mention. So I popped in "tornado" in google and saw quite a few stories online BUT then I saw there was rain, snow, AND tornadoes in Southern California. Holy Cow! Glad we came back last week. But yeah, look at that crazy weather.

Fire season has also started (quite a few months early). On our drive to LA, looking at all the dry landscape, we thought to ourselves, "this is not good." Likewise, a number of fires broke out with the hot weather and such. Will be a long summer... Usually the hills dry out in the summer and the fire season starts in the late summer and fall, before the rains come. So May is a tad early - but the vegetation is just so dry this year. & the weather has already been so hot.

Of course, on the plus side, it is raining...

I was quite bummed to hear the rain when I woke up this morning though. We had all sorts of outdoor plans, all weekend. The weather forecast I see is rain rain rain. I was looking forward to more pleasant weather (under 100 degrees) but the rain was a bit of a surprise. Don't expect it to be much to curb the fire danger though.
The 70-degree weather sounds divine though, if it does not rain too much.

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Last night we had artichokes for dinner. I guess Cali is the only state where artichokes are grown commercially (for the most part) so we are lucky to get fresh artichokes. This is another reason it is worth it to live here - all the fresh, local produce.

We have been enjoying a TV show called "Good Eats." They had a special on artichokes (usually focuses on one food every episode - and VERY interesting). So we watched that and the kids were excited when they saw artichokes in the store. They were on sale so dh picked them up, though he had never braved cooking them before.

So we steamed them for dinner and they came out pretty darn yummy!

I am not much of a veggie person, so we need to work more treats like that into our diet.

I have no idea how much they cost in general but they were on sale for $2.50 each (jumbo size). So yes, definitely a bit of a splurge, but we enjoyed.

They were REALLY jumbo. Almost a full meal for me (didn't expect that).

I asked dh to keep an eye out for strawberries on sale. I love fruit smoothies in the summer but seem to remember finding strawberries expensive in the hottest months. There were many on sale on the side of the road last month. I wasn't thinking. I should have stocked up and frozen them...

But yes, not much of a fruit or veggie person so have no grasp on seasons and such. So I thought to have dh keep a look out for strawberries on sale...

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I reviewed our investments yesterday (kind of on automatic pilot of late) and it looks like the asset allocation has changed little in the last 8 months or so. For a while I had to keep selling international because it was so on fire, to keep our asset allocations. We are still heavy on cash and int'l funds. We are just adding to domestic stocks until our allocations even out.

So I peeked at them yesterday as I haven't really set any sort of schedule yet on that. I should. But I was surprised little had changed in many months, as far as asset classes and the percentages I hold in each class.

As of yesterday, we also appear to be down 1% for the year.

Not bad...

Dh's Vanguard account is down by 2.6%. My cash is up 2.6%. (CD). & the rest of our investments (primarily managed funds) are up 0.25%. Average it all together and we are down almost 1%, for the year. The Vanguard account is by far the biggest piece, so explains that.

I am pleased my managed funds are doing their job though. I expect them to perform a little better than the indexes, in the downturn. That is the hope anyway.

-------------------------------------

Ugh, I was not prepared for a rainy day... Bummer.

I was fixing up all my spreadsheets for 1/1. My file got corrupted and I lost a lot of my 2007 data. But that's okay. I had a recent enough backup that I didn't have to do much. I am starting over 1/1 on much anyway.

Anyway, I Was glancing at our retirement for the year. & it looks pathetic. It was really a pathetic retirement year. There is more to the story, but firstly I wanted to share because I see lots of talk about fear of the market in the forums. For the young people starting out.

So here it is:



The amazing this is this is how much we have amassed all the years when we had MUCH bigger priorities than retirement. When we were saving $50k for our house. When we were simplifying our income and lifestyle to have kids. Yet we still made decent progress without a lot of effort.

Well, we graduated college in 1999 and I was eligible for a 401k in 2000. I contributed 10% of my income for about 18 months before I left that job. Most of my money was put in 2001. (& latter 1/2 of 2000). It has been far been my best investment. A co-worker helped me pick 3 mutual funds, for a mix of 15% bonds and 85% stocks. I never thought about it since. But the monthly contributions helped lessen the blow when the market "Crashed." & I returned 12-30% each year, the years following. (I recently moved this money to managed funds, which muted my returns this year).

On top of that we shoveled some money into IRAs. $4500 in 2000 when we made good money. The rest are IRA contributions we made over the years. Skipping the years I took maternity leave and we just didn't have the income.

So dissapointingly, 2007 was our worse retirement year since my last 2 maternity leaves. BUT we got our efund back up to snuff. So that is why.

I also vest in my employer plan this year, which I have mostly ignored to date (as I wasn't much vested before). It is a 10% annual contribution and interestingly the balance is about $33k. So makes our retirement exactly 1/2 controlled by us and 1/2 in my employer-controlled plan. But is also why we didn't sweat retirement this year. I received in essence a $10k contribution with my vesting this year.

But that graph just reminds me, slow and steady wins the race.

Our returns were really muted after 2001 because most of dh's IRAs were in a broker who had us in very volatile/risky/expensive investments. He never had much in returns. My IRA was in cash (like 1%). Don't ask why.

We moved everything around last year. My cash now earns almost 6%. & dh is in a bunch of indexes so he has had an awesome return (no fees). My portfolio is a little more experimental and I bought one fund very high, late in the year. So my IRA shows a slight loss for the year. I'm still learning. I like mutual funds and studying them and picking them and playing with them. But the antecdotal evidence in our case is that the indexes kick butt. Little effort, small fees, good returns. Even when you invest a good chunk at the peak...

Which is probably, why, interestingly, I primarily want to invest in dh's IRA and my Target Retirement fund, going forward. It's the simplest and most effective way. I have smaller dollars in my experimental funds. But I don't aim to make those a large part of my portfolio, or to add more. As far as the indexes, we aim to do more dollar cost averaging going forward. We haven't done that since my 401k. We usually just add a chunk every April 15th to save some taxes. But I am currently putting $50/month into a Target Retirement fund and aim to put another $300/month to dh's indexes, come fall. It is my feeling that our investments performed the best when we added a little every month.

The only flaw in my old 401k was I had no exposure to international. Dh has a lazy fund portfolio - Vanguard Star, Vanguard Int'l & Vanguard Total Stock. His portfolio is up 10% for the year. It seems to be working quite well though. I kept his portfolio simple, in case anything every happened to me. & we tend to contribute more to his IRA overall since I have my own employer plan.

As far as my employer plan, I was really disgusted with the returns. But I thought twice about this. My boss does not contribute my contribution until September of the following year (tax deadline). When I look at my balances again, and consider that the money does not get there until the following September. It is actually earning a good 10% annually. So I feel better about that. Phew!!!!!! I look forward to controlling that down the road. But sometimes it is nice to know I have a more conservative portfolio managed by someone else, in case I really screw up or something. Hehe. But yeah, if I quit Jan. 1, the money is mine. Though my boss generally does not contribute it to the last minute. Hey, beggars can't be choosers.

I highly doubt we will make it this year. But my goal overall is once the kids are out of preschool, is to contribute 10% of our income as well. On top of that just save our raises, until we max out. Right now the $10k IRA max, for the 2 of us, is about 15% of my income. So yeah, in 2010, 2011, 2012. I expect to contribute much more than we have been historically. We'll see...

I think the other interesting thing in our case was that we had so much cash saved up when we went down to one income, that our retirement contributions were not really affected until we had our second child. (Our income was halved but we were still contributing in the $5k range annually). But that is when we started living up to our income a little more. & retirement was just never a priority to us. It was a tax savings thing. So it is a different mindset for us now. If that is what we can accomplish without thinking much about it. What can we accomplish with retirement at top of mind? I think that's the exciting thing.

So I share because of that. But don't freak out because the stock market goes down one day. You need to look at that big picture!

I actually made an effort to keep a large cash portion in early 2006 because I thought the market was going to tank. Instead it was our best year bar none (cash and all). So what do I know? But gee am I glad I kept a good chunk in stocks too. That's certainly another lesson I can share. I am not buying the 100% stock portfolio anytime soon. But too much cash can be even worse... I am learning.

ETA: As of today I am up 4.83% for the year. One day can make a BIG difference!!!!

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118687812752495256.html

Kind of an interesting article.

I see the point.

Can you have too big an efund? Hell yeah. I guess I have seen the other side on that one too. You can have too much.

Savings is savings, that is what is important.

I have to have the caveat that I really don't think you can save too much. Well, you probably can, but rather unlikely. LOL. But you can have way too much in liquid funds not working for you (especially when interest rates are like 2%). Been there, done that.

I laugh at the idea of being a risk taker because I am trying to maximize my returns and rather max out my IRAs than keep 6 or 12 months liquid cash in my e-fund. I guess that is the ironic thing because I am SO not a risk taker. But the odds I would ever need that 6 months cash? Pretty slim. So I am going to max out my IRAs, and if that slim chance comes, at least my butt is covered. It's savings, I can use it, the world would not end.

The odds are I'll come out ahead. That's what is important. IT's an odds game.

So I read his article with interest. He has a point.

Just a question/insight.

I just set up an Automatic Asset Builder account with T Rowe Price - ROTH IRA. I've been intending to open account with them for a while.

With Vanguard I had Automatic Investments for dh's IRA for a short while and I recall not being able to use those for prior year contributions. I kind of found that a shame since we are trying to put as much as possible to prior years so that we can take the most advantage that we can from IRA contributions. If dh gets a $400/month job we will be beyond maxing out all our tax-deferred accounts and will have to resort to taxable accounts. So it's kind of a conundrum being so close, yet so far. Not really near maxing out both IRAs as of right now, but the simplest of second jobs or additional income could leave us scrambling for some tax streategy, with two maxed IRAs and more left to invest. All we can do is just put as much as we can to prior years in anticipation (e.g. January through April contributions can be for the prior year).

Anyway, just setting up my T Rowe account and it asks if I want to make my January - April contributions for the prior year. Um YES!!!!!

I think that is an EXCELLENT feature.

Now is it just me or does Vanguard not have that? I wish they did too.

Going forward I am planning to make monthly contributions to Vanguard and to T Rowe.

I guess this means I should maybe contribute heavily to T Rowe during the January - April months... I may be able to squeeze an entire 2007 ROTH contribution in 2008 without messing up my dollar cost averaging strategy. That is sweet. Sure I could save up the cash and make a lump deposit in Vanguard, but wanting to start making monthly contributions, I really wasn't pleased with the option overall. So this is cool - I can have my cake and eat it too...

The downside is this will be a little harder to keep track of. Will have to keep all my years straight. Right now I have a "Retirement Contribution" or "IRA Contribution" line item in Quickbooks. I think I will have to make one for each year (and separate ones for dh and I as well) to reduce confusion and keep an eye on the limits. Definitely good; definitely confusing.

ETA: Since I can't comment from here. Yes but Vanguard does not let you use automatic investments in January - April to fund prior year IRA contributions - is my point. Last I saw. Just wondering if I am wrong or someone found a way around it. This question is specific to automatic investments in january - april.

T Rowe lets you and that is very cool.

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Oh - also just saw a very interesting article:

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20070716-1429-pa...

Story of my life. Definitely my goal to be PT. FT mom or FT employee - blech - I like the balance of both...

I relish in updating my investments at a peak. So what the heck, it's time for a update. Sure its paper profits but I am in for the long haul so whatever. I'll get back to this level one of these days. Honestly I have been waiting for the market to take a dip so I can convert my ROTHS. Oh yeah, I decide to keep some money in cash because it can't possibly keep up at this rate (last September?) and I am waiting for the market to drop a little so I can convert my ROTHS. Plus I wasn't feeling very pleased about resuming contributions at the "peak." Though all this reminds me any attempt to time the market in any way shape or form is futile. A good reminder I guess. I am convinced in the meantime that the day after I convert my ROTHs will be the great stock market crash of 2007. (No I am not really convinced but it would just be my luck. There will be a dip - Murphy's Law - I'll give you a heads up when I set it in motion - LOL).



Anyway, I should have hidden 1999 for this. I put in a $2k contribution sometime in college or high school or something but I don't know when so I just threw it in 1999. I did not have that big of a return that year.

2000 I put a token amount in my 401k and then was able to contribute the full year in 2001. Also added to the IRAs in 2000. Some co-worker helped me pick a stock/bond portfolio which did rather well - it rode the wave rather well considering the times - I invested it all at the peak really. My $2k IRA was somewhere making no interest (cash CD) and dh's money was all with a broker losing 20-25% per year over 3 years. I lost 20% one year and that is about it. My 401k made 30% in 2003. No clue what I was doing but I bounced back. My bonds really limited my losses overall. Dh's broker was always overly aggressive if you ask me - plus all the fees really inflated the losses.

Since 2004 my 401k has averaged 10% per year. I wasn't paying any attention/no clue.

Dh's brokered IRA made 15% in 2003 (never recovered) and averaged 8% after that.

Last fall I started reading up on investments and taking charge, dropped the broker, picked more low cost investments. I kept my cash but went from 1-2% to 5.5%. OF course this coincided with a huge market run. So it is all in the timing I guess but everything we own is performing MUCH better than historically.

Since the basis of my 401k was a cheap index fun, it hasn't taken much to convince me of the error of my ways otherwise, and the benefits of index funds.

I am also convinced something that helped my 401k at the time was income averaging as it was the only time that I had continually contributed to our retirement on a monthly basis. Most of the rest of the time we would use our IRAs as a tax savings tool with lump sums around April 15th. I plan to start regular contributions with our IRAs on 1/1/08. So I look forward to it. It really seems to smooth out the many bumps of the stock market when you contribute regularly. I feel much more confident in out current asset allocation to help us ride the next wave. & I am avoiding any attempts at market timing. As I learn and find that regular contributions and setting a investment rebalancing policy are both key in trying to avoid emotional decisions and attempts to time the market.

Don't worry, that's only 1/2 our retirement. I have had a 10% contribution from my boss every year for the last 4 years anyway. This is just the investments under our control. We already have 1 year of expenses in all our retirement and will probably hit 1 year of income next year. It's all relative as our income has been 20k, 60k, 80k, 99k, 55k, 45k, 55k, 40k, 70k, 75k. Lord knows where we should be at. LOL. I think 1 years' income in retirement is not bad since we have suddenly hit the higher end of the spectrum again after being out of it a few years. I have read that 3 years' salary by age 40 is good. I know I can have $225k in retirement by age 40 easy. I am just not sure if we are both working and/or I continually get big raises, if I can have $450k or something. But nor would we really need to. I see little need to up our lifestyle at all going forward. We are happy where things are at and little goals going forward to upgrade our lifestyle. & the year we made $99k we lived WELL below our means. So it's all relative... For now 3 years' (today's) salary sounds like a decent goal. It's actually about exactly where I project us to be with our planned contributions going forward. The kicker is I would expect us to be making much more by age 40. I guess which is what makes the 3 year by age 40 rule rather difficult to achieve. Well, we'll see... In the meantime knowing we have lived well below our means and intend to do so again, I find it easier to talk in terms of annual expenses, which are rather fixed, instead of annual income which is quite volatile around here. Hell, dh could get a job tomorrow and we could be in the $130k range. Just who knows. It would be no indication of how we would need to save for living in retirement. Just as if I got a job tomorrow with full benefits I could cut our living expenses considerably. I guess that is why these are guidelines. Real life is TOO complicated...

As for the kids they both made a 1.5% return on their investments yesterday - yeesh. Cool for them... (The ones I just opened).

Dh called me yesterday to tell me LM had a clean bill of health after all. As usual he was griping about the $50 copay. He said he got 2 $20 stickers and a $10 ear cleaning. LOL. I said the doctor probably gets paid $200/hour or something so not to discount her time. & anyway we are saving $250/month on insurance or so with the increased copay so I am not exactly sweating it. It smarts, but so far it has beaten the alternative by a mile. I am glad LM is okay, though back to square one what his deal is. Terrible 2s... Actually he has been far less grumpy this week. Though sleeping has been hell. Though it could be worse so little to complain about.

Good timing! I was just thinking that all those promotional deals are great, but not worth it with CDs, as sometimes it can be difficult to get your money back out, making sure you don't miss the deadline, etc. Regardless, moving my money around a bunch of banks is not my thing. BUT I just got an e-mail that my local bank is offering a promotional 5.70% c.d. for 8 months. Woohoo. I noticed interest rates were really up yesterday (treasury bills) and was wondering if GMAC would raise their rates again - they have stayed very competitive. But the timing of this is just PERFECT. I have a $6k balance transfer in process right now. So I just pretty much drained most of my savings - about $10k. I will replenish it and then some with the balance transfers that last until next July or so anyway. The only regret I might have is I could renew the c.d. in 8 months at the same rate, if rates drop. Which I may consider because it would really only tie up my cash for 3 months or so beyond the final balance transfer payment. But not sure I want to tie up most of my savings all the same. Then again we have many options. So it could be worth it. If not for the balance transfers I am not even sure if I would bother. OR maybe I would just put a token amount in. But it is pretty sweet to up my return almost 1/2 percent. Going by the bank today anyway for a deposit so I can see if I can open the account today and transfer the money in when it arrives back from GMAC.

& you know GMAC can go up tomorrow, but I have a c.d. in my IRA at 5.50% that I am still pleased with. So I guess it is always a gamble, but locking in a good interest rate for the credit card arbitrage sounds mighty fine to me.

In other news we went for a nice walk around the lake last night. It has been a while, will have to remember to bring the camera. Plus there are 2 new parks along the way. So we went to our 1/2 way point and the kids played at the park for a while. There was a kite there flying and for the life of me I did not see who was flying it until I finally realized it was tied to a tree - LOL. OF course BM wanted to run home and get his kite then. There is certainly hardly ever a lack of wind. Well, it was a very pleasant evening but soon enough it will be hotter than hades and the bugs will be out in full force.

I am also very pleased with LM - he got my tanning genes. As a child I would be so dark most people assumed I Was mexican. WE really don't know my grandfather's ancestry but we always assumed native american, as he had very native american features. I never wore sunscreen as a child (which could have been bad - and means the tanning gene has its downside as I find I forget to sunscreen the kids too since they don't really burn). Anyway, my mom who is pretty much lily white always told me she was very dark skinned until she had children, around the same age I did. I always thought that was a bummer, but in my teens I got my first sunburn and once I was in college, I lost my extreme tan. As far as tans go I can lather up in SPF 45 and go lay outside and look like I have been laying outside all summer, in just a week of tanning, so I still have an edge as for as tanning for beauty I guess (which I Really don't do). But for the most part after years of not needing sunblock, I go for a walk outside or something and then get burned, and for the most part I am pretty lily white. Dh on the other hand is a sunburn machine. If he goes outside for 5 minutes he will turn into a lobster - very fair. So the kids came out blond/blue-eyed/fair I am thinking dear lord, poor kids, we will have to buy stock in sunscreen! But BM seems to have my skin genes and I am very very pleased. As long as he gets sunblock on he will turn 50 shades of tan in an instant. But LM - LM seems to be more a mini-me, and he went to the park one day this week and I Came home and did not recognize him - he was a tan monster - 100 shades of tan after an hour in the sun. I Was shocked. & then I said - well now THAT kid got my genes. LOL. I am just so happy both my boys aren't lobster!!!!! Like I said, I think it is great that they have their own protection form the sun. Phew! But all the same it makes it really easy to forget the sunblock for short jaunts outside. But hopefully I can give them better sun habits than I had growing up. OF course it will be interesting to see how the whole blond/blue-eyed/tan thing works. I wonder what nationality they will be assumed to be. PEople will probably just think they lay out in the sun 24/7 and we are every active because I think the blond/blue-eye thing precludes a mexican heritage. LOL. But we'll see.

Which reminds me something else I failed to mention. I have been getting a lot of compliments on my hair lately. IT is usually pretty flat but after I Wash my hair I twist it up all day and usually only wash every other day. So on the other days I Can wear it down, and my usually limp, lifeless hair actually has some body. Plus I got a really good cut, LOVE my pantene, and don't do anything else to my hair. So I have been getting lots of compliments of late. THen I read how people can't do their own hair and it looks crappy without a salon, etc. & I just roll my eyes at that. (Same with my home done nails which I am always complimented on as well - and I think they look better than plastic nails myself). But I just realized the irony in some of the flack I get about my hair. I have always been told by friends and such that it is so horrible to twist up my hair while it is wet, that it damages the hair. I do it about every other day of the week, and does my hair look damaged??? Not in the least. But I don't know why I was so dumb before. I had a friend telling me this again this week and I Was looking at her as she goes to a salon every few weeks or so. Her hair is dyed around once a month, hairspray and products galore, plus the occasional perm. I don't know why I never put 2 and 2 together before but I am just wondering how you can do ALL that crap to your hair but not twist it up in the name of damaging it. PEople are SO funny. Anyway, next time anyone says anything I think I will just have to say "bite me." LOL. The other funny thing is my hair has settled on a very dark brown color. It has always been rather dark, but I did the whole perm thing throughout the 80s, and into the 90s so with 50 perms yeah I KNOW how damaged your hair gets with those. & my hair in the end was getting to the point I would sometimes be called blonde. A little extreme, but it was getting light. Then I went through a phase where I died it a few times, and one final perm around 2000 before I got too lazy and stopped caring. & now I am disgusted by all the chemicals I once put on my head. So anyway, my grandma tells my mom recently that I most definitely dye my hair. I was like um, okay, did you tell her that all those perms and peroxide bleached my hair my entire teen years? Oh yeah, but my grandma thanks I am full of it and I dye my hair. Okay then - do I have any roots? LOL. I just think that is funny. I am blessed since gray hair seems to hit my family young, that I haven't had many grays yet, and maybe she is just assuming I couldn't be so dark-haired otherwise. Which mostly tells me I better enjoy this small window of opportunity for beautiful dark hair because it will turn gray soon. My mom has beautiful silver gray hair that I always thought I wouldn't mind on black hair, but how gray can look so crummy on brown hair. But the other day BM told me the other day that I have black hair, and it does seem my hair is getting darker with time. Maybe I Can pull off the silver look - time will tell. IT is funny because I always thought my mom had black hair and she would ALWAYS insist it is dark brown - hehe. So I figured I would embrace it - sure - black is my favorite color anyway. I much rather not dye my hair to hide the gray but I am realistic with myself - I won't know until the time comes what I Can or can not live with.

Anyway, lord knows what I am blabbing on and on about. But yes, today is shaping up to be quite busy. I Was telling my mom a little about that movie - Little Miss Sunshine and like homebody said - some of it hit a little close to home I think. I mentioned the van that had to be pushed to start and my mom said - oh we had a car like that once. LOL. So yeah, I Think they will enjoy. They are coming up today and I am all excited. My mom visits often, but not my dad. As far as me, I have aerobics in a couple of hours, hit the bank, and I brought a ton of work home. Brought stuff I can work on a little mindlessly so I can setup the laptop downstairs and be a little social. & I guess I will try to whip out an article before aerobics class.

Anyway, work was hell yesterday. I just wanted a good 8-hours to make progress on a big project (not done yet with the constant interruptions of late). & well by 2pm I hadn't even started because everyone wants everything yesterday. I am just so overwhelmed I Can't really look beyond tomorrow. I just tell myself it all always gets done - it WILL get done. I have no idea how, but it will. I brought a lot of work home, but I keep telling myself I can work every day until my cruise if need be. I just don't want to come back to a landslide, but I think it is inevitable. blah. Plus another coworker is on vacation next week and I have to get some of her work out. Figures. Is this payback for all my maternity leaves? OF course honestly last time I Was on maternity leave I swear they just left stuff for me. LOL. Now that was a nightmare - coming back to stuff that hadn't been touched for months. Yeesh. But I am sure they did a lot of scrambling to make my clients happy too. So here's my payback. Oh but anyway, I only got a couple of hours on said client but I made significant progress. Phew. I am not sure if I will have a finished product before my vacation, but I can get the difficulties out of the way at least. I feel like this is my biggest obstacle to catching up for now. But I will be raking in some overtime which is not all bad at all...

Well, I peeked yesterday and my IRA transfer has not gone through. As you will recall, Fidelity was so difficult I just bought D&C through them, $75 fee and all, I was tired of being out of the market. Bruce Fund was much nicer and willing to send a request 3 times in a row (as opposed to DC's 1 whimpy failed attempt). But when it hadn't cleared yesterday during the day I started to fear the worst. This internal battle if I should just keep my money at Fidelity for a while for ease (though resigned to the fact I am p.o.ed and likely to move my money down the road) or if I should leave immediately in protest or what. But none of this matters now because I was updating Quicken this morning and a $4500 left my Fidelity account last night. Woohoo!!!!!!!!!

& so go my adventures in investing in the Bruce FUnd. VEry interesting little fund - had to invest through them directly I believe.

Now my conundrum is I have a Traditional IRA account at Dodge & Cox with NO money in it. I was considering contributing $1k just to keep it open. & when the smoke clears, and now that I know I can do a transfer, and I know how to now without getting rejected, LOL, eventually I would probably transfer from Fidelity too. But in the meantime I have a conundrum. Sure it is aggressive to move the money from the efund for that, but it's good. So we get $15k in our retirement this year instead of $14k, nothing wrong with that. But, all the same, my ability to contribute to a traditional IRA hedges on the outcome of the rest of the year. Plus I wanted to convert all my IRAs to ROTHs this year anyway. So can I make a traditional IRA now and then convert it? Maybe, I guess, but so many what-ifs about the year.

I think my best bet is to call D&C and see if I can convert the account to a ROTH before I send in money. Tell them my conundrum and my intentions and that I no longer want to transfer assets from Fidelity. We'll see.

Plus if I use that money it lessens the money I will have for taxes for a ROTH conversion. So I may be best off just closing the D&C account and forgetting about it this year. Why does it have to be so complicated?

I also got a BT offer in the mail yesterday from WAMU. They said they want to give me a $30k credit line. IT does sound interesting, I want to research it a bit more. Of course in fine print they say the average CL is $4k. So what are the odds? If I could get $10k+ I am so in though. Considering asking for $15k BT and see what I get - will research a bit first. This one would have a $75 transfer fee, but seems not too bad, since it would be interest-free for 1 year. Would make in the realm of $500. I don't mind $75. Plus interest on the $75 for 1 year - it couldn't be that bad could it? Of course maybe I should just ask for $30k - then it would really be worth it.

Oh, but back to retirement, it has been hovering around $53k. Not bad. If I can just keep my job another 7 months or so I get a $10k contribution this year as I fully vest. It's exciting as we near our first six figures in retirement! 2-3 years off, and depends on the market, but getting there!

Well, I sent in a transfer request to BRuce Fund and D&C. From Fidelity.

Bruce Fund called me last week and said they couldn't do the transfer until my fund at Fidelity was liquidated. Blahblahblah. I posted about my annoyance. So I did liquidate it and it was done within 24 hours. (My, Fidelity is fast compared to Vanguard). Told them to transfer $5k cash.

So all is well and I am eager for the transfer. But today I get a voice mail from Bruce - same problem. Now I am just fed up. Darn Fidelity!!!!

So I called Bruce back first and talked to them and it immediately became clear the problem. They requested $50k. LOL. Of course, why Fidelity didn't say, um, there isn't $50k here, I will never know. Gah. So 3rd time perhaps will be the charm. I have nowhere near $50k in this entire account.

Dodge & Cox has not called me once. I should probably call them and see what is up. I have the money sitting in a mutual fund until I hear otherwise because I don't want it sitting in cash for weeks or months. I figured they would have called me by now. I just figure the second I take time out of my day to call and follow up, a notice will appear in the mail or something. But this is getting ridiculous. BF has been rejected twice and managed to call me & D&C is nowhere to be found. Then again they are probably a much bigger fund. I just have to suck it up and call and see what I Can find out I guess. I Am tempted to forget it and just invest through Fidelity brokerage. Then again I don't want to - and don't want to give them the pleasure after being so difficult. Could Fidelity just call me? I mean come on. They don't want me to transfer my money obviously, but anything to speed along the process would make me a happier customer, I am not transferring all my money out. But I am getting tempted...

I was really impressed with Bruce, likewise, but they are trying my patience at this point. LOL.

Oh yeah, I don't plan to do a transfer again for a long while. Yeesh.

ETA: Oh yeah, so I Called and sounds like there is a letter sitting in my mailbox right now - at home. Figures. I knew it!!!! LOL. But I am POed. I think I may just pay the Fidelity fee to buy through them. IT doesn't look like the worst deal. D&C wants me to send another transfer requestm with another $10 fee. Blah. I give up. I was perusing Scottrade and some others but I don't think I Would touch many of those with a 10-foot pole - particularly e-trade. Horrid horrid horrid customer service. I think I will buy some through Fidelity just to get in and will transfer $1k over to D&C directly - 2007 contribution. Just so I can add to them with no fees down the road. An idea for now... Have a few days to think on it anyway. The really only downside is I don't want to give in to Fidelity being so difficult. & I don't want to. But I don't mind paying a fee where I Can actually reach a live person if need be. I have been trying to read all the fine print and make sure I am not missing anything. IT is a $75 trade fee to buy - but none to sell - so it seems - could change. We'll see. I am sick of the hassle myself. If I had just done this last month the appreication alone would have paid the fee tenfold. SO you know, sometimes you have to look at the big picture. The only downside I keep coming back to is that I couldn't add more money without a fee. So I am not sure where that leaves me. Might be some kind of auto investment plan to look into though. I won't need to add any money now, but thinking to the future - rebalancing portfolios and such.

I look forward to when all my retirement is set up. Well less moving around anyway.

I had a really excellent fund in my old 401k (closed to new investors) and I sold it for Dodge and Cox Intl(new offering) around January. I Was replying to an old thread why you might want to consider keeping an old 401k when the thought occured to me D&C is not a closed one, but likely will be in the future. & to date it is the star of my portfolio for 2007.

I decided it is time to take the plunge and diversify into some more mid and small cap funds. & to buy D&C directly. I had considered it with dh's IRA but found it more prudent to invest in some index funds. Since he wouldn't have a clue to do without me, probably not a bad idea. But with my money, hmmmm. I want to play a little. Plus I really like diversifying between managed funds and index funds - have a little both. So my IRA will be mostly managed, his index. Indexes are great but I don't mind paying a 1% expense ratio for some of these funds that have 20% historic returns. The indexes don't have returns like that.

I am reconsidering the Bruce Fund (Revisiting), a mid-cap fund in Fidelity (easiest to keep some there), and of course Dodge & Cox Intl. None of them but Bruce have fees nearing 1% so don't fret.

A lot of paperwork and fees which annoys me, but I swear I won't be doing this again anytime soon. This is it. Plus if I split it up it will be easy to convert into ROTHs in baby steps. I can't even do it now until this movie thing straightens out - want to see what our taxable income is and if we had a decent windfall might not qualify so have to sit and wait but will save my pennies for when the time is right - probably has to be this year or next before a 2nd income enters the picture again. If no movie money by November may do the ROTH thing. Another $1500 or so but would make us 100% ROTH meaning we could contribute to any of our funds. I can't contribute to any regular IRAs right now. Maybe a small token but won't know until I do my taxes for 2007 - frustrating.

On top of that I have been seeing a lot of favorable stuff about T Rowe and am considering a target retirement fund over there. If I can really just contribute $50/month and no fees that is probably what I Will open late this year or early next year. I can't contribute to my existing IRAs so sounds like a plan.

I am kind of like a kid in a candy store. I just want to try a bit of everything. Was just reading how target funds like that fare well and T Rowe looks like it has some excellent diversification in managed funds at low costs. I was looking at Vanguard Target retirement but it looks like our portfolio as is - mostly holds Total Stock MArket Index. No point to invest in that unless we drop the funds we already have at Vanguard. Would just be a big overlap. So I started poking around and T Rowe really caught my eye.

Well it took me 5 years but I finally closed out my old 401k.

I am embarassed to admit how many funds I will be invested in when all is said and done - too many to count - $4k here and there. But we intend to invest a lot the next few years - I think we have a good solid foundation to build on. Access to Fidelity, Vanguard, T Rowe, plus a couple of the smaller gems out there.

I am excited to invest some of our e-fund in a balanced fund, down the road when we have money to spare, and invest the kids' money (when we have some).

I think I am officially addicted to mutual funds...

http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/200...

Interesting article in the paper today - brings up an interesting discussion.

Jist of it is that Online Retirement Calculators on the websites of some investment firms like Fidelity & Vanguard, overestimate how much you need to save so you invest more with them of course.

My first thought was, well, yeah, and they exaggerate how well their funds do all the time too - gotta be a wash, right?

Secondly, as stated in the article, with the push to get people in this country to save, the last thing we need is to tell people they are saving too much.

Thirdly, for the savers out there. We rather err on saving far too much. IT is really pretty impossible for us to figure out how much we need in retirement. Life happens. I think the closer we get the better idea we'll have. In the meantime, heck yes, we will aim in saving too much. Of course. I Can think of far worse things...

But overall an interesting point I guess.

The article also said Americans are not so bad off - they are saving and are prepared for retirement. Pffffft. On what world? LOL. I could argue that one until the cows come home, but whatever. My only real peeve with the article.

Overall, figured could spark some interesting discussion.

Okay okay, I know I am still fretting about health insurance, but I had to share this wonderful link:

http://www.ustreas.gov/offices/public-affairs/hsa/faq.shtml

It lays out HSAs rather well.

I am just pondering and maybe they aren't SO bad. My insurance has a new plan that is $3k deductible for family. BEtween that and the federal limits we could not put aside more than about $2800/year BUT it would lower our premiums $5,000/year. The thing is the "out-of-pocket" is way more than the deductible ($7k?). So um yeah I want to put away $5k/year. But I Can't in the HSA.

Plus the premiums would no longer be tax deductible - I didn't even know that! But we only get to deduct $2k-$4k a year (the 7.5% AGI limit), and with this we would get the $2800/deduction (but not for state at all!!!!).

Are you confused yet?

Plus you can invest in c.d.s and stocks, yeah, sure great. But what if you need the money? IF we have enough in cash maybe a 3 month c.d. would do.

The pluses - if we don't need it we could use it for dental bills and retirement...

I just believe in Murphy's Law a little too much. After paying huge premiums for years, I can just see us lower our plan and get slammed by something unforeseen. IT scares me still. But I have to question the logic of continuing to pay almost $10k/year in medical insurance when we can cut it in 1/2 and put the difference away for a rainy day.

Oh well, I have a year to ponder...

Oh I just wanted to say the DRIVE was so beautiful this weekend. Most of the time Northern CA can be pretty brown and dry, in the summer I guess. But was so green and lush this past weekend - just a beautiful drive. I know I took some pics way in the past I will have to dig them out and share - some pics of the landscape beween the Bay Area and up north.

Oh yes - and a wonderful dinner at MILs and my dad took us out to a wonderful mexican lunch. Makes up for the gas I guess. Actually I ate TOO well. As usual, spoiled by our parents.

But a few things to share:

1 - I forgot to mention our investments are all up about 9% all of a sudden, for the year. Were up about 3% 2-3 months ago, and the last couple of months have been AWESOME!!! Woohoo.

2 - We got home last night and house was FREEZING. The chily weather has moved in. BUT usually when it dips below 68 I Am freezing. Today I took a shower in the 63-degree house and it just didn't bother me. For the kids I Set the house to 67 before I left for work. Dh probably wouldn't have even thought to turn on the heat. He freezes the kids out sometimes. They'll be in shorts when I get home or something - wouldn't be surprised. ANyway, I was pondering why the cold wasn't bothering me so much and I pretty much concluded it was body fat. I have a lot more than usual - LOL. I am totally serious though. I usually feel I am suffering through at 68 with layers of clothes and blankets, etc. So it's the only thinkg that makes sense - hehe. I know overall the kids have been keeping me on my toes a lot more - less downtime - more running around and therefore need less external heat. But doesn't explain the shower. Maybe losing weight is not a frugal thing to do - hehe. I just got this layer of fat around my middle that I have never had before - from the last pregnancy - better than any blanket or clothinbg - HA! Oh well, I do truly wonder. I am losing it with all the frugal eating so we'll see. In the meantime I am keeping the house at 67 instead of 68. See how that affects the bottom line. I have to have a discussion with dh about this though - how this means a little more bundling for the wee ones. Dh is an enigma. He is thin as a rail and never gets cold so I am the one who sets the heat basically.

3 - I am not sure what to think about this one, except probably it is a bad idea. Dh wants to buy a PlayStation3 now (is that what it is?) and sell it on ebay - he says he can make 100%. LOL. Sure, I am sure odds are he can make a profit. But first he has to get the dang thing. & then there are so many variables. Like 1, what if EVERYONE has this idea? Woudln't be surprised. I haven't said much because he lacks follow through so it is better to humor him and know it will never be done, then to arge about it - hehe. After years of new playstations coming out and being completely sold out - who knows - this may be the year there will be too many. & I gurantee regardless Ebay will be flooded with those things - other people thinking the same thing. IT will all be in the timing. In the meantime I have no idea why he thinks he can score one if they will be that hard to get. If this involves camping out, as he has done in the past, not sure how practical that is. Even then it is not guaranteed he would get one. In the past inevitably we would get a windfall like this completely unplanned, for example getting rid of extra concert tickets for a REALLY big show, and as soon as we try to recreate it, it doesn't work. So you think he would learn...

Man I Wish he would just get a JOB. The true answer is just too simple, huh? LOL.

4 - I got some little popsicle makers for the kids so I Wondered if you all had any ideas of some good popsicle recipes. I made some smoothies last week that had tofu instead of yogurt. I can not eat tofu in anything - I think it is nasty. But these were pretty good. Recipe was huge, so I told ds I would make them tonight again and the leftovers we can make popsicles with. I think those would be pretty yummy. Anyway the tofu smoothie is way more low-cal than my usual yogurt recipe. But even that one if I made popsicles with would probably be smaller servings. I am not a big fruit fan overall so I am the smoothie queen - helps me to get my servings of fruit. I can eat fruit as long as it is all mashed up and frozen I guess - mostly not big on fruit texture.

So what else do you make popsicles with? Juice? Pureed fruit? Hmmm. I will probably look around online for some other ideas too.

I know, this is so not the season for frozen treats - LOL. It's chilly.