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.