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Archive for July, 2008

My retirement planning confession

July 26th, 2008 at 02:45 am

I have a confession!

While my husband is happy that I manage the finance for our family and pretty open to all of the ideas and methods that I have learned on this site. There is one thing he has asked me not to do.

Retirement vehicle! He wishes his income not to be in one. Ever since he started retirement vehicles, he pretty much loses his money in the 10 year span he was contributing. He is socking away money in a high yield savings account and the like now. He is pretty firm on his stand there and in some ways he might be right because he will always gain whether it is little or not.

In the meantime, I want to be able to max as much as I can each year to make sure we have enough to retire on together. It’s not a fun thought with the way the economy is going and my 401k rate of return is in the negatives. I have matching contribution while he has none. I am sure glad it is not the other way around.




To do or not to do?

July 22nd, 2008 at 05:41 pm

Frustration had been festering in my mind and emotions lately.

I either blame it on the stress at my job (more like not enjoying what I do like I used to rather than can not keep up), having migraines, or living so far away from everything.

I took a few days off from work on FTO hours to rest and calm down so nothing gets vented in the wrong way.

The truth to the above 3 things are:
1. I have a wonderful job and healthy environment with my boss and co-workers. I do have the ability to request for an update or be more creative on how I do my work.
2. Migraines are going to be a part of my life no matter what I do. Adapting to better eating, exercising and sleep habit may help and need to work on these things.
3. I live in Paradise so the long commute is worth it. Sometimes it is hard to leave Paradise to into the city to work but work enables me to have Paradise.

I found out the true reasons for my frustrations. For many years now I have to work really hard to get my head out of the water. For almost 5 years I had at least two jobs (often 3) to pay off a 60k debts. I didn't make much money at any of these jobs!!!

Even before that I had to find a way to pay for my college education to finish school and living expenses on my own.

Now I am back in school to get a Business Degree for my current job. (my company reimburse tuition and books fees)

I am now 32 years old and have lived states away from my family for about 15 years now. I now have a wonderful prince charming as my husband.

The thing is that I want to have children but also be a stay at home mom. I do not have a lot of savings because I have only begun to save after I paid off my large debts almost a year ago. It will be super tight to live on my husband's income. I am about to give in to that change of lifestyle because I fought so hard to get out of debts by working so much. I missed out on friendships and family for so long it’s now what I am craving. Sometimes I just want to throw in the towel of trying to be financially successful with savings and retirements and so on but I feel so empty in that area because it is taking me a long time with so much effort. I am not happy staying that way. It almost actually makes more sense for me to be a SAHM because I do have to commute far and that would not allow me much time to see my future babies.

Sorry for the long vent. Sometimes I just want to make things happen instead of letting my circumstances dictate how I do things.

Summer Updates

July 18th, 2008 at 05:22 am

I do not blog often enough since I do not want to get caught blogging at work and by the time I get home, I am computered out! But I do sneak and peek on here often enough to read other's blogs.

Last time I blogged it was about taking a new challenge to take the bus halfway to work since I live up in the mountains and there is no city bus. This was a failed attempt to cut back on gas allowances. I remember there was a blog by BA(internet service)in the way of trying so hard to save more money and only to find out it cost more in the end or not worth the effort.

I signed up for commuters check at work and the result of the bus was only saving 60 dollars per month but commute became 4 and half hours a day instead of 2. So not worth it! Now I have some unspent commuter checks that I am stuck with to the tune of 150 dollars!!

My husband did take the bus to work along with a bike because the stops are not near his work. About 3 weeks ago, a truck crashed into the city bus my husband was on and it totally crushed his bike that was on the rack!!! I am so glad it was that way instead of my hubby on the bike getting crushed. So much bus drama! lol!

On the other hand, we have been frugal and really living on the bare necessity out of choice and managed to add to savings but we did end up spending some of our savings as well. Our biggest purchase this summer was a high power log splitter that cost us 1500. We get our wood free so we think this is a good deal. Chopping away the wood by hand all summer is time consuming and hard. I also rather have my husband and I spend more time doing other things. We depend on firewood to heat up our home.

My husband did mention that he might do a little small side business of either selling split woods or split wood for others. We live in the mountains so log cabins are common. Maybe this will be a good thing?