Money, Love, and Change

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Not that I have any control over it, but I am curious to learn what other people are doing about their retirement accounts, if anything.  Are you reacting now, or did you react earlier?  How far off is retirement for you, and how did that play a role?

Back in September, my husband and I discussed our retirement investments.  For our IRA accounts (held with Vanguard), we decided to pull out of the stock market to some degree, and invest in more of a mix of stocks and bonds.  I had a gut feeling that the housing market decline and the general state of things in this country might have an adverse effect on the market, and we were interested in preserving the money we had in the IRA accounts.  When it comes to investing, both of us lean a little more towards the conservative side.

In terms of my husband’s 401(k), we also pulled a majority of his money out of the stock market funds and placed them into a fixed income fund in September 2007.  I know that this seems like a stupid move, considering that we are in our early 30’s, but we had gotten a notice about how the funds were going to handled by another company starting in January, and we wanted more information.  We’re still allocating the money that is going into the account according to our original plan (it is divided between an index, small cap, large cap, and international funds).  The last time I checked, we were close to breaking even in terms of our contributions vs. losses (over the past couple months).

I want to update our total net worth in our retirement accounts, but of course the site is down for general maintenance.  I’ll try to remember to update things this week.  I’m hoping that our retirement picture is brighter than our current debt picture - did I mention that I really need to get a job?

I’m looking at the calendar, and it says 10 March.  I’m not really sure where the time went, except that I spent a lot of it asleep.  I think that my absence has said enough about my recent bout with the flu, so I’ll leave it at that, except to say that I hope that’s all the flu season has in store for me (and has nothing in store for you)!

So now I’m back, and presented with quite a list of things to do.  I’ve got taxes to tackle, and I need to get another form of income soon.  We’ve had some minor setbacks in the past week - some car repairs will be needed soon, and my son’s school is saying that we owe them tuition (another story, perhaps?).  We may have to dip into the emergency fund to cover these expenses, and I don’t like that.

So it will probably be back to work for me.  I’ve worked some odd jobs on and off over the past year, with my last job ending in November.  It’s tough stuff trying to keep on top of things when you take care of a little one during the day and work evenings.  I’m trying to find something right now where I could call my own hours and get paid decently, but it is kind of a tall order.  Day care is not an option for us, so let’s see what happens!

Wow!  I’m usually a sick-for-a-day-or-two kind of gal, but this bug has given me a run for my money.  I’ve been to the doctor (yep, it’s the flu!), my husband and son are on Tamiflu, and my husband actually had to stay at home to watch the kid on Tuesday.   I was able to make it from the bed to the couch today, but that’s been the extent of my travels.

I just wanted to stop by and thank those who sent me “get well soon” wishes - I really appreciate it and am working on it!  Also, this is the first time where Tylenol has not been able to do anything for my fever, but ibuprofen has worked wonders.  I just wanted to pass along this tidbit of information in case it could possibly help anyone else out.

I look forward to being back soon (perhaps this weekend?).  I hope life is treating everyone well.

This one came out of nowhere!  As soon as I feel better, I’ll be posting again.  In the meantime, I won’t be dropping quite as many Entrecards, and I apologize to people whose Project Wonderful requests I missed over the weekend (but I should be able to keep up now).  I hope everyone is doing well - be back soon!