18 January 2008

Mo' Money, Mo' Betta

As part of "Get Healthy 2008 With the Jalas," we're in the midst of getting our financials in order. This was a long time coming, not just because we're combining 2 households and need to make sure Roc's set up for the future, but I am terrible at managing money and we seem to be spending a lot of it lately. Considering I'm the son of an accountant, it's pretty sad. But also being a consultant, I know when it's time to bring in the experts and the value of that knowledge.

Jala2 got the name of a financial planner from a friend of a friend, and after laying out our lives with details that even our families aren't aware of, we have our report. Good news is there's no red, bad news is that the black is more of an 70% grey. Though we're not at paycheck to paycheck status, we aren't funding the goal side of our plan as much as we want. Stuff like vacations, paying down CC debt faster, replacing the Subie in a few years, upgrading Casita Jalanquera, etc. But we have a plan now, so at least we know what we need to do to get there.

We also talked about "Plan B," you know, what happens if one of us kicks the bucket. I already have life insurance from a previous life, but it's not enough to cover everyone/everything. Jala2 hardly has any. So we spent some time filling out a stack of forms for life insurance. I forgot how bloody intrusive it is, trying to maintain some dignity while explaining every fart and bloody nose we've had in the last 7 years. Then there's the pee and blood tests. We're convinced we'll get rejected, but maybe that's from watching this movie.

Next task: get our wills made.

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