Mo’ Money!

We had a rep from Vanguard come into work yesterday to talk about our 401(k), how to calc the savings you need for retirement, what funds to invest in, etc, etc and it got me super fired up to start putting more money away and to move our money around to some more lucative funds in my 401(k). Turns out, we now have a Roth 401(k) available to us and it has NOTHING at all to do with the Roth IRA so I can still max that account out and put all of my 401(k) money in as Roth up to the max of $15,500 for that too! AWESOME!

So, I got online last night and researched all of the funds available in our account and is just super confusing! How do I know which is going to do better over time? Yes, I look up all of the historical returns and our plan allows us to invest in this Target fund which is supposed to be a balanced portfolio but also aggressive according to your years to retirement. OR – you can choose your own accounts to invest in, which is the route my dad says to take but damn, I just have no idea what I am doing.

I sent my dad all of my research and thoughts and then basically asked him flat out what to do. My dad is an investing guru – no, scratch that – he THINKS he is an investing guru but actually is very knowledgable about the markets and various funds, particularly with Vanguard. I think he is insanely too aggressive and moves his money around way too much so I can just take his advice and then apply my own opinions to my final actions, I hope.

No matter what, we are going to start saving more money. Right now, we only put away about 10% to retirement and we need to get that closer to at least 15%. I used one of Vanguard’s spreadsheets last night to determine how much money we will need for retirement and it looks like if Brian gets this police job, with their pension (1/2 of his final 5 year salary average per year), then we would be sitting VERY pretty. Without his pension, if the job falls through, we are very close to where we need to be already. Though we would like to retire as early as possible, I really don’t see it happening much before age 59 1/2 or 60, which sounds fine with me. Sure – 55 would be nice but you can’t get your hands on the money in so many different types of accounts until you are 59 1/2, that it looks like it would make sense to wait. Unless we can save enough liquid cash to live on for a couple of years before that. We shall see. . .

I haven’t started getting ready for my mom to come yet but will work on the house, Thursday and Friday night and Saturday during the day. Her flight doesn’t get in until 5:30pm Saturday which is FABULOUS for me. I am so excited and have calmed myself down a little on my wedding/family visit worries. A little.

I have gotten very few comments or acknowledgements on my spray tan so I am becoming paranoid that it looks terrible. I have NEVER been tan before in my life and I really like the change but wonder if it looks too orange or something? I don’t think it does – I was able to find new makeup that matches it perfectly – I would think it would be tough to find orange, if that’s really what it was.

I will have to take some pictures this weekend, when I go for another session this Saturday and post them here, so you can tell me what you all think. I need opinions!

Work is such a mess – my boss is the biggest dumbass on the face of the planet! Seriously, I have absolutely no idea what goes through her head most times. She STILL has not posted my position yet and was informed by my new department that I will be full time with them July 7th no matter what. So, case closed, right? Well – in the Monday morning manager’s meeting, I guess she told everyone not to worry about her putting off hiring someone because I would come back and cross train to new person, regardless of when it was. So NOT true!

So, I had to call my new boss – AGAIN – tell her what was going on and once again, shocked silence on her end. She told me my current boss told her they may need me back for “a few hours” to cross train, which they thought would be fine. How hiliarious – a few HOURS? How about a few weeks??? At least a few days but definitely not hours. And right now, we have no extra capacity in this department to take on my duties when I leave. None at all – everyone is completely maxed out.

They are going to have to call my boss once again, and now, in my offer letter for my new job, they are going to lay out exactly how many days I can come back and cross train and in what months. Once my new job starts to really ramp up, they don’t want me to working on anything else but my new job – totally makes sense. I would be insanely overwhelmed trying to learn a new job, during a very busy time and trying to cross train someone here, during their busy time as well. Right now is the perfect time to be training – it is quiet, we could take our time and the orders don’t really ramp up until August or September. But, if she doesn’t post the position for another week or two, then takes at least 2-4 weeks to get in resumes and interview someone, make a choice then at least another 2 weeks for them to give notice and start. . .it will take forever to get someone in the door here.

I know I need to let it go but I just don’t want my new department to be blindsided by my current boss’s insane requests and expectations and so far, my new boss as handled everything beautifully. The more I talk to her, the higher hopes I have for this new job to really turn into something good for me. She already is working on a continuing education plan for me and has a 2 day class lined up for me to take in June. My current boss would never let us go for any training saying we were too busy and didn’t have time. *sigh*

Ok – I gotta run – I suppose I should get SOME work done!