Financial Planning

We make a pair, Michelle and I.

We had our financial planner come over today (Hi, Trent! Thanks for coming!). We've managed to squirrel away a bit more in savings that we wanted to be doing more with than collecting miniscule profits from credit union savings account interest.

Also Tired of Miniscule Profits

Trent always comes well prepared, ready to study our current portfolio and make recommendations for how to tweak it and then find ways for us to invest what little chicken scratch we've got.

And 90 percent of the time, the stuff he suggests just goes right over our heads.

See, we're not numbers people. Words, yes, you can depend on us to come up with them, and in mass quantities. But when it comes to words that are mixed up with numbers, we just sit there pleasantly nodding while our brains pull a Homer Simpson on us:

To give us a bit more credit than I'm giving us at the moment, we do try our darndest to understand. We do ask questions. I try to follow the financial news and try to think as an investor should think (buy low, sell high; isn't it about time that gold did a header, et cetera). And then we both kind of sit back and think, "Wow. Are we investing in gold?" (Yes we are. In China, too. We're getting out of both, based on Trent's advice, which, from what I've learned, I think is sound.)

We have an ace in the hole in that Trent also works for the same company that advises Michelle's Dad, who has done not so badly with his investments over the years. We always check in with him when we make these decisions - and he always gives us the same song and dance we get from Trent: No one can predict how these things will work out. But he said we made some good decisions, based on the trust we've got in Trent. That's good enough for me.

But Dreng Has No Fortune

Taboo subject here: That ol' payscale.

One of my Facebook friends (I defeated him in the grueling election to become eighth grade president at North Bonneville Junior High School, but I think he's forgiven me for that) posed the question Would I rather live now with a "middle" income of 70k a year, or with that same income in 1900, when it was the income of the top wealthiest cadre in the United States.

Trick question, I thought. Especially since even today, I don't quite meet the "middle" income mark he picks.

This isn't going to be a big Pity Me party, because, considering, we're doing quite well. I did just get news yesterday that I am getting a cost of living adjustment, putting me above a certain numerical threshold for the first time in my life. Not quite the middle income my Facebook friend was posing questions about, but then again it's certainly considerably more than I was making as a journalist.

Knock on wood I've been lucky. Got out of the journalism business before the Big Tanking. Also got a substantial raise at my current job in September 2008, right before the economy collapsed. So with the COLA this year, I'm going to say we're doing okay. Of course, 2011 is going to bring between 600-700 layoffs at the company I work for as a subcontractor -- with the subcontractors first in line for the firing squad. We're hoping -- and are fairly certain, but you know how fate works -- that we as a group will survive the layoffs, as there is still work in the areas we're attached to. That won't stop them, of course, from dumping subcontractors like me and then moving company people into those positions. So I've got to be ready for any contingency. But in the meantime, a COLA which will bring in almost another $200 a month is welcome. We can squirrel it away for the inevitable day I do get that funny little tap on the shoulder and am sent to that Sweet Fanny Adams in the Sky.

Working on aces up the sleeve:

• I have signed a contract to teach at BYU-Idaho next semester. It's pittance pay and depends on whether there's enough demand for the course, but I see it mainly as a foot in the door at the university. Do a good enough job, my friend, and I might be considered more heavily for a better position.
• The novel is written. My goal with it now is to have it polished by the new year and to have, to go with it, a polished query letter with which I may begin to pepper the agents. And I'll begin work on the second portion of the story I'm telling, with the possibility of picking up two other unrelated novels I've been working on for quite some time. Not necessarily here the promise of a cash future, but certainly something with which to feed the soul.
• Applying for jobs like crazy. I interviewed (unsuccessfully) at the Space Dynamics Laboratory in Utah a few months ago, and still prowl the Internets for opportunities. I need to do better networking, but it's pretty difficult for a hermit to get excited about meeting people. I do have a few allies (and perhaps one enemy) working for BEA -- the research side of the Idaho National Laboratory -- so that helps/hurts at the same time.
• I do know this: journalism, Target, and call centers are out. I'd rather chew tin cans and make my children do the same.

Soul food is as important as a paycheck, I discovered, when one is underemployed. I spent a fair portion of 2005 and 2006 working at Target and at a call center while looking for a job after I exited the journalism biz butt-first. Then I worked on a few short stories and a novel that I still think has a few possibilities. It's one I'm still working on.

Exciting News

This morning, I received in the mail an exciting description of the new upgrades being placed on the credit card I cancelled a few weeks ago. I thought it was a letter of regret, saying in effect we're sorry you cancelled your card, but we fulfilled your wishes.

But no. They're trying to re-fuel my wildest dreams.

Now, I'm not concerned about the right hand here not knowing what the left has done; I've seen enough big-company tomfoolery to know that marketing doesn't get weekly updates from the failures in the retention department. What makes me laugh about this particular card -- side from its ruinous rate of interest, which is why it got cancelled -- is the breathless way in which the upgrades are being touted.

To avoid confusion, I'll come out and say it's for Amazon.com. Up until a few weeks ago, I had two Amazon.com credit lines. Both are now dead. Oh, I've read the arguments against cancelling credit lines like this, the "risks" such a move can pose to credit scores and such. I'm not all that worried about it. If our available credit has dipped by a few thousand dollars, that's good news for me, because that's less interest we're paying down the road. We don't carry excessive consumer debt anyway, but getting rid of the cards just ensures that satus quo remains the status quo.

The big news is that if I used said cancelled card for purchases at gas stations, dining establishments and drugstores, I could earn more Amazon points. Let me pause and say right now: Whoop-dee-doo. I've been earning Amazon points all along the way, friends. But because I made so damn few purchases -- not the average $500 every three months Amazon encourages in this amazing upgrade offer, and that's just for Amazon purchases and does not include the average $1,200 every three months they predict I could spend on gas, food and Band-Aids, nor the $1,100 I could spend "everywhere else [major credit cards] are accepted." I mean, wow, I could earn 5,000 points every three months, 20,000 a year. That's almost enough to earn me one round-trip plane ticket via the valuable Amazon points, nevermind that I can't afford to go anywhere because I'm too busy paying off the $11,200 I put on the card to earn those points.

Who comes up with these averages? Who in their right mind would do this kind of spending every three months? Not us, and certainly not at 19.9 percent interest, which is the fabulous rate I got even when I was a customer in good standing on this card. See why I cancelled? And the points argument -- getting something of value in return for my purchases, even if balances are paid off every month -- doesn't float with me, because it would take us years to rack up the points. And, no, we're not going to use a credit card just to earn points. Funny thing about us, we pay cash for most of the things we buy. Less interest paid that way, you know. So I say "ptoo" to your upgraded rewards points program.