Two paychecks in the checking account (mine and NT's) was a pleasant little surprise. Even though I've been at this job for 3+ years, I still tend to think that if the 15th hits on a Sunday, payday isn't till Monday, as it was at my old job. Maybe this time I'll remember, since I'm writing about it!

Making my loan payment early worked out well; I had plenty of float money in the checking account and my balance never got below $1200, even though my Number Crunch worksheet showed some red for awhile (because theoretically, if I'd had to withdraw all of my medical-expense money and all the money saved for the laptop fund before this payday, I would've overdrawn). Now my balance sheet is lovely and black all the way down for the next three months again!

The only trouble is, now it's over a month before my next loan payment (which will be my payoff)! Oh well, maybe I can float again next month. I'm very impatient to pay this off so I can start paying my dad off. (The back story on that: He gave me $12,000 for down payment on my & AS's condo. So far I've paid back $6,000 in six years; that's progress, but not nearly enough, so ideally, I'll pay back the other $6,000 before baby comes in early March.)

I think I'm going to update the Big-Picture Goal in my sidebar...it's eminently clear I won't be CC-free by the end of this year. Soo, I'm just going to move it out a year and try to reach the goal by the end of 2010! I'm going to list a couple other goals I have for debt, such as getting rid of one of AS's student loans by the end of 2011. Could happen! Anyway, it's something to shoot for. (I'm sure my baby is laughing maniacally and tenting its little fingers because it has other plans for my money, but oh well.)

I probably have a bit of freelance proofreading headed my way next week. Woo hoo! I haven't negotiated a price, because just between me and all of you, I'd do it for any amount of money! If it's just a little sum, I'll put it toward the laptop fund. If by chance it ends up being more, or if I get more work as a result of doing a good job, I'll put some toward the laptop fund and some toward paying my dad.

It's now a little over a week until AS finds out whether she'll get the job at the publishing house! We think her chances are good because she's worked there before; the head editor trusts her taste and instincts; and she left on good terms last time, has kept in touch ever since, and also has gotten a lot of impressive education and job experience in the meantime. However, she knows a little bit about the other person who's in the running for the job, and they also have an extremely impressive resume. So there is some chance she won't get it. But we're realistically optimistic.

While admiring Thriftorama's forethought in getting her new baby-to-be's college fund ready to go, I was struck once again with how clueless I am as to how to proceed financially once I'm ready to start saving and investing more than paying extra debt. I feel like our debt load is still outsized, so I'll be focusing on that for at least another two years. But at some point, we're going to have to get serious about retirement and college savings, and we'll have quite a bit of catchup to play since we're not doing much on those fronts in the meantime. But it's an extremely complex problem, since we'll be drawing U.S. income for several more years but plan on ultimately retiring in the UK (and raising our kids in the UK, which means they may want to go to college there). I'm ignorant of tax laws and haven't found any Web sites for dummies to figure out the best way to somewhat protect our assets so that when we withdraw in the UK, we won't be subject to taxation that we wouldn't in the U.S. I think this is a job for a financial planner. But how to find one with the areas of expertise we need? And how to find one whose judgment we trust? And when should I start forking over money for said expertise--should I wait until we're ready to get serious about retirement/education contributions, or should I start preparing now? I've been running in circles on this question regarding retirement for years now, and now that I've added college fund to the mix I'm more at a loss than ever!

Oh, and I found a nickel on the ground yesterday. And that concludes this edition of my financial news! LOL