One of AS's student loans hit: $79 to principal. Makes the February debt repayment toal $4819. This is also the loan that I want paid off by December 2011, so it's progress on one of my Big-Picture Goals.
I must be feeling protective of monkeymama because of the awful comments someone has been posting to her blog! I had a dream that I had this magical device where I could go through the SA website and directly into SA bloggers' homes. I used it to go into monkeymama's house where she was being robbed, and helped fight off the robber and call for help.
When everything was OK and the robber had been arrested, I said soemthing like, "And look! Since I came straight into your house, I still have no idea where you live. Your anonymity is still safe!" Then I went back to my life using the magic device. LOL.
I've developed two more financial goals that would be nice to accomplish in 2010, but I'm not sure I'll add them to the list since I still think my current goals are kind of ambitious, but it's in the back of my mind that they could be completed this year. One is that we want to screen in our 18th-floor balcony so it'll be safer for the kid (and the kitty) to be out there. For the kid, we won't really need it until summer 2011, but it would be nice to have it this summer for the cat. It costs about $1800 to get the screens installed.
The other is to find some experts to help me out with all the complex financial and familial situations we have, to make sure I'm protecting all of us and doing the best for the future. On the SA forums someone was asking who had a trusted financial adviser, and it reawakened my desire to get some help with our life.
I think I need a tax expert fluent in both U.S. and UK taxes to make sure I'm reporting everything correctly; I've been doing both for about three years now, so if I was making mistakes it would be good to correct them before I have too many years to fix.
Then I need a financial adviser who can address taxation practices for both the U.S. and the UK, and can steer us toward the right strategy for our unique situation, which is contributing to retirement in America now but eventually retiring in England. We also need to know whether it's beneficial to do a tax-free college fund in the U.S. if chances are our child will be going to school in England.
And finally, we need help from a family lawyer who has experience with nontraditional family structures, to see what parental rights we can put in place for AS, and to figure out wills and other documents to protect our family's cohesion in the event of serious injury or death of one or both of the (biological) parents.
So, all of that is going to cost me money. We'll see if I can afford to do anything about it this year.
More debt repayment + funny dream
February 17th, 2010 at 03:27 pm
February 17th, 2010 at 03:29 pm 1266420562
The funny thing is I usually am very interactive with my blog, but I have been so overwhelmed I have just been venting and not reading comments lately. I suppose someone sensed that? I suppose I should go read my comments? I am blissfully unaware. Anyway, I appreciate you protecting me, in your dream.
February 17th, 2010 at 03:42 pm 1266421363
February 17th, 2010 at 03:45 pm 1266421508
February 17th, 2010 at 04:18 pm 1266423491
What I had been intending to say on that post before she got me riled up is that my boss, whose husband had cancer and needed aggressive chemo, got the exact same caretaker-fatigue as you. It must be really common! And he, like your husband, was taking his time getting back to reality. A little tough love in those cases can't be a bad thing, because I'm sure it's easy for a seriously ill person to wallow a bit and lose motivation without a little push.
February 17th, 2010 at 07:45 pm 1266435919
February 17th, 2010 at 11:22 pm 1266448957
February 18th, 2010 at 05:36 pm 1266514596
But it's just his personality. He needs a swift kick in the butt! He usually needs one, surgery or not.
February 19th, 2010 at 03:47 am 1266551253
February 19th, 2010 at 03:19 pm 1266592749
February 22nd, 2010 at 02:10 am 1266804646
February 22nd, 2010 at 05:46 am 1266817578