1/3 Expressions

Happy 2010! I have enjoyed over a week's vacation - but alas, I am going back to the day job tomorrow. Just a quick look back at 2009 - yup, like just about everyone else, our retirements and other stock-based investment accounts have made a comeback. However, although I am grateful, I am not jumping up and down - because they have not hit their all time highs from 2008 and I have been continuing my contributions over that period of time - which makes it a bit worse (plus, I don't want to jinx myself :). I am glad I did not look at our accounts for almost a year - because I am sure I would have gone into cardiac arrest! Looking back, I am glad I didn't look - because I am generally a believer in dollar cost averaging, not timing the market, yada, yada . . . I am sure my mind would have started to play a few games with me. Should I have kept investing in our non-retirement accounts - perhaps - but that $ was re-purposed and gave me some peace. Our real estate holdings - while some have taken a value hit, at least let us see a decrease in property taxes. While I am disappointed that values didn't continue to rise, I am definitely not panicked. Why, all except the beach front property, the property values didn't rise or fall much. We have renters in the property (except our primary residence ;0)) and no mortgage against them. We don't plan on selling any of the properties any time soon - so, what happened in the real estate market is a wash. Now, as far as the beach property, we did take a HELOC against our primary residence to pay for most of it (HELOC was the least % rate - and no closing costs). The rate is currently 2.6% and we have paid off about 2/3's of it. My goal for 2010 is to pay off the last 1/3 because I have a feeling that Fed will have to raise interest rates eventually and while the 2.6% doesn't bother me much, I would rather earn $ than pay it to a banking institution. Why didn't we pay off the other 1/3, uh because we decided to build up our cash accounts, did some maintenance to our home; bought a used vehicle and . . . we didn't want to cash-out of any of our non-retirement investments in a "down" market. Enough about investments, in a couple of weeks, I will be having some minor surgery - so, I am thank-ful to have been able to up our Health Saver's Account (HSA) to cover the deductible - and we also re-filled an RX on the 1st - the pharmacy was open so we could use the HSA too - don't worry, no one's health was put into jeopardy by waiting! My second goal for the year is to continue on the quest to declutter the house. Lucky for me, the Purple Heart Assn called and offered to pick stuff up, so, I have 2 boxes of stuff ready and hope to have 4 before they get here. And my final goal, is after paying off the HELOC, continue to save $ in a safe "investment" - perhaps "I-bonds" - to ensure we have the cash to pay for my daughter's education. 2009 taught me this, pre-paid tuition programs aren't what they are cracked up to be; and while my daughter is as smart as a whip (who doesn't say that about their own offspring :)), there is no guarantee of a scholarship. So, while I hope to leave her with an inheritance someday, for now, my goal is to best prepare her to make her "own" way.