Category: General News

Bryan and I have had Roth IRAs (for retirement) since we got married in 1999.  We also have retirement accounts through our employers.  I’ve done some reading about investments and retiring (one of my favorite resources is the Motley Fool), but in general, our investments (which we have with Charles Schwab) aren’t something we think about very much.

Earlier this year, we purchased a new life insurance policy for Bryan.  The man who sold us the life insurance is a financial planner, and Bryan and I met with him this morning to get his assessment of our retirement savings.

Matt Cuplin with Midwest Financial Group is a nice guy.  He was thorough and good at answering questions.  (See here for info on working with a financial manager!)   His main advice was that Bryan and I switch gears from the traditional “buy and hold” theory of investing and move to a system where we more actively manage our investments.

Currently, we have our funds in a couple aggressive mutual funds (Schwab MarketTrack All Equity is the main one).  They’ve been there for 10 years.   There’s been growth, there’s been decline.  Frankly, I don’t even read the statements more than once a year because our approach has been that over time, (and we’ve got a lot of time until retirement) the accounts will go up.  So why sweat it on the short term?  The fees are low, and history has showed that stocks are a good bet in the long-term.

The downside of working with money managers is that you have to pay them.  And in general, I’m not so in to paying fees on my investments.  Matt’s argument is that actively managed funds do better in a “flat market.”  The money managers pull back on stocks (re-allocate) during flat periods and then re-invest in stocks when things pick up.  Overall, this approach is supposed to lead to higher returns.

Matt is recommending that we move our funds to a company called Flexible Plan Investments.  His information shows that their aggressive fund out-performs the Index in a 10-year period.  Its benchmark return (after fees) is a couple points higher than what we’ve been getting on either of our funds.

Matt’s argument is that by actively managing our investments, we’ll earn enough more that we’ll cover the 2% fee plus (which covers himself and the we’ll have more in the bank.

Sooo, I think we’re going to try it.  We’ve done the other approach for 10 years, we’ll give this approach a spin for a while.

That said, if anyone out there has sage advice about investing or spots any red flags in this scenario, please let me know!

(4pm) I’m writing to you from the quiet comfort of Java Cat coffee shop.  Emma is home with my children.  In about 10 minutes, I’m going to go to Woodman’s grocery store by myself.  In the middle of the day.  Who thought that going to Woodman’s would be a luxury?  We’ll have food in the house!

Emma is home from college this week, so I’m taking advantage of her proximity (she lives next door).  When she first came over, I cleaned the kitchen, did a load of laundry, and in other ways straightened my life.  Ahhh.

Thanks, Emma!  I hope you and the kiddos are having fun!

Joe and Becky head back to school today.  They’re driving to Maine through Canada by driving up through the UP. Joe goes to school at Bowdoin in Maine, and Becky goes to school at Williams in Massachusetts.  Click here for a map of (what I’m guessing is) their route.

On Sunday night, Bryan and I hosted a potluck picnic to send Joe and Becky off.  Maretta and Kyle happen to live in Minnesota, so they were unable to attend, but Michael and Lisa, Terry, Tom, and Dad, and Joe and Becky all came over.  We grilled out and ate at the picnic table.  Frisbees were thrown after dinner.  Blueberry cobbler with cream was consumed.  It was a lovely night, and I’ll remember it fondly for a long time.

Continue reading “Family potluck”

On Sunday morning, Pam, her two girls, and my two kids piled into my van, and we all drove down to Blue Skies Berry Farm for a morning of raspberry picking and playing outdoors.  Pictures of our outing are available here.

Continue reading “Raspberries!”

I’ve been to several plays in the last week, and I’m reading Andrew a great story book, and I have all these lovely quotes floating around in my head, so I thought I’d share.

From Harold Pinter’s play Old Times, which was performed at the new indoor theater at American Players Theater.  Terry looked this one up and sent me the text.  Johnathan Smoots delivered this line:

Of course she’s so totally incompetent at drying herself properly, did you find that? She gives herself a really good scrub, but can she with the same efficiency give herself an equally good rub? I have found, in my experience of her, that this is not in fact the case. You’ll always find a few odd unexpected unwanted cheeky globules dripping about.

From Jame Thurber’s book The 13 Clocks, first publishedin 1950.  Here’s where we first meet the princess:

The Princess Saralinda was tall, with freesias in her dark hair, and she wore serenity brightly like a rainbow. … Her voice was faraway music, and her eyes were candles burning on a tranquil night.  She moved across the room like wind in violets, and her laughter sparkled on the air, which, from her presence, gained a faint and undreamed fragrance.

The Duke in this story is as evil as the Princess is lovely:

His hands were as cold as his smile and almost as cold as his heart.  He wore gloves when he was awake, which made it difficult for him to pick up pins or coins or the kernels of nuts, or to tear the wings from nightingales.

I saw Jim DeVita’s one-man show Acting Shakespeare last night, and it was wonderful.  (Here’s an interview he did about the show.) There were quite a few memorable lines, but Sylvia has come over and requested that I read her Global Babies, so I’ll sign off!

It’s been a good day.  My car has new rear brakes, and my mechanic was able to remove the last of the coins from my vents and even fixed the tape player.

While Andrew and Eli splashed around at the Monona pool during their lesson this morning, a baby-sitter watched the girls back at home.  Such luxury to sit pool-side with a dear friend for a half-hour, laughing and relaxing.  Celia’s having a bit of trouble this week with her 2-year-old molars.  Our normally sunshine-y girl has been kinda sad.

Sylvia is taking a nice nap right now, and I sat down with a copy of Mary Sheedy Kurcinka’s book Kids, Parents, and Power Struggles: Winning for a lifetime.  Mary wrote Raising Your Spirited Child, which I love.  And I’m loving this book too.  Check out this lovely quote from the first page:

“Recognizing…emotions [yours and your child’s] is the key to stopping power struggles before they ever start.  Responding to those emotions builds the relationship that makes your child want to work with you.

Discipline isn’t just about winning or losing.  Every power struggle offers you the opportunity to connect with your child or to disconnect. The relationship you have with your child when he’s an adolescent lies in the words and actions you use today.  Ultimately your real power is in that emotional bond.”

Continue reading “Mary Sheedy Kurcinka, how do I love thee”

Last month, I posted about how I had lost Andrew’s shoes and orange jacket.  Well, his shoes are still gone, but Jessica called last night to tell me that she’d just found Andrew’s orange fleece jacket in the basement dress-up box!  The jacket is back on its hook in our home.

I love the feeling of having lost things found.  Thanks Jessica!!