March 27, 2004
Hey, I see that quite a few people are stopping by, and no one leaving a comment. I know that this is not the most exciting page on the web, but leave an " I just stopped by to say hi message " to let me know you were here.
Oh yea, please read older entries, even though I have only been journaling for less than a week, I have added so many entries and no one has read them yet. I'm sure I'll pace myself, I just have a lot to say right now.
Thanks, Coy
¶ 5:01 PM 6 comments
March 26, 2004
They're changing companies to handle our 401K plan at work, I hate change. They have someone comming next week to get us settled in. I'm betting that what ever company they are choosing won't carry our company stock. We don't get stock options in any other way, we have been fighting to keep stock in our own company with our 401k.
Saving for retirement is pretty mind boggling even though it's 20+ years away. I would immagine no matter how much I save it's never really going to be enough. If I plan to live an additional 30 years after retirement then they say that I can only withdraw 3% of my savings per year.
The statements I get from Social Security say that if I continue earning the same amount I am earning now I'll only get about 900.00 per month from them and that's if they are still around by then. With inflation and taxes figured in I will have to have an enormous amount of money saved up in order just to get by on the national poverty level.
I would hope that social security will only be a small percentage of my retirement income so chances are good that I will have to work until I am really old unless I find some way to save very aggressivly over the next 20 something years.
I don't think about these things very often at 41. Guess it's just on my mind a lot right now because we are going to be going through these changes next week.
I think people like me with only a 401k, as a rule are pretty passive regarding their investments. I do know that allocations should be split 40% bonds, 60% stocks and should be adjusted accordingly each year to ensure buying low and selling high, but I do not always take care of that like I should.
I do have a goal of increasing to saving 17% of my income in 401k and I do increase some each year with my annual salery increase. I still have a ways to go before I reach that goal.
I am also a little slow jumping in to open a Roth IRA that I keep telling myself I will open. I know that they are not tax deductable or tax deffered. I would be investing after taxed dollars. I am pretty sure that I would qualify to open a Roth and that my money would compound tax free for as long as it remained in the account with the added bonus of neither the money or the gains being taxed upon withdraw unlike the 401k where both are taxed. 401k's could also possibly inflate your income so much that you end up paying higher taxes on social securitie benifits but I guess that would be for someone with a lot more income that I could possibly hope to generate between now and then.
Grrr ... I do hate change and I do hate thinking about this kind of stuff.
*** Coy ***
¶ 4:59 PM 2 comments
Ok today is Saturday, my only day off. I was happy to run across this opportunity to journal on line. I have a lot of questions about AOL journaling and it looks like it's going to take up a lot of my day off trying to get it figured out.
I tried to IM an entry that didn't work, I tried reading other peoples journals and found one I liked and never figured out how to get back to it. I haven't added all about me yet, I guess I can figure out the linking process when I find something I want to link to. How am I going to figure out how to use a RSS and which one should I use?
I have seen journals with large photos and multimedia added to them, I want to get that figured out today too.
Oh well it wasn't going to be a nice beach day anyway. Much to windy and undertows are way to strong. So, just me and AOL Journals today.
It's 12:51 and I found that journal that was looking for, " Slow Motion Life " figured out how to add it to my favorite journals and figured out that I do not really have to have an RSS today.
"Slow Motion Life "has such an awesome journal I want mine to look awesome too so ... I still have a lot of Saturday left.
*** Coy *** ¶ 7:49 PM 1 comments
March 26, 2004
I spent about 3 hours studying at the FAU Library at Barnes and Noble after work today. It is one of my favorite places to learn something new. Right now I am pouring over Dream Weaver and Photo shop 7.0 manuals. It helps me to get away from the computer when I am trying to learn something like that.
For years I've been going in and curling up in one of their big cozy oversized chairs with a stack of books, it's so easy to loose all track of time when I do that. Lately, I've been doing most of my reading in the FAU reading room instead.
FAU and PBCC are right across the street so the kids come in to study. It is always filled with interesting people having the most interesting conversations in a very quiet atmosphere, not like the conversations you would overhear say, in a bar.
Besides the beach, the gym, sitting at my computer or hanging out with Mandy, the book store is one of my all time favorite places to waste some time.
*** Coy ***
¶ 6:50 PM 1 comments
March 26, 2004
Morning traffic has been good this week because the kids are out of school. Speaking of "Spring Break", my niece Brittney (18) and many of her friends have taken the campers and all of the equipment to the Keys for the week. They have been going all of these years for Spring Break and this year decided to go by themselves.
They didn't get to take the boats and jet skis this time, guess they have to prove themselves first. Theresa, (my sister) and Pete did go down for one day with the boat. Good thing they did because it seems a few of the kids got a little rowdy and ended up getting kicked out of the park. So ... she spent her whole day in the Keys helping the kids pack up and move to another campground. I'm not sure that's the decision I would have made but that's what happened.
It's just as well that Mandy has no Spring Break from Beauty School. It would have been a fun experience to go to the Key's with the kids, but I would have been pretty upset with her for getting kicked out.
*** Coy ***
¶ 5:21 PM 1 comments
