Friday Round Up

Yesterday I stopped by the grocery store on my way home to pick up a few things. I was feeling really run down so I took at advantage of the expectant mothers/parents with children spots. It wasn't my usual grocery store so it took me longer to find the items I needed (why isn't every grocery store set up exactly the same way?) increasing my annoyance level. I waddled (yes by the end of the day now I'm waddling, or at least lurching about a bit more) back to the car. While putting the groceries in the backseat I saw a 17 year old kid getting out of his car in one of the same spots! I gave him a dirty look and he looked directly back at me while fiddling with something in his car. I finally said, "You have a kid hiding somewhere in there?" He said, with a shit eating grin, "Nope," and headed off to do his errand. Grrrr. It made me so mad! Especially because there were open spots just one or two cars away! It's not like he had to walk from blocks away. The only good thing is that he left his headlights on so I can only hope karma sent him a dead battery.

Work has been pretty stressful this week and I've officially hit the third trimester fatigue on top of it. DH has been wonderful doing most of the cooking. All I want to do is collapse on the couch when I get home. I am working from home today and might increase the number of days over the next 7 weeks. My chair at work is becoming my enemy. By the end of the day I feel very uncomfortable and I think the baby is totally smooshed. At least at home I can go from a nice padded chair to a couch if I need to. Now if only I can stop dreaming about work at night. I feel like I'm working 24x7 with that!

DH submitted our taxes last weekend and we should be getting a nice chunk of change back from the federal and state governments. Good thing since BigFinance isn't giving bupkis for bonuses this year (and why exactly does Wall Street get to give out ridiculous amounts of money?). We'll probably save most of it but we are going to have a landscape architect come out this weekend to draw up some plans for our backyard so we might help stimulate the economy too. Last year we used a tax guy and DH ran his own numbers. The guy didn't get us any more money than we could have if we did it ourselves. Not having sold any stock or made any complicated financial moves, DH did our taxes for us this year. The only crappy part is that we couldn't deduct interest from my student loans because of our income bracket. I question the government on that regulation. Isn't student loan interest the same as owning a house? Interest is interest! No wonder some students are fleeing the country rather than paying back their loans. Regardless, taxes are not hard. So why the hell are so many politicians getting nailed for not filing taxes?

My recommendation for those tax filer procrastinators is to file early and file online. It is less than 10 business days to get a refund if you file online well in advance of the 4/15 deadline. DH and I use Turbo Tax and they do everything for you. A piece of cake. I do think it's a bit of a rip off that you can't file online without using one of those software packages but I don't run the world like I should :-)

Happy Friday, everyone! It feels as though it was a long time coming this week. The weather is finally warming back up in Charlotte and I'm looking forward to a productive yet lazy weekend. I plan on dragging DH to lots of stores for baby related purchases. It's time to help get the economy moving again.

Random Tuesday thoughts

Did you all hear about the octuplets born in California yesterday? Now, as a multiple myself, I can't really judge the family but let me try anyway. It is extremely unlikely that fertility treatments were not involved in this situation. By continuing with a pregnancy that has 8 fetuses (yes, one was a surprise but even 7 is very dangerous), the family has guaranteed that one or more of the children will have serious health issues over most of their lives. Weights ranged from 1 pound 8 ounces up to 3 pounds 4 ounces. I have to wonder at the quality of life for those children. However, with that said, I do love to watch Jon and Kate Plus 8 (twins and sextuplets) and think that their family is functional, loving and healthy. So who knows?

President Obama is in the process of redefining democracy in America. He built a huge database of voters when campaigning for president and plans to leverage that as he rolls out his initiatives. Needless to say, the Senate and House have come out against this as they don't want phone calls, emails and letters from their constituents over the next 4+ years. But I believe as the Internet has proliferated America, it has changed the way we consume information. I am a much better informed voter today than even 5 years ago thanks to real time news dissemination. So why not weigh in on more of the legislation that is being proposed? Does this mean our future could result in direct voting on issues rather than a representative government? Depends on whether we can employ real time voting or if people have the desire to be that involved in government at all levels.

Layoffs, layoffs and more layoffs. Like many of you, the last "recession" I lived through was during the Internet bubble collapse in 2000 and 2001. But at the time I was living in Boston with two roommates, had a decent job at SmallResearch and was close to family. So basically I didn't have any of the pressures I have now being pregnant, a home owner and major income contributor. I feel as though I add significant value to BigFinance with the work I perform but I am nowhere close to the level needed to understand what hiring/firing decisions are being made. This is definitely a scary time. I just have to keep reminding myself that our parents lived through quite a few of these cycles and everything worked out.

I am still inspired by the heroic actions of Captain "Sully" Sullenberger to put Flight 1549 down in the Hudson safely. I have devoured every piece of news on him and the situation. Usually when I first hear "heroic" news, I am immediately suspicious. How altruistic really were the actions? I think I watch too much TV with its twists and turns. It has warped my brain. But I never felt that way about Flight 1549. I understand why Sully couldn't talk to the press immediately after the accident (regulations and all) but I never felt like he would be anything other than a hero. What would really turn my stomach is if the passengers come out as money grubbing a**holes. It was an accident, and fortunately not a tragic one. It's not like they ended up on a remote island for 180 days and escaped death and destruction. Wait, wrong show...

Friday updates

Thanks to everyone who has been visiting my blog this week. I won't be offended if you only stop by for the AI recaps but I will still be commenting on life in general so if you come by during one of those posts, suck it up!

I had my 30 week doctor's appointment earlier this week. Because the practice has 6 doctors and it's whoever is on call who delivers the baby, I have been meeting with more than just my primary OB/GYN. The doctor I met with this week, Dr. Considerate, was totally awesome. I am now hoping he will be delivering me. Although, as he even said, the doctor only spends like 10 minutes with you in the delivery room unless something goes wrong.

Dr. Considerate told me that the entire practice has a 38% C-section rate. That seemed extremely high to me (even with the trend towards scheduling and early delivery) but it is right in line with NC stats. My preference is for vaginal delivery but obviously I don't have control over that. DH and I have our childbirth class next weekend so I'll be sure and post more thoughts after that.

I am measuring at 31 weeks which puts me right at my estimated due date of 3/28. DH would love it if I go that weekend because he's scheduled his two fantasy baseball drafts the weekend before. Me? I'll probably want this baby to be out well before then! Plus, I'd prefer to not have the baby sharing my birthday (April 6). I already share it with A. and Mommy, Esq. That's enough. I've gained just around 20 pounds which I'm pretty happy with at this point. I think that the stomach flu helped last week since I gained less than a pound in two weeks. There's that silver lining...

In other news, NC unemployment rate is up over 8% right now compared to 5% from a year ago. Charlotte is in a hot spot with the financial industry challenges. Despite some bad news earlier this week I am still feeling confident in BigFinance and that my role will not be eliminated. I even invested in some stock this week. Not much but if the price rebounds it will be a very nice return. Why do I mention this? Well, given we are expanding our family very shortly, financial considerations are very much top of mind. DH and I feel squeezed even though we are crazy conservative with savings and retirement and spending. Of course he would say I'm not very conservative with spending but I haven't been shopping in months (aside from Xmas presents)!

This has been a crazy busy week and I'm looking forward to a nice, lazy weekend. I hope you all are too! Just 9 more weekends (potentially) of kid-free enjoyment for me and DH.

How much income is enough?

I came across an interesting article on MSN that discussed household income in major metro areas. It takes a lot more money to be "rich" depending on where you live. Not exactly rocket science, is it? One of the reasons DH and I were fine with moving down to Charlotte was because it is so much cheaper to live here. The primary expense being a house. A 2800 square foot house 5 miles from downtown would go for an absurd amount of money in Boston. Even with the falling house prices.

Overall the top 5% of earners in the country make $311,000. Obviously that is a lot of money but would you consider that to be rich? I think of wealth more than income when defining whether a household is "rich" or not. Americans are notorious for spending up to their income level. So it becomes difficult to build true wealth.

In Boston you would be considered rich if you are a family of 4 and make at least $633K. It takes even more in NYC, San Fransisco and DC. How ya feeling now about your earnings?

The article suggests that by forgoing kids and moving to smaller metro areas we will feel even richer. But if DH and I ever move back to Boston we will feel significantly poorer. I'm not sure I'm ready to face that! Especially with a baby on the way.

Assuming our wireless is working tonight I will upload photos of the nursery for my next blog post.

Black Friday

I decided to suck it up and work today instead of taking a vacation day. BigFinance is closed for Thanksgiving but not Black Friday. You'd think they would want to do their part and encourage us to go shopping but apparently not. DH gets the day off and I'm very jealous.

But in a way, it's a good thing that I am working and hundreds of miles away from my family and closest friends. That way, I don't shop as much! I am very thankful that, aside from my diminishing retirement account, DH and I haven't had to worry too much about the economy. We're both still employed with no sign of impending layoffs (fingers and toes crossed). While we have been spending more than usual to get the nursery ready we are still able to save and I can splurge on the newest fantasy fiction books.

I've completed most of my Christmas shopping (I know, don't hate me!) primarily because I've been in nesting mode for the past two months and want everything to be done. DH and I set limits for each other and we are being more frugal with the other presents. I am going to make Christmas cookies again this year (I will try to make the bow for the wreaths this year so back off A. and Mommy, Esq!) and give those out as small gifts around the office. I anticipate that this Christmas will be under $1,000 which is a good thing. I'd like it to be even less but DH and I both have big families with lots of little ones. It's hard to resist buying for the kids!

When I was getting ready for work this morning I heard a report on the radio that this Black Friday should be pretty good for both retailers and consumers. Apparently prices are extremely low (thanks deflation!) and there are fewer shopping days before Christmas. The big push is to have consumers spend so we can start righting the economy. One of the reasons the US economy has been so stable is because consumers have spent, regardless of economic situations. The savings rate went from 9% of disposable income in 1985 to almost nothing today. But now there is a resurgence for "economizing" and people are not spending as much. While that's good for us individually to save, it is not good for the economy as a whole.

How about the rest of you? Are you also cutting back this year? Any good cost cutting tips?

Into everyone's life a little bad economy must fall

I was either extremely fortunate or psychic to pick my BigFinance firm coming out of B-school. I'm going to go with my predictive powers just because I can pat myself on the back that way :-) I am also fortunate that I work in transitions (aka acquisitions) so there will be plenty of work for me over the next 18-24 months. So while the other BigFinance here is not doing so well I should remain gainfully employed. A definite factor when considering I will be taking maternity leave at the end of March!

But, like the rest of you, I'm sure, I have not been so lucky with my financial portfolio. It's not like I don't expect to work for another 30 (eek!) years but losing 1/4 of my retirement savings is making me nervous. I know, I know, the market is awful for everyone...but it makes me feel like the past 7 years of savings was for naught. I should have just taking the cash and put it into CDs! Yes, Mommy's Esq Husband, I know that it's better to put it into the market, but it doesn't make me feel any better.

The last big market blip for our generation was the Internet bubble bursting. I survived 4 layoffs at SmallResearch and I was even in sales at the time. Husband is still there and it doesn't sound like there are going to be any immediate layoffs. But the last blip didn't affect the overall soundness of the market. I never felt like things were spiraling out of control. And that's what is particularly scary about this credit crisis. I am far from a financial expert (even with B-school) but I do know if banks can't lend to each other we are going down a path we may not be able to recover from. The delta between the Fed rate and LIBOR (what banks use to lend money to each other) is 3.5% when usually it is lest than 1%. That is a huge swing and indicates that banks are leery of the financial stability of other banks. Not good. Interestingly, financial firms pressured the government to allow deregulation and now we are in serious trouble. Hopefully the recent consolidations and failures will slow down and the market can start to correct itself. But until there are buyers for the iffy mortgage backed securities, there will be no market correction. The politicking with the package proposed by the Treasury Secretary is driving me nuts. The economy needs the bailout. It's that simple. Do I want to be paying for others' mistakes with my taxes? Heck no. But better that than even more bank failures and job losses.

One thing we have to keep in mind is that money is still really cheap. Yes, really! Think about it. When our parents first bought their houses in the late 70s or early 80s, they were paying interest rates in the double digits! Can you imagine paying a mortgage with 17% interest? No way DH and I would be living where we are now if that was the case. Of course, home prices were a lot lower then too, commiserate with the higher interest rates. So now people expect low interest rates which is why everyone freaks out when the Fed raises rates. But if it wasn't for cheap credit, people wouldn't have interest only loans and the rate of default wouldn't be as high!

Ok, enough of my financial rant. Like I said, I am far from an expert on this. I can only hope that the market corrects itself in the next 2-3 years (yes, I think it will take that long) and I stop losing so much in my portfolio!

DH and I have not noticeably cut back on expenses yet. We haven't been worrying about losing our jobs or not being able to pay for the baby supplies. What about the rest of you? How nervous are you? What about your parents who have to be close to retirement (if not already there)?