Anonymous Mess

Yeesh, what a freakin' mess. Our paid-for time on COBRA ends this month, so we need insurance in place for January. Can I add my voice to the chorus exclaiming that insurance is insane in this country, that we pay more for less compared to the rest of the civilized world, that an absurd percentage of our medical dollars go to finessing the question of whether we need/deserve treatment, that in short the whole system sucks and the most cost-effective insurance pool is the largest and therefore can we just have everyone in a single pool, people, please? Oh, I can? Oh, good. I'm sure it will make all the damn difference. Aside from the cost -- although, again, ohmygods the cost -- there's just the question of what-the-hell-to-do.  It's exceedingly difficult to make a financial decision for the entire year ahead when you have no real regular income and no idea what your actual income might be. So here are the parameters defining our position. I think. 1. Any plan

I check Mint obsessively. It's actually been a bright spot these last dark months, to see our retirement accounts steadily making small gains even when we couldn't contribute. Then there was yesterday, when I woke to find they'd dropped 2% overnight. I checked the news, wondering what had happened: nothing. I checked the accounts -- Vanguard, no significant change. Fidelity, TransAmerica, Principal Financial, National Financial: no significant change. PNC Retirement Directions: 7% loss overnight. Wrong Direction, PNC. What the hell happened? I have no idea, because I can't find how to view history on PNC's website. Transactions yes, values/performance no. Master of Google Fu, one-time technical professional, one-time research professional, financial yellow belt (okay, not so impressive, that last one) -- can't find it. Maybe Mint wasn't updating? I don't recall seeing the Red Dot of Dubious Value for this account, so it seems unlikely. Seriousl

Ummm... Testing? Testing? Hello, is this thing on? I'm not sure still whether to begin this or, having begun it, whether to continue. Sometimes it seems like a dreadful idea to invite people into my world: what about the loss of privacy? shoot, what if no one accepts the invitation? Both are terrible. But sometimes it seems like it would be helpful to share what we're trying to get through, trying to accomplish, trying to get to .  So. Hence, a blog. Yessir. "We" is me, plus Spouse, plus Caterwaul, our feline penance. (I kid. Mostly.) The to we're trying to accomplish, to achieve, is Retirement, of the Exceedingly Comfortable variety. We have a vision: a college town several states away from where we are now, chock-a-block with theaters and restaurants and other tasty cultural tidbits; a house -- a dream-ish house -- with a view, room for a dog and guests, space to host and cook and work and veg; and enough money to fund these, plus (because we're greedy)