January 18, 2010
and I’m aiming to be rich. Like, filthy never have to worry about money again rich. (Except maybe not the filthy part -can’t you be uberrich without being dirty? That might be a discussion for another day.)
The two go hand in hand- I don’t want to retire in the traditional sense of the word: work until 65 or 70, then creak back to a paid-for home with a modest financial cushion to live out your days.
I do like a little of that picture, the paid for home and the comfortable cushion, to be sure. But I want much more than just moderate wealth because I have a huge goal. I want to have boatloads of money by developing many income streams so that I can concentrate on what really matters to me which, incidentally, will cost a lot of money and would probably never break even.
I’m a huge fan of adoption: children and animals alike. I’ve witnessed the tearing difficulties of adopting a child and am under no illusion that it’s all rainbows and kittens, but I still believe in the principle of giving an orphan a home. There’s something about bringing someone into your family by choice that resonates deeply with me. I think everyone should have a place to call home, and someone to remember their birthday. But that’s a different discussion for another day.
My far-off, one-day-some-day dream is to open a pet rescue/adoption ranch. Ideally, my family would be supportive of this as well, and be hands-on in the place, but you never know. I kind of always dreamed that my family would be composed of fostered and adopted kids, and a love of animals is more nature than nurture. (Especially when it comes to allergies.)
It would be a nice facility, clean but not sterile, not soulless like some animal shelters can feel sometimes. They do good work, and I used to volunteer for the Humane Societies, but there was something so dismal about the place knowing that every animal brought in was on a timeline.
The ranch would have wide open spaces for the dogs to play during the day, room for the cats to roam, a paddock or two for any potential horses or pigs.
I don’t know how big it would be- after all, the bigger the place, the harder it is to maintain. And we’d need grooming facilities, of course. But even when money was no object, I’d have to find the balance between taking in everyone and providing the best possible care for each.
I want all those boatloads of money to support not just the ranch, but medical facilities on the ranch. Perhaps employing several full time veterinarians would be unsustainable, but I think that sponsoring a year of a veterinarian’s education in exchange for a year or two of commitment to the ranch in some form or another would be reasonable. Same thing for animal technicians, they could exchange work time for tuition payment. I really like the idea of the ranch being a home for animals and fostering education at the same time.
This ranch would just bleed money, it could never be self-sustaining even with reasonable parameters on spending and fundraising so it stands to reason I’d just have to be trust-fund wealthy.
Yep. I want to be rich (pass on the famous) someday so I can spend my life working with animals.
What’s your dream?
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Related posts from ’round:Mrs. Micah doesn’t want to retire either
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Since writing this, I watched Animal Planet’s Pitbulls and Parolee‘s show and my heart was breaking. The work is hard, and may seem thankless, but that’s exactly what I want to do.
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Daily Exercise Update: Held an 18 pound baby in my arms for more than 20 minutes. More efficacious than lifting weights!
December 22, 2009
We’re scant days away from CookFest 2009 … er, Christmas, and I’ve been compiling a whole mess of recipes to last through the weekend.
Wish I had pictures, but I’ll share those afterward if this all turns out well.
I’ve already got an idea about Shrimp Scampi, we’ll serve my now-perfected baked fish with roasted tomatoes and pesto, we’ll have to work a miracle with a pork loin of some sort, and then on to a frugal Almond Pecan Pie for dessert.
I know we’ll serve wine, but I’m hoping to make VH’s pineapple punch. Sounds delicious!
Clearly, there’s some fleshing out to do here, but we’ve got a good start.
September 15, 2009
It feels like I’ve been talking about doing this forever. I’ve certainly been thinking about it for the past 2.5 years. So why haven’t I gotten my butt in gear?? Figure out who gets what, who gets how much, and get it notarized.
The truth is even when you don’t have much, settling a will is a little more complicated. And in my household, nothing’s quite that simple. Leaving aside the personal dynamics, my parents are my financial dependents. Mom can’t be left alone anymore, it’s a long story I don’t have the heart to get into right now, but she simply cannot be left to her own devices. If she doesn’t get hurt, someone else will. That means Dad is tied down as her caretaker since we can’t afford to pay a fulltime caretaker – never mind the question of finding a good reliable one – unless he somehow finds a job that pays much more than I was making.
What all that means is that if anything were to happen to me or my dad, we’d be in a lot of trouble. The only thing I can do is insure myself and do the best I can by both of them.
For me, that meant life insurance. Like an idiot, I waited too long to start the life insurance application process, and then tried to do it while dealing with an awful work situation (pending layoff). That wasn’t so smart. Burnt out, I resorted to expanding the employer-sponsored plan and just ported it to a personal policy at an exhorbitant rate. I’m paying $600/year for a piddlin’ $200k policy. Mere peanuts for the price. But that and my other assets would get them both through about ten years of bare bones living.
For my dad, that meant long-term care insurance. Unfortunately (is this becoming a theme?), my dad refuses to quit smoking which was one huge factor in obtaining that policy.
Note: the best time to take care of such things as life and disability is WELL BEFORE YOU NEED IT. Nature of the beast.
Next, because I can’t trust anyone in my family to properly manage money, (else why would I be doing it all?) I have to find two executors I can trust to manage my affairs as indicated, and would not be overly emotional about the whole thing. ie: They need to love me enough to do this for me, and be highly capable and competent. I don’t employ an attorney or anyone in a professional capacity that I’d trust to handle my money.
I wish I could say that if something were to happen to me, my brother would step up, take care of the arrangements and make sure that my parents were well cared for. That’s not gonna happen.
This step took way too long. Frankly, none of my good friends/peers are such good money managers that I’d trust them to administer to my family. That leaves me with the older generation, parents of friends. I have two sets of adults in mind, but now I have to make my wishes clear and as easy to execute as possible.
The last few months have been full of simplifying my finances and creating a document that summarizes everything I own in the way of accounts. Both Mrs. Micah and Funny About Money have blogged about that very thing recently:
Funny about Money: Preparing for the worst
Mrs. Micah: How to Save and Store Critical Financial Information for your Family
I still haven’t decided if it’s best to go with a trust instead of a will just yet, I’m not sure of the tax/benefit implications for my parents. My mom receives a very small disability stipend which doesn’t cover more than a quarter of her living expenses, if that much, if my estate would derail that disability I’d need to know and budget for it. Also, I have to consider whether or not having an income from my estate would cost her health coverage, minimal though it is. She simply cannot be without health care.
In the meantime, Project Declutter continues apace. In theory, my material belongings should be pared down enough that most would be distributed as per my stated wishes in the will/trust, and the rest, like clothes, can be donated.
As for the advanced directive, it’s probably the most straightforward thing of this whole process. I’ve got one friend who knows exactly what my wishes are AND will comply with them. He’s going to have Power of Attorney for Health Care. That document just needs to be initialed, signed by two witnesses and notarized.
Has anyone fully completed their will/advanced directives yet? Was it simple or difficult for you to organize?
July 27, 2009
Good mornin’ all!
Most people have been up and about for hours, East Coast or West Coast, but this is my first morning post-freedom without any travel plans pending. That means a) waking up early and saying, “nope, goin’ back to sleep” and b) having a short list of errands to run before sitting around and reading comic books from Con. Ahhh yes, summer vacation!
……
Or, ahhhh, unemployment! Hmph, that’s not nearly as appealing.
As usual after a travel day, I couldn’t sleep at a decent hour last night, so I had to stay up reading, cleaning and then eating random snacks. *smh* Stale donuts really aren’t so bad, especially if they fulfill a craving. 🙂
So here’s the short list:
1. Return the rental car.
2. Finally complete the Cal Jobs thing.
3. Mail off porting life insurance paperwork.
4. Discover where that mysterious retirement contribution on July 21st came from. [Might there also be a mystery check?? One may hope.]
5. Catch up on blogs, try to retrain my mind to write again.
6. Calculate total damages to travel fund.
7. Ship shoes for return to Endless.com. Thank goodness for generous return policies!
8. Search for jobs online.
Anything else?
Oh yes, and churn up the gift money for a friend’s wedding present. I think I’m going to take the Thank You points premium hit and “pay” 7000 points for a $50 gift card. Worth it to me not to take that cash out of pocket after the spendiness of Comic Con, and I haven’t been able to make up my mind about what to redeem for in over 18 months anyway.
June 30, 2009
Contributions for health, dental, other insurances, and supplemental retirement accounts are not taken from your final check; your contribution to the Retirement Savings Program is taken, and the university’s matching contribution is made. Other deductions such as parking citations, charges on your ID card, wage assignments, applicable taxable tuition assistance benefits, etc. will be deducted automatically from your final check.
Here we are!
After weeks and months of build-up, mood swings, job hunting, and all the other associated mumbo jumbo, we have survived until the final day without experiencing bodily harm (this was actually a little bit of a concern), completely losing my mind, or going stark raving mad. The latter two seem the same, but they’re not. The last option seems more permanent.
Happily, we’ve arrived. But there’s still work to do! Namely: deposit checks!! [oooh yes, *rubbing hands* I’ve been waiting for this moment.] By 3 pm of this day, I ought to receive my (a) final paycheck as detailed in the above quote, (b) a severance and vacation payout, and (c) quarterly supplemental income. I also sort of expect a (d) supplemental check to match the severance and vacation payout, but am not sure when and if that will appear. The HQ hasn’t exactly got their you-know-what in order, most of the time.
Secondly, investment accounts! My 403(b) and 401(a) are both with Vanguard, and I’ve accumulated enough to just leave them be. No rolling over, no cashing out, no losing about 40% of it.
There’s one more investment account coming due. In my first two years of employment, non-exempt employees had access to the We Think You’re Stupid Plan. I’ve spoken to the folks responsible for dealing with the now-obsolete WTYS Plan, and have found that they will roll the account balance over into my existing Vanguard account. Since they froze the plan, everyone was immediately vested! She wouldn’t tell me what the balance was at the time, but it’ll just be a nice surprise, whatever it is.
Thirdly, benefits! I’ve stocked up on my prescriptions for now, and should have enough to last me until September. Unless I have to do it sooner, I’m going to wait until about 40 days before signing into COBRA. If there’s no immediate need, and I manage to land another job, why waste the premiums? Reduced or not, that’s cash. There’s no problem with waiting since you can activate it retroactively so long as you pay the premiums for both months.
Also under this heading: life insurance. The life insurance policy I settled on is a measly $200k policy that I can port from my employer. It was the easiest option available to me, and while I’m no fan of PF guru-isms and simplifications, sometimes I just have to take the easier path so that the job gets done.
There you have it, folks. As prepped as a person can be, I’m walking out of this home away from home of the past 4.75 years and grateful that I can.
“What’s next?”
–Jed Bartlett, West Wing
June 20, 2009
I really hate hearing Garmin pipe up when you make an executive decision that does not follow the GPS exactly. No matter where you go or what you do, it just won’t adjust to the new route. It forces you to wait while it recalculates and brings you around in a circle to follow the original directions.
But that has little to do with this post. It’s just that I keep hearing that faintly obnoxious voice when I realize that I’ve got to recalculate my savings plan.
My perusal of JD’s post on How to Handle a Windfall followed right on the heels of .. yes, recalculating. Earlier this week, I’d had a little meeting with my notepad and pen, wherein a divvying up of expected monies was set on lined paper. I wanted to make sure that every penny had its place and the best way I know how to stretch a windfall/irregular income’s impact on my financial life is to make a plan.
It’s just as simple as me, a pen, paper, and calculator. First, I sketched out my existing holdings using my handy dandy Snapshot as a starting point.
Next, a list of expected income. Normally, I treat each piece of income as an individual transaction which means that I take out a cut for regular expenses, savings, and another expense fund from each check. The problem with this method is that I have to pick my favorite child. Savings already got a lion’s share because that fund makes me happiest when it grows. After expenses and savings, who gets an infusion of cash?
That’s where things get a little haphazard. No budgeting by the Force for me, it’s budgeting by feel. Priorities, after the first two ironclads, tend to shift according to what was most recently raided. My instinct usually goes straight for the recently wounded, and tops that up first.This causes a bit of churn in higher-activity accounts, leaving less-frequently tapped accounts languishing. For example, I spend out of the insurance fund twice a year, while the travel and car maintenance funds give it up 3 or 4 times a year. Somewhere in there, I needed a great big chunk for taxes. By the time I was through, savings had 33% of the pot, expenses a paltry 10%, taxes another 33%, car maintenance and insurance split the 24% left over, while house and insurance funds were entirely out in the cold.
Not at all masterful. And I subconsciously knew this because each night, I’d take out the notepad and look it over again. And each time, it just didn’t look right. [Or feel right.]
Recalculating:
Projecting that there might be trouble with the timing of one check, I ran two new lists. One with three checks, and one with four checks.
From both columns, I took 25% off the top for taxes.
Then I took 40% of the net for savings.
The remaining 60% (of net) was divided equally between the travel, insurance and auto maintenance funds.
Once again, the house gets neglected but I have a good reason this time. Once money is in the House fund, it’s never coming back out until I buy a house. Right now, it’s more important for me to have available cash flow in the areas there will definitely be spending in the next six or so months. So you see? Logical, clean, simple. I can use these ratios in the future for any irregular income without having to agonize over which should get more.
Well worth hearing that aggravatingly measured voice in my head.
June 16, 2009
As previously alluded to, my future state of employment remains uncertain, the couple few things in the hopper remain hopping.
In the meantime, I’ve blocked off two chunks of time in July for travel: New York City and San Diego!
New York, for a week: This is a completely spontaneous trip spawned of determination (details later) and a need to have plans. It’s completely unbudgeted but I’m using a free flight voucher and crashing with friends to keep costs down to food and more food. Maybe even drinks!
I’ve got potential flights picked out and some consideration was given to staying in a hotel for a couple of nights because my friends with whom I’m bunking for most of the stay are way down south, far away from city action. Thus far, this has not panned out as my Hilton Honors points are nigh on useless in New York, a Category 5 and 6 hotel town, for more than a single night’s stay. I’ve been collecting those dratted points since 2001 and still haven’t accumulated enough for a respectable stay in the Big Apple. No go on the Marriot and Starwood fronts, either, I haven’t concentrated on accumulating points from them.
Oh well, I might try to grab a cheapie hotel deal for somewhere in the neighborhood of $80/night, or I might just suck it up and not spend on a hotel at all.
Shockingly (or not), I don’t plan to do any shopping. Just a lot of sightseeing, eating, and walking around getting to know New York. I should have some freelance work on the boil by then, and if so, I’ll take my lappy to Central Park for a nice day of work or two.
Couple hundred dollars should do it, right? Depends, if I can meet up with a longtime friend on the East Coast, I might need to take a train ride and spend a little more. It’ll be worth it, though.
San Diego: Comic Con, of course! And this year, I’m giving myself a whole day off before and after the 4.5 day pilgrimage. Ahhh, such luxury!
California, misc: At some point, I need to spend some more time with my dragon-nephew before he gets too big for me to tote around.