Thanksgiving on the Gulf Coast
Ian and I joined his parents and maternal grandparents in Gulf Shores, Alabama for Thanksgiving. His parents have a condo right on the beach -- it was incredible. I was prepared for sort of a chilly and grey beach weekend, snuggled in a comfy chair with a book. Needless to say there was some scrambling to buy shorts and a bathing suit for Ian since we were totally unprepared for the gorgeous sunny warm weather we had. Ian and I walked on the beach, collected seashells - he went in the ocean, but I chickened out from the cold! It was great. His parents have offered us use of the condo when it's not otherwise rented out, and I am sure we'll be back in the next year.
The drive from Dallas was about 10 hours, made longer by traffic and weather, of course. Ian got a speeding ticket on the way home about an hour from Dallas -- 81 in a 65, $190. Coulda been much worse! Really we're just lucky to have made the trip home safely with the pounding rain that followed us most of the way.
We solidified wedding plans with his family while we were there. Now there remain a few details to work out with Ian about how many days we want to stretch our honeymoon. Then I gotta start calling and booking things. I think I'll wait until after the first of the year to send out Save The Date notices for the Atlanta party in late March. I'd like to confirm that date with a few more sources, and no sense overwhelming everyone with so much communication in December anyhow.
While on the trip, I read two books, kinda. I tried The Family CFO: The Couple's Business Plan for Love and Money which has been recommended here and there among finance nerds. Didn't get too far, and I think I'll return the rest unread. It's an okay beginning personal finance book, I guess. For my tastes I found that it really takes the CFO metaphor too far. It's a nice model and all, but when it got into the Cash Manager, and a P&L statement for your "shareholders" and whatnot, it got not only a little silly but hard to follow. It was both too simplistic and too complex at the same time, I found.
The other was a random pick off the library shelf, Sharon Epperson's The Big Payoff: 8 Steps Couples Can Take to Make the Most of Their Money--and Live Richly Ever After. This one is ostensibly a beginner's personal finance book, but I find it to be more appropriate for a reader who's accustomed to how these books go. It really wouldn't do for a true beginner. It's simple and to the point. This one departs from the usual model in that it doesn't like Term life insurance, but Cash Value, and suggests it as an investment vehicle after you've naturally done all these other recommendations without flaw. Eh. It didn't make the case very well since it sort of skimmed over the topic (as it does with most -- this book is for ADHD headlines, not nitty-gritty detail, but I was good with that). The "gem" that distinguishes this book is it's very simple, no nonsense case for using the "60% Solution" for your money: Live on 60% of your income. It wasn't clear whether meant gross or take home, but I assume they meant gross. Commit no more than 60% of your income to expenses. Of the remaining 40%, break it down as such: 10% retirement, 10% long-term savings, 10% short-term savings, 10% fun money. I like that their model is so clean and breaks it down in an easy to understand format. The book goes further to describe just how to apply some of that 30% investment, and that was useful, too. So it was worth a quick library read, not a book I'll peruse over and over again, I think.
Ian graduates on December 13. His parents and brother are coming into town for it, which is awesome. It impresses me that his brother is dropping everything to come out here for this. So we get to see them again in less than two weeks.
Trace
The drive from Dallas was about 10 hours, made longer by traffic and weather, of course. Ian got a speeding ticket on the way home about an hour from Dallas -- 81 in a 65, $190. Coulda been much worse! Really we're just lucky to have made the trip home safely with the pounding rain that followed us most of the way.
We solidified wedding plans with his family while we were there. Now there remain a few details to work out with Ian about how many days we want to stretch our honeymoon. Then I gotta start calling and booking things. I think I'll wait until after the first of the year to send out Save The Date notices for the Atlanta party in late March. I'd like to confirm that date with a few more sources, and no sense overwhelming everyone with so much communication in December anyhow.
While on the trip, I read two books, kinda. I tried The Family CFO: The Couple's Business Plan for Love and Money which has been recommended here and there among finance nerds. Didn't get too far, and I think I'll return the rest unread. It's an okay beginning personal finance book, I guess. For my tastes I found that it really takes the CFO metaphor too far. It's a nice model and all, but when it got into the Cash Manager, and a P&L statement for your "shareholders" and whatnot, it got not only a little silly but hard to follow. It was both too simplistic and too complex at the same time, I found.
The other was a random pick off the library shelf, Sharon Epperson's The Big Payoff: 8 Steps Couples Can Take to Make the Most of Their Money--and Live Richly Ever After. This one is ostensibly a beginner's personal finance book, but I find it to be more appropriate for a reader who's accustomed to how these books go. It really wouldn't do for a true beginner. It's simple and to the point. This one departs from the usual model in that it doesn't like Term life insurance, but Cash Value, and suggests it as an investment vehicle after you've naturally done all these other recommendations without flaw. Eh. It didn't make the case very well since it sort of skimmed over the topic (as it does with most -- this book is for ADHD headlines, not nitty-gritty detail, but I was good with that). The "gem" that distinguishes this book is it's very simple, no nonsense case for using the "60% Solution" for your money: Live on 60% of your income. It wasn't clear whether meant gross or take home, but I assume they meant gross. Commit no more than 60% of your income to expenses. Of the remaining 40%, break it down as such: 10% retirement, 10% long-term savings, 10% short-term savings, 10% fun money. I like that their model is so clean and breaks it down in an easy to understand format. The book goes further to describe just how to apply some of that 30% investment, and that was useful, too. So it was worth a quick library read, not a book I'll peruse over and over again, I think.
Ian graduates on December 13. His parents and brother are coming into town for it, which is awesome. It impresses me that his brother is dropping everything to come out here for this. So we get to see them again in less than two weeks.
Trace