#65. Start a Retirement Fund

I feel very grown up today… I have finally made some steps in planning my financial future, and enrolled in a 401k plan. And can I just say, I never thought this would be 4th thing I would complete off my list...  because it's probably one of the least exciting (yet most important) things on my list.

The backstory…  I first enrolled in a 401k program in 2006 when I started working at Randstad.  They offered a matching 401k program, so my mom, my original financial advisor, advised/instructed/forced me to do it... "You better enroll, contribute the maximum matchable amount, right from the get-go, and you'll never miss it from your paycheck."   She was right, as mothers usually are, but even at 23, I might have hesitated to tell her that.

When I left Randstad to go to work at Exhibits NW, I didn’t do anything with my 401k and it ended up getting closed on me before I could roll it over, so I received the cash payout.  At the time, I didn't realize what was happening, I just thought I was magically getting that extra money in my bank account… I mean, who wouldn't LOVE that?! But as I got a little older, and a little more mature, got married, and “settled down” I realized that I really, truly wanted to have some kind of retirement plan in place, because anyone in the financial industry will remind you, the earlier you start saving, the more money you can accumulate by the time you retire.

I was always telling Dan, “I want to set something up, we’ve got to set something up now,” but it seemed like such a hassle and we would never get around to it… just kept pushing it off to the “we’ll get to this someday” list.

Fast –forward to April 2010… and I decided to take on the 101 in 1001 challenge… of COURSE one of my to-do’s is to start my retirement fund… I was hoping that adding this to my list would light a fire under my tush to get going on it sooner rather than later… then come June 2010, we find out at work, that my company is going to start offering a 401k plan, WHOA!  I honestly never saw that coming, but was pretty excited about it.

So that is where I am now, the enrollment deadline is 7/1 so last night, Dan and I met with a financial planner.

Now, let me just say that investing, financial planning, stocks, bonds, blah, blah, blah has NEVER been my cup of tea.  I don’t really understand it, not because I’m not smart enough to, but because I just have no interest in it at all, and therefore choose not to listen when someone tries to get me excited about it.  Now Dan, on the other hand, said he would love to sit and watch his portfolio all day long…  he really loves this kind of thing and he has a little experience from working the industry too (doing what exactly? I'm not sure, cause I might not have listened very well when he explained it to me at the time. I know he had all his licenses at one point though!).  So I really wanted him to come along with me to this appointment so he could basically tell me what to enroll in after the financial planner went over things with us.  My plan was to sit there and smile politely, while Dan listened, and then at the end, when decision time came, I would say, "Honey, what do you think?" and let him make decisions for me.

Magically, after meeting with Courtney, our amazing financial planner, who was so nice and spoke “financial planning” to me in my native language, I completely understood EVERYTHING… she was great at explaining stuff to me, and I felt really grown up, like all of the sudden, all of this stuff made sense to me.  I was so excited to log on and view my portfolio online, and start getting really into all this investment stuff after our meeting.  That lasted for about an hour.

In all seriousness, it’s been very educational, and I am excited that I finally got started on something.  I am promising myself, my husband, and all my blog followers (yes, all two of you!) that this time, I’m not going to let anything happen to my 401k…. even if I can only contribute a tiny amount, I am definitely going to stick with it, so that I don’t have to work until I’m 85, and Dan and I can hopefully enjoy a nice retirement together someday...