Plans on a Friday

Happy Friday!
Thank you for your kind words! It's really appreciated.

Friday always seems to be the best day of the week, and that is because it is. The whole house was up late last night. We have the youth theatre on Thursday nights. Although it pains us to have  up that late, it is totally necessary since she loves it so much. We would rather her reach for her dreams than be held back due to her bed time. 1 night a week I think is ok to go astray from bedtime. She fell asleep pretty fast once we got home, but it was about 930p. This is pretty late for me too. I have to be up at 415a. That's the "hustle or you'll be late" alarm too. This morning we shared a vehicle. I dropped mine off at the mechanic shop to have a brake job done, and possible some belt work. So today, Darlene and I will carpool. We are lucky. She gets off of work at 1pm on Fridays. I am off at 130p so we get to spend part of the afternoon together.

Today is the flower check pick up. Hooray! Even though the money is practically spent, it's still nice to have things paid for. Speaking of money. A new company took over one of Darlene's student loans. We have been waiting for a payment to come out of our checking account for the regular monthly payment, and it has sat in there since the 15th. We are baffled since there was no communication up until yesterday. I spent 30 minutes calling between both agencies trying to determine if it was real, and also what will happen to the past payments, interest rates, tax returns, and what not. It seems that no one really knew what was going. That's never fun for me. I got sent to this woman's voicemail 4 times. Makes me leery to setup a new payment plan when no one can answer my questions. IF this new company did purchase her student loan from the previous company, the good news will be that the payment is lower than the last one. Both interest wise, and monthly payment. Only time will tell as I left them a voicemail to call me back. Either way, no funds are moving out of our account until we find a solid answer. The last thing I want to do is transfer money, then have it debited. No thanks.

I got to spend some time with my Dad yesterday. We don't get to hang out too often. I needed a ride back from my mechanic shop. He was nice enough to trail me and bring me home. We talked a little about my financial future and mine and Darlene's plan to buy a home. My Dad and I are on a "don't ask don't tell" kind of basis. I have never officially came out to him, but he knows that I'm gay. He knows that Darlene and I are together, and that is likely his only shot at a grandchild. It's tough to talk to him about most things because I don't know what his reaction will be. I need to tell him that I'm getting married in 6 months. I would rather him hear it from me, as opposed to a wedding invitation. I am making efforts to bring him around the house more often too. It's tough because our lives have been so busy. We always have a project, task, or chore that makes us somewhat unavailable. Recently he has offered to spend time with . He sees that she doesn't have much of a male influence in her life. She has 2 moms, a Grandma, and loads of Aunts. She had 2 Uncles. Robbie (Darlene's brother) lives here, but he really isn't all that involved in  life. Don recently passed away in 2014. He was a big deal to everyone. A truly great man. He was  2nd Uncle, he lived in Wyoming. He played for the Green Bay Packers in the 90's as their punter. He still holds the record for the longest punt in the Rose Bowl too. He was a really sweet man, he loved  to pieces, and his passing was really unexpected. My Dad sees a need for a role to be filled, so he is willing. It tells me that he knows and cares about our situation and wants to make it better. It gives me encouragement that he will accept all that I need to tell him.

Yesterday I received a CEO headlines in my inbox. These are notifications from our CEO on up and coming events and what not. It's not official, but it looks like we will be getting rid of our pension plans. They were started late 2013, and while popular, there aren't many people who actually understand what they are. I'm thinking that there will be an option for a cash out at some point in the year. Decisions to be made. This will be a tough one since there will be a few good options for it. I know for sure that I won't keep it at it's current status. If it were to be frozen and available for my retirement it won't be worth half of what it is today in 30 years. Currently inflation runs about 3-5%. If it's only 3% that makes my inflation rate 45% change based on market rate. I could never let that money sit there (not collecting interest) and not do anything with it. My temptation would be to cash out the pension (since it would count as income) would not throw me into another tax bracket, which is great news for me if I want to cash it out. Early withdrawal from pension plans runs at a 10% penalty. + 25% on taxes, so I would take about 2/3 home. This could be great seeing as how it is better than a 45-50% decrease, and seeing as how I didn't technically fund that account in any way. It would be especially nice since we are trying to purchase a home. This could be a nice security blanket. On the flip side, I would love to transfer it into a Roth IRA. This would mean it would continue to gain interest, and grow post tax. This means my funds would be legit. No taxes taken out at retirement. I definitely have some thinking to do. This will be a tough one. Sometimes my heart says that I need to live for today since tomorrow is not guaranteed. That makes me want to take the money and use it on our house. The other part of me says that I don't want to be a Wal-Mart greeter when I'm 70. Who knows. Wish me luck!

Fingers crossed today too that my mechanic bill isn't too high. I definitely don't want to pay a ton of money. I still need to buy tires, so I am hoping the bill won't make me queasy. Lots to do this weekend. Get my car, post to eBay, hit IKEA for some dresser parts. Paint my table, the final addition to my black and red chairs, spray week killer, clean up the back yard, all while entertaining an 8 year old, and fiancé. I'm just excited to lay in bed. We really deserve it. It's been a long tasking week. I was barely motivated to work out last night. I did a bit of running on the treadmill, some weights, and the sauna. Normally I am a cardio champ, but I was exhausted last night. Hopefully I can find a stream of energy once all the tasks from a Friday afternoon are complete. I hope that you all have a great weekend. Let me know if you need anything from me.

Lou