Shoulda been a 900 number

(Note: Do they even make 900 numbers any more? I don't even know. What I do know from late-night commercials is that there are all these attractive people holed up in their homes alone in tiny shorts, ready to connect with other holed-up-attractive singles through the telephone. Which, yeah, that seems about right.)

I had a steamy, steamy conversation on the phone today with a stranger. He didn't know me; I didn't know him. We breathed dirty, dirrty words at each other. Words like "money market," "emergency fund," "Roth IRA," and "whole life insurance." And oh, it was good. I waited to call until GH was in the next room sleeping, so he wouldn't notice my heaving bosom and grow suspicious.

This all happened when I called USAA (translation, the best club in the world ever to belong to, right up there with Costco) and asked to speak with a financial advisor. I follow several budgeting/frugality/money-management blogs, (all sexy) but realized that right now I need a bit of individualized advice. Thanks to my crazymad budgeting skillz and the part where we are currently a DINK family (each of us almost makes one income, so I'm counting it) there are choices to make. Choices like:

Now that we're saving a bit of money, where's the best place to keep it?

Should I try to pay my student loan off sooner, even if it means saving less?

How much should we be saving for retirement? And is it better to put it in a Roth or a 401K or both?

Will we ever in life be able to afford a house? (Answer: probably not)

What happens if we go down to one-income once I start having behbehs? (He didn't address this one so much, more went off about the need for term life insurance and how freaking expensive diapers are. This part was less sexy.)

It was really nice though to have somebody to talk it out with and to give good advice and help me get my priorities right. GH is wonderful and very patient with my budgeting addiction, but he really does not get excited about the money discussions the way I do. Unless, say, I'm beginning a discussion that in any way sounds like, "Hey, what if we save money by cutting out [cable/Tivo/your still-beating heart from your chest]?" Then you'll see excited.

So. I came away with a renewed determination & purpose. My financial priorities used to look something like this:

1. Do not spend any money ever.
2. Live as though you're only on one income. (Yeah . . . not exactly happening. And for me, that is saying something, people.)
3. Get GH accustomed to the whole "budgeting" thing.
4. Build a 6-8 month emergency fund for when one or both of our employers lays us off.

Have accepted that #1 and #2 are unrealistic. Have pretty well accomplished #3 & #4. Now I'm moving on to:

1. Start funding an IRA
2. Get our savings into accounts where they can earn more interest
3. Get my student loan out of the picture asap because even though it's not "bad" debt like the credit card kind, it still nags at me and I'd like it to be gone
4. Go to Hawaii--because I think there should always be a "go to Hawaii" on pretty much any of my goal lists.

So yay for financial goals! Let's hear yours!

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