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Financial Housekeeping for 2007

February 17th, 2007 at 04:04 pm

There's a lot of financial housekeeping that I've procrastinated on for a long time, and it's time to get into gear and knock it out already! I've decided to add the following goals to my blog profile -- I love the feeling of crossing something off a list so writing it down should help motivate me!

[ ] update wills
[ ] invest IRA rollover money
[ ] stock basis into Quicken
[ ] annual review with broker
[ ] review life and disability insurance
[ ] review phone & cell phone plans

It's terrible that DS is almost 1.5 years old and we still haven't updated our wills. DH actually doesn't have one, I put one in place for myself before we married, but named my father as executor and guardian if DH also died. My parents have since divorced, and we want my mother to be guardian, so this needs to get fixed ASAP!!! I used a lawyer last time who was very sloppy -- his first draft had tons of misspellings and wrong names, and if I hadn't had to pay half the fee upfront I would've fired him. This lawyer was recommended by my broker, must've been a client because he certainly wasn't any good. DH wants to just use a software will package we picked up ages ago...and now I can't find it. Grrrr...maybe I'll go check out

Text is www.legalzoom.com and Link is
www.legalzoom.com that is heavily advertised around here.

With Quicken I need to buy the 2007 version (I got a notice that downloads won't be supported for the 2004 version anymore) and just start over. When we switched from Etrade to Scottrade I don't think the basis information for about 3 stocks followed, so I need to go find the old statements and enter everything in. I'm thinking I'll just let the brokerage track all the mutual fund basis, but it might be fun to download all the investment info into Quicken and play with the analysis tools. I won't bother with downloading my checking and savings accounts into Quicken this time -- Quicken's budgeting just sucks and I'll stick with envelope software.

Between us, DH and I have worked for 7 companies in the last 4 years. We rolled over the 401k for all but DH's current employer into IRA accounts, and have about $70k sitting in money markets within the IRAs that need to get invested. It's about $10k in mine and $60k in his -- I had resolved that I was going to understand my current portfolio before investing my $10k, while he's felt that the market was just too high and he's been in such a crunch at work that he hasn't had time to decide what to do. It's not good that the money is just sitting there, so it's time to really figure out what to do.

For life and disability insurance, I plan to get 5 quotes. The hard part is deciding how much coverage to take out. Currently we have $500k life on DH and none on me -- at a minimum we need to take out at least enough on me to cover daycare. I don't know if we have any long-term disability at all, maybe $100k through DH's employer if we're lucky. This is one area where it's frustrating to be the at-home spouse who takes care of these things -- I have no direct access to the benefits information at DH's company, and have to rely on asking him to contact people and bring info home. When he worked for large companies this stuff was all online, but his current company is very small and poorly managed -- I'm not sure if they even have a dedicated HR person. DH's current project has been a nightmare for the last 3 months, and he's currently working 12 and 16 hour days, so dealing with benefits is not really on his radar. Plus as soon as this project is over he's planning on getting his resume out there and finding somewhere else to work, so hopefully it will be a moot point soon. I'm guessing the best deal for LTD will be through his professional association, but unfortuately their quotes are all over the phone and not online, so it's time-consuming to figure out the best deal on coverage.

Our cell phone contract is up in April or May. I can't find out the exact month because the contract is in DH's name and the company won't disclose any information to me. Grrrr. All future things like this are going in my name as the primary! We only use about 200-300 minutes per month and are paying about $78 after all is said and done. I need to figure out whether it's cheaper to have two phones on a shared monthly plan or to do two pre-paid plans.

2 Responses to “Financial Housekeeping for 2007”

  1. moneycents Says:
    1171736254

    Seems like you have a plan and will be able to tick off the list pretty quickly. To get info from companies all I needed inthe past was DH'd SS# . From the side bar you two look like you are in great financial shape. Keep up the great work!

  2. monkeymama Says:
    1171744687

    Good Luck!

    I have an excellent lawyer who might know someone in your area. Give me an e-mail with the general area where you live. She went to Santa Clara University up here and so may have some So Cal contacts. We just did our wills and everything - we waited until our eldest was 4 - geesh. But feels so good to be done!

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