My Finances: The Holiday Season Is Here

I love Christmas time. I like the cold weather and Christmas songs. I love being off of work (I am off of work this year from 12/24/08--1/05/09), spending time with my family, and going to church. As much as I love this time of year, there are some things that I definately do not like. For one, it puts a damper on my wallet. I love giving gifts to other people, but it takes some of the joy out of it when I don't really have the money to do it. I have some money set aside this year for gifts, but it totally gets me off my savings goals. Since I have not really thought of a list of people I have to get gifts for this year, I am going to take this blogging time to do so now. Yes, I know I only have like 16 more days to buy gifts, decorate my house, etc. but keep in mind, I have a set of 1 year old twins, a busy 10 year old, and a very stressful job. So, here is my list of people I must get gifts for:

1. My husband
2. My children (3)
3. Nieces and Nephew (3)
4. God children (2)
5. Sister in laws (2)
6. Siblings (2)
7. Parents (2)--generally get them a household gift together--this year, my siblings and I are buying one BIG gift and splitting the cost of it
8. In laws
9. My son's teachers (3)
10. Adopted family (3)

I am sure I have left someone off the list. After reviewing the list, I think I am going to do some homemade gifts for some people. I don't know. How are you cutting the cost of Christmas?

My Finance: Retirement Planning

I have mentioned before that I work for a nonprofit organization. Our retirement account was through a 401(K) plan with Wachovia. Last month, my co-workers voted to change our retirement plan from a 401(K) to a 403B Thrift account with Mutual of America. 403B Thrift plans are specifically for nonprofit organizations. I am very excited about the change for several reasons. First of all, when my employer was with Wachovia, we had a $40.00 a year account maintenance fee that we were billed for. We did not have Internet access to our account, therefore, we did not know day to day what was going on with our account and we could not make changes to our investments easily. With Mutual of America, we don't have an account maintenance fee and we have Internet access! I was originally only contributing $150.00 a month to the 401(K) plan, now I am contributing $200.00 a month to the 403(B) account. With my employer match program, there will be $400.00 a month going into my retirement account. It's not a whole lot, but it is a start for me. Plus, I am only 28, so I have a loooooong time until retirment. I will increase my contribution again in February when I get my cost of living raise. I was aggressively investing my money with the 401(K) account, but the way the economy is, I changed to just saving my money for right now and I"ll venture back into investing when the economy picks back up. If anyone here knows of a better strategy, please let me know! I am also rolling over the money from my 401(K) account to the 403(B) account. Well, I guess that is all on the financial front for today.

My Life, My Love, My Finance

Love Ya,

Ms. HM