Wednesday, June 06, 2007

dear jesus: help me be a grown up

slowly but surely, i'm getting my act together.
it started with paying off my school debt, then my tax debt and now, it's about securing my retirement. my father would probably look at this as 'worrying' and not trusting in the Lord but that's why we have IRAs, so i won't have to bother the Lord about my retirement.

i spoke with a fund guy this morning and felt mature while doing it but also like i was totally faking it. but the long and short of it is now i have a diversified fund that will grow aggressively over the next few years and then we'll start taking it back a notch as i get older and more risk-averse. the end point? i think the goal is to accrue as close to a million dollars by the time i retire (if i remember the prospectus correctly.)

a bonus: next year, i can access some money for italy (which i've also started saving for) and the penalty actually isn't that bad if it's under $1000. heh.

what's next on the adulthood checklist?
perhaps buying property (only after italy and figuring out my next job move, which may have just presented itself at work)
perhaps, uh, another person (however, the likelihood of that is remarkably slim; i have more chance of going around the world than that)

or perhaps the next step in my march toward adulthood is just buying a grown up bed.

4 comments:

Pearl said...

My financial adviser phones my dad if he thinks I'm making a bad decision, which makes me feel immensely grown up!

Also, dude, buy the bed!

Delia Christina said...

ok, that would really make me mad if my advisor called my dad about my own financial decisions. would he do that for a male client? grr. the presumption.

and, yes, the bed is next on my list of items to get. i've just approached another life decision point and i think it's time for me to step up the adulthood thing.

the thought of that makes my stomach go queasy.

Pearl said...

I bought a house when I was 23, which launched me into grownupdom frighteningly early. Well, one aspect of it, anyway! I live with friends and eat pizza a lot and my house looks like a punk band lives in it (which is kind of true).

And yes, the advisor does make me furious. I also note that he calls my father, and not my mother, who is also a client of his. I haven't asked for his advice since, ooh, since he last emailed my dad about my business!

Good luck with the terrifying dive into adulthood...

Delia Christina said...

you'd think that i'd have this down by now - i am in my late 30s, after all!