| Holidays were nice, if muted. Did my taxes, getting a bit more back than I like. Debating on making adjustments but likely will because I am actually bringing home slightly less money per pay than last year because of rise in health care and greater effective retirement savings per pay since there were 27 pays in 2020 and will be 26 pays in 2021 (like most years). Were debating a summertime trip to Scotland and Ireland, but scrubbed it when the new strain came out. Really can't afford nor want to be stuck out of country. One child finally finished their advanced degree and nailed down a job and have moved out and on their own. Another currently out of state was struggling and finally got a new job they just started, hopefully it pans out because its a decent pay bump over where they were. Otherwise all healthy so far. Finally made an appointment with a financial planner with a free consult via a work offered seminar. I spoke to others who have gone to him as well as use him and decided it would be a good litmus test on how I'm handling things and someone to bounce ideas off of with respect to retirement. Of course the initial meeting was, as expected, as much sales pitch as it was evaluation. Good news, I'm doing fine with my investments and he provided some ideas to look into and recommendations on SS withdrawals. Also very reasonable with respect to responding to me about Long Term Care Insurance and providing a plan option along with what I was thinking I'd like. So there is a good chance I will do more with this person because much of our ideas align and if I am gone for whatever reason he can help my spouse, who is not the money manager no matter how much I try to involve her. So between this guy and my one child, she should be okay if something happens to me. All in all a quite and decent quarter. |