Resolution: At least *try* going to the gym

I am not much of a gym person. I prefer to incorporate exercise into my life more naturally. Back in college, I walked everywhere. When I lived in the city, I walked to public transportation and then walked from the train station to work. However, life in the suburbs doesn't offer many opportunities for built-in exercise (unless I'm walking in the mall, and that doesn't count) because I drive everywhere that I need to go.

Last summer, B and I knew we needed to prepare for all of the walking that is involved in a European vacation. We started a walking regime and tried to walk a few miles a day, a few times a week. After we got back from our honeymoon, the weather turned cold, and our interest in outdoor activities waned.

I decided that it was time to get back on the exercise track. This year, LS and I made an exercise-related New Year's resolution that we knew we could keep. Our office building has a top-of-the-line gym, and our resolution was to at least try going to the gym and walking on the treadmills. We didn't intend to change into special gym clothes and weren't looking for a cardio workout--we just wanted to get moving for 30 minutes.

We were thwarted several times by illness, meetings, and occupied treadmills, but this afternoon, we finally got our walk on. We walked for 30 minutes, and I trekked 1.25 miles, and I am very proud of my accomplishment! We've even scheduled another date with the treadmills for next week (early in the week--that way if we can't do it, we have time to schedule a make-up session).

The best part of the gym? Individual TV units in front of every machine. And they have cable! It's an even better TV experience than we have at home. Getting to watch The Travel Channel might be motivation enough to keep going.

Compelled to shop

I follow current events closely. I follow news events so I understand what's going on in the world, I follow the healthcare world so I can understand my job better, and I follow entertainment news because I derive a sad amount of pleasure from watching human train wrecks (yes, I have admitted it--is that the first step towards recovery?).

One of the hot topics in the news these days is the proposed tax rebate. As LS intuitively pointed out, Bush was his most popular the first time he issued an unexpected rebate, and perhaps he is trying to relive the excitement of those early glory days. As it turned out, I was not eligible for the first rebate, and my parents were still claiming me as a dependent, but there is still hope for this rebate.

The dilemma, of course, is what to do with the check. If everyone who got rebates followed the smart course of action and saved them, the economic stimulus package would do nothing to stimulate the economy, so I feel obligated to spend a rebate, if we do end up getting one. How to spend it, is the question.

I've come up with a few ideas.

• Furniture. Before we bought our bedroom set, we created a graph-paper model of our bedroom to decide how to arrange the furniture. Unfortunately, our bedroom wasn't big enough to fit all of the furniture that we wanted to buy, and we had to skip the wardrobe and a second nightstand. However, we always planned to buy them. We assume that the master bedroom in our next house will be large enough to hold all of the furniture, and what a catastrophe if our set were discontinued by then and we couldn't buy the remaining pieces.
• Summer vacation. We've been looking at Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. However, taking even a long weekend before our rather extravagant 3-week European jaunt seems, well, extravagant.
• Shopping spree? Replace my summer wardrobe? Yeah, I don't think B will go for that, either. But it was worth a shot.

Financial planning 101

This evening, B and I met with a financial planner who was recommended by the financial planner of one of my colleagues.

Prior to this evening, I was a tad skeptical about financial planners. My reasoning was, what are they going to tell me that I don't already know myself? As it turns out, we did learn some stuff that we didn't already know. For instance:

• Life insurance has a 2-year period of contestibility. Life insurance purchasers can be audited at any time during the 2-year period, but after that period, your premiums can never change. However, if you want to increase coverage on your term life insurance, you have to go through another medical exam/underwriting process.
• In the event of personal bankruptcy, 401(k) accounts cannot be taken by creditors. IRAs, on the other hand, are technically on the table.

I think the more important information that we took from the meeting was the confirmation that we are on the right track. The advisor says that we're in very good shape for our age and have planned well. Nevertheless, we did leave with a checklist of tasks to accomplish.

• Check our long-term disability insurance for any unusual or unexpected restrictions. For example, some LTD plans don't cover mental health issues.
• Check with family and friends to find an estate-planning lawyer. We both need wills.
• Check that our auto and home insurance have more than the minimum liability coverage.
• Open up Roth IRAs--one for each of us.

We're saving for our next home, and he recommended that we consider saving 1/2 to 2/3 of the funds in CDs and the remaining funds in balanced mutual funds, which have stock, bond, and cash holdings. The idea of putting our next down payment into a fund that involves any risk is terrifying to me, so I'm not sure if I'm ready for that action. But we'll see.

After spending only an hour with an advisor, I feel more confident in our decisions and in our situation, and I think that everyone, no matter what is going on in their lives financially, would benefit from obtaining a third-party opinion.

Good-bye, volatility; hello, stability

Today is our four-month wedding anniversary, and my four-months-out impressions of marriage are positive. I love being married.

I suspected--and was correct--that marriage would make life easier, more comfortable, and happier. However, I didn't anticipate the increased stability, especially of the financial variety. But it makes sense--I feel more stable, so I am better equipped to plan for the future.

And plan for the future, we are doing. We've got short-term and long-term goals, along with savings accounts for each and the requisite "emergency fund" (which, sadly, B has said is not supposed to be used for fashion emergencies, no matter how good the sale is).

The great part about all of these goals is that I feel confident that we will stick to them. Single life is so volatile that it's hard to stick to any savings plans--unexpected events, like the annual first-last-security money juggle and moving and other unexpected costs always come up. However, we've made it through several major life events, such as buying our first home and getting married, and we don't anticipate any additional major life events in the near future.

Now that we have real savings accounts that we are really going to use, I've accomplished a mental hurdle that many say has been holding me back, and it's about taxes. I used to think that paying more taxes and getting a bigger refund was the way to go. And in many ways, I was right--if you don't have a savings account, saving in any way (even if it's Uncle Sam's interest-free special) is a good idea. However, I have seen the light--I now count myself as a dependent and pay fewer taxes, with the idea that the extra cash will go into my savings account and earn interest. If we do end up owing money to Uncle Sam, at least we'll have had the opportunity to make a little extra money on it before we pony it up.

And in other ground-breaking financial-planning news--starting this weekend, we are interviewing financial advisors. We are meeting with two people to talk about our plans and goals and to figure out what we need to do to get there. It's humbling to admit that you're not sure of the best course of action, but I think in most situations, admitting that you don't know and getting help is the best course of action. I'm a firm believer in the specialization of labor, and financial advisors are far more qualified than technical writers to advise on financial matters.

So connected

A couple of months ago, B discovered the networking site Linked In, and it quickly became an obsession. Linked In is a professional networking website that allows you to create links to coworkers, classmates, and friends. When you're linked to someone, you can view all of the people to whom they are linked as well as all of the people to whom they are linked. As you build your own network, your extended network grows, and the number of people that you can view grows exponentially.

I resisted joining at first. Most of my friends are on myspace or Facebook (or both), but I've seen enough internet-predator shows to be wary of posting anything personal online. When a departing coworker told me that she was on the site, I decided to give it a shot--it seemed like a good way to be able to stay in touch with colleagues from past jobs.

When I first signed up, I was not impressed with the website. It is difficult to navigate and find the information that I am looking for. But eventually I was able to enter some of my job history and find people from my last company--that was very cool.

And then over the next few weeks, I started receiving invitations from other people--friends and coworkers--to join their networks. My network was starting to grow! I had built all of these connections without having to post any messages on people's profiles and without having to send long-winded "here's what's been going on in my life since we last talked" emails. It was easy but also rewarding to see my network growing.

I'm up to 21 connections (and counting!), but I have people in my network with (literally) hundreds of connections. I guess I have a long way to go before I am the most popular girl on Linked In.

A sartorial tipping point

This weekend, B and I went to a wedding, and I experienced none of the pre-wedding, "What am I going to wear?!" panic. I think I've reached a new milestone in my life.

In the past, the lead-up to formal events, including weddings and company parties, was stressful and difficult. I'd look for weeks, sometimes months, for an acceptable outfit. The search was taxing, but I always ended up with the right outfit.

There were missteps along the way, certainly--the episode of the pink dress comes to mind. A few years back, LS and I were shopping for dresses to wear to our company holiday party. She picked up an appropriate black dress with gold tones. I left the store with a frothy pink confection that would have made any eight-year-old wannabe-princess jealous. Luckily, I came to my senses before the party, and the dress never saw the light of day (and it is still in my closet, waiting for the right Halloween occasion to make its debut).

I've also taken advantage of sales and have bought dressy outfits even when I don't have an occasion in mind at which to wear them. An occasion always arises, and then I don't have to worry about what to wear. In fact, I've acquired so many semi-formal costumes that are appropriate for weddings and other special events that I've reached the all-important sartorial tipping point. When I receive an invitation to a wedding or dressy party or gala (ok, that last one isn't likely, but you never know), I don't have to run to the mall in a panic--I just reach into my closet and choose the outfit that I like best.

Speaking of the wedding--when you board the post-wedding bus and the grandmother of the bride says, "Oh, the dancers are here!" should you wonder if your dancing interpretation of "Hot in Herre" was perhaps too enthusiastic? I guess we'll never know.

Overstated opulence vs. spartan scantness

Yesterday, I reserved hotels for part of our vacation next year. And once again, some of them will be paid for with B's Starwood points.

I suspect that our Italian hotels will be dramatically different from our French hotels. Our hotels in Paris and Nice, while in excellent locations for tourists, were geared toward business travel. I expect our Starwood hotels in Italy to offer modern conveniences, such as hot showers (which can be hard to come by in that country), but their decor will be centuries old. Eighteenth-century opulence isn't B's and my preferred decorating style, but I think that feeling like we are staying in museums will make for a better Italian experience.

The photos that I've seen of our hotels in Venice and Florence are promising. Our hotel in Venice is right on the Grand Canal and minutes away from the Piazza San Marco. The hotel is affiliated with another hotel--just a boat ride away, of course, because everything is a boat ride away--that has a beach and even (don't tell B) golf. Our Florence hotel is a former palace. Perhaps we will be upgraded to a better room if I tell them that I am Queen of America.

Sandwiched between this lavishness is our as-yet-undetermined hotel in Cinque Terre. Because the Starwood chain doesn't have any hotels in the area, we will have to find the hotel on our own. Rick says that some hotels are reluctant to book too far in advance, so I have not yet begun an official hotel search. However, I have a few expectations. The room will be teeny and sparsely furnished. There might be a view of the ocean, but a terrace is unlikely. We might not have a drop of hot water the entire 4 nights that we are there. And we will have to pay for the entire stay ourselves--bummer.

The Cinque Terre hotel will prepare us for our windowless cave of a room on the cruise ship, another venture for which we are paying ourselves. Noticing a trend here? We choose the overstated opulence route when it's free but opt for spartan scantness when our own euros are on the line--except when it comes to shopping while on vacation, of course. You can't cut corners everywhere.