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.
