Money, Money, Money Part 2

This morning I had the second meeting with my new financial advisor. I felt more relaxed before, during, and after this meeting than I did the last time. I knew I would need time to figure things out, and I had in mind that this was a time to do some of that planning. If I knew how to do this I wouldn't need to ask for advice, hence the need for an advisor.

And, yes, I have been trying to do this by myself. I'm not keeping anything from Ken. The meetings have been during the day, which makes it impossible for him to be there. Plus, he doesn't want to know all the details. I'm transferring what I have already accrued in retirement savings to a new investment firm, keeping most of the same accounts for now. So it's not that there are a lot of decisions to make.

However, I realized this morning that there are still things that Ken and I need to talk about. We were on a course that changed drastically 15 months ago with our move and my desire to change careers. Life has been so busy that we tended to whatever needed our attention at the moment. Days turned into weeks and weeks into months, and now we've been in the house for a year. Time has a way of passing whether or not we are paying attention.

Once I finished school and stopped working outside the home, I took on most of the household responsibilities, which included getting the day-to-day finances situated. I write most of the checks and pay the routine bills. We chat weekly about where personal accounts stand and what's coming up. What we haven't taken time to talk about is long-term planning, so I didn't know how to respond when the financial advisor started asking me questions about ten, twenty, and thirty years down the road.

I thought about all of this on my way to today's meeting. I told the advisor what I had figured out, and she agreed that it's time to sit down with both of us to talk about what we want for our future. And as scary as that sounds, it's also exciting. Ken and I can talk about what we value and where we see ourselves down the road. We now have someone who can help us work toward making that future a reality.

I feel as if a weight has been lifted and a door has been opened. I smiled all the way home. The future has such possibilities. All I did to get to this place was decide that I don't need to have all the answers because I don't need to do this alone. That's the best gift I've given myself in a long time.