Financial Planning

After talking about the spending habit, I think it's a good time to talk about saving for retirement. We are not professional financial planner, however, we try to educate ourselves enough to learn the principal of saving. We save 12% of our income toward our 403(b) account, and we will try to max out our Roth IRA contribution limit. Based on our current trend, we should be able to have enough money for our retirement, unless the inflation is more than 10% per year for the next 60 years. Anyway, I found a good quick and easy article to remind some of the basic financial principles.

Quick Retirement Fact

Tool to calculate your current saving goal

Again, the most important thing to reach a financial goal is to develop a saving habit and control spending.

Magic Blanket Challenge

So, a while back, a friend of mine gave a challenge. You can read about the challenge here. She was one of my companions in the mission field and is definitely someone I look up to. She is awesome and a great friend!

Anyway, this post is way overdue. But, one of the things I've accomplished that I'm very proud of is our emergency plan. Our ward has been talking about being prepared for a while and at New Years, when I was home for Christmas, we had put together a 3 day emergency food storage. However, we still didn't have anything for emergency or have a plan. So, finally, I sat down and we bought an emergency pack that was made for 2 people and created our emergency plan. Basically, it just lists what each person is responsible for grabbing and where it is if we need to evacuate the house.

The next step in our emergency preparedness is gather all the important documents and contact information together. Hopefully I can get that done soon. You can never be too prepared.

Well, part of the challenge was suppose to take a before and after picture. However, I think it's okay if I don't post a before picture. Once I take some pictures of our emergency packs, I'll post it.

Thanks Suzanne for the great challenge! Also, it's definitely a fun challenge and you should all do it.

American Spending Habit

Many people probably knows a tradition of American spending habit - spend more than you earn. Church leaders often time remind us to mind our spending and save emergency fund. TV talk shows and books like, i.e. "Finance Dummy 101", try to encourage people to control their spending and the usage of credit card. I always puzzle about this idea and wonder how hard for a person to do this "best practice". I guess it's pretty hard because I think this is a tradition.

Just look at the recent report about the biggest ever deficit in the US government budget - 482 Billion. Also, the mortgage meltdown of the Fannie and Freddie are another good examples of how people like borrowing future money, and the Taxpayers end up paying this big fat, while the people of these two companies enjoying their luxury life and social gathering.

Anyway, I think it's very hard to teach people to control their spending and live within their means while the government doesn't set a good example. Imagine parents teach their kids to clean up their mess while parents themselves also created a mess.

In short, I think changing the American's spending habit like asking a Chinese not to eat rice for his/her lifetime.

July 4th

For July 4th, we went to Wisconsin Dells to meet up with some friends. German and Kitna were visiting Kitna's mom and stepdad there. Since it was only 2 1/2 hours away and they have the largest waterpark in America, we thought it would be fun to meet up. Luckily, Kitna's mom and stepdad were kind enough to let us stay with them. :)

Anyway, Friday night we had a BBQ. Tom (Kitna's stepdad) did a great job BBQing up some hamburgers and brats!

Then Saturday we spent all day at Noah's Ark. It was a lot of fun! The rides were a lot of fun! In fact, Andy, Kenny (Andy's bro), German, and Nick (German's brother) went on a ride called Point of No Return. I was going to go on it too until I saw it. It looked like a straight drop and I knew there was no way I would go on that. However, the boys were brave enough to take it on. Here are a few pics of them: (Right: German and Kenny Left: Andy)

The boys after finishing the ride:

German, Andy, Keona (German and Kitna's daughter), and I:

That night, we went to watch the fireworks in a nearby town. They were really good! Almost as good as the Stadium of Fire in Provo UT. I say this because we were pretty close to the fireworks so it was loud and you could feel the vibration of the fireworks going off! Off course, I don't think anything tops watching Stadium of Fire at Helamen Halls. :)

Sunday we headed home. However, we did stop in Wabasha to visit the National Eagle Center. Last time we tried to go there with my parents when they were here but unfortunately it was closed. Luckily, they were open this time and we were able to go in. It was pretty cool and we actually saw two live Bald Eagles. They had been injured and could no longer fly so they are no part of the education system that is set up. At least they are now safe. :)

Anyway, that's basically how our holiday weekend went. It was a lot of fun and went way too fast! It was hard to go back to work on the following Monday. At least Andy's family had fun. :)

Best Places to live ?? - Minnesota

When people heard us about living in Minnesota. The first thing that comes to their mind is cold. Yes. Minnesota is pretty cold. However, I do agree that Minnesota is a pretty nice place to live. You don't believe me? Look at this list. Best places to live 2008 According to the survey, the best place to live is Plymouth, MN, which host our favorite Chinese restaurant. Also, there are three cities from Minnesota that sit on the top 25 list.

So, if you think you can bear the winter in Minnesota, you should come to live in Minnesota.