A Big Investment

I love saving. Not as in getting a good deal (though I love free things), but as in actually saving money. Nothing gives me as much glee (well, almost nothing) as maxing out our IRAs (grad students don't get 401k's - how uncool is that?), throwing some money into our ING savings account, or saving up for Andrew's college in his Michigan 529. I love to calculate our savings rate at the end of every year. Let's face it, I am a personal saving nerd. I like to read personal finance pages and rue on the virtue of making a CD ladder or find some other obscure way to save money. And I dream on the day when we get matching funds put into our retirement account ...

Unfortunately, these have not been the best days for our investments, as I'm sure anyone who turns on the TV or reads the paper knows. And we have lost LOTS of money this year (well, at least it seems like lots to me). Now, as far as investment personality, I am very boring, very plain-Jane. Buy and hold. We haven't actually ever sold any of our investments yet and the only switch we made was from Katsu's small cap to a target retirement fund. And we basically have only index funds.

Seeing that I only get paid 3 times a year (beginning of Fall and Winter semesters and beginning of summer), we feel rich after I get paid, even after paying out tithing and estimated tax payments (you feel it so much more when you write a check versus having it automatically taken out). So, this year we decided on a NEW BIG investment. One I won't see big red negative returns in Quicken each week ...

NEW FURNITURE.

Neither of us could stand feeling like we are living with college student furniture (never mind that we are still college students ... it's different). We wanted some of the real deal. So, after a trip to Ikea (two lamps, two small table, and a big plant later) and then to Value City Furniture (a couch, a loveseat, a coffee table, an end table, and a dresser later) and after some reorganization, we have some new stuff! And we love it. Best investment of the year!

New kitchen with some old bookshelves (ignore the mess):



The wall of books:



Andrew's smaller play area in the living room (with sick little Andrew):



and now for the new furniture:






I still am totally lacking in interior decorating skills (I'm not seeing that change anytime soon ... Kroger wouldn't even let me help in the flower department because I was so bad at arranging flowers back in high school ... yikes!). But we are loving new things and more seating.