Investing Again

When I started at my current company there were many things that were discussed. The firm was newly formed when I first walked through the door in September 2013. In fact, the owner of the company was still waiting for the cable company to arrive later that afternoon to set up the internet. It was an interesting experience and much different from the previous conversation I had with her.

It was during that initial discussion when we talked about the clients, my role in the company, and many of the other benefits that would be part of my employment including healthcare, profit sharing, and a 401K (among others). Every salary position I have ever had, and then some, have offered healthcare so that was not a surprise to me. However the other two piqued my interest and were really bonuses to the position that I was not expecting.

Since that time over a year and a half ago, she has been true to her word. While none of us expected any sort of profit sharing at the end of 2013 we weren’t really holding out for 2014 either. After all, we are a new company. However, we were all pleasantly surprised at the end of the year when we each received an extra deposit into our accounts (which was particularly useful at that point in time).

Toward the end of last year we also continued our conversations regarding setting up a 401K. It had taken some time but things were progressing and as the calendar turned over we all started contributing to the future. While we don’t have much extra at the moment, I started with a small contribution from each pay check.

While I have had investment accounts in the past, this was my first time having a 401K. Previous accounts have long since been liquidated to pay for graduate school and other expenses. Many would consider this a tremendous loss but given the fact that I finished graduate school in the spring of 2008, it wasn’t a bad way to use the funds.

Since that time, my ‘investments’ have been on a much smaller scale and consisting of hard assets. I honestly can’t recall how many times I bought silver (and a tiny bit of gold) over the past decade but it is safe to say that I didn’t lose money or break even. A coin here and there can add up especially before the market shifted and the prices began to spike.

All the small items were nice and served a purpose when we needed that little extra. Now, it is a great feeling to be contributing to our future even though it may be one small deduction from my pay every couple of weeks. It may not seem much at the moment, it never does, but it will certainly add up in the end (especially when I start decreasing my take home pay). And it sure beats flipping coins.

Transformation

We have now been living in our townhouse for over a week and things are starting to come together. The move was smooth, the boxes are slowly disappearing, and new furniture (mostly for the baby at this point) is showing up at our door every other day. I am pretty sure that FedEx is hating us right about now. It is all coming together piece by piece and starting to feel more like a home with every day that passes.

While we haven’t had much time to talk with our neighbors, we have met most of them and their friendliness is something that we have been seeking for some time. More importantly, the people that we have met enjoy where they are and have no plans on moving anytime soon. While there were a few like that in our previous place, the door kept swinging around with people moving in and out on a regular basis.

Of course, compared to our apartment, it is nice to have some breathing room. We have more than doubled our living space with the move and it has been nice to be able to have a little separation at times when we need to get work done, talk on the phone, or simply sleep. Even with our son on the way and the mountains of stuff that will come with him, we are still looking at a much more comfortable living situation.

Even the commute has been better for both of us with my wife only about 10 minutes from work and mine consisting of a few quick turns and letting cruise control take over for about 30 a half hour. I don’t mind the time in the car but at least now it is much less aggravating (I don’t have to take the perpetually congested roads) and much more consistent. Heck, even my gas mileage is enjoying the change.

It finally feels like we are going to be able to turn this place into a home. It has been a long search and a number of years, but we are finally making some progress in this area. It is a transformation that we have yet to accomplish and we were beginning to see the process as some kind of alchemy. Sure there have been places that have served us well on the surface but once you peeled away the plating, the lead core was clear. While I don’t expect everything to be golden, it would be nice to at least have something consisting of silver or bronze.