Tonight is daylight savings time.  Time to spring ahead.  I’m working tonight so that means that I only have to work for 7 hours instead of 8. Daylight savings time also means that tomorrow night when I try to put Carlos to bed at 6:30 he will tell me that it is not bedtime because it is still light out.  Grrrrr!  Whoever made up this daylight savings business clearly did not have small children with early bed times.

Yesterday I picked up our taxes from the accountant.  I used to do my own taxes because I thought that I was intelligent enough to follow Turbo Tax. Unfortunately tax talk is like speaking a different language, one I am not fluent in.  I’m barely proficient. We got audited one year and then the next and then the next.  The IRS didn’t get much out of us but they certainly managed to find a mistake every year for a few years thereafter. We finally hired an accountant to do our taxes.  For the past two years we have been audit free.

Now I’m not exactly finance savvy but I am always trying to learn more and improve our financial situation.  We are great savers.  I think we do well with our money overall, but I always feel like we could do better. We have an appointment a financial consultant on Tuesday.  It never hurts to talk.  I usually learn something.  I’m not easily swayed into trying new “products,” but I often find it easier to understand the many options out there when I am talking to someone face to face.

Last year we researched other car insurance policies and were able to decrease our auto insurance considerably.  We received an additional discount by switching our home owners insurance to the same company.

There are so many things to think about today that my parents didn’t seem to worry about.  Many employers no longer offer retirement options.  My job does not so I have to make sure that I am provided for later in life.  We started contributing to our own IRAs a few years ago. Considering I haven’t paid off my student loans yet and I went to a state school, I can only imagine how much college will cost when it is time for my son to go.  We opened a 529 Education Savings Plan for him. We do not pay interest on our credit cards.  We use mostly Discover to accrue the cash back rewards but pay off the balance each month.

I would like to think that Suze Orman would be proud of us.  However, if your reading this Suze I would love for you to have a look at our finances and tell us what you really think!