A few musings about money

Here's some old-school rock to start the day...



Why "Money"?

A few things occurred to me as I was taking my morning run:

1. Yesterday is when my paycheck reflected a 1 percent increase. As in past years, my employer included a lump sum payment rather than spread the increase throughout the next 12 months. I don't mind and, actually, I like it that way.
2. Today we're mailing our electronic filing authorization form to our tax preparer. With some of the the 1 percent raise, we'll pay him for his services. Fortunately, we have federal and state tax refunds to look forward to.
3. When the stock market crashed, I got caught with too heavy a portion of stocks in my 401(k). Rather than take the losses now, I've kept the faith -- I hope not foolishly -- that I've got enough years between now and retirement for the account's value to come back. Add my voice to those hoping -- er, praying -- for the federal bailouts and stimulus packages to get credit flowing again and revive the economy.
4. Next month, a 10 percent cut takes effect for all full-time employees at The Oregonian along with a requirement that we all take four unpaid furlough days by September 1. I can handle those OK. It's the freeze in pension benefits, also recently announced, that's harder to take. Obviously, my peers and I looked forward to the increase that would come with additional years of service. But, as the top brass explained, the same forces that have devastated personal and institutional investment accounts across the board also have slammed pension funds.

All in all, I can't complain too much. Most important these days, my health insurance benefits are intact (which means Lori is covered as well) and my health is just fine. Today, the bathroom scale gave me some happy news. Slowly but surely, I'm shedding the extra pounds I've been carrying too long.