A talk with the BF - Priorities and Goal Planning

Last night I came home with a "Personal Finance High" as I called it! Ha ha. I felt so good about my progress yesterday and I was excited to tell SB about my epiphany and goals. We had a good talk and I told him about my new ING Direct Account and encouraged him to open one up at the end of the month (he said he would!). Then we discussed our future goals and did a littlere prioritizing.

A little background on SB and I - we've been dating Since November 2006. We also dated from 1998-2001! We rekindled our romance after 5 years - I always felt he was "the one that got away" and apparently he felt the same way about me and sent me an email asking to get together. We met for a beer, shared a few tears, and the rest is history! This month I moved in with him officially (I have been basically living with him since November but paying rent at my own apartment). I'm excited because this move means that my rent is going down from $700 to $450 a month! I'll be putting that $250 savings into my ING account FOR SURE come April 1.

We are discussing marriage and I could tell that R was feeling majorly stressed out about expectations in terms of The Ring. I let him know that despite everything that is said about diamonds being a girls best friend and lasting forever, having a huge rock on my finger just isn't me. I explained that I'd much rather buy something delicate and inexpensive - I joked that at our 10 year anniversary he can give me a bigger ring for putting up with him so long! Ha!

We discussed eloping! We want to go to Hawaii this fall on vacation (IF I save up enough money AND my credit cards are paid off) and he suggested we just get married on the trip and not tell anyone until we come back. Surprise! We're tanned AND married! We are both low key people and I never imagined us having a big wedding but this idea is slowly starting to set in and take hold - could be good! I'd miss having my best girls and my brother there but at the same time how cool would it be to have an incredible intimate ceremony in a rain forest or next to a waterfall on a tropical island?? Plus the honeymoon would be wrapped in. All told, we could save a lot of money. When we got back we could through an inexpensive reception/party at the beach and invite friends and family and just have a really good, laid back time. Further discussion is needed but the more I think about this the more I love it!

Another thing we talked about was our desire to move in about a year to North County, specifically Solana Beach or Encinitas. It probably doesn't come as a big surprise that San Diego is an expensive city to live in. I heard a news report the other day that said the average single childless adult needs to earn a MINIMUM of $13.71 just to get by in this city. WOW! Surfing is a huge part of our lifestyle and we've always wanted to live coastal . . . as in less than 10 minutes from the beach, closer if possible. So that just raises the expenses as the closer to the water you live, the higher the rent. We talked about trading in our current apartment ($900/mo for a one bedroom/one bathroom) for a two bedroom/one bath place in the range of $12-1400/mo. But now that I'm on the Personal Finance buzz I told him we should think about staying put where we are for a few more years - maybe even 3 to 5 years. Yes it is SMALL and CRAMPED but we are saving money here. We live six blocks from the water and the neighborhood is good. Instead of renting a more expensive apartment if we save for a few years maybe we can afford to purchase a house! It might be further from the coast then we want but then we'd have space to raise a couple of kids and adopt some puppies. :-) The downside is that I will have to continue my commute. I work in North County and drive about 80 miles a day. I've heard reports that the price of gas is expected to rise to $4/gallon this summer. That could definitely hurt my budget. I think I need to look into car pooling and other options - maybe the coaster (commuter train).

Nothing major to report today in terms of my pocket book. Went to the grocery store to buy lunch food for the rest of my work week so I don't have an excuse to go out. Yesterday I transferred money into my B of A account to fix the overdrawn account (negative $21 - UGH!).

Next up: a look at my credit reports. I'm almost afraid to look.