Fees fees fees

The thing about money is that it is highly confusing.  The more you have, the more confusing it gets.  Or in the words of the immortal Jay-Z, "Mo money, mo problems."   Of course, I would love to know what kind of problems the amount of money he has might be.    

When I was really young, it was making sure I had gas money and maybe something to go out.  If I didn’t, then I went nowhere.  As I got older, it was as simple as balancing my checkbook and making sure bills got paid on time.  Then, when I got married, it was trying to figure out how to balance 2 differing views of finances (thankfully not wildly different), putting money into retirement, and shuffling multiple accounts to pay bills.  Now it is all of those things plus money for Quinn’s college and trying to oversee our investments, you know the ones we pay someone to oversee.  It starts to feel overwhelming and things start to fall through the cracks some.  Mostly it is the investments. 

What we are learning is that our advisor did a good job getting us to pull together all our debt and investments, make sure we had adequate insurance coverage, and had open discussions about our finances.  What she was poor at, was actually investing our money.  Our returns have been pretty much flat and the fees wiped out what monies we might have made.  Those ‘fees’ end up being somewhere north of $3000K annually without any real clarity as to where and why.  We just kind of assumed it was standard practice…and are only now finding out that isn’t necessarily the case.  Sadly it took something as innocuous as Tia filling out an online survey that has led us down the path of changing with whom and how engaged we are with our finances (In the survey in question, Tia just mentioned that Erin had forgotten to do things on occasion that she said she was going to do and it turned into something much much bigger than it should.  This also explains why we have no interest in continuing with Ameriprise, even with a different advisor).  Truthfully, it feels like one more thing on an already growing pile, but I suppose we will need to carve out the time somehow.   It is kind of important after all. 

So, now we sit on the precipice of another meeting with another advisor where we will try hard to explain our position, monitor an active toddler, and decipher the financial speak that permeates but rarely seems to find permanence in my mind.  And hope that this time it works out better.  At least we didn’t figure this out many years down the road. 

Speaking of down the road, it is looking more and more like moving will occur sometime down the road too.  The reality has been eye-opening to say the least.  Ultimately, there is no ‘inexpensive’ place to live in Portland and the surrounding areas.  The property taxes and all the addendums to them that Portlanders love to support (hello Art Tax) are onerous, but not much more so than elsewhere.  You are still going to pay about $1000-$1100 per $100K in home value.  And the homes are all about the same as well, save a few pockets where premium prices predominate (and those aren’t areas we live in nor can or want to afford to live in).  West Linn, Milwaukie, Oak Grove, Eastmoreland, Tigard…and on and on, are all about the same.  If you want 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and somewhere near 1500-2000 sq feet, you are going to pay between $250-$350K.  And, if you are near the bottom of that price point, it is likely the house is going to need updating, so you might as well not bother.   Sigh.  For now, it is looking like private schools will be the way to go.  Though thankfully we are many years from that.  

Work is finally (at least theoretically) going to slow down some.  We officially disengaged ourselves from the Park, and the Hood on Tuesday.  They are now in the hands of OHSU.  As for this clinic, still no word.  Maybe eventually…maybe not at all.  All possibilities remain in the air.  In the interim, keep showing up until I hear otherwise. 

Quinn is starting to enter his ‘shyness’ around strangers phase.  It is kind of cute really, since it generally involves him running to either Tia or I to ‘hide’ or be picked up.  Big change from his usual social butterfly self.  Will be interested to see how long it lasts. 

Off to work another day.