It's utterly surprising how moving out of the country can push you to do all the things you have always "wanted to do" but "never got around to doing it." It's like a time clock that makes you realize that time is short and you need to get things done!! Here are some examples of what I mean:
Financial Planner - This was on the list of to-do's for a long time. SQ and I are good savers but we are poor investors. We do not know how to use our money to make money. We want someone to not only help us invest our money, but also guide us in retirement planning and estate planning. We know we can not depend on Social Security or Medicare when we retire. Also, now with Sarah in the mix, there is a lot of things to think about - like setting up a will / living trust and her future education expenses. We need desperate guidance on what to do. So we finally met with a Certified Financial Planner a week ago. The session was only 1.5 hours, which was very short for the topics we had to cover. I felt like we barely scratched the surface, but felt good that we were given some ideas and quick fixes which can help us in the long run. We will meet him again in a few weeks.
Re-Finance - This was one of things that the CFP suggested we do. Late last year, our mortgage broker approached us to refinance our house. The rate difference between our rate vs the new rate was about 0.25% at that time and would save us about $100 a month in mortgage. We had just re-financed the year before and didn't want to reset our loan for such a small difference. Plus, we were too lazy to gather all the documents so we didn't re-finance. When our CFP suggested we re-financed - I was still a bit reluctant to, just because we only have a couple of months left before we leave and the last thing I want to do is to add 1 more thing to do on my already-long list of to-do's. He said if I don't have time, then I should just call my current mortgage bank and start there. So I did that, and I was surprised how easy it was! I got ONE full point rate difference! Every month, I will be saving $265! Hopefully, everything will be OK and we will close escrow in 21 days!
Medical Check-up - This applies to SQ only. He hasn't been diligent at getting his annual physicals. So because of the move, he finally saw his doctor for his physical!
Family Photo Shoot - I wanted to take family professional photos outdoors. We've only done photos inside a JcPenney/Sears studio, which are a lot cheaper, but they are only a hit or miss. Besides, Sarah hated these sessions. She doesn't like staying still and posed in a small hot room with a stranger and a camera. I wanted something a little more natural and for Sarah to feel like herself. It took me so time to get SQ to agree to go in on this. So we did it! ** More to come
New Mattress - embarrassing but we've had our mattress for 10 years! We bought our mattress at the same time we bought the house. We've been talking about getting a new mattress for about 2 years now, but never got around to it (too lazy to shop around)...so with the move, we definitely need to get a new one! You might ask why don't we just buy a new one in HKG? Well, the Queen size mattress is HKG is about 5 inches shorter than the ones in the US. I don't know if I'll like a shorter mattress ..Plus we want to take our bed frame with us, so we need to have a mattress that fits! Hence, we will buy here and have it shipped there. Mattresses are cheaper in the US and since we don't have to pay for shipping, so why not?
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