North Carolina is one of those places that I’ve never been but have always been intrigued about. I have read of how beautiful it is there and, from what I’ve seen on TV and the internet, this no exaggeration. It makes my list of places that I would be willing to relocate to if the opportunity ever arose. Although, Brian says that the cost of living there is really high. Then again, the cost of living everything is high compared to the cost of living we are used to in Wichita. No matter what people say about Wichita, how boring it is, how much they hate it, how much they want to leave — we are blessed to have the quality of life that we do here. In that sense, I find it hard to justify moving elsewhere. It would be nice to check out what it’s like in North Carolina, though.

For a city that has about the same population as Wichita I think North Carolina has a lower crime rate, which is nice. Crime in Wichita scares me. I don’t know if the news just sensationalizes these occurrences, but it really does scare me. It makes me not want to leave the house. Of course, if you’re like my dad and you work from home, you really wouldn’t need to leave the house. Unfortunately, we don’t all have that luxury.

Anyway, back to North Carolina.. There are several big companies that are based or operate there. These include Nortel, Cisco, IBM, Lenovo, Red Hat, Progress Energy, First Citizens Bank, just to name a few. Incidentally, I checked the stock price of Progress Energy (PGN). It’s trading at about $47.52 right now. Not bad. Okay, more on that later.

The thing is, you can read about what a place is like but nothing really compares to going there and experiencing it for yourself. My advice would be to actually go and check it out. Now would be the best time because they’ve got several things going on right now in Raleigh. Plus, it is a beautiful time of the year there.

The Visit Raleigh web site actually has a special promotion going on right now for a free fall getaway which includes accommodations for two at the Courtyard by Marriott Raleigh Crabtree Valley, a $25 gift certificate to Bloomsbury Bistro (never been there but supposedly really good), free VIP admission for two to Rum Runners, two tickets to the North Carolina Theatre (if you are into that sort of thing), two tickets to the North Carolina Museum of Art’s Landscapes from the Age of Impressionism, and two tickets to Dinosaurs: Ancient Fossils, New Discoveries at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. You can register for this free Raleigh, NC getaway by clicking on the link. It’s not a shabby getaway package. And you get to check out the area, just in case you decide you want to move there permanently.

Brian and I often get mistaken for newlyweds. When we tell others that we’ve been together for over eight years – one year of dating (actually more like a few months), two years of living together and five years of marriage – they usually can’t believe it. They want to know what our secret is. There’s really not a big secret or method to it. Brian and I just make sure we set aside time do fun things and we always celebrate milestones. We don’t necessarily spend money on gifts for anniversaries, but we invest in memories. Our philosophy is that any new toy or trinket you have will only last a few years (if you’re lucky) before you grow tire of it or it breaks. Memories, on the other hand, last a lifetime.

These celebrations – for anniversaries, birthdays, holidays, etc. – need not be expensive. There are many resources on the internet that will give you ideas. Romance for Everyone is one such web site. They have many tips on how to cultivate love and romance, articles on relationships, and samples of love letters. The web site also has sample “I miss you” and “I’m sorry” letters, perfect for times when flowers aren’t enough to convey how you feel. Although it’s better if you write your own, the sample love letters are particularly helpful to those of us who are not so creative or don’t have a talent for letter-writing. At the very least the sample letters will help to inspire you.

We had a blast at the annual MKMVPA vehicle rally. Overall attendance was great and everyone was pleased with the outcome. There were a lot of familiar faces and some new ones. Brian met this guy who owns a Pinzgauer, one of only a handful in the entire state. Brian wants one real bad. He will have to wait, though, as we have other plans for the time being. We have home rennovations to fund and we need to save for a house down payment.

Anyway, thank you for your continued support of this web site. We really appreciate all of the visits. Until next time.

Brian and I met with a financial advisor, Jeff Smith at Intrust Bank, today to see if we can setup a Roth IRA for Brian. As you know I’ve gotten pretty obsessive about saving for retirement of late. I don’t know what happened but over the last few years I’ve transformed from a spender to a saver. Brian and I both agree that we want to make sacrifices now to enjoy our retirement later. We want to be like John and Wilma, one of the many wonderful couples we met during our Jamaican vacation this summer. They can afford to spend several weeks throughout the year traveling because they’ve planned for retirement well. My feeling is retirement won’t be that much fun if you don’t have the money to enjoy your favorite activities. Doing the same old things every day will get pretty boring after a while, unless it is playing poker :P. And I really hope that by planning carefully for our future Brian and I won’t end up having to work in order to support our retirement income. I see old people like that now and I feel really bad for them. I don’t want to share the same fate.

I feel pretty secure about our retirement plans. I have planned my retirement pretty carefully and I am confident that Brian and I will have enough money to live on after we retire even without the help of social security. However, we are staring a retirement savings plan for Brian because we want to have some slack. We don’t want to be just surviving when we retire. We want to enjoy. Besides that, since we don’t plan to have any children, we have to think about what we will do past the early stages of retirement. The fancy nursing homes are pretty expensive. We want to make sure we have enough saved up to afford to stay in one of the nicer ones; some of them are like resorts nowadays. Once we are too old to travel, we might as well live in a nursing home that is a lot like a resort environment.

As always, there is a plan B. If we end up not saving enough, we can always go back to the Philippines and retire there. If we retire there, then our dollars will buy us more and will last longer. Don’t ask me why I am fixated on this stuff now. I have at least 30 years ahead of me. I guess it could be that since I’m turning 30 next month, I feel like having some sort of retirement plan is paramount. And it is. It’s never too early to start saving for retirement.

Another thing tha people often take for granted is insurance. Paying for insurance is like a catch 22. On one hand you are paying for something that you might never use so that in the event that you need it you are covered. You don’t really benefit from it unless something bad happens and you have to file a claim, but at the same time you don’t really want a catastrophe either just so you can get your money’s worth. It’s something you buy but hope you never have to use.

Anyway, since it is something that you won’t really need unless an emergency comes up it’s very important to make good choices. Let’s take car insurance as an example. It isn’t always best to go with the cheapest. You should compare car insurance and see how satisfied their current customers are. If you have the cheapest rates, but when it comes time to file a claim they give you a lot of hassle and don’t want to pay out then it’s really not worth it. You want to go with someone you can trust. Choose a company that will deliver when the time comes.

The same goes for home insurance. This is something that one shouldn’t take lightly. One again, you hope never to have to use it but it doesn’t hurt to be covered. Planning for retirement and having insurance or some sort of contingency plan in case of disaster are two very important things when planning for your future.