Learning from our mistakes...

I want to pat myself on the back (hubby too). A year ago when we were in the position to move his 401K to another place, we took it out instead. We blew a lot of money that we should not have. We thought that we would be able to keep it in our savings account and not touch it. No such luck. We were so immature. Yes, a guy who was turning 50 and a gal who was a few years from 40.

When we decided that I would leave my job, we were faced with a similar decision.We could put it in a regular savings account or move it to a Roth IRA or a bank IRA. After some debating we decided to move it to a bank IRA. I just couldn't see taking the tax cut hit now.

What I am happy about, is that we didn't decide to take it all out. We learned from our mistakes and did the right thing. You do not understand how big this is for us. Last year our relationships with family and friends were disrupted because of our immaturity and stupidity. We were all about instant gratification.

I have shared some things with you, but basically our whole word was rocked. We had to grow up or lose everyone and everything. It was hard. It is still hard. But we have come a long way. We still have a long way to go to dig out of the hole we put ourselves in.

We really wanted to move into a rental house this year. A yard for the kids and dog called. We thought briefly about using my 401K money to pay for the move. How stupid would that have been. But the point is, we didn't. We reflected on what is best for our future. Moving to a house NOW will not make our future any better. We decided it would be better to stay where we are. Purge the material things making the apartment feel claustrophobic and enjoy what we have. Once that decision was made, it was like lifting a boulder off our chests.

We do want to get a house eventually, but now is not the time. We have to live with one major life change at a time. Me becoming a stay at home mom, is enough of a change for this year.

Stay tuned for more lessons learned...there should be quite a few.