2018 in Review

January 2018

Bear got a new car! He’s loving his 2018 Highlander Hybrid that we’ve nicknamed “The Spaceship” — all the screens and safety features are incredible! We needed something safer and super reliable to transport our precious cargo!

 

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February 2018

On Sunday, Feb 11, we welcomed our Mini: Arden Elise Campbell. She arrived with a conehead after 27 hours of labor at 10:09pm. She was oriented OP, and I got my epidural at 4cm around 9:30am from one of my colleagues, Shiyin. The epidural was perfect — it was so nice to have to take the edge off the pain. However, because she was OP, I was still having quite a bit of back/bottom pressure from her head coming down and placing a lot of pressure on my tailbone. We tried multiple maneuvers to get her turned, but to no avail. My OB, Kim Washkowiak, came in on her day off to deliver Arden (that’s a huge deal and wonderful Around 9pm, she was 10 cm and complete…and it was time to push! After an hour of pushing an OP baby… we met our sweet Arden bug. She was 7lb 3 oz, 21 inches long, and absolutely perfect. She had a great latch, and we started breastfeeding immediately. Of course, it would take almost a week for my milk to come in. We supplemented with formula and breastfed as well as pumped to increase my milk supply. She’s been a wonderful journey so far. We’re learning new things about and us everyday.
March 2018

This month was a blur! Waking every 2-3 hours in the night to feed Arden made this month fly by! There were highs and lows along my breastfeeding journey. It’s finally settled down and breastfeeding and pumping are going well. We’re still supplementing with formula so she’s getting both.
April 2018

She’s 2 months old this month and already at 10lb! Bear sold his trusty 4Runner.

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I forgot to update the rest of the entries…. so, follow along my Pregnancy #2 entries for the remainder of 2018!

 

Money, Finances, and Retirement

These 3 items often give people an upset stomach when talking about the future and planning.

My parents were budgeters… not bc they enjoyed it, but because they didn’t have the means to be extravagant. I grew up in two parent working household and that was to make ends meet. I was extremely fortunate that my parents valued my future, and it was evidenced in how they spent and saved their money. Home cooked meals were the norm — until I started in activities that kept me at lessons or practice from the time school recessed until the late evening. I never dove into the sacrifices they made nor the financial understanding of what they were doing. I’ve learned a lot from how they spent their money, and it’s something I want to pass on to my kid(s).

When I look around at people and their spending habits, I’m appalled at what they purchase. Eating meals out every night…. buying tons of clothes/makeup/shoes…. these are just some of the things that just seem to be wasteful to me. Do I do it? Yes, but minimally. Do I think about it every time and wonder if it’s worth it? Absolutely. But, it’s never too late to start a plan or get on track to be financially savvy or responsible.
Helpful links to tackle:

• The Money Habit
• Retirement Researcher
• Suze Orman
• Bogle Heads
• Mint
• Personal Capital
• White Coat Investor

Wireless phone carriers

Ever since Apple came out with the new iOS for iPhone, it’s made my phone extremely slow and drains the battery life.  Thanks Apple.  This led me to consider doing a phone upgrade, but my phone isn’t that old and it works fine (I have an iPhone 6).  Currently, I’m on AT&T bc it gives me the best cell signal at work.  But, the more I’ve been researching…. the more I’m leaning towards T-mobile or Google Project Fi.

The Data:

• AT&T vs T-Mobile: All the Things that Matter
• Comparing unlimited plans for the big 4 (AT&T, Sprint, T-mobile, Verizon)
• Why I’m Dumping AT&T for T-mobile
• Best cell phone plans for the big 4
• Google Project Fi
• One Mile at a Time: Switching from AT&T to T-mobile
• One Mile at a Time: Review of Google Project Fi

My Conclusion:

We would definitely have more opportunities and data options on T-Mobile.  Question is whether it gets good signal in the places where we want to be.  If T-Mobile does get a good signal, it’s a no-brainer for us to switch to T-Mobile.  Google Fi is a strong contender, but I don’t know much about it and there aren’t many reviews on it… and I don’t know where the coverage will be the best for us.  There’s a lot of great perks, but I think at this point we need to go with longevity and data and good customer service that’s known.  Google Fi is only available for android phones so we’d have to switch from iPhone to Android.  Whereas with T-mobile, we could take our existing iPhones to make the switch.

Winner = T-Mobile or Google Project Fi (uses T-mobile, Sprint cell networks)

Financial Responsibility

I’m in the midst of wedding planning — which doesn’t exactly sound like financial responsibility.  However, we’re doing our best to budget for a beautiful wedding that is an investment in our love.

This article (A Story of a Fuck Off Fund) got me thinking and made me hugely disappointed in Americans and our spending habits.  It’s as if we have to “keep up with the Joneses” who may have wealth or may just be pretending.  The only positive thing out of this article was that the author pulled it together and has this fund.

How many people are struggling to pay their bills — rent/student loans/groceries/health/car/etc. — but are walking around going to parties, drinking Starbucks daily, ordering out lunch or dinner daily?  It makes me wonder if Americans are even serious about their own financial struggles.

I was lucky to have been raised in a less than middle income family — both of my parents worked to make ends meet.  From this experience, I learned a lot about saving money.  I have one friend who always likes to call me a “tight wad” bc I don’t pick up the check every time a group goes out to dinner (but he doesn’t have a problem if I’m kind enough to pickup his bill).  Granted, my income is higher than most of my friends, it shouldn’t be an assumption.  I didn’t win the lottery and have just buttloads of money bestowed upon me.  It was decades of schooling, decades of lost time, massive amounts of student debt (yes, that I chose to pay off early!).  Everyone makes choices in life, and I feel that if my non-American, English-as-a-second-language speaking parents could provide me with all the tools to succeed…. then other people could also succeed.

But that seems to be where it stops short.  Fun is way easier to experience than work.  I had friends who were out partying nightly in college — and now they say I’m “lucky”.  Luck isn’t synonymous with hard work.  It’s almost like they think it was handed to me.  The luck is that I believed in hard work.  I learned that hard work would lead to financial stability…I just had to put the hard work in first.

Now, my thinking seems to be in line with this article (No You Cannot Have A Few Minutes of My Time).  And going one step further… I evolved into what this article is all about (Why Most People Will Never Be Successful).  The article may sound elitist, but I don’t think it is.  I think it’s true in life that as you start to specialize and hon your craft, some things in life will have to give.  I used to love going out with friends or acquaintances to “hang out”.  But over the years, I found that nurturing the special relationships are way more important.

So here is where I am now (How I Learned to Love Investing , How to Choose Investments for Retirement , Why you need to start saving for retirement now!).  And some point along the way, this (What I Learned About Money After My Parents Died) happened to me but with only one parent.

I commend this couple who realized how important it is to take care of debt:  Interview with a person who paid off $48,000 in student loans in 4 years.   But sadly, some people continue to live like this girl (but I hope they’re learning and figure it out like she did): What I learned about money in my 20s.  And this guy… nailed it in What it Means to Save: A Year in the Life.