Season Change

It's much cooler than it was three weeks ago. The winds are stronger and brisk. Leaves are showing change. Fields are yielding to harvest. And today is the first day of the last quarter of 2010.

I just spent 15 minutes gathering most of the account balances for my quarterly report. I compile these numbers using Excel. Each account has a column for the end of each quarter showing balances - negative and positive of our cash accounts. A quick glance across shows the account at 1/1/10, at 3/31, at 6/30, at 9/30 and 12/31.

I say negative because often I write several checks toward the end of the month and mail them so they will arrive no sooner than our paychecks hit our checking account the first of the month.

I call this report Our Balance Sheet but it's not a complete picture of assets because I do not list values of houses, cars, jewelry, credit card balances, and any unpaid bills sitting on my desk. It's really not a true balance sheet but it's a great communication tool.

Bob will review it some time in the next week or so. We will discuss the ups and downs. Then we will decide regarding funding our HSA (health savings account) and our Roth IRAs for 2010. I think we'll fully fund the HSA as Obama's new law will soon remove the option of deferring income beginning either in 2011 or 2012.

Enjoy the first day of the last quarter.

'til later