years go by

[jazzfish]

What a year. I mean, I got married, and that was about the least interesting of the three Interesting Things I did.

Married Life is exactly like livin' in sin. (MARVIN: "Wedding?" ME: "Right, we got hitched back in January." MARVIN: "... I just assumed you two'd been married all this time.") The only differences are that I occasionally have to say "wife" or hear "husband," which is kinda irritating, and nobody bothers me with "so when are you two getting married?" anymore, which I'm okay with. Moving is still too big to take in. Suffice to say I'm still sort of boggled by how much I love it here, and still settling into a routine. And Viable Paradise... I laughed, I cried, I fell down, it changed my life, and I imagine everyone is sick of hearing me go on about it.

I went places this year, more than I'd been afraid I would: Vancouver and DC, of course. Blacksburg for what might be the last time, and Seattle and Bellingham and Boston. Plus Wiscon in Madison and Origins in Columbus (two-fifths of my life I've been going to Origins, yeesh), and Beach Week in the Outer Banks, and VP on Martha's Vineyard. And, you know, that whole "taking the train halfway across the continent while moving to another country" thing. Less travel for travel's sake this year, more going places to do things. I'm not certain whether I approve of this change or not. One of the few advantages of a long-distance relationship was having a built-in excuse to Get Away for a bit, with no plans other than "hanging out."

In what will probably come as a shock to no one who's not me, it costs a lot of money to a) move 2500 miles to a different country and b) live in the middle of downtown in one of the most expensive cities in North America. I've got around four months in savings, and that'll go back up once bonus payouts come through. More importantly, since June the savings account is the only place I've been putting money away. Need to find a Canadian replacement for Bill the financial guy. (Also need to find a Canadian accountant who I can throw all my/our tax stuff at and say "deal with this nonsense.")

I met a bunch of awesome people. Trouble is, nearly all of them live at least three hours away. Locally there are Interesting Events to check out and Promising Leads to be followed up on, so it's by no means hopeless. Just harder than I was expecting. It doesn't help that I've been (lazy/asocial/depressed) enough to start losing touch with people from back east, either.

And I wrote almost nothing, due to relocation chaos and then stupid mental block issues: an editing pass on the space story before VP submission, a couple of starts, and one finished piece at VP. Meh.

Overall this has been a year of getting big pieces in place, of laying a foundation for the life I want to live. On good days I can even remember that.

i drew a picture on the window as we rode
then i wiped it dry to see the other side
i see no more than you do, believe me, i’ve tried
to find what is missing, to find what is wrong ...

Comments

[tulip-tree.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure precisely what Bill the financial guy did for you (so this may be off-target) but you might check your credit union for a replacement. We were surprised when we moved here and discovered how hands-on the customer service at the credit union is (and frankly, we found it annoying at the time because we were used to doing everything ourselves online at USAA, Vanguard, etc.) but we've come to appreciate it. You can't buy mutual funds directly here, so when we wanted to move the money in our RRSPs out of a savings account and into a mutual fund, we ended up meeting with the guy at the credit union who sells mutual funds, and he's great. He's paid by the credit union and not on commission so he's not pushy. He went through some all-around financial planning stuff with us to figure out what was best for us, etc. I think we pay something like $45 a year for his services, and that's waived once our investments reach a certain (not huge) amount.

Also, if you need a tax accountant, I can probably get you a referral. I have grad school friends who moved from Seattle to Vancouver for jobs at UBC, and I think they have an accountant who handles their US and Canadian taxes (and as I recall, at least a few years ago they really liked him and he was much cheaper than anyone we've found on this side of the country.) Let me know...

[jazzfish]

I was thinking the credit union would be a place to start looking. Good to know it can be a place to stop looking, too. :) While I was in Virginia my talks with Bill were mostly along the lines of "put money into the 401k as long as the company matches it, build up a 4-6 month savings buffer, and then come talk to me about long-term plans." Unfortunately "long-term plans" were across national borders and hence outside his area of expertise. About all I've got is an idea that I ought to be doing something more than just savings.

And, a referral for a tax accountant would be wonderful, thank you!

[tulip-tree.livejournal.com]

Definitely try the credit union - that's very much the kind of advice we get from the guy at ours.

I'll email my friend in Vancouver and ask about her accountant.