“But better never late”, my teacher would reply.

That same idea can be applied to funding retirement.

If you’re well into your career, but haven’t yet started funding retirement, it’s better late than never.

If you’re just entering the workforce, it’s better never late.

It’s so much easier to fund your retirement when you start as soon as you get your first job. It’ll cost you less, you’ll never miss the money, and you’ll have more at the end.

You end up way better off. It’s that simple.

If you haven’t started funding retirement yet, start ASAP, no matter what your age. If you’ve funded it on and off throughout the years (like I did), see what you need to do to get back on track, and start.

I started sending 30% of my income to retirement accounts as soon as I woke up and realized how awfully behind I was. (I am way, WAY behind.)

It seems overwhelming, but on the plus side I already know that I can live on less than my income. In theory I won’t need anywhere near the recommended 70% to 90% of my income in retirement. (Good thing.)

The point is to not give up. Any amount you can set aside toward retirement (and then NOT TOUCH) will help.

Make it a priority.

It’s been hard.

Death, dying, and what you’d like done or not done if you’re in really bad shape are the kinds of thing that no one really wants to talk about.

But, it’s important to do so anyway. It’s not morbid or tempting fate. It’s common sense.

Otherwise, how will your loved ones know what you’d prefer? Not knowing can be agonizing.

Especially if it’s not clear what someone’s wishes might be in the event that you have to make health care decisions for them.

So in addition to some frank discussions, I made some progress on revising my estate planning documents. It turns out that it will actually be easier and cleaner in my case to just completely redo them.

The new documents are underway now, and hopefully that’ll be that, for a long long time to come.

The stated aim of the act is:

To accelerate motor fuel savings nationwide and provide incentives to registered owners of high polluting automobiles to replace such automobiles with new fuel efficient and less polluting automobiles.

That doesn’t sound too bad, but there are some things you should know about the program, chief of which are that:

1. Not all cars qualify as “clunkers”.
2. You have to buy or lease a brand new car that meets certain conditions in order to take advantage of the program.

For details on how the program works and what vehicles qualify, visit the CARS.gov web site put out by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Keep in mind though that they’re still ironing out the regulations relating to the program, so the final details won’t be available on that site until late July 2009.

Other items of interest:

• If your car is accepted into the program, it will be “crushed and shredded” after its title is transferred to the United States. (Apparently they’re serious about keeping the clunkers off the road.)
• The $3,500/$4,500 vouchers will not be considered as income for the purchaser.
• Your trade in must be drivable and have been “continuously insured consistent with the applicable State law and registered to the same owner for a period of not less than 1 year immediately prior to such trade-in”. (So no going out and buying a clunker in hopes of participating.)
• $4,000,000,000 was appropriated to the Secretary of Transportation to carry out this Act. (That’s a lot of zeros…)

Finally, remember that if you do buy a new car, negotiate the purchase price based on the car itself, not on payments, trade in values, or programs like this one in order to try to get the best deal.

Back in April, we were talking on the phone and she said she’d had a shock that night. Here’s her story:

I came home and found a Notice of Trustee’s Sale on the front door of my rented condo indicating that my unit was scheduled for foreclosure sale in late May.

I called my landlord to let her know about the notice. She said that even though I had been making rent payments per the terms of the lease, she had missed some mortgage payments and was in discussions with the lender to try to work things out.

It sounded like the landlord was going to be able to work things out, so my friend didn’t get too upset. Still, a little caution was in order. After all, moving is an expensive proposition, and it sounded like she could be forced out with very little notice if the condo was indeed sold at foreclosure.

Here’s what happened next:

I researched AZ law and learned that when a property is sold in foreclosure, a renter is entitled to only 5 days notice before the new owner can initiate court action to evict the renter.

Talk about stress and uncertainty. But then…

Days before the scheduled foreclosure sale I read a news story that President Obama had signed national legislation providing additional protection to renters affected by foreclosure. Specifically, renters are now entitled to 90 days notice from the new owner following foreclosure. The legislation went into effect immediately — one week to the day before the foreclosure sale!

The legislation she’s referring to is called the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act of 2009, and it relates to “any foreclosure on a federally-related mortgage loan or on any dwelling or residential real property after the date of enactment of this title”.

From 5 days notice to 90 days notice can make a big difference. It turns out that the foreclosure sale on the condo my friend leases did go through.

A few days after the May foreclosure sale a bank representative came to my door and informed me that the bank now owned the property and stated that the bank intended to put the unit on the market — they had no interest in becoming a landlord. She asked about my plans for moving and said the bank might offer me cash for keys if I moved out within two weeks.

I told her I had been waiting to find out the outcome of the foreclosure sale (if an investor had purchased the property, it was possible I would stay on as a renter). I briefly mentioned the federal legislation; she said she wasn’t familiar with it.

The next morning I wrote a letter to the bank’s representative enclosing a copy of the new federal legislation. I wrote the letter using materials from the excellent renter’s toolkit available on the Web site of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, nlihc.org, the organization I believe took the lead in lobbying for the renter foreclosure protection law. I sent the letter by email, fax and certified mail, return receipt requested.

On receipt of the letter, the bank representative called and left a message offering me cash for keys to move out within two weeks. I declined.

She hasn’t heard back from the bank representative to date, so she is still kind of in wait-and-see mode. At least this new legislation gives her a bit more certainty and some ground to stand on, compared with what could have easily happened before. It pays to be proactive, and to know your rights.

If it’s been more than a year, chances are it’s time for a financial checkup.

I’ve found that the hardest part of doing the checkup is actually getting started. It sounds like a lot of work, and so I put it off, but in reality it doesn’t take very long to review the things you’ve already set up. If it seems overwhelming, commit to reviewing just one portion per week.

Here are the things that I check for:

Accounts

• Am I still using all of my accounts?
• Can I consolidate some of them?
• Do they have the correct beneficiaries/pay on death designations?
• Are the terms still favorable?

Insurance

• Do I have all of the types of insurance that I need?
• Is my coverage still adequate?
• Can I get a better deal?
• Do I still have the items that are being insured?

Goals

• Are my goals still in line with what I want to have happen?
• Am I making progress toward them?
• Are there any goals that I want to eliminate or add?
• Do I need to scale back on any goals or step any up?

Estate Planning

• Do my will & trust still say what I think they say?
• Have there been any changes in my life that might require a change to my will or trust?
• Do my beneficiaries match up with my estate plan?
• Do I want to make any changes?

Usually this process doesn’t take too long, unless of course I actually do need to make changes. That’s rare, but when it has happened I’ve been glad I caught the necessary changes.

First, here is the breakdown of our spending:

Cake $0 (yes, the one pictured above.)
Cake server set $36.94
Dress $150
Alterations & dry cleaning $120 (no idea why this was so high)
Shoes $19.67
Tuxes $102
Ceremony & reception location fee $800 (included service, table linens, antique china place settings, little charms on the napkins, coffee, tea, water, setup, take down, & cleanup).
Officiant fee $200
Flowers $159.34 (20 dozen roses, plus rose petals, ribbon & floral supplies)
Nails done $19.04
Musician $200 (single violinist)
Photographer $700
Food & champagne $188.02
Invitations $169.40
Postage $24
Flower girl dress & basket $45.16
Decorations and centerpieces $81.20 (mosquito netting canopy, chocolate topiary, glasses to use as vases, miniature white pumpkins, bird cage, vines for arch)

Total: $3014.77

Not included in those numbers:
Wedding rings
Honeymoon (we didn’t take one)

And our thought process:

The first thing we did in setting our wedding budget was to prioritize what was most important to us. Our number one priority was having our family & friends there, followed by having a good photographer. So those were the parts that we dedicated the largest portions of our budget to. Then we figured out the maximum amount we could afford.

Next, we got creative. It helped that we had both been married before, and that I was a wedding photographer at the time. We knew what we didn’t want, we knew what people just didn’t pay that much attention to in reality, and knew what we did want. So we focused on getting the things we wanted at the best possible prices.

In other words, we bargained, traded, and did things unconventionally.

We had a late-morning garden wedding followed by lunch, all at the same location. Our wedding was also small, with a total of 35 people. Those three things right there resulted in huge savings.

We got our cake (which was delicious) at no charge, in exchange for shooting some photos for the baker’s portfolio. (More typical ways to save on wedding cakes would be to have a small “standard wedding” cake and a sheet cake for the rest of the guests, or to get your cake from a grocery store.)

We got our photographer at what we could afford after some deal-making and by limiting the time to two hours. (The photo above is one I shot. The actual photographer’s photos are beautiful, but I don’t have permission to publish them.) Conventional ways to save money on a photographer would be to use a student or someone just getting started, but personally I wouldn’t do that. It’s too risky IMO, especially if photos are important to you. Shooting a wedding is a lot harder and a lot more work than it looks like.

We saved a huge amount on food because I was mildly insane and uh…prepared the food myself. (Only downside to that was that I could have saved the $20 it cost me to get my nails done, since I had to redo them myself after all the food prep.) I’m a very laid back person and I ENJOY coming up with foods for parties, so it’s not as nuts as it probably sounds. Plus the people at the location took care of setting it up, serving it, and cleaning up. We just had to haul it there. (A more normal way to save on food would have been to have a buffet, choose more inexpensive foods, etc.)

We ordered our flowers from Costco, which was probably one of my favorite things that we did. They were super helpful, getting exactly what I wanted, telling me how to care for them, etc. It was one of my favorite things though because 20 dozen roses smell fabulous! Our house was like a garden before the wedding. Plus it was easy to make my bouquet. I had no bridesmaids (my son stood up for me) so the only other flowers to put together were bouts & centerpieces.

I got my dress from a resale shop, and they gave me a discount as well (because I asked.) My friend got me my veil.

Our musician for the ceremony & reception was relatively inexpensive because it was very short notice. (I forgot about a musician until like 3 days before the wedding — oops!) All’s well that end’s well. (Did I mention I’m laid back?)

Our location was relatively inexpensive too, because it was a new spot. We were their first wedding, and after a little bit of bargaining they gave us a deal. They were super nice and went above & beyond with lots of unexpected little touches. (As a side note, we could have done the ceremony location even cheaper, because I also reserved the local campus chapel as a backup for $35. But we still would have had to find a reception location, so we thought a place where we could have both at once would be best.)

The takeaways:
The main takeaways are to be unconventional, willing to do work yourself, and bargain. Hints for bargaining: Really try to understand the other party as well and what they might need or want. Don’t expect the world; be reasonable, and be sure the other party gets something great from the deal too so that you both walk away happy. (Don’t just expect people to give you a big percentage off for no reason. Give them a reason that benefits them.) Being easygoing and friendly helps too.

Also, don’t spend months on wedding web sites oooing and aaahing over all the latest trends. We deliberately put our wedding & reception together in 6 weeks. I know myself: the longer I have to plan something, the more expensive it gets.

Around here, holiday weekends in the summertime usually mean that everyone who can leave town, does.

But as my son pointed out, we could leave town, but we’re still here.

I’d like to have gone to the beach, but would rather do it during a time when it won’t be jam-packed. So we’re just having a lazy weekend here at home. It’s kind of peaceful.

Hope you’re having a good weekend. Here’s a little reading that I found interesting:

Millionaire Mommy Next Door discusses financial illiteracy and a simple cure.

Leave Debt Behind tells how to get a collections agency to work with you.

Ultimate Money Blog points out the if you give a mouse a cookie phenomenon.

Good Financial Cents explains how to do a background check on your financial advisor. (Which is a good idea, since anyone can call themselves a financial planner.)

Frugal Dad goes clothes shopping with his family, and overhears department store credit card celebrations. Check out the comments on this post too. (#10, mike’s, is probably my favorite.)