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Tag Archives: money

Merrill Lynch IRA finally transfers!

Hallelujuah!  I’ve been trying since late October to transfer my IRA away from the “too big to fail” Merrill Lynch, owned by the about-to-fail Bank of America.  Any company that’s “too big to fail” probably will.  That, or they’ll just keep my money and not let me have access to it until they’re solvent again … if/when that happens.  No, I don’t trust large corporations.  Can you tell?  :)

I’m fairly sure all of the delays were intentional.  But now, finally, the funds are in my credit union account.

Paying off a credit card

That’s a nice headline, and it felt good doing it today.  Granted, the bulk of the balance was simply transferred to another credit card.  But still …  :)   I also closed out the checking account associated with the card, making sure to close the checking account first. 

My fear was that if I paid off the credit card first, they (US Bank) would add a fee to my checking account because its balance was below $1,000 and no longer connected in any way to a credit card.  It was that connection that was keeping them from charging me a monthly checking account fee.

It gets complicated, like everything to do with finance these days.  Anyway, the card and account are now closed, and it still feels good.  :)

Lesson learned

I’ll be spending all week (Spring Break) with my almost-6-year-old daughter, Elizabeth.  Woo hoo!  Yesterday was supposed to be my only “day off,” as she was supposed to be in school (snow make-up day).  But she’s come down with the flu, so she stayed home with me.  I took her to the doctor, and they confirmed she has type A flu.  It’s been going around a lot, they said.

Anyway, today, after returning from the mall (where we went out of sheer boredom), and after I took a nap (yes, I’m getting old), she had an idea.  ”How about if I do something for you and you pay me money?”

“Okay, what?” I asked.  While she thought about it, I had her picking things up and putting them in her room.  After 30 seconds of that, she said, “It would be more funner if I sweeped things.”

“Okay, what do you want to sweep?”

“The kitchen!”

“Okay.”

Once finished sweeping, she had me help with the dust pan.  ”Now it’s time to mop,” she said.

I agreed and sneaked back into the office to “work” on the computer (surf the Internet) while she was in the kitchen, mopping the floor.  I’m thinking, “Man, wait until I tell Tara [my wife] I’ve trained Elizabeth to do housework!  She won’t believe it.” Continue reading →