We're underway...

Finally, a response. It came over a week ago in the form of a phone call from the 'second guy' I tried to contact. We'll call him Mike. Almost immediately after Mike calls, the 'first guy' called to set up an appointment as well. Sorry dude, you had a couple of extra days head start and you still missed the boat...

My wife and I met Mike last week, and we did the basic get-to-know each other. He took some notes on what our goals are, and where we want to be in the next few years, stuff like that. Then he gave us some basic forms for tracking our spending and also for calculating our net worth. I've tried to find duplicates on the web, but so far I've come up empty handed. Visit any financial website and you'll find similar forms, just not the exact ones given to us (not that you'd fail if you didn't use the exact forms we got).

During our hopes and dreams conversation, I told Mike that my overall plan was to outgrow him. I think he took it well. I'll post my 'big goal' later, but-like I told Mike-he'll either have to quit his job to work for me full time, or he'll have our account taken from him because it's too large for him to handle!

During our conversation, my wife asked the perfect question. "Not to sound dumb, but what is it that you're going to do for us?" I thought it was the perfect (and absolutely not-dumb) question! He replied with a basic rundown of the products he sells (insurance and mutual funds) and how he helps people develop budgets. It was this question that got me thinking, "Why do we really need this guy?"

The answer I've come up with is 'accountability.' Originally, this blog was to serve as a mechanism of accountability for our spending habits. Unfortunately, the inconsistent and wacky posts of the past have left us with a big fat zero for this blog keeping us accountable. I also wanted someone to handle the finances for us. Not paying the bills, but putting our money in places that would get us some decent returns. After all, I bought Bank of America near it's 52 week high in 2007 (and carried it all the way to the bottom).

There's a lot of things floating around in this post. I'll expand on them later. But for now, we have a financial planner, and we're meeting him again on Thursday. More to follow...