Everyone must know by now that I can't keep track of or organize physical objects. It's all here....somewhere. So as I go through bits and pieces of paper in order to do not only my taxes, but the taxes for Miss Ema and Frugal Son, I keep coming upon pieces of paper that merit attention.
**For instance, I am shredding some of my financial statements from 2007 (pre-meltdown). I don't need them any more. It is distressing to note that I had about the same amount of money then as now--though I've continued to pour money into my accounts.
**In another for instance, I am finally opening some of the statements--still in envelopes--from the downward slide of Fall 2008 till....well, perhaps continuing. Even though things have recovered a bit, it is still gut wrenching to see the plummeting.
**I found a column clipped from the Times-Picayune in 2004. It was written by Jonathan Clements, a great favorite of my rather's, who wrote a column called Getting Going for the Wall Street Journal. Sadly for me, though not for him, Clements now has a lucrative position with an investment bank or something. Anyway, this particular article suggested ways to allocate retirement funds so as to deal with the various bad things that can happen. Like inflation, like a major financial meltdown. Of course, in 2004, everyone was saying that, after the meltdown of 2000, we would see the next one coming....so not to worry. Clements suggested keeping 5 years of living expenses in a safe place--like CDs. How such advice was ridiculed in 2004; experts were then saying "You can always take money out of your home appreciation." I think Clements's advice would have saved a lot of people a lot of misery.
**Then I found a journal that belonged to my son. All pages were empty, except the first page, which has a single sentence. Dated February 2, 2003: I am only beginning to write a journal because of a great tragedy.
Anything interesting turning up as you prepared your taxes?
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