Day 1

Natalie and I have decided to take up investing as a form of long-term savings. I'm mostly influenced by the principles of Get Rich Slowly, we're following the suggestions of this article, and today, we officially became investors.

We've gotten a pretty good emergency fund set aside in a savings account and now we'll be splitting our extra finances between the savings and investment. The idea is that we become steadfast buy-and-hold investors to the end that our investment grows with the market, hopefully riding out the ups and downs with some stability. And someday when we're old or when we finally give in and decide to buy a spaceship, we withdraw, perhaps as needed.

Though we feel like we've approached it correctly, the prospect of investment, like many other of our life events over the past year, is completely terrifying. Partially due to the risk, mostly due to the changing state of life. We were married 8 months ago today, but realization of that event comes in acute waves. We're still changing and shaping our lives to cast in the mold of marriage. Personal, eating, sleeping, scholastic, and financial habits all change. We're still us, but a growing us. We feel catalyzed. I reckon this will continue to be the case.

But all is well. I mean, we've even made some pocket change on our first day on the market. Maybe I'll consider it enough spare change to accomplish something with our overdue laundry.

Goodbye, R.L.

The Red Lumina has finally left our presence. This was the car that brought me back out to Utah two years ago and drove me around for another year. Precious moments of the car breaking down in the middle of intersections and overheating in the summer are mere memories now.

About a year ago, I got another car. Pretty much the exact same model from two years earlier than the red Lumina. Being a navy blue, it's been dubbed the Blumina. After it was registered and everything was legal, I had no reason to keep the red car going. So it sat. After winning a ticket on the windshield for out-of-date registration while it sat on the street, we pushed it into our parking stall on private property.

Frustrations aplenty arose when we did not have a near-guaranteed place to park. For the past six months, we've gambled each night on a spot on the street. We've not always been so lucky and oftentimes we've had to park in unfavorable places. My landlord complained that it was not good to have the red car parked with its windows opened and petitioned me to remove it from the premises. I've intended to do just that, but it's always seemed like it would take a lot of work and negotiation to get rid of it. I didn't want to give it to a junk dealer without getting money out of it and I didn't want to get money out of it and find out later I could have gotten more.

I read a Craiglist classified while at work yesterday. An Orem man requested a free car to be purposed as his high school step-son's auto project. Apparently, the son had complained on numerous occasions that he was the only one in the auto mechanics class that didn't have a car of his own to work on. I felt good about it and gave him a call. When I got home, I searched for the keys which eluded me for a while, but I found them in the corner of a drawer. The fellow came by with his car dolly, we backed up the car and pushed it onto the dolly. Simple and easy. I handed him the title and a pen. He asked if it had to be signed now (presumably because he'd want it in his son's name) and I acknowledged in the affirmative.

Caught on video is the Lumina leaving us while I spoke with Natalie on the phone. It symbolically passes out of view behind the dumpster. Goodbye car. Thanks for the good times!