Happy New Year!

Us DINKs are looking forward to a prosperous and fulfilling 2009.

We were particularly excited to start out the New Year on the right foot with a job offer issued and signed on the eve of 2009. Miel landed a position that is perfect for her with an international development organization doing regional program management. She will be based in DC with plenty of travel to Africa.

She also got offered exactly what she had been hoping for in terms of salary. This was 8% on top of the previous 8% she had received from her last job that fell through. This is an effective 15% increase on her base from October. While we don’t have the luxuries of danger pay and so forth, we do have the opportunity to enjoy time together and still have the travel component that Miel enjoys so much.

James is getting ready to take his next set of comprehensive exams, so you’ll be hearing more posts from Miel in the coming weeks while James goes into hibernation.

In terms of next steps, this means we’ve taken a look at our finances and where we want to go from here. We decided that our next move will be to proceed with purchasing a place in Portland in the next several months. After this we will work on maxing out the last of Miel’s 401(k) that wasn’t topped off due to her job situation. After we’ve achieved those goals we’ll reassess how things are looking for us.

Looking forward to all that 2009 will bring and wishing all our readers a joyous New Year.

Best,

Miel&James

MANAGE YOUR MONEY TOGETHER

Here are some simple guidelines for DINKS to build wealth:

1) Collaborate: Meet regularly to talk about money, set goals together, track and monitor them.

2) Understand and respect your partner. Take time to understand your partners values about money.

3) Watch the numbers. Get a budget, monitor your spending and track your net worth.

4) Max your retirement. Maximize contributions to your tax deferred retirement accounts.

5) Invest in stock. Stocks perform better than bonds or cash.

6) Avoid high interest debt. Credit cards and title loans are financial cancer.

7) Diversify. Don't put all your eggs in one basket.

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