Well, I did it. I reallocated my 401k. I was really nervous about it, and I’m still a little sick to my stomach, but I know in the long run that it will be much better because now I am more diversified. What really scared me was that almost 30% of my entire 401k was in company stock and if (God forbid) the company went under, well there goes 30% of my 401k money. I’d be stupid to leave that much in there. Enron anyone?

At first, I was worried about all the money that I lost by selling my company stock. After all, last year it was around $38 a share, and of course I was gifted shares and perhaps bought some too at that price. Now the stock is around $5 a share. That’s a lot of money to lose! However, I am looking at it like this: I didn’t technically pay for it, so I really haven’t lost any of my own money. Next time the company matches my 401k contribution, I’ll sell the stock they give me. I am not too worried about the company failing, but after all, it is a bank, and we all saw what happened with Indy Mac.

I feel good about my decision. Now I can sleep at night without worrying about having so much in company stock. It’s never good to have too many eggs in one basket.

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As you are reading this, I am camping in the great wilderness.  Okay, it’s probably not the “great wilderness”, but it’s vacation, and I’m happy that I don’t have to be at work!  When Mr. Money and I knew we had some time off coming up, we debated on what we were going to do during the vacation.  We talked about going camping (saves money), visiting family, and just staying around the house and getting some home improvement projects done.  We decided we would do a little camping and then go visit family.  That would be something we would both enjoy, and we wouldn’t spend too much money.

Being as frugal as I am, I seriously considered just staying at home.  With current gas prices, I couldn’t justify driving or flying the 1500 miles to Colorado. We talked about skipping the trip to visit my family, but it’s only 5 or 6 hours, and won’t cost us that much.  We haven’t seen them in awhile and it’s definitely overdue.  Mr. Money had wanted to go camping, so I said we should do that for a few days and then go visit family for the rest.  We compromised.

I always wonder how others view vacations.  A lot of people consider them a waste of money because you have nothing to “show” for the money you’ve spent.  Some people consider it an investment in their sanity (I agree!) and that is money well spent.  Others think that they can’t take it with them, so why not spend it now while they can and enjoy it.

How do you view vacations? Are they a good use of money? 

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