Financial Planning

Hi all! We went to see a financial advisor last night at Ameriprise. Anyone have any experience with them or another wide spread organization like that? It will be $600 for them to do up our "plan". I know Primerica does it for free, but I don't know if they are as comprehensive. I wanted to shop around before we made a choice on the spot since we haven't done anything to date. We need to do something, and we will do something, I just wanted a second opinion. If you can't or don't want to put it on my blog, please send me an e-mail because this is new to me.

I've been tracking our finances in Quicken for several years now and know how it's spent, but I need more information on how to save or invest it for retirement. We have a 529? for Hannah's education, but haven't been putting money in it since we moved because Keith's employer won't deduct it automatically and we just have been shifting stuff around so far. We need to be smarter with what we have. I probably should have been doing something 10 years ago when I got out of college. It just seems like it's always "something" cropping up. No more. We need to have a plan. So, any suggestions (even if it's who to avoid) would be very welcome.

School is winding down for Hannah. There is an end of the year party afterschool for the dance/jump club. Field day is next week and the class is going to attempt to tie dye shirts tomorrow. There is an outing to the park next week. End of the year awards ceremony. End of school party. A movie date for the class to get together at one of the neighboring subdivision's clubhouse on Sunday. I am trying to keep it all straight because I know Hannah won't.

She is making up her EOG from Tuesday today. She said she does it in class. I'm wondering how on earth that will work. If it's a 2+ hour test, how can she sit there and do that when there is other stuff going on all around her? She's obviously distractable. It just doesn't seem like a winning combination to me. Maybe she's mistaken and they take all of the kids who need to make up a test someplace else? That would make more sense to me.

Okay, heading off to work now.