Adventures in Investing

It's been about a year since Toyota starting having problems with claims that their vehicles were unsafe. Shortly after these claims surfaced (and their stock's value dropped considerably), we decided to buy a handful of shares. Luckily, we happened to buy at just about the perfect time:

Other buys we've made have not worked out quite so well. Our first joint ventures into the market (S&P index funds) were bought in September 2008 and then again in February 2009. Both of these investments were swiftly followed by large drops in the market:

Oh well, these are supposed to be long-term investments anyway. And, hindsight is always 20/20 :)

New Zealand: 1 Week!

In 8 days, we are getting on a plane that will take us to Australia.

Two days after that, we will be boarding a boat that will drop us off in the Great Barrier reef, where we will descend to a depth of 40-60ft below the surface and encounter many animals we have never seen before. Some beautiful, some terrifying.

About 8 days after that, we will be getting on another, much smaller plane that will take us 14,000ft above New Zealand, push us out the door, and watch us free-fall back to Earth.

That is the plan anyway.

I am thoroughly terrified by both of these ideas.

I'm afraid I'm going to encounter a really dangerous animal in the reef.
I'm afraid of being that deep below the surface.
I'm afraid of my equipment malfunctioning.
I'm afraid that I won't know what I'm doing when I'm diving.

I'm afraid there will be a parachute failure during my skydive.
I'm afraid of looking down from 14,000ft.
I'm afraid that we'll have a hard landing.
I'm afraid that my tandem partner won't know what they're doing.

Before we went to Alaska, I had these same kind of fears about camping in Denali. I had nightmares most nights leading up to our trip that we would see and/or be mauled by a bear in the wild. I had read all the statistics on fatal Grizzly Bear attacks (notice there are none in Denali...), reviewed the park's information about Bear & Wildlife Safety, and studied the Human-Bear Conflict Management guides. Despite the underwhelming number of incidents and the endless resources for survival, I was still ridden with fear before we embarked on our wilderness camping experience.

Once we were actually out there, in the wild, I was able to put my fears aside by focusing on the one thing that never fails to motivate me: our kids. Ok, so we don't have kids yet, I am aware of that. But, I always think about being able to tell our kids someday about all the cool stuff we have done. Climbing a mountain. Being chased by a moose. Camping in the wild with wolves and bears, oh my!

So these days when I have nightmares about being attacked by a shark, or falling to my death, I just stop and think about how glad I am that I didn't let the paralyzing effect of fear get in the way of my experience in Alaska.

New Zealand: 2 Weeks!

In case you're wondering... Are we excited about our trip?...

YES!

New Zealand: 3 Weeks!

I have an app on my phone called "Countdown" that has all the important and/or exciting dates we have coming up, and it is probably my most frequently used app on my phone! I check this app every morning when I first wake up (I know, that's ridiculous). I have a countdown (or three!) for our upcoming trip to New Zealand, and I love it every morning when I check the time left to our big trip and there's so little time left!

We still have so much to decide on, plan, and book! So far, we have our plane tickets and a reservation to go diving in the reef. And yep, that's it. We're planning to leave a fair number of days wide open in case our plans change slightly and we decide to stay in a city for an extra day or anything like that. But still, we have a lot of work left to do! We still need to at least find hotels, a rental car, and some more activities to fill up our 2 weeks there, even if we don't make the reservations beforehand.

This trip is the second part of the travel plans on our "Baby Bucket List" (Alaska was the first part). This list is different than the Bucket List on this blog, it's a more concise, travel-centric list of places we want to visit before we settle down and start our family! We feel that getting these experiences out of the way now while we have the time and money is important for us and feeling "ready".

And the coolest part is that we're going to get to tell our kids about all these cool experiences we've had! (Crossing our fingers that they will think they're as cool as we do!)

House...?

If you've known us for very long, then you know that we very much would like to buy a house. And you may know that we've been trying to buy a house (or various houses) for almost 2 years now. It has been a journey, and we have learned a lot throughout this whole process, including the fact that God's timing is perfect :)

When we first attempted to buy a house, we were determined to make it happen (and quickly). Nothing was going to come between us and a house. Oh how naive we were! Our several attempts at buying a home failed because of one reason or another: the seller's bank took forever and then decided they needed $10,000 more, or our bank wouldn't secure a loan for the house because it was in a partially commercial building, or the house just plain sold to someone else. As hard as we tried to buy a house, God tried harder to stop us. It took a while for us to actually slow down and hear Him saying "not yet".

These days, we are still trying to buy a home, but we go about it very differently. We find a house we like, and then we pray "Lord, if this is the home You want us to live in, if this is Your will, please make it clear". Then, if we put an offer in and it doesn't work out, we say "Praise God for answering our prayer!" Ok, maybe it's not quite like that. There may or may not be a little moping that happens first, but eventually, we are thankful that He is in control because we know whatever He has in store for us is going to be awesome!

So recently, we found a house we like. And we put an offer in. And we prayed. And so far, we have an accepted offer! The home is a short sale, so we still need to get the offer approved by the seller's bank (which could take weeks or even months). But for now, we are rejoicing :)

Our 2011 Goals

Hello, New Year!

This past year has been a really great year for the Wimmers, but we are SO pumped about 2011! Amongst other things, we will be going on a dream vacation to New Zealand and (hopefully) buying our first home! Yeah!

Since it is a brand new year, we decided to set some brand new goals. Aaron and I have always been fairly goal-oriented, but it didn't really "click" for me until I read Dave Ramsey's book, "More than Enough". In it, he first quotes Proverbs 29:18, "Where there is no vision, the people perish." Then, he goes on to say:

Perish as in die? Yes. When we surrender vision, we surrender our dreams, our hopes, and reach a despair or, worse yet, a level of apathy as thick as syrup.

When I read the rest of this chapter, I was totally inspired. I was traveling for work and reading this book on the plane, and when I got to my hotel that night, I called Aaron right away and we started brainstorming some goals. One of the things Dave recommends is to set a big goal first, like a really crazy and wild one, and then set smaller goals or baby steps that lead to it. For us, this goal started out something like "Have the freedom to do whatever we want". Very generic. In the book, Dave states that any good goal must:

1) Be YOUR goals, not someone else's idea or suggestion. You must own the goal.
2) Be measurable. Convert your goal into a number so it's measurable. Measurability in money is alright if money isn't your only motivator. Try to measure your vision in something other than dollars.
3) Be written down. There is something powerful that God does for you when you force your thoughts onto paper.
4) Have a time limit. Monthly, weekly, daily, or even yearly is fine but there needs to be a finish line.

Love this! Ok so our goal evolved into something like "Be salary-independent by the time we are 40, so we can spend more quality time with our family and travel the world". Which we then broke down into smaller, more imminent goals around budgeting expenses (and sticking to them!), saving for a healthy down payment on a house, contributing to a college fund, and building passive income. And some of these goals we reached in 2010! Hence, why we're coming up with new ones for 2011!

And, we haven't just created financial goals, we've also talked about personal and spiritual ones too. Like "Grow spritually" (I don't like to translate this goal into something number-related, I like to just leave it open like that and then decide at the end of the year whether I did this or not). However, I did write down some more measurable sub-goals or action items like "join a Bible study or small group". And, my personal goal for this year is to "get more organized!" I'm currently going through all of the super messy areas in our apartment and organizing them as part of the 21 Days to Getting Organized Challenge at A Bowl Full of Lemons. More on that later...

A Very Nissen Christmas

Merry Christmas!

This year, Aaron and I travelled to Nebraska at Christmastime to see the Nissens (Aaron's mom's side of the family). We were very lucky to have no snowstorms this year for the drives there and back!

We had a wonderful time visiting family, exchanging gifts, and playing games. Aaron and I didn't really exchange gits this year because we bought a new camera for our upcoming trip to New Zealand, and we said that was our gift to each other this year. But, I couldn't resist getting him a few things. One of which was a Dog DNA Test! I wrapped the results (before opening them!!) and gave them to him on Christmas morning. According to the test results, Ellie is..... a Siberian Husky/Boxer mix. We're not totally sure we trust the test results yet, but we did Google that mix and there's definitely potential that it's accurate :)

I had never seen so many presents in my life:

Thanksgiving

Aaron and I have so much to be thankful for, I don't even know where to start.

We are thankful to have wonderful family and friends that love us, a place to call home, food to nourish our bodies, careers that we enjoy, pets that make us laugh, and, of course, each other to be partners through it all. We're also very thankful that we've gotten to experience so many cool things in the last year. We've gotten to travel to places that really opened our eyes and solidly placed a desire in our hearts to see more of the world.

We are thankful to love and be loved by a God that made the heavens and the earth, yet knows every hair on our heads... a God that knows what we need when we don't and that works everything for the good of those who love Him... a God that has poured so many blessings over us. Hallelujah!

I am also thankful to have such an adorable cousin (Atticus). We got to meet him on Thanksgiving. Look at that hair!

Ellie - 6 Months

Well, she's hardly a cute puppy anymore! Ok, maybe she's still cute, but she is oh-so-naughty! And she doesn't look much like a lab anymore, so we're a little puzzled about what breed(s) she could possibly be. We're starting to think she looks like a Pit Bull. I know that makes some people nervous because Pit Bulls are known to be aggressive, but we're not worried. We've seen the best and worst of her, and we know she's a lover.

Two Years

I can't even believe that our wedding day was 2 years ago already! It seems like just yesterday.

For our anniversary, Aaron and I went to the Wisconsin Dells for the weekend. I am so glad we chose the middle of October for our wedding date because this is such a perfect time of year. We went for a picnic and hike in the woods, and all the trees were just so beautiful and the air was perfectly crisp. Aaron and I also went to a pottery shop and painted mugs for each other with cute, personal messages on each of them. I will post pictures of them, so you can see how artistic my husband is! Basically, I love him :)