Weekend Assignment #236: 4th Quarter Projections

You may or may not know that Karen Funk Blocher of Outpost Mâvarin, a/k/a “she who giveth the Weekend Assignments,” is another blogging accountant. (Curiously, none of the blogging accountants I know actually blogs about accounting…) Our profession has inspired this assignment’s title, “Fourth Quarter Projections.”

Weekend Assignment #236: We’re now in the fourth quarter of the year, the time when (if they’re not on a different fiscal year) companies have their last chance to shore up any deficiencies and show a profit for the year. Let’s skip lightly over the fact that some companies accomplish this by cooking the books, and apply the basic principle to people instead of companies. As the year winds down, what do you hope to accomplish so that 2008, on balance, represents some kind of progress for you personally? (No, this does not mean financially, unless you’ve somehow bucked the trend of the rest of the country. Tell me about the writing, the home repair, the wedding, or anything else you hope to accomplish in the next few months.)

If you’d asked me this not too long ago, I’m not sure I’d have had much of an answer, other than “more of the same.” However, sometimes the unexpected happens, and we’ll be spending the holidays in a new home.

No, it’s not a “home” in the real-estate-professional’s use of the term; we’re not buying one – still not in the position for that, nor do we foresee when that might change. But it’s definitely a move up on the rental scale, and it’s also a good illustration of why clichés like “right place at the right time” and “it’s who you know” actually mean something once in a while.

A couple of weeks ago, I was included in a group e-mail from a woman in my book club. She and her family were getting ready to move east of Los Angeles, closer to their extended family, and had decided to rent out their townhouse here – it was one of those “pass this along if you know anyone who might be interested.” She included a link to the rental listing, so I clicked through – and after taking a look, the only person I passed it along to was Tall Paul. I then e-mailed her back that I knew someone who was very interested. A frenzied ten days of scheduling a viewing, application paperwork, and e-mails back and forth followed, and we signed an 18-month lease a few days ago, which will start on November 1. The rest of this month will be taken up with packing and other moving-related tasks.

We’ve occasionally talked about moving over the last year or so, but we weren’t looking. There’s not much out there in pet-friendly apartments with the space we need (three bedrooms, since we have two opposite-sex kids), and we’ve been a little skittish about a house rental because there’s always the possibility that the owners might decide to sell and then the tenants can be left in the lurch. This just dropped from the Internet, though, so to speak, and it’s very much what we’d talked about: reasonable rent for what we’re getting, more spacious, nicer neighborhood, closer to the kids’ other home (but a longer commute for me – oh well, nothing’s perfect), and it has a garage, which makes my husband very happy. However, I mentioned the house-rental concern to my friend (now landlady!) when I first e-mailed her. She and her husband have said several times that they have “no plans” to sell, and for now we’re all locked in for a year and a half anyway…I guess we’ll revisit it all in the spring of 2010, but hopefully this will be a good situation for all of us for some time to come. (And if they ever do decide to sell, maybe we’ll be ready to be buyers by then…)

The next month or so will be hectic, I’m sure. Tall Paul and I had planned a long weekend in the middle of October to celebrate our second wedding anniversary, and we’ll probably spend it packing and cleaning and shopping for major appliances. But with luck, we’ll be settled in by Thanksgiving, and I’m hoping we can get a larger Christmas tree this year.

Extra Credit: What is the best thing you’ve done so far this year?

This one’s easy – the road trip. Even though the kids really don’t want to spend so much time in the car on our next vacation, it was worth it.

Have you got any big (or small) items on your life to-do list for the remainder of the year?

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 2,318 other subscribers

12 comments

  1. All the best wishes on your move. Moving is a great way to get a fresh start on everything and it sounds like you are well on your way. And congrats on your upcoming wedding anniversary. Woo!

  2. I am so happy for you, Florinda. I think home is appropriate since isn’t that where your family is? 🙂

    And happy early anniversary! It sounds like October will be a busy but good month for you.

  3. Karen H – I got going on that “fresh start” yesterday by cleaning out the pantry and getting rid of too many things past their “best by” date. Hopefully we’ll do better with that in our new place! And my husband has packed about 10 boxes already :-).

    Literary Feline – I absolutely agree, Wendy. “Home” is where you make it.

    Yes, October will be very busy. Our anniversary is the 21st, and it’s Tall Paul’s birthday month (on the 26th, he’ll be…well, a little past his mid-40’s :-D), and then there’s Halloween, which I’m not into, but he and the kids are. My sister’s birthday is at the end of the month too.
    Wish us luck keeping our heads on straight!

  4. I’m so happy it’s all worked out for you. The flylady.net website has some great Moving Tips you might want to check out.

  5. April – It’s working out well enough that it’s making my husband nervous. We’re not used to things going that smoothly :-). Thanks for the link to FlyLady!

  6. congrats on the new place! between the time we lived in sherman oaks and had no children and the point when we decided to move to agoura when i was pregnant with our oldest (pre-utah days), we considered moving to your new area. i thought it was a fabulous location! i bet you’ll love it there!

  7. That’s weird how that all worked out. It just kind of fell in your lap. Sounds like it will be a great fit for you guys, except the longer drive for you. Good luck on the move!

    We have a busy month too. Jenn’s birthday, my sister’s birthday and our anniversary.

  8. Alisonwonderland – I knew you used to live in SoCal, but didn’t realize it was so close to my neck of the woods! I was in Thousand Oaks for my first three years out here, and now we’re moving from the east side of Simi Valley to the west side.

    Mike – You and Jenn are an October anniversary too?! What date?

    It is weird how it’s all been working out SO FAR. There will probably be a glitch in the details of the move itself – something broken, problem with the movers, utilities not set up – because things just DON’T go this smoothly for us :-).

  9. Ours is the 14th. Which means I need to get a card soon.

    We had problems getting our phone turned on. We didn’t realize the old owners had cable phone. Once we figured that out we were good to go.

  10. Mike – If you would have said your anniversary was the 21st too, I think that would have been a sign that we need to make a trip to Chicago and meet you guys!

    We’ve already found out that the owners/landlords have regular phone service :-).

  11. KFB – Thanks! We’re planning to pay people to do most of the heavy stuff, though; we are well past the DIY-moving stage of our lives :-).