Too Late for a Garden?

Since January, Bailey and I talked about expanding our “garden” from two raised beds to an additional 12’x3’ bed and a couple of areas nearby for vine vegetables and herbs. We also talked about setting up an area to seed some vegetables. In February, Bailey got out his gardening books “from hobbies past” for me to look at some timing of vegetables. We were already running late to seed a few things and decided we would wait and do that for some lettuces and fall vegetables. Time kept ticking and now its April 19th as I type this and we haven’t done a dang thing. Our attempt to order supplies and have it delivered from Lowes was thwarted by terrible service…basically they just didn’t deliver on the date and time we set up. Now, we are leaving on the 24th to go on vacation for a week – my mom will be on vacation at the same time, so we don’t have anyone to come over and water. The Easter weekend hustle and bustle at all the nurseries is giving me absolute FOMO – can’t plant anything now!

Goals

Reality

Life can happen like that. You procrastinate, too many details, something comes up, no one takes the lead to make it happen, and you just never get started. I see this a lot with younger people and retirement. In your 20s and even 30s, turning 65 is forever away. You are handed a packet from your employer and must make 30 decisions about healthcare benefits, insurance, tax withholding, sign non-solicitations etc. When it comes to the 401k, people typically opt to participate at the minimum not even looking at the investments or just putting it off because they want all their income now or have student loans or not making as much income as they thought because of taxes – Eww. We were never taught this in school – the memes about learning how to square dance or playing the Recorder but not about saving and investing are for real!

So, what do you do if you skipped that whole saving thing? Start now. Like today now. Saving is like building muscle – you just start, and you get stronger and stronger. And its not all about saving to be 65, 75 or 85…it can be for something soon – new car, vacation, down payment on a house, your first child.

Where do you start?

• Contribute up the match now and then as you get a raise or a handle on your expenses, increase your savings.
• Start an emergency fund with a savings account connected to your checking account with 3-6 months of savings.
• Start an investment account that you “can’t get to” and start saving there.
• Look at your expenses, do an honest audit and trim the fat.

Taking these steps now will help you in the future. We have been on a wild ride that last few weeks with the stock market and the uncertainty is real. You can create stability for yourself/your partner/your family in the face of uncertainty when you put in the work.

You can do these things on your own or you can use a financial planner – yes, we have that at GrandView. Our planning process begins with checking off the list above and expands into larger areas to tackle. If you are like me, you need a coach, accountability and someone to provide guidance. That is what a planner is for. For younger clients with limited assets, we offer financial planning with a limited scope on a subscription basis.

So, the first weekend in May we will be back from vacation and hit the nurseries to pick through the sad leftovers of tomatoes, peppers and herbs. We will make the best of our late spring planting and prepare for fall. The 12-foot raised bed will get built, the planters will get filled with herbs and the summer long fight with bugs, slugs, birds and deer will commence. We may not get squash or watermelon this year, but we will have tomatoes and unlimited amounts of homemade pesto this summer. Yum!