Investing for retirement

Around this time of year I think about our investing plan for retirement. We don't have traditional pension plans. Our retirement savings consist of 401K (and 403b) plans, which we can invest in mutual funds, plus IRAs. This means we have to make all of our own investment decisions, which seems like a potential disaster. So far its gone (mostly) OK. I really hope I don't screw it up.

Anyway, the asset allocation has been pretty consistent since November 2004 (starting the day after Bush was re-elected), and is currently as follows:

62% foreign stock funds (divided between Fidelity emerging markets fund, Fidelity spartan international index fund, and Fidelity Canada fund).

13% Cree stock.

25% cash, earning an average of about 5% yield.

That's it.

For the last 2 years the foreign stock funds have done great, about 30% gain two years in a row, while the Cree shares have gone nowhere. So overall, its done OK.

I'm just going to stay with the same allocation until I see a reason to change it.

I really hope I don't screw this up!

Gourds

Lisa has been painting gourds. Here is a picture of a typical gourd, dried and ready for painting:


















And here are some gourds after they have been painted:

Injury seems to be gone

I think I recovered from my calf strain. It feels normal, anyway. I'm going to wait until January 1 before starting the running again, just to make sure. Meanwhile, I've been amusing myself with lots of biking and swimming, so I haven't lost fitness. I think the most important thing for athletic training at my age is to avoid developing injuries.

Minor injury

I think I have a minor calf strain. At least that's my best guess, after researching on the web. Got it running, very suddenly. After a couple of days it feels fine walking around, but I can feel it if I jog more than a short distance.

Biking feels fine, so I think I will take the next 2 or 3 weeks off from running, and just bike and swim. I'll start running again in January. Hopefully that should take care of it.