tinylady, in your shoes I would try to find a Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) who does financial planning on an hourly fee basis. Everyone's situation is utterly unique to them. An in-depth financial analysis would determine where you are, what are your goals, and whether you are on-track to achieve them. If you are not, then an advisor with fiduciary responsibility is obligated to discuss alternatives that are in your best interest, without pushing products that earn him/her $$. Pls do contact your pension fund administrators or HR dept first, as some companies offer their employees low-cost or a free initial referral to a CFP for planning purposes. This referral service is becoming a popular benefit so see if it's available to you. CFP means Certified Financial Planner, which falls under the strict RIA classification. If not, there are two member organizations of fee-only CFPs. I don't know of any for CPAs with PFS certification (another of the 4 certified titles that qualify as fiduciary-duty RIAs) but if you Google you may find an association that can refer you to such a person in your area. Depending on where you live it can be hard to find an RIA nearby who is fee-only. There is a lot of misunderstanding about what financial planning is. It is a roadmap of where you are, an identification of your goals, and a plan on how to achieve those goals. Only RIAs are allowed to do true financial planning; any other title, no matter how fancy it sounds, can offer investment advice but NOT a true financial plan. A financial plan involves investing but that is not its sole purpose, although that may be most important to you at this time. It is not solely centered around retirement, but instead should focus on all aspects of your financial well-being. This is something one could DIY, at least up to a point I can and have. But getting an objective opinion once in a while from a good RIA is something weÂve found worthwhile. We Âpiggy-back on a relativeÂs CFP and itÂs been very helpful to touch base annually. The two fee-only CPA associations are: NAPFA, the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors, is the nationÂs leading organization dedicated to the advancement of Fee-Only comprehensive financial planning. Website is http://www.napfa.org/ Garrett Planning Network is an international network of fee-only financial advisors and planners. Website is http://www.garrettplanningnetwork.com/ Below is a link to an excellent list of questions you should ask any advisor, on the CFP.net website. This website also has a search function for finding a CFP, but they are more geared towards asset-based mgmt CFPs (those who charge a percentage of portfolio assets, usually with a $250K minimum on investments) as opposed to fee-only CFPs. Anyway, good luck to you going forward. I hope you are able to retire according to your plans! I've been retired since 2006 and we're counting the days down till my DH retires early next year.

Well, this has definitely been a learning experience for us! We've not been happy with the level of responsiveness from our insurance company although it supposedly is ranked as one of the top companies in the country. In many ways they have screwed up from the get go. So, we've been feeling that we are definitely on our own on this one. After more than a month of hassling this, we are starting to think that perhaps we should have just hired a GC. But, at the start we didn't realize that the scope of the necessary repairs would keep expanding into the realm where a GC might be necessary. Our adjuster just told us to find some companies to bid on the heating and plumbing work (all that we initially thought was involved). As we get further into this, we are realizing all of the additional things that will need to be worked on. I guess we are lucky in that we have the funds in hand to pay for some of the initial expenses such as temporary lodging and initial diagnostic work on the house. A number of times we've talked about how in the world people who don't have the extra money would be able to handle making these payments and then waiting for reimbursement. Our insurance company didn't even step up and offer any assistance with finding temporary lodging until more than two weeks into this. And, then, they didn't have any better options than I'd managed to find after hours and hours of searching on my own. I think some of the issues we are having are due to our wanting to do things our own way to make sure they are done correctly and in a manner suitable to a 100 year old house. The insurance company has four approved contractors in our city, and if we had chosen to work through them all of the money would have gone directly to them through the insurance agency without us having to be involved at all. But, we started looking into reviews of those companies, and they weren't great. So, we opted out of using those approved contractors. We are ending up acting as our own GC, but it is a lot of work! We are lucky we have the time to do this. Yes, we have just considered paying off the rest of the mortgage and could do that. But, we live in a pretty pricey house and that is a good chunk of money that we might want to have available elsewhere in this entire process. So, we are sitting on that idea for a bit. And, when asking about pocketing some of the money by doing work on my own, my intent is not to defraud or raise rates. I just want to know why I could not do the painting myself since I am as capable as the professional that I know the insurance company will be paying a pretty penny to do the same work. So, are some of you suggesting that we just hire a GC, have the GC make a bid for the entire project, and then make our own arrangements with the GC on how we could save some of the total sum by doing the work ourselves? Thanks for all of the advice and personal experiences.

I have not only ours, but have been over the years caregiver for both my mother and aunt. I'd highly recommend keeping them for at least several years. Just about a week ago, I got an EOB from her supplemental for Aunt (who died in Jan) for a service that was performed in Dec. Reasons you need to keep them for a while: not all facilities bill promptly--you often need to go 6 months back to make sure benefits are coordinating properly; if you end up in an estate situation, you sometimes need those records; often you think a bill is taken care of, an the facility thinks it's NOT*; also, aside from the financial aspects, those are a great addition to your health record (what year was it I had my appendectomy?)--everything is on them, and you can refer to them. There's also the tax stituation--you need to be able to verify your health deductions--what you paid, what was paid for you, etc. *We've had a problem with this just recently. I was in the ER last August, DH paid the bill IN FULL, IN CASH and got a Paid in full receipt the beginning of SEPT (2011). We've been billed at least 5 times since for a portion of that bill. Each time we've addressed the issue, sending proof we paid it--and been told the matter was cleared off our account. And just a few weeks ago, I got a letter saying they would be turning the matter over to collections--I have been told one more time that our account is cleared. The gal I spoke to seemed surprised that I wanted written proof (????????) I got a printout of the account with a 0 balance, but I'm not wholely convinced yet.... I cannot tell you how many times, for one reason or another, I've had to refer back to those records years later. I'd hang on to them--neatly organized, of course.

Lascatx, sounds like you had the same type of leak/flood we experienced, except in my case there was nobody home so the water gushed unimpeded through the house for 18 hours! And Bonnie, our situation is very similar to yours; we also called ServPro immediately and they were at the house within an hour or so--on a Sunday afternoon! They did an amazing job drying things out and actually had all the flooring off within about 36 hours of the flood to completely dry out the underfloor and avoid mold which is a HUGE issue as you can imagine in Miami FL. Like your MIL's house they placed large fans, dehumidifiers etc. and checked on a daily basis to ensure the moisture levels were low. We also reported the damage immediately on Monday morning and the insurance adjuster told us the same thing, that ServPro was exactly the right choice. As for an update, the day before Thanksgiving after almost daily email inquiries for weeks I finally got the paperwork saying the claim was approved, along with a statement of loss I had to sign and notarize to process the payment. I sent that in earlier this week and was notified yesterday the payment will be processed (hopefully meaning a check issued!) within 10-14 business days. Based on that I told my contractor we can get started. I picked up floor tile samples yesterday, focusing on in stock materials because his floor guys will start work December 10th. Even if I don't have payment in hand, everything seems legally in order so I am comfortable moving forward. Once the work is done I can get the house on the rental market again although I hope things aren't too slow during the holidays.