I've been BUSY, both with work and with personal finance reading. I feel guilty for not being on top of the finance business earlier, especially when I had a higher income. Oh well, I can only look forward at this point.

Mr. Bean and I did get free credit reports over the weekend. Luckily, there were no surprises or red flags for either of us.

By December 1st, I will:

1. Open a Roth IRA (I'm leaning towards going through Vanguard, but welcome any opinions on this)
2. Open ING Savings

By December 15th;
1.Figure out what to do with my 401(k) from old job
2. Meet with insurance agent to review auto coverage (we only have 1 car, we picked coverage in a bit of a hurry, may be over covered in some areas).

By January 15th:
1. Compare rates at other car insurance companies to ensure we want to stay with current provider.
2. Analyze savings to see if some could be used for a low-medium risk investment

My money is sitting around in a savings account and checking account at a brick and mortar and making squat. I have a very modest 401(k) from my first year of in a 'real' job, but I haven't done any specific retirement savings since 2003 when I switched to a better paying position that didn't offer a 401(k). Had I been smarter, I would have sought out retirement savings through a bank. Be ye not so stupid.

After reading the forums, I'm a little confused, but it seems like a good way to start is to open an ING account through Jeffery's link and get the $25 bonus (yes, I realize I need to open with $250), and then open an EM account and send Jeffrey 2 ING refferals and get a $20 bonus. Do I understand it correctly that the only way to get the $20 ED (via Jeffrey) bonus is to have ING referrals to donate to Jeffrey?

Once my money is in these accounts, my next goal will be to look into an IRA or some other retirement savings.