Adios, 2016

So we ended the year in ways both fun and dutiful.  Yesterday Wifey and the Ds met me at a Merrill Edge office in the Gables, where we did something we ought to have done years before: switch out of our accounts with a long time broker.

Years ago it became silly to pay full price for stock trades, but a long time relationship and inertia kept us as clients of Victoria.  A few years ago, she brought her son in to work with her -- a strapping, charming, and good looking young man, who tends to act without checking details.  When he told me a few years ago, that he would send me a check for a closed mutual account out of my retirement account -- I had to remind him that such a transaction would trigger a hefty IRS penalty.  Oh yeah, he responded.  But we kept on.

Early in the week, we had lunch with our long time brokers, and they announced that their firm was switching to an asset based fee structure -- you pay a percentage of your assets, in return for no commissions.  They told us is was to be 2.75%, which I knew was absurd, but could do it for 1%, still too high for me, as I rarely trade, and then, when I said I was leaving, said, ok, we can do it for .035%.  This made our feelings even more annoyed -- long time "friends" don't negotiate like that.  So we decided to leave, and met with a nice young fellow at B of A who helped us set up new accounts, which I will handle on my own.  Since I check things daily, anyway, this won't be too much of a change.

From there, the Ds and I went to D1's old office, and helped her clean it out -- she's moving after the new year to new digs half a block from her apartment.  We said goodbye to her landlord -- a concierge doc who is both brilliant and a little strange, and he wished her well.

From there, D2 and I went home, and then to buy supplies for a fire pit getty she planned.  On the way home, we stopped in to see her grandmother, newly home from rehab.  The old woman looked sharp and strong as ever -- I don't see her heading to a nursing home any time soon, though Wifey and I are in the process of getting her Medicaid qualified, in case that happens.

Then I came home and tuned in the Orange Bowl game, and D2's friends starting coming over: Elise and Brett, Amanda and Ben, and Carly.  D1 and Amanda have known each other their whole lives, and she met the others in Middle School.  They're all now either working (Ben's a teacher and Amanda works in LA for a talent agency --Carly works in LA, too) or finishing grad school (Elise at UF Law, and Brett getting a UF MBA).  They laughed and compared life stories, and I built them a roaring fire in the firepit outside, where they made s'mores.  The sight of these awesome young folks warmed me.

Later today, Wifey and D2 are going to some new hair salon, and they'll fetch Jonathan, and then D2 and Jonathan will come here, before heading out for a NYE party.  Wifey and I will go to Loni and Mike's -- also to ring in the year with old and dear friends.

2016 was a very good year.  So many FaceBook comments say otherwise -- due to Trump's election, and a bunch of celebrity deaths -- but to me, those events are interesting but not intimate.

As I always tell the Ds, life is unfair, but can often be beautiful and exquisite.  Big Man willing, there'll be much beauty and exquisiteness in 2017.  At the very least, we'll save money off our investment accounts...