Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Choosing Companies to Work on Your Home

Yikes, I almost made a big mistake. I started with the phone book and picked several companies that sounded like they might fit the bill. I then went to their websites and looked over their services. That narrowed the list to two companies. I then went to the BBB and checked out their ratings. A+ each. I called my first choice because of their listed services. It sounds like they specialize in exactly what I need done. So I call the land line. I think I was magically transferred to the cell phone. It stopped ringing and I heard muffled sounds followed by a voice. I thought perhaps he was finishing a conversation before speaking to me but in the end I'm not sure he ever knew he "answered" the phone. The conversation went something like this, "You need to drop him. He's going to ruin your reputation. He's a f****** moron." At that point I hung up because I wasn't sure I wanted to talk to him if he ever realized he "answered" the phone. I then called my next choice and got a friendly employee. We scheduled an appointment for an estimate. When I got home I was little freaked out by the experience, not sure what to think really. Should I call the first company again so I can compare two estimates? So I signed up for Angie's list. These were the only two companies in my area with ratings. Rating for company 1? D. Among the complaints - overpriced, low quality, unresponsive. Rating for company 2? A. Among the positives - responsive, priced right, decent quality. I think that says enough..haha. I won't bother calling the first company again unless something goes very badly with the estimate.

Monday, December 28, 2009

2009 Goal Evaluation

Let's take a trip into recent history and see what they were.

1. Buy a house

Done! Yay, I'm so thrilled about accomplishing that one.

2. Grow net worth by $5000.

Done! Wow. Rough estimates are growth of $20k+ this year. Well, $8k came from the first time home buyer's tax credit, lucky me. My 401k grew by about $10k. I'm surprised at that, but I think most of that is a result of the economy recovering a little bit.

3. Establish a plan to generate some secondary income. Some ideas -
a - Concentrate on making more investments that throw dividends.
b - Sell soap.
c - Rental property.

Okay, I completely forgot about that one. But in my heart I've been thinking about these options and "a" appears to be the only viable one. Let's face it, I don't want to be a landlord. I also don't want to have to be responsible for making and marketing a product, being properly insured, worrying about packaging, customer service, blah blah blah.. I think this will be a carry over into 2010.

4. Pay off 20% of car loan.
Yes! 18.1% to 60.8%, awesome. That's over 40% pay off this year.

5. Pay off 10% of student loan.

Didn't happen. 8.8% to 11.9%. I suppose 3% in the right direction is better than no movement at all right? Hopefully I can settle into making full payments soon.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Emergency Funds

I've seen the idea of emergency funds come up differently lately with the current economic climate. The old 3-6 months worth of expenses rule of thumb is coming with more exceptions. For example, households with one income or where one of the employed has a position that would be hard to replace should have more than 6 months stashed away. The idea of having a year's worth of expenses sitting around in a cash-equivalent kills me, though. So my revised plan is to have the first 6 months in cash equivalents (done) and start working toward having the next 6 months in whatever I want provided it's easily accessible. For me that mostly means a total market index fund with low expenses. I also hold very small amounts in two stocks and a small amount in a more conservative mutual fund. It has always been my plan to build those investments, but now I have a more pressing goal. So that's cool. And I'm already on my way thanks to the first time homebuyer's tax credit.

Friday, December 18, 2009

Tax Refund - Plan B

I recently realized I have an ice problem. In retrospect, I should have known sooner. About the time the realtor and I noticed the air conditioner was damaged and the neighbor said it had been damaged by ice falling from the roof. His solution? Put a board over it so when the ice falls, it hits the board. That sounded easy enough. I didn't think to wonder why there was ice up there in the first place.

After a good amount of research, I've concluded it's a combination of lack of insulation and ventilation in the attic. Anything not addressing those two items is a temporary band-aid sort of solution. I'm hoping the tax refund will cover it. Or mostly cover it. I'm not sure where to start. It's bothering me because that ice up there can cause water damage, it could fall on a small child, it drips and refreezes on my entrance, etc. I don't think a roof rake will reach and I don't foresee myself getting on a ladder and wielding a rake at the snow on the roof. Maybe I should get an estimate ASAP so I can at least start planning. I don't even know if they work in winter. For now it probably doesn't matter. Next week is Christmas, the week after that is New Years. Then it is January and my tax documents will start flowing in. Maybe I can get the estimate January and go from there.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Planning for a Tax Refund

The wheels have started turning as to how I'll spend a tax refund. To be conservative, for now I'm planning that I will get back half the amount I got back last year. If that is the case.. I think I will use $200 toward a computer. I will have enough then for a modest laptop when I add that to the gift cards I'll be getting as a wellness reward at work. I think I'll also make two student loan payments. This will give me a nice buffer in case I have tight months in the future and only want to make half payments. After that I will pay $500 on the balance transfer on the credit card.

If I do get close to what I received last year, I'm not sure what will happen with the rest. I would really like a cabinet for my bathroom (~$200 from Home Depot). I'm also afraid of what the tree will cost me in spring. The neighbors had a similar sized tree timber'ed for a small fee of $1700 (gulp). I'm hoping we can stick with trimming the dead stuff out but if there's extra refund I may keep it around just in case. And if the tree goes well, the possibilities are endless. :) I have noticed there is always something to spend money on when you have an older home. I could refinish the hardwood floor, get some electrical work done, finish refurbishing the bathroom, save for new windows or new carpet.. I could just keep it in savings until the economy picks up. That seems like the best plan. Not much fun though.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Monthly Update

Pay off car loan - 59.9% (Up 21.4%)
Pay off student loan - 11.8% (Up .4%)
Short term fund - 9.4% (Up 8.8%)

It was another good month. I feel like I've gotten a handle on the one-time expenses of moving and turning from renter to home owner so now we're down to regular expenses. The last two months I've been able to make full payment on my student loan, yay! I've been making partial payments because I've paid ahead and could use the money elsewhere. I also was able to make a deposit into the short term savings fund. I had to adjust upward after I received an estimate for puppy's spay. Should have known :) I just hope the tree-trimming estimate in there is accurate. Boy, they're coming quickly. The pup will be spayed in February. The tree trimming can probably wait until April. I'd like to see things leaf out.

December may not be the best. I bought one room full of curtains (ouch, and I went cheapies from Target). I couldn't find what I really wanted for what I was willing to spend but I really wanted to get some insulated jobbies up there for winter since my windows are ancient and I live in the frozen-for-5-months-of-the-year region. I also purchased a Christmas present for myself. They will come in spring, two dwarf cherry trees. I've been wanting one in particular since I knew I was buying a house :) Too bad I have to wait until spring, I'm excited.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Monthly Update

Pay off car loan - 38.5% (Up 2.1%)
Pay off student loan - 11.4% (Up .3%)
Short term fund - .6% (Up .5%)

Rolling along pretty well. Unfortunately this month is the last month I'll have lawn mowing funds coming in. In a way it's okay as I was kind of dreading spending the time away from home. I have precious little time to myself these days with the puppy here so I guard it more carefully. Obviously the extra cash was nice. The short term fund is being neglected while I get everything else squared away. That was interest this month.

I did decide what to do with the $8k. Snowblower's being paid off as planned as soon as I get the bill. I wrote the check out today to transfer $4k to my bank account to pay of the car. That will be at 1.99% till 2011. When that finishes I will pay off the remaining $2k and some change of the car using my refund. Then going forward as I work off the balance of the BT, I will move equal amounts of the refund into my total stock market index fund. Yay!

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Present from the IRS

It came. Happy dance! Now I'm getting a little indecisive as far as how to use it. The original plan went like this -
1. Pay off car.
2. Buy snowblower.
3. Set rest aside for new water heater.

I bought the snowblower. But as I was thinking about paying off the car, it seems a shame to have a big chunk of money hanging around in times like these and kiss it "good bye" on a loan at such a good rate. And yet I don't want to go investing the whole chunk in case I run into cash flow issues. I'm fine now but if the winds swirled in the right direction, it'd be close. I think I may compromise and hang onto the money for now. As the car loan goes down I can invest the difference monthly, or biweekly as the case is.. And if the winds swirl in the wrong direction, I can still pay off the car loan and some of the rest will be nestled in an index fund. If I have a bad month I can still choose not to invest the difference.

The other idea I'm toying around with is a pretty balance transfer offer. It stands at 1.99% until 2011. My line isn't enough to cover the remaining balance on the car but I could use enough of the refund to bring it down to a transferable amount. Then pay 1/14th (or whatever) of the amount off each month and have it gone by the time the special rate is up.

Dunno, that's where my head is at for now.. Until I decide the money is chilling in my savings.

Friday, October 2, 2009

Monthly Update

Pay off car loan - 36.4% (Up 2.1%)
Pay off student loan - 11.1% (No change)

I also made a new account for short term goals. For now that includes spaying the dog in early spring and trimming the tree in spring.

Short term fund - .1%

My net worth took a little hit this month due to the dog and some projects around the house. In good news, my first time home buyer's prize should be arriving this month.

Monday, August 31, 2009

Monthly Update

Pay off car loan - 34.3% (Up 3%)
Pay off student loan - 11.1% (Up .1%)

So I got my HD refund and my security deposit. The security deposit is hanging out for now. I have an idea for it but first I have to get a few things taken care of and if I haven't touched it by then..

I also started my new savings pattern. Much smaller than before I bought the house but it's a start, and there's room for improvement. Otherwise everything is going swell.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Waiting On Money

I can be somewhat patient but this is not really one of my strengths. I'm currently waiting for a refund from Home Depot. That should be coming tomorrow according to their estimate but no word yet. I'm also waiting on my security deposit which should be coming in the next 8 days. And of course the tax credit, that could be several weeks away yet. I'm not actually ready to spend any of it but it's nice to have, you know?

Friday, July 31, 2009

Monthly Update

Pay off car loan - 31.3% (Up 2%)
Pay off student loan - 11% (Up .3%)

Not much happening there.. I have yet to set my next goals. Ugh. I should just throw them all down and prioritize them later but I don't know what things will cost. I suppose a guess is better than nothing, right?

I closed out the apartment. Turned in the keys and the walk thru went well. Manager said apartment was in move in condition and my cleaning job was great. (Side note - that self-cleaning feature on the oven was awesome!) I am eagerly anticipating the return of my security deposit. It should cover the cost of a new member in my family (a dog) if I ever find one :)

I'm adjusting to my new neighborhood but there is a lot of movement. Right after I moved in, the house two doors down was listed (bank owned). The price was awesome and the for-sale sign is no longer there. Another house a couple doors down has been vacated. I wonder if perhaps that is a rental, due to the timing and the fact that there is no for-sale sign. Or maybe they will do some sprucing up before listing if they owned it..?

In other news, I'm still adjusting to the different bills. It will help when I'm down to one set. I think I still have overlapping utilities and phone bill for one more month. After that we can see how things go and what I have left to save/spend on a regular basis. I'm also really curious to see what the utility bill for a house looks like. I got an average before moving in but since the house was vacant for most of the period that was included in the average, I imagine it is much understated. I'm slightly concerned that the dehumidifier runs almost constantly when it rains. I don't see any water about but the humid air must be coming from somewhere? Maybe I'm being a doofus, this isn't my strong area..haha. Thankfully it's been a very cool July so light on the air conditioning. I still have no idea what a water bill and garbage bill look like.

By my calculations I have 6-10 weeks before my tax credit refund thing comes.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Short Term Goals

I'm sort of struggling to nail down my short term goals and the order I should be working on them. I'm thinking in the less than 5 year range..

Snowblower
Water heater
Pay off car

Kitchen, possibly living room flooring
Windows
Carpet upstairs
Refinish office floor
Vacation in Alaska

The easy ones are the top two. The snowblower will be needed this winter, 'nuff said. The water heater is likely to die any time due to its current age, over 30 years. If it dies within the first year I'll only need to pay a service call fee or something like that. Those are both easy as they will be coming out of the first time homebuyer deal.

After that it gets tricky. My car has a 5 year loan and I've already done 2 years I believe so obviously it will be paid off in less than 5 years. But I'm working on accelerating that. The only bad part about that is even if it is paid off early, then I should really start saving part of the monthly payment toward the next vehicle. Even though I plan to keep my car for like 10 years, maybe more, there will come a day.. I would love the added flexibility though, if I have a bad month, to skip the loan payment or savings payment. If I work it right I can probably use what's left of the first time homebuyer's credit to pay off my car in the beginning of next year.

After that it gets really tricky..

What to do first? The cosmetic things, like flooring.. or the windows.. The problem with the windows is I imagine one should replace them all at the same time so as to have them match and such. But some are functioning well.. a few are not.

And then there's the vacation. That one kind of depends when my travel buddy would want to go. I'm hoping for next year or the year after. Last vacation I just took an extra pay check in a 3 check month and covered it but I think this trip may over run those bounds so I'd like to start saving.. even 10 bucks a month or something..

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Monthly Update

Pay off car loan - 29.3% (Up 2%)
Pay off student loan - 10.7% (Down .3%)
House down payment - almost gone!

Build emergency fund to 6 mo expenses -still full

A little extra movement on the car loan thanks to my lawn mowing $. The student loan didn't get a payment this month since I'm ahead and I was schlepping out $ left and right with the house. As of this month the rate on my student loan is a cool fixed 3.75%. Woo!

Friday, June 19, 2009

It's Official - I'm a Homeowner

Well, mostly the bank is but you know.. It's been a long day..

On my list of things to do is start getting my address changed. I'm on my second account and neither institution offers the ability to change my address on their website. What the heck? Ridiculous.. That seems like a basic need to me. I suppose Monday I will be sitting down and making a whole ton of phone calls.

Friday, May 29, 2009

Monthly Update

May as well do it a couple days early since interest rates are so sad and I get peanuts these days.

Pay off car loan - 27.3% (Up 1.9%)
Pay off student loan - 11% (Up .3%)
House down payment - 88.9% (Up 5.5%)

Build emergency fund to 6 mo expenses -still full

And one more month till the interest rate on the student loan goes down. Woohoo!!

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

How Wealthy Are You?

So I've been tracking this little figure since I first read the Millionaire Next Door. In January I was at 6.1% of my desired net worth for my age and income. Today I'm at 14%. Woohoo!! I'm making some nice progress catching up. Still an underaccumulator though :)

Monday, May 18, 2009

Lawn Mowing Money

I take care of my great aunt's lawn. It's good for me 'cause I get to venture outside my apartment once a week and dream of my own yard. It's also good 'cause she slips me a $20. I had been feeling overpaid, but this year it's been one problem after another so I don't feel bad taking the money. Last year it just kind of slipped into my cashflow. This year I decided I wanted to do something with it. So every time I get paid for mowing the lawn I'm sending an extra $10 for the car loan. It's not much, but again, every bit helps. I'm mulling over the other half. I haven't bought myself any luxury sock yarn in several months, so it may be time. Life is good.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Patiently Waiting

One of the "borrower benefits" of my student loan is that after 3 years of on time payments, there's a little relief on the interest rate. I may have mentioned this before. In less than a month and a half the rate will go from 4.75 to 3.75%. Way cool. Not that it was bad before, or that it will make a huge difference, but every little bit counts. Part of me wishes they would adjust the payment to reflect the new rate, but part of me is glad to see the balance go down more quickly. According to my spreadsheet, the payoff date will go from January of 2026 to July of 2024. I was a little surprised to see it's only a year and a half difference, but I suppose I've paid a big chunk of the interest already.

This is a little more motivation to pay off my car loan early. Once the rate drops on the student loan, my car loan will be at the highest rate. The interest also isn't tax deductible and the collateral is a depreciating asset. Plus, once I knock out the car loan, I can fixate on the student loan. I have no idea anymore where the Roth IRA fits in this plan. I've been so concentrated on getting my down payment together for a house.

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Monthly Update

Pay off car loan - 25.4% (Up 1.6%)
Pay off student loan - 10.7% (Up .3%)
House down payment - 83.4% (Up 5.6%)

Build emergency fund to 6 mo expenses -104.1% (woohoo!)

Yes, it was another good month here :)

Monday, April 13, 2009

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

Okay, I admit to watching the show. On top of that it usually has me shedding tears. Last night was really bad. But I'm always left wondering who absorbs the extra costs.

They build these large homes in place of smaller homes so I assume that the property taxes go up as well as the heating and cooling costs. In all fairness they seem to be conscious of conserving energy but still, if you more than double the size of a home, the costs must go up, no? Especially when you put in 27 foot ceilings. What?! If nothing else, they're going to have hire someone to clean the cobwebs from up there. I would assume the homeowner's insurance goes up as well since there is now more to insure. All of this is fine if the people have extra money flying around but these people are in this position because they're strapped to being with. Then they put stupid things in the bedrooms. Like a train bed for a 10 year old or a school house for some little girls. What happens when these kids turn into teens and they don't want a stupid train in their room? This single mom is going to find herself trying to scrape together some funds to replace the bed, no? Bleh. I just hope they sit down ahead of time and figure these things out. It doesn't seem fair to the families not to discuss the financial ramifications of making their house huge and highly specialized.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Monthly Update

Pay off car loan - 23.8% (Up 2.4%)
Pay off student loan - 10.4% (Up .3%)
House down payment - 77.8% (Up5.5%)

Build emergency fund to 6 mo expenses -101.5% (it's back)

It was a good month again. Well, technically it's not over yet but I don't expect any huge changes today :)

Saturday, March 21, 2009

ING Tools

I spent a half hour this morning playing with ING's toys.

The first is an application where you enter as many details as you want and then they compare you to others in the areas of saving, spending, debt, and retirement. I will say I was disappointed in the results as they didn't really seem to have any canned verbiage that applied to my situation. Like, one of the quick steps was "Enroll in your employer's sponsored retirement plan." But I already told the survey I was contributing to an employer sponsered retirement plan. Minus the report it was neat to see how I'm doing compared to others in my bucket.
ING Compare Tool

The other tool is to tell you how much you need for retirement. Holy cow! I said I wanted to have my current salary and have money to live till I was 95 and it said I needed double what I had been thinking. I remember using someone else's tool to get my first number so now I'm very curious if I'm mis-remembering or what. My other thought is that my salary now will probably be pittance then, so does the tool account for that? Or will I need even more? Scary.
Find Your Number

Sunday, March 15, 2009

House Hunting

I thought I found my house but then with some help I realized there were expensive issues lurking. So sad, some of them could have been prevented with proper care. Not many other options right now so I'm hoping more houses pop up as spring emerges here. It was quite warm today which gets me itching to have a yard. But it will happen when the circumstances are right.

In other news, I got a subscription for Smart Money. I found it on Amazon for $7. I currently have a subscription for Money magazine. Unfortunately I already feel like I know most of the goings-on. I'm hoping a strong favorite of the two will emerge and then I will cancel one. I do love those articles where Money takes a family and looks at their financial goals and tells them how to get from here to there.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

February Update

Pay off car loan - 21.4% (Up 1.6%)
Pay off student loan - 10.1% (Up .7%)
House down payment - 72.3% (Up 27%!!)

Build emergency fund to 6 mo expenses - 99.5% (boo)

So I was planning on leaving the e-fund off my updates since it's been full but then the market took a big dump. The money I added this month didn't cover it so I'm short. I'll try to catch up this month. Part of me is still grateful for the opportunity to buy at such a great price, and part of me is really waiting for the economy to turn around. Anyway, since I'm getting pretty far on the house fund, it shouldn't hurt much to divert some funds. Especially since there are no houses I'm really interested in now.

And a WOOHOO on crossing the 10% mark on that big student loan beast. Another woohoo for crossing the 20% mark on the car loan.

I did get myself a new toy - an external hard drive. The first reason is because I have a small-ish hard drive (60gigs) and I store music and some movies on it. The second reason is because my trusty laptop is 4 and a half years old and I imagine at some point it will start having issues. It's been awesome for me so far. But when it does have issues I'll be so happy to have back-ups. It never used to bother me, but now that I spend so much time tracking and obesessing over my finances, boy I'd hate to lose my spreadsheet collection..haha. Anyway, I got 640 gigs for $70 with free shipping. I asked my brother to find a deal for me and he came through :)

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Creating Wealth

So I started reading another book. I'm at the point where I've read enough books that none of the ideas are really surprising or new anymore. I'm trying to spur myself on to set goals and think big, though. And stay motivated. This particular book is about as old as me, but I figured the ideas would remain the same. I'm only into the first couple chapters but here are some common themes.

1. You can't tell who's wealthy by looking at their material possessions. I think naturally I make the assumption that if someone has a fancy car and a big house and many clothes, etc, they are wealthy. But you don't need to be wealthy to spend like you are.

2. On that note, many of the world's wealthy are actually very frugal. The average person wouldn't be able to look at their things and tell if they are wealthy.

3. Most wealthy people stepped out of the 9-5 world and paved another road.

I have no problem with the first two. I've changed my thinking to look at people and wonder, when they spend money like it grows on trees, if they're charging up their credit cards. Or if they're saving for retirement. Also, I grew up thinking that my parents weren't doing very well since they wouldn't buy us all the things my school mates had. Now I know better. They were just being frugal, their eyes on the future.

The third point is where it gets tricky. I love my job and I appreciate the security it brings. At this point I don't care if I don't get rich. But I want to retire comfortably when the time comes. And I'd like to develop a cushion such that if I lost my job or felt I wanted to leave, I'd have a small secondary income flowing. Still working on those goals.

PS My splurging of last month was mostly orchids. I went to an orchid show and got quite a few. Then I can home and bought some flasks of babies on eBay. It continues - I wanted one more plant to add to my collection this year but I was somewhat restrained at the show so I left without it. Now I'm shopping for a good deal online :)

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Monthly Update

Pay off car loan - 19.8% (Up 1.7%)
Pay off student loan - 9.4% (Up .6%)
House down payment - 45.3% (Up 5.8%)

Build emergency fund to 6 mo expenses - still 100%

Yay for another good month. And! My W2 is ready today so I put the information into TurboTax. I'm still waiting on a couple of 1099s but I have a little money spread over a lot of places so my estimate so far should be pretty close. I didn't have much in the way of dividends this year outside of my 401k. I'm liking my estimate so far :) The refunds are ear-marked for my house DP/closing costs fund. I still occasionally think of accelerating the car loan pay off though.

In the expenses department it was kind of a bad month between paying my car insurance for the next 6 months and doing some shopping :) I got myself a belated Christmas present. Next month should be better in that respect.

Friday, January 30, 2009

Tax Time

I have a love-hate relationship with this time of the year. See, I love that I get a check. A present to myself, if you will, because I chronically overpay my taxes. Now to me it is a large amount, but when I figure out the dollars of interest I'm missing out on, it's in the range of $10-20 for the year so it's really not a big deal. I hate this time of year because my employer waits till the last possible second to send W2s out. It's January 30th and the mail person hasn't brought my W2 yet. And my under-achieving company is aiming to have them out by Feb 2nd when they are required to have them out. Then there is Schwab. Some bill passed this year gives them until Feb 15th to send out 1099s. But 2/15 is a Saturday so they really have until 2/17/09 to mail them. And they sent out an email that leads me to believe they will take every bit of extra time.

Why? I'm sure there aren't people caged up in cubicles working overtime to lick stamps and envelopes after having penned in the numbers. There must be programs for these things. And tax laws don't change *that* much year to year. Bleh.

I estimated my numbers by comparing last year's final pay check to last year's W2 and if I'm close, it will be a good year. I haven't estimated the dividends and interest but they won't amount to much.

Friday, January 16, 2009

How Wealthy Are You?

Last time I checked, I was at 4.9% of the "desired net worth" figure in August. Today I am 6.1%. Not too bad..

If you want to check yours, head to this site.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Credit Scores

Haven't changed much. I guess that's a good thing. I would love to break the 800 threshold though.

748 - Equifax
757 - Transunion
789 - Experian

I gotta stop buying these things so often. I have the Equifax monitoring service ($90-ish per year) and I buy one score a month (alternating between TU and Exp). Cutting back to quarterly would only save me like $50 a year so I guess I'm not doing too badly..

Friday, January 2, 2009

2009 Goals

So here are my financial goals for next year.

1. Buy a house

Okie, not really financial but since it affects so many other things I thought I'd get that one out of the way.

2. Grow net worth by $5000.

That's half of 2008's growth. I decided on this goal because if I accomplish number one, my funds will be somewhat depleted if I have to pay closing costs and buy appliances. Secondly, and more importantly, my saving power will be diminished. I expect the mortgage principal and interest to be roughly equal to my rent but then there's property tax, increased insurance costs, water and garbage, and increased maintenance costs. Probably some stuff I'm forgetting. Oh yes, a new pet. I intend to get a dog when I'm no longer a renter. Additionally, I'm not counting on a raise this year nor huge gains in the market, although both would be lovely.

3. Establish a plan to generate some secondary income.

I would love to have a couple of hundred extra bucks a month coming in. I haven't yet decided how to go about this. I have 3 ideas and may combine as needed.

a - Concentrate on making more investments that throw bones my way. The simplest idea would be to buy mutual funds that have a goal of generating income and have low expenses. I like how ING savings is working for me but I don't really want to set a goal of increasing my fixed savings, you know? This would be the most feasible but also the least lucrative I think.

b - Sell soap. I'm very much enjoying this hobby and one of the consequences is producing much more soap than my family and I can use. Now is probably not a good time to enter the market since I don't think most people are spending their extra money on these things. This would be the most labor intensive but probably the best opportunity in the short term. Costs would be small as I already have the supplies I would need to start with and the real cost would be insurance and setting up some sort of business structure that limits my liability.

c - Rental property. This would be more of a long term idea since I'm more interested in my own home right now, unless I happened on a good duplex I could afford. But if this is something I really want to do, I can start saving up some down payment money now and start doing some reading on what it takes to be a landlord. This is probably the most lucrative over the long term but also takes a fair amount of work, I'm sure. I bet there are good months when the tenants behave and pay rent timely and nothing breaks, but there are sure to be vacancies and bad tenants eventually.

4. Pay off 20% of car loan.

Slight increase over this year.

5. Pay off 10% of student loan.

Again, a little increase over the current year. Probably a trickier goal since I tend not to pay much extra on this one. I used to when it was my only loan but now I'd rather have the car paid off and have padded savings.

There they are, my goals..

Triumph

I felt a weird sense of triumph today as I reviewed my 401k performance for the year. Annualized rate of return for 2008 = -42%. Haha. Why am I happy? Because the market took a huge dump and it hasn't rattled me yet. In fact I bumped up my contribution rate today. The one wussy change I made was to mark 1% of my future contributions for the stable fund. I'm not moving any of my current investments but some of my reading has suggested that even young people should have a tiny bit of stability. Hm.. okay.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Monthly Update

Build emergency fund to 6 mo expenses - 100.8% (Up .4%) Yay! :)

No effort on my part as the gains came from the market activity and interest.

Pay off car loan - 18.1% (Up 1.6%)
Pay off student loan - 8.8% (Up .2%)
House down payment - 39.5% (Up 8.3%)

Another good month for me. I'm mulling over goals for the next year so I'll throw something up soon. Well, technically the goals are now for this year. Happy new year to anyone reading! I hope it brings good things to all!