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!