My Money Blog

Dividends

2011-12-31T16:26:00.000-08:00

I'll throw up my dividend chart too. I love the growth :) I know, it's a small amount. But we're moving in the right direction.

Monthly Update

2011-12-31T16:13:00.000-08:00

Pay off student loan - 21.2% (Up .4%)

What I call my emergency fund is definitely up over the top of my goal so I'm dropping that one off the list. The fence fund as I believe I mentioned last month was wiped out for the cat. I haven't yet started rebuilding that one so I dropped it off. I don't think I'll put it back up. I'm hoping for a tax refund that covers it in one swoop. That leaves the list pretty paltry, especially since I'm making almost-minimum payments on the student loan. I'll throw my 2012 goal up next time for good measure. I spend all of my "fat" this month between the aforementioned cat and also I got a good deal on a tv so I used the paycheck leftovers for that. I'm ready to dig in for the new year! I've been pretty spendy lately..

Yearly Goals

2011-12-30T14:41:00.000-08:00

2011

1. Net worth = $45,000.

2. Pay back what I owe myself - around $700 to my Roth and around $900 to my savings.

Done & done!

2012

1. Put $4,000 into my Roth.

There are no net worth goals this year. I realized I don't like those goals because I have so little direct control. The stock market can swing so much, and even if I ultimately chose the right mutual funds for me, it wouldn't matter that year, I would suck, or rock, depending which way the wind blew. So anyway, I'm excited about the new year. And tax season is coming, one of my favorite times of the year. Happy New Year!

Monthly Update

2011-11-30T19:12:00.000-08:00

Pay off student loan - 20.8% (Up 1.2%)
E-fund 2 - 116.8% (Up 19%)
Fence - 77.8% (Up 26.1%)

The student loan goal is up a little extra as I made November and December payments this month. I hit my goal on the back up emergency fund, woo! I shifted some of my primary emergency fund into the backup because of my last post - moving $1000 from a CD to a GNMA bond fund. But also the market bounced back a little bit. So, I'll be taking that off the monthly update. I might add a few dollars to the primary fund over the next couple of months but it seems as though I had that one slightly overstocked in cash equivalents. As well, the time has come to use the "fence" fund on the cat, so that goal will be starting over..lol :) Hopefully third time is the charm on that one. If nothing else, January is a 3 pay check month and in February I should be getting a hopefully decent tax refund. Between those things, I think the fence fund should be knocked flat. Woo hoo! I'm not sure what goal will be next. I'll be thinking about that..

CDs

2011-11-23T16:52:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving kids! A day early. But I already celebrated :)

So I just got the note that my CD is coming up for renewal soon. I can lock in .6% for another year. Boy I can just hardly contain my excitement. I'm thinking I will move that money to the GNMA bond fund. I put a couple of hundred dollars in GNMA awhile ago while I debated if I felt comfortable putting more there. The answer is yes! The risk? This is part of my emergency fund and it's not federally insured like the CD was. But still, the risk remains relatively low. For me I think the small risk is worth the extra gains.

In other news, my cat was approved for the expensive treatment. Bye-bye fence fund. He goes next week, and I still don't have the total. Thankfully it's going on the credit card so I have a few weeks to shift my dollars around. I am excited though. I will think of it as an early Christmas present, to both of us.

Monthly Update

2011-10-31T17:26:00.000-07:00

Pay off student loan - 19.6% (Up .4%)
E-fund 2 - 97.8% (Up 9.6%)
Fence - 77.8% (Up 26.1%)

Happy Halloween! I just finished sending the Trick-or-treaters on their way. I had 51 this year. Previous years yielded 90-100 so we're down quite a bit this year. More leftovers for me, I suppose. I did miss the first half hour and perhaps a school night drove some kids away. I love this time of year. The start of the fun holidays ending with a fresh start, the new year, and a tax refund. I do enjoy the changing seasons and deal with the cold. The one thing I really don't like is the lack of day light, but what's a person to do? And as much as I enjoy the holidays, I seriously can't believe the Christmas commercials already. Come on! :)

On the finance front, things went well. I think the stock market bounced back a bit, leading to the nice increase in the e-fund 2. It wasn't because I pumped money in or anything. Although I did get a present from work in the form of a check. I will send $900 to e-fund 2 and I'm thinking about spending the other $100 on a used DS Lite and a couple of games. Still debating. It's that time of year again, the time of year I settle in to play some video games. They pretty much lay dormant all summer. I need to clear out a few Wii games also that have been rejected. That might cover some of it.

The fence/cat fund got a nice little bump. I was hoping to push more in there but I forgot about getting some work done on the tree this fall. I have a couple of weeks before my cat can even be qualified for the treatment, in the least. We might have to wait longer, depending on how his bloodwork goes later this month. I just want to do it and be done but I know that's not the best way. Aside from the fuzzy time line, the costs are quite fuzzy as well. I hate things like that..lol.

Monthly Update

2011-09-30T18:39:00.001-07:00

I think this is the third month in a row my net worth has gone down. If the stock market would stop it's descent I'd be fine :)

Pay off student loan - 19.2% (Up .5%)
E-fund 2 - 88.2% (Down 2.7%)
Fence - 51.7% (Up 4.8%)

Slow and steady progress on the fence and student loan. Unfortunately I think the fence fund will be re-purposed yet again. The cat was diagnosed with an old-cat condition (hyperthyroidism) that could be cured with an expensive treatment. I'm game. He's only 10, and if he lives another 3-4 years, the "cure" will be cheaper than ongoing medication and frequent blood testing. Plus no pills and no frequent car rides. Win-win-win. :) He is on a medication trial now to see how he does. Sometimes hyperT can mask other problems. If the trial goes okay, I'm hoping for the "cure" in the next few months. And honestly, when I add up what I've spent on the other furry problem child, this is a fraction of it.

My mom is good at asking if the pets are worth it. That's a loaded question, isn't it? If I were eating rice and beans and couldn't enjoy my life or take care of my own needs, then no. But I'm fortunate to have a decent job (love my job, yay) and instead of cable or a gas guzzling SUV or lots of electronic toys or what have you, I have my furry kids. Plus it's not cancer or some other life ending disease. Also if I gave up on these guys, they would soon be replaced. That sounds harsh, but I'm not one to be without pets. Then there's no guarantee that the new ones won't be just as bad..lol. So yes - at this point in my life, with this context, they are worth it to me.

Monthly Update

2011-09-04T08:53:00.000-07:00

Pay off student loan - 18.7% (Up .4%)
E-fund 2 - 90.9% (Down 8.1%)

Fence - 46.9% (Up 38.8%)

The fence fund is cruising along great. I was planning to have the fence put in next month but.. The back up emergency fund took a nice digger. It looks like I should have some decent money left over after bills this month. I should really probably have the extra sent to something in efund2. When I think about it now, if I put the fence in this fall, my dog would probably appreciate it for a whole month and a half before the snow flies. Once the snow flies she spends 90% of her outside time on the shoveled areas..lol. So maybe I should just wait until next spring. Plus at that point I can re-evaluate the water situation. The past few years I've had a standing pond in the backyard for several weeks in spring. Sometimes it would reoccur in summer as well. This year I pumped the spring pond out over 3 days. My neighbors altered their grading since then and so far, I've not had anymore standing water over summer (neither have they). If I still get a big puddle in the spring, I think it makes sense to re-grade the yard before putting in the fence... Although I cross my fingers that won't be needed.

Also I'm really starting to drool over new windows. They are needed. I think that will be after the fence and the efund2. It should really be before the fence but you know.. :) I have a few that are cracked, some rotted shut, some that are not at all air tight. In fact, most fail the paper test. I know they don't pay for themselves well in terms of energy savings but it would still be nice to have functioning windows. The energy savings can be a bonus.

2011-07-30T10:42:00.000-07:00

Pay off student loan - 18.3% (Up 1%)
E-fund 2 - 99.0% (Up 3.7%)

New goal -

Fence - 8.1%

Man, I was really hoping to knock out the backup emergency fund this month. So close. It's a 3 paycheck month this month. I was hoping to put that one toward the fence fund but I may have to split it between E-fund 2 and the fence fund. I can't get the fence for a couple of months anyway so I might as well.

Monthly Update

2011-06-10T17:37:00.001-07:00

Oops, skipped a month or two in there. So the numbers below are two months of progress.

Pay off student loan - 17.3% (Up 1.2%)
E-fund 2 - 96.3% (Up 4.7%)

Getting close on the backup emergency fund. That's a good feeling. Inching along the student loan, adding an extra $10 a month most months.

I got a raise/promo at work. So far it has been eaten up by stuff.. I went on vacation and had an awesome time. Kind of pricy but once in a lifetime sort of thing and totally worth it. (Planned before the raise, btw). Then we added to endless vet visits with some expected and some unexpected visits. I occasionally consider adding another pet to my family but the vet bills are enough to make me put that thought away. I'm very thankful that we finally found a treatment that works on my problem dog (bad allergies) and I think the treatment should be almost over soon. I'll have a few extra dollars in my pocket when we aren't going twice a month for that. But I must emphasize how thankful I am to have found something that works. If you have an allergy pet, look for BICOM therapy. Crazy but it works. And holy cow, cheaper than all the traditional stuff we tried. I'm curious why we don't offer that for humans in the US. Anyway, carry on.

Monthly Update

2011-02-26T09:41:00.000-08:00

Pay off student loan - 16.1% (Down .2%)
E-fund 2 - 91.6% (Up 12.6%)
Put $2500 back into house fund - 100% Woohoo!
Put $768 into Roth IRA - 100% Woohoo!

My state and federal refunds came in the last 2 weeks or so. I put half into savings and my Roth to complete two goals above. I put the other half into savings temporarily 'cause I will be spending it within a few months.

My student loan didn't get a payment since last month, when I made two payments, so the balance is actually up a bit = backwards progress.

I consider my Roth part of my second emergency fund so that's why the nice jump there. I didn't realize I would be so close to completing that goal.

I'm not sure what's next. As I've stated about a gazillion times before, I would like to pay off my student loan, but financially that's not the smartest move. But the other goals I have in mind would be even less in my financial interest. The next two items I would like for the house are a fence and new windows. I'm not sure which comes first. And I want to continue putting money in my Roth as I save for household items. So I will have to decide on my next goals. But I don't think the student loan will be getting much action.

Bank Fees, Ouch!

2011-02-08T04:43:00.000-08:00

I just got slapped with fees. To be fair, I'm sure I was notified of the new changes. That letter (from September) is possibly still sitting in my mail pile. But I just got hit with $10 for not keeping $1000 in my checking. And another $9 for my transactions ($.50 per transx). Geez, they're getting harsh. I wonder if they know, though. My first reaction (as with Chase) is to close the account. I have enough, and if you're going to be a pain in my backside, I don't need you. How does that help them? Do enough people not close their account and just hand over $20 in fees every month? Not in my lifetime. My other option I suppose is to consolidate accounts so I have a bigger buffer in there. But now they've gotten under my skin. I've had that account for like 10 years now and never once misbehaved with it, and this is how you treat me? Pfft.

Credit Scores

2011-02-06T13:11:00.000-08:00

Transunion FICO - 786 (I love you Transunion. 800 here I come!)
Equifax FICO - 768

It's an addiction. I finally canceled my Scorewatch subscription but there I just went and spent $30 for my scores. Hopefully that will hold me for 6 months or a year. I am positively done opening new accounts so my scores should only go up from here.

Charity

2011-02-06T04:32:00.001-08:00

I was reading a blog post on another financial blog regarding how much of your income should be given to charity. I just did some calculations and last year I gave less than 1%. I think. I don't track the money I spend feeding the foster animals. But it's still probably less than 1%. In my world, I cover my back end before I try to cover others. In my world, owning 5% of my home and 16% of my education means my ass is not covered. In my world, not maxing out my Roth each year means my ass is not covered. On the other hand, I do enjoy life. I go out for lunch one or two times a week. I'm plotting the most expensive vacation of my life for this year. I make cosmetic updates on my home as I deem fit. And then I think that there are people out there that can't afford to eat. But even the prisoners get cable tv, and I don't get tv, right? This year I think I will take up monthly giving again. But it will still probably be less than 1% of my income..haha. I think that's okay for me, for now.

Oh that note, I watched an interesting documentary last night called Daughter from Danang. I'm not up on history, it was one of my least favorite topics in school. Something tells me they wouldn't have covered this matter anyway. Apparently in the 70s, someone convinced the Vietnamese that any mixed race children (1 part Viet, 1 part American soldier) would be killed. The solution was to turn your kid over for adoption, knowing the children would be airlifted to the US. Operation BabyLift. So these children make it to the US and all they can talk about is their families. Where's my family? Someone informed the people in charge that the children had families, but somehow the people in charge didn't care one bit.

This documentary followed one of these children. She was adopted by a single lady. The single lady adopted one of these children because US orphans weren't available to single parents at the time. She didn't really seem like she even wanted to be a parent so I'm not sure what she was thinking. So this doc checks in on this lady many years later. The adopted lady, Heidi I believe, talked little about her childhood but to say initially she was miserable. Later she adjusted just fine. But she always instructed to tell people she was born in the US. Her mother didn't allow her to talk about her history. She mentioned briefly that her mother's version of spanking included belts or whatever was nearby at the time, and that there wasn't much affection, rarely did anyone tell her she was loved. In college, things went really south. Heidi came home 10 minutes late and was locked out for the night. After that, her mom said follow the rules or pretend you never knew me. Heidi moved on. Since then, over the years, she's tried to reconnect with adoptive mom but adoptive mom won't have any of it.

Anyway, she decides she wants to meet her biological mom, expecting to find the unconditional love she's been looking for. She travels to Vietnam and the first day is bliss, besides the language barrier of course. But after that it goes south. She feels smothered because they don't leave her side. Worse is that in Vietnam, apparently, they don't hesitate to ask family for money. So her sister, whom she had only met days earlier, asks her for money. Heidi gives her money and the response is a request for more money. While put off by the forwardness, she gets over it quickly. But then on the last day, the family is all gathered up. The brother asks Heidi to take the mom back to the US. See, the siblings have taken care of her for 20 years, now it's Heidi's turn. When Heidi looks visibly upset, he revises his request, that perhaps she could just send a monthly stipend. Still very upset. Leaves Vietnam with a bad taste in her mouth. Following that, every time they write to her, they request money. It's like they just see her as money bags. In fact, the sister makes a comment that makes me thing she resents Heidi. Like Heidi was given this great opportunity, and now she needs to pay for having had that great opportunity.

I don't know how I would feel about that. Part of me says if I could afford a small amount, and it would go a long way for them, maybe. But could you imagine? In a few years it would be a bigger request because now one of the children wants this or that or now mom needs this or that. It would be like a black hole. And maybe that's all you know of them. She remarked that the door is closed on them, not locked, but closed. She didn't even want to find her dad after that, afraid of opening a new can of worms.

Monthly Update

2011-02-03T16:47:00.000-08:00

Pay off student loan - 16.3% (Up 1.4%)
E-fund 2 - 79% (Up 9.2%)
Put $2500 back into house fund - 63.8% (no movement)
Put $768 into Roth IRA - 16% (Up 5.6%)

Looks good to me. :) So does my tax work. I should probably adjust my withholdings so I can use the money throughout the year, but it's nice getting a big present at the beginning of the year. I plan to save half and spend half. But first I need one more 1099 Div and of course Feb 14th has to come and go.. Good luck with your taxes!

Good-bye Car Loan

2011-01-21T17:52:00.000-08:00

Woohoo!! The car loan is meeting it's death tomorrow. I was going to pay it off yesterday but I had already met my limit for transactions in a month. It's on a Citi card and apparently you can only make 4 payments in a month. Who knew? But tomorrow I will make my last payment. So exciting. Like a $200/month raise. Can't beat that.

I haven't decided what to do with my money. I was going to work on paying back my savings ($900) and putting some in my Roth ($700) but a preliminary look at my taxes suggests I'll have that covered no problem with my refunds. Hm. What will be next? I will aim to put half in my Roth but I think I will save the other half for perhaps a home improvement sorta goal. Not sure. The next ones are kind of big in terms of costs. Windows & fence are two of the next things I'd like to do.

Good-bye Chase Checking

2010-12-29T15:41:00.000-08:00

It's been real. But your new rules are too much for me. At least $500 direct deposited per month or 5 debit card transactions per month are just not in the cards for me. I have 3 other checking accounts and I'm sure I'll find what I need somewhere else. Thanks!

Yearly Goals

2010-12-29T04:12:00.001-08:00

2010

My one and only goal for 2010 was to pay off my car. Fail. I have $304 left. That's not too bad though. With a little luck I will whack the rest in January. Worst case I will take my tax refund and put the car debt to bed. But I don't think it will come to that :) Looking back I can think of a few purchases that derailed that goal, especially in the last month. In the last month I bought a cabinet for the bathroom ($113), a WII and Guitar Hero ($180), and a blu-ray player ($100). That's the rest of my car loan and extra right there. No regrets on the first two. The blu-ray player I bought before I decided I wanted a Wii, for the sole purpose of streaming Netflix. So really now it is not necessary. But I still love it for its purposes. I thought I may sell it on Craigslist or eBay to recoup some costs but now I think I will keep it.

2011

1. Net worth = $45,000.
I don't think this will be a struggle if the stock market continues to behave.

2. Pay back what I owe myself - around $700 to my Roth and around $900 to my savings. I didn't actually take money from my Roth but I had a deal with myself :) that I would put my homebuyer's tax credit into my Roth as I paid off my car. At some point I must have paid off my car without putting the same amount in my Roth. I honestly can't recall the circumstances but if my spreadsheet says it is so, I'm sure it is so.

Dividend Time

2010-12-25T04:46:00.000-08:00

It's dividend time, one of my favorite times of the year. My Schwab funds pay out once a year in December. My American Funds fund pays quarterly and one of the payments is in December. This year I received a total of $154.20. Not much but growing :)

My Favorite Rewards Credit Card

2010-12-24T05:46:00.001-08:00

I can't remember if I wrote about my favorite rewards credit card ever but I've been thinking a lot about this card lately. It's from Pentagon Federal Credit Union. I will say straight away that they can be a little picky with credit. If you have a FICO score under 700, take a little time to work on that before you apply.

Why do I love it? Rewards are 5% on gas, 2% on groceries, and 1% on everything else. No tiers, no limits. They give you a credit on your statement every month so there's no waiting till you hit $50 to get your money. It's the easiest thing ever. They've also given me the most generous credit limit I have yet. My other cards are from Chase, Discover, and Citi. I honestly can't tell you what the APR is because I've never carried a balance.

To get this card you will need to be a member of a military family or you will need to join the National Military Family Association. It costs $20, it goes to a great cause, and you only need to join the first year. You will also need to open a free savings account at Penfed where you will need to deposit $5.00. So $25 the first year and that's it. Ever. I easily earn $10-20 a month in rewards so those costs are covered within two months for me. I'm not a huge spender, I don't have a big family or anything.

So if you prefer to use a rewards card and you would like a new one for your arsenal, check it out.

Merry Christmas

2010-12-24T05:36:00.000-08:00

Just popping in to Merry Christmas! (If anyone's reading ;) )

I feel fortunate to have off today. I'm spending this morning with a present to self, a refurbished Wii ($99.99) and Guitar Hero ($69.99). I'm getting addicted. I will be running some errands and feasting with family today. I love this holiday :)

Monthly Update

2010-11-30T15:47:00.000-08:00

Pay off car loan - 95% (Up .2%)
Pay off student loan - 14.9% (Up .2%)
E-fund 2 - 69.8% (Up 1.1%)

The two new ones..
Put $2500 back into house fund - 63.8% (no movement)
Put $768 into Roth IRA - 10.4% (no movement)

Yikes. Not much happening here. Still recovering from last month's blow. I'm hoping for good things in December. If nothing else it's a 3 pay check month. Yay :)

I just canceled my Scorewatch subscription. It's a cool product but I really don't need it anymore. I accomplished my goals, credit-wise. The only thing that will help now is time, since some of my accounts are still new. My main goal was to have my score where I needed it to get the best rate on my mortgage. Mission accomplished. As of this week, my Equifax FICO is 769. I have no idea where the other two are at. Experian is not available and I haven't bought Transunion for awhile. Maybe I will check TU soon.

Hope any readers had a great Thanksgiving! I imagine everyone is gearing up for Christmas now.

Late Monthly Update

2010-11-12T17:00:00.000-08:00

Pay off car loan - 94.8% (Up 9.3%)
Pay off student loan - 14.7% (Up .3%)
E-fund 2 - 68.3% (Up 4%)

The two new ones..
Put $2500 back into house fund - 63.8% (Up 4.3%)
Put $768 into Roth IRA - 10.4% (Up 5.7%)

Wee. We got an award from work. I threw most of it at the car loan that's on a credit card. It feels so good to have some extra breathing room on that one. I took $100 toward my pup's surgery, however I have to come up with the other $500 from that ordeal this coming month, so progress will slow in November. At least we got some good news from that one (tumor's benign :) )

Now that we're nearing the end of the year, and the rest of it goes so fast with the holidays, my thoughts are starting to turn to what I will do with my tax refund. So exciting. So many more options now that I own my (fixer-upper-ish) home. I would like to save for a house project (windows, driveway, fence, the list goes on). But I think the refund should cover the $$ I owe to my savings/Roth IRA and cover the last of the car loan. That would be like starting the new year with a clean state. Plus there might be a couple of hundred extra to buy the linen cupboard I've wanted for my bathroom for the past year. Hm, decisions. Well, still a few months to think about that one.

Cheap Hypoallergenic Dog Treats

2010-10-03T08:19:00.000-07:00

If you follow my blog you may remember me whining about vet bills. Turns out all that scratching was due to food allergies. We're still deciding which foods. I've found one culprit but there appears to be another. In the mean time we are carrying on with our limited diet. "Hypoallergenic" dog treats can be quite pricy. Often they'll use meats like duck or salmon or sometimes they'll use things as simple as sweet potatoes and you find yourself paying twice as much for treats. My dog is very food oriented so I like to have a variety of treats around. Here's a super easy recipe. Even if your dog doesn't have food allergies you can appreciate the simplicity and the healthy ingredients.

1 cup of peanut butter mixed with half cup of milk
1 cup of mashed potato flakes (read ingredients, skip the packs with additional ingredients like garlic, etc) - add to mix above

Keep adding potato flakes until you get a dough that's fairly easy to work with. Then you can do whatever you want. Roll them and cut them into shapes, drop them onto the pan like drop cookies. I roll into little balls and flatten between my hands. Bake at 375 degrees until done. This is 16 minutes for flattened cookies about the size of a quarter. Longer for drop cookies. These store for a few weeks. I keep some in the refrigerator and put the rest into the freezer until I need them, just to be sure.

Monthly Update

2010-09-29T16:44:00.000-07:00

Pay off car loan - 85.5% (Up 8.2%)
Pay off student loan - 14.4% (Up .4%)
E-fund 2 - 64.3% (Down 3.2%)

I'm adding two more this month -
Put $2500 back into house fund - 59.5%
Put $768 into Roth IRA - 4.7%

It was a good month. I bit the bullet and paid off one of the credit cards which has some of the car loan on it. That's why there was a good bump in the car loan. I didn't really have any influx in cash so I borrowed it from the money I was going to put in my Roth IRA. That's why I have the new item above. And the other new item is the $$ I used from the emergency fund to refinance. Did pretty well this month, and the stock market had a nice improvement.

Monthly Update

2010-08-31T04:26:00.000-07:00

Pay off car loan - 77.3% (Up 1.2%)
Pay off student loan - 14% (Up .5%)
E-fund 2 - 61.1% (Down 1.4%)

Overall a pretty good month. Last month I mentioned re-financing. That went through and the closing costs were less than I expected. I may not put all of the money back into my e-fund and instead opt to put the money in my Roth IRA. I've had a change of heart as well about making the same payment as before. Seeing as the interest rate is what it is (4.25, yay!) I think I will just make the required payment and put the extra $40 or $45 into the Roth IRA also. Financially that makes sense, even though it's really exciting to think about having a home I own free & clear.

I re-vist the same struggle fairly often with the student loan. I would love to hammer that one and take it out but it really doesn't make financial sense since the interest rate is so great (3.75, tax deductible, yay!). So for now it stays for another 15 years..

On that note, I was really planning to have my car loan completely gone by the end of 2010. As I look over the next 4 months, I just don't see it happening. From the impending vet visits to the yearly furnace inspection to the car maintenance recently, I just don't think I'll be scraping up another $2300 :) Of course, I got de-railed by many other things. Some which weren't necessary at this time (new floor in spare room, new fan, new light fixture). Some which were necessary (sick cat, getting to bottom of dog's allergies). Overall I'm not too disappointed because the balance that won't be paid off by the end of 2010 has zero interest until the end of 2011. It will be gone by then! Barring more unforseen circumstances..lol. Life has been good to me the past year and I'm grateful for what I have.

Monthly Update

2010-08-07T04:48:00.000-07:00

Pay off car loan - 76.1% (Up 1.1%)
Pay off student loan - 13.5% (Up .3%)

E-fund 2 - 62.5% (Up 5.5%)

Yay for another good month. Slow and steady..hehe. Somehow in July I didn't make the progress I expected but at least there was still progress in the right direction. E-fund 2 got a nice boost due to the market, not me putting much more in there. Next month won't be much for progress either. I'll be refinancing my house and it will be coming from the emergency fund for now so I'll have to boost that back up a bit. I snagged an awesome rate and I'm pretty sure I'll never have the opportunity again.. I'm still debating how I will balance out repaying the money I use from savings for closing costs but yet I would like to make the same payment I was making before so I can pay the loan off in less than the original timeline. We'll see.

Monthly Update (June)

2010-07-03T19:11:00.001-07:00

Pay off car loan - 75% (Up 1.3%)
Pay off student loan - 13.2% (Up .3%)
E-fund 2 - 57.0% (Down .9%)

I'm a little behind with my updating this month but I've been busy, and I'm enjoying it. I won't mind if things calm down in the coming weeks though. So, it looks like I'm holding steady minus the whole stocks and mutual funds going down. That's good. I'm happy with that for now. This includes purchasing new flooring for the spare bedroom. I'm installing it myself to cut the cost almost in half. Other than that no big bills this month, thankfully. I think July or August will be another vet appointment and testing for the pup. September is shots at the vet for the cat. October is shots at the vet for the pup. Better hold down the spending here so I can hopefully pay out of pocket and not out of savings :)

Monthly Update

2010-05-29T03:27:00.001-07:00

Pay off car loan - 73.7% (Up 1.1%)
Pay off student loan - 12.9% (Up .5%)
E-fund 2 - 57.9% (Down 2.4%)

I'm officially back to making full payments on the student loan. I had paid several months ahead a few years ago and recently I've been making half payments and letting it "catch up." I'm sad to be making slower progress on the car loan but it feels good to be making headway on the student loan finally. E-fund 2 for a refresher is the back-up emergency fund which I have in more volatile stock funds, that's why there's a decline.

Overall not too bad. Credit card got put to use again this month for a couple more vet bills and some supplies for my handy man. I think we are done with projects for awhile and the pup's current skin issues trial will go on for almost 2 more months so we should be free of vet visits next month (crossing my fingers).

Oh, in my last post I mentioned it would be nice to have a dehydrator. Well I ordered one from Amazon yesterday. Between the free shipping and a gift certificate I got with my rewards from MyPoints, I got a dehydrator with the jerky kit for less than $15. Woohoo! I've been looking up fruit leather recipes in anticipation of it's arrival. If you aren't familiar with MyPoints, you basically tell them what kind of ads you would like to see in your email and then when you click through the links you get points. When you have enough you choose your reward, in the form of a gift card. They have many options. My activity usually amounts to maybe $25 per year. No jack pot but a nice way to treat myself. Also good for the online shopper. If you start there and then go to the website, you can earn points based on the $$ you spend.

Inexpensive, Healthy Dog Treats

2010-05-22T06:59:00.000-07:00

We are on step 4 of ruling out causes for my pup's skin problems. Step 4 in my vet's method is a hypoallergenic diet. This goes on for a couple of months and you are expected to stop all treats, rawhides, pig's ears, table scraps, etc. Yikes. The new dog food mainly consists of fish and potatoes. I set out to find treats and pretty much all I found was expensive salmon sticks ($5.89 for a few sticks my dog would wipe out in a minute flat) or dried sweet potato. But there is good news, these are treats I can make in my own kitchen! The sweet potato is easy. Thoroughly clean the sweet potato, nuke it on low power for several minutes until it starts to soften. Cut them up and either place in a food dehydrator or in the oven at about 250 degrees for a couple to a few hours depending how big you make them. Super simple, no chemicals, fake coloring, etc. The salmon I won't be trying. While it is easy, I've been warned that it is a very stinky process to dehydrate fish. I don't have a dehydrator so I can't really do this any other place than my oven. If her issue is truly food allergies, I'll run out and buy a dehydrator lickety split. I may do that anyway because there are good options even if your dog doesn't need special foods. You can dehydrate pretty much any lower fat meat. Find whatever's on sale and go to it - lean beef, chicken, turkey, venison.. Bonus points if you can use something hormone and antibiotic free!

Monthly Update

2010-05-02T03:45:00.000-07:00

Pay off car loan - 72.6% (Up 2.6%)
Pay off student loan - 12.4% (Same)
E-fund 2 - 62.3% (Unsure, forgot to record last month)

It was kind of a rough month this month. I'm not quite sure what happened. I can pinpoint a few things. I bought a piano and my piano fund was about $100 short. My disability insurance came due. I knew that was coming but sort of forgot about it. We started trying to find a diagnosis for my pup's skin problems. My "handy man" became available and I bought a few fixtures for my house. That all amounts to about $650 or so in one month. I know in many parts of the world that's chump change but in my world that's almost a whole mortgage payment :) Fortunately this month I got a refund on my escrow account of a little over $300. That will help. I may have to snitch from the e-fund though and I made minimum payment on the car loan that's on a CC at 1.9%.

For a little good news I thought it would be good to check out my wealth accumulation progress. I'm at about 27% of my desired wealth. Last time I checked many months ago I believe it was in the neighborhood of 14%. Now I have a birthday soon so if I had already had the birthday it would be down to 26%. Interesting, eh?

Pet Food

2010-05-01T03:54:00.001-07:00

Are you ever astounded at what kind of garbage they throw in a bag and call premium pet food? And charge premium price for? For some reason I just can't get over it. I think all of my friends and family have heard this gripe before so I thought I would share it with you.

I recently started taking in foster cats from the shelter and they send home Science Diet to get you started. If you're familiar with pet foods, Science Diet has long been touted as veterinarian recommended and all that jazz. Well if you check the ingredients, the first two are by products (chicken beaks, feet, etc. that can't be fed to humans) and corn. Last I heard cats were carnivores and they didn't eat junk like that. Now for pricing.

Science Diet - 4 lbs for $12.49

A cheaper alternative?

Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul - 6 lbs for $10.95!

Now, Chicken Soup isn't the cream of the crop. You may be able to find a higher quality food depending who you ask. It IS free of by-products and corn and the first two ingredients are chicken and chicken meal. How cool is that? To re-cap -

Science Diet - $3.12/lb mostly by-products and corn
Chicken Soup - $1.83/lb no by-products or corn

To throw another brand into the mix, we can look at Nutro Natural Choice. This is what my cat currently eats. However, they recently "improved" the formula and now the first two ingredients are chicken meal and corn. I honestly can't remember the old formula but I doubt I would have bought it in the first place if corn was the second ingredient. And pricing? 7 lbs for $21.99!!

Nutro Natural - $3.14/lb with lots of corn, but no by-products

These are pet store prices on Science Diet and Nutro and I know you could find them cheaper if you buy them at a feed store, as I did with the Chicken Soup. But Chicken Soup will still be cheapear (and still be a higher quality food for your beloved cat). Needless to say, I'm switching my cat to Chicken Soup as we speak.

I've yet to do a compare on dog food regarding pricing. I know which brand I'll be getting for her next, though. And again I suspect it will be cheaper than what I'm currently buying.

One of the interesting theories I've read is that quality pet food companies get bought out and the new owners tend to switch to crappy ingredients and raise the prices. This is a double whammy and I believe this was the case with both Science Diet and Nutro. Hopefully it doesn't happen to Chicken Soup.

If you can't find Chicken Soup in your area (tends not to be sold by the big box stores), use their store locator or check out another option like Blue Buffalo. Blue Buffalo is still cheaper than Nutro Natural and is also free of by products and corn.

No affiliation with either of the brands I recommended. I just hate to buy expensive crap if I can spend the same amount of money for a higher quality item, you know?

New Rules for Money Market Accounts

2010-04-11T08:06:00.000-07:00

I had to laugh when I read the Kiplinger's article on the new rules for money market funds. You can find the full article here. You see, the one money market fund I participate in, American Funds Money Market Fund, hasn't paid out a dime of interest since July of last year. They're struggling to hold the value of my dollars apparently. I know not every fund has taken their returns to zero, but they're probably close. Bankrate tells me the average money market account is giving out .79% right now. But I tend to have a bias for American Funds, my humble opinion only of course. Plus it is a super-easy to access portion of my emergency fund. When my 32 year old, oops, going on 33 now, water heater finally kicks the bucket, I'll be able to whip out my checkbook and write a check to the plumber.

Anyway, the new rules are written to protect us but in the end they'll take away another .1% of our return. The rules in a nutshell require increased liquidity, better disclosures, and higher quality. If I wanted a super safe spot for my money I would have put it in an FDIC insured savings account. I think the benefits of most money market funds are enough to overcome the small risk that your dollar might turn into 99 cents for a short period. I tend to be a firm believer that if you're going to put your money somewhere, it's your responsibility to understand where you're putting it. If you need help, hire an adviser. I must have missed the news on the money market crisis that ruined everyone's life.

Monthly Update

2010-03-28T08:45:00.000-07:00

I'm doing my monthly update a little early. I don't foresee anything changing in the next 3 days besides the usual stock market swagger.

Pay off car loan - 70% (Up 3.4%)
Pay off student loan - 12.4% (Down .1%)
E-fund 2 - % (Up 2.9%)

Unfortunately I'm still treading water on the student loan while I work on the car loan but I'm making good progress. 9 short months to go..

Not reflected here is my employer's yearly gift into our 401k. It came this month and it always excites me. Kinda like something for nothing.. On the flipside I tend to wonder how many more years we will have this policy..

Car Loan

2010-03-21T05:48:00.000-07:00

Have I mentioned how super excited I am to be on track to pay off the car by the end of 2010? It's like giving myself a $300/month raise. It will probably be the only raise I get this year. My mind is drifting ahead to how I want to allocate that money. So far I know I want $100 to go to my Roth IRA. I also intend to use $100 to use on house projects. I'm not sure how I want to use the last $100. Part of me wants to bolster my cash-equivalent savings and the other part says I'm already contributing the Roth so why bother. Maybe it will be split between the Roth and the house improvement fund.

Offhand here are some of the things I know I would like to accomplish-
New windows
Refinish hardwood floor in the office
New kitchen countertop
Carpet the upstairs
Grade soil around house
Replace two fans
Cabinet for the bathroom
Table for the living room
Tile tub surround
Replace parts of sidewalk
Replace parts of driveway
Replace back stairs
Siding and gutters on the garage and maybe a small window
Fence
Kitchen cabinets/remodel - someday

As you can see, no shortage of ideas, and probably some are missing. And always I'm torn between handling the things that are more important to me or handling the things that will improve the value of the home/look good to a future buyer. Fortunately many overlap.

Also I bit the bullet and bought a refrigerator to replace my ailing unit. Unfortunately I dipped into the piano fund when I spent more than I originally planned. I think the piano will wait until fall, because I'll be busy outside this summer and hopefully by then my workplace will be on more firm ground. Maybe I will have replaced the $ I used on the refrigerator too.

Monthly Update

2010-02-27T14:12:00.000-08:00

Pay off car loan - 66.6% (Up 2.9%)
Pay off student loan - 12.5% (Up .2%)
E-fund 2 - 58.6% (Up 11.2%)

My tax refunds arrived, including the amendment due to TuroTax's boo boo. They are nestled safely in savings but already itching to spend those. We'll see..

How Long Could I..

2010-02-21T13:52:00.000-08:00

afford to eat if I lost my job? I decided I better sit down and find out. First stop, my spreadsheet tracking what I spend. Unfortunately I've been half-assed at the whole tracking thing lately but it's the best I have. It looks like I've been spending around $2200 a month. Now some of that is a student loan that could be deferred or put into forbearance if needed. Another chunk of that is me paying over the minimum on my car loan. Another chunk of that is home improvements that, let's face it, I wouldn't be doing if I were living on my savings. So we'll say $1900 if I had to cut back.

Next stop, let's check the touch-able assets. 6 and a half months in cash and cash equivalents. 3 months in taxable investment accounts. When I move my refund as needed that will be another month. So 10 and a half months. Not too bad. Kinda makes me want to spend my refund as previously planned. But for now I'm making note of it and sending it away to savings.. I dunno when I'll feel comfortable spending it.

Unexpected News

2010-02-19T15:23:00.000-08:00

The company I work for started layoffs this week. By my calculations they've done about half of the planned layoffs for the year. I survived the first round but no one knows when/who will go next. The good news is my tax refund, most of it at least, landed in my account today. Unfortunately TurboTax mucked up my state refund. I live in one of the four states that counts HSA contributions as taxable income. To top it off, TurboTax counted it twice. Then instead of admitting the mistake, it just automatically corrected it - after I filed my returns. So now I can't even use TurboTax to amend my state return since it still believes nothing changed. I love TurboTax, but that is a stinky bug. I filed my amendment today at the state's website so hopefully I have the rest of my refund soon. Mental note for next year - use the state's website to e-file my tax return and save $20!

Anyway, now I'm becoming very indecisive about what to do with the refund. $1000 is definitely spoken for - having been spent already or being spent soon. The rest I feel should be put in savings but in my heart I still want my piano. And the freezer on my refrigerator is not behaving. To be honest I'm sure it's been that way for awhile. I may just ignore awhile longer. Yay for having money to be indecisive about :)

Tax Refund Time

2010-02-13T15:13:00.000-08:00

Yay, one of my favorite times of the year. Now I know there are naysayers out there who think you shouldn't give the government an interest free loan. If you're one of them, you'll be disappointed to find the interest rate on my savings account is just over 1% at this time so I'm missing out on like $20 worth of interest. Seriously. I'll rethink my strategy when the interest rate nears 5% or if I ever have high-interest credit card debt.

So my plans are like this. 1/3 is going to my emergency fund to replace what I borrowed last month. 1/3 will be split between getting the tree trimmed and paying some down on my car loan. I'm about 90% sure the last 1/3 will be getting me a piano. My refund is around $2500 this year so I'm talking starter piano. I was delighted to find it will be much cheaper than I had figured to trim the tree, provided the neighbors let me use their backyard. They ought to, since they use my driveway at will and since they requested the tree be trimmed..

Hope your tax season is going well!

Roth IRA

2010-02-04T04:41:00.000-08:00

Woohoo! I opened a Roth IRA. My hold up had been that Schwab required a $1000 minimum opening balance. I missed the other option, $100 monthly automatic transfer. I love Schwab, but I hate their money transfer interface. It's gotten slightly better than it used to be. You used to be required to mail forms in. Who does that anymore? Now you only need to mail forms in if you want to set up a recurring transfer. I'm one of those wackies who would rather log in every month and make my transfer than deal with mailing papers around the country only to find out you filled them out incorrectly and your request has been canceled. Hopefully I don't get dinged with a service charge next month.

On a side note, apparently they have until the 15th of February to mail my 1099. The 15th!! I think that is due to some new rule last year but I'm not entirely certain. At least I have a good idea how much I'm getting back so I'm rolling ideas around in my head :)

Monthly Update

2010-01-31T11:32:00.000-08:00

Pay off car loan - 63.7% (Up 1.9%)
Pay off student loan - 12.3% (Up .4%)
Short term fund - 28.2% (Up 11.6%)
E-fund 2 - 47.4%

Kind of a rough month again in terms of car depreciation. I also took money from my emergency fund to cover the insulation and ventilation for my attic, which should prevent the ice dams on my roof next year. I'm almost finished with my taxes and things are looking pretty good so I can put that money back soon. Now to decide how to use my refund. I can't quite finish my taxes because I'm waiting on one last 1099. Nothing like waiting till the last possible moment (Monday) to send it out. Blah. And it's for like $40 worth of dividends. I guess at least I can estimate my refunds pretty well 'cause that amount won't affect my taxes much.

Blippy

2010-01-24T14:41:00.000-08:00

Hm, any fans of Blippy out there? I'm not really seeing the benefit of having a website that tells me Chrisbaker spent $41.73 at Wal-mart. Congratulations? I suppose I would see more of a benefit if it posted an itemized receipt but still, for the most part I have better things to peruse. It would be neat if it went a step further and combined it all and posted that you could get CD XYZ for $12 at Wal-mart or $12.50 at Best Buy. But we already have websites that do that, so yeah, no benefit for me. We'll have to see if it morphs into anything more useful.

Bonds and a Credit Limit Increase

2010-01-23T14:50:00.000-08:00

I decided I was sick of getting a measly 1.4% interest on my savings so I put $200 worth of my emergency fund into a GNMA bond fund available at Schwab. This will satisfy me for now while I do some more research. Bonds are a little more complicated and thus far I've stayed away because I haven't wanted to take the time to educate myself and understand. I do understand the value fluctuates as well as the earnings on them, so that's part of the complication. Now that I think about it, I don't really understand how stocks work either, except that most people have to stash either a huge portion of their income in other more conservative investments OR they can rely on stocks (single companies or stock funds) to get where they need to be in retirement. I'm in boat B, saving what I feel comfortable saving but realizing that I need to take on the riskier investments to optimize my chances of success. And I'm comfortable with that. I realize I don't quite understand them, and the value may fall, but if I wait long enough and diversify well enough, eventually I will bounce back.

Onto the credit limit. Penfed just waived a $13k credit limit in front of me. I took it. I expected it to show my revised $20k credit limit immediately but it hasn't shown up yet. I thought since I was pre-approved, it was automatically applied if I accepted it. We'll see. I also took the opportunity to change my address so I hope that didn't mess things up. I don't need the extra room apart from the fact that my overall utilization these days is somewhere around 25% because I moved my car loan to a credit card. This would help bring the utilization level down a few notches.

Increased Retirement Savings

2010-01-08T15:17:00.000-08:00

I increased my contribution rate by 1%. Not much, but heading in the right direction is always good. I previously contributed enough to collect the whole match. I had done this in early 2009 but then I found my home and got worried about making ends meet, so I notched it down again.

I have to say, at this point in my investment education, I feel like I've seen most everything at least once. But I still subscribe to a couple of magazines. This is a good example of why. I read an article about how two featured folks weren't contributing enough for their later years and it motivated me to make a change in the right direction.

2010 Goal

2010-01-03T06:45:00.000-08:00

After mulling over it, I've decided my one and only goal for this year will be to pay off my car. This is $3800 at 1.99% until 2011. It will be a little bit of a push since I normally pay around $2600 a year. The challenge will be to come up with the extra without busting into my savings.

If I accomplish that my net worth should grow a minimum of $6000, provided the stock market doesn't take a big dump. I'll also be able to invest the $3800 I have in savings for the car (just in case). This will also cover my goal of working towards a back-up emergency fund.

Note to self- start Roth IRA in 2011.

Yay for a renewed sense of optimism! Hope y'all are feeling it too :)

Monthly Update

2010-01-01T14:46:00.000-08:00

Pay off car loan - 61.8% (Up 1.9%)
Pay off student loan - 11.9% (Up .1%)
Short term fund - 16.6% (Up 7.2%)

Back to slow mostly steady progress on the car and student loans. I'm having a little trouble with the whole short term savings. I thought I would be able to put away more than $50 a pay check but lately I'm struggling to find more than $50. The dog spaying is next month. I'll just make it if I put away $50 from my next three pay checks. Then after that I will have two-ish months to find $$ for the tree trimmer. I think that will be tricky. Must batten down the hatches.

I'm still mulling over goals for this year so I'll post later on that. Happy new year to any readers!

Oh yeah, my net worth took a little dip because I got the annual mass depreciation on the car. I forgot that was coming..

Choosing Companies to Work on Your Home

2009-12-30T16:31:00.000-08:00

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.

2009 Goal Evaluation

2009-12-28T16:42:00.001-08:00

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.

Emergency Funds

2009-12-24T13:42:00.000-08:00

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.

Tax Refund - Plan B

2009-12-18T15:04:00.000-08:00

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.

Planning for a Tax Refund

2009-12-11T04:16:00.001-08:00

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.

Monthly Update

2009-11-29T04:35:00.000-08:00

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.

Monthly Update

2009-11-01T06:13:00.000-08:00

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!

Present from the IRS

2009-10-17T19:16:00.000-07:00

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.

Monthly Update

2009-10-02T19:02:00.000-07:00

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.

Monthly Update

2009-08-31T16:29:00.000-07:00

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.

Waiting On Money

2009-08-13T18:48:00.000-07:00

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?

Monthly Update

2009-07-31T15:21:00.000-07:00

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.

Short Term Goals

2009-07-26T18:26:00.000-07:00

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..

Monthly Update

2009-07-02T16:04:00.000-07:00

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!

It's Official - I'm a Homeowner

2009-06-19T16:43:00.001-07:00

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.

Monthly Update

2009-05-29T15:39:00.000-07:00

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!!

How Wealthy Are You?

2009-05-19T03:54:00.000-07:00

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 :)

Lawn Mowing Money

2009-05-18T18:18:00.001-07:00

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.

Patiently Waiting

2009-05-17T11:41:00.000-07:00

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.

Monthly Update

2009-04-30T15:57:00.000-07:00

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 :)

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

2009-04-13T14:01:00.001-07:00

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.

Monthly Update

2009-03-31T03:49:00.000-07:00

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 :)

ING Tools

2009-03-21T05:29:00.001-07:00

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

House Hunting

2009-03-15T15:59:00.000-07:00

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.

February Update

2009-03-01T07:24:00.000-08:00

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 :)

Creating Wealth

2009-02-14T04:15:00.000-08:00

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 :)

Monthly Update

2009-02-01T16:41:00.000-08:00

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.

Tax Time

2009-01-30T14:45:00.000-08:00

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.

How Wealthy Are You?

2009-01-16T16:32:00.001-08:00

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.

Credit Scores

2009-01-03T10:42:00.001-08:00

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..

2009 Goals

2009-01-02T15:01:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-02T14:36:00.000-08:00

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.

Monthly Update

2009-01-01T05:52:00.000-08:00

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!

A Look Back on 2008

2008-12-27T07:32:00.000-08:00

So it's not quite over yet but the thoughts have been swirling inside my head. Happy holidays y'all! (If anyone is reading..)

It was a great year, both financially speaking and in my life overall.

My net worth increased (out of the red, yay!!) just shy of $10,000. That is unreal to me. I sort of forgot that just a year ago it was in the red. Especially since it is so stagnant lately.

I paid off 8% of my car loan and 3.5% of my student loan. Hm, not so impressive.

I fleshed out my 6 months expenses emergency fund and started on my house down payment fund. Very happy about this. I expected things to move much more slowly.

My credit history/scores are healthy despite two new accounts.

Cars and Houses

2008-12-12T15:46:00.000-08:00

Wow, I realized I hadn't checked my car's value since last month so I went to Kelley Blue Book. It dropped $1800+ since the beginning of November. And that's for Excellent condition, which it isn't, because someone rear-ended me lightly and I had the bumper repainted on her dollar. I know, if I could do that over, I wouldn't. While my premium didn't directly go up, I realize this ultimate increases the costs for everyone. So anyway, I'm really glad I put 33% down when I bought it because if not, I'd probably be upside down now. And this is a loan at 3.95%. On a car that holds its value slightly better than most.

In great news, I got pre-approved for a mortgage through my local credit union. If I actually find a house I plan to try a broker to make sure I'm getting the best rates but I wanted to make sure I could at least get a loan to begin with. Yay! Now the hard part. There's this very cute little house about 4 miles from work. I like it, and I can picture myself living there. But I really wanted to be in the neighboring city. And it's really small. Probably good sized for me but probably hard to sell years down the road. But possibly a good rental unit at that point. Part of me hopes someone buys it quickly so I don't have to think about this house anymore. The other part of me hopes it stays on the market for a few more months so the sellers will be motivated to drop the price and I can swoop in for a deal.

It is stressful to be so excited. It shows on my face, too. The acne products deal with this and I don't do make-up.. :/

Monthly Update

2008-11-29T05:44:00.000-08:00

Build emergency fund to 6 mo expenses - 100.4% (Up 1.6%) Yay! :)

I added some cash and the market didn't do so bad. We'll see what next month holds. I'm thinking I should just get into the habit of sticking even $50/month in there just because of the way the economy is and such. Folks have me paranoid.

Pay off car loan - 16.5% (Up 1.6%)
Pay off student loan - 8.6% (No progress)
House down payment - 31.2% (I made a booboo on how I was calculating this one so can't really compare to last month..)

Woohoo!

2008-11-28T15:18:00.000-08:00

My student loan servicer added a new section to their website called Borrower Benefits. I recently remembered that I had an option when I consolidated. I could choose a lower interest rate after a number of on-time payments or I could have a principal reduction. I chose the reduced rate. I thought it kicked in after 2 years but I couldn't find anything in my file to suggest this was anything more than a figment of my imagination :) Ta-da! The new section has details. I'm about 8 months away from my reduced rate. I assume my payment stays the same so I just make faster progress. Way cool.. 3.75% :D

Rich Dad, Poor Dad

2008-11-28T15:05:00.000-08:00

This was my latest read. It was a good one. The author has an entertaining writing style. Here's the two-minute summary. Buy assets, not liabilities. I know Quicken suggests your car and house are an asset but the author suggests that in this context, these things don't count. For this purpose, an asset is something that generates income. Since you dump money in a car and it only depreciates, it is definitely out. Your home will at least appreciate over the long term, but you still must dump money into it and it usually doesn't generate income, unless you rent parts of it out. Which brings me to my next point. He doesn't really give many examples. This takes away from his credibility in my mind. He suggested he didn't want to stifle creativity or narrow your visions when you look for opportunities. This makes sense but still..

So yeah, buy your house and your car but keep them small and reasonably priced, at least until you have enough assets to comfortably afford a Porsche and a mansion.

One example he did give was with real estate, which hits home at this point in time. He would buy houses at auctions for much reduced prices, fix them up, rent them out for a few years, and sell them at nearly double the purchase price. All the while the renters pay the mortgage. Not too many other examples. Some of the book sounds a little too much like get-rich-quick scheming. But he says more than once that you'll probably lose money and make mistakes. If you don't want the risk, you can buy mutual funds. But then you can only expect average results..

Monthly Update

2008-10-31T15:51:00.000-07:00

Build emergency fund to 6 mo expenses - 98.8% (Down .8%)

Oops, bad month in the stock market world. Must..add..more..cash. I do have extra funds this month after paying myself first and paying bills so at least some of the extra can go here.

Pay off car loan - 14.9% (Up 1.5%)
Pay off student loan - 8.6% (Up .7%)
House down payment - 32.7% (Up 11.1%) Oh my gosh, getting excited.

It's getting hard though. I find myself thinking thinks like, "At this time next year, I'll have trick-or-treaters." Or, "At this time next year, I'll be raking my own leaves." You know? Blahhh. There are two open houses this weekend in my target locale and price range so I might check them out. I'm aiming to form healthy ideas about what sort of housing you get for the price. I tell myself it will be less painful to reform my goals now than say, in 5 months when I might be house-shopping. Ooh, and I found out you can amend your 2008 taxes to to get the first time homebuyer's interest-free loan if you buy the house before 7/1/09. I was thinking I'd have to wait months.

Yes, and for the first time since I started paying attention, my net worth has gone done. Yayyy, stock market. Hopefully we're almost at the bottom.. Any day now..

Randomness

2008-10-26T05:57:00.000-07:00

87 words

Typingtest

That was fun. It's been awhile since I tried one of those. I spent entirely too much of my teen life chatting at the computer screen. At one point I was even contracted to moderate and host in some youth chat rooms at a chat server. But alas, all good things must end and shortly thereafter I started my stint in retail hell. These days I'm back to spending a whole ton of time at the computer but it's not a whole lot of intense typing. I spend of a lot of time waiting for programs to run or thinking..haha.

My Emergency Fund

2008-10-19T03:31:00.000-07:00

I did some rearranging of my emergency fund. It had been in savings, checking, and a money market fund with the exception of 2% which was in an index fund. For the past few weeks I've been thinking it would be really unfortunate to miss the opportunities we have in these times. I mean, I have been continuing to contribute to my 401k but that's it.

So I decided to put another 10% of my e-fund into the index fund. Then I caught my father's excitement and put in an order for AIG. The 10% promptly fell to 9% and the AIG would only be around 2% of my e-fund so totaled up, I have 12.5-13% of my e-fund in pretty unstable places. This doesn't really bother me, though. I figured eventually I would move in that direction anyway. I mean, if I amass 25k or 50k in stocks and mutual funds, who needs a whole pile sitting in stable funds? I would still want a few months worth of expenses in "cash" but 6 might be overkill.

Besides, I currently have what would be an additional 10% of my emergency fund in a stock and a mutual fund but I'm not counting that as e-fund. I dunno, I can see myself having trouble drawing the line.. 'cause at the end of the day, if I had a true emergency, I wouldn't stop at my cash funds, you know?

In any event, now is a good time to make this move. If what amounts to 20% of my emergency fund suddenly drops like a rock and turns into 5% of my emergency fund, I can easily steal from my house down payment fund in an emergency. I think I will re-evaluate things at the point when I want to empty my house DP fund, but I don't think I will change my mind. Also, I added a bit more "cash" to the e-fund to make up for a bit of the drop that already happened. It'll be interesting to see where things sit at the end of the month.

Overall my net worth dropped so far this month despite me spending less than what I bring home, therefore saving money and paying off little bits of my debts. Don't you hate it when that happens? So yeah, I'm one of those obsessive money watchers. I don't think it's a problem, though. I have no desire to pull my money out of the stock market or the bank and put it under the mattress. Especially where I currently live :)

Scores

2008-10-10T16:34:00.000-07:00

So I have all three at once, although one is outdated..

TU - 757 (10/10/08) dropped.. hm.. I think the new account hurt me since avg age is down almost 2 years.
Exp - 788 (9/12/08)
Eq - 752 (10/10/08) this did not drop with the new account/inquiry.. yay!

My short time in the 760+ midscore club was well enjoyed :)

Monthly Update

2008-10-02T17:04:00.000-07:00

Build emergency fund to 6 mo expenses - 99.6% (Up .3%)

Clearly I haven't taken care of that last little bit. Maybe this month..

Pay off car loan - 13.4% (Up 2.5%)
Pay off student loan - 7.9% (Up .2%)
House down payment - 21.6% (Up 7.1%)

Yay, check out the DP progress. I didn't even hit my goal for the month. Hope to catch up this month. But darn, I really should fill out the e-fund. B-oring.. :)

Credit scores are still 752 and 788. Not sure on the last one.

The World Is Not Going to End

2008-09-26T14:09:00.000-07:00

Okay kids. Stop pulling your money out of the market! The world is not going to end and the market will bounce back. If you're pulling out now, it's probably time to do some reading and research. The market does this, it's kind of a natural cycle. A mass exodus hurts you and many others. If you can't handle the news, go stick your head in the sand until things look a little more cheery. But leave your money alone?! Unless you have more than 100k in one bank...

I guess there is an upside for me. I get to buy things at a deep discount.

My 3 Points Are Back

2008-09-19T04:40:00.001-07:00

Yeah, you guessed it. Equifax gave me my 3 points back again.. We'll see how it reacts when my new credit card posts..haha. That score has moved 10 points since 11/2007. I wonder what it needs to go up a few more points.. Maybe just a longer credit history will do it.

Experian

2008-09-12T16:21:00.001-07:00

Woohoo!! Experian is at 788 today. That's only 12 points away from the elusive 800. OMG. Ugh. I think I need help. As if paying for credit monitoring weren't enough I now seem to have added a score every month. Sheesh. At least now I know how to google for coupon codes..

AND. Hi, grammer police? Ignore me.. haha. I got a very nice raise and today was the first day it showed up. So exciting. Of course taxes are always a kick in gut. Oh well, happy I have the income to pay them..

Ding! Another 3 Points..

2008-09-01T16:04:00.001-07:00

I asked for a credit limit increase on my credit card (to improve my utilization) and it seems to have spurred a mid-cycle balance update. At first I viewed this as a bad thing since my score dropped as the balance increased. But then I realized my statement balance was even higher than the reported balance so perhaps that was a good thing. I guess that's not to say they won't still report the statement balance in a delayed fashion. The odd part was it said the balance increased from $0 to $148 or something. I don't think my balance has been at zero for longer than a couple of days ever? I always pay in full and shortly thereafter another charge posts.. Whatever, I don't care. I'll care when I'm loan shopping, hopefully next year.

And in other surprising news, ING posted my interest today. Happy holiday? I didn't think banks ever showed activity on holidays..

Monthly Update

2008-08-30T17:15:00.000-07:00

Early update since the month ends with a weekend then a holiday..

Build emergency fund to 6 mo expenses - 99.3% (Up .7%)

Woohoo! As a refresher, I adjusted the goal upwards. Golly, I gotta get on that last little bit. But it's so much more fun to put my extra money in the DP fund!

Pay off car loan - 10.9% (Up 1.6%)

Wow, did I mention how I love how fast progress goes on this puppy?

Pay off student loan - 7.7% (Up .4%)
House down payment -14.5% (Up 4.5%)

Yay for another good month.

Just Kidding..?

2008-08-23T14:30:00.000-07:00

Surprise, my score went up 3 points. That would put it back to its 752of 4 days ago..haha. No credit alerts..

Score Down

2008-08-20T17:50:00.000-07:00

Oops, lost 3 points 'cause Chase statement posted a $15 balance, which was a $15 increase over last month's $0 balance. HAHA. What am I learning? Pay off both cards right before the statement posts when I'm applying for credit. Sheesh. Down to 749, no biggie..

Too Much Debt?

2008-08-17T11:23:00.000-07:00

So I'm planning on having enough money for a small down payment and closing costs for a house next year. What's bothering me is that I'll still have a car loan and a student loan. It didn't bother me at first since both are at very reasonable interest rates and I plan to have a mortgage close to my current rent. My dad recently found out about my timeline and he seems worried that I won't be able to adequately maintain the house with both loans. However, if the mortgage is at my current rent level, that leaves 80% of the current rent/future mortgage for taxes and maintenance and such. I think that's a pretty good cushion.

The car loan would take a year to pay off but then I would have to start from scratch to save for the house. Of course, with no car loan it would only take about 6 months I guess to save. The student loan would consume all of my extra cash to wipe it out in like 5 or 7 years.

So for now I decided I need to get to the point where I have a dp & closing costs. If at that point I'm still bothered by the prospect of 3 loans, I can wipe out the car loan and work on a new dp. Or, with the new tax credit for first time homebuyers, if I magically find a house before the deadline, I could use the tax credit to pay off the car. Yes, I realize this is an interest-free 15 year loan.

My thoughts are, if I can find a house I can afford with a car payment and a student loan, that should leave room enough to start saving for a new car when this one's paid off. Did I mention my goal of buying the next car with cash? 10 or 12 years down the road, that is.. :) And if I buy a house without the car loan, I don't think I can restrain myself to the old price range. I think I'd be too tempted to extend the price range a bit. Then I'd be spending the same amount on debt service to cover a mortgage and SL versus a mortgage, SL, and car loan. Maybe I'm the only one that sees things this way and it's not a great way of thinking?

The Millionaire Next Door

2008-08-17T10:56:00.000-07:00

I finished the Millionaire Next Door this week. It's an interesting read. Basically, just because someone has a high income doesn't mean s/he has a high net worth. Many high income folks just get used to spending it all. There are case studies that lay this out and a whole bunch of statistics they formulated based on their studies. I personally liked the stories best.. But the great news is that you don't need a stellar income to become a millionaire. For the best odds, live frugally and invest the remainder wisely. To make the investing part easy, just find yourself a low-expense index fund or two and you're covered. And it's important to note that if you start ASAP, your odds are better.

They basically divide the population into 3 categories - underachievers, average, and prodigious accumulators of wealth. This is based on your age, income, and net worth. You can use the calculator below to find out what you are.

http://homefinance.nytimes.com/nyt/personalFinanceCalcs/calculator/wealth/

My results:
Your net worth is 0.049 of the Desired Net Worth

To me this seems a little unfair since I'm fresh 2 and a half years out of college and burdened with school loans. I do have a financial project and if all goes as planned, by my next birthday I will be at

Your net worth is 0.136 of the Desired Net Worth

Yay! Progress! And it does look like catching up is possible! The scary part is I thought the number they gave was in percent format. But it's not. 5% is a lot better sounding than .05%, y'know?

Wow! WOW!

2008-08-06T15:55:00.000-07:00

So I've been resisting the urge to buy another credit score until today.. I hate when I spend money on such an instant gratification sort of thing.
So here they are, I'm so excited.. I just can't hide it.. err.. :)

TU - 769 (8/6/08)
Eq - 752 (8/2/08, supposed to update like daily but they changed their product and I never quite know for sure..)
Exp - 782 (7/16/08)

I've heard they use middle score for mortgages which puts me above 760! TU jumped like 20 points in two months. I know an inquiry fell off but other than that I don't think anything happened.. My car loan updated and it's now 6 months..? Another account aged a year but it's closed, the car loan I had before refinancing..

One thing I did notice is they have a new address reporting in the previous address section. It's an odd combination of my old address and new address. WTF? I hope someone's not um, stealing my identity or something. I printed off a dispute letter so I guess I'll mail that in.

Monthly Update

2008-08-02T15:09:00.000-07:00

Build emergency fund to 6 mo expenses - 98.6% (Up .3%)
Pay off car loan - 9.3% (Up 1.5%)
Pay off student loan - 7.3% (Up .2%)
House down payment -10% (Up 5.6%)

Yay, good month. Look, progress on the SL..hehe.

I'm having a really hard time fleshing out the emergency fund.
1- It's so much more fun to put money in the house DP fund, y'know?
2- About half of the remainder should be coming in interest over the next 8 months (when I plan to start looking at houses seriously).
3- I've been trying to hitch my bank account to my Schwab account so transfers are easier. I just got word that it is set up but the letter says I have to call to take advantage of the option. And when I meant easier, I mean I could push a few buttons on the computer at 10pm on a Sunday night... not get out of my recliner, pick up the phone, dial the number, speak with a representative..blah blah blah..

Anyway, maybe I need to make that the goal for August - fill up the e-fund.