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.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Monthly Update
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.
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.
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Monthly Update
Pay off car loan - 76.1% (Up 1.1%)
Pay off student loan - 13.5% (Up .3%)
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.
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.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Monthly Update (June)
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 :)
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 :)
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Monthly Update
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.
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.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Inexpensive, Healthy Dog Treats
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!
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Monthly Update
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?
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?
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