Events from this past week

These days and nights I seem to be a bit hyped up, but I am not sure why. It is not a bad thing, just an unusual thing for me these days. Well, a bit bad when I'm laying in bed and all these random budget related/moving related flood to my head and keep me up for hours. But here's what's been keeping my mind busy:

-Late last week I was kept awake considering the costs of moving that I hadn't considered before, like actually driving there, tolls (they amount to about $120!), possibly renting a U-haul if I do have that much stuff before I move, though doubtful, initial rental deposit, security deposit... anyway, my mind was going through the whole scenario of that last day in this state. It was interesting.
-I've also been considering getting another part time job, something like Tue/Thu nights. It wouldn't be anything fancy, most likely in the restaurant/service industry.
-One of my best friends asked me to be the godparent of their child. More on that later!
-Today is Friday! Can I hear a TGIF?!
-Fridays mean I get paid and zero out my account, bill-free for another 2 weeks. I have no idea why that gets me excited. I get anxious right before getting paid and then excited once it happens. It's like Christmas every 2 weeks.
-This is the first paycheck (since possibly February) that I have my personal budget all for myself and don't have to inadvertently pay something of/for my parents. So I was finally able to buy a book I've had my eyes on (only $5 for it), but that makes me happy. It's not a financial book, more like a career-type book called "The Manager's Book of Decencies". I was reading it so fast I had to put it down to make it last!
-I don't want to jinx myself, but I've been losing some weight by avoiding carbs. I'm so glad something is finally going right! Last I checked, I was a full 10lbs off in the scale.
-It's about 60-90 days before I can get rid of "my" first debt and pay off the car. I am really looking forward to that.

I'll leave it at that for now. Hope you all have a great holiday weekend coming up! Stay safe!

I have my own car insurance!

That is all. Well, most of it. The total is $190 for the first 6 months since I am paying it in full (savings of $41!), and then it will be about $240 every 6 months. I will have to find somewhere in my budget to extract $40/mo so I can have the full premium complete by the time I need it in February.

1 more change left to do is to take my parents' insurance off my bank account. They're on their own now. Sadly, my removal (plus my car) only reduced their premiums by $25. Meh! I thought I was worth more than that.

I thought I'd be happier to get my own policy, but in reality, I am just getting it to stop them from taking my money through that route. I guess we all do what we have to do sometimes. Next step, the car! Date for that is Nov, but I may try and push it to Oct... only $250 short. I can do it, no? Sounds like a challenge to me!

Speaking of car insurance... when was the last time you had your quote redone? I was surprised how much our family's premium went down by just switching. Not that it really mattered, but I was very surprised. And then it dropped again after we changed one more time. I guess if you havent had your insurance policy looked at, or shopped around a bit, now it's as good a time as ever.

Paycheck to Paycheck Infograph

Where to start with this graph… it is sad, and rather alarming too. I am not sure if I am more worried about the 40% living paycheck to paycheck or the 37% that need their next paycheck to make ends meet. This is all the more reason to get out of debt ASAP. Can you think of the last time you went to a supermarket, and seeing a cluster of 10 people in an aisle or at the cash register? Only 3 of them would not be paycheck to paycheck, or not counting on their following check ahead of time. I consider that scary statistics.

Thought I’d share the graphic with you guys!

Taking down 2 debts before New Year's

Thanks for all of your responses to what to do with my secret stash. As some of you suggested, I will use the $2000 to pay off the car loan, when November comes. I'd love to do it in October, but I'd be short by $250. I could ask my dad or brother for it, since it is their car, but I wont even go that route. Not worth the aggravation. After that, instead of working on rebuilding the $2000, I'll be paying off CC1 by Jan 2013 as per Mysti's suggestion. I'll be so happy to just see it gone! THEN I will rebuild the $2000 and hide it somewhere. Of course, while all of this is going, I'll be putting my EF back together, and it should be done by March 2013 if no emergencies do come up. (Ha-ha-ha)

In case none of that made a lot of sense, the important thing is that two of the debts will be gone 6 and 4 months earlier than they were supposed to! I am so excited for it, as I can feel like I'm finally making some headway. Slowly. The rest of the debts are still on schedule to be paid as agreed.

I think I've looked at mortgages and everything that comes with it (front-end ratio! Back-end ratio! Mortgage points! PMI!) for enough time. So instead, I'll be looking at the prospects of buying a car within the next 2 years. I hate car payments, so I hope I don't end up buying new. Whatever car I pick will be driven to the ground quite literally, so it may be worth it to go new, especially since new cars right now cost about the same as used. I just something new to me, because as I've mentioned before, I really, really dislike my 'loaner' car. And I'll need a reliable vehicle once I move. So if cars are also on your mind as well, check out some of Michele's posts here and here in regards to their new Jeep, or Sluggy's post on her son's car. I do like Hyundai cars a lot!

"Bundle" of joy?

I had a rather rough weekend over at my parents, and had to lie myself out of there because I really, really did not want to stay there any longer than absolutely necessary. They were throwing a second baby shower for my brother and his wife, and while I am excited about their addition to the family, it is quite shadowed with too much financial grief nobody but me seems to notice.

I have mentioned my parents pay for my nephew's diapers, lotion, baby powder, oil, shampoo, food and formula, for whenever he's at my parent's house. Which is daily, since my parents provide the daycare, free of charge. Any of you with kids or with friends/family with kids knows how expensive this is. My brother and his wife simply aren't footing the bill, so my parents do it. My brother does not see how taxing it is to have a child in daycare. You think that he and his wife would be inclined to pay my parents at least a portion of what they would pay a daycare (or at least for the diapers and formula!), but my luck isn't so good. What are they doing with their extra income? "Saving for retirement" and house hunting for a bigger house. Yeah, really. After all, who can turn down free daycare where you don't even have to pay for the diapers? I swear morality and principles just went down the drain and I happened to catch a bit of it. This is my older brother too. Someone who I looked up to. Oh well.

I said I had to meet with my half brother down in DC and left about an hour after the baby shower started. Did some grocery shopping ($4 under budget!)... But it still bothers me... That explains why I'm $500 short in the past 2 months, that my parents haven't been able to repay... they're already in a dire, sad financial situation and they have a grandson to pay for. I can only  imagine what this new bundle of joy is going to indirectly cost me. So yeah, I'm sorry if I sound like a terrible person, and I would never wish ill on any of them, but I am very, very underwhelmed and unexcited. I can't say I will miss any of them once I leave.

Why do you live where you live?

I am curious as to how and why people pick the cities/neighborhoods they live in. Is it because it's close to where you or an spouse grew up? Close to parents? Close to family? Or did it have more to do with school systems for your children or yourself, more business/career/work opportunities, closer to work? Was it because it was more affordable, better fitting of your lifestyle, or you just happened to find the house/neighborhood you love?

As to me, I'll be picking at least 3 cities based on reviews and what I can find online, with guidance from my local friends, of course. It feels similar to an interview... all you have is a piece of paper telling you a lot of information; some of which may be enhancement of the truth, some of which may not be fully descriptive.

Factors I am considering decent cost of living indexes, crime rates, proximity to job markets and moderate housing prices.

What were your deciding factors? Why or how did you end up living where you do now?

Sidetracked putting everything on web-paper

I am glad to see as many posts concerning mortgages the such! I guess I wasn't the only one with mortgages in my mind. (Of course, I will never be! It just doesn't seem that much of a hot topic. People such as Michele helping us with some of the terms, Louise hitting another milestone on her mortgage and Mysti wondering whether she should work on her mortgage before her consumer debt, they have really put the topic back on the table.

I was doing well on my research... I feel a bit like a grade-school child thinking his research on cell development is actually something new, innovative or interesting to the teacher (even though they probably can recite the process in their sleeps!). Then I got introduced to a program by a co-worker: Microsoft's One Note (or its free equivalent EverNote, which is just as good or better).

Have you ever tried them or heard of them? I think they are fantastic! I needed this about 2-4 years ago, but I'll definitely take it now without complain.

Pretty much, it's a program that behaves a lot like your notebook. You can put a bunch of notes about things, dates, events, take pictures or recordings about, well, anything! You can create multiple notebooks, each with different sections. For example, I started transcribing my moving plans into a notebook called 'Moving'. In it, I have sections to detail cost of moving, the areas I am considering to move to and why, job markets and what skills current jobs are asking, stuff I'd need to get to furnish a new place, etc. It's a lot like a collage or collection of post-it notes. I am in love with it and have spent the last day and a half toying with it, transcribing a lot of notes from my notebooks to it.

Best part? It is also online and on your mobile phone! They all sync together. So did you see a really cool idea for a decoration while walking? Take a picture and send it to yourself, to organize later in your notebook. I was looking for a pair of ceramic knives I was recommended years ago, and finally found it. Instead of saving the link to forget it later, I've put it in a "Wants" notebook. I think this is an online/computerized version of a vision board! Another best part? It's fully searchable. So that recipe you read about (and saved) about 3 months ago, that you conveniently only remember included celery and honey can be found through all your notes, notebooks and sections.

Pretty nifty, huh? Well, I'm off to play a bit more with it.

A house costs what?!

Ok... I'm still on my research for future goals. Please keep in mind the following post is entirely hypothetical, running on the assumptions things go on the level 4 or 5 on a scale of 1-10 of how good my life follows a set, semi predictable pattern (10 being perfectly).

For whatever reason, I was thinking I may want to buy a house/condo in about 5-7 years (year 2017-19).  Why that range? For one, I would've been living on my own for 2-4 years and would have a good knowledge of the area in Chicago. It would've given me sufficient time to put some ground under my feet and wind in my sails. Which means my finances will still be on track and I would've kept enough of my savings relatively untouched. I'd also have enough savings to make a down payment.

For two, I have a "little" (huge!) ding in my credit, which is a 3-month late payment on my smaller/closed credit card. Not sure why, but that fact alone hits my credit enormously, even if it is the only negative thing on it. Well, besides high balances on my cards. That ding will disappear in 2017, so with luck, my credit will heal nicely thereafter.

Not to sound like a complete inept person, but I had to run the numbers. A good/decent price for the kind of house I think I'd like runs in the $180k range. That came out to about $970/mo. Over the life of a standard 30 year mortgage... I'd have to pay a total of $347k assuming 5% interest (higher than averages, I know).


Wait, what? I have to pay almost double? And interest makes up for the extra 93% (or 167k)?! Has this always been this way? This is an outrage! Somehow I just had never thought a house was THAT expensive! And that so much of it was solely interest! That's insane! I am completely disgusted at that fact. So I had to thinker some more... As a true PF blogger, I'd try to snowball the heck out of this debt. So being extremely conservative... I'd be putting an added $500 on the debt. It cuts the time by 15 years! Hurray! But I'd still be paying 40% in interest, or $72k in just interest. What the heck is up with that? This is terrible! The math is horrible either way I look at it. I just had no idea. So tomorrow, I embark and delve more into this issue, that I am sure a lot of you already know about... but I'm just a bit in disbelief houses are that expensive, without factoring in down payments, taxes or maintenance. And that the loans are so, so terribly expensive.

Looking at my horizon

Since coming back from my vacation I keep looking, tweaking and playing with my goal-setting spreadsheet. And a few days ago, I noticed that by the time I'm debt free, I'd be too preoccupied saving up for my big move, taking my career certification test, and pondering about a new-to-me car. That half of the spreadsheet is plagued by estimates of move-related expenses, rent averages, new salary calculations, etc.

Even in a spreadsheet, one little fact got buried... I'LL BE DEBT FREE!! Yes, I will be panicking about other things, but wow! This whole journey has been to get to this debt free destination and what lies beyond. I couldnt believe I hadnt highlighted, made sparkle or otherwise make into a plaque that I will be debt free at some point in the future. When's that date? It keeps inching in and inching out. Right now, it is set for between October and December 2014. That is only 27-29 months away!

Pardon me while I go freak out from happiness.

It also made me think twice... what will I be blogging about 24 months from now? What about in 30 months? All of a sudden, what's left of my journey seems so... small. Encouraging and scary at the same time. Life, bring it on!

Commercial interruption of a frustrated heart

Working on Saturdays means that I get to spend time with my dad at my parents' house. And as usually, this is a double edged sword that can and will cut you with both edges, just because it can.

Two things that bother me the most about my parents:
1. They are not doing things on purpose. They really do not wish any ill on me. Bad things happen because they are just terrible money managers, ill educated and short-sighted on goals. I know a lot of you may think I'm blind or kidding myself, but if you can trust me, then do so on this one fact.
2. They absolutely refuse to change their ways. They refuse any guidance, will not yield to advice, and will not give up control so that at least someone else can fix their problems.

I've deleted the remaining of this post since it was a long, long rant about what of everything is wrong with this house, including but not limited to their lack of control over bills, their refusal to change, their refusal to ask for help, refusal to make younger siblings pay for their own bills (like portion of the phone and car insurance, gas, food and/or rent), refusal to make older brother pay for freaking diapers/food/daycare alternative (and baby #2 is due soon! That's twice the diapers my parents will have to pay out of their budget), etc. I am glad I only have to come to this house once a week. Any more time, and I am sure my nerves would be frayed. They are now, but let me just pretend this whole mess doesn't bother me as much. For the rest of Sunday, I will just continue looking at property values of houses I'd like to buy some day and call it a day. </rant>!

Have a good one! Cheers for a wonderful week ahead.

Second part of a plan

Alright, as mentioned on my last post about my secret soon-to-be $2000 fund... I have to explain why I decided to come clean all of a sudden. First, because I think it's silly to hide stuff from myself, and from you guys. You're all awesome and give great advice. Also, sorry about not responding to yesterday's comments. I'll get to them tonight after work.

Second reason why I am bringing this to the light, because as you can see, the car loan is coming to its expiration point. By November, it should have close to $2200 left to be paid. This loan is averaging about $60 in interest every month. I don't quite get how it is calculated, since the interest rate varies wildly. I am not on the loan, or related to it whatsoever (it is my older brother and father's), so nobody will explain this to me. The percentage is taken out of the payment and not the principal. It is sometimes higher, sometimes lower, but still averaging $60/mo.

So here's an idea I came up with... taking the $2000 plus the regular car payment for November ($410) and sending them off to fully pay off the car. That will wipe out "my" first debt! (Even though it's not mine or related to me at all!) I am not sure what everyone's position is on paying things early to avoid all the extra interest.

The plan is only halfway done at this point, though. I will continue to pay myself $410/mo for the next 6 months (as if I still had the car payment), until the date when the car was supposed to be fully paid off, which is May 2013.

Benefits of this? I get to keep about $420 worth of interest over the final 6 months of this loan. Put in $2000, get out $2420 after 6 months. That's better than most investments I can think of! The extra money can probably be used to accelerate my debt snowballs, or complete my EF.

So what do you think? Should I tempt faith once again with my hidden funds and save quite a lot of interest, or throw them into a CD to be 'forever' forgotten for another 3 years?

Confession time!

I have a confession. And I feel terrible about it. It's just that sometimes, I can't even trust myself.

Last December, we were given a bonus at my full time job. It was a small amount, and I said a bit about it. I was VERY thankful for that bonus... but that was bonus 1 of possibly 2 bonuses. I didn't mention it on my blog because I wanted it to be this hidden treasure. A buried ray of hope for me. Then I finally received that second 'half' in March. The sum was $2000! I was so beside myself. I decided to hide it. From me, from you guys, from the blog... and hopefully for Murphy, for I feared if he knew about it, he'd come and snatch it.

Well. He learned about it and was not happy. And so did my parents, apparently. Let's go back to that rather dark time in my life, which was March-April. Just after receiving the bonus, I also got my tax bill. I was upset, since I had been instructed by my brother's spouse to set my deductions as they were, so I'd break even. Needless to say, I did not break even. Not even close! My tax bill came to... remember? $2000. Not weeks after getting this $2000 bonus, something had come to claim it, and it was partially my fault for not looking at my tax deductions.

Instead of paying interest on my taxes (which is ridiculous!), I took my $2000 and paid it in taxes. I was pretty hurt, but not as much as my pride or bank account. Slap #1. In that same month, I also handed all of my EF and extra funds to my parents so they would buy a car that still sits in the garage. Slap #2. But I've already beaten myself too much over that story, so let's fast forward.

After learning I'd get nothing back from that car purchase ($1500), I just felt obligated to myself to earn back my $2000 bonus. I didnt care if I needed it, if I wanted it, or what I'd do with it. I just wanted it back. I owed it to myself! So with the perfect blog excuse of having to pay taxes in monthly installments, I created this illusion of a debt. I 'owed' $330/mo for 6 months for tax purposes, until all $2000 were met. Not only did this keep me from having to confess to having such amount in the first place (and losing it), but it forced me to come up with an additional $330/mo to pay for it. It has severely crippled my budget since April, but I am getting there. In September, I finally meet my dues and arrive at $2000. I think I will be at peace with myself.

What will I do with those funds? I have no idea. Can't say a bonus has ever proven to be so tough on me. It came so easy the first time, but it was sweat and tears to get it back the second time around. Have to learn from my mistakes someday. I'll tell you tomorrow why I brought this topic out of the blue...

What's in my bag, you ask?

Let's hope you're not asking that. Because it'd be rather creepy, if you ask me. No, I don't carry candy in there. But I decided to take a look at my bag, imitating Carla's post. For its size, it is surprisingly empty. To be truthful, it was already emptied about a month ago when I had to go through airport security. Normally it'd be full of receipts and misc/uncounted coupons, but this is what it usually has inside right now...

 First, here's my bag. It's actually a deep blue.

The notebook is the one I photographed in this post, which is my personal journal. It was a freebie a few years back from a conference going on at the hotel I work at. It's super sturdy and I do love it. Other items are self explanatory... clockwise from the top is my wallet, umbrella (super tiny! love it), chap stick, hand sanitizer (Christmas scent, I know), sunglasses, regular glasses, a hairbrush, contact case with spare pair of contacts, contact liquid, a wrist watch and some pens.

Second batch is for a photo album where I keep all my coupons, above is my coin purse/cash carrier, random hair accessories, car keys and various crystal-lights.

So there you have it!

What has worked for me and my budget

I have primarily 7 bills I have to pay monthly: 2 credit cards, 2 student loans, a car payment, rent and my phone bill. 

Perhaps the reason why my budget method makes sense is because of how few things I have to take care of. Those primary 7 bills are broken into 2 credit cards, 2 student loans, a car payment, rent and phone bill. The amounts are pretty much the same month after month. Overly simplistic, I know.

Back when I first decided to make a real budget and not just a list of things, I wanted peace of mind and simplicity, in that order. I had been charged plenty of overdraft fees and had to pay for some late fees that weren't quite mine. So I labored and labored on many 2x2 post-it notes about how I could make this work, and came up with what I still think has been one of my best ideas. I had the idea of splitting the 7 items right down the middle and paying everything right on that date I got my paycheck. Zero-out my account every payday. No more than 2-3 days a month to pay bills.

Not everything fit nicely, but after shifting things around, I ended up with:
-1st paycheck of the month: car payment, both student loans and both credit cards, plus food/personal/gas allowance.
-2nd paycheck: rent, cellphone, savings/misc dues plus allowance and additional savings amount.
The result is either a zero balance or a bit leftover, but it does bring me great peace to know that these things are all in order, instead of waiting for due dates to come by and having to think about paying accounts more than once every 2 weeks.

I write down my payday dates on a notebook I always carry, and below them, write all the things that are due. I make them in advance too, and write any notes of changes or things I expect to see that would be different. This works for me.

What works for you? Do you pay bills as they're due, or do you use your own schedule?

August Goals / Mid Year review

I havent done monthly goals in a very long time, and I can't think of any worthwhile ones in August.  It honestly seems rather silly to me to try to mess with my spending, considering my biweekly flexible budget is only of $150.  That's all I get to spend in non-bill items.  Woo hoo.

August is a good month for me.  Even though financially, it will just be quite invisible thanks to the lack of activity, everything’s still getting paid on time and without issue.  August is also a 3-check month! However, I’m nowhere as excited about it as you’d think I should be.  Thanks to my past short-comings, the extra check will quietly be consumed and used to pay the taxes. 

Remember when I said that once my EF takes a hit, it takes in the 8-12 month to recover?  I wasn’t kidding.  Since taking a hit in April, I still have not been able to get it started.  Only things that are suffering are my snowballs and my food/misc personal budget, since those are the only two variable items in my list.

Mid year, I think I'm in pretty good shape... remember those 12 (well, 11) goals at the beginning of the year?  I'm doing just alright meeting them. I'm done with 5, and I am on the right track to finishing another 2.  The rest need a lot of work.  And I need more creative goals, monthly and yearly.

Now back to deciding what I am doing as far as early Christmas shopping... I've never been good shopping for gifts, even if I do enjoy a lot giving them out.  I know it is about 100 degrees out, but have you started your shopping?  How's that Christmas jar/box/container coming along?  Mine's getting fed here and there.  Quite excited to see how much I end up with, even if it is less than $50!