Giving to Charity October 31, 2009

My husband and I each got asked at our respective offices to sign up for a charitable campaign this month. Currently we give monthly to the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society, and from time to time give one-time donations to other funds as the occasion arises.  I also donate a bag of used clothing/household items to the Disabled American Veterans or the Vietnam Veterans of America (depending on who sends me the bag) once every couple months.  I really try to donate every time they send a bag, mainly because it forces me to clean out our closets and drawers on a regular basis. 

I was compiling a budget analysis spreadsheet for our upcoming visit to the financial advisor and thinking about how much we should each donate to our “office” campaigns, when I realized that (not counting one-time donations) we regularly only give less than .5% of our income to charity each year.  I’m not sure what average families give, but that just seems really low to me.  As such, we are stepping it up.  We have decided to each contribute monthly to a fund through our work campaigns. I will donate  to the American Red Cross, and my husband will contribute to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.  This will triple our annual contributions.

We also decided to be come members of our local chapter of National Public Radio via a one-time contribution.  We listen to NPR every day, and value their programming.  We have been members in the past, but with all the moving around (and with me being in between jobs so much these past couple years), we have neglected our membership.

Looking at our budget, I’m proud of all we have accomplished through reducing our debt, and now how ambitious we have become with regards to our planned retirement contributions for next year.  However, I feel that since we finally have our finances under control, we should be giving back to the community a little more.  In addition to the steps I have listed above, we are also looking into future contributions to our former academic institutions.

Do you currently donate to a charitable organization? If yes, where? I’d love to hear your stories.

October Debt Summary October 30, 2009

Debt at start of blog (July 2008): $51,497.33

Debt at end of September 2009: $14,459.25

Difference: $37,038.08 Current Breakdown:

Car loan (at 5.75%): $0.00

Grad School Loan (at 6.55%): $0.00

Undergrad Loan (at 2.125%): $14,360.84

I made an extra $30 payment to the Undergrad loan this month — Neilson Ratings is paying me to do a week-long TV survey. I’m pretty excited about it!  Hopefully if it works out they will ask me to do more paid research in the future. I have very strong opinions about the tv shows I watch, and am often bummed out because they always seem to get canceled far too early.

Otherwise, not a lot of “debt news” to report this month. Now that my debt is down to the undergrad loan, it’s not as high of a priority.  We are shifting our focus to building up retirement, giving more to charity, and saving for our next home.  More on this in future posts.

September Debt Summary October 4, 2009

Debt at start of blog (July 2008): $51,497.33

Debt at end of September 2009: $14,459.25

Difference: $37,038.08

Current Breakdown: Car loan (at 5.75%): $0.00

Grad School Loan (at 6.55%): $0.00

Undergrad Loan (at 2.125%): $14,459.25

C got a bonus for work this month, and we used 2320.56 of it to fully pay off my graduate school loan.  The debt I have been tracking has now been reduced to my undergraduate student loan, which, at a tax-deductable interest rate of 2.125% is not a huge priority.  We still have other debt of course, the mortgage, my car loan (0%), our washer and dryer (0% for 36 months).  I have decided that for October and November, I will use the extra money I would normally have put towards student loans to pay off the washer and dryer.  Though we have 0% interest for another 2 years, the credit line makes me nervous because if you miss a payment, or are late, or any of a thousand other conditions, the interest rate goes through the roof. I’d rather not have to worry about that, and since we only owe about $1800, I’d rather just pay it off at this point. 

After that, I’m not 100% what I will do about my debt. Now that the higher-interest rate stuff has been knocked out, I think we will shift the focus back to savings/retirement. I would like to max both of our 401k’s for the first time next year. To accomplish this, I will take a chunk of the extra payments we’ve been making to our debt and use it to increase my monthly 401k contribution. We will also start contributing to our emergency fund again.  More details to come in future posts!

In the mean time, I’d just like to take a moment and say, “WOW!” I think it is so amazing how much debt we managed to reduce in a year and 3 months.  I’m proud that we were able to tighten our belts, and find creative ways to make extra money to accomplish our goals. It is also important for me to acknowledge that none of this would be possible if my husband hadn’t made a tough career decision last year that led to him receiving some bonus money that helped substantially in the quest to eliminate our debt.   I only fear that without such a powerfully motivating force, we will struggle more to be as fiscally responsible in the future.  I guess we just have to come up with new, achievable goals that we feel strongly about.