Happy Anniversary, Blog! July 31, 2009

Wow, it has now been over a year since I started this blog!

Though I haven’t been as vigilant about posting as I’d like to be, I have been very vigilant about paying down our debt. In the past year, we have eliminated $32, 132.09 in debt. That’s unbelievable! We have been lucky this year, my husband got a substantial bonus last fall, a large majority of which went towards the debt. Also, we got the $7500 tax credit for buying a new home (all of which went toward the debt).

In light of these accomplishments, we will probably back off of our debt-reduction strategy and start focusing on retirement. We have already begun this strategy to some degree, but we will continue to stay fairly aggressive towards the debt until the grad loan is eliminated.

What’s ahead as we move into year 2 of the blog? Some goals and events I foresee in the near future:

1. Pay off graduate loan in full – $4,773.53

2. Pay off washer and dryer – $1,954.96 (we did 0% financing, but the financial penalties for missing a payment are huge enough that I’d rather not have to worry about it).

3. Maybe a baby? C and I are currently discussing starting a family in the near future.

4. Beefing up retirement.  C and I have each begun putting $500 a month toward our respective 401k plans. This is in addition to maxing our Roth IRAs.  C will get another (smaller) bonus this fall, and we’d like to dedicate half of it to his 401k.

5. Making an extra mortgage payment on the house for 2009 – $1513.79

6. Increasing retirement contributions even more once we’ve paid off the grad loan/laundry.

7. Home improvement — we’d like to do some painting inside the house, there are a few small repairs that need to be made, and we really should get our annual termite inspection out of the way.

That horrible in-between problem April 30, 2009

I hate it when you have to travel 2 weekends in a row — you never quite get settled before, after, or especially in-between.

We were out of town Thursday-Sunday of last week for a wedding.  This means that Monday-Weds. of last week were spent stressing out and trying to get ready to go out of town (I was the maid of honor, so this was definitely no leisure trip).  We got back at midnight Sunday night, and I had to go to work Monday morning (new job = NO vacation time).

We are gluttons for punishment, however.  Now that we are back we are preparing to go out of town again this weekend to visit my sister, and to participate in her garage sale.  I feel like I’m still way behind on getting the house back in order after our last whirlwind of packing and unpacking and here I am starting all over again!  I have considered  postponing/canceling this weekend’s trip, but the prospect of having an empty spare room closet (that’s where I’ve been collecting all the garage sale junk) is just way too much of an incentive.  

So I will suck it up, get my stuff priced, and get on the road tomorrow!  At least this time we will get back early Sunday evening so I can feel reasonably put-together at work next week.

February Debt Summary February 27, 2009

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

Debt at end of February 2009: $31,495.13

Difference: $20,002.20

Current Breakdown:

Car loan (at 5.75%): $8,528.43

Grad School Loan (at 6.55%): $7,943.08

Undergrad Loan (at 3.35%): $15,023.62

This month I put an additional $101.22 toward the grad school loan. This was composed of profits from selling things on Amazon and ebay as well as an $11 check from My2Cents survey company.  I also put an additional $8,588.42 toward the car loan. $24.24 of this was from my Amazon sales, and from selling some books back to Barnes and Noble. $5564.18 came from our federal tax return, and $3000 came from some money we had set aside in October of 2008.

Originally, C and I had decided to use $7000 of his bonus to pay down debt, and to keep $7000 to invest for future projects.  However, since the market doesn’t look like it will be recovering in the immediate future, and our savings account interest rates have fallen to almost nonexistent levels, we’ve decided to instead put the other $7000 toward the debt as well.  We made a $3000 payment on the principal now, and will make another $4000 payment once I have a job. (We don’t want to decrease our liquid assets too severely until we are back to two incomes again).

If we pay off the debt early, we will avoid paying a couple thousand dollars in interest, and we will free up more of our monthly income to invest down the road when the rates are better.

3 pounds down, 5 to go January 8, 2009

So despite my rocky start rejoining weight watchers on-line, I managed to clean up my eating habits enough by the end of the week to lose 3 pounds!

Obviously I don’t expect results this dramatic every week.  If my previous weight watchers experience is any indication, the pounds will shed more quickly at the beginning, and then slow down a bit as I get closer to my goal.  I believe this is mainly because the first few weeks are a shock to your system, so it reacts a lot faster.  Either way, I’m very pleased with my results so far!

Goals for this week December 15, 2008

- apply for at least 2 jobs 

- finish and mail all Christmas cards

- Pack for trip home

- finish my Christmas shopping

- go through my stuff and determine what I want to sell on Ebay vs. what I want to donate or garage sale

- Read a bit more about ebay and get all set up to sell

- organize the office (it’s still a mess from the move)

- put together the assemble-it furniture I bought from Target

- buy a birthday gift for my sister

- vacuum or sweep/mop all floors in the house

- find some new furniture stores to check out (I still need a dining room table)

- work out every day Monday-Saturday

- Make a little Christmas dinner for C & me on Saturday

- read at least 1 chapter in the book I got on MS Access

Goal Failure December 14, 2008

Well, I didn’t meet hardly any of the goals from my earlier post:

- I didn’t manage to blog every day this week, though I did blog more than I have been lately.

-I didn’t  apply for at least 2 more positions, I mostly applied for 1, and then hit a technical problem, and haven’t resolved it yet.

- I didn’t figure out how to get an estimate for my moving damages so we can file a claim, however, I did talk my husband into doing this one.

- I worked out Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday, so the only day I didn’t meet was Monday.

- I have not looked into finding any more furniture stores, but I did order a coffee table and bookshelf from Target.com (which was cheaper than buying a new coffee table in a fancy furniture store).

-  I did vacuum the master bedroom, but that was as far as I got.

- I went to lunch with an old co-worker, although not the one I intended to make a lunch date with.

-  I did return all of my shopping that didn’t work out.

- I did get the rest of my cds listed on Amazon — and have sold 8 items this week! Yay!

- I got a library card, and I got some books on ebay for beginners — Since I’m wrapping up my Amazon sales, ebay is the newest snowflake avenue I’d like to pursue.  I also got a book on Microsoft Access, in hopes of improving my skills, and having one more thing to put on the resume.

 I have also been involved in a water bill saga that still hasn’t been resolved. C called them on Friday, and they said they were working on it and would get back to us next week.  On the upside, C figured out that we had been over charged for our cable bill by about $40 last month, so he’s going to call and try to get that resolved. 

As per my philosophy — every little bit helps! 

 

Monday recap December 9, 2008

Yesterday I didn’t get as much accomplished as I’d hoped, but I also accomplished some things I didn’t expect.

Things I did accomplish:

- did all of my shopping returns

- bought a birthday gift for C

- wrapped C’s birthday and Christmas gifts

- bought a lamp for my family room (it was needed, and in the budget)

- searched a bunch of sites for jobs, found 8 that I may potentially apply for

- looked at art for my family room and living room, found some potentials but didn’t buy anything

- mailed a batch of Christmas cards as well as some Amazon sales

- finished scheduling/paying my bills for December

Financial Adviser – Setting New Goals November 10, 2008

When C and I met with our financial adviser on Saturday, we realized that we had already accomplished a lot of the financial goals we had on file, and that it was time to look ahead to some new ones.  These goals are supposed to be large future expenditures that require careful planning and significant saving.

 

In 2005 we had set 3 goals:

1. For me to go to graduate school within the next 2 years.

2. To buy a house in 2008.

3. To retire at 55 with 1 million dollars.

 

Since I have now completed graduate school, and we have purchased our first house, we eliminated those goals.  Our new goals are:

 

1. To be financially independent at age 55  – (ideally to have the equivalent of $200,000 a year in today’s dollars by April of 2036).  Comments: We would like to have the option of retirement at 55, even though we both plan to continue working. 

 

2. To be able to fund half of each of our two future children’s college educations (to have the equivalent of $30,000 in today’s dollars by August of 2029 and another $30,000 by August of 2031).  Comments: Though we haven’t specifically decided when to have children, we know it’s coming up in the next 5 years, and that we’d like to have 2 if possible. Obviously we won’t begin saving for this goal until we actually have children, but it’s good to realize how having a child or 2 may impact our financial plans.

 

3. To have a 20% down payment on a new house by May of 2011 (est. $80,000).  Comments: Ideally, we’d like to stay in this area and keep our house for five years, but because of the nature of my husband’s job, we are aware of the possibility that we will need to relocate in May of 2011. If that happens, we’d like to have the option of keeping this house as a rental property and buying a new home somewhere else.

 

Obviously these goals could change quite a bit over the years, but they are the major money milestones we see in our future that will probably require significant planning, investment, and savings.  We are already on our way to accomplishing the first goal, we continue to max out our Roth IRA contributions each year, my husband has a 401k he contributes to, I am rolling my previous retirement benefits into a traditional IRA, and we have a mutual fund that we contribute to on a monthly basis. 

Goal two is something we probably won’t worry about until we actually have our first child, which we don’t anticipate happening for at least 2 more years.  Goal three is something we need to start seriously looking into. If we really want 80,000 in 2.5 years, we’d need to put away $2666.66 per month from now until then (assuming no interest/growth).  Since we don’t have an extra $2700 lying around (especially while I’m not working) we need to look at what we can save or invest, and the best way to grow that money.  (This will be discussed further in another post).

Could have, Should have, Would have . . . October 15, 2008

Do you ever dwell on the past?  I find that in times like now, when I am between jobs, and have a little too much free time on my hands, I end up thinking about past decisions and mistakes. A LOT.  From stupid things, like, in high school, why did I date the people I did?  Or big things, like why did I get an undergraduate degree in a field I didn’t enjoy?  I know that it is unproductive to obsess about things I cannot change, but I still find myself doing it, and most of the time it just depresses me.

When things like this happen, I try to take a deep breath and a step back.  I like my life. A LOT. I love my husband, we are still crazy in love and the best of friends.  I have a strong support system of family and friends, and financially, I’m doing pretty well.  The lack of a job is temporary and is partly by choice — if we hadn’t made the decision to move back to Virginia from Hawaii, I would still be working at my job there.  Every job hunt is an opportunity to further explore what I want to do with my life and to try new experiences, and to hopefully upgrade my salary.

But, sometimes, when I have a little too much time on my hands, I can’t help but think about things I might have done differently in my past.  I also worry that I don’t have my future figured out yet — particularly as far as my career path is concerned.  I just wish I could figure out a way to make this a productive activity.  If I’m going to constantly look back and wish things in my past were different, shouldn’t that tell me something about what direction I want to go in now?  Why can’t I see the bigger picture?

An Update on Things October 14, 2008

Sorry, this transition period has taken a definite toll on my blogging abilities. Here is a much needed update:

Buying a Home:  We are patiently waiting for closing at the end of the month. We have now provided all necessary info to the lender, arranged for a lawyer to represent us at the closing, and begun transferring funds around so that we will have a cashier’s check ready to go for the closing costs.

Furniture: Purchased a sofa, chair, ottoman, rug, end tables and coffee table for new living room.  Got a great deal — total of $1400 includes delivery and damage/stain protection plan (the sofa and chair are white).  The store also gave us a $100 gift card, which we used to buy my husband a much-needed new pair of running shoes.  Furniture to be delivered the Saturday after closing.  Now we just need family room furniture and a dining set, but we will wait until we’ve moved in to tackle that.

Home Decor: Once we picked the furniture, we were able to start looking at paint colors.  The living room and dining room are currently painted this horribly depressing grayish-purple color that looks really out of place in the most formal rooms in the house.  We have decided to bite the bullet and pay for professionals to paint.  We’ve never painted anything before, and time is of the essence, as we want the rooms painted before we have our movers bring the furniture. Also, since these are the first rooms you see when you walk in the door, and they have the fancy pergo flooring, they are probably not the best rooms in which to start a first-time painting experiment.  (We want to make the home MORE appealing to future buyers not LESS!)  Do you have any suggestions for how to find professional painters?  I am new at this and welcome your advice.

Job search: I have now applied for 4 positions.  One has already been canceled due to lack of funding. I typically work in the public sector, and when the economy is tight, state budgets are tight, so there aren’t as many job openings.  I will keep searching and in the mean time, I have also contacted a bunch of my old friends and acquaintances in the area, letting them know I’m back in town and spreading the word that I am looking for career opportunities.  This has already yielded a couple of potential leads — I’ll keep you posted. I’m also planning to start working for a temp agency once we have moved into our new house.  I did this last time we moved to the area and it really helped supplement our income while I looked for a job.

Weight-loss: I’m doing my best to maintain my current weight, though with all the eating out it’s been tricky to control myself.  Also, without consistent access to a scale, it’s been difficult to track. I rejoined my local YMCA, and have been trying to make the most of my unemployed lifestyle by working out as much as possible. I tried a Zumba class for the first time last week and really enjoyed it.  Also, as a money and calorie saving tactic, we have stocked our hotel fridge with high-fiber cereal, low fat milk, bread, lunch meat, fruit, yogurt and snacks.  This way we can eat 2 of 3 meals “at home” and only have to eat out once a day, or less if there are leftovers from a previous meal.

Financial: Currently we are waiting to close on the house before making any major financial moves.  We do have plans to use part of my husband’s bonus to pay down part of our debt, to buy some new furniture, and to set up a new emergency savings account.  We are also going to set aside some of it to assist us with monthly bills until I start bringing in an income again.  Though I’ve been unemployed for the past month and a half, I have been snowflaking my student loans by participating in on-line surveys and Upromise, as well as by selling a few things on Amazon (I’ll have more to sell once my movers deliver my stuff).  My husband and I also need to add about $800 to our Roth IRAs by the end of the year to max our contributions – we have the money set aside, we just have to deposit it.  Also, I need to roll my retirement from my previous job into my IRA.  I am actually excited to do it right now because the markets are low, which equals more shares being purchased, which should equal good earnings when the market comes back over the next few years.