Asmom's Personal Finance Blog

I was just looking at my email when I saw an ad for some course or another for Rich Dad something or another. This reminds me of the time about 4 years ago when I decided I wanted to get rich in real estate with their help. So I signed up for the course they were offering at the time for $4000+ dollars. I'm not even sure what it was about but to get me to put the thing on my credit card the salesman talked about "leveraging".


At the time, I had zero cc debt and not even a car loan so I was skittish. He was trying to convince me that I wasn't going into debt but I was "leveraging" my money in order to make more money.


After a couple of days, I came to my senses and decided to cancel the thing. (You get 72 hours in these cases to cancel and get a full refund, it's some sort of law). That's when the fun started. The guy used every type of tactic he had in his bag from guilting me("you wasted our time, it took a lot to set this up") to trying to make me feel stupid("don't you understand the concept of leveraging? don't you want to succeed?) Finally he resorted to outright anger and harassment(he told me he wasn't going to allow me to do it) but I knew he had absolutely no right to do that, I wasn't even worried.

Looking back on it, it's amazing to me how much pressure I felt to want to make the guy like and approve of me. Fortunately I overcame that bit of stupidity.

I've had an unfavorable opinion of Rich Dad since.

Like everyone else, my money is not stretching as far these days. My gas budget has doubled and my grocery bill is up at least 20%. Since all of my money is accounted for every month, this extra money has to come from somewhere and unfortunately, it is cutting into my savings.

Since I find that unacceptable and my efforts at cost-cutting are not making the grade, I have no option but to increase income. Soooooo....


I GOT ANOTHER JOB!!!!!!!!! It's for a 30% increase in pay which translates into an additional 15K per year. With my degree and years of experience I should be making about 10K more than that even but there's no point on dwelling on that. I hate that I didn't do this earlier and I am feeling some real anxiety about giving notice at my current job but I have to consider my retirement and my kids' college which is coming up at the speed of light.


However, I am thrilled and excited and so relieved. I hope this works out and I am looking forward to increasing my savings and retirement and killing off my remaining debt quickly. Yahooooo!!!!!

A little background: my hubby and I keep our finances separate. Naturally both of our names are on the mortgage and we split what is needed for the house 50%. Having said that, we are married and what happens to him affects me and vice versa. Back in October I think it was, I found out he was in $42,000 of credit card debt. A significant portion of this was due to late fees and finance charges. I offered to help him figure out a plan to pay this debt down and he accepted. For the record, after bills my husband has about $2000 a month left to buy gas, groceries and play with. That's after he contributes a measly 8% to his 401K. And he plows through all of that and still has to use a credit card? Now you can see why I am really, really annoyed.

Now as for his repayment plan, it involved me moving his credit cards to cards with 0% rates and drastically stepping up the payoff. He was making minimum payments of course. I still left him with about $800 of money to buy gas and groceries etc. Then I left him alone because he was getting real stiff and tense when I would ask him if he's paid xyz bill and if made any extra money so he could apply it to the credit cards. Since I am not interested in being his mother/watchdog/nag I let it go and stopped looking over his shoulder and trusted him to pay it off according to the plan I put into place. And what do I find out? The idiot has charged about $500 worth of stuff on one of the cards that the balance was transferred away.


He cannot be trusted. Our finances are separate but what he does could affect me and the kids future prosperity and the truth is that with this guy, I will never prosper. If I don't stay on his case, he'll charge himself into bankruptcy within a year. He has already asked me to sign giving him permission to take a loan from his 401K so he can pay the cards off(I refused).

$2000 a month invested at 8% annual interest is how much in 10 years? And we have to give it to the credit card people. Sheesh...


Any suggestions on how to rein this guy in? We've been married for 18 years but this worries me. Tremendously. I hate being put in the position of uptight bitch but what else to do?

We just got a graduation invitation from one of my husband's cousins. Tucked inside the invite....I kid you not.....was a list of suggested graduation gifts. Included on this very long list was a laptop, boombox, digital camera, HDTV, blow dryer, CASH 3x and several other items. I am speechless. My husband and I have decided to reward this tackiness with nothing. I thought the invitation was an invitation to the ceremony and the gifts were optional. This child is the daughter of my husband's aunt and she generally tends to be very soft-spoken, dignified and reserved. I can't imagine her sanctioning this insanity. I wonder if she knows about it?

Well last month was a financial disaster-okay disaster is too strong a word but I am not pleased. We are all affected by the gas costs (mine have doubled and I used mass transit to get to work) but the increase in grocery prices has caught me off guard. Also the kids were on spring break for a week last month and I guess I was in denial or something because I didn't plan for it very well. Anyway I thought that this month I would give myself a daily allowance for groceries and sundries instead of using the monthly amount. It's the same amount but I divided it by 30. I'm hoping that by knowing how much I have to spend for the day, I will be more hesitant to spend. How's it working? Well I am currently $15 in the hole, lol! But seriously I believe that this will even out over the next few days. I am using a table/calendar to keep track.



One thing that I have noticed is that I am not as careful with my money when I don't feel well or if I haven't slept very well. Ditto for my diet and exercise. I think one of the things I am going to make a serious effort to do over the next few weeks is to go to bed earlier and stay asleep. I don't know how well this will work out as I am an evening person.

As my profile shows, I am a registered nurse and I have been for 17 years now. I thought I learned long ago to leave the office at home so to speak but lately I am struggling. A few years ago I went back and completed my master's degree and since then I have been working in clinical research in a public hospital. In this position, I have a lot more intimate contact with my patients than I did when I worked at the bedside. To make a long story short, these people are in constant need. Constant! They either don't have money for meds or food or rent or utilities or transportation. And the situation is always desperate.

I have to confess that as a general rule I detest helplessness and I have a real problem with people begging. But sometimes, life happens and it is not always the result of people who don't plan or work hard or whatever. Case in point, a couple I was working with today. They have always worked, they had savings but their adult daughter was diagnosed with cancer about a year ago and rapidly became debilitated. The mom took time off to take care of her as she was single and she died after only a few months. Before they could recover from that the husband became ill. She was fired from her job for taking too much time off(to take care of the sick ones). He lost his job due to his illness. Yes, it's illegal but this type of thing happens all the time to a certain type of worker. They have been living off of their savings but now their savings has run out and there is nothing to help them. Nothing. There is a popular perception that there is a lot of help for the poor and destitute but there isn't. At least not in GA. They were allowed food stamps but that won't pay their rent or their utilities or pay for meds. I called at least a dozen charities and agencies and the answer was the same: there's nothing left or they don't meet some narrow restrictions. And I don't have any answers for them. I'm just blown away.

People love to tell stories about seeing people on welfare driving cadillacs and buying steaks with their food stamps while dressed in designer clothes but that's bullsh!t. For every person you see like that, there are 100 more who don't know where their next meal is coming from or how much longer they are going to keep a roof over their heads.

Thanks for reading, I just had to vent.

Like a lot of people I pay all of my bills with credit cards, not only to get the cashback but because it is great for recordkeeping. It also cuts down on the number of bills I have to manage with online bill pay. Therefore I always look for an opportunity to use a credit card to pay my bills when possible.

So when I received my bill for my car tag I pored over it very carefully to see what my options would be for paying it, not only in terms of cash back but for convenience. According to the bill, there is a charge for using MC or VISA but not for Discover card which you can use in person. Imagine how angry I was when I went to pay my bill this morning and was told that there would be a $3.00 surcharge! I absolutely do not believe in paying a surcharge to use my credit card and I would have never walked in there with only a credit card had I known. (I don't bother carrying checks as it is just one more thing to clutter up my purse). The clerk was under the impression that this surcharge was required by my CC company. I didn't bother to correct her and explain that this charge was made to the county but that the county was passing it on to me. That's their prerogative I suppose but they should have at least made it clear on the bill that there was a charge, then I could have . So now I'm writing a little letter to the Dekalb county Commissioner. I hope they don't try to tell me that the CC payments are solely for my convenience; they probably saving thousands in bounced check fees from those who are unable to pay their fees in full at the time they are due. The idea of paying somebody for the privilege of paying your bills is just insane.

Well good news, I am 1 year on my job now so I am getting company match to my 403B; they match 3% to my 2% contribution. Also I am receiving an additional 6% whether I contribute or not, so it's like receiving an instant 9% raise in addition to my annual pay raise of 6%. A total of additional 15% pay is not bad. Here are some new numbers(since May):


DEBT:

Student Loan: $10,596.70 down 1.65%
Credit Card: $7969.63 down 10.4%
Auto Loan: $10146.88 down 17.6%

ASSETS:

Savings $2835 up 26.6%
Roth IRA $3302.85 up 22.4%
Individual stocks $2,070.82 up 2.1%
403B $3695 up 110%


The value of that Roth has increased by 50% over the past year even though I have not contributed a penny. I'm wondering if just ignoring that in favor of my 403B is the right thing to do since it's doing so well.

When I got married almost 18 years ago, my grandmother pulled me to the side and whispered to me "Whatever you do, don't put your money with his. Keep your money separate, provide for your own future and handle your own business. I never did believe in relying on a man to take care of you."

Needless to say I was a little shocked by grandma's advice. For a newlywed with stars in her eyes, it sounded like the opposite of what someone trying to build a partnership and a new life with her One True Love should do. I decided in all of my 20-year old wisdom to ignore her. After all, she and my grandfather were only married for 50 years, she was old and what did she know? Unfortunately, she was right. Even more unfortunately by the time I figured it out a couple of years later, she had already died. *sigh*

What inspired this? Well I was discussing with my husband what our plan should be to help our daughter with college expenses in 4 short years from now. His plan? To dip into his retirement to pay for it. The convo went like this:


ME: "You're going to use your retirement? That money is supposed to take care of you in your old age. Who's supposed to take care of you if you spend it all now? Me?"

HIM: "No. I'm not really planning to retire. I'm just going to keep working."

ME: "You do realize that you're not invincible, don't you? You could get sick, and then you wouldn't be able to work. And there's always the possiblity you might die, sooner than later. You have to do right by the kids and me."

HIM: Blank stare.


At least twice a year, he mentions using his retirement money to pay for some bills or more recently to pay for our failed air conditioning and now this. All because he doesn't want to stop spending money on crap, pay off his $33,000 in credit card debt and save his money. He just doesn't get it but fortunately I do...finally. Thanks, Grandma.

A friend was teasing me about my hobby of chasing freebies and cashback. According to her, shopping through sites like Fatwallet and always paying with my credit card isn't really worth it. I disagree. I won't get rich doing this, it is a hobby after all but it's fun and more importantly, it's a way of spending my money that insures I am getting the best value for my dollar. I had applied this way of thinking 10 years ago, I wouldn't be in debt now and I'd be a lot wealthier. So for fun, I've decided to keep a running tally of money and items earned through cashback, surveys, fatwallet, trial offers, Mypoints, etc. It'll be under the About Me section. If I must say so, I don't think I've done so bad in the past 6 weeks!

Well in the middle of this kick-ass heat wave we're having down here, our central air died. DIED! My brother is an industrial heating and air conditioning guy and he'd advised us we're going to need a new one; the guy from the residential air place confirmed it. That's $4073 that I had no intention of spending. I feel so deflated. The only good thing about this is that for once my husband and I are going to work together to pay it off. I put the whole thing on a credit card at 1.99% interest, rearranged some bills that I was trying to pay off early and we should be through paying for it in 4 months. By my estimate, we'll pay less than $100 bucks for finance charges.


Add to that the cost of putting the kids back in school(supplies and fees for band and football) plus the bloodbath on the stock market(not that I had a lot invested anyway) and I am feeling pretty blue this week.

Here are some current numbers and you can see my "progress" over the past 4 months.


Student Loan: $10,774.56(May) $10640
Credit Card: $8,894.73(May) $8319.73
Auto Loan: $12,325.50(May) $10558.05

Savings $2239(May) $2637.75
Roth IRA $2,698.40(May) $2507.26
Individual stocks $2,026.60 $1921.19
403B $1753(May) $2285

I took a mini-vacation this week and instead of going out of town I decided to spend the week doing things in town with the kids, sort of being a local tourist so to speak.

Well last weekend, there was a sale at Restaurant.com $25 off for 5$ plus 25% cash back at Fatwallet. Great deal right? Wrong. For the first coupon, it was $25 off with $35 minimum purchase. Well for a family of 4 that should have been easy BUT for the extra conditions they put on the usage of the coupon. Long story short, I ended up spending $34 for a meal with the first coupon and $45 for the second meal! We never spend that much on eating out especially at the types of restaurants we went to in the past couple of days. This pretty much reaffirms my feelings on using coupons: they just cause you to spend more money! Genius on the part of the businesses but bad for the consumer.

Here are the latest numbers(last posted in March):


DEBT:

Student Loan: $10,774.56 down .86%
Credit Card: $8,894.73 down 5.3%
Auto Loan: $12,325.50 down 8.5%

ASSETS:

Savings $2239 up 54%
Roth IRA $2,698.40 up 6.6%
Individual stocks $2,026.60 up 12.5%
403B $1753 up 40%


I really want to increase my cash savings. I'm pleased about the increase in my ROTH IRA since I am not currently contributing to it in favor of my 403B. I can't wait to flip-flop those numbers between the debt and the assets!

Well a drop here and a drop there adds up. Occasionally I do insurance assessments on the side. Very occasionally. I've been wondering if it's even worth my time. Wednesday I went to see a lady and it took me one hour to do the interview and 1 hour to do the paperwork. $60 for the assessment=$30/hr. That's not too bad. So I've decided to keep doing them and I'm hoping I can keep it up at the rate of 1 per week at least until June. Also I got a check in the mail today for $200! I did a survey about rheumatoid arthritis(my specialty) for this company. The interview was online and it took about 20 minutes and I did it at work. Now that's what I call an efficient use of my time. So now with that money + the 3 recent assessments I've completed, that puts me at ~$350.


So vacation budget looks like this so far:

$350 cash
1 free night at Choice Hotel( from Choice points)
1 free round trip airline ticket(from that old Polident promotion)
1 free one way airline ticket (from Airtran Airways Visa promotion)

It's a start...

I just finished my taxes. Big deal since we owe the feds $35 dollars and we got back a whopping $52 from the state of GA. Oh well *shrug*.


I was surfing in one of my credit card accounts and I found out that I get my credit score for free. I don't even know why I was looking on the site since I don't have a balance or anything but there it was. That's pretty nice since you usually have to sign up from TrueCredit or one of those credit monitoring services to get it. I never noticed it before and I was so excited that I went into all my other credit cards to see if I got any other little perks but nope.

My credit score is 735. I can live with that since I'm not planning to buy a car or get a mortgage any time soon. Once I pay off some of these balances, that should improve. Yippee!

I've been thinking a lot lately about how I ended up almost 40 with a very meager savings and retirement. What amazes me is how quickly the years went by. I kept telling myself that I'll save once things settled down and I had the extra money to invest. That day has never come. When I graduated from college in 1991, I was in a good place with no kids and no debt. But over the next 10 years, I had a couple of kids and like a lot of women, I put my home first and worked either very part-time or not at all so I could be here for my family. I also fell into the monthly payment mentality, you know if you can make the monthly payments, you can afford it. Now the kids are older and I am working full-time again and I am realizing how behind I am. To make matters worse, my husband is a spender and he has over $30,000 in credit card debt! I can't tell you how angry that made me when I found out especially since he ran up this debt while he was working overtime! What in the @#$@#$ was he doing with his money? Geesh, well no more. I am on the road to financial peace of mind. Within the next couple of years, I plan to pay off my debts and build my emergency fund. Better than planning, I am actively making it happen. I of all people know that there are no guarantees in life and I have to be prepared.

I've decided to join the blogosphere in my journey to financial peace of mind. To begin with a few stats: I've been married for 17 years, I have a 14-year old daughter and an 8-year old son and I've been an RN for 16 years. Except for two years in El Paso, TX, I've lived in GA my entire life; not that I'm complaining.
That's the personal stuff, now the financial:

Debt:

Student Loan- $10868
Chase MC- $9394
Auto Loan- $13,484
Mortgage- $180,000

The good news: except for the mortgage, I don't have an interest rate higher than 4.75%. That's the only good news about this.


Assets(I'm not including property like my jeep and the house):

Personal savings- $1445
IRA- $2530
Individual stocks- $1800
401K- $1252


Pretty pathethic huh? I am what is referred to in "The Millionaire Next Door" as an UAW-Under Accumulator of Wealth. How did I end up like this at such an advanced age? More on that tomorrow......