I've decided to do an assessment of my overall goals. I have not picked up any new debt but the "wealth accumulation" phase is moving much, much slower than I anticipated. The interesting thing is that in the past year, I've received a promotion and a couple of raises that total $21,000! That's great news, right? So what the heck is going on?

I'm not sure. I haven't really loosened my belt that much. I am now finally maxing out my 403(b) and my Roth as well as continuing to build my EF. I don't eat out any more or shop any more than I used to. Yet the money is still slipping through my fingers, more than it should. I have some work to do. It just goes to show that it is always a work in progress even when you think you've got it all figured out.

The transmission on my Jeep went out and I had to shell out $2500 for a new one. Grrrr.... My first thought was I need to get rid of this heap but of course that is ridiculous since I won't be able to buy another reliable car for $2500 but still.....I hate spending money on anything automotive related, it seems like such a waste of money. Thank goodness, for the emergency fund but it is still infuriating.

A few months ago I posted that I opened an installment savings account. For those of you unfamiliar with this concept, it is basically a forced savings in which you agree to deposit a certain amount over a certain amount of time. For myself, I chose to open an account for $20,000 over 3 years. The interest rate is %5.5. That means I will deposit a total of $18,331 (509.20/month). This is great if you are in a building phase of your savings and if you have job security.

So anyway, it has turned out to be a great idea. I know it's psychological but by treating it as a bill complete with a coupon book, I find saving for that account non-negotiable. On the other hand, I currently use a high-yield checking acct for the rest of my savings, interest rate %5.25. I have to confess that I am not as strict with my budget some months due to that readily available cushion. So I am supposed to have around $1600 a month left to deposit into this savings but some months I am off by a couple of hundred. I'm embarassed by that.

I had my yard sale yesterday. Net proceeds=$12. I'm not too upset. The weather down here was miserable hot and my signs kept falling over. The important thing is I got a lot of crap out of my house. All the money I raise this summer is going to go to charity. Then I came home to this:



and


All of these are my husband's shoes. There are others scattered all around the house. No they didn't just magically appear but for some reason I am just now "seeing" them. This makes no sense. How many pairs of athletic shoes does one person need? How much money is laying on the floor of our closet right now?

I asked him to get rid of some of them and to be more prudent about buying shoes going forward. He agreed but he is looking at me like I'm crazy.

I hope I can pull it off. I want to go ahead and start my charity scholarship fund (instead of waiting until I'm rich) so I've decided to make that my focus this summer. The best place to start to raise money would be to have a yard sale. I will admit that I find it hard to believe that many people would want to buy the crap that I have around the house but you have to start somewhere.

Today I climbed to the top of Stone Mountain! For those of you who've done it before I know you're thinking "big deal". But it's a big deal to me: I'm afraid of heights! Kilimanjaro, here I come!

Now that I have paid off the credit card, I am making a serious move to increase my emergency fund in addition to increasing my retirement. I want to increase my cash savings. HSBC is only paying 1.65% and for such a small balance it is not a big deal. But I've been reading about the installment savings accounts that are so popular at Korean-American banks and it sounded like a good idea. I ran the numnbers all weekend and today I pulled the trigger. I was a little nervous because it's different. There is a lot of negativity about this type of account but if you need to save for a goal and if you want to develop the mindset to pay yourself first, I think it's great. If I already had 20K, I might have went with CD ladders instead. I chose the $20,000 option over 3 years at 5.5%. That means I'll contribute $509.20 a month for 36 months. I calculated that if I try to stay with HSBC and raise that amount I would need to contribute an additional $1226 dollars over the same period of time.

Here's a link to Woori Bank's One Heart Savings if you want to see what the payments are for various amounts:

http://www.wooriamericabank.com/eng/one_heart_E_all.html


At the same time, I have opened a high-yield checking at 5.25% to replace the HSBC account. I'm hoping to put up to the max of 25K in that account over the next three years and keeping my fingers crossed that interest rates don't go down so drastically. It's a pain in the butt because you have to do the 10 debit card transactions per month but as the balance grows, that will cut less into my interest earnings. Both types of accounts have their drawbacks and their rewards but I'll get to see which one serves my needs better.

Started a mini-vacation for spring break today, yaaaay! I guess the freedom is getting to my head because I went for broke:

-bought $5 worth of scratch-off lottery tickets
-bought a magazine off the rack, expensive!
-bought a candy bar and two cokes
-shopped at Walmart, a store I detest for many reasons

Tomorrow we leave for Disney, thank goodness we already have a set amount of money set aside for that. It'll be fun to see how much under budget we are able to finish.

I could kick myself. Every year I review all of my expenses but for some reason my homeowner's insurance had gotten away from me. I just checked it and we are waaay over-insured.

We are insured for dwelling extensions which covers unattached buildings on our property- We don't have any!

$175,00 for personal property inside the house? Please. I could refurnish the entire house and re-clothe the whole family for far, far less.

Plus we only had a $500 deductible. That's what I get for not paying attention. So I made the changes, upped the deductible to $2500 and sent it in to my agent. I bet I save at least $400 or $500 a year.

I've been fighting a flu-like virus for a little over a week now. I can't believe how long it has taken me to get back to normal but today is a good day!

Paid off the last bit of credit card ($1022)accumulated during grad school.

Added $600 to my savings. My plan is to increase my EF to 15K and then pay off my student loan.

Readjusted the payoff date on my student loan to a month sooner!

Cashed in $13.03 from my fatwallet cashback account-that will go straight to savings.


Next task: do my taxes. Ugh! That will be a chore plus we owe.

Remember the guy from Greek mythology who was doomed to push a rock uphill for an eternity only every time he reached the top it rolled back down? That's the way I'm feeling these days (a little).

I resumed my 401(K) contributions......and the market tanked even more. (Sorry guys!)

I put money in my savings account......and the interest rate drops.

I pay my mortgage.....and my home value drops.


Oh well at least I'm not taking on debt. I am making progress in centimeters. But some days, I tell ya.

It's snowing outside but there's a Golden Girls marathon on the Hallmark Channel so I'm in a good place.

This confinement has also gave me a chance to re-evaluate the financial situation. This time it's the husband. A year and a half ago I found he had $42000 of cc debt with an average of 15% interest rate and the balances were climbing. Since then I have worked on it and he is down to 26K. But he's not fully on board. Next weekend he is going on an overnight fishing trip for 3 nights. I prepare his budget so I know how much money he has and how much he doesn't. How does he plan to fund this trip? Furthermore in the words of Suze Orman, he can't afford it. I'm really tired of him; my brow is crinkled as I work out a budget for him, transferring cc balances to various 0% cards and he really is just fine with debt. The only reason I care is because I feel that he is exposing the entire family to risk by carrying so much debt but he doesn't see it that way.

We've been enjoying some mild weather down here lately so I've had the heat turned off since Friday. Well, when I got home today, the house was a bit chilly so I guess the good times are over. Still my heat bill should be a bit lower than I'd planned for thanks to our brief spring fling.

I did a long-term care assessment for the insurance co. today for a little bit of extra cash. I lucked out, my client was a very pleasant 80+ year old lady in good health. She was on only two maintenance meds! It was a nice break from the folks with two pages of medications and a health history so involved they can't remember it all. We should all be so lucky!

I participated in the Universal Studios promotion this weekend and I found out today that I won a free ticket to Universal. This is so great because we are taking the kids to Orlando for spring break this year and I am on a mission to reduce the costs of this trip. So far, I also have an additional free ticket I got when I cashed in my MyCokeRewards points. Since the cost to get into Universal is $73 then I have saved $146 on the cost of tickets already. Additionally, I got a $100 restaurant.com gift card over the weekend for signing up for some identity theft protection with a free 30-day trial. The best thing about this trip is going to be seeing how much we can do for free.

I was watching the Suze Orman show last night and she had one of Bernie Madoff's victims on. While she has every right to be upset....they lost $5 million dollars!....I am finding it harder and harder to feel sorry for these people. This couple, like so many others had darn near everything invested with this guy, how dumb was that? I mean really. And as the conversation wore on, it turned out that her husband was still working and they made $300,000 a year, they live in a $2 million home that's paid for and they still have $200,000 in the bank. They are in no danger of hitting the skids. Of course the husband is 75, but even if he retired tomorrow, couldn't they sell the house, buy another great home for $1 million dollars and still have a mill left over? Sheesh......

I know it's weird but I figured what the heck, I don't go back to work until Monday and I enjoyed doing it. The plan assumes a few things:

1) That I don't lose my job (natch)
2) That I get annual raises of at least 3% all of which will be rolled into my 401K
3) That my Jeep lasts.

So here goes:

Current

Debt:

Home Equity Loan: $35, 137
Student Loan: $9840
Credit Card: $5922

Assets:

401K: $3515
Savings Account: $1828
Roth IRA: $1520
Currently making no contributions to either EF or savings account.

2009:

March: pay off credit card
March: increase deposits to emergency fund
July: resume contributions to 401K to get company match

2010:
July: complete 1 year emergency fund. Balance: $30,000
July: begin accelerated payoff of student loan. Balance: $9300
December: pay off student loan

2011:
January: begin accelerated payoff of home equity loan. Balance: $32,000
August: daughter begins college. Projected annual costs: $20,000. My share: $7500 per year. Keeping fingers crossed she gets scholarships.

2012:
February: pay off home equity loan
February: put aside money to pay my share of daughter's college costs for 2011-2012, 2012-2013. Needed: $15,000
August: complete savings for daughter's college costs
September: resume contributions to Roth IRA
September: resume contributions to emergency fund
December: max out Roth IRA for year

2013:
January: continue contributions to Roth IRA to max out this year
January: increase contributions to 401(K) to max $15,500 for the year
January: put aside money to pay daughter's college costs for 2013-2014
January: start saving for son's college fund
January: contribute excess monies to emergency fund. projected: $6000


The great thing is that by accelerating my debt payoff I'll be able to put aside between $25,000 and $30,000 per year with no decrease in my standard of living. Woo-hoo!

One of the things I like about this job is that although I'm a salaried employee, I get paid bi-weekly. At my last job for a university, I got paid once a month and at the job before that I got paid twice a month(fed. govt). So it's really great to have two paychecks a year that I don't have to pay a single bill out of. In my old life, I would have treated myself to something frivolous but I am through with that mindset and I am looking forward to using my upcoming "freebie" to seriously pay down my debt. Once that's gone, I'll dedicate it to my savings goals. I'm excited.

but I don't know what else to do. It's purely emotional but here is what I plan to do:

Effective immediately I plan to stop all contributions to my 401(K), cash savings, daughter's college savings and individual stock purchases. The 401(K) + cash= 10% of my gross income. My daughter's college savings= ~3% and the stock purchases ~1%.

This has nothing to do with the current stock market. I have some debts I would like to pay off once and for all and I am tired of the snail's pace. Here's what I have left:

One credit card: $7677 at 0% interest set to expire in July '09. This balance represents my old car loan which I transferred to get the 0%.

Student loan: $9995 at 4.25% interest.

By stopping those contributions and throwing everything I have at the debt then I will be debt free this time next year excepting my home mortgage.

I will then have a third of my gross income free to save and invest. My plan after that is to contribute enough to the 401(K) to get the company match(it doesn't kick in until July anyway) and with the rest I will build up my EF. If something extraordinary doesn't happen like I lose my job, then I think it should be okau.

Since I've started my new job, I've struggle to try to fit in. I'm a loner by nature but I know that until people get to know you, being a loner can be mistaken for being stand-offish so try to come out of my shell a little, at least until my probation is up.

The lady who works on my team is the one I am having the most difficult time with. She is very social and is constantly wanting to buy gifts for people for this and that for which I am expected to chip in, she wanted us to buy company shirts so we could dress alike (*sigh*) and she always wants to go out to lunch. Most of the time I turn her down. She rarely wants to do something that doesn't cost money. I do not go to work just so I can spend it all on trivial things.

I bring my lunch every day. Every day. Such is my state of financial affairs. I have went out to lunch a couple of times with the group but apparently they go out a couple of times a month for these lunches and I can see that this will get real expensive real fast. Last time, the birthday lunch cost me $26 dollars which is more than I usually spend on lunch in 2 weeks time.

Last week, I politely declined to go out with the gang. No one else seemed to care but this particular co-worker rolled her eyes and accused me of being difficult to get to know.


The new challenge is that she texts me constantly usually to let me know that she has arrived and for me to let her know if I'm enroute and when I am expected. I do not have unlimited texting on my phone and these texts cost me. I was looking at my cell bill today and I'm going to have to tell her to knock off the text pages; I bet she'll think I'm just being a meanie. Any suggestions for how I can approach this subject for someone who is basically clueless?

It's been 90 days since I started my new job and it's been very much an adjustment! A while back, I posted that I took a new job because I really needed to give myself a raise. I've struggled with some start of job expenses like a longer commute, new clothes (this place has a slightly more professional dress code), and a few lunches out with co-workers so I wouldn't appear unfriendly.

Well I'm past that and I've redone my budget for the next 6 months with the new pay rate. I got a raise of about $20,000 with this job but that isn't a net gain. The last job contributed about $4500 a year towards my retirement while this job only contributes about $900. Plus they gave me a mass transit pass which was worth about $1500 a year in saved gas and transportation costs while this job pays nothing. And of course there are additional taxes. Still I'm obviously ahead. By the end of this year, I will have paid off my one remaining credit card and as of January, I will be able to put away 20% of my gross pay. 10% to my 401K which will reduce my tax burden and 10% to my 401K until it's fully funded. Currently, I'm only able to put away 10%. So I'm on the way finally!

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!