Caoineag's Personal Finance Blog

Everything was a little hectic while I was "unemployed" mainly because I did keep working just not full time. Which meant a lot of last minute calls to come to some job site, lol. I am a full time temp about to be made permanent now at my current job site so things are finally going back to a normal routine.

I was a little surprised to see that we still gained networth during my unemployment phase because my number one goal during that whole period was to keep large amounts of cash on hand in case things went south.

I will post more later on when I have more time but its nice to see some of the old posters are still around.

I am still amongst the living, I just haven't been on this forum much.


I have been working temp jobs and have one job offer coming in the next couple of weeks. I finally had enough unpaid time to file for unemployment last week so like last year, I won't be filing for more than a few weeks. Financially we are holding steady (we would have been improving but time off is the perfect time to work on home improvement projects).

We finally finished the landscaping design in the front yard and now just have to add plants (and move some come fall since some of them got much bigger than expected). Still need to paint the front steeple of the house. We have had too much rain to do it on the weekends and I am not getting up on a ladder without someone else around. The kitchen still needs to be finished (I am procrastinating on that).

Overall, I have been enjoying the time off. Now off to catch up on the forums.

Ahh the joys. While DH got hired full time, I managed to get laid off for the second time this year. They gave me severance so I can't file for unemployment for a couple of weeks (not that I am complaining) so I am taking these couple of weeks to figure out my next step.

I know I don't want to stay permanently home since I like the security of two incomes (especially since this past year has seen us leapfrogging each other in constant employment). I am not sure if I want to do part time or full time and I am pretty sure I need to apply to positions that are outside my current expertise since my current one is too much of a niche.

I figure I will get a bunch of our home improvement projects done while trying to make up my mind and have already set into motion the new budget. Our debt repayment is still on track as a result. The next two years should result not only in paying off all the credit card debt but the student loans as well. We don't even need to alter our savings plan since I just cut our spending back to compensate for the loss of income.

Now off to get some of those projects done.

So no layoff, DH will be starting the new job in two weeks. Definitely takes some stress off the budget. April I will be doing an extra 2k payment to the big credit card in addition to my usual payoff amounts. With the new job, our original timeline for paying off the credit card debt in October still stands.

After that we start attacking my student loan.

Its not like me to go that long without blogging but things have been pretty peaceful here. DH has had mandatory OT which is a boost to the savings.

We have individual insurance for DH coming so whether he gets hired on or not, we will have health insurance for him.

We have already broke the 1k mark on his new 401(k) and rolled his old 401(k) into a trad ira so I am feeling good about my decision to fund the new 401(k). Everything is set up to roll smoothly over when he's done working for the temp agency.

Other than that, we are either waiting for a lay off for him or him to get hired on and it could go either way.

We closed on our refinance so I have updated the totals to reflect the new amount. I still haven't decided on my new networth goals since I blew past the break even point thanks to the equity in the house. Especially since DH just told me that his work situation is restructuring come this April so I am preparing for the potential layoff.

So credit card payments are only going to be 1k instead of every last extra dime we have. Its still progress but if he stays unemployed the whole time it will take us an additional 8 months to pay the credit cards off. At least we can still pay them down.

We finally know what repairs are needed for the refinance final approval (they don't like a light fixture in the basement due to exposed wires, easy fix). We will do that this weekend and be done with it.

I am waiting for the refinance to be finalized before I transfer one of my credit card balances so that it doesn't mess with our ratios (they are ignoring my husband's income for the refinance so that makes debt ratios much tighter). I basically have two balance transfers to do before all the debt will be paid off but since I am doing a slow but steady pace, I suspect we might finish off the credit cards sooner than expected.

DH is still a full time temp but has been ordered by a current and former manager to apply for a certain full time position so we shall see how that goes.

Overall, its pretty peaceful here. Our savings are building, our debt is going down and I am starting to feel like we are catching up to where I would like us to be.

I have had an HSA for a number of years but it seems I never connected that to my networth. While you can't spend an HSA on just anything, its the pot of money I use for all my medical expenses and its a decent sized pot. So from now on I will be adding that in as well since it is money I have access to and use on a fairly regular basis.

I went back and edited through November showing the account so the jump didn't occur at the same time as when I upped the house value.

New Numbers

Okay, I finally have enough pretax items to base things off of gross income. So here is the new budget.

Gross Income 6208
401(k) 475
HSA 83 (167 per month employer)
Taxes 1412
Utilities 103
Entertainment 115 (tv/internet/netflix)
Gas 150
Irr. Bills 100 (phone/car ins.,etc)
PITI 1140
IRA 200
Student Loan 194
Credit card 1000
Allowance 800 (tends to get adjusted)

You will notice this leaves a leftover amount which I alternate between building my savings, paying off credit cards or covering a new lovely car expense or other bill for things breaking.

Once the credit card(s) is gone the excess will go straight into Roths, then into savings for projects.

This puts Needs at 53%, Savings at 32% and Wants at 15% so pretty close to my ideal budget.

There is something very validating about having a supposedly objective person look at everything you have done and tell you what a fantastic job you have done. I have updated my networth to reflect my current home value (minus the repairs needed in his report).

There is something shocking about seeing my networth jump like that. Nonetheless, the only thing it really does is validate all the money we have spent on repairs. I will update the mortgage value as soon as the new mortgage goes into play.

The other nice thing is this means that our FHA loan is flipping to a conventional because our equity is high enough. No more mortgage insurance premiums and a 1.5% drop in the interest rate. We are of course sticking with a 15 year and I promise not to grumble too much about being set back a whole year on the loan (especially to people who prefer 30 years).

The appraiser also confirmed what I had long suspected, our initial sales price had been under market value at the time we bought. Our neighborhood just doesn't have a lot of foreclosure activity (not even at the height of the market scare) and so no one wanted to deal with our property due to short sale when they could spend a little more and not have to wade through the additional time constraints. No wonder the seller's agent bought us a water heater to close the deal.

All in all, it will be nice having a slightly lower payment ($100+). I am afraid hubby is disappointed though. He hoped it would be 186 (it was 180) so that we could add my student loans to the balance. It would have lowered the interest rate and freed up the cashflow in the $200+ range. I was more worried it wouldn't come in high enough to flip to conventional since comparables are sometimes hard to find in such a small and unique area.

It didn't hurt as much as I was expecting but then they haven't cracked down at DH's work on overtime yet so that spared us a little. Nonetheless, its good to know that our savings rate is going back up to a somewhat decent level (7.8%). At the end of the year we will load up the Roths so it will jump to a healthy level at that time (depending on the constantly jumping income somewhere around 22% to retirement savings).

This year's goals are simple. Pay off the debt and max out retirement savings to best of our ability.

This will get a little bit easier if we do manage to refinance. The mortgage payment difference isn't huge but it would definitely gives us more to work with. Needless to say, I am waiting with bated breath to hear the appraisal number. They have to tell us before next Wednesday...

All in all, not much going on.

As much as I wanted to pay off the one card by March, we need more breathing room. We can not be operating without a savings cushion while DH is employed by a temp agency (not that working full time for another company would be any better in his field, but I digress).

The new plan will require 36% (so less than before) of our income to go towards the debt repayment but leaves us both with a cushion and some money to spend (4.4% of the budget and includes all groceries). Our payoff will be in October (*sigh*) but the chances of needing to resort to the credit cards because something else happens (we just had 4k worth of something happen) goes down tremendously.

Strangely, the evaporated balance transfer offers have come back so I won't have to pay a high interest rate for the privilege of time (this is a mixed blessing since I know I would never pay over 10% apr for any type of loan but 1.99 and lower doesn't encourage speedy payoff).

Part of the additional setback is the access to the 401(k). We are putting 15% into it pretax and that is a big chunk out of the budget. On the other hand, the habit of saving has already begun to pay dividends for us. Our retirement accounts have been steadily climbing and our net worth with it. I wish we had begun these accounts back when we first moved out here. The delay in waiting for our debt to be paid off was a poor choice since it takes awhile to reform bad habits. And thanks to that 401(k), tax time will avoid being a big hit to the wallet.

Overall, I am more than a little disappointed by this delay but I am trying to be realistic with my budget.

A rebuilt transmission will be necessary for the car. That will deplete the rest of our savings so I am going to have to get creative to rebuild the savings fund.

We still haven't had a setback that we haven't been able to pay in full but this last one is cutting it close. I may need to slow down the repayment schedule to allow our cushion some healing time.

Time also to nix the allowance increase. The new paint will just have to wait till March. In fact, time to cut back more. If I can just get through March, everything opens up after that but its going to be tight until then.

This weekend was fairly productive. We priced out some items and picked paint colors for the house so probably next weekend we will restart the house projects. The cork floor I want for my kitchen will only cost a little over $400 so we are going to start saving out for that. Retrimming the doors will cost $30 for each doorway side which means the trims with 6 coats of paint (that were never sanded) can go bye bye.

I also found out that we could possibly refinance the mortgage which would lower the interest rate and drop the mortgage insurance. Should be interesting to see what number they attach to the house. I know its worth more than the original sales price but how much more has never been established (which is why I use sales price in our networth calculations).

Its now or never with the refi though. And yes never is okay too. Mortgage insurance drops off in 3 years so it just wouldn't make financial sense to refinance closer to the drop off date because 6% isn't a very high interest and our loan is too small for interest rates alone to make up closing costs.

The car is at a different shop today. Decided that since the last two times, the shop had given us back a car with more problems than we sent it to them with, we would try someone new. It means we will probably pay more than we should to fix the previous guys mistakes but that is better than trusting them with our car again.

The new shop already sounds better. Instead of dismissing our change in transmission sound, they told us that the other shop probably used too heavy a weight of transmission fluid when they changed it. If they can hear that noise, they should have no problem hearing the clunking in the middle of the car (other shop told us they couldn't find that noise and then changed the transmission fluid and claimed that cured it, un hunh).
*Sigh* This is why I didn't own a car for a number of years. They are a lot of work.

On a slightly depressing note, my friend with the much newer car has had to send her car in for repairs even more than us (we have been mostly doing maintenance, hers is new things breaking) despite us getting a bad job the past two times. I'll pass on the new car thank you.

Its a little early to come out of hibernation, but that's just the type of girl I am. I am ready to get back to work on the house projects (little ones, one at a time, I promise) so our allowance will need to go up to accommodate the things we will need to pick up like paint, trim and tools.

We have a lot of things that are mostly finished so I think our projects will mostly be about completing what we have started.

So it took a little over a year but as of December 2009 I am back where I started before I bought a house (Nov 2008). I had figured at the time that the house would set us back a year on our debt repayment and I was right. I must admit though, I hadn't realized both DH and I would have a moment of unemployment in there and a 1/3 of our income cut out this year. As a result, I am a little surprised to see that we stayed on schedule.

We have increased our net worth this year by about 9k with the majority of that being mortgage principal paydown (almost 6k). That's 4.2% of our loan.

The last time we used a credit card (other than paying in full) was in April for the cabinet refacing and that deal will be paid off in March 2010 with no interest paid.

We actually had quite a few big surprise bills this year that we have paid cash for no problem.

From January 2010 on, I will be setting records for my networth which is really nice. DH will be contributing 15% to his 401(k) again and I will finally max out my roth this year (hoping to max out his roth as well but we will see).

The advantage of having gotten so many of our fixer upper projects done this year is that the house is livable and we have lost the desire to move as quickly on future remodeling. Spacing out repairs will allow us to pay off the debt quicker and build a larger savings cushion.

I've estimated our taxes this year and we are looking to receive a refund. I don't want to adjust our withholding though because without the window credit, we would have been paying in this year despite the unemployment. Also DH's income can jump very quickly which makes tax estimating a haphazard guessing game.

Overall its been a good year all round.

Yesterday, we take the car in to be fixed on our way to work (planned). Of the two potential repairs, its the more expensive one (of course). For the second day in a row I contact a company regarding a nonworking gift certificate (no response on either day) and the crowning piece of disaster, my phone.

I decide I need minutes on my phone but something is up with the website so I call. Guy doesn't listen well and decides he knows what my problem is and promptly deletes my phone number of 5 years (heart attack begins). I spend the next 60 minutes mostly on hold while he tries to fix it. Then the phone hangs up on me. When I call back, the line is so busy that they won't let you wait to talk to someone. He did fix it online eventually but my phone thinks its a different line. Fortunately the real phone number works its just labelled wrong (no I am not going to call so he can break it again). I finally manage to buy minutes for my phone.

This all occured before my work day had even begun. After work, we get the car back and realize that the little rattle they managed to fix but that they created a bigger rattle that made the car sound like it was trying to tear itself apart. *Sigh*

So I both started and ended my yesterday on a sour note. At least a client brought us fancy chocolate wafers and cookies. Dark chocolate makes everything better.

So far today I have had more luck. Got the company on the phone re the gift certificate and sent the car back to the repair shop so they can fix their oopsy. Our current stance is you broke it, you fix it. They are going to have to talk fast if they want us to pay for a second repair since they had all day yesterday to get it fixed right the first time. They didn't call till 4 yesterday despite having told us the repair would only take half a day. The slowness of their work is starting to get obnoxious but until this repair, they did a good job for a decent price so we have been putting up with the repair times.

Is this week over yet? Blah.

I like 401(k)s. They reduce the tax you need to pay, they help you save more than you could in an IRA and sometimes you even get matching funds.

Hubby is getting access to one through his temp agency. So what's the problem? Its through the temp agency. Technically hubby is supposed to get hired on by the company he is currently working for so he might get it started and then have to transfer the money because he got hired.

The other issue? Contributing will delay the debt payoff by two months.

That said, I am still leaning towards having him do 15% to the 401(k). If he doesn't get hired by the company he is working for, this will keep our access to a 401(k) so that we can squirrel away money. I hate delaying the payoff but its better to establish good habits now then to wait for a better time later (which may never come).

I will just have to make sure to fully fund my roth by the end of next year (which should be doable despite the setback).

I don't actually know which I value more. I have a non-deductible mortgage (since its not big enough to allow me to itemize) at 6% apr and a deductible student loan at 5.15% apr. Come July, I am going to have to decide which I want to start prepaying. If I prepay the student loan, I increase cashflow by $200 once its gone (and its only about $13k now so not big). After that, I can throw all of that at the mortgage.

If I prepay the mortgage (which has fha insurance on it) I get to pay off much more interest but I don't free up my cashflow for a long time. The student loan will naturally be paid off before the mortgage even though the mortgage is a 15 year.

Course all of this changes again if I refinance next year(if I refinance, it would be without the fha insurance thanks to equity in the home) which would also lower the interest.

I have awhile to solve this question or to have things change on me so its not a huge deal, its just surprising that I can't decide which choice I like better. They are a little too close.

Today I paid another one off. I won't get to do that again until February. We also started our allowance diet yesterday which should last till the end of March. It allows us to stay on pace despite some expenses cropping up that we weren't originally counting on. That said, we may have a few more show up to slow us down. In fact, I am practically counting on it. That's part of the reason that I am not making larger credit card payments, I need a cushion of 2k to feel comfortable.

Looking at the upcoming debtfree budget, we will once again have all of our bills and allowance fit on just my paycheck (or even hubby's current base pay since he is making a little less than me momentarily). That's a nice feeling.

By my calculations, we will probably get back around $900 this year (only getting that much thanks to 2 months of being unemployed in our house, otherwise we would still be paying in). That's all fine and dandy except that this year we had a $1500 energy efficiency rebate which is the only reason we aren't paying in. Next year we start paying an extra $500 per year in taxes to repay the homeowner credit.

On top of that, Hubby might get hired on full time next year. Full time will mean access to a 401(k) next year so we may be able to sock enough away to get the tax back down. Oh, and most likely I will regain access to an HSA this upcoming year. I bet that could get our taxes down. Still would need the 401(k) though to get it the rest of the way under the $1k no penalty limit...

Bah, this is much easier when both people are salaried. Hubby's overtime kills our tax bill every year, lol.

Positive Net Worth (should be reached in Feb)

Debtfree (should be reached in June or July at current pace)

Max out one Roth IRA (should be reached in December, will probably max the other one for 2010 in Jan 2011)

Accomplish 2 home improvement/repair projects(preferably landscaping and electric work).

2 real vacations (don't have to be long, just go somewhere new).

And I am pretty sure we won't have anymore money after all that (well, besides the savings towards more home repairs but that is accounted for another year).

I paid off the card that wanted to jack my interest rate up to 30% (but don't worry, after two months of paying on time they would refund 10% *note sarcasm*) with a 0% offer yesterday. This really should be the last balance transfer because all my interest rates are locked in now (aka no one else can tell me that they have a lovely present for me).

I have also scheduled the payoff for one of my cards for 12/04, which means I will be down to two cards.

Saw that my promotional rate for my internet was going to expire so I called them up and agreed to a 2 year contract in exchange for a permanent rate reduction and faster speed (this will probably be the last time you read that I signed a contract, with everything else I am moving away from contracts but I will be homeless before I give up my internet connection).

I also ported my phone number to net10 now that I know for sure that it works and have used most of my Tmobile minutes.

Hopefully that will be it for awhile. I hate trying to make time for phone calls and playing hot potatos with the credit cards and savings accounts.

1 Pets
Got rid of saltwater tanks, limit toys and treats to reasonable level

2 Video Games/Bikes
Try to buy used, replace as things break

3 House Repairs
Plan cash expenditures to level needed

4 Financial Independence
Pay off debts quickly, keep saving for retirement

5 Eating Out and Eating In
Set a reasonable expenditure level and stay under

6 music/gardening/decorating/books
Occasional splurge, keep impact on budget minimal (shouldn't have its own category)

7 Travelling/Car Maintenance/Entertainment
Minimal till debt is gone, then goes up to have its own category

8 Charity/Generosity
usually project based, after debt payoff, gets its own category

9 Electronics/Furniture/Eventual Car Replacement
should be another 5 years before this needs to become a category

This is my current priority list. Everything that I value that has a strong financial impact on my life is listed whether I need to spend on it right now or not. I am sure it will change in the future but for now this is it.

This list is based on how strongly I feel about it not the amount of money that is required to support it. Underneath each I listed my plan for keeping the expense part down. Surprisingly, financial independence is fourth on the list. I would honestly work longer for the items listed above it. Strange hunh?

Yes, I am singing that song in my head. Blame the adrenaline rush of lifting weights this morning.

We finally have our new trikes! And this weekend is supposed to be gorgeous. Soo much fun. We plan on taking them down to the old trail that we used to ride all the time on our road bikes so that we can get an apples to apples comparison. Its going to be so amazing not to have a stiff neck and a sore tailbone.

The trail there and back is roughly 30 miles so we may find out that we can't do that distance right off the bat (or more likely, not with any great speed) despite it being relatively flat but its worth getting a good comparison in.

For those of you curious, yes my husband and I will bike all winter long when its not below 30. 40 and about is just fine, especially since 3 wheels means slush and snow are far less hazardous. Oh and no more diaper pants! Yeah!

(By and by, my buyer's remorse is gone, I only have buyer's remorse before paying for something, not after, go figure.)

Spent $110 on groceries this past Thursday but that included stock up and Thanksgiving meal prep so its hardly surprising. Still feels weird to have it more than $30 though.

I rejigged my numbers again(I know, you are completely shocked, I never do that) and I can pay off one of my cards in December and another in February. After that, I will just be down to one which simplifies things immensely. Right now the numbers are pointing to a June debt free date but I wouldn't hold your breath, spring seems to expensive thanks to yard stuff but I am going to try to keep that down.

Still need to buy our plane tickets to our home state for my brother's graduation and make the hotel reservations but I figure I will do that in December since this month has been so hectic. That however, is the last of the big expenses till spring so that is nice.

Today I am paying off the first of my remaining credit cards. $4344 going poof. This would be more impressive if it was my largest remaining but sadly it is not. However, we are in the final stretch of the pay off so all is well.

So hubby suspects that his current workplace will be offering him a permanent position within the month, it was a condition for his manager to give up her best workers to another department. Should be interesting to see how this plays out, especially since base pay tends to go up when you go from temp to permanent. It would be really nice for him to have benefits again too.

We shall see. In the meantime I am anxiously awaiting the final payoff on one of my credit cards scheduled for this Friday which will be nice. We will be dropping from 4 credit cards to 3.

I am also waiting to hear this week how much the final price tag on our bikes are. At least it will keep us from spending a lot of money on the nice days. If you are biking for half a day to a day, its hard to spend money at the same time, lol.

By that I mean, cut our allowance for the months of December and January to $100 per week (includes groceries). It would let us build up some more savings so that I felt more secure. I think I have just gotten used to having a set amount of money in savings and would like to keep it that way.

Those two months don't involve a whole lot going on so it would make it easier to stick to as well. I have also been cutting back on the eating out because I don't need to be eating all that junk food.

The advantage here is that since I am the big spender and instigator, if I cut back, our expenses go down. I will have to see how it works out...

So my Citicard who was the only card that hadn't raised rates due to market conditions, just jumped mine up 4.4x its current level. Ouch. I always feel like I did something wrong when I get increases like that but in my head, I realize that its just the economy and record defaults. Still. Nasty raise in rate. So another 0% balance transfer has been accepted elsewhere so I can pay the card in full and not close it by Dec 20th (I just got the notice Friday).

I basically break even when you take into account transfer fees (this is the one card that had some interest being applied) so I shouldn't complain too much. I have redone the budget to reflect the change.

So after the credit card payoff this Friday and this new transfer, the credit cards will look like this:

CC#1 11,330 0% (My payment $200)
CC#2 2,380 0% (My payment $40)
CC#3 4,082 0% (No min, no payment)

I really can't wait for July 2010 when these are all paid off. *Sigh*

My TV just went on sale so I will be getting $100 + tax back. It pays to watch the sales online when you have a 60 day price guarantee.