Bloom Where You Are Planted

I didn't mention it before, but my central heat stopped working over the long weekend. It's been a bit chilly around here.

So this afteroon a repair guy came to take a look. He said my circuit panel is burnt out and needs to be replaced. He cannot say with certainty that is the only problem, as he cannot do much testing without the panel. So they are ordering the part and will call me to arrange a time for the work to be done. The estimate is $600.

Oh CurveBall, what would I do without you?

In other exciting news, I had $1200 odd dollars in cash in my traditional IRA due to dividends. So, I calculated where the money needed to go. It turned out I was under-weight in bonds and tips, so I bought 6 more shares of each.

I have recently added a page to my sidebar with my exact portfolio holdings. I will try to keep it current.

Today I spent the afternoon at my mom's house, visiting and playing cards.

I brought up the Mexico trip my brother had proposed. I just told mom that I spent more in Hawaii than planned and that I just paid off my credit card in December I said I simply won't have enough saved by June to afford a trip to Mexico. Mom was OK with it, and we agreed we will plan to go in June 2014. So, I am relieved and happy about that.

We also talked about possibly going to Lake Tahoe for a week or so this summer instead. My cousin L (went to Hawaii and China with her) owns a rustic little house in the old part of Lake Tahoe. (Well, her husband and son do. It is a family vacation home from her husband's family.) I have enjoyed several long weekends in that house, and my cousin L will let us rent it for $25 a day. However, 2 winters ago a pipe burst, the downstairs flooded, and extensive repair work needed to be done. I am not certain, but I think it is not finished and so we could not rent it. However, we could check around. I am sure we could find something reasonable. That would be a nice and affordable vacation.

I get three weeks of paid vacation per year. It is use it or lose it. This past year I used 7 vacation days and just lost the other 8. I realy, really want to stop doing that.

So here is a little thing I like to do at the end of the year. I take my retirement savings and project what they will be when I am 65 and 67. (My SS full-retirement age is 67. If it is possible, I will retire at 65.) I assume different average rates of return and see what I will have if I keep saving at my current rate, and if I stop saving.

Here are the results for my tax-deferred accounts:




And here are the results for my Roth:



What these tell me is that if I continue at my current savings rate and enjoy 7% returns, I will hit my targets of 600k tax-deferred and 150k Roth. If I don't earn 7%, or if I don't keep saving at my current rate, I will fall short.

My current savings rate is 2.4k into my Simple plus 1.4k of company match, and 3k into my Roth.

Cash is up.
Debt is down.
Investments are up.
Home Zestimate is up.

I've made 5 payments to my new mortgage already. This table shows how the payments broke down in 2012.




Not terribly exciting. Just think, only 355 more payments to go.

* The payroll tax holiday is over.
* My credit card debt is gone.
* My grocery budget is not high enough.
* I need a line item for Emergency Fund.
* I need a line item for Vacation Fund.

All of this adds up to budget adjustments. Here is my new monthly budget:

I worked on updating my budget spreadsheet this morning, tallying all transactions and entering them into their respective categories. Spending is OK, I am over on "Groceries" and "Everything Else" because of holiday gifts and edible treats, but of course my bonus was extra income and paid for the lion's share of the extra spending. I will wait for the month to be over to post my budget report.

My checking account balance is ending the month lower than usual, and I realize why that is. I have started using my WF Visa for most things, and transferring money to pay in full within a day or two. So, instead of paying November's charges in December, I have paid the bulk of December's charges in December. I like it! My Chase Freedom bill next month will be $47.30. My AmEx bill next month will be $152.39. There won't be a WF Visa bill, the balance is $0.

The AmEx bill represents 2 tanks of gas and groceries at my "on occasion" grocery store (not my regular grocery store). So, it is looking as though I will not be applying for the Preferred Card ($75 annual fee, 6% cash back on groceries, 3% cash back on gas). Not being able to use it at my regular grocery store is a deal killer.

From Jan 1 - Mar 31, gasoline is one of the bonus categories for Chase Freedom. So, I won't be using AmEx much at all for 3 months.

It looks as though I will have enough reward points on WF Visa by mid January (when the statement closes) to redeem for a $25 credit to my mortgage. I know from past experience they will hold it until Feb 1 then apply it. So, it looks like my first mortgage chip on my new mortgage is about 6 weeks away.

Today is payday, so it is time for another wallet sweep. At lunch, I did my banking and deposited $27 from last payday's allowance, which I have already sent off to E Fund.

Little by little, my cash accounts are getting a bit fatter.

Well, Christmas was so nice this year. I had both of my children sleeping at my house on Christmas Eve, something which hasn't happened in years. We went to see Les Miserables in the afternoon. They did a wonderful job.

Then it was back to work for 3 days, which as always this time of year is hectic. Just one more work day and then another 4 day weekend. Yay!

In addition to the generous bonus from my boss and the cash "tip" from a client, a client who owns a food distribution company gave me a nice box of meat. Steakhouse quality steaks and tri-tip. Mmmmm, we've really been enjoying them.

I received an e-mail yesterday from our local independent theater offering me free tickets to a documentary about global warming entitled "Chasing Ice". It looks interesting and the price is certainly right. J and I are going to see it tomorrow night.

I received an e-mail today from HauserNet (decoy mail company). They are switching from mailed paper checks to PayPal. They are also changing their payment policy. Instead of paying out once per quarter with a $10 minimum, they will be paying out once per month with no minimum. So, that is a nice change.

I think this is the 4th year in a row that a certain client has sent me a Xmas card with a nice hand-written note and a crisp $100 bill. It is so nice of him.

Off to E Fund with the $100. It is nice to see those numbers getting a little larger.

With my Roth contribution this month, it puts me at 3k contributed for the year. 3k per year is my goal. I wouldn't mind exceeding it, but I am glad to have hit it. I think between now and April 15th, I will contribute 1k to my traditional for 2012 and save a bit on my tax bill.

I received my 1600 thread count sheets from No More Rack too. They are soft but thin. I am not entirely certain they were worth $31. I haven't slept on them yet.

I had a plumber visit on Thursday to fix my garbage disposal. He will bill me, so I don't know what it cost yet. I have used him before, he is an honest man so I am confident the bill will be fair.

Friday was payday. I sent $820 off to CurveBall! My budgeted $420 plus $400 from my bonus. I did a wallet sweep and sent $10 to E Fund.

We are half-way through the month, and my spending is all on track.

In non-financial news, our receptionist/secretary's mother died last week. The funeral was yesterday. Tomorrow would have been her 50th birthday. She'd been fighting cancer for 3.5 years.

I saw this reference to a dull blog on another blog I read. I thought "oh gosh, I hope he isn't talking about me".

This is so funny, I thought I would share.

Look over to the left on my sidebar. What do you see? Well, you don't see any credit card debt, because I logged on to bill pay and sent Citi MC $1,400.00.

It's been about 2.5 years I think, but I am consumer debt free once again! No credit card debt, no car loans, no student loans, NADA. Yay!!

Now the hard part: staying that way.

Next I need to rebuild my cash savings. This will be my focus as we move into the new year.

Last night when I saw my mom, she gave me a check for $72. This pays for her cell bill for 1 year. I would pay for her cell anyway, but I appreciate the money. I tucked it into E Fund.

We had a nice dinner.

We had our company Christmas dinner last night. Along with a nice meal and a fun time, I received a check for 2k.

What will I do with these riches? The first 1.3k is going to Citi MC. Along with my budgeted $100 December payment, that is the end of my credit card debt! Yay!! I will give $150 to each of my kiddos, and the final $400 will go to savings.

Tomorrow is my mom's 80th birthday. One of my nieces came to visit for a few days, along with her husband and 2 small children. I went to my mom's Friday night to visit. My brother showed up yesterday morning, so back I went to mom's. We had a cake and sang happy bday. Tomorrow night on her actual birthday, I will pick mom up and take her to her favorite restaurant, The Elephant Bar.

My brother has a timeshare, and plans to go to Mexico next summer. My mother wants to go. This means she wants me to go. I don't know that I can swing it. But I want to go, I don't want to be her excuse for not going. My brother says we can rent a 2 bedroom condo for 2 weeks for $773. That is inexpensive, but of course there is still airfare, meals, and a rental car. I told mom I will see what I can do, but that I don't know. I have always wanted to see some Mayan or Aztec ruins in Mexico. I also have nothing against the beach.

BF has been working with a realtor towards getting his mom's house sold. They plan to list in the spring.

We don't do a lot of gift giving in my family amongst adults. Now that both of my kids are pretty much grown, they aren't into the "magic" of wrapped presents under the tree.

So, I will give each of my kids $150. I will fill stockings with candy for my kids and my son-in-law too. I picked up a small gift for my daughter the other day, 2 pair of cute slipper-type socks with cats on them. (She loves cats). I may or may not buy similar small gifts for my son and son-in-law. BF and I have agreed to not exchange gifts.

A few months ago, son and I heard some reference to "It's a Wonderful Life" and it went right over son's head. It was then I realized, he has never seen it! Our local old-timey independent movie theatre and live event venue will be showing the film on Dec 22nd. I think that will be an awesome way for son to see this classic for the first time.

My daughter and son-in-law will spend the night here on Christmas Eve. My son will be with his Dad most of the day (since Christmas falls on a Tuesday), but will be here Christmas night. I think I will make my "chicken and italian beans" recipe which is an old favorite. (Chicken breasts cooked with italian beans, tomatoes, and garlic). I usually serve it with ranch mashed potatoes and french bread.

The newest movie version of Les Miserables will be in theatres Christmas day. The previews look fabulous! I intend to treat everyone to that, but possibly not on Christmas day. Les Miserables is one of the plays I have taken my daughter to see in San Francisco during her teen years. We were both completely "wowed" by the production. I can hardly wait to see this movie.

Debt is down.
Cash is up.
Investments are up.
Home Zestimate is up.

So here is how my month went.



I came in under budget on groceries, gasoline, and utilities. I "overspent" on savings and credit card debt.

"Everything Else" this month included $400 for my new fence, $31 for my new sheets, $80 for J's birthday gift, $73 dining out, and $50 to the American Red Cross.

So I am pleased with how I did. Having a nice low Visa bill was awesome! It will be low next month as well, so I should be able to "overspend" on savings again. And, fingers crossed, hopefully next month I will be able to kill my credit card debt. Our Christmas dinner is on Dec. 8th, so then I will know.

ETA: And I nearly forgot! As today was payday, I did a wallet sweep and sent off $11.00 to E fund.

...and I am doing OK with the old budget.

I did send a bit extra off to Citi MC, an extra $30.20 to be exact. This whittled the balance down to $1,400.00.

I estimated my 2012 income tax returns, and it looks as though I will net about $500. So, I did OK with my tax planning too.

I stopped at the grocery store tonight and whipped out my AmEx card for the very first time. I learned that they don't take AmEx! This particular grocery store is conveniently located, just a few subdivision blocks away. It has low prices. I do most of my grocery shopping there. So, I don't know if I will apply for that Preferred Blue AmEx card or not, the one Monkey Mama mentioned (and I think I read that CeeJay has that one, too) which gives 6% back on groceries but charges a $75 annual fee. I am going to try using the one I have (Blue) for a few months and see how much I can use an AmEx without changing my shopping habits.

I have been working on switching automatic payments to my WF Home Rebate Visa. If something falls into the "and 1% on everything else" category, I prefer to earn a principal reduction to my mortgage.

I have also been working on getting payees set up on bill pay, for those vendors who will not accept a credit card as payment, or who do but charge a fee.

I'm looking forward to whittling down the number of open credit cards I have. I want to get down to just AmEx, Chase Freedom, and WF Home Rebate Visa. I will keep my Kohl's store card open too, but that is the only store card for which I have any use. I think I am only one month away from being able to make that happen.

I do very little on-line shopping. (Heck, by most standards, I do very little shopping period.) But today I saw an advertised deal on NoMoreRack and I had to bite.

Right now, I have only 1 set of sheets for my bed. I have been wanting to pick up a second set. NoMoreRack is selling 4 piece sets of 1600 thread count sheets for $29 today! Shipping and handling is an additional $2. There are 15 colors available. I've never owned 1600 thread count sheets, so I am looking forward to sleeping on them.

On Thanksgiving, I went to my mom's house with J (son), S (daughter), A (son-in-law) and BF. My nephew was there too. We had a very nice, low-key day. We had decided to do a small dinner and spend the afternoon playing cards instead of cooking and cleaning up.

Yesterday, 2 of J's friends came over to spend a few nights, and the boys are having a good time playing videogames and D&D. In between, they "cut up" and act silly. It is nice having them and I am glad they are enjoying themselves.

I think today I may put up my artificial tree. Or maybe not, maybe that's too ambitious.

I'm trying to get smarter about both of these things.

Quite some time ago, I wrote about trying to pay utilities with rewards cards to earn more points. At the time, I was under the impression I couldn't pay either my local electric or water, sewer, garbage bill with a credit card without being charged a fee. Since then, I have learned the trick for both is to register as a user on their respective websites. I have registered with both now, and will be using rewards cards in the future.

Lately I have been using my Well Fargo Home Rewards Visa for things such as groceries. I use it instead of my checking account debit card, then within a day or two, log on and transfer money from checking to the Visa. This particular rewards card will only redeem in increments of $25, and I had $7 or so in rewards already, so I wanted to get to $25 and redeem. I'm still working on it, but I think when I get to $25 I will stop using it. The reward is 1% on everything, and redemption is a principal reduction on my WF mortgage. I will not close this Visa.

I have also been using my Chase Sapphire some lately, as I had $15 or so in rewards, and need to get to $20 to cash them in. Once I do, I will close this Visa. I opened it last year for the sweet 50k rewards pts bonus. However, this card has an annual fee of $95. They waived the fee the first time, but it has to be coming up and I am not interested in paying it.

My main "go to" rewards card is my Chase Freedom. I will not close this Visa either, but believe I am going to stop using it in favor of....

My American Express rewards card. I've had it for more than a year, and haven't even activated it yet. (!) The rewards are 3% on groceries, 2% on gasoline, 1% on everything else. That's a pretty good deal, so why aren't I taking advantage? Must be inertia.

I will still use Chase Freedom on occasion, such as when the 5% rotating bonus applies to gasoline, etc.

And I heard the other day that stamps are going up yet again. I don't have a whole lot of bills to pay by check, but I am about to have none. I am hanging up my checkbook. From now on, I will use bill-pay for all of my bills. I will still need to write the occasional check, but those will be few and far between. Most importantly, they will not be mailed.

I mentioned that the house next door to me recently sold. Zillow says it is worth 106k. It just sold for 120k. This seems like good news to me.

The man who bought the house is an investor who owns several rental homes in the area already. He seems rather astute.

The family who had owned the house previously had 4 young children. The house is a 3/2 with 1296 sq. ft. The family had made an extra room out of the garage. They had walled off, so that the garage door was no longer an entrance into the home, but the garage door was still in place. In other words, you couldn't tell from the outside that the garage was no longer a garage, yet the family had some additional living space. They did this without any permits. So the buyer knew he would have the expense of converting that extra room back to a garage. He was still willing to pay 120k.

So, I am hopeful that my home value may not be quite as bad as Zillow says. It doesn't really change anything, but does make me feel better.

My house is a 4/2 with 1441 sq. ft.

Thursday was payday. I had $28 in bills plus a full coin purse left from my allowance. I deposited $25 and sent it off to E Fund.

I paid all of the bills I have received, subtracted my automatic payments (life insurance and Roth IRA) and sent $420 to Curveball. As always, I am still waiting to receive my Citi MC statement. I had too much left in checking! I love it when I have that problem. To solve it, I sent an extra $216.17 off to CurveBall. I may send a bit extra to Citi MC too, but will have to buy groceries before I decide on that.

CurveBall's balance didn't advance too much as I pulled out money for my new fence. The new fence is in and looks great. My cost ended up being $400, not $350 as I posted earlier. I had forgotten that I have an extra section of fence which I do not share with the neighbor. The neighbor called and said he had not counted that part, but said they would go ahead and replace that too while they were at it for an extra $50. I agreed as I felt that was fair.

So far this month, I am doing fine on my budget.

When Lucky Robin asked for an update, I realized one was overdue.

I sued the neighbors over the fence. (There is a law in California that both owners are responsible for shared fences.) I lost. The commissioner (no judge in small claims) said that law could not be used to force someone to pay for a fence. This is not what I have heard elsewhere, and have had quite a few legal type people express surprise. Nonetheless, that is what happened in court. There is no appeal from small claims.

I have decided not to pursue suing for the vet bill.

As expected, they were nasty and accusatory in court. They even claimed I had trained the dogs to attack them. (A ridiculous claim.) The commissioner would not listen and instead only wanted to discuss the fence.

Since then, they have not bothered me or our dogs.

In other fence news, the new owner on the other side and I have agreed I will pay $350 towards our new fence. I am quite happy with this arrangement.

Today I discovered that if I register my MID account on their site and log-in, I can pay my bill with a credit card without incurring a fee. So, I whipped out my WF Mortgage Rebate Visa and did just that. I'm going to do it this way every month from now on.

I received a check in the mail yesterday for the Allstate Class Action lawsuit in the amount of $10.26. This amount is going straight to E Fund.

The house next door to me recently sold (unfortunately, not the dog poisoner) to an investor who intends to use the house as a rental. He has been doing work at the house, and yesterday came over and spoke to BF about replacing our shared fence. BF took his name and number and I called him back this morning. He wants to replace the fence while he has hired help on site. I said yes, I am all for it. He says he has most of the lumber we would need, can provide the labor, and has a concrete guy coming out today anyway who could also do the fence holes. He said he will call me back later today with an estimate, but he thinks we could do it for $400 - $500. So, I'm excited at the prospect of that. I share my back yard fence with 4 different neighbors, and this section is now the oldest.

My decoy mail volume is steadily increasing. I receive mail more days than not, usually 2 - 3 pieces at a time. Yesterday, I had 6 pieces.

Last night I bought J a video game he has been wanting. It is his birthday present, he turns 17 on Saturday. My baby. Where has the time gone? Hug your little ones while you can.

When I went to see the lung doctor, he did a throat swab and prescribed a cough suppressant (Benzonatate). He stated he suspects I have pertussis (whooping cough). Later I thought, but that is contagious. I have been coughing for months and I have not infected anyone. I go back in December for a breathing test, then a second time for the results. Meanwhile, the Rx is greatly reducing the coughing so that is great. The co-pay for a specialist is $40 per office visit.

I did some poking around on MID's website and I learned that Balanced Bill Pay amounts are adjusted every February. So, I will be paying $238 per month until then. I expect to have quite a large credit by then, so it should adjust down substantially at that time.

I did not make my budgeted savings contribution, using the money to cover October's Visa bill.

I'm quite pleased with how my spending went. In November, my Visa bill is going to be less than $300. I will have no trouble whatsoever with paying it in full and making my budgeted savings deposit.

My utilites were under $500! I now have credit balances on both my PG & E (gas) and MID (electric) accounts. PG & E just adjusted my balanced bill pay amount from $62 to $43. November will be the first month I pay $43. I have received my MID bill for November too, and my balanced bill pay has not adjusted yet. I currently have a credit balance of $100 odd dollars and I must pay another $238. Since we are going into winter when the bill is much lower I've been expecting it to adjust down. My Ting bill was $35.27 in October. I am loving Ting.

I ended the pay period with $16 plus coins in my wallet. I withdrew my cash allowance of $60 for the next pay period, then sent $20 off to E Fund.

Debt is up.
Cash is up.
Investments are up.
Home Zestimate is up.

So far this month my spending is in check. My mom surprised me with a $300 check towards Nala's emergency vet bill. That was so nice!

Last Saturday I took my son and daughter and we took a little road trip over to Half Moon Bay for the day. It had been a while since just the 3 of us had done anything. We really had a nice time, talking and laughing and just enjoying each other's company.

I have been coughing my deep, dry, hacking cough for about 7 weeks now. Went to my GP right away, yet another Rx which did not help at all. I called back and said I want to see an allergist, please refer me to one. My GP said she would prefer I see a pulmonologist. So I am seeing one on Monday. Do you notice how she has never referred me to anyone at all, and it is only when I ask that she recommends a pulmonologist? Sometimes, I get the feeling that it is just fine with her if I cough for months on end.

This is the second time this year I have coughed like this. I did it last fall, too. I am so tired of it.

Well, that is one little goal accomplished.

Recent deposits have included $23.50 from HauserNet, $33.59 from InBox Dollars, and $22.12 from a wallet sweep.

I even overshot $500 by $10.61, so that got sent off to E Fund.

I'm really late this month, but here it is: