September 2011 Net Worth
September 30th, 2011 at 10:04 pmSeptember 2011 Budget Report
September 30th, 2011 at 09:19 pm
I cut back as much as I could to accommodate my HUGE electric bill.
In savings, although I did contribute $125, I also pulled out $482.79. I hope October is better.
The extra Roth contribution was from the bonus I received for opening a checking account with Chase. You don't see that extra income in September, because I received it in August.
In October, I am not going to mortgage chip. I am not going to contribute to my Roth (gulp). Instead, I am going to save for my new fence. My goal is to contribute a minimum of 3k to my Roth each and every year. I am at $2,950 for the year, so only have $50 to go. I will manage that, but first, the fence.
I have gotten estimates from two companies now, and I asked them to quote me 6' and 7', cedar and redwood. The lowest thus far is $1301.30 (6' cedar), which is $650.65 each. I hope my neighbor does not balk at the price, but I suspect she will. I will get a new gate at the same time which will be an additional $302.80.
Money IN
September 28th, 2011 at 09:04 pmYesterday I received my "incentive" for particpating in the survey Vanguard emailed to me, a check for $25! Cha-ching!
I would like for it to be mortgage chip money, BUT, as I will spending money on my fence soon, I decided to add it to CurveBall instead.
There is not enough money in CurveBall for the fence (no surprise there since CurveBall is nearly bankrupt), so I think I will "borrow" the money from vacation savings when it is time to pay. Meanwhile, I am going to scrape every dollar into CurveBall that I possibly can. My October budget will reflect this.
My mortgage will still be there when my fence is paid for.
Wallet Sweep, Neighbor Conflicts
September 27th, 2011 at 11:49 pmIt was a few days premature, but since I was at my bank for a client today anyway, I emptied all but $7.00 out of my wallet, and chipped an additional $16.28 to my mortgage.
On Sunday evening, I had a very unpleasant encounter with my next door neighbor. The homeowner is an older woman (70s). Her adult son (40s) also lives in the house. They are not nice people and have a reputation in our neighborhood of being hot-headed and unreasonable. We share a common fence which needs to be replaced. I am willing, she says no. It is wood, nearly 20 years old, and full of rot.
Anyhow, on Sunday evening she came over and knocked on the door. My nephew's dog was in her backyard. It seems a fence board had fallen off and the dog had gone visiting. She claimed the dog was viciously lunging at her, which I do not believe. I do believe that she was frightened to have a strange dog in her backyard. At any rate, the dog does not belong in her yard.
So I went into my backyard to examine the fence and BF came along. The neighbor and her son were already in their backyard. Meanwhile, my nephew's dog had come home. I put two of the 3 dogs in the house, but one of my son's dogs had also decided to go visit. I called to him but he continued to stroll around sniffing in their yard.
Back story: In California, a fence along a property line is the responsibility of both parties. Last fall, my nephew inserted some 2 x 4s in the fence along the beams already there, so that we could nail fence boards to it. (The support beams running horizontally along the bottom and top of the fence are the most rotten.) It was not attractive, but it did make the fence more sturdy. This apparently was not to their liking, as they ripped the 2 x 4s out and threw the 2 x 4s into our yard. I have pictures of this.
So while we are talking to each other through the empty space in the fence, she says that I need to take better care of the fence. I state that my nephew attempted to make the fence more sturdy, but that they saw fit to rip out the 2 x 4s. They both immediately begin to smirk and say they don't know what I am talking about. Even though they don't know what I mean, the son said my nephew used screws instead of nails and he shouldn't have. Then he goes on to state that my nephew is "trashy" and he does not care for my nephew. I suppose his intent was to make me angry, but in truth I do not value his opinion.
I said that I think we should get a new fence. The mother says, quote, "This fence is just fine!" I said if it is just fine, then what are we all doing here? She says the only problem is my nephew's dog jumped on it. If the dog wouldn't jump on the fence, there would be no problem. I need to make the dog not jump on the fence. Furthermore, she is on Social Security and cannot afford a new fence. I said "Well, it's the law."
She begins to scream at me that I need to GET MY D--- DOG NOW!! (I had been calling him, but he would not come.) My BF asks if they will let him in to come and get the dog. The son says yes, so BF leaves to go to their front door, the son does too. As soon as we are alone, she begins to point her finger at me and say "F--- you! This is all your fault! You fix it NOW!!" She is lovely. Doesn't she sound lovely? I am definately putting her on my Christmas Card List.
Meanwhile, when BF got to the front door, the son refused to let him in, but said go to the gate leading to the backyard. BF walked over to the gate, the son reappeared in the backyard. BF waited then called, saying "Are you going to let me in?" The son said to me "That gate is locked". So I called to BF "He isn't going to let you in." I asked the son how he would like for us to get the dog. He suggested I remove a fence board. So, I did. It was easy, I just pulled a little with my bare hands and it popped right off. I went into their back yard, took the dog by the collar, and led him out.
The mother went back in the house when I began to enter their yard, the son remained. When I got back on my side, he says to me "So you would rather just pay for a new fence than put that board back up?" I said of course I would nail the board back but that I would like to have a good, sturdy fence, and wouldn't he? I could tell he was thinking that over, so I added "Wood fences only last so long. This fence is almost 20 years old."
So as BF and I set about reattaching fence boards, the neighbor's son comes back out and says that I should go ahead and get some estimates.
So that is where I am right now. I have one company coming tonight for an estimate and am awaiting return phone calls from 2 other companies.
Miscellaneous Mortgage Chips
September 24th, 2011 at 01:28 amThis week I have chipped $0.81 from Lending Club and $8.00 from Beezag. I have received a total of $32.00 from Beezag this year, just for watching their short little video ads. I think fondly of Laura every single time I cash out.
Go away, mortgage.
Ryan Is Correct
September 20th, 2011 at 07:25 pmGravity certainly DOES take its toll on my bank accounts.
I have dipped into CurveBall to pay my Chase Visa balance in full this month. I went back and forth on that, then finally decided that it would be silly to not pay in full. So CurveBall is poor now. Poor, poor CurveBall.
As of this moment, I have $635.73 in checking and will deposit $226.00 tomorrow. I have paid all of my bills for the month except Citi MC which has yet to arrive. I will pay them $124 towards my debt. That leaves me $737.73 for the rest of the month. I shouldn't need more than $100 of that for groceries, so that leaves $637.73 towards my early October bills. Tight, but doable.
So far this month, I am on track with spending. So that is my silver lining. Next month's Visa bill will not be so steep, and thanks to balanced bill pay, my electric bills won't be either.
In other news, my daughter and son-in-law will be moving out of my house and into their new place on Oct 1st.
Credit Karma, Mortgage Chip
September 14th, 2011 at 03:59 pmYesterday I received a reminder email from Credit Karma. It had been a while since I had updated my score. So I went ahead and did that and their estimate of my score rose to 775. That was nice.
One thing which hurts my score is my length of accounts. They say my oldest account is 105 months, and my average age is 90 months. When I divorced, I closed all of my joint credit accounts. Two of my very oldest individual accounts were Mervyn's (1987) and Gottschalk's (1992). Since both retailers have declared bankruptcy in the past couple of years, those accounts are now closed.
The other thing which hurts my score is they insist I have a credit utilization ratio of 30%. This is not true, I have available credit of 60k or so. However, some of my cards don't report a limit, so they assume my limit is equal to the highest balance ever on the card.
Even with those little dings, I don't have any trouble obtaining credit when I want it.
Tomorrow is payday. I have just counted the contents of my wallet, and I see that I have $6.37 which will go to the bank to be swept into my mortgage.
Someday, all of these little chips should add up.
Balanced Bill Payment Plan
September 11th, 2011 at 01:34 amWell, I did it. I signed up for balance bill payment plans for both PG & E (gas) and my local utility (electric). With PG & E, I got to enroll right on their website, and they already told me that my bill will be $54 per month. With the local electric company, I have to mail in the paperwork and wait for them to get back to me. My last twelve bills average $193.05 (counting the last two, which are the HUGEST electric bills I have ever had in my entire life). So as long as I am in the neighborhood of $200, that will be fine.
Cash flow planning friendly, but I have resisted all of these years. I suppose I like seeing my conservation efforts rewarded in the form of a lower bill. Lately, my utility usage is out of control. Every morning when I get up and every evening when I come home, I find:
1. televisions and/or gaming systems left on, no one using
2. lights left on in empty rooms
3. the a/c turned WAAAAY up
No amount of pointing this out has any impact at all, as NO ONE does these things. Go on, ask everyone. Did you leave this on? Nope, not me. Can you please turn things off when you are done with them? I do. I always do. I NEVER leave anything on, someone else must have done it. Apparently, there is a malovelent villain breaking into my house, turning things on, and leaving, all in an attempt to run up my utility bills. It is very frustrating. I do wish the villain would GO AWAY.
I also set up my AT & T internet to bill my credit card directly. This should be good for a few reward points.
Attn: Chase Credit Card Holders
September 9th, 2011 at 04:25 pmIf you have a Chase Freedom or Sapphire, you can get 2500 bonus pts (worth $25) plus $5 of free stamps if you enroll in stamps.com. The first 4 weeks are free, then there is a monthly fee of $15.99.
So basically, you can have $30 at the price of calling an 800 number to cancel.
I read about this on My Money Blog.
If you are interested, log on to Chase and go to Ultimate Rewards, browse the vendors and select stamps.com.
Wallet Sweep
September 7th, 2011 at 09:16 pmToday is a child support check day. So when I went to the bank, I decided to "sweep" some cash from my wallet. I had $51.77 in my wallet (of my $60.00 cash allowance). I deposited $11.77 into Piddly and will transfer it to my mortgage. That leaves me $40.00 until the 15th. I will need $10.00 tonight to get my eyebrows threaded, and will hang on to as much as the remaining $30.00 as I can. I will do the wallet sweep again on the 15th.
I am off to wellsfargo.com!
Survey Money
September 7th, 2011 at 06:36 amToday I had an e-mail from Vanguard asking me to please take a short survey. I decided to take it. It was short, but based on my answers I was asked to take a longer survey and they dangled $25 in front of me. Yeah OK, that seems a fair trade. At the end I received a message that I will receive my "incentive" in approximately 4 - 6 weeks. So if you receive a similar e-mail from Vanguard, open that baby up.
I just redeemed some credit card rewards points for $30 cash.
Mortgage chips.
On Sunday, I took my mother to visit her sister, it is about a 2 hour drive. We got an early start and made a day of it. We had a great visit, I think everyone enjoyed it. My aunt's lifelong good friend and one of her granddaughters came by, we played cards and giggled all afternoon. On the way home in the car, Mom gave me $50 to help with my OOP nephew costs. It was so nice of her, I surely do appreciate it.
So far this month I have not bought anything unplanned.
Mortgage Payment #41
September 3rd, 2011 at 06:23 pm
None of my mortgage chips during August were large, but together they reduced payment #358 down to $37.85. Hopefully, payment #358 will die this month and I can start whittling away payment #357.
I really like my new strategy of applying chips as they come in, rather than waiting for the next payment. There is no chance of them getting lost in the shuffle. Part of why it works so well is that my checking account and mortgage are both at Wells Fargo; I don't know if it would work so well otherwise. This month the bank's interest number was $.06 lower than my number, the result of mid-month chips. (This is not the entire amount of interest my chips saved, it is only the amount saved during the month of August.)
Lately, I feel so up in the air. I like to have a plan I can work towards, and right now I just don't know where my life is going.
Looking Ahead to September
September 2nd, 2011 at 06:33 pmAs I mentioned, my next electric bill has already arrived and it is $384.98. My entire utilities budget is $400, so there is no way I will stay under that.
I considered signing up for their balanced bill payment plan, but it won't help me this month because they have already billed. I could start it next month. I don't really see the benefit of doing that, I think I would rather just leave it as it is.
So I considered fiddling with my budget, but then I decided, nope, I'm not going to do that either. Instead, I'm going to try to come in under on other categories to compensate. It's a lofty goal, but I think if I really try hard, I can do it.
My son went to the eye doctor and he needs glasses. We have to pay $150, the insurance picked up the rest. My ex-husband has already paid, so I need to reimburse him $75. That's an "everything else" item.
My daughter's birthday is Sunday, so I plan to give her some cash. That is also an "everything else" item. EE is getting very tiny, and today is only Sept 2nd!!
So as you can see, I really have my work cut out for me. All right, September, let's dance.
August 2011 Budget Report
September 1st, 2011 at 07:17 pm
Everything else this month includes my car insurance, flashcards I bought to help me study ($300 + shipping from Becker, found them on eBay for $169.50 including shipping), and son's back to school expenses.
I just squeaked by on groceries, but those utilities! Waaaaahhhh! (that is me squawling like a baby) That's not even the awful part. The awful part is my next electric bill was in my mailbox yesterday. It is even bigger than the last one.
August 2011 Net Worth
September 1st, 2011 at 05:26 pmAlmost Out of August
August 30th, 2011 at 11:40 pmWell here we are with one more day of August to go. I intend to have a no-spend day tomorrow.
So where are we? Well, my electric bill this month was enough to make me cry. $374. Really looking forward to fewer people in the house. I'm also really, really tired of walking into an empty room or empty garage and all of the lights are on. Groceries aren't too bad this month because everyone pitched in. They certainly weren't cheap, but I think I am on budget there.
When my car insurance was due, I put it on my Visa in order to hang on to the cash a little longer. (I never get any rewards points for my insurance. Humph.) Chase will cut off my billing cycle in a week or so and send me a big fat bill, so I will be parting with the cash soon enough.
Everything is paid for August and I have $1,201.51 in checking. That is less than I would like to have, especially considering my Visa bill will be bigger than usual. Tomorrow is payday, and it is a 12 day pay instead of 11. So that will help some.
I have finally received the rest of summer camp money from my ex-h, so my checking account has recovered from that particular shortage.
I have not one red cent in my wallet. I cleared it out at the bank today. Tomorrow I will withdraw another $60 cash. My Piddly Fund broke $400, and I "swept" the excess to my mortgage. I think $400 is enough in Piddly. I intend to sweep all of my change into the mortgage from now on, the interest from Piddly too. Will that be an incentive for me to spend as little of my allowance as possible? I believe it will.
My EF is not budging as I am sweeping EF interest into CurveBall. I have been thinking about how much I want to keep in CurveBall. I am thinking once I have 2k in there, I will redirect that money towards IRAs if I have not hit 5k for the year. That happy dilemma is still in the future. At the moment, I am just hoping CurveBall doesn't go down in September. I hope I can swing everything in September without dipping into it. I may end up making my budgeted deposit only to pull some money right back out. We will see, though.
How to Use Credit Card to Pay Utilities?
August 27th, 2011 at 05:19 pmIn the interest of racking up rewards points, how does one use a credit card to pay utility bills? I know that some people do it successfully, but how?
Looking at my particular utility companies, I see they will accept them but there is always a fee associated. Or you can use a third party processor, which is very expensive.
I just cannot see a way to do it without the fees outweighing the benefits.
Help?
Safe Withdrawal Rates
August 23rd, 2011 at 07:51 pmI saw this blog post today and found it interesting. This particular blogger has a PhD in Economics from Princeton, so he knows a little bit about wherof he speaks.
What do those pretty rainbow lines mean? Well, it may be safe to withdraw as much as 5% of your nest egg per year if you have a conservative stock allocation. That is great news for people like me, who expect to have a modest nest egg. (Especially since I sunk a lot of my capital into a house which promptly lost half of its value. But I whined about that yesterday, so I don't want to whine about it two days in a row.)
He ran monte carlo simulations for single men and same age couples, but I wish he had run them for single women too. And he used mortality rate tables, not a ballpark guess as to how long your retirement might last.
I have never seen this idea laid out quite this way. A 5% withdrawal rate is only slightly more risky than a 4% withdrawal rate! Yay. Still, I doubt I will start with more than 4%. If I am lucky enough to have good returns the first 2 or 3 years of retirement, I may seriously consider a bump up to 4.5% or 5%.
I can't help but notice that his simulation showed a 100% stock portfolio with a 8% annual withdrawal rate (the very scenario recommended by the very popular Dave Ramsey) has a 40% failure rate for men, 50% failure rate for couples. Failure being defined as completely exhausting your nest egg while you are still alive. This is precisely why I view his investment advice as so terrible. Being flat broke in my 80s is just not my goal. I wish he (Dave Ramsey) would just stick to what he is great at (motivating people to get out of debt and get their finances on track) and not give subpar investing advice.
Edit: I had originally written that DR recommends a 10% withdrawal rate. That was incorrect, he recommends an 8% withdrawal rate.
More Wonderful Housing News
August 22nd, 2011 at 04:49 pmI saw this article this morning:
This is the sort of article which makes me think I should strongly consider buying another house and let mine go into foreclosure.
If I were to buy another house worth 125k (roughly what mine is currently worth), put down 20% + closing and take a 15 year mortgage @ 3.75, my PI payments would be $727.22. Currently, I have PI payments of $1060.23 and have 26 years to go. That is a HUGE difference.
50,000 Bonus Rewards Points
August 20th, 2011 at 07:15 pmMy Chase Sapphire statement closed yesterday, and I have an extra 50,000 bonus rewards points. I am not planning on cashing them in right now. Instead, I plan to use mine towards a plane ticket (extra 25% if you use your points this way) when we go on our trip to Hawaii next year.
Have I mentioned that a lot of family members have gotten on board? My Mom says she will go. My cousin to whom I am close (and with whom I went to China) and her husband want to go. Cousin's son and his wife and daughter want to go (their daughter 1 year younger than my son). Cousin's daughter and her husband and their 2 kids are considering.
I am a late life baby, so I am roughly the same age as the generation after me. My cousin's son is 1 year younger than me. Most of my nieces and nephews were born when I was in grade school.
Yesterday I received a $20 credit cards reward check which I have already transferred to my mortgage. This month I have chipped $21.85. I am already thinking I will not chip my expected $150 bonus for opening a checking account. I am thinking I will stash it in my Roth instead. I have in the back of my mind that if I hit retirement with more than my Roth goal of 150k, I will be willing to use it towards my mortgage. You know, if I have one at that point. I am still up in the air about what exactly I will do. I may sell my house, take my equity and move elsewhere. At least, I certainly hope I have some equity again at some point. Maybe I am being presumptuous. So anyway, overshooting my Roth goal will not be bad, but missing it will be bad. So if I overfund my Roth, I can always use the extra towards my mortgage later.
I spent some money last night which I shouldn't have. BF and son and I had been invited to dinner at my ex-nieces house. (She was married to my nephew at one time, they have a daughter together.) Something came up in the late afternoon with her son (she is remarried) and they had to cancel. So there we were, all dressed up and no place to go. On a whim, I suggested we go out to dinner. We went to Applebee's. Afterwards, we decided to go see Cowboys & Aliens (we really liked it). When that was over, we decided to see Rise of The Apes (loved it). So it was an expensive night. I paid for everything. BF and I have a policy that s/he who suggests an outing pays for it. We have been together almost 2 years now, so are past the point of "dating". The first few months he paid for almost everything, but then I said that it was silly that one person should always pay. For awhile, we would tussle from time to time over who was paying. At this point, we just go with the person who suggests also pays.
At Applebee's, I had pineapple glazed shrimp served on white rice with a spinach salad on the side. It was delicious and only 310 calories! Applebee's has quite a few low calorie entrees.
Chase Begs to Give Me Another $150; I Deign to Accept
August 18th, 2011 at 09:44 pmChase just cannot give enough money away!
I have had a Chase Freedom card for years, and often receive an offer of a $100 bonus if I would but open a checking account. I have never accepted, because part of the offer is I must sign up for direct deposit. Problem: I have nothing to direct deposit. My employer will not cooperate and neither will my ex-husband (child support). So I merely sigh and toss the offer aside.
Recently I opened my Chase Sapphire account.
Today, I got an e-mail offering me $150 if I would pretty please open a Chase checking account and there was no requirement about direct deposit! I read through carefully, I must keep the account open for 6 months or they will take the bonus back. How much will the checking account cost me? $10 per month. So still a net gain of $90. I read further and I learn that if my balance does not fall below $1500, they will waive the $10 fee. For $1500 to earn $10 per month equates to an 8% return. That is better than what I am getting at Ally, so I could move some money over and avoid the $10 monthly fee too! Right back to a profit of $150.
Five Cent Nickel
August 17th, 2011 at 09:13 pmThere is an awesome blog post today over at Five Cent Nickel. It eloquently sums up why investing costs matter.
Asset Allocation Changes
August 16th, 2011 at 03:38 amI decided to make a minor adjustment in my asset allocation plan. While using Morningstar portfolio tools, I was noticing that my target retirement funds are holding more foreign stock and less small cap stocks. Therefore, I decided I would compensate a bit for this by adjusting the holdings in my traditional IRA. My traditional IRA is the only place I don't use target retirement funds.
This is my new asset allocation:
35% Total Stock Market
10% Small Cap Value
25% International
20% Total Bond Market
10% Tips
I like the idea of more small value anyway. It holds a lot of reits, so it is a way to get more reits into my mix without buying them directly. Small value is a good diversifier to a total market fund, behaves similarly to reits, but a small value fund holds reits as well as other sectors, so is less concentrated. I like that.
First Day of High School
August 11th, 2011 at 04:03 amMy son started high school today. It was bittersweet. He has a 0 period class, which means he starts at 7am! We have to be in the car leaving by 6:30 at the latest. This morning I dropped him off, went to get gas and have my car washed, and still arrived at work at 7:20! They aren't going to know what to think, lol.
I had to buy son's student ID card ($25) and gym clothes ($20) last week. Also a monthly pass for the city bus ($31). Over the weekend, I stocked up on filler paper, pens and pencils at the dollar store. This morning, I gave him a check for his lunch account ($40). After school today, we went to pick up some required items. He needed a flash drive, some dry erase markers, a protractor, and some index tabs ($18).
I haven't really bought him any school clothes, he is still wearing his summer clothes for now. I did get him a wallet ($10), he didn't have one.
EDIT: I also had to pay $25 to the photographer so that son's picture will be in the yearbook. All in all, a spendy few days!
I have been busy lately, trying to study at least some each day. Some days I get in a lot more than other days.
Vacation Day :)
August 3rd, 2011 at 01:43 amTomorrow I am taking a vacation day! It is my first one all year, so I am a bit excited! I will be taking my son and a friend of his to a local water park, where I will spend the day floating in the lazy river.
Instead of buying tickets at the door, I Googled coupon codes and was able to buy them online at $20.99 each instead of $29.99. We will pack a nice picnic lunch and skip the expensive, greasy park food.
Yay!
Just Logged on to Wells Fargo....
August 2nd, 2011 at 07:27 pm...and guess what I saw? My mortgage interest last month was $795.84, a full $.07 less than I calculated.
Why do I care? Because it means that the tiny extra principal payments I made didn't just sit there in suspense as I had thought they would. Nope, they reduced the interest which accrued in July! I can't believe it.
It's not a rounding error. If my calculation was $.01 off, that could just be rounding. But not $.07.
From now on, all of my mortgage chips will be applied the moment I have the cash, no more waiting until the next regular payment is made.
I will have to edit the spreadsheet "snip" in my last post.
Mortgage Payment #40
August 1st, 2011 at 07:18 pmJuly 2011 Budget Report
August 1st, 2011 at 05:53 pmThis is how I did in July:
As you can see, my grocery bills were HUGE. Part of the overspending is from 2 additional people in the house, part is from the additional cost of NutriSystem foods. I will not be purchasing more NS food, and my expectation is that the 2 extra people will be gone before August is. Let's all keep our fingers crossed!
Everything Else this month included my vehicle registration ($142) and my required smog inspection ($46).
Other than those, nothing else was too awful.
August Will Be Hard on My Checking Account
August 1st, 2011 at 04:27 pmHere we are in August. My utility bills are huge. My grocery bills are huge. My car insurance is due. My son goes back to school next week.
No matter how you slice it, August is going to be very rough on my checking account.
On the plus side, my ex-h has finally coughed up $100 towards his half of summer camp.
Yesterday we found a second hand bike for $75 for my son to use for transportation. His last bike was stolen from our front yard. I didn't want to buy another new one. The bike we found has new tires and tubes and is in good condition.
I was able to get an inter-district transfer for my son to our city's best high school. This means no school bus service and it is too far for him to walk or ride his bike. The father of one of my son's friends who lives less than 1 mile from the high school invited me to leave my son's bike at their place, drop my son there in the morning, and let the boys bike to school together. After school, I can pick son up there. On rainy days, the boys can catch the city bus and ride that. This sounded like a great idea to everyone, so that is what we are going to do.
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