Bloom Where You Are Planted

This morning on mint.com, I noted that according to Zillow, my home value has fallen another $4,500 to $127,500. I am now at 144% LTV.

Sometimes I wonder: am I being foolish? Am I missing the opportunity of a lifetime? Should I buy a different home for myself at today's prices and just let mine go? Yes, I put 53k down and immediately another 10k on repairs/maintenance, but that's gone and there is nothing to be done about that.

So in January, I applied for two credit cards in order to earn money from InBox Dollars. I was credited $15 for one but am still waiting to be credited $15 for the other.

Meanwhile, one of the two cards is a Discover card. Today I noticed that I have available rewards, and just ordered a $50 direct deposit into my checking account. Yay!

The other card is a Sony Visa from Capital One. I was awarded 10,000 pts which I redeemed for a $100 Sony Style gift card. Today I sold it on Plastic Jungle and will receive $78 cash. Double Yay!!

So hopefully, I will have $128 to chip on my mortgage next month.

On InBox dollars, I did ask about my $15 credit and was told I should look at my confirmation e-mail from Capital One which I should have received when I applied. I didn't receive any such e-mail. I do however have an e-mail dated 2/2/11 telling me that my card has shipped. So in a few days I will try their on-line help again. (They want you to wait 30 days before asking about your credit.)

Additionally, for Valentine's day they had a promotion where if you spent $10 of real money for World Winner games, they will pay you $20. The offer details state the $20 will be credited around 2/28/11. I haven't been credited for that yet, either.

I made my chippy little mortgage payment. Payment #359 is now eliminated, and payment #358 is now reduced to $467.12

I wish I could make this much progress every month!

So once again I am pleased with my overall results. My paycheck income was short due to 2/28/11 being a 9 day pay period, instead of the usual 11. And of course I received those beautiful income tax refunds. While at first glance I exceeded quite a few places, it was all planned.

I did fine with groceries and utilities, but I went over on credit card spending.

I went to a baby shower last weekend and bought a gift. Another friend who I thought might be attending had a baby 3 weeks ago, so I bought a gift for her and took it to the shower as well. She ended up not attending, so I will have to make other plans for delivering that gift. A third friend had a baby in January, so I brought a gift for her new baby. That same friend has a 2 year old, and there was some snafu with my attending that shower. Long story short, I brought a gift for the 2 year old. The four gifts did add up.

A few weeks ago, I bought tickets for son and BF and I to see a stand up comic who did a show in my city. Paula Poundstone. It was a great show!

So the gifts and the comedy show together, along with my gas and Netflix, were too much for my credit card spending budget.

"Everything Else" was my 6 month car insurance premium.

Well, I'm glad to be back over 100k. It's been about a year and a half since I was last over 100k net worth. Three years ago, I was closing in on 250k.

Ultimately, I would like to have a net worth of approximately 1 million (600k traditional IRA, 150k Roth, a paid for house). So at age 41, with a net worth approaching 250k, I felt very optimistic about reaching 1 million by age 65. I only needed my net worth to double twice in 24 years. Now I am 44, and to reach 1 million net worth by age 65, I need my net worth to double 3 times plus some more in 21 years.

Wow! What a difference 3 little years can make.

A few months back, I was seeing a specialist medical doctor and had several offce visits. My co-pay for a specialist is $30. Somehow, I overpaid. I received a detailed account transaction list and check for $30 in the mail today. I had NO IDEA it was coming.

So, when I make March's mortgage payment, I will be adding $200 from my income tax refund, $23.10 from Plastic Jungle, $20 from Chase Freedom rewards, and $30 from the co-pay refund, as well as the few dollars I budget to pay extra.

March will be my "chippiest" month yet!

I have decided that I am going to start being better about recycling water bottles, and using that money towards my mortgage.

Looking forward to my next Statement of Net Worth!

Tonight I got up to $50.01, so I cashed in. There is still a $3.00 processing fee, so now I know. However, I did immediately receive a $3.00 bonus, so it's not so bad.

It should ship around April 1, hope it makes it here in time to add to April's payment. If not, it will make a fine mortgage chip in May.

I e-filed my returns on Monday, and today I see that my state refund has already hit my bank account. Thank you, state of California!

This is something new to me. Inbox dollars paid me $3 to sign up with Offermatic. You register your credit/debit card with Offermatic and based on your activity, you are offered rebates. For example, spend $20 at Target, get a $10 rebate right on your credit/debit card. Spend $20 at Shell, get a $10 rebate. So, I went right ahead and registered.

Here is a referral link, if you are interested. If you do Inbox dollars, be sure to link from them to get your $3.

http://www.offermatic.com/refer/19145

The last joint account that my ex-husband and I have is a universal life insurance policy. The benefit amount is 300k on him, 130k on me, and 5k riders on each child. We are still splitting the cost and it has a small cash value (I think right around $1900). Our daughter is 20 and married, living in another state with her husband who is in the Army. Our son is 15. As we are no longer married, the chance of us dying together is quite small. I feel we no longer need this policy. I told ex-husband this several months back, but he wanted to keep it.

Additionally, I have a 50k term policy with ex-husband being the beneficiary. I would like to change that to 50% each child. They are already the primary beneficiaries of my retirement funds.

Ex-husband called me today and says he wants to cancel the universal life policy. He needs his half of the cash value and doesn't want to keep paying the premiums. He says he will up the term policy he buys through work. I said that is fine with me.

So, he will be cancelling that soon and I will be receiving my half. I have thought it over today, and I think I will put my half into my Roth.

Also, my life insurance costs will decrease by $28 per month. I plan to send $25 to my emergency fund and allow another $3 for "everything else".

My emergency fund should break the 10k mark in April. I think that is enough of an e-fund for someone with credit card debt, so after breaking 10k, I will direct those dollars to B of A Visa.

So last night was bill paying night, and when I finished making transfers and writing checks, I was shocked at my balance. I have just over $1100 in checking, though I still have to pay for my pest service (bill hasn't arrived yet). Also, I will have to visit the grocery store before the month is over. Wow! I'm very pleased. This is much more than I typically have after mid-month bill paying. It's a good thing too, since this pay period has only 9 days in it, my paycheck will be smaller than usual.

Also, when I went to the bank to deposit my paycheck and take out my $80 cash allowance, I looked in my wallet and saw I still had $57 from last time! I withdrew $60 and transferred $20 to my spending savings account. Ideally, I would like the cash allowance to fund all clothing and grooming items, for both me and my son. I started with $0, so it may take some time to build up enough to cover all such expenditures.

I'm excited and encouraged about tracking, it really is helping me to cut back!

My boss just told me that I need to pay more attention to my retirement account. He just discovered that he forgot to send in contributions for Feb and May of last year (including his own). Lol. So that means my Simple IRA is about to get a little boost.

Yesterday I received an e-mail from Plastic Jungle. I sold a gift card I had never used for $23.10, and my check is in the mail! There is a nice little mortgage chip.

Also yesterday I received a rewards check from Chase for $20. This too will make a nice little mortgage chip.

I decided to go ahead and tweak my monthly budget. Since I spent $360 out of $500 budgeted grocery dollars, I am going to cut my grocery budget to $450. I am going to save an additional $20 in my emergency fund, pay an additional $5 on my credit card debt, and bump "Everything Else" from $163 to $188. Ideally, I won't be spending much of "Everything Else" and so will have some surplus built up in checking to handle unbudgeted expenses.

"Groceries" is really for groceries and household items such as cleaning products, lightbulbs, etc. I have to feed myself, my 15 year old son 5 days a week, my 34 year old nephew, and 3 dogs. One dog is my nephew's, the other two are dogs my ex-husband let my son adopt. When my ex-husband lost his house to foreclosure last year, he couldn't find a rental which would allow him to keep the dogs. My son loves those dogs, I couldn't let them go to the pound, so I have them now.

Also, I count my son's meals at school as "groceries".

I think I can do better than $450, but I don't want to adjust my budget down further based on only 1 month's grocery expenditures. I'm still new to this tracking business, so I don't have much data for analysis.

Boyfriend and I have kicked around the idea of buying a house together. Boyfriend needs to sell his current home for his own reasons, and expects to realize a decent amount of cash. We have talked about him moving in with me, and plan to do that once he has everything in order. The appeal for him to buy another house is that he doesn't want to sell low and then be out of the residential real estate market altogether. The appeal for me to buy another house is that I think we are about at the bottom and I stand to enjoy some nice appreciation from buying now.

(I live in one of the worst hit areas. Home values in my town have fallen two-thirds from the bubble peak.)

I would have to turn my current house into a rental which is not completely thrilling to me. I have been a landlord in the past so am familiar with the "joys" which can crop up.

If we bought a house together, we would go half-sies. Probably, he would put his half down and I would take a mortgage for the other half. The payments would be substantially smaller than the payments on my present home, and should be more than covered by the rent I would collect on my house. I've already talked to my current lender (Wells Fargo Home Mortgage) and discovered that I qualify if I decide to go ahead.

I am unwilling to move into a home which he buys solo and rent out my home. In that situation, I take on the risks associated with being a landlord but do not participate at all in the potential appreciation of the home he buys.

Thoughts?

I just transferred $1292.43 to my mortgage ($1290.00 budgeted, +2.43 from Lending Club). The scheculed P + I is $1060.23. Here is a snip from my spreadsheet:



My new balance is $183,574.01. I have chipped payment #359 down to $581.49.

Here is how I did:



My comments:

Net Pay - Short this month due to a 10 day pay period.

Groceries - I did much better than I had guesstimated! I'm not going to lower the budgeted amount for now, but if I can consistently come in lower, then I will cut it and use some of those dollars elsewhere.

Utilities - I came in under on the variable bills.

Visa Allowance - I went over a little. I had the car battery issue in January, so I'm pleased that I didn't go over much.

Everything Else - The only expense here were library fines.

All in all, I am pleased with my spending in January. January gets a

So, after setting aside money for my car insurance, I will have just over 2k in extra income from my income tax refunds. I have tweaked my extra income allocation and plan to do the following:

30% - Emergency Fund
20% - Credit Card Debt
20% - Egypt Fund
20% - Roth
10% - Mortgage

In about 2.5 months, I will have 4 - 5k or so extra income, and will do the same with that.

Here is my update:



Cash is up , debt is down , retirement accounts are up . House value is down . In fact, house value has hit a new low, according to Zillow.

The most my house has been worth while I have owned it is 250k, according to the full appraisal I had in February 2008 for my re-fi.

This is a tricky topic I think. I have evolved to the point I view life as a journey. I'd like to think I have learned from my mistakes and grown because of them. If I could undo those mistakes, wouldn't I just make different, similar mistakes? Probably.

But if I could go back to some earlier date and change things, first and foremost, I would love myself more. I am certain I would make better choices as a direct result. I know I would have stood up for myself more.

I love my children. I wouldn't have them if I hadn't made the mistake of marrying their father, so I don't want to undo that.

I finished my BS last June, though I started working on it in the fall of 1985. If I could go back, that 20 year old me would stay in college full time, even if it meant living in my car.

I'm very happy with my life now. I feel that I walked a long, difficult road to get here. I love myself now, that wasn't always true. I have made peace with the disfunction in my original family. I am comfortable in my own skin.

And I must say, I LOOOOVE the American Opportunity credit! I will get back $2852 from federal and state combined. I can't e-file yet of course, but I am ready to do so the moment they are ready for my Sch A and education credit.

I won't be getting any further education credits for myself, I graduated last June. Double

This evening, my nephew surprised me with another $100. I believe I will throw it at my credit card debt.

In other financial news, my Inbox dollars account is up to $41.64. If I request a check, I get the message about the $3 fee. I am waiting for a $6 payment from Nielsen (that one is paid after 35 days) and $15 for applying for a Sony card (through Capital One). Once I hit $50, if there is still a $3 fee then I will just pay it. At the moment, I prefer to wait just a bit longer and see if I can avoid it.

And finally, it looks as though my income tax situation for 2010 is refunds of $1600 or so. I received my 1098T (for tuition) today and will run a diagnostic tomorrow to determine which credit works best for me, or perhaps take the deduction. Then I will be all ready to e-file, and will be more concrete than "$1600 or so". My car insurance will need to be paid soon, so I will deposit $800 into checking to cover that, and the rest will go towards credit card debt reduction.

Yesterday I transferred $2.43 from my Lending Club account to my checking account. This staggering sum will be mortgage chip money. Have you ever lent money on Lending Club? I opened an account when they were having a promotion, open an account and get a $25 bonus. So, I did. I didn't put in a cent of my own money. Lending Club was ok with that. I lent out the money, and the person I lent to has thus far made all of her payments. Every few months, I transfer the money out and chip away at my mortgage.

Worked another 5 OT hours today, so we are up to 10 now.

Oh! AND, I received my first piece of decoy mail yesterday. So now I have earned a whole $.25!! Lol. Looking forward to building up my volume again.

One of my retirement dreams is to live someplace pretty. South Lake Tahoe, California is one of my favorite spots to consider. So yesterday I was browsing, and found some nice level lots on city streets in the 30k range. If I had not bought my house, I could now pay cash for such a lot and a prefab kit, and would only lack the funds for the labor to put it together. Instead, I have a 183k mortgage. Sigh.

The next time real estate is hot, I intend to sell my house, bank the money, and rent a little place until I am ready to buy my final home. I expect that time is a decade or so away, so a studio apt should suit me fine at that time. Then I will have to wait for the market to cool, so that level lots in South Lake Tahoe are back in my price range again.

I intended to put in a whole day's work today, but slept a bit late, lingered over the newspaper with coffee, then took my son to get a haircut. Didn't manage to arrive at work until 1pm, and quit at 6. So, I have kicked off OT season with 5 hours.

I've been watching The Grapes of Wrath on Netflix. I read the book years ago, have never seen the movie. It gets to me. My Mom's family were sharecroppers near Oklahoma City pre-dust bowl, and came out here to California when she was small. She lived what is depicted in the movie. Ma Joad reminds me of my Grandma.

I was reading blogs this morning and saw a post about this prefab house, kit starts at under 40k:

So today is payday, and I see I will be netting an additional $46 per month. Here is where it is going:

BofA credit card - $20
mortgage - $3
main savings - $3
everything else - $20


So, I am pleased about that.

So far this month, I have been doing very well with my spending, even with the car battery replacement and jump start service. I intend to report at the end of each month how I did. I wish I knew how to post an excerpt from Excel.

At the end of the year, I like to look at the current value of my nest egg and make some projections.

In my tax-deferred accounts:

My minimum goal is 600k.

If I stop contributing now and earn 7%, I will have 487k at age 65, 558k at age 67.

If I continue contributing at my current rate and earn 7%, I will have 632k at age 65, 731k at age 67.

In my Roth:

My minimum goal is 150k.

If I stop contributing now and earn 7%, I will have 33k at age 65, 38k at age 67.

If I continue contributing at my current rate and earn 7%, I will have 131k at age 65, 155k at age 67.

I also crunch what I will have if I earn 5%, 6%, 8%, or 9%. Those 8s and 9s sure are pretty! However, I think 7 is a more reasonable assumption.

Something I like to do at the end of each year is look at the current value of my nest egg and make some projections.

In my tax deferred accounts:

If I stop contributing now and earn a little over 8%, I will hit my minimum goal of 600k at age 65. If I earn 7.25%, I will hit it at age 67. I don't want to count on anything higher than 7%, but of course, I wouldn't mind.

If I continue contributing at my current rate and earn 7%, I will have 632k at age 65, 731k at age 67.

So I am glad that I have a good shot at hitting my minimum goal.

In my Roth, if I stop contributing now there is no way I will come close to my minimum goal.

If I continue contributing as I am now and earn 7%, I will have 131k at age 65, 155k at age 67.