http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/09/28/reader-case-study-...

My daughter and son-in-law are going to be featured on Mr. Money Mustache!

My daughter started reading Mr. Money Mustache a few months ago, and she and SIL decided to make some big changes. She e-mailed MMM just to let him know, he responded and asked if she would be interested in being "interviewed" for a new feature on his blog, "Mustachian 180s". They have exchanged a few emails since.

No word yet on when exactly it will appear.

Isn't that cool? I know there are some MMM fans here on Saving Advice.

Remember my new Capital One Quicksilver card? My first statement closed quickly, I redeemed my first rewards ($1.95) and requested a check. I did receive the check, deposited it, and sent it off to CurveBall.

Last night I logged on to Capital One's site to eyeball my charges. I had another $109.62 in rewards available. My statement has not closed, but the rewards are available?! That is a new one on me.

The card offered a $100 bonus for spending $500 the first 3 months. The additional $9.62 is from spending (groceries, utilities, the dentist).

I redeemed the rewards and asked for a statement credit. I had an e-mail this morning that I will see my credit in 5 - 7 days.

In other reward card news, my Home Rewards Visa statement closed and I have $21.92 in rewards. I will have to spend an additional $308 on that card so that I can redeem. Then I will take it out of my wallet.

I am home from mom's. I hadn't been home 30 minutes when I heard rocks hitting the side of my house. I go out in the backyard and my crazy neighbor is out there. I asked what he was doing and he began screaming obscenities at me, and saying that my dog is ruining the fence by jumping on it (yes, the fence I paid 100% of the cost). Then he said he is going to put nails in it (unsure if he meant in a manner in which to harm the dog or not) and began hammering very loudly. I admit, I saw red. I said he is crazy, and that maybe a good psychiatrist could really help him. I went back in the house and more rocks hit the side of my house. I put my head out a window and said if he wanted to put nails in the fence, that was just fine with me, but he needs to stop throwing things at my house. He suggested I call the police.

Instead, I got out the laptop and emailed a local video camera surveillance place. I don't care what it costs, I am going to have a security camera installed to record all activity along our shared fence line. If it doesn't prevent further craziness, at least I will have hard evidence.

Update: I just had a visit from the police. Neighbor called them and claims I threatened to have someone beat him up. Also, I sick my dogs on him to attack. (He also claimed this when we were in small claims court). I said both claims are ridiculous. Then I said he was throwing rocks at my house tonight and I think he is crazy. They seemed to believe me. They said he claims my dogs bark at 1 and 2 am. I said no, my dogs sleep indoors, pet door is kept closed between 10pm and 6am, at the neighbor's request. (They asked me this long before the fence incident. It is a reasonable request, I said I would do so and I have). The officers said a security camera is a good idea.

I have been staying at my mom's since Thursday evening. She is feeling quite a bit better today.

Two months had gone by since I last fiddled with my portfolio. That means I was allowed to exchange back into the fund I want to be in. So that is done and settled.

I received my new Capital One rewards card a few days ago. I activated it and provided the info to the those companies which use it for my automatic billing. Today I received an email that my first statement has closed already! The amount due is $130 (my electric bill) and I redeemed $1.95 worth of rewards (via a paper check). I just wanted to see if there was a charge (there wasn't) and how long it will take to arrive. In the future, I will probably choose to have a statement credit instead. The due date is 9/13, which is inconvenient for me (I get paid on the 15th). Since it is only $130 that is no big deal, but future statements will be quite a bit larger. I was able to change my statement closing date to a later date, so hopefully the payment in October will be due after payday, not before.

My mom is having surgery today. It is not a particularly risky surgery, but my mom is 80. Please think positive thoughts for her, pray for her, or release other positive energy in accordance with your belief system. Thank you.

I will go and visit her tonight in the hospital. If all goes well, she will be released tomorrow. I will spend the night with her Thursday, and will most likely take Friday off from work. She is so stubborn, insisting she will not need any help. However, I think she will be exhausted and not up to doing things for herself.

In chippy news, I received $3 from PineCone for my very first survey, and have already sent it off to E Fund. I have not yet been paid for my July hours from my part-time job. Meanwhile, I worked 9 hours in August. The bookkeeper said she will pay me for both July and August next month. How do you like that?

Yesterday I stumbled upon a real estate site I had never seen before. It is

www.redfin.com.
It is quite different from both Zillow and Trulia, in that you choose 5 recently sold homes, and it calculates your home value based on those sales. Since I live in a large (four hundred or so homes) cookie-cutter subdivision, and since there are plenty of recent sales to choose from, I felt this should work great for me.

I chose 5 single family 4/2 1440 sq. ft. homes which have all closed this calendar year. This is the type of home I have; two were even the exact same floor plan! Of course, there is no way to know for sure how the condition of those homes would compare with mine. But still, I think those sales should be a fairly good indication of the value of my home.

Well, the results showed a value of 148k for my home. What great news! Still upside down, but much less so.

I am going to begin using Redfin each month for my home value when I do my net worth.

In budgeting news, yesterday I received my annual escrow analysis. Both my insurance and property taxes have increased, resulting in a shortage. My PITI is going from 1081.63 to 1111.38 beginning August 1. This means I will have to jiggle my budget around a small bit.

Well, my ship is about to sail! Mom and I are leaving early Saturday morning.

This week has been hectic at work and hectic at home. Even so, I have been enjoying my evenings with all 3 kiddos. I am sad that this time is coming to a close once again.

I have picked up a few new articles of clothing for my trip, but not very many because I have had an unexpected expense arise (more below). I bought a lined rain jacket (from the clearance rack), a pair of long jeans (I mostly wear capris), a nightgown, two shirts, and some underthings. Altogether, I spent $92 on clothing for myself.

Last week when we went to the theme park, the house was empty of people. When we returned home, J discovered that his Xbox, a stack of games, and two controllers were gone. He had played one of his games the night before and all items were accounted for. Nothing else in the house had been disturbed, and there was no sign of a break-in. The dogs were both inside the house and fine.

During the last week of school, J reported to me that he had misplaced his house key. He had been playing ball in a park that day, and thought he had lost it there. I got him a new house key, but was not worried about changing the locks as there is no identifying info on his keyring. Well, I think that key must have been used. Nala (nephew's yellow lab) is an excellent watchdog. Therefore, I further think the key was used by someone Nala knows well.

During the last two months of school, J made a new friend, L. L started coming to our house nearly every day, both after school and on weekends. L seemed to never want to go home. I asked him point blank if there was something going on at home. He replied not really, but that usually it was just he and his foster brother (L is in a foster home), they don't get along, and so L prefers to hang out with friends. L was a pleasant enough boy, but I did catch him lying to me once. Another time, he asked me to please lie to a third boy's mother, so that this third boy would be allowed to go someplace. Of course I refused. Both times I explained to L that I do not tolerate lying.

As it happens, L was with J on the afternoon the house key went missing. We have learned that on the day after the theft, another boy D who is a good friend of L, sold a stack of games at Game Stop, identical to J's stolen games. J does not know D well, he has met him a time or two at school, but J has never been anyplace with D, nor has D ever been to our house.

J did confront L, but L denies any knowledge of the theft. Nonetheless, L is no longer welcome at our house. J feels very used and is very upset with L.

I had the locks changed, the cost was $84.66. J found a used console, hard drive, controller, and cables on eBay for $95 plus tax and shipping. I bought that for him. J had borrowed a game from another friend K which was in the stolen stack. I offered to replace that game, but K said he would be happy with $20, so I gave him $20. All told, I am out $230. I told J that I am done, it is up to him to use his own money to replace his games.

In chippy news, I did a wallet sweep today and sent $8 off to E Fund. The $50 credit card reward I redeemed last month has now been applied to my mortgage. And wouldn't you know, I redeemed another $25 just a few days ago. That won't show up until around July 20th.

In family news, last Sunday mom and I drove nephew up to my brother's house. Brother lives in northern California (the REAL northern California, not just north of Orange county ), it is 4 hours each way. Add in visiting time and it makes for a long day. One niece popped in with her husband and their 3 babies (3yo, 2yo, and 1yo). Mom and I briefly stopped by the workplace of another niece. It was a wonderful day, and we'll have a repeat in a few weeks when we go back to retrieve nephew.

Even though I swore to myself I was through with fiddling, I fiddled some more. I am almost at the "3 Fund Portfolio", except I am overweighting mid/small caps a bit.

Here is my new target AA for tax-deferred:

30% S & P 500 Index
20% Extended Market Index

25% International Index

25% Total Bond Market Index

I have updated my "My Portfolio Holdings" page.

How about you, do you find yourself fiddling, even when you have sworn it off?

I have just spent the afternoon at my part-time job. I am done with it now for June. I put in 10 hours, for which I will bill $200.

Work was super crazy this week, the other staff accountant was on vacation. That means I have to do all of her payroll clients as well as my own, while juggling other things as well. Add swinging by the part-time job 3 days this week into the mix, it has made for a long week.

I can hardly wait to return the favor and go on vacation myself.

J and I spent the weekend with BF in El Dorado Hills. BF's office had a flood in the basement a few months ago. While the repairs are being done, they have rooms with a workspace at the Holiday Inn Express in El Dorado Hills.

It was like a mini-vacation. The hotel is inside a large shopping center. There is a natural pond (hotel pool area backs up to it) in the center, with restaurants built all around to enjoy the view (lots of outside seating).

On Saturday evening we went to a venue in Folsom with live music. We enjoyed the music, and J even spent time on the dance floor, shaking maracas. The middle-aged adults were all tickled.

I just loved the pool area. It was so pretty with the pond in the immediate background, and the hills beyond that. It was so relaxing to sit out there.

This coming Friday morning my niece who lives in Seattle will be arriving at the airport. She is going to surprise my mom for Mother's Day. I've got to make certain my house is squeaky clean, so will be doing chores all week. I'm not certain what her plans are, just in case she stays a night or two with me, I want to be ready.

Well, I did clear 4k as I expected. I have made all of my planned transfers.

I decided to send J to camp. In addition to what I mentioned before, I felt kind of bad that I will be going on a cruise and he will not. A cruise? Yes.

Mom has decided Alaska is a go. We have chosen a different (less expensive) trip. I think we are leaving towards the end of June. We have not actually booked yet. It will be just her and I.

My employer's annual matching check was mailed off yesterday. So lots of new money going into my Simple and Roth this month.

I am expecting a third $25 mortgage chip any day now.

I received my statement yesterday, and my local electric company is dropping my monthly amount from $238 to $130. This means I can bump up CurveBall some, and bump up my groceries/household budget some.

My paycheck yesterday was for only 9 days instead of the regular 11, so cash in checking is in short supply this month. As a direct result, I will not increase my CurveBall savings deposit in March. Will start that in April.

I took my car in for a service and 4 new tires. My right headlight was out, as well as my left brake light. And it turned out, I had a hose with a hole, so I had that replaced too. The damage was $738.09, charged to WF Visa and will need to be paid (from CurveBall) before the end of March.

I did a wallet sweep yesterday and sent $8 off to E Fund. I'd have had more, but I paid cash for my round trip cable car ride in SF last Sunday. My Bart ticket, my breakfast out, and my dinner out all went on WF Visa and count towards February's "Everything Else". I'll have February's numbers totalled soon.

I have earned a second $25 mortgage chip. The first one posted 2/20, so perhaps the second one will post 3/20. I hadn't anticipated a second one so fast, but my car insurance, groceries, and utilities added up quickly.

We had a wonderful day last Sunday. I was really due for a good, giggly, girlfriend day. But after 2 weeks, I am missing BF of course. He is due to arrive tonight, we will spend Sat together, then he will head home Sunday. I work Sunday, and he has to be at work Monday.

BF and I have discussed moving in together for the past 3 years. He is finally going to sell his house, but now has his new job. His life is there, mine is here. I don't foresee it happening.

I just tried to update my sidebar with 1/31 numbers. Instead of updating, I lost all of my settings. Notice I now have no blog name, bio, etc.

Don't know what is going on.

It's too late for me, but save yourselves!

UPDATE: Nate fixed me. Thanks, Nate!

But it won't post Feb 1. This little goodie was on my Visa statement:

Congratulations| You have earned a $25.00 rebate which
will be automatically applied to your home mortgage loan
within 4-8 weeks.
Thank you for using your Wells Fargo Home Rebate Card�.

I do so like free money.

And I have never received an alert, but i was able to transfer into Vacation Fund this morning. So, hopefully no more hiccups.

I went through my CD collection at work and chose 2 to sell on Second Spin. I went through my small DVD collection and chose 1 to sell on Second Spin. Those 3 items came to $17.50!

Also, I had a copy of "Rosetta Stone" for Spanish. I have asked BF to list it for me on EBay. At one time he had a side business, buying pallets of merchandise at auctions and selling the individual items on EBay. He has thousands of sales and a high satisfaction rating, whereas I have none at all.

I am irritated at TIAA-Cref. My automatic transfer to Vacation Fund did not happen. There was no message or indication as to why. I can look at my "transfers" list and see the next one is scheduled to happen in February. So, I scheduled a one-time immediate transfer. It didn't happen. I couldn't tell why. So, I sent a secure message on their site. They replied I needed to call. I called this past Monday. It seems the problem is my Vacation Fund account is inactive. They will make it active within 24 hours and send me an "alert". As of this morning, still no alert. I tried to transfer from CurveBall to Vacation (an immediate transfer since both are with TIAA-Cref) and I received an error message. Humph.

Thinking I may just switch back to Ally, although their rate is slightly lower. I logged on to Ally. All 3 of my accounts have 0.00 balances, but all show "active" under the "status" header.(On TIAA-Cref's site, I couldn't find "status" information anyplace.) So, I scheduled three $1.00 transfers from WF checking. If they happen, and if TIAA-Cref still won't let me transfer money into Vacation Fund, I think I will just wash my hands of them. I could call again, but it annoys me that I even have to deal with this. I just want to transfer some money into my account, why should it be hard?

TIAA-Cref was paying 1.25% in December, but are down to .99% now. Ally is currently paying .95%.

Well, I worked 4.75 OT hours yesterday. It would have been a longer work day, but I got a phone call from a neighbor that my dogs were out and about. I left to collect them.

When I got home, I discovered that a board from my gate was off and neatly propped against the fence to the right of where it had been nailed in place. I wonder how my dogs were able to accomplish that? Either they have some amazing carpentry skills for creatures with no opposable thumbs, or a person did that particular deed. Hmmm. I wonder who would do such a thing? And yes, this gate is right next to the gate of the delightful dog-poisoning neighbor.

By the time I had nailed the board back into place, I didn't feel like going back to work. Even so, it was a productive work day. No ringing phone to answer, no clients dropping in, no e-mails requesting this or that, just one payroll return after another.

I have my income taxes mostly prepared. I estimated a few small items, and will correct those entries with actual numbers before I submit. I am getting a state refund of $1,039 (every dollar which was withheld) and I owe $372 federal. I am claiming a 1k contribution to my traditional IRA, and will use my state refund to make it. I will have the federal taxes electronically debited on 4/15.

BF is excited about the recovering real estate prices in his area. A vacant lot across the street from him sold recently. The lot backs on to the golf course whereas his backs on to an empty field. We looked it up on Zillow to see the selling price. 650k. This bodes well for his sale in the spring. He is hoping to get 850k. Zillow says it is worth a bit over 1m but BF doesn't think so.

This afternoon I am off to our local independent movie theater. They are showing Gone With The Wind. I have never seen it on the big screen, so I am looking forward to this treat.

BF was here over the weekend. The change in him is very noticeable. He is out of his "funk", and is more his old self, the fellow I was so attracted to in the beginning. He is getting a lot accomplished with his mom's estate, and was full of plans and details (of things already accomplished) to report. He left Sunday afternoon, as he had to be at work early today. (We live approximately 88 miles apart.)

I don't think I've mentioned before how we met. We were both on Nutri-System. Nutri-System has a website with message boards for support. There is an area specifically for singles in their 40s. People discuss challenges and strategies with their NS diet, and of course chat about their personal lives a little bit. (Kind of like here, only the focus is on diet and exercise rather than finances.) Well, I started frequenting that message board and BF did too. I first noticed BF because he made a remark which struck me as funny. After a few months, BF sent me a private message and asked if I would like to have lunch with him sometime. I thought that might be fun, so I accepted. We met for lunch one day (at a Fresh Choice, very NS friendly) and immediately hit it off. There was a lot of chemistry,and we just "clicked", right from "hello". That was about 3.5 years ago now.

I had kind of lost sight of that man, while he was in his "funk". It's pretty exciting to see him again!

In other news, I transferred $600 from CurveBall to cover my HVAC repair.

I was swamped, swamped, swamped at work today, but I still found time to miss Saving Advice!

I've seen people talk about selling things on Second Spin. I do have a large CD collection. Most of them, I won't part with. However, I was sure I had a few at least I wouldn't miss. Nonetheless, I've never been motivated to try selling them.

Be A Wealthy Warrior's post tonight inspired me to see what I have and don't want that they would buy. I went through my collection and surprised myself. I had about 40 cds I don't really care to listen to! I sold 26 of them tonight. With the extra 20% code my total came to $29.88. And I will have a bit less clutter to boot.

Thanks, Be A Wealthy Warrior!

I like to periodically re-read various personal finance books. Over this weekend, I just finished re-reading Dave Ramsey's "Total Money Makeover".

While I have no objections to his get out of debt advice, I find his investing advice scary. In my opinion, people who follow his investing advice are setting themselves up for failure, big time. If you read the forums, you may have already read my objections to some of his investing advice, as I have been vocal about it a time or two already. After re-reading this weekend, I find his investing advice scarier than ever.

A few weeks ago, I shared my Excel calculations on the possible size of my nest egg at retirement age, assuming different scenarios. Here are my projections using Dave Ramsey math:

My traditional and Simple IRA balances as of 12/31/12 total $141,313.40. If I were to re-allocate that money based on Dave Ramsey's advice and assume I can count on 12% returns from now until age 65, my nest egg will reach $1,217,098.64 without my adding another single penny.

Currently, I am aiming for 600k in those accounts so that I can draw down 24k per year (standard safe withdrawal rate of 4%). But, Dave Ramsey says 8% is a safe withdrawal rate. So if I follow his advice, I only need 300k to safely draw down 24k per year.

Well holy cow, I am already looking at a nest egg of 4 times that amount without adding another penny between now and age 65. I will be able to count on my nest egg being 1.2 million, and I will be able to count on safely drawing 96k annually from my 1.2 million nest egg. I only make 49k per year now, so to me that is a fortune! Conclusion: I am golden. I have no need to continue adding to my traditional or Simple IRAs. I should immediately begin doing something else with the money I have been directing towards my traditional and Simple IRAs.

What about my Roth? I need to re-allocate that to 100% stocks too. The $15,295.50 I had on 12/31/12 will grow to $131,736.50 by the time I reach age 65 without adding another penny. My goal is 150k, so this is a little bit short. However, the whole reason I am saving in my Roth is to have a fund to pay for large irregular expenses such as a new roof or a new (to me) vehicle. But if my income is 96k per year, I don't foresee having any trouble paying these expenses out of current income. I will have twice the income I have now and no longer be saving for retirement or paying Fica taxes, so surely I can come up with 10k to buy a nice used car. I won't even need to dip into my 131k Roth. In fact, I don't see why I need money in a Roth at all.

Conclusion: I have already salted away far more than I need. I am done saving for retirement.

So I stop saving now and arrive at age 65 with...substantially less than Dave Ramsey promised me. Then what? Well, adjust to a much lower standard of living than I had expected. It's too late to do anything else.

It is a good thing for me that I recognize the huge flaws in Dave Ramsey's investment math. I hope that those following his advice are able to recognize the flaws too, but I fear that many are not.

It is not to scale, but here is the floor plan of my house. The wall I would like to take out is between the kitchen and bedroom #4. I suspect it may be a load bearing wall. However, it is also vaulted in the center (between living room and kitchen) and tapers down. I think I could remove most of the wall and leave the top part as is and be ok.

I think that the builder would have had to file the blueprints with the city. So looking into that is going to be on my "to do" list this year. If a general contractor looked at the blueprints, s/he should be able to tell me if what I want to do is possible or not.

The circuit panel is all that was needed. The repairman was scheduled to come yesterday between 3 and 5 pm. I was expecting him to call so that I could come home from work, discuss anything which needed discussing, and pay. He never called. I came home to a toasty 68 degree house. After turning the thermostat down to 64, I asked J if the repairman had said anything to him. He said nope, and the guy had already been gone for awhile. So, I guess I will call the office Monday and use my Visa over the phone.

Mortgage payment #6 is scheduled today, but will hit my checking account Monday I suppose. Another $258.60 to principal.

I have been thinking about my house, and what changes I would like to make if I stay here for the rest of my life. There are some positives to this, as I am just a few blocks from a bus stop (I was thinking about the possibility my mom might need to move in with me at some point, and that if she could no longer drive herself, she would like the independence of taking the bus under her own steam), a few blocks from a grocery store, and it is all on one level. I have a small kitchen in the back of the house. On the other side of one wall is a small bedroom. I have 4 bedrooms and would not miss one. I wonder how much it would cost to open up that wall and incorporate that small bedroom into my kitchen. This isn't something I would do immediately, but something I might do down the road. I would then have a lot of windows, a lot of counter space, and a lot of storage. I think it would be a nice improvement.

The plumber's bill arrived. It is $40, which I feel is very reasonable. I paid it via bill pay. (I am really enjoying not writing checks.)

The heat & air place called today. My circuit panel is in, so they will be installing it tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully, that will do the trick. I asked if they take Visa and they do, so I am going to get some reward points out of this at least.

I stopped by the library tonight. As I walked in, I thought about how much I enjoy our downtown library, and how I have taken my kids to story time and other programs, how we used to meet up with friends, how my daughter displayed several of her collections, how my kids loved to see their huge aquarium fish. Then the thought occurred to me that if I were retired, it would be a fun weekly outing for me to bike to the library, browse, and take home my choices.

I guess I must be preoccupied with planning my retirement, since these little thoughts flash in my mind from time to time.

I have been thinking a lot lately about what it will be like for me if I have to retire with a mortgage. I would prefer to retire without one, but the truth is that simply may not happen. One option I do keep in the back of my mind is a mortgage recast. Freddie Mac (owns my mortgage) allows a recast at any time. There is a $250 fee to do so. So if I have chipped away at the balance, and especially if I can afford to apply a largish lump sum, I could at least reduce my monthly mortgage payment.

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 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.

www.dullestblog.com

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 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.

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.