Financial Update -- May 2011

A little financial update for everyone since I just got around to moving some money here and there. 

Hubby got paid today (a bit early because of the holiday on Monday) so I decided to get the ball rolling on some transfers. 

Some of the money I already had set aside and the rest was added with this paycheck.

• Transferred $450.00 to our mortgage savings for 1/2 of the monthly mortgage payment (it's actually more than 1/2 our regular payment, but I like to have the account padded a little in case homeowner's insurance or property taxes go up)
• Transferred $501.07 to our credit card
• Transferred $240.82 to my college loan savings (loans not due until end of 2011/beginning of 2012, but starting to make "payments" to get a head start)
• Transferred $501.08 to our emergency fund
• Transferred $534.00 to our vacation savings (have to keep up with it if we want to go to Italy next year)
• Transferred $50.00 into my IRA (automatically deducted every month)

All of our bills are paid until the middle of June.  The emergency fund is almost back to the pre-layoff amount, which we'll finish next month.

Old and New 401Ks

We just got my husband's new 401K set up with his new job.  And surprise, surprise!  We found $2,753.34 already in it!  I love finding money!

This is what happened:

He worked for "Company M" many years ago, which was bought out by "Company B", who he now works for, after he left "Company M".  In between these two companies was "Company BC" and "Company O", both of whom laid him off, but that's not really important right now.

Confusing...I know.  Just stick with me here! 

Since he wasn't fully vested in his "Company M" 401K, we lost a large chunk of cash when we rolled it over into an IRA.  But now that he works for "Company B" and it's been less than 7 years since working with "Company M", the amount he forfeited has been reinstated! 

Make sense?

So we set up his "Company B" 401K to have the same 10% contributed every paycheck that we've been comfortable with.  No reason to lower it now even if he is making $1,000 less a year than his last job.  Besides you can make so much more in free savings by contributing to a 401K! 

"Company B" matches 100% of the first 4% of our contribution.  Plus with 401K contributions being a pre-tax deduction, we're really only "losing" half of what we're contributing from our paycheck due to tax savings (known thanks to their handy calculator).  Lots of free money!!!!! 

I still can't understand why people don't contribute at least up to the matched amount each pay period, but that discussion is for another time!

We also requested a rollover check made out to hubby's IRA from his "Company O" 401K.  So that will be closed out and one less 401K to keep track of.

This is what we have to keep track of right now:

• "Company BC" 401K -- We had this closed out and transferred to his IRA, but I guess they felt guilty for laying him off before Christmas and gave him a little extra.  The amount vested is a bit small so we're leaving it in for now.  "Company B" also does business with the same 401K management company so we'll see if there is a way to combine them later.
• "Company B" 401K -- His first contribution should hopefully be coming out of his next paycheck.
• Hubby's IRA -- We use this as a dumping ground for all old 401K accounts.  "Company O" will be the third old 401K we've put funds in there from.
• "Company B" Pension -- This is my pension from when I worked at "Company B" many, many, many years ago.  Yes, it truly is a small world!
• My IRA -- Also a dumping ground for old 401K accounts, but I've only put one in there so far and since I don't currently work, I have a small amount automatically contributed every month.

Overall, it's not too bad!  The total assets in our investment accounts is currently at $75,353.76, which is pretty good considering I'm only in my late 30's and my husband is in his late 40's. 

I'll be going back to work at some point and so contributing once again.  Plus hubby will be contributing his 10% + company match.  At some point in time when we retire we'll be left with the two IRA accounts.

How are you saving for retirement?

Project Savings/Payoff

As I mentioned in my last post, I put together a spreadsheet listing our debts, a quickie budget, grocery expenses, and a debt payoff plan.  It is in no way a done deal because I'm working on preliminary income figures. 

Also, I used the minimum payoff amount available so the payoff dates may be better than the spreadsheet indicates.  As a matter of fact, I've already knocked off 1 month from my entire savings/payoff plan! 

We started out owing $177,273.30 (credit card, student loans, heloc, and mortgage) and we need to re-save $1,097.22 of our emergency fund.  We are on track for the emergency fund and should have that completed by the middle of April.  We had some extra money come in that we didn't need so I put it towards the credit card lowering our total owed to about $177,023.70 (it's actually less, but I rounded the credit card up for minor use).

My plan is to re-save the emergency fund first, then move on to the credit card.  That should take us through October 2011.  I'm starting out with $697.48 per month as the extra debt payoff.

My student loans do not become due until November so I'll be saving up the payment through the summer.  By the time they are due, I should be able to pay off the smallest 2 of the 8 student loans.  I'll consolidate the remaining 6 loans and that total should be paid off by July 2013 depending on the monthly payment.  I calculated the payment to be about $240.82 per month, then added in the extra $697.48 for a total monthly payment of $938.30.  The original monthly payment could be more or less and that could change how long it takes to pay it off. 

The next item on my payoff plan is the heloc.  That's where I've reduced the payoff time by one month with a complete payoff by July 2016.  This may depend on some other things we could be doing with our house and mortgage so we'll have to see how that goes to determine how the heloc payoff will really go.  But for now I will continue to pay an additional $190 a month, which reduces the amount by $5,510, then in July 2013 I will add the $938.30 extra I've been using towards the other debts to pay this one down for a total of $1128.30 per month. 

The mortgage is part of the total balance, but is not on the payoff plan as yet.  We have to wait and see how that will work out with our other plan that I'll talk about another day.

The other variables in this plan are my husband's income, any income I may make, the extra money showing in my budget, and other incidentals.  Right now I'm working with what I think we will be getting from my husband's income.  So far we've only received one 1/2 check with the w-4 showing single, zero.  The next check will include a completed w-4, but no deductions other than taxes.  By May we should have a normal check with insurance, 401K deductions, and taxes taken out.  That will be when I can finalize things a bit more.

I may start substituting next school year, which could bring in some extra money to go towards our debt payoff.  Since I don't know how many days I'll be working, or whether the school district will still be accepting new substitutes, I haven't included this into the payoff plan yet.

I also have $704.23 left over after my quickie budget plan.  I've subtracted out bills, savings, groceries, and extra debt payoff.  The rest is what we will use for all the other things we buy, need, want, use, etc.  Any thing left over by the next month will go to pay down the debt even more.  I don't want to say it's our spending money because I bet we usually won't use that much extra in a month.  Only if we have some sort of extra expense.  So I expect most of it will go towards debt.

Any number of things could happen to mess up my plan...or make it better!  Those are my incidentals.  Couldn't say what they'll be yet, but I can guarantee something will show up one way or another!

End of Month--October 2008

Wow!  Another month gone.  The holidays are coming up so fast!

I am amazed with the current gas prices!  Hubby stopped for gas the other day even though he wasn't totally empty yet because he saw it for $2.299!  It cost him $36 to fill up!  Let's hope the prices stay this low or lower.  At least for a little while!

I've updated the sidebar.  Not much to really update, but I did it.  I also updated the NetWorthIQ for October.

We finally ordered the tires for my husband's truck.  They were really needed.  I saved and transferred the money to the credit card and then used it to pay for the tires.  They should be here in a day or two, then we'll make an appointment to have them mounted.  The total cost for four tires was $675!  Ouch!  But it is a worthwhile expense.  His safety is more important than money.  We researched the tires on tirerack.com and were very pleased with the reviews.  These tires should last a lot longer than the ones that came with the truck.  

Other typical end of month tasks:

• I transferred $45.59 from my round up fund to my emergency fund
• I transferred my VA benefit to my emergency fund
• I added any interest given at the end of the month.  We earned $9.22 this month in the emergency fund!  

I also figured out that I should be at $5,000 in my emergency fund in 9 months or less.  If you remember that was the original amount I wanted to save, then I upped it to $10,000.  I'll just be happy to make it to the halfway point because that's where we were before my husband was out of work for 2 1/2 months last year.  It will make me a lot more comfortable knowing we have that money to pay the bills just in case.

I also paid two bills for next month in advance.  Well, I used billpay and set the date for after the next pay period.  At least I don't have to worry about paying them.  The first was a $65 cell phone bill (2 cell phones--family plan) and the second was our electric bill of $159, which just keeps going up no matter how many times I turn things off.  I think it may be because we are on the budget plan though.

How does your electric bill compare?  Do you find it always going up?  Or have you found a way to keep your electric costs low?  I cannot wait until we are debt free so we can afford to put in a solar system!  It is one of the first things I want to do!

Finally...

I have never been so happy to see a pay period get here!  OK...that's not exactly true because all pay periods are good...more money always helps!  But this time with DH's mistake I was really looking forward to this one.  

And there are NO BILLS due for these next 2 weeks!  I can really put some money aside for DH's tires and hopefully he'll be able to get them really soon!  I've already replaced all the money I've "borrowed" from the other accounts.  Plus the normal transfer of $442.60 into the savings account for our mortgage payment.  

Getting into the routine of transferring 1/2 the mortgage payment every two weeks into the savings account it automatically gets pulled from was a great idea!  The mortgage is the first thing I "pay" every pay period.  I have never made a late payment or missed a payment!  And I know the money is always in the account when it's time for it to come out.

I don't expect to have any problems paying my bills, but if I did I would pay my mortgage and heloc first because I would never want to lose my home.  Second, I would make the truck payment because DH needs to get to and from work (though if we were really that bad off we would probably sell the truck and get a cheap, reliable vehicle--unless it was already paid off).  Lastly, I would pay the credit card.  Of course mixed in all that would be buying food, prescriptions, and paying for utilities.  Those would also be before the credit card.  

Of course all of this really doesn't matter if you plan well.  That's why we have an emergency fund.  If DH loses his job we don't have to make decisions on what to pay and what to not pay.  

And someday our plan is to not ever worry about it at all!  Our plan to payoff all our debt including our mortgage is a long term one for now, but once I can go back to work that will turn into a short term plan.  

• Everything I make will go towards debt!  
• Anything over what we've been currently living on from DH's paycheck will go towards savings.  

Right now it's just send whatever we can to pay down or off our debt.  Living below our means definitely helps though we don't deny ourselves either.  I have 2 more years (Spring, Summer, and Fall terms) of college to complete my B.S. degree along with my double minor and 3 certificates.  Once that is done I'll volunteer for a few years to get my foot in the door of my new career and still be available for my youngest son, who will still be in elementary school.  I'll be able to get a job again when he gets into middle school (my oldest will be in high school by then).

I can't wait to see how fast the debt disappears once I'm working again!  I almost want to see about getting a job sooner because of it, but I know I have to concentrate on my schooling and children first. Though if the right opportunity came along that still allowed me to do all the things I do with my boys, then I would consider it.

September Update

I finally got around to taking care of end of month activities.  Phew!  This year is just flying by!

I've updated my sidebar including NetWorth IQ.  Did you notice the truck payment?  I'm now under $7,000!  My last two payments have posted and the remaining balance is at $6,697.32!  I AM SO EXCITED!!!!  Sorry for screaming, but I just cannot contain myself.

My emergency fund is trickling along, but at least it's moving up.  It's now at $3,273.04 and I earned a whopping $8.65 in interest last month!  This is the most I've ever made in interest.

I earned a measly $0.29 interest in my checking account, which I promptly put in my round up fund, and $0.71 interest in my "mortgage" savings account.

I've already paid most of my bills for this month.  The credit card, cell phones, water/sewer/garbage, and the electric bill (which was horribly high for us at $153 and some change) have now been paid.  I only have two bills left for the month--other than the mortgage, which is automatically taken out in a couple of days.

I seriously need to go through our food and set up a menu plan so I can use all the food we have efficiently.  I know I'll be running out of a few items soon, but for the most part we have a lot of food to eat if I would only start writing it down!  That will help me save money on running out for food I don't really need yet.

Doctor/Dentist Bills, Red Cross, End of Month

I received a bill from one of my doctor's for an appointment I went to in December.  I've actually had 2 other appointments since that appointment, but for some reason they messed this one all up by putting in the claim 3 times!  Pretty unorganized of them!  So now I have to fit in a payment of $125.32 to them.  I'll take care of that this weekend and get it out in the mail on Tuesday.

I've also received some more of the claim forms for my boys' dentist appointments.  So far it looks like I'll owe them $209.30 at least until I get the last claim form.  I underpaid on a couple of appointments and overpaid on one.  This is not as big as a deal because I was pretty much expecting it.  Plus the dentist office has not sent me a bill as yet either.  So we'll wait and see on that one, but I'll probably go in as soon as I've received the last claim form and settle up with them.

On the sidebar you'll notice a banner for the American Red Cross.  They are one of the few organizations that I support and believe in.  I do not in any way receive money or endorsement from the Red Cross for placing the banner on my blog.  

Since today is the last day of the month I'll probably be closing everything out.  It looks like I'll have $38.17 to transfer over to my emergency fund (other than the normal $117) from my round up fund from the checking account.

These are the final month end numbers:

Groceries: $379.07

Dining Out: $249.53

Gas: $540.41

DH's Work Lunches: $108.06

I'm not sure if I've missed anything.  The progression bars will be updated in a week or so when the mortgage, truck payments, and emergency savings are shown to be updated in their systems so I can get exact numbers.  Though I believe the emergency fund will be above $3,000 and the truck loan will maybe be close to $7,000.

2-Week Pay Period: July 31, 2008 and End of Month

It isn't often that both the end of a 2-week pay period and the end of the month coincide.  This was also the end of a 3-check month.

End of 2-Week:

• The first thing I decided to do is to redirect my extra 1/2 mortgage payment transfer amount of $442.60 to my new extra loan payoff savings.  I just don't really need it for the mortgage so I figure it'll do me more good paying off some debt.  So along with some additional funds I managed to move over there, I was able to make two additional payments on the truck loan.  So this month I've made payments for August, September, and October.  And I still have $90.03 left in the extra loan payoff savings.  When it reaches another payment, then I'll send it in as an additional payment.
  

• I paid $100 for my August credit card payment.  I only owed $19.00, but I'm used to paying extra.  Besides I've had to use it more often lately because of the boys' dentist appointments.  
  

• I scheduled our cell phone bill for August in the amount of $63.75 (that's for two phones).
  

• I paid $99.91 on a doctor's bill for what was left after copay and insurance.
• I transferred the blow money for my husband and me; and the allowance for the boys.
  

End of Month:

• Groceries: $213.59
• Dining out: $184.31
• Husband's Work Lunches: $138.10 (can you tell bringing his lunch to work isn't working?)
• Gas: $570.21 (it's going down!)
• Prescriptions: $8.20
• Dental: $313.70

All our bills are now paid through the next pay period due on August 14th.  I may still need to update some of the numbers in the sidebar later because:

1. the mortgage payment hasn't gone through yet and I like to see the exact loan amount remaining after the payment.
2. interest in the savings accounts are not showing yet.
3. I always check the truck loan after the checks have cleared as the total amount due is usually lower (I tend to overestimate the interest and underestimate the principal).

I believe that about covers this last 2-weeks and last month.  Let's hope August is a good one!

2-Week Pay Period: July 3, 2008

I'm a little behind due to some school work (I'm happy to say I received a 96% on my test yesterday) and I still have more to do (another test today and two papers due Monday).  So let's see if we can make this a bit quick today.

Because of the holiday (Happy Independence Day!) my husband got paid a day early!  YAY!  That helped out tremendously because I was in real need of groceries with the boys home for the summer eating everything!

This is what I did:

• Transferred $442.60 into savings account for 1/2 mortgage payment
• Transferred remaining $43.00 ($8.60 each) into 5 virtual savings accounts (set up in my Quicken program): Auto Purchase, Christmas, Home Improvement, Investment Property, Vacation.
• Transferred the boys' allowances ($6 and $2) and our blow money ($25 each) into virtual accounts.
• Transferred $100.00 into virtual Auto Insurance savings account to prepare for January payment.
• Paid bills due prior to next payday: $100 to credit card (already set up), $62.53 to cell phones (already set up), $14.93 to medical bill, $300 to heloc payment (interest and principal).
• Got my husband's medicine refill: $5.48
• Bought $111.17 worth of groceries.

We now have about $467.00 left to last until the next payday on July 17th.  That's not bad considering we won't be going anywhere today or this weekend.  I estimate over the next two weeks my husband will spend about $195 in gas and about $56 in food.  I expect he'll actually spend less.  This leaves us with $216.00 for any other incidentals that may pop up over the next two weeks.

June Numbers

Yeah June is over!  That took a while!

You'll notice some updates on the sidebar:  

My net worth went down.  I expect this will happen quite a bit over the next few years due to different reasons.  Right now the stock market is going lower and that is messing with my retirement savings.  I also had slightly less in cash at the end of this month.  And my debt went up due to using my credit card and the payment goes through later this month.  Later my net worth will go way down because of more student loans, but they will pay down the credit card further to take care of college payments already made.

My emergency fund went up.  I earned $7.15 in interest this month!  My new savings total is $2, 776.26.

Our June spending totals look like this: 

Gas: $594.18 (We stayed under $600 this month!  Amazing!)

Dining: $232.31 (We've gone a little overboard on eating out lately.)

Groceries: $260.36 (Not bad numbers for groceries.  Of course, we've been doing more eating out.  I'll probably do another stock up this month.)

Prescriptions: $96.45 (Like I said in my mid-month post June seems to be a big month for prescriptions.)

Work Lunches (Hubby's only): $120.33 (This has been about average for him.)

Medical: $25.00 (This was an expected expense, but I will probably get a bill for this month for anything my insurance doesn't cover since it's for a specialist.)

Bill Taken Out Early

Grrrr (I seem to be doing that a lot lately) Dish Network took out their payment a day early, which messed up my 2-week plan a little.  I ended up transferring money back into the checking from my Miscellaneous Savings, Auto Insurance Savings, and Auto Purchase Savings.

I guess if I want to look on the positive side, then that's one less bill taken out of the check tomorrow!

May Numbers

Here are some numbers for May now that the month is over:

Savings--

• From our credit union we got a whopping $0.24 interest in our checking account and $0.82 interest in our savings account.  Woohoo...$1.06!!!!  Do you hear the sarcasm?  
• In our online savings account we got $6.59 in interest.  That really is a BIG woohoo!
• My VA benefit is scheduled to be transferred into our online savings account
• I've scheduled for $33.99 from our round up from checking fund to be transferred into our online savings account.  This is down from the April amount of $42.11, but my theory is that it also means we spent less.

Spending--

• Gas--$651.20 (I was really surprised this is still in the $600 range)
• Groceries--$423.40 (This comes out to $105.85 per week for a family of 4--not too bad)
• Dining Out--$147.85 (This is about $36.96 per week in dining out)
• Dining: Work Lunches (hubby)--$109.29 (This is better than April.  I'm hoping it will go down with him taking lunch to work a couple of days per week)

End of 2-week Pay Period

Another end to another 2-week pay period.  I had a whole dollar left in our checking account!  It has now been divided up into different savings categories.

On another note, my grant money has gone through and paid my college tuition for the summer.  I'm now waiting for the remainder to be deposited in my account so I can pay that extra on the credit card.

Changes to Progression Bars

You may have noticed some changes to my progression bars...or not.  

I have decided to change my emergency fund bar directly to $10,000 instead of saving $5,000, then adding another $5,000 later.  Really, what is the point?  $10,000 is $10,000 and that is what I need to save for about 3 months worth of emergency funds.  I would eventually like 6 months worth, but 3 months is more than enough for now.

All this talk about rolling over my 401K and Pension had me thinking about them.  And so I added a retirement progression bar.  I would love to be able to save up to $1,000,000 combined with my husband.  Right now we are only at $49,723.11, which is only 4.9% of our ultimate goal.  We sure do have a long way to go!  But I am sure we can do it.  If not now, then we will catch up when I start contributing again.  Of course the big issue with saving this money is time and my husband has less time to save than I do since he is 9 years older than me.  I'm in my 30s and he is in his 40s, but we still have potentially over 20 years left to save. 

Fed cuts rates again

Well, the Fed cut the rates again.  This is very good for my HELOC, but very bad for my savings.  I see a rate drop on my online emergency fund coming soon.

Debt Ticker and Stuff

Here are some things about our finances:

• The Debt Ticker total on the left includes about: $2,700 on one credit card with a fixed 7.9% rate; $8,400 on a truck loan with a fixed 5.99% rate; $46,000 on the HELOC (Home Equity Line of Credit) at a 7.25% variable rate, which I believe is down around 6-6.5% now; and $110,600 on our mortgage at a fixed 5.75% rate.

• Our retirement accounts are all over the place right now, but we are working on consolidating them.  My husband has two 401K's.  One from his old job that we are in the process of rolling over and one from his current job.  In total his retirement fund is at about $19,000.  I quit working in Aug 2004, but I kept my 401K and Pension with the company because they were doing so well.  I have been thinking about opening up an IRA to be able to continue contributing and to rollover my current plans so it will all be in one place and less to take care of.  I'm in the process of researching different companies to possibly go with.  My 401K currently has about $21,300 and my Pension has about $8,700.  I am fully vested in both plans.

• Emergency Funds:  We did have about $5,000, but then my husband was forced to leave his job last summer and was out of work for 5 1/2 weeks.  Thank goodness for the emergency fund!  Currently we are in the process of building that back up.  I am doing this in a couple of ways.  The first is by rounding up all my purchases to the nearest dollar.  I use Quicken and have a separate category that I move these funds into.  At the end of each month I transfer the amount to my online savings account.  The second way is by having my VA Disability payments automatically transferred into the online savings account each month.  We use FNBO Direct for our online account.  I have been very pleased with it so far.  The rates have gone down, but unfortunately so have all the other banks' rates.  Right now their savings rate is at 3.25%.  We currently have about $2,300 and my goal is to start out with $5,000.  Once I hit the $5,000, then I'll work on another $5,000.

• Other Savings:  We have another savings account, but we don't keep a lot of money in it.  This one is at our credit union and only earns 1% interest.  So I only use it for my automatic mortgage payment.  Every pay period I transfer half of the mortgage payment into it.  On months with three pay periods, I transfer half three times and create a buffer in case my escrows go up, which will change my payment.

• Net Worth:  According to my Quicken program, our net worth is at $142,104.97.  I would love to get that to $1,000,000, but it will be a while before we get there.  I also haven't updated the value of our vehicles (one paid off and one not) or our house lately so that may effect the outcome of that as well.

That should give you a little background on our current finances.  I'll try to get some tickers on the left soon to keep track of this information.