I applied for a new credit card yesterday. I know what you're thinking...why does someone with four credit cards already (all paid in full, only one - the Discover - used monthly and then paid in full every month) need another credit card?
For work.
I'm traveling to Seattle (my first time West of the Rockies!) in December and my company issues corporate American Express credit cards for anyone traveling. It's easier to book travel and reconcile expense reports that way. This will be my second business trip (my first in a very long time) but my first time with a corporate card.
I'm unsure how this will affect my personal credit score. I did have to give my social security number when filling out the application. I assume it will start showing up on my credit report as a new line of credit in my name? I guess I'll find out. Now I just have to remember to keep each and every receipt so I can be reimbursed for all charges and not be liable for them myself!
401k Rebound!
I was so excited today when I received my 3rd quarter 401k statement. In this economy, why in the world was I excited? Because my 401k has rebounded to its pre-collapse levels! Well, almost. I'm sure it will surpass it's highest amount shortly. And if that isn't exciting then I don't know what is! In order to really see how far I've come, I pulled my statements from the last few years. Here are my past balances:
09/2007: $101K
12/2007: $104K
03/2008: $98K
06/2008: $95K
09/2008: $84K
12/2008: $70K
03/2009: $65K
06/2009: $81K
09/2009: $97K
Less than $10K from my all time statement high value!
Plus, on October 19th my account was rebalanced (done every 3 months) and I was sent a statement just a couple days later. My balance on that date? Over $101K.
I'm back in the six figures!
That, right there, is definite cause for celebration!
More good news? Chuck's 401k has risen to $45K - it's highest balance ever that I remember seeing (past statements not dug out of the file cabinet to corroborate that claim though).
Woo-hoo!
09/2007: $101K
12/2007: $104K
03/2008: $98K
06/2008: $95K
09/2008: $84K
12/2008: $70K
03/2009: $65K
06/2009: $81K
09/2009: $97K
Less than $10K from my all time statement high value!
Plus, on October 19th my account was rebalanced (done every 3 months) and I was sent a statement just a couple days later. My balance on that date? Over $101K.
I'm back in the six figures!
That, right there, is definite cause for celebration!
More good news? Chuck's 401k has risen to $45K - it's highest balance ever that I remember seeing (past statements not dug out of the file cabinet to corroborate that claim though).
Woo-hoo!
Lending Club Update - Month 1
My first payment due for the loan I funded was received on time. Month 1 success! I only invested $25.00 which is the minimum. And although the note I funded is at a 12.18% interest rate it's going to be a while before I can withdraw that $25 from the account, especially when the monthly repayment is $0.83. This is clearly not the place to put your emergency fund. Of my $25 investment, I now have access to $0.82 (-$0.01 in service fees). But if you have extra money I can see how this would entice some people to invest in order to get higher interest (although not guaranteed) returns.
For me, for now, I'll leave my $25.00 there (I have to!) and I won't add any more to it. I need to focus right now on building the emergency fund first in a high interest savings account where I have access to the full amount whenever I need it. That has to come before anything else right now.
For me, for now, I'll leave my $25.00 there (I have to!) and I won't add any more to it. I need to focus right now on building the emergency fund first in a high interest savings account where I have access to the full amount whenever I need it. That has to come before anything else right now.
Creature of Habit Saves $480
I am a creature of habit. I don’t like change. So when DirecTV no longer aired the Versus network I shrugged my shoulders, said “oh well” and moved on. Chuck however was none too pleased. He loves that channel for its bicycle racing coverage. He’s become an avid cyclist and enjoys watching all the bike races around the world. Favorite cyclist? Lance Armstrong of course. Although we both also like Levi Leipheimer, George Hincapie and others.
Why isn’t DirecTV showing Versus anymore? Because Comcast owns the channel and wants to charge DirecTV too much to renew its contract so DirecTV said no thank you and shut its customers off from the channel.
As consumers we, of course, can respond to this. I would have done nothing (see above). Chuck was contacted by Comcast and decided to make a switch. I’ve asked him several times if he thinks this is a good idea. See resistance to change. He’s on board though and therefore so am I. We’re switching our landline, high speed internet and satellite/cable tv. Overall we’ll be saving about $40/month with this change for the first year. After the first year is over and the intro rates reset we’ll be paying close to what we are now. In essence we’ll be saving close to $500 and getting Versus back. Chuck is pleased.
I hope we don’t have any problems with Comcast or their customer service. Both Qwest (our current landline and high speed internet provider) and DirecTV have not given us any problems.
Why isn’t DirecTV showing Versus anymore? Because Comcast owns the channel and wants to charge DirecTV too much to renew its contract so DirecTV said no thank you and shut its customers off from the channel.
As consumers we, of course, can respond to this. I would have done nothing (see above). Chuck was contacted by Comcast and decided to make a switch. I’ve asked him several times if he thinks this is a good idea. See resistance to change. He’s on board though and therefore so am I. We’re switching our landline, high speed internet and satellite/cable tv. Overall we’ll be saving about $40/month with this change for the first year. After the first year is over and the intro rates reset we’ll be paying close to what we are now. In essence we’ll be saving close to $500 and getting Versus back. Chuck is pleased.
I hope we don’t have any problems with Comcast or their customer service. Both Qwest (our current landline and high speed internet provider) and DirecTV have not given us any problems.
Macy's Gift Card Arrived
I received my Macy's $25 gift card in the mail today. That was quick! The MyPoints website said it would take 2-6 weeks to receive my gift card. That took about two weeks. Can't complain about that!
I'm so excited to go shopping and get some non-hideous maternity clothes to wear. I realized when I was going through my tote of clothing retrieved from storage that a lot of my clothes are short sleeved. That's not going to get me through a Minnesota winter! And most of my long sleeve shirts are faded and pilling sweaters. That's not going to work either! I'm hoping I can borrow dress pants and jeans from my friend who had the baby in September and then invest in a couple long sleeve shirts/sweaters to get me through.
All that will wait until November though. Even with the gift card there is no extra room in the discretionary budget this month for clothing for me. I'll have to work that in to the November budget. I'm 12 weeks now so I think I have a couple more weeks before I absolutely have to wear maternity gear. It helps that I lost almost 20 pounds this year so some of my before pants have become my now pants. A couple more weeks though and I may have to retire even them.
Ultrasound last Friday showed one healthy baby. Can't ask for more than that!
I'm so excited to go shopping and get some non-hideous maternity clothes to wear. I realized when I was going through my tote of clothing retrieved from storage that a lot of my clothes are short sleeved. That's not going to get me through a Minnesota winter! And most of my long sleeve shirts are faded and pilling sweaters. That's not going to work either! I'm hoping I can borrow dress pants and jeans from my friend who had the baby in September and then invest in a couple long sleeve shirts/sweaters to get me through.
All that will wait until November though. Even with the gift card there is no extra room in the discretionary budget this month for clothing for me. I'll have to work that in to the November budget. I'm 12 weeks now so I think I have a couple more weeks before I absolutely have to wear maternity gear. It helps that I lost almost 20 pounds this year so some of my before pants have become my now pants. A couple more weeks though and I may have to retire even them.
Ultrasound last Friday showed one healthy baby. Can't ask for more than that!
2009 Goals Revisited
Now that 3/4 of the year is over, I think it's about time I reviewed our 2009 goals set last December to see how we're doing. Our goals are:
- Pay off HELOC by June 30, 2009.
- Grow emergency fund to $8K by December 31, 2009.
- Lower mortgage principal balance by $6K this year.
- We paid our HELOC off in May 2009. One month earlier than scheduled. Yay us!
- Our emergency fund is at $4,932.06 right now plus $300.40 in the basement fund (back up emergency fund if needed). That's not quite $8,000. We do have three more months this year yet to add to that amount but I don't think I'm going to make the $8,000 goal. I intend to add about $600 this month to the two accounts which will bring us to almost $6,000. I just don't think we'll be able to add $2,000 in the last two months of the year. I'll do my best though to come as close as I can. If only Chuck didn't need that emergency surgery that cost us $500. And if only I didn't have to take that 10% pay cut from May - November. That alone cut $440/month from our budget - that alone took over $3000 from our take home pay this year. Ouch! Hey, maybe we're doing all right with this goal considering that last bit of information. With that $3,000 that I was expecting to have when I made this goal last December we would have been able to make the $8,000 goal. Not too shabby after all! Now, to see how close we can come anyway...
- Right now we've lowered our mortgage principal by $4992 this year looking at the January - September statements. There are 3 months left to count for this year so when all is said and done, we will have lowered our mortgage principal by over $6,700! That's because we've been paying over $200 extra to our mortgage each month this whole year. Yay us!
First MyPoints Reward
I decided yesterday it was time to redeem some of my MyPoints points. I had almost 3400. It was a bit of a whim but I went looking to see if they had any gift cards for stores that carry maternity clothes. Yes, I have clothes from my last two pregnancies but well, having been worn twice in some cases, they are really worn out. And of course some of them I can't stand to see again. I do have a friend who just had a baby in September that I can borrow some clothes from however although we're the same height I have longer legs and she a longer torso plus she started out about 25 pounds heavier than I did. I'm not sure her clothes will work for me.
And I don't want to spend much if any money on maternity clothes. Call me cheap but this is my last pregnancy (99% sure about that one) so I don't want to spend money on clothes I won't get any use out of again. Sure, I'll get use out of them for six months or thereabouts so it's not like any money spent would be completely wasted.
Anyway, I decided on a $25 gift card to Macy's. They did have Motherhood Maternity gift card but that would have "cost" me an additional 200 points for the same dollar amount. And Motherhood and Macy's carry the exact same clothing so Macy's won out. I'll be excited to go spend it when it arrives in the mail!
And maybe then I'll actually have some professional work clothes I can wear to work again without having to hide in my lab coat every day!
And I don't want to spend much if any money on maternity clothes. Call me cheap but this is my last pregnancy (99% sure about that one) so I don't want to spend money on clothes I won't get any use out of again. Sure, I'll get use out of them for six months or thereabouts so it's not like any money spent would be completely wasted.
Anyway, I decided on a $25 gift card to Macy's. They did have Motherhood Maternity gift card but that would have "cost" me an additional 200 points for the same dollar amount. And Motherhood and Macy's carry the exact same clothing so Macy's won out. I'll be excited to go spend it when it arrives in the mail!
And maybe then I'll actually have some professional work clothes I can wear to work again without having to hide in my lab coat every day!
September Actuals
I haven't posted an actual budget of ours in ages, maybe never. But I'm thinking I might start doing this, if only to keep myself accountable. It's easy to go over budget in one category or another when there's money in the checking account. It's easy to spend that money and not think about the long term or short term goals we've set for ourselves. It's also easy to see where all our money went when I take a look at the monthly budget. I can't believe how many one-time or periodic expenses show up in this month. Here's how we did:
We ended up with $316.27 "extra" at the end of the month. Usually I sweep any extra into our emergency fund but with our beginning of the month cash flow problems, I'm just going to leave this in our checking account as a buffer. We did pretty well this month! Our discretionary spending was way down. We usually blow this budget. It's kind of a catch all for expenses - oil changes, clothes, doctor co-pays, stamps and any other miscellaneous shopping.
I'll post another report in early November so we can see how we did for October. So far, the household budget has already spent $80 of it's $175 budget! We needed diapers and wipes (and other non-necessary items!) though and that's where that money goes. Everything else is going according to plan so far!
We ended up with $316.27 "extra" at the end of the month. Usually I sweep any extra into our emergency fund but with our beginning of the month cash flow problems, I'm just going to leave this in our checking account as a buffer. We did pretty well this month! Our discretionary spending was way down. We usually blow this budget. It's kind of a catch all for expenses - oil changes, clothes, doctor co-pays, stamps and any other miscellaneous shopping.
I'll post another report in early November so we can see how we did for October. So far, the household budget has already spent $80 of it's $175 budget! We needed diapers and wipes (and other non-necessary items!) though and that's where that money goes. Everything else is going according to plan so far!
September 2009 Month End
End of the third quarter. 75% complete. This year has flown by! And it's time to take stock of another month end. We did pretty well this month, coming in under our total budget by a couple hundred dollars. I'll break that down for you in another post. Let's do the ol' month end report first, OK?
Debts:
Truck Loan: $31.683.60 (+/- $0.00) - Nothing yet. Our first payment is due October 6th and that check is in the mail. That'll take a big chunk of our monthly budget.
Savings:
Emergency Fund: $4,932.06 (+232.74) - Up is good. We saved some this month and that is good. I always have hopes for more but September is just an expensive month for us. I'm hoping to save a bit more than this in October, even with Chuck's doctor bills due.
Short Term Savings: $183.88 (+50.00) - This account is inching its way up again. We'll get it to $250 and grow it from there. $250 is the new minimum amount we'll have in this account just in case we get hit by the ol' math problems again and bare bones our checking account. I'm also leaving the budget surplus from this month in the checking account too so we should have an "unseen" cushion in there as well.
Travel Fund: $123.60 (+50.10) - Another bump up for the travel fund. We won't be doing much traveling in the short term and we don't have our emergency fund fully funded yet so this account will continue to see modest increases each month.
Christmas Savings: $383.47 (+50.37) - Finally a little bit of action for this long ignored account. I'm budgeting to put $300 in to this account in October so we should have Christmas pretty much saved for with that addition. I'll probably put $100/month into it in November and December and that will take care of it. Another Christmas with cash. Gotta love that!
Basement Finishing Fund: $300.40 (+100.27) - This account is growing nicely too. I think of this as my back up emergency fund for now until the emergency fund is fully funded since if we had to drain the emergency fund then this is where I'd come next if more cash was needed. After we're done with the emergency fund I'll truly think of this as basement money.
Another month in the books. Pretty good all around.
And now for some exciting news!! Chuck and I are expecting our third baby May 2nd, 2010! I just had my first doctor appointment this week and was able to hear the heartbeat. We're pretty excited. Of course this has financial ramifications as well so watch for posts in the future on that!
Debts:
Truck Loan: $31.683.60 (+/- $0.00) - Nothing yet. Our first payment is due October 6th and that check is in the mail. That'll take a big chunk of our monthly budget.
Savings:
Emergency Fund: $4,932.06 (+232.74) - Up is good. We saved some this month and that is good. I always have hopes for more but September is just an expensive month for us. I'm hoping to save a bit more than this in October, even with Chuck's doctor bills due.
Short Term Savings: $183.88 (+50.00) - This account is inching its way up again. We'll get it to $250 and grow it from there. $250 is the new minimum amount we'll have in this account just in case we get hit by the ol' math problems again and bare bones our checking account. I'm also leaving the budget surplus from this month in the checking account too so we should have an "unseen" cushion in there as well.
Travel Fund: $123.60 (+50.10) - Another bump up for the travel fund. We won't be doing much traveling in the short term and we don't have our emergency fund fully funded yet so this account will continue to see modest increases each month.
Christmas Savings: $383.47 (+50.37) - Finally a little bit of action for this long ignored account. I'm budgeting to put $300 in to this account in October so we should have Christmas pretty much saved for with that addition. I'll probably put $100/month into it in November and December and that will take care of it. Another Christmas with cash. Gotta love that!
Basement Finishing Fund: $300.40 (+100.27) - This account is growing nicely too. I think of this as my back up emergency fund for now until the emergency fund is fully funded since if we had to drain the emergency fund then this is where I'd come next if more cash was needed. After we're done with the emergency fund I'll truly think of this as basement money.
Another month in the books. Pretty good all around.
And now for some exciting news!! Chuck and I are expecting our third baby May 2nd, 2010! I just had my first doctor appointment this week and was able to hear the heartbeat. We're pretty excited. Of course this has financial ramifications as well so watch for posts in the future on that!
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