Paying off debt is arduous. I tend to be a "grab life by the horns" kinda gal and once I make a decision to do something, I do it. That's not to say I'm impulsive, because I'm not. I'll run through a decision six ways to Tuesday before I finally reach a conclusion... but once the decision is reached my focus switches 100% to implementation.
I want to be debt free now. I made the decision years ago that I didn't want to live with consumer debt hanging over my head. So the credit cards were paid off. It wasn't easy, nor was it anywhere near as quick as I wanted it to be. The car loans followed. Although that was an aspect of consumer debt that I did realize would probably come back to bite me again, at least once... after all, I knew that no matter how hard I tried I wasn't going to be able to save enough to pay for a car in full before the cars we'd just paid off died.
But we are limping along Mike's GrandAm as long as we can before we end up in the land of two car payments again. My goal is to have my Saturn paid off early. It's a 48 month loan. There is no way the GA will last another 3.5 years... it probably won't even last three. But if we can get a full year of payments in on the Saturn, and keep setting aside $50 a month towards the downpayment for Mike's next car, we'll be in a better position than we have been in our past vehicle purchases. I'll never finance a car more than 48 months again. 4 years is a long time, but what I've realized is that we tend to drive a car into the dirt within 6 to 7 years. When it hits 200K miles, it starts getting more expensive to maintain than it does to pay a monthly car payment.
Back on topic.... I want to be debt free. Unfortunately, this is not instantaneous the way I'd like. So for now, I just keep reminding myself that I am keeping the pace... slow and steady will win this race against debt.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Friday, November 2, 2007
Been slacking...
I haven't had much to say lately. Nothing has really irked me enough to feel the need to castigate some unmentionable person or situation on this blog. I'm still out here, just treading water, keeping on with the bill paying and all that jazz.
Mike and I are actively trying to get pregnant. So far this has consisted of going off birth control, and making love more often (this part is kind of fun... who'd have figured?) Not too stressed about it. It will happen when it happens. That will set our financial life on its backside though, so I'm sure there will plenty to say about this when we do get the deed accomplished.
I had an interview for a part time job teaching as an adjunct at a local college. The pay isn't bad, although it could definitely be better. I'm sort of hoping I get the job. It would be an extra $825 before tax for each class. A class runs four weeks. They said they have problems keeping faculty because they can't guarantee them a class to teach each month... this is perfect for me. I can work a month, get the extra money, then take a month off. The plan if I get this job is to save 50% of the money for my maternity leave and put the remainder towards my student loans.... although if I get pregnant sooner rather than later, I'd probably put 100% towards maternity leave savings (after all, I'll still have to make the loan payments when I'm off work for 12 weeks in the future.)
Mike and I are actively trying to get pregnant. So far this has consisted of going off birth control, and making love more often (this part is kind of fun... who'd have figured?) Not too stressed about it. It will happen when it happens. That will set our financial life on its backside though, so I'm sure there will plenty to say about this when we do get the deed accomplished.
I had an interview for a part time job teaching as an adjunct at a local college. The pay isn't bad, although it could definitely be better. I'm sort of hoping I get the job. It would be an extra $825 before tax for each class. A class runs four weeks. They said they have problems keeping faculty because they can't guarantee them a class to teach each month... this is perfect for me. I can work a month, get the extra money, then take a month off. The plan if I get this job is to save 50% of the money for my maternity leave and put the remainder towards my student loans.... although if I get pregnant sooner rather than later, I'd probably put 100% towards maternity leave savings (after all, I'll still have to make the loan payments when I'm off work for 12 weeks in the future.)
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Derailed on the 2007 Goals
I set my 2007 goals in July as a monthly challenge for the WIRR message board. I think I was overly ambitious. I just don't feel like I'm going to get them accomplished. I just don't make enough money to "git r done".
However, I'm not completely off track (more likely I was thrown onto an old unused side track collecting rust and tumbleweeds in the rail yard of my financial life.) A couple of my goals should be met by year end, just not all.
I started paying my parents back for the money I borrowed to apply for law school back in 2003. Granted, I'm only paying them $10 a month, but I finally realized that paying $0 every month meant the debt didn't get any smaller. Plus I coerced my mom into depositing the checks into our joint checking that we've had since I started college that I don't have checks for any more and would really have to put some effort into accessing. When the full debt has been paid, she'll move it to their account. That way my father doesn't start flipping out over the fact that the money is getting repaid so slowly [nevermind that it's interest-free and that they didn't ask me to start paying it yet... once he remembers I owe him money, I'll never hear the end of it.]
I may get Law Loan#2 under 10K as planned... this one is questionable, but still within the realm of possibility. I've been steadily throwing 1/3 of each bonus I get towards repayment on this. However, an extra $30 here and there only goes so far when the interest eats up $20 of the payment. But the more I knock off the principal, the further the regular monthly payments seem to stretch, so I might, with a lot of luck and few more bonus checks, meet this goal.
Absolutely off track on maxing out my Roth for the year. I just can't afford to put in the over $300 a month I would need to contribute to get this done. I am still making my $100 of contributions every month, which over a year would get me to $1200... leaving me pretty short of the $4000 needed to meet this goal. I have been diligently putting 1/3 of every bonus check into this account as well, but so far that has added up to just over an extra $100. I think that unless I get a sizable Christmas bonus, I'm not going to accomplish this task. However, when all is said and done, I'll still have more saved for retirement than I did when the year started, so it's been worth the effort.
I may need to revise the plan to max out my traditional IRA in 2008 as well... I will run into the same problem on that as I did this year. I just don't make enough money to put that much aside for retirement.
However, I'm not completely off track (more likely I was thrown onto an old unused side track collecting rust and tumbleweeds in the rail yard of my financial life.) A couple of my goals should be met by year end, just not all.
I started paying my parents back for the money I borrowed to apply for law school back in 2003. Granted, I'm only paying them $10 a month, but I finally realized that paying $0 every month meant the debt didn't get any smaller. Plus I coerced my mom into depositing the checks into our joint checking that we've had since I started college that I don't have checks for any more and would really have to put some effort into accessing. When the full debt has been paid, she'll move it to their account. That way my father doesn't start flipping out over the fact that the money is getting repaid so slowly [nevermind that it's interest-free and that they didn't ask me to start paying it yet... once he remembers I owe him money, I'll never hear the end of it.]
I may get Law Loan#2 under 10K as planned... this one is questionable, but still within the realm of possibility. I've been steadily throwing 1/3 of each bonus I get towards repayment on this. However, an extra $30 here and there only goes so far when the interest eats up $20 of the payment. But the more I knock off the principal, the further the regular monthly payments seem to stretch, so I might, with a lot of luck and few more bonus checks, meet this goal.
Absolutely off track on maxing out my Roth for the year. I just can't afford to put in the over $300 a month I would need to contribute to get this done. I am still making my $100 of contributions every month, which over a year would get me to $1200... leaving me pretty short of the $4000 needed to meet this goal. I have been diligently putting 1/3 of every bonus check into this account as well, but so far that has added up to just over an extra $100. I think that unless I get a sizable Christmas bonus, I'm not going to accomplish this task. However, when all is said and done, I'll still have more saved for retirement than I did when the year started, so it's been worth the effort.
I may need to revise the plan to max out my traditional IRA in 2008 as well... I will run into the same problem on that as I did this year. I just don't make enough money to put that much aside for retirement.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Feeling my own mortality...
I have to go to the funeral of a friend's husband later this week. He was only 33. It was sudden and very unexpected.
Bow season opened over the weekend. You guessed it... hunting accident. So Friday night, he was alive. Saturday night, he wasn't. Makes me glad we did take care of our wills early last month. This incident just reinforced how short life can really be.
Tasha now has to deal with not only burying her husband, but also all the crap that comes along after. Probate. Yuck. I've done a couple estates for work. Not fun, and probably even worse when it was an unexpected death - all the families I've dealt with to this point have been the children of elderly parents... when the deceased was 90, it wasn't a big shock for them to pass away. I feel bad that I have to be two hours away while she deals with all this. At least her family is there for her to lean on.
Bow season opened over the weekend. You guessed it... hunting accident. So Friday night, he was alive. Saturday night, he wasn't. Makes me glad we did take care of our wills early last month. This incident just reinforced how short life can really be.
Tasha now has to deal with not only burying her husband, but also all the crap that comes along after. Probate. Yuck. I've done a couple estates for work. Not fun, and probably even worse when it was an unexpected death - all the families I've dealt with to this point have been the children of elderly parents... when the deceased was 90, it wasn't a big shock for them to pass away. I feel bad that I have to be two hours away while she deals with all this. At least her family is there for her to lean on.
Missed the Bounce?
I know the market is back up again. The DOW hit another record high. So what I want to know is where is my rebound? Looking at my portfolio, it's just not there, or at least it wasn't as of yesterday evening. Apparently my stocks just weren't the ones that went back up.
I can't complain entirely. Mike's 401K is back up to almost 50K. My old 401K is chugging along nicely again as well. My IRA has halted its slide. It just bothers me that my long term growth stock portfolio is lagging. It leaves me wondering what I did wrong in those picks, that I didn't do wrong in the retirement accounts. Analytically, I shouldn't stress - I know that some of those stocks are higher risk... I can't get the kind of returns I want without that risk. It just irritates me that the decreases in a couple of them has completely eaten up the return on the ones that are recovering. Nothing to do but keep waiting.
I can't complain entirely. Mike's 401K is back up to almost 50K. My old 401K is chugging along nicely again as well. My IRA has halted its slide. It just bothers me that my long term growth stock portfolio is lagging. It leaves me wondering what I did wrong in those picks, that I didn't do wrong in the retirement accounts. Analytically, I shouldn't stress - I know that some of those stocks are higher risk... I can't get the kind of returns I want without that risk. It just irritates me that the decreases in a couple of them has completely eaten up the return on the ones that are recovering. Nothing to do but keep waiting.
Friday, September 21, 2007
A Kick From Uncle Sam
I was bored at lunch the other day, so I estimated/calculated our 2008 tax liability (I literally completed all the forms by hand, in pencil with estimated numbers, using the 2006 tax tables and contribution/deduction limits.) The end result was that Mike and I will owe the IRS some money in spring of 2009 if we don't make some adjustments to withholding now... of course this depends on the following:
1) Income for both of us remains flat - unlikely, as we both work places with annual cost-of-living raises and additional increases available for performance
2) Pre-tax deductions remaining flat - again unlikely, as health insurance always goes up at least a little bit and I always increase Mike's 401K deferral at the beginning of the year, and again in April when his raise goes into effect. I probably should do the same for my IRA contributions.
3) We don't have a baby in 2008 - may or may not happen. We're going to start trying to get pregnant in early 2008. Realistically, we'll probaby have a 2009 baby if we don't hit a home run in the first couple of months of the year.
4) Tax rates remain the same - who knows, this is up to Congress. The tables should remain pretty constant, however, the amount for IRA deductions should go up, and the personal exemption amounts usually increase a little as well.
Based on my number crunching, with no changes, we will owe around $400. In order to change that I either need to have $400 more withheld from our paychecks for federal withholding OR we need to make about $1500 less for taxable income. I don't like the idea of additional withholding - I'm already being withheld as single with no exemptions. Mike is withheld as married with 2 exemptions. That describes our tax situation. I don't want to give Uncle Sam more of my money.
Which leaves me with making less taxable income. Conveniently, I can decrease our taxable income by saving more for retirement. I went out an increased Mike's 401K deferral another percentage this morning. That extra bump means another 600 a year will be tax exempt. Which leaves me with another $900 to decrease the income by - I'm thinking I have no choice but to increase my IRA contributions (which is conveniently in line with my goals anyway.)
All things considered, I'm rather impressed with my ability to save an additional $1500 for retirement for the year in order to avoid paying $400 in taxes. It almost makes me wonder if they set the system up like that on purpose to make my generation be responsible for our own retirements since social security likely won't exist for us. And even if that is the case, most of my generation missed the memo, because they'd decide to just pay the extra $400 in taxes and spend the remaining $1100 on themselves today.
1) Income for both of us remains flat - unlikely, as we both work places with annual cost-of-living raises and additional increases available for performance
2) Pre-tax deductions remaining flat - again unlikely, as health insurance always goes up at least a little bit and I always increase Mike's 401K deferral at the beginning of the year, and again in April when his raise goes into effect. I probably should do the same for my IRA contributions.
3) We don't have a baby in 2008 - may or may not happen. We're going to start trying to get pregnant in early 2008. Realistically, we'll probaby have a 2009 baby if we don't hit a home run in the first couple of months of the year.
4) Tax rates remain the same - who knows, this is up to Congress. The tables should remain pretty constant, however, the amount for IRA deductions should go up, and the personal exemption amounts usually increase a little as well.
Based on my number crunching, with no changes, we will owe around $400. In order to change that I either need to have $400 more withheld from our paychecks for federal withholding OR we need to make about $1500 less for taxable income. I don't like the idea of additional withholding - I'm already being withheld as single with no exemptions. Mike is withheld as married with 2 exemptions. That describes our tax situation. I don't want to give Uncle Sam more of my money.
Which leaves me with making less taxable income. Conveniently, I can decrease our taxable income by saving more for retirement. I went out an increased Mike's 401K deferral another percentage this morning. That extra bump means another 600 a year will be tax exempt. Which leaves me with another $900 to decrease the income by - I'm thinking I have no choice but to increase my IRA contributions (which is conveniently in line with my goals anyway.)
All things considered, I'm rather impressed with my ability to save an additional $1500 for retirement for the year in order to avoid paying $400 in taxes. It almost makes me wonder if they set the system up like that on purpose to make my generation be responsible for our own retirements since social security likely won't exist for us. And even if that is the case, most of my generation missed the memo, because they'd decide to just pay the extra $400 in taxes and spend the remaining $1100 on themselves today.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Ready for the rebound
I've been patiently biding my time since July, trying not to freak about the losses to our portfolio. Our gains went from a 15% return for the year to less than 1% in one day. Needless to say, there isn't much you can do but grab your backside and hang on. Now that things have started to stabilize *knock on wood* and we are back to a 6% return for the year, I'm breathing a lot easier, and beginning to sleep again. Apparently, I am getting more risk-adverse as I get older. Five years ago, I would never have blinked at the downturn.
Analytically, I understand there are ups and downs, and that being invested for long term growth means you sometimes have to deal with the downs along the way. Emotionally, it's a different section of the bookstore. There is something gut-wrenching about watching a 401K go from $56K to $43K in the space of a few hours - and being helpless to do anything about it. By the time I realized there was a major market slide, I was simply along for the ride, no matter where it took us.
By August, I'd started reminding myself that this is really good for us in the long term (after all, everything I'm buying now at a low price has no where to go but up, right?) I even moved my monthly purchase week at Sharebuilder up to the second week of the month, instead of the third (because I was going to time the markets and they'd been down almost a month... so if I waited longer they'd be rising again - look how well that bit of logic worked. NOT.)
Now I worry about things like recession, and the bursting housing bubble, and what that means for my own assets and security. I feel poor. I fear for the future of the country's economy. Although, I'm not quite ready to start re-using aluminum foil or rinsing out ziploc bags yet. I just have this sinking feeling things will get worse, before they start to get better.
That whole thing about rising tides lifting all ships... it works both ways (except during the last recession I was blissfully unaware that my personal financial boat was even moving... I was on the party barge, with the keg and the reggae music and I was happy there.)
Analytically, I understand there are ups and downs, and that being invested for long term growth means you sometimes have to deal with the downs along the way. Emotionally, it's a different section of the bookstore. There is something gut-wrenching about watching a 401K go from $56K to $43K in the space of a few hours - and being helpless to do anything about it. By the time I realized there was a major market slide, I was simply along for the ride, no matter where it took us.
By August, I'd started reminding myself that this is really good for us in the long term (after all, everything I'm buying now at a low price has no where to go but up, right?) I even moved my monthly purchase week at Sharebuilder up to the second week of the month, instead of the third (because I was going to time the markets and they'd been down almost a month... so if I waited longer they'd be rising again - look how well that bit of logic worked. NOT.)
Now I worry about things like recession, and the bursting housing bubble, and what that means for my own assets and security. I feel poor. I fear for the future of the country's economy. Although, I'm not quite ready to start re-using aluminum foil or rinsing out ziploc bags yet. I just have this sinking feeling things will get worse, before they start to get better.
That whole thing about rising tides lifting all ships... it works both ways (except during the last recession I was blissfully unaware that my personal financial boat was even moving... I was on the party barge, with the keg and the reggae music and I was happy there.)
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