<$Wednesday, July 23, 2008$>
Excuses. I'm full of 'em.
| Our finances--and our emotions--have been all over the place lately, with more lows than highs, and I just haven't had the heart (or the energy) to blog about it. Sorry. But here's a quick recap. Two weeks ago: my car died. Ees kaput. Deader than Elvis. The only way to "repair" it would be to replace the engine, which would cost more than the car's Blue Book value on a good day. Husband doesn't want to pay cash for a cheap beater to replace it, and we can't take out a car loan until this house buying business is over with. So for now I'm having to make due with borrowing my mom's van, and renting an economy car on days when she can't loan it to me. Meanwhile, we got Husband's truck running, but after sitting around undriven for three years (yes, really), it needs some work before it's really driveable. And before we can get the work done, we have to get it legal. So it's going to be another week or two before I can start driving it to work. Oh, the fun we're having with the car situation. And then, last week: we failed to get the house we wanted. The seller was willing to negotiate as far as contributing to down payment and closing costs, but not on the price, and even with those concessions he was asking more than the house was worth, so we walked away. The transportation sitch has kept us from being able to have another look at our second choice or check out other houses, but we'll finally get to do that this Friday. Other things happened, too, all at once, the way these things usually go. Lightning knocked out our satellite receivers and screwed up our electrical wiring; thankfully, as renters we didn't have to cover the costs to repair any of that, but it was still hella discouraging. I also finally received a bill for my ambulance ride last November, to the tune of $2,200. According to my insurance, I'm only responsible for about $700, which is a lot better than two grand, but still, that's a great big bill right there. We laughed at the absurdity of it all until we cried, and then we cried until it felt so absurd that we had to laugh. But we hung in there, and prayed, and believed that it would all work out for the best, and everything would be okay. And then, over the weekend, our prayers were answered: we got a letter from an old creditor saying that they owed me a substantial amount of money, some bit of unclaimed property from years and years ago that's been sitting there earning interest all this time. This, of course, seems a little too good to be true, so I'm not going to put any eggs in that basket until I actually see the money in my checking account. But if it is indeed a reliable basket, its holding enough money to do exactly one of the following: A) Buy a car B) Repair Husband's prosthesis and make it wearable again or... C) Completely pay off our credit cards. Oh, man. What a choice. We really, really need a car, and Husband would really, really like to walk again (and I'd really, really like him to, also). But after much deliberation, we both decided that the best thing we could do for our future was option C--getting completely rid of our nasty, evil consumer debt and freeing ourselves from indentured servitude to the credit card companies. Once that's done, we'll be in a better position to be able to afford the other things. Even if we end up having to borrow for them, paying off the card should improve our credit enough that we'd get much better rates that we would otherwise. So, things are finally looking up again. In fact, with the prospect of being debt free looming just ahead, things are looking higher than they've ever looked before, and that's great, because I really need to be on a high right now. Labels: credit cards, debt reduction, house-hunt, personal |
<$Monday, July 7, 2008$>
Life transitions are crazy-making.
| I'm pretty psyched about our debt consolidation, and I can't wait to see how much money it will actually save. It's not reflected on any of my online account pages yet (not that I've been obsessive about refreshing them or anything), but if I stick to the snowball method and keep paying as much to that card as I'm paying to my debts each month now, I should notice some fairly rapid progress in paying it off. This also comes just as my student loan forbearance ends and I have to start making those payments again, so that works out pretty well. I would consider adding my loan into the mix, too, but I think that when my husband graduates I'll be able to consolidate both our loans together. Anyway. I'm rambling because there's just so much going on and so much to think about right now. It's a little overwhelming, and no way can I organize my thoughts on it all. We made an offer on a house. It's the prettier of the two houses we were considering. We came in pretty low, so we expect to be countered, if not rejected outright. However, this house has some potential structural problems, and we're still trying to get the disclosure from the seller. If he hasn't addressed them, and doesn't plan to, then the house will turn into a money pit, and we'll have to walk away. Our second-choice house is already looking more and more attractive, though, especially considering it's priced $20,000 under value to start with. I need to sit down and draw up a to do list, because there's a lot to put on it. This week is going to be one of the busiest I've had in a long time. Besides meetings with loan officers and realtors and insurance agents, we have to attend a home buying class and a counseling session to be eligible for city First Time Homebuyer funds. I want to be excited, but mostly, I'm just exhausted. Time to go look at home insurance quotes. Whee. Labels: debt consolidation, debt reduction, house-hunt |
<$Thursday, July 3, 2008$>
Tidying up
| I did some financial housecleaning today. It's been way too long since I've done that, but the timing was just right to receive some much needed debt consolidation. Just in time, too, what with our impending mortgage and utilities payments. I had a great offer from one of my creditors to transfer my balances, for 4.9% interest until the balances are paid off. This came just as the card we use primarily for gasoline (but also used to pay for our honeymoon) jumped from 0% to 14.99%. That's really quite a jump. It was time to finally take all of the advice I've seen to consolidate debt. Now I'll only have one credit card to worry about paying off, and a much lower minimum payment than what all of my payments currently add up to. Talk about debt relief. It's also perfect timing for helping with our mortgage application. I've been gathering mortgage quotes from various lenders, but I think the lender our real estate agent recommended is going to be the way to go. I turned in our application this afternoon, and I'm pretty confident we'll get the loan we need. This ball's a-rollin'! I'm so excited. Tomorrow we're viewing the house and putting in our offer. Eeeee! Everybody cross your fingers and say a prayer for us to get the house! Labels: debt consolidation, debt reduction, house-hunt |
House Hunt & Puppy Quest Update
| This week has been one of the most hectic weeks I've experienced in a while. Apart from work being way more busy than you'd expect on a week when a third of the company is on vacation, I've been spending all of my "free" time making phone calls and filling out paperwork and doing research for our potential house. That's right, we found a house! We found two houses, even! One that we love, that's listed at the very tip top of our budget, but that, with the exception of an extra bathroom, is everything we want in a house; and one that is less expensive, and is also everything we need, but that needs some work to update it and make it pretty, and is our backup in case we don't get the first house. As for the first house, we're meeting our agent there tomorrow to go through it once more and put together an offer. Hopefully, next week I'll be able to report that they've accepted our offer and we're in escrow limbo. Also next week, I'll do up a big post about everything we've learned about how to buy a house when you're a first time home buyer with a single income and very little savings, without getting yourself in deep, deep trouble. In other news, we're not eligible to adopt a puppy from the rescue shelter unless/until we get our cats vaccinated, which we were planning to do anyway before moving them into the city. The only reason we haven't done so yet, or at least haven't done so in a long time, is because they're totally indoor cats and are never exposed to other animals. Also, they're both pretty young and healthy, and our unhealthy, elderly dog was our priority. At any rate, they're both going to get bundled up and taken to the vet soon. That should certainly be interesting. Labels: house-hunt, personal, pets |
<$Thursday, June 26, 2008$>
I can has hows now plz?
| New real estate agent seems pretty great so far--no trouble at all getting an appointment with her on her end, she's really flexible, which is just what we need. We just had to figure out some transportation for Husband, and now we're good to go a-hunting tomorrow afternoon. I'll have to come back to work afterwards to make up the hours I'll miss, but it's worth it if it can speed this process up. We're so tired of being houseless! We're especially eager to hurry up and move since we put in an application to adopt a puppy. We didn't think we were ready yet--it's been 8 weeks since we lost Fizzgigg, but it still feels like it just happened--but we saw a report on the local news about a bunch of Bichon Frises getting rescued from a puppy mill and brought to a local rescue shelter, and it just felt like the right thing to do. The shelter told us that they only place puppy mill survivors in homes that already have an established adult dog, though. I'm not sure why, but I think it has something to do with them being freaking terrified of people because of all of the abuse and neglect and whatnot, and the other dog makes them feel more secure. So anyway, we're not eligible for one of the rescues, but they offered to process our application anyway and put us on the waiting list for a puppy, and we agreed. I still get sad thinking about another dog in Fizz's place, but at the same time, the prospect of a puppy is helping me feel a little better. I haven't had an actual puppy to raise in... oh, ever. The only family dog I can remember getting as an actual puppy was when I was six. So it's exciting, the idea of raising a dog from scratch and knowing its entire life story. Scary, considering what a little holy terror Niblet was when she was a kitten (and still is, sometimes, seven years later), and remembering that baby animals can be as irritating at times as they are cute (or maybe that just goes for kittehs). Even so, I'm looking forward to it. Even more, I'm looking forward to being able to give it its very own yard to play in. So that's the news of us for today. Hopefully, by Monday I'll be able to give you a positive update on the house hunt. Labels: house-hunt, personal, pets |
<$Monday, June 23, 2008$>
What I've Been Up To Lately
| As I mentioned last month (o.O), we've officially started our house hunt. But we didn't get very far out of the gate before we got tripped up and had to take a step back to compose ourselves. Unfortunately, the real estate agent we were going with--who is a great guy and and a very knowledgeable agent--is just too busy right now to accommodate our weird schedule. After the second time he's had to cancel an appointment on us--we had cleared Friday afternoon to go look at houses, but he got tied up in closing rigmarole with other clients and couldn't take us--we're stepping back to take a deep breath and decide whether we want to stick with this agent or try out my sister's favorite realtor. So that bit sucks. We did get to go out one afternoon a few weeks ago, and found a house we both really liked, but we were dithering on the location, and while we were doing that somebody else snatched it up. So much for that. Apart from that, I've begun revamping my web site (a redesign for this blog is next on my list), which entails re-self-teaching myself CSS and various other web languages. I also revamped my Etsy shop and added some new items, and have still more stuff to add once I get a sunny afternoon free to take pictures. And I've been writing. I think I'm only 20,000 words or so from the end of my novel. That looks like a lot, until you hold it up next to the 70,000 words (or somewhere thereabouts) that I've already written. Finally, I took a much needed vacation, in which I didn't go anywhere, slept as much as I pleased, got lots of "me" time, and discovered a thrift shop where the clothes are expensive but the price tags are so very not. We're talking brand names that I gave up thinking I'd ever wear a long time ago, and nothing over $5.99. No, I'm not telling you where it is. I don't want you snurching all the good stuff out from under me. But today, I feel stylish and cute and like I belong in a cotton commercial. It's the fabric of our lives! Labels: house-hunt, meta, personal, shopping |
<$Thursday, May 22, 2008$>
Sound the trumpets: the hunt is ON!
| Thanks to all the craziness this month, which still has yet to let up, we have yet to actually begin our house hunt. I've been searching online, but we've postponed meeting with a realtor twice, and we don't have any houses lined up to see live and in person. This might be a good thing, since we don't really know what we're doing. I ordered Home Buying For Dummies  , which shipped yesterday, so hopefully we'll get it in time to at least skim this weekend. Meanwhile, through my online perusing I found a nice townhouse just a few blocks from where I work. I think Husband has his heart set on an actual house with a yard, but all I can see are the dollar signs. This condo is affordable(depending on the dues and maintenance fees, natch), well below our spending budget, and the location is fantastic. It's a decent neighborhood, with plenty of shops and eating places in walking distance, and several grocery store options within a few miles. The biggest plus for me is that I could walk or bike to work, allowing us to get by with only one car. I'm also considering the fact that the asking price for this place is low enough that we could possibly borrow the entire amount that we initially applied for and have enough left over to pay off our credit cards. Between virtually eliminating my huge commuter gasoline bill and eliminating our credit card payments, even with condo fees I think we'd still come out ahead in our monthly budget. So while it might be a hard sell for Husband, I still want to check this place out. Hopefully, I'll be able to get us in to see it this weekend. Labels: house-hunt |
<$Thursday, April 24, 2008$>
Calculators
| What I need is a backwards mortgage calculator. Not one that tells you how much you can allegedly afford based on your salary, which is all I seem to be finding, but one where I can enter how much I want my total monthly payment to be, including taxes and insurance, and it will tell me how much to borrow based on that. Because what I can comfortably afford to pay in a reality wherein we still having money to, y'know, do stuff occasionally, is a lot different from what these calculators are telling me I can afford. Unless we decide we want a house but no life. Then we're solid! Labels: house-hunt, loans |
<$Wednesday, April 23, 2008$>
Pre-qualified!!!
| Our mortgage app is approved! Yay! Whee! Yay! We're pre-qualified for the ballpark figure I asked for, and he said we could easily go higher if necessary! Because I have good credit! For reals! ME! GOOD CREDIT! This wouldn't have happened a year ago! I can't stop speaking in exclamations! HOUSE! Labels: house-hunt |
<$Wednesday, April 9, 2008$>
One house, please, hold the murder
| Yesterday I sent in the last of the paperwork needed to finalize my mortgage application, go team me! And afterwards I was so excited I hopped on the Re/Max web site to look at the local listings and see what we can expect to afford. Not that I haven't been doing this periodically for a while now, but this time I was both more optimistic and realistic in my search. So, assuming we get pre-approved for the amount that we asked for, it seems we can either afford a nice condo in a decent neighborhood, or a decent house in an iffy neighborhood. Seeing as how we've both got our hearts set on a house, that's a little, well, disheartening. We're open to the idea of a condo, though. At least we'd still be building equity, and we could trade up to a house in five years or so, when we can afford to apply "nice" to both the house AND the neighborhood. Actually, I suppose it's possible to do that now if we hit up some government auctions. There's a really nice house in a pretty nice neighborhood currently up for auction with a starting bid of $25,000. We can't place a bid without our pre-qualification letter, though, and the auction closes soon. I'd be shocked if we managed to put in a winning bid, anyway, but if the timing were better it would be worth a shot. It's a much nicer house than we'd be able to afford otherwise. Oh, well. There are still a couple of houses out in West Tulsa that suit my style and sensibilities, but just when I was beginning to think that might be a relatively safe part of town, suddenly the news keeps reporting murders in that area. It's kind of a sad fact that we'll probably be hard-pressed to find a 100% murder-free neighborhood in Tulsa these days, but that doesn't mean we're not going to try. Labels: house-hunt |
<$Monday, March 31, 2008$>
Houses vs. Apartments
| Husband and I really hope that the mortgage loan and everything related to it comes through, because the last thing either of us want is to have to rent an apartment. We've already gone through trying to find a decent rental house, though, and that was a fiasco that I'm really not looking to repeat. If for some reason, though, it should--God forbid--work out that we won't be able to buy a house, we still have to move this year. In that event, apartments might be something we'll have to consider. Of course, having grown up in LA, Husband would be a lot more open to Los Angeles Apartments, but since we're stuck here, and since he's had some pretty horrible/scary experiences in local apartment complexes, we're both really hoping it doesn't come down to that. Still, I mostly enjoyed my stints of apartment-living, and it's not all gloom and doom. I can still think of plenty of advantages. For one thing, it's much easier to find pet-friendly apartments than it is duplexes or rental houses. There's also the all the landscaping and maintenance you get, which was always a huge selling point for me, what with my complete aversion to yard work and all. I guess I really am getting older, though, because I find myself happily fantasizing about having a yard to maintain, flower beds to plant, even tending a vegetable and herb garden. That's definitely something younger me would never have expected. So in the pro/con balance, it's houses FTW! It won't be the end of the world if we have to find ourselves an apartment, though. Labels: house-hunt, moving |
A journey of a thousand miles, etc.
| The mortgage app is hereby submitted. All of my pertinent financial information is ready to be faxed over to the broker. Since my credit score has really improved over the last year, and we've managed to pay off such a decent amount of debt, I'm not worried too much about our chances of getting decent terms. And since we're first-time home buyers who make less than the qualifying earning threshold, I'm fairly confident about getting some FHA, etc. grants thrown into the mix, too. The procrastination is over, the bullet is bit. Now I get to look forward to a lot of paperwork, a lot of legal and real estate terms that will hurt my head to understand, a lot of disagreement with Husband over what we both want in a house versus what we can actually reasonably afford, a lot of tiring days looking at houses, but in the end, we can look forward to our very own home. And then we can maybe possibly start talking of babies, but first things first. Labels: house-hunt, personal |
<$Monday, March 17, 2008$>
The Mortgage Crisis: It's Not Just Us
| With all of the talk going around both the news media and the personal finance blogosphere about the housing and credit crises and the downward spiral of our economy, it's pretty easy to become discouraged these days. I guess that's one reason I keep sitting on our mortgage application--as housing prices drop, it seems like a great time to buy, but with the Mortgage industry so unstable, it's also pretty scary. I definitely don't want to get into a deal that will just leave us homeless in a few years. I don't know whether to find it comforting or even more depressing to realize that the US isn't the only nation affected by this mess. The UK doesn't seem to be doing much better, or at least that's the gist I get from this article on UK homeowners being treated unfairly. It seems like there are greedy lenders on both sides of the Big Pond who are trying to take advantage of people's desperation and only making it worse for everybody. With stories like this, it makes me want to be sure I shop around, do my research, and be extra-careful about finding a reputable mortgage broker to help us down the path of homeownership. Labels: house-hunt, loans |
<$Monday, March 10, 2008$>
Smooth Sailing Ahead: Windfalls, taxes, and a house in our future?
| Last week, Husband got his student loan check for the semester, and it was double what he expected it to be. I want to put the entire amount toward the credit cards, but he's concerned that we need a larger emergency fund, so we're going to split the difference and put half of it toward debt and half in the bank. That's still going to make a pretty significant dent in our credit debt, though. We got our taxes done last week--actually, a week ago last Friday. Between owing a small amount to Federal, getting back a slightly larger refund from state, and the tax preparer fees, we pretty much broke even, which, I'll take it. Now we're discussing what to do with our tax rebate check when it comes. Again, I want to throw it at the credit cards, but it's really hard for Husband to let go of that much money and not have access to it. So, we'll see. We're also considering using part of it to take a mini vacation to Eureka Springs, the town where we got married. Then again, we might end up putting it towards a down payment. This week is the week I'm FINALLY going to complete our mortgage application. We should qualify for first time home buyer grants that will cover our down payment and closing costs, but it won't hurt to have a few thousand that we can kick in if we need to. And even if we don't, buying a house is a scary enough prospect that having extra money in the bank in case anything goes wrong with the house will make us both feel more secure. So we've got a big credit card payment in the offing, money in the bank, money on the way, and we're on the verge of starting to build some home equity. Add to that my raise, which kicks in this pay period, and the fact that I've got enough work to justify overtime, and after a few uncomfortably lean months, we're starting to breathe easy again. The future's looking pretty rosy for the time being. I tend to believe that these things go in cycles, so we're sure to hit some choppy waters again at some point; but for now it's smooth sailing, and I intend to enjoy it while it lasts. Labels: credit cards, debt reduction, emergency fund, financial planning, goals, house-hunt, money management, personal, tax time |
<$Tuesday, February 26, 2008$>
Goodness.
| Sorry for the silence, folks. I just needed to take a break from blogging for a while, to rest my brain and catch up on other stuff. Good news abounds. If you look over at the charts on the sidebar, you'll see that my net worth is up and my debt is down. Even better, yesterday I received a job promotion along with a pretty decent raise. It's not huge, but it is enough to make up for the extra withholdings we have this year after enrolling in my health plan's Flex Spending Account and adding Husband to my dental plan. This will significantly increase my overtime pay, too, so if I can rack up some extra work hours, we'll be in a pretty good place. This Friday we're getting our taxes done. Subsequently, next week we'll be finalizing our mortgage application. ...aaaand that just put me off on a whole ADD tangent where I spent the last hour looking at home listings. Every time I check them I land on a house that, based on the photos, I think I kinda love, and that is very affordable. It's an older home, though, built in the 1930s, and it's not in the best part of town (though it's not in the worst, either; and the sad fact is that unless you're talking gated McMansion subdivisions with 24/7 security guards, there is no such thing as a safe neighborhood in Tulsa these days), both of which would be a hard sell for Husband. Sigh. ANyway. Point is, 2008 is beginning to shape up into a pretty good year for us, financially speaking. I'm starting to get excited. Labels: goals, house-hunt, net worth, personal, tax time |
<$Friday, January 25, 2008$>
Furnishing my dream house
 I'm once again hypothetically shopping for my hypothetical future house. I know I really shouldn't, since it will only lead to temptation to get spendy after we move. Really, we plan to make the most of the furniture we've already got, and fill any gaps with Craigslist and thrift shop finds. I consider myself to be fairly creative, and once I get a sewing machine, between that and knitting and borrowed ingenuity from Curbly and other web sources, I'm pretty confident I'll be able to make our new house look like a cozy home without breaking the bank.One thing we do need to replace, though, is our bed. Our bed--actually, our entire fashion bed group, is a matching set of antique hand-me-ups that came to me only after a few years of rough treatment at the hands of my then teenage sister. It's all pretty battered, and not in that stylishly distressed way. I never use the vanity table, anyway, since when I'm not getting dressed at the gym I usually do so in the bathroom, and the chest-of-drawers isn't big enough for the two of us. Neither, really, is my full-size bed, with its broken foot board and aging mattress. So one thing I keep shopping around for to get an idea of how much money I need to save up is a quality bed. I figure once we get a new bed, we'll have it for at least a decade, so to me it's well worth it to shell out for something as sturdy and durable as it is comfortable. I really like the looks of these platform beds; right now they're on sale at prices that wouldn't kill us. It's doubtful that they still will be when we move, but we're not in a huge hurry. We can wait until they go on sale again, even if we have to sleep on our mattress on the floor for a while. Actually, a lot of the prices at Home and Bedroom look pretty reasonable. I'm going to have to bookmark this site for the future and remember to come back to it when we're ready to actually buy new furniture. Their Hillsdale Furniture collections include some gorgeous beds that I might consider if we decide to go with a more traditional look, and those prices aren't making me cringe, either. Once we get our 2007 taxes done, we'll finish our mortgage application and, hopefully, start shopping for a house. Our goal is to be in our own place by this summer. The thought of it is both scary and exhilarating, and despite the scary, I can't wait. This sort of web-window-shopping for good furniture and decorating bargains and dreaming about what I want my new home to look like helps me to wait patiently until it all become a reality. It can be agonizing to wait, but sometimes the best part of waiting is the anticipation and imagining what it will be like when the time finally comes. Labels: bargains, disclosure, frugality, house-hunt, shopping |
<$Thursday, January 24, 2008$>
Just say no to McMansions
| Stop the Ride lists thirteen reasons "Smaller Is Better" when it comes to buying a house. This is advice I'd heard before, and it's advice we intend to heed when we shop for our new home. We don't really need that much room, especially for a starter home. We have so much junk that we plan to get rid of before we move. I really want to de-clutter and simplify my home life. I think having a small home will force us to be ruthless in letting go of our stuff. Not to mention the lower energy bills... just go read the list. All of my reasons are already over there. Labels: finance+blogs, frugality, goals, house-hunt |
<$Monday, January 21, 2008$>
Discount Blinds
| *Sponsored post* I can't stop myself from mentally dressing my hypothetical future house. As such, I waste a lot of spare time "window shopping" on the web for good decorating and furniture bargains. Even though I suspect our decorating style will be primarily "Second-hand Chic," at least for the first few years, it's still fun to dream. One thing I must have when we move is good window coverings. Ever since my cat tore down the mini blinds in my current apartment, I haven't bothered to replace them. Well, I did once, when I made curtains--she destroyed those, too. Cats are jerks. I think by now, though, she's old enough and fat enough that we can safely hang blinds in our hypothetical future house. Although they're a bit pricier than the mini blinds, I really like the look of these basswood wood blinds. If I were buying them today, I'd get 25% off the regular price, and they would actually be pretty affordable. I also like the fact that Select Blinds has donated products to Extreme Home Makeover; sure, it's good for them in the way of exposure and publicity, but it also goes to a good cause, and I like to support businesses that give generously to those in need. Labels: charity, disclosure, house-hunt, PPP, shopping |
Kicking around some ideas
| I've been planning for a while now to take some online classes in web design. My company will foot the bill for any education I receive while I work here, so it seems pretty foolish not to take advantage of that. I've just been waiting until we a) replace our ancient computer and b) move to an area where we can get high speed internet access. However, lately I've been having some doubts. Web technology moves so fast that anything I learn in a formal setting is bound to be out of date by the time I learn it. Also, back when good web design just involved HTML, basic CSS and a little bit of javascript, I taught myself by reading books and studying source code of other web sites, and managed to create some pretty nice looking web pages, if I do say so myself. I have no doubt that I could learn advanced CSS and PHP the same way; and once I learn, as long as I can create a good end product, potential freelance clients aren't likely to care where I learned how to do it. And that's what I want to learn it for--freelance work. I plan to be a work-at-home mom one of these days, and I want to have something other than writing lined up to bring in extra income. I was mentioning all of this to a coworker--a mechanical/electrical drafter--the other day, but as soon as I mentioned taking classes in web design he cut me off: "You want to become a designer? That's great!" He didn't hear the "web" part and, being that we work for an engineering firm, he assumed I meant becoming a drafter/designer. Instead of correcting him, I paused, and a light bulb clicked on. Why not? This is a question I've been pondering ever since that conversation. I can think of plenty of reasons why: Like I said, I already work for an engineering firm. Getting a degree in drafting and design would put me in line for a major promotion and a substantial raise. I don't believe my current position is going anywhere any time soon, so I'm not too concerned about layoffs, but I could definitely stand to earn a higher salary. I don't see myself being able to quit working outside of the home anytime soon, at least not until my husband finishes school and finds a job with health benefits as good as the ones I get, and that will take a few more years. And as much as I don't hate my job, I don't love it, either. It would be nice to be qualified to do something other than either social work or glorified secretarial work--both of which tend to be underpaid and under appreciated (although the latter seems to be an exception at my company--they treat us project admins great, and pay us pretty decently, too). My biggest why not is the ADD factor: what if I don't enjoy it enough to be able to stand to do it all day? At least my current job only requires short-term tasks that match up pretty well with my attention span. What if I don't have any downtime in which to write? I had made up my mind to pursue a more creative career, knowing that kind of work makes me happier; what if I don't find this sufficiently creative to stave off boredom and keep from making me miserable? I guess my best advice to myself is to go ahead and take a class and see how I like it. After all, since my company will pay for it, I've got nothing to lose but time (although time is pretty valuable to me, so that's a pretty daunting loss), and if I don't like it I don't have to commit to pursuing it further. Of course I've got until the A and B up there in the first paragraph happen to make a final decision; but this is definitely something under consideration. *** Speaking of moving, another thing my husband and I are starting to consider is buying a duplex. I already mentioned that we're planning to buy a house this year. While looking at the listings to see what kind of housing is available in our price range, I noticed a few duplexes in the listing. This almost seems like a no-brainer: we could live in one side and rent out the other half for the cost of our mortgage payment. Meanwhile, we could make improvements to our half, so that when the tenants move out we can move to the other side and rent out the improved half for higher rent and work on fixing up the other side. Then when we're ready we can buy a proper house and draw rental income from both sides of the duplex. It all sounds pretty good on paper. In reality, though, we don't know anything about being landlords. We've never even owned property, let alone rented it out. I suspect we still don't have a full grasp on what all it entails to own a house. Owning somebody else's house might be deeper waters than we're ready for. Fortunately, my older sister and her husband got into buying duplexes last year, and they now own several. Husband and I have discussed taking them out to dinner to get their opinion on whether they think we could handle it. I ran the idea past my sister when I saw her the other day, and she seemed to think it was a good idea. Her husband is pretty handy, though, and able to complete most repair jobs himself; we're both pretty useless in that area, so we'd almost certainly have to hire someone to do repairs. There's also all of the legal stuff to consider. Not only renter's rights, but would we be allowed to handpick the tenants we believe would make the best neighbors, or would that be somehow considered discrimination?* I think all of the cons I've thought of so far are things we could overcome simply by getting educated. Otherwise, it sounds like a great way to increase our earnings. I suppose I really should complete my mortgage application and see just how much we're eligible for before making any decisions in this regard, though. It could all be rendered moot pretty quickly. Labels: education, extra income, goals, house-hunt, investing |
<$Thursday, January 10, 2008$>
New Look, New Outlook
| I renovated and rearranged the furniture, and now I'm feeling more excited about this blog again. Which is good, seeing as how I'm planning to expand it into three blogs. This one will continue to focus on personal finance. The health/fitness and home/family topics will each be getting their own space. Speaking of getting own space, I've been sitting on this for a while now, not wanting to mention it until it becomes concrete, which it's not yet, but still; I want to get it out of my system finally. We're going to try to buy a house. I've already talked to a mortgage broker, who thinks our chances look good for being able to afford a starter home. I've turned in the loan application, but I still need to gather some additional info before they can process it. Actually, I've got all of the info gathered--I just keep psyching myself out of turning it in. I'm so paranoid that they're going to find something in my credit that I missed and deny us the loan, or that we'll get it and I'll either find out that I've miscalculated or something will happen so that we won't be able to afford the payments, and we'll lose our home. I'm simultaneously terrified of not getting this and of getting it and getting in over our heads. This is the kind of neurotic paranoia that a decade of being a financial screw-up will instill in you, kids. On paper, we CAN afford this, and my credit has improved enough that our chances of getting it are very good. Housing is extremely affordable in Tulsa--it will be more of finding a safe neighborhood that we can afford than simply finding a house. I've been keeping an eye on the real estate markets, and I've even seen duplexes in our price range, which is something we might consider. We could live in one half and rent out the other half for the cost of our mortgage payment; but that's me getting way ahead of myself. This is the main reason I want to give the home topic its own blog, so that I can blog about the process of getting a house, and then about learning how to be a homeowner and all that that entails, without skewing the focus here. This is exciting to me. I'm excited. And also, still with the terrified. Maybe starting this new blog will also provide me the kick in the pants I need to turn the rest of my paperwork in. Labels: goals, house-hunt, site maintenance |
<$Monday, July 23, 2007$>
Carnival time!
| Happy Monday, folks. This week's Carnival of Personal Finance is hosted by Fat Pitch Financials, and features my Speaking of, we spent Friday on yet another unfruitful rental-housing hunt. We checked out a townhouse that I quite liked, but Husband was concerned that, it being an older property, it would leak energy and cost a fortune to keep cool. I was ready to put up a fight about it, but even though it had some great features, it was also lacking in some that were pretty high on my priority list (such as laundry hook-ups), and what I mostly liked about it was its location. I was ready to sacrifice a lot of practicalities for the sake of living in a trendy neighborhood, and that's just... not smart. So we let that one go. After a heart to heart, we decided that we might not be as ready to move as we think we are, anyway. We need to get the cars taken care of, and that will put a big dent in our savings. With Husband getting ready to start classes again, it's probably for the best if we focus on car repairs, and then on rebuilding our savings, while he focuses on his classes. Come winter break we ought to have a better idea of what we can realistically afford, and maybe by then we'll have better luck finding something that suits us. Of course, this means six more months of commuter hell, which I'm definitely not looking forward to. At least gas prices are on a downswing, so that's something. Labels: house-hunt, personal |