<$Tuesday, March 25, 2008$>
Improving credit, investing fear, new used books, and a hiatus
| Things have been busy lately, and they're just getting busier. But here's a quick update before I take an official (as opposed to the unintentional one I've been taking) hiatus for a few days to catch up on stuff. That's about it. The main reason it's been slow here lately is because there hasn't been much to report on the Bauhaushold front, and I haven't had time to explore what's happening elsewhere in the pf blogosphere. Soon, though, I should have plenty to talk about, what with the upcoming house hunt and impending tax rebates and all. But for now, I have lots of work to get done. See you next week. Labels: credit cards, debt reduction, frugality, saving+investing |
<$Thursday, February 7, 2008$>
Wealth building strategies
| This year, we're focusing on getting rid of our debt. Hopefully by next year, though, we'll be ready to start building our retirement. We've got a lot of catching up to do in this department. I've got my 401k, of course, but I only contribute what the company matches, and I've only been doing that for about a year and a half. If we rely on that alone for retirement savings, we'll end up poor old people. Once we start building our retirement portfolio, I'd like to investigate hard money investment strategies. Real estate trust deed investing looks like a relatively safe form of passive high-yield investing--and passive investing is perfect when you're talking ADD--but I'd need to learn a lot more about it before I took that plunge. Besides, if I understand correctly, we'd need to actually own a home and have a few years vested in it before that would even become an option for us. So I guess our next step, after building up our emergency and rainy day funds, will be to go the standard route and open up a Roth IRA. Once that's done--and, hopefully, maxed out--we'll look into the trickier stuff. First things first, though: gotta pay off those credit cards. We're actually considering using the next two student loan checks to do that. As much as we're tempted to do other things with that money, we both know the smartest would be to eliminate the consumer debt. That would free up so much cash flow that we'd almost feel downright rich. Labels: debt reduction, saving+investing |
<$Monday, January 14, 2008$>
Thanks, Tricia! / Electric Orange Referral Links
| I want to take a moment to give a shout out and big thanks to Tricia over at Blogging Away Debt for hosting my ING Direct referral links. She contacted me a while back after I used one of her referral links to open my own account, and offered to post my links on her popular site, three at a time in rotation with those of her other referees. Since then, all 25 of my referral links have been used--that's a $250 dent in my consumer debt, all thanks to Tricia and her readers. Thanks a bunch, Tricia! I'm all out of INGDirect Savings referrals, but I still have 25 referral links on my ING Electric Orange electronic checking account. This account pays up to 4.80% APY on deposits, has no minimum balance requirements, and i's free. It's also pretty easy to use. I'm considering changing my paycheck's direct deposit to this account from my IBC account and making it my primary checking (I still need to keep the IBC because ING doesn't offer paper checks. They will, however, mail an electronic check for you if you need to pay something by check). It has a credit line for overdraft protection, and it's easy enough to keep from paying interest on that if you link the checking account to your ING Direct savings account like I have. Transfers between them are instant, and they only take a few clicks. The Electric Orange referrals work the same way as the Savings referrals: if you open an account using one of these links with a minimum of $250, I'll get $10 deposited into my account. All of my referral fees get put directly into my "Debt Reduction" sub-account and are used to pay down my credit card debt. If you would like to use one of these links to open your own checking account, just drop me a line at jeanjeanie AT gmail DOT com with "Electric Orange Referrals" in the subject line, and I'll send you a link. Labels: affiliates, debt reduction, extra income, saving+investing |
<$Monday, November 12, 2007$>
Score another one for the Emergency Fund
| I'm still here, y'all. There are plenty of reasons for my lack of posting lately, not the least of which is the food poisoning I got last week. Hoo boy, that really did a number on me. It took me all week to completely recover. I'm also participating in NaNoWriMo (you can follow my progress here), and between that and trying to finish knitting a sweater in time for my sister's birthday later this month, all of my free time is pretty much spoken for. I just got word that I'm about to receive a nice little $100 windfall. I was sitting here debating whether to throw it at my debt or use it for Christmas shopping when I remembered the hospital bills I'm sure to have soon. They had to call an ambulance for me for the food poisoning, and I'm not sure whether my OTHER trip to the emergency room after my fainting spell a few weeks ago (which I still haven't received hospital bills for, but my insurance statements assure me will cost me about $500) will use up the rest of my deductible for the ER. I've been trying to squirrel away money whenever I can to put towards that, so we won't have to cut too deeply into our emergency fund (though if this doesn't qualify as a justifiable emergency expense, I don't know what does). So this $100 will help towards that. I might have to put the debt reduction on hold a while so we can build our savings back up after the medical bills are paid; but the good news is that we're in a position where that won't hurt our ability to pay the rest of our bills or cut into our living expenses. And that's pretty cool. Labels: emergency fund, personal, saving+investing |
<$Wednesday, October 3, 2007$>
Happy days are here again.
| I'm feeling better today, thanks mainly to an astute LiveJournaler who pointed out over there that maybe I should cut my pills in half and try taking smaller doses. I like to think I might have thought of that myself if I hadn't been drugged to the gills already, but I'm grateful somebody took me by the virtual hand and pointed out the obvious. So I tried that, and lo, I'm feeling much more myself today. Thank God. The other reason for my chipper mood is that the university finally forked over a check for Husband's financial aid, less tuition and fees, and it's even bigger than we anticipated. So now I can stop fretting about the dwindling of our savings account and pay back our emergency fund in full. AND we can buy a new home computer. And we might even be able to set aside enough for us both to do some clothes shopping which, aside from getting to pick out a suit jacket and a couple of tops for my birthday last spring (thanks, Mom!), neither of us has done in over a year (and that little shopping spree was forced on us by virtue of forgetting to take half of our luggage with us on our honeymoon). Our respective wardrobes are beginning to look a little tattered and worse for wear. In the meantime, I'm dumping the entire amount into our savings so it can be earning interest while we decide how best to budget it. But first, I have to go stick it in my local checking account, which I get to go do right now. Whee! Labels: healthy living, money management, saving+investing, spending |
<$Monday, August 27, 2007$>
Hey, kids! It's that time again!
| This week's Carnival of Personal Finance is hosted at Free Money Finance. Once again, I have nothing listed there, but a couple of articles caught my eye. I've Paid For This Twice Already continues his Budgeting for Dummies series that I linked last week, and it continues to speak to the dark reaches of my ADD-farked brain. Savings Explained offers an alternative perspective on the Emergency Fund, and it's one I find myself agreeing with. There needs to be room allowed to save for other things. Speaking of which, that article lead to another post at that same blog that pointed out that ING Direct offers the ability to create sub-accounts. I had no idea this feature existed, and I'm jazzed to know that it does. This is exactly the kind of virtual envelope method I've been looking for, and now I know how to set it up. Yay! Labels: carnivals, saving+investing |
<$Wednesday, August 22, 2007$>
More ING Referral Links Available
| Blogging Away Debt is offering up another set of my ING Referral Links (and once mine are gone, she's sure to have more, so keep checking back there if you're interested but now's not the right time to open an account). If you missed the memo, using one of these links to open an ING Orange Savings Account with a minimum of $250 will earn you a $25 sign-up bonus (and earn ME a $10 kick-back). Tricia has all of the stats and info on the account at her site, but I'll add that I've been pretty happy with them so far. I recently added an Electric Orange Checking account, which makes it pretty easy to access the funds when we need them (without making it too easy). Labels: saving+investing |
<$Friday, July 6, 2007$>
Score one for the emergency fund!
| Thanks to some wacky hijinks that ensued with my time sheet last week, my paycheck today is missing an entire day's worth of pay. Considering that this was already an unusually short pay period, and hence was already to be an unusually small paycheck, this is double-plus ungood. I'm talking myself down from panic by reminding myself that this is not a tragedy. It wasn't all that long ago that my financial situation was so precarious that this sort of thing would come very close to ruining me; but now, it's okay. It's frustrating that we won't be pulling ahead this half of the month, and may have to accept a minor setback in our savings efforts by dipping into our savings to tide us over. However, as much as it would break my heart to do so, it's an enormous relief to know that we do have savings, and that I don't have to wonder where I'm going to get money to cover my bills this month, or make any choices between paying said bills or buying frivolous whimsies such as groceries. And best yet, I don't even have to think about breaking out the credit cards. In a word: Phew! Labels: money management, saving+investing |
<$Tuesday, July 3, 2007$>
Financial Housecleaning
| Every few months or so, I try to remember to look over all of my statements with an eye toward "cleaning up" and doing away with any financial chaff--cancelling services we're no longer using or getting our money's worth from, negotiating lower fees and interest rates, etc. This past week has been one of those times. I haven't had a lot of success this round, but even so, here's what I tackled this time around: Credit cards - Both of my credit card companies have been bombarding me with checks and balance transfer offers. I plan to shred the checks, of course, but first I thought I'd see if they were willing to negotiate. First I called Discover. That account is currently 0% interest, so I have no reason to transfer it elsewhere, and it's the lowest priority on my list of debts to eliminate. We originally opened this account because it gives us a 5% rebate on every gasoline purchase, and intended to use it solely as a gas card. But then we got greedy with our honeymoon cruise excursion packages and ended up maxing out the small limit I requested when I opened the account. Now I make a payment large enough to cover our gas budget each month, and by the time we've bought all of our gasoline for the month it's usually maxed out again. So I called Discover and told them I would be thrilled to give them all of the money I'm currently giving to Citibank, if they would increase my credit line enough to accommodate the transfer. The custserv rep I spoke with put through a balance increase request, but it was declined. He promised to push it through the appeals department, and told me to check back in twenty-four hours to see if my request was approved. I checked back. It got approved--for a fraction of the amount I requested. Boo. At least now I don't have to worry about going over limit if I have to fill up my car before my next payment posts. Next, I called Citibank. I thanked them kindly for their balance transfer offer and pointed out that they are my highest interest card, even at the transfer rate they're offering, and it sure would be nice if they could just lower my interest rate. They told me they didn't have a lower rate to offer me at this time. Again, boo. Looking back, I should have asked for a supervisor, told them about the offer from Discover, and informed them that if they didn't lower my rate, I would go ahead and transfer as much as I could of my Citibank account over to Discover. Maybe after I finish this post, I'll get up the nerve to call back and try that tack. Maybe. Success Score: Cell Phone: Next up, I realized that my husband and I are both relying almost solely on our unlimited text-message package to communicate, both with each other and with our friends, and most months we barely touch all of the minutes that we're paying for. So I called T-Mobile to point this out and ask if they had any dual-line plans with fewer minutes. This rep sounded genuinely regretful as she informed me that we already have their cheapest dual-line plan, and that it would cost us more to switch to two of their lowest individual plans. Again I say: Boo! However, she went on to hint, imply and otherwise inform in as roundabout a way as she could without coming straight out and saying so and raising the ire of her supervisors, that I might have more success if I wait until my contract is up, shop around for better deals with other providers, and then call back with that information as leverage. She also mentioned that I should keep an eye on their web site, where they occasionally offer better, limited time deals. So at least now I have a plan, and hope for cutting down that bill in the future. Success Score: Cell Provider - 1; jeanjeanie - Half a point, for at least ascertaining some useful info. Internet Access: A year ago, I signed up to a deal with Netscape offering a year's worth of accelerated dial-up for $9.99. Shortly thereafter, our computer up and died. I held onto the account hoping we'd replace the computer fairly quickly, but that didn't happen, and eventually I completely forgot about the account. Until a couple of months ago, when I noticed it showing up on my Citibank statement. I called to cancel it then, but they reminded me that I signed up for a full year, and couldn't cancel it without a steep fee. Having only a couple of months left, the fee outstripped the remaining monthly charges, so I let it set. But today, I realized that the year is up this month, so I called back to cancel. This time, after having to answer a lot of questions, insist that we really, truly, honestly and deeply don't want, use, or need the service, and that no, I don't want to pay to use it as web mail, thank you so much, I got them to cancel it. So that's ten bucks a month we'll be saving from now on. Every little bit helps, right? This one gets a Yay! Success Score: Internet Provider - 0; jeanjeanie - 1 Banking: Several months ago, I opened up a high yield savings account with Citibank, lured to them by the siren call of a $20 sign-up bonus if I kept my account open for 90 days. At the time I intended to do just that, get my $20, and find a better rate elsewhere, so, not having memorized my husband's SSN and not wanting to bug him, I didn't add him as the account's beneficiary. Since then, we've actually saved up a nice little fund, and the fact that he can't access it has been bugging me. I also realized that, shockingly, Citibank doesn't have any branches or ATMs in our area, so it's not going to be that easy for me to draw the money we need once we find a new place to live, either. Even so, I kept procrastinating on moving the account. Until today, thanks to Blogging Away Debt, who posted a reminder about some ING referral links she still had available that would get me a $25 sign-up bonus. So I opened a joint account with my husband and initiated a funds transfer, and got rewarded with my bonus right away -- I didn't even have to wait 90 days. Thanks, Tricia! And also: Yay! Success score: jeanjeanie - $25! Disappointed as I am with the credit card and cell phone results, I'm still better off than I was when I started. In a couple of months, I'll re-evaluate everything and try again, and this time I'll be a little more savvy when it comes to the credit card and phone companies. Labels: credit cards, evil, money management, saving+investing |
<$Thursday, June 21, 2007$>
Should I stay or should I go-o?
| Today is a good day. It's payday. All of my bills are paid, there's plenty of money in the grocery budget, our fun money allowances are paid out, and there's still about $50 left to spare. I didn't even think about what to do with that extra $50--I just signed onto my online savings account and hit the transfer button before temptation even had a chance to start whispering in my ear. It's a great feeling to know that everything is covered for the rest of the month, but it's made even better by that last bit. This has been a tight month, and I was afraid I wouldn't be able to contribute anything to our savings. So even that small of an increase feels great. We finally have enough saved up to finance our move into town, so for the last month or so we've been looking at rental houses and duplexes in the area, without much luck. We've only seen two houses that held much promise, but both times we were beaten to the punch by the competition. After looking at a few houses in our price range in dismally poor and rough neighborhoods, we had a powwow and figured out that we could raise our budget if we repaired Husband's truck instead of replacing it. With the new price in mind, we checked out a duplex last weekend. It was in a decent neighborhood and had everything we need, so we turned in an application. But we checked it out during an open house, and there were a lot of other interested lookers. We haven't heard back on our application yet. I guess we'll keep looking. We have plenty of money to move, and I think there's enough left over to handle the most important of the truck repairs, but that's it. We don't really have an emergency fund, and this bothers me. So now I'm wondering if we should just stay where we are until we've saved up an emergency fund on top of the moving fund. I'm of two minds about this. On the one hand, I'm used to our current budget. I know how to work with it, and I think we could save up the fund in a few months. The way things are going, it might take us that long to find and lease a suitable home, anyway. On the other hand, I think moving to town would ultimately save us a lot of money, even if we almost double our current rent. It would save us well over $100/month in gas, for starters, and I'm pretty confident that we could pull off enough energy hacks to keep our utility bills low. And then there's the grocery budget. Right now, we don't have a kitchen. We have a mini-fridge and a microwave. It's like we live in a dorm. Except instead of Top Ramen, we eat a lot of pre-packaged and frozen foods, anything that can either simply be heated up or assembled, and we also eat out or pick up fast food a lot more often than we should. That stuff's expensive. I believe having a full-fledged kitchen where we could actually cook healthy meals from scratch would cut down significantly on our food spending. Really, I think probably what we're saving now by living out in the country and renting cheap and what we'd save by living in the city will all even out in the wash, and our month-to-month budget won't see that much of an impact as far as how much is left over for savings and debt reduction. It probably won't really make that much difference when we move at this point, as long as we make that emergency fund a priority. So we'll keep looking, and we'll keep squirreling away what we can into savings at every given opportunity. I just have to keep reminding myself that this is one of those areas of life where slow and steady really does win the race. Labels: goals, money management, personal, saving+investing |
<$Monday, April 2, 2007$>
National Financial Literacy Month
| According to Get Rich Slowly, this month is National Financial Literacy Month, and JD is marking it by posting a series of short videos about the fundamentals of saving and investing. I need this. I realize I'm way behind where I should be, but until now all of my extra money has gone toward reducing debt and saving toward short-term goals (like our wedding). My husband's been in the same boat. We're only just starting to come to a place where we can think about saving and investing for the future (beyond my 401K), and I realize that I know pitifully little about this stuff. That bothers me, and it bothers me that we don't have any savings to speak of. I opened a high yield savings account a week ago, and I plan to start socking away whatever I can into it. If there's one concept GRS and other personal finance blogs have helped me grasp, it's that little things add up over time to make a huge difference. I struggled with this concept before, thinking that if I couldn't make major contributions to savings, then there was no reason to bother trying. But I have learned the error of my ways, and I know even if I can only save a few dollars a week, that's better than nothing, and it will start to build to significant amounts before I know it. Labels: saving+investing |