Ceejay74's Personal Finance Blog

November 2009 net worth

carolj1974@yahoo.com (ceejay74) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:25:56 PST

Assets:
NT's UK pensions: 7,250 pounds ($14,500)
14,721 pounds ($29,442)
NT's 401(k): $6,620
AS's 403(b): $2,888
AS's CD: $516
AS retirement savings: $845
CJ's 401(k): $30,273
NT's flat: 130,000 pounds ($260,000)
CJ & AS's condo: $160,000
Baby/emergency fund (shared asset):...

Reached savings goal

carolj1974@yahoo.com (ceejay74) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:09:26 PST

Ack, this has been a busy and eventful week, both financially and otherwise! Anyway, yesterday I would have transferred the remaining $400 of Xmas money into our savings account--except we're ready to start Xmas shopping! So it stayed in checking, but I did technically reach my savings...

Progress on the debt goal

carolj1974@yahoo.com (ceejay74) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 07:18:32 PST

Not as much as I'd hoped, though! One of AS's student loans hit, and only $75 went to principal, not the usual $80-something. Maybe it was because the bill was technically due the 14th (a Saturday), but didn't hit the account until today. So $2190 down, $10 to go on the November debt...

Various money musings

carolj1974@yahoo.com (ceejay74) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 11:11:26 PST

OK, one non-money bit of news: My NaNoWriMo novel is up to 8099 words! I managed about 3300 words last night, my most prolific night to date. Now if I could keep up that pace for the rest of the month, I could actually achieve this! I had nearly a week of writer's block and lack of...

Watching 'Sicko,' trying to plan our health care

carolj1974@yahoo.com (ceejay74) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 21:46:25 PST

While trying to pick the health care coverage with the best pricing, I'm trying to factor in the worst-case scenario. So I'm ignoring the deductible, which only tells you the most you could pay for one medical event. Instead I'm adding the monthly premium and the out-of-pocket maximum...

Early payday and other news

carolj1974@yahoo.com (ceejay74) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 09:41:55 PST

Two paychecks in the checking account (mine and NT's) was a pleasant little surprise. Even though I've been at this job for 3+ years, I still tend to think that if the 15th hits on a Sunday, payday isn't till Monday, as it was at my old job. Maybe this time I'll remember, since I'm...

Yawn...random financial updates

carolj1974@yahoo.com (ceejay74) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:21:47 PST

I'm in creditcardfree's situation right now...my finances are pretty dull. Looking at my "Number Crunch" spreadsheet, which shows me all known activity for the next three months, all we have this week is to withdraw spending money on Friday, and on Sunday I get to move some line items...

Personal loan payment hit!

carolj1974@yahoo.com (ceejay74) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 09:05:56 PST

Yay, they DO process payments on Saturdays! $1382 went to principal. So we're at $2115 of debt paid, $85 to go on the November goal.

The personal loan is down to $1732. It's going bye-bye next month no matter what! I'm super fired up to burn off as much debt as I can before baby...

Savings for Xmas, personal loan, job/unemployment update, 2nd ultrasound

carolj1974@yahoo.com (ceejay74) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:55:11 PST

Yesterday was my biweekly savings day, and I put $200 into the Xmas fund. (We put aside $600 each year, $200 going to buy presents for each of us. All extended-family and friend gifts come from our own spending money.)

I also sent a $1400 personal loan payment yesterday and it...

A little bit to the EF

carolj1974@yahoo.com (ceejay74) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:59:49 PST

I completely forgot I did this, but when I went online to check the UK mortgage balances yesterday, I noticed we did clear 25 pounds of profit from renting the UK flat this month, despite having to pay management fees. So I transferred it into UK savings and it gets counted toward...

Progress on November debt goal

carolj1974@yahoo.com (ceejay74) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:43:45 PST

My new, lower (but more to principal) mortgage payment hit, and $372 went to principal. Love it! That's $733 down, $1467 to go on the November debt goal.

Also, wrote about 450 more words on my NaNoWriMo novel last night. I need to go a lot faster if I'm going to hit 50,000 by the...

First debt payments in November

carolj1974@yahoo.com (ceejay74) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:26:44 PST

NT's three UK mortgages hit:
#1 $253 to principal
#2 $53 to principal
#3 $55 to principal

All told, $361 down, $1839 to go on my November goal.

Also, I wrote 685 words on my NaNoWriMo novel last night! I've managed about one more sentence so far today, but I'm hoping to get...

First savings in November

carolj1974@yahoo.com (ceejay74) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 11:58:49 PST

I transferred $120 into savings for AS's retirement, so just $600 to go on my November savings goal.

AS's $500 CD is coming up in mid-November, so I have to decide what to do next. Maybe with the money I've been putting into savings (I have about $850), plus that $500, it would...

November 2009 goals

carolj1974@yahoo.com (ceejay74) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 10:43:17 PST

Debt: Pay off at least $2200 of debt.
Balance as of 11/1: $386,334
Goal balance: $384,134
I hope to make my next-to-last payment on the personal loan this month.

Savings: Save at least $720 ($120 for AS's retirement; $600 for Xmas fund)
Progress: DONE! $776 saved
We have to...

October goals wrap-up

carolj1974@yahoo.com (ceejay74) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 10:11:12 PST

OCTOBER 2009 GOALS:

1. Debt: Pay off at least $2600 of debt.
Results: DONE! $2865 paid

2. Savings: Save at least $775
Results: DONE! $776 saved

5. Creative/crafts: Begin to brainstorm and plot novel idea.
Results: Uh, kinda. I lazily thought about ideas all month, and this...

CC payment hit

carolj1974@yahoo.com (ceejay74) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 07:29:19 PST

My credit card payment put $191 toward principal. I never know if they're going to send me the bill in time to get it out before the end of the month, but they did. Since it's a CC with a superlow fixed rate, I always pay it the second I get it, because I don't want to get anywhere...

More debt paid off, etc.

carolj1974@yahoo.com (ceejay74) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 07:16:28 PST

One of AS's student loan payments hit, and $61 went toward principal. That makes our October debt payment total $2674.

This student loan is such low-hanging fruit; now at $1855, I could have it paid off soo soon if I focused on it. However, at 2.5%, it's the next-lowest interest...

Reached October debt goal

carolj1974@yahoo.com (ceejay74) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 07:23:20 PST

A student loan hit (AS's) and $115 went to principal. That means we've paid $2613 of debt in October, slightly exceeding our goal of $2600.

I might have a few more debt payments hit this week; we'll see.

Now that I'm aggressively paying down debt again, after focusing on the...

Sticky note for later: retirement balances

carolj1974@yahoo.com (ceejay74) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:16:57 PST

Note to self:
One of NT's pensions is at GBP 14,721
AS's CD is at $516.25

That is all. We just got statements in the mail for these two accounts. I hardly ever get info on some of our accounts and don't know how to check them online, so I wanted to note these so I could update...

Savings goal reached

carolj1974@yahoo.com (ceejay74) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:52:10 PST

Yay, the blogs are back! I've been checking all day.

The automatic biweekly savings hit, with $25 going to the baby/EF. So we saved $776, $1 over our October goal of $775 LOL.

I've been home with a nasty cold for two days. I'm going in tomorrow as I think I can feel it letting...