Our four mortgage payments hit today:
US: $297 to principal
UK #1: $141 to principal
UK #2: $30 to principal
UK #3: $32 to principal
Total: $500 went to principal.
So that's $500 down, $950 to go on my July goal. No progress on my Big-Picture Goal, of course.
Good news: My UK mortgages had already gone down a bit due to an interest reduction. When I looked ahead on my US mortgage, I saw that next month's bill will be about $15 less, because apparently our escrow payment got reduced. Don't know why, it usually goes up, but I'm not complaining! I'm putting a little of the surplus into our education-expenses category and the rest into our travel savings.
I also put about $5 into savings today because AS got some medical reimbursement direct-deposited. I was also able to put about $35 into travel savings yesterday, because NT got a bit of OT pay and I received $5 from a survey company. (We have a lot to raise before our trip in October, so I'm putting every extra cent I can find into that fund.)
Some steps toward July goal
July 1st, 2008 at 05:35 pm
July 1st, 2008 at 05:42 pm 1214934126
I'm wondering about your UK property - how do you account for the rent coming in? I'm considering separating out our finances from the rental property - though at this point it is comingled.
July 1st, 2008 at 06:04 pm 1214935485
My husband still has a UK bank account, and the rental income (minus management fees) gets direct-deposited there. His mortgage payments (plus some mortgage-insurance bills) and his last remaining credit card bill are deducted from that same account. Also, if his balance goes under zero he gets charged interest; if we keep a positive balance he earns a bit of interest.
I haven't really thought about keeping it any more separate than that. My only goal has been to pay down his credit cards until his rental income covers all his UK bills. Right now I have to send about $125 over just to cover the minimum bills, and it costs me $50 per transaction, plus fees on the UK side! I'm hoping that in August I can pay about $2000 extra on his credit card and that brings his minimum payment down to the point where we break even in our UK account and I can stop doing international wire transfers.
Once that card gets paid off, I guess the finances for our rental will actually be separate. I wasn't really trying for that, but I guess it's going to happen.