Ceejay74's Personal Finance Blog

A couple months ago we got the unwelcome news that our monthly mortgage payment was increasing from $2,789.40 to $3,101.94, effective Aug. 1 (today). That's $312.54 per month! It more than wipes out my and NT's raises this year, which is a big bummer.

We got the notice a few weeks before our Europe vacation and I just couldn't be bothered to look into it at all. I knew from the letter that part of the increase was to make up for an escrow shortage and the rest was to increase our escrow for the future. So the first part of the increase will be temporary (about a year I believe).

So anyway, I'm looking into it now that the higher amount has hit our checking account for the first time.

I looked at our insurance, and it went up from $3,791.88 per year to $4,324.57 per year. It seems this is due to higher valuation of everything. I'm not sure if I can do anything about that; as I recall this was the best deal we could find. Apparently you can save quite a bit if you bundle home with car, but we don't have a car, so that wasn't an option. But I don't know, I may go ahead and sign up for a "Farmer's friendly whatever" to see if there's any way to lower this bill.

Then I checked county property taxes, and they increased from $4,943.56 per year to $5,230.26 per year. Obviously, nothing I can do about that one. They actually value the home way lower than its market value.

Together, these two increases come to about $68.28 per month. Leaving $244.26 of my mortgage payment increase unaccounted for.

I don't have the letter with me at work, so I'm going to check it when I get home to see if that's the temporary increase part of it, or if there's something else contributing to this giant leap.

One interesting thing that a lot of us seem to deal with is unexpected or unwelcome visibility into other people's money lives; their priorities, decisions, mistakes sometimes come through loud and clear.

AS's mom asked for money again a couple months ago (I think I wrote about it here), and as part of the condition of giving it to her, AS asked to get some detailed info so we could see why she was struggling and whether she had a plan that would work.

She sent us a confusing muddle of emails where often the important piece of info would be hidden within rambling that wasn't helpful. Some attachments as well. I was rather shocked to see that she was not bringing in very much; just over $2000 a month, I believe, from disability and military spouse benefits from her ex. Her rent alone is over $1000 per month, plus she has debt payments, medical expenses and just general living expenses. She has no savings and owes about $9000. Several things were delinquent, including electricity and cable. She lives in a moderately HCOL area (DC metro part of Virginia).

It was a pretty bleak picture. We recommended bankruptcy, and I was starting to think we'd need to help with housing somehow. Someone on here (Joan of the Arch?) had mentioned considering buying some relatives a condo, and that seemed like something we could consider. Rather than helping with rent, we could just forgive rent as long as we knew we could afford the payments on our own, and we'd have something to show for it at the end (the condo). Of course we don't have money for a down payment and wouldn't want to risk that hit to our budget at this point, but I started considering it as a down-the-road contingency plan.

Well, we heard back that she has the bankruptcy in beginning stages. She also thinks next year she'll qualify for housing Section 8, as she's been on the waiting list about 5 years and it usually takes 6. It could bring her monthly rent responsibility down to about $200.

With most of her debt discharged and her housing expenses cut by 80%, suddenly her situation wouldn't seem as bleak. So we're in a holding pattern. She might need some bridge loans to get through the next year, but hopefully not. And if she can pull off these two things, we may be off the hook. Fingers crossed!

***

My friend who I helped with her finances seems to be stuck in a holding pattern of her own. She hasn't slipped back into NSF territory, but neither has she decreased her CC debt very much in the past couple years. One thing is that she herself brings in about what AS's mom does, and has a bit more debt than $9K, so there's not a big margin for error. But the other is that she can't seem to say no to any invitation (or mention) of a show, concert, restaurant or anything. If she could tame her social life for a year, she could probably pay down that debt and then have more flexibility to go to the shows and everything. Her debt payments are about 25% of her income, almost as much as her rent!

I hope she does buckle down at some point. She is trying, but she has this disconnect between intention and action. I see the same thing when she tries to avoid gluten, or when she's on a diet. Her hand just goes toward food and it finds its way to her mouth almost like she doesn't realize she's doing it.

I'm happy to help however I can, but it's one of those things people have to decide for themselves. Credit allows so many untenable situations to float along for years, even for most of one's life. Fingers crossed she will sort it out in time for retirement someday.

***

Our downstairs neighbors are pretty much our closest friends as well. I love just about everything about them -- except their bizarre financial behavior. It's bothered me for years, but now that we live together, certain things nag at me.

For one thing, NJ (the main one we talk to due to his husband working all the time) let AS know sometime last year that he hadn't filed his taxes in several years. He left law to become a freelance photographer, and after a while found a very lucrative niche. Basically he's able to book several big shoots and then coast on that income for a few months.

The first return he didn't file was right after leaving law, and typically he would get a huge tax refund. So he thinks that the money the IRS has from that year will cover most of the other years.

Which may be true, but he won't find out until he files all those years. And the more years he doesn't file -- and doesn't send in any estimated tax -- the less likely that is. If he makes about what AS makes, that money from his unclaimed refund may cover one or two years at best.

So he had a bunch of money from a big photo shoot, and he was going to use it to remodel their kitchen. Then he decided instead to work on a subscription website that could pull in a lot of passive income. His business partners flaked, and so he still had this chunk of money sitting there.

Plus, his husband just got a second (part-time) job that pulls in a ton more money.

So this would be a great time to do all his taxes, right? Wrong. First, he gave us another $4K toward buying their share of the house ... which is great, except he hasn't finished the paperwork that would make this official. And I'm not promising anything until I see the paperwork and get it vetted by another lawyer.

Second, he buys a used car for about $7,000. I was kind of pissed because they were carless when we bought together and seemed committed to that lifestyle. We were even thinking of turning the garage into a tiny home for my other friend (from section 2 above) because none of us had any plans to have a car. Then boom, out of the blue, he buys a car. Now we have to accommodate a car that I don't believe they really need. (His main reason was to be able to take his dog to the dog park because there were none nearby. When questioned, he said the nearest one is about a mile away. Wouldn't the dog be able to walk a mile each way? I don't know. My kids walk minimum half a mile each day, and can walk a lot more than that if necessary.)

But the main reason I was pissed is because he STILL hasn't handled his taxes; I feel like both of those big outlays of cash were partly to avoid that further. And I feel like I'm stuck in this place where I'm worried about that, and wanting the documents for the house to be drawn up but wondering if I will need to say I can't go into this agreement with you knowing you might be evading taxes and digging a big hole for yourself. But at the same time, until they start to buy their share of the house, I'm paying $150-$160 per month for water/sewer/gas, and not feeling like I can ask them to pay their share (2 fifths) until/unless they begin to co-own the place.

I feel like I can't talk too much about the home ownership thing until I know he's handled his taxes, but I'm not really in a place where I can make him do his taxes either. I've offered to help, I've given him the name of my tax guy; I don't think I should push it anymore since ultimately he's an adult. But waiting on the home ownership thing is making me feel a bit taken advantage of from the utilities standpoint among other things. I'm keeping track of what we pay into the house and what they pay into the house, so I'm hoping they would want to pay to make up for the utilities paid, since they've always declared their intention (and we've always agreed to it) to purchase a share of the house.

***

Petty, petty, petty. That's how I feel. I just try to deal with it in my own head, but I feel like this is a fairly safe place to air said petty thoughts. This post may self-destruct; I'm not sure.

Now that my finances are feeling more under control than they have been since about March, I'm feeling optimistic and forward-looking. I idly wondered, when will I (well, my household) become a millionaire, and how is that technically defined?

I looked around online and the consensus seems to be that you can either be a net-worth millionaire or an actual-money millionaire. Either your net worth is at least a million, or you have at least a million in bank and retirement accounts.

By the first measure, my household could conceivably attain millionaire status in about 4 years, if things go well and we gain about $10K per month in net worth.

By the second measure, I'd think it would be more like 8 years, since the majority of our assets contributing to net worth are our two properties. So getting to a million in cash and retirement funds will take a lot more time, and debt reduction won't help with that one.

Just some idle Friday musings.

I checked NT's UK account, calculated how much we need to cover August mortgage payments (plus 25-pound cushion) and transferred the remainder--750--to his UK savings account. It makes barely any interest, but moving the money into savings makes it feel more official that the money is saved.

I've decided to use the UK savings account as our EF because A) it accumulates painlessly without coming out of our normal cashflow, B) the money is harder to get to since it's in the UK and C) we don't have any plans for that money except to use as spending money for our next UK trip, which won't be for over a year, so we should be able to save up a good EF plus a good amount of vacation money before then.

GBP750 translates to $1125, which means we're over 10% of the way to my $10,000 EF goal!

In the U.S., we finally saved up enough to hopefully fund the next phase of AS's dental procedure thanks to her latest freelance payment. We had some money left over for once! NT has been itching to spend, so I got him to articulate what he wants most. A) paint for several rooms in our house and B) new underwear (which we could all use). So I set aside $300 for paint and $75 for underwear.

There was still some money left over, so I stashed $250 in our nearly-empty U.S. savings account, bringing it up to $255.74. No specific plans for this money; just a vague idea that we'll probably want to put it toward a larger renovation project at some point, whether it's redoing one of the bathrooms or installing ductless A/C.

Feels good to have money in both savings accounts again! We cleared the US one to help pay our tax bill in April and drained the UK one during our June/July vacation. The last time we had really big balances in both of them was spring 2015, when we emptied our savings over the course of a few months to renovate the UK flat, sell the US condo at a loss, and refinance the US duplex mortgage.

Sometimes I revisit those days on this blog and marvel at it all! Our tax and medical/dental bills this year were a cakewalk by comparison.

Updated my goal based on NT's recent raise and downgrading AS's annual income expectation, and added our recent retirement gains to the balance.

Goal: $479,875 by 2019
(As a reminder, this is to get me to 3x my current salary, which is now $66,625, so $199,875; NT to 3x his, which is now $60,000, so $180,000; and AS to 2x hers, which this year is projected to be $50,000, so $100,000)

Current balance: $279,380

May 2016 balance: $269,301

Progress: $10,079 (over 2 months)

To reach the goal by our birthdays in 2019, that's 31 months, so we'd need to contribute (or have assets appreciate) $6,468 per month to reach it. We came somewhat closer to that level of progress with about $5K in gains these past two months!

Assets:
NT's UK pensions:
#1: 17,105 pounds ($25,658)
#2: 20,501 pounds ($30,752)
#3: 5,523 pounds ($8,284)
NT's 401(k): $44,207
NT's Roth IRA: $10,327
AS's trad. IRA: $15,528
AS's Roth IRA: $29,607
AS's SEP IRA: $9,633
CJ's 401(k): $91,931
CJ's Roth IRA: $13,453
NT's flat: 180,000 pounds ($270,000)
CJ/NT/AS house: $470,000 (value -6%)
---
Total Assets: $1,019,380

Total Debt: $475,634

Current Estimated Net Worth: $543,746

May 2016 estimate: $529,251

Change in net worth: +$14,495

Summary: I was shocked by this huge jump! I went back to make sure it was accurate, and it is. About $9K of it is due to retirement fund growth and contributions (including $2750 to AS's Roth). The other $5K is because I realize that last month, I switched the exchange rate on NT's pensions and home value but not on NT's mortgage debt. So changing the exchange rate from $1.60 to $1.50 gave us another $5K jump. Hard to believe it was that much!

Notes on the numbers above: House value estimates are approximate. UK pension values updated about once a year. UK asset values and debt amounts are calculated figuring $1.50 for every British pound.

I only get updated on NT's pensions once a year, and the last year they stagnated in value. But this year one of them is up about a grand, to 5523 pounds. I'm noting that here so when I do net worth at the end of the month, I'll have that number.

I can't believe it's getting late already! I basically spent all day lazing around. Well, a lot of it budgeting and other organizational stuff on the computer, but it felt like a lazy day.

We got in yesterday evening from our trip. The flight home and getting through customs is always terrible, but it wasn't any worse than usual.

The trip itself was fabulous. Probably the best we've ever taken as a family. Lots of traveling, but worth it for all the experiences. We flew into Heathrow and had to drive about 4 hours to Exeter to spend a week with NT's family. We had a little outing or two every day, visiting different towns.

Here's a rocky beach at Dawlish Warren:


Babbacombe Model Village (a vast miniature world, this is just one small part):


The pier at Paignton, which had arcade games and other fun stuff:


Exeter itself was lovely:


We also visited a sandy beach, an otter sanctuary and butterfly farm and an archaeological museum. We mostly cooked at home (NT's parents had rented us a lovely 4-bedroom house) and brought picnic things out, but we did eat at a couple places.

After about a week, we left the kids with NT's dad and stepmom and drove about 3 hours to Oxford to our friends' house. That night they had people over so we could see some of the people we know there.

The next morning we left for Barcelona (me, NT, AS, our two best friends and the girlfriend of one of them); we took a bus to Gatwick airport, then a plane to Barcelona, then bought a 4-day pass for the trains and subways and found our way to our AirBNB, a nice 3-bedroom condo.

It was incredible there. For one thing, it was sunny and in the 80s (England had mostly been in the 60s and drizzly). For another, the place was just so beautiful. Everywhere had ornate iron railings:



There were tons of little alleyway-type streets that no car could go down, and tapas bars about every 5 feet, it felt like! The tapas was amazing. There were also a number of vegan restaurants; although none of them blew me away, it was nice to have so many options.

There were living statues in some areas that just blew me away:


We were close to the beach as well:


We got out to Parc Guell, a weird and wonderful park featuring architectural touches by Gaudi:


It was high on a hill so we got great views of the city from there.

And basically we spent hours sitting at various outdoor cafes having chilled wine and snacks. Everything was so amazing. The only drawback of the city really was that it could really stink of sewage in places. But you'd keep walking and the smell would go away in a minute.

Meanwhile back in Exeter, things could not have gone better with the grandparents. We Skyped once but it seemed to simultaneously bore and upset the kids, so we just relied on Facebook photos from family members. It was easy not to worry when we saw shots of the kids having fun all over the Devonshire area:




Our Barcelona jaunt went by in a flash; it was only four days, three nights. We flew back to England and took the bus back to Oxford to spend two more nights with our friends. The one full day we had there, we spent in the city itself (our friends lived on the edge in a more suburban area). One friend showed us where he works, the impressive Oxford University exam schools, full of rooms like this:


Then we walked around Oxford, basically just soaking in the atmosphere. It's such a beautiful city:


That night we ate at a nice Italian restaurant and went drinking at a scruffy but charming pub, one of NT's old haunts.

The next two days were no fun, but we were prepared: We left Oxford around noon and drove 5 hours (traffic was awful) to Exeter, met up with the kids and grandparents for a dinner out (luckily there was a play area because the food took forever and was only so-so), spent the night at NT's mum's house (the kids still had to stay at his dad's because of space issues and that made one of them weepy), got up super early, drove to the car rental place with two emotional kids, dropped the car, lugged our stuff on a shuttle to the airport, waited out a delay, flew to Iceland, got straight on the next plane which was already boarding, flew another 7 hours or so, went through the awful customs line, got a taxi home, and put the by-now hysterical kids straight to bed. That was around 8pm last night, which would have been 2am in England, so they were a wreck (even though they were really good on the plane).

But today was a good recovery day. I almost feel ready to face work tomorrow. Almost.

One of the ways I was able to pay our tax bill in full was by putting other purchases on some 0% credit cards we had. I probably could have paid them off a month ago, but I wanted to be able to officially say the money had come in to cover the tax (and dental) bills.

Now that the on-paper deficit is wiped out, I feel comfortable paying them off. So I set up the payments today. I have 0% interest rates until early 2017, but I feel more comfortable not carrying debt if I don't have to.

I never counted them in my debt totals because I felt confident I'd pay them off quickly, so this doesn't change the total household debt. But it does feel good!

The total balance we were carrying across four cards was $6,133.07. There are also some new purchases on one of the cards, but I'll pay that in full when the next bill comes, as I typically do with credit card balances.

Another bonus to being done with the tax bill is that we can start maximizing our rewards by using the Target card for Target purchases (5% off each purchase), the Amazon card on Amazon (5% rewards you can redeem toward future purchases), and the Amex for groceries (6% cashback). The cards we were using only had 1%-2% rewards.

As you may recall, our goal got a big boost when our neighbors gave us $4K toward buying their share of the house, and I decided to just count it toward the debt. Any other time I probably would have put it toward our mortgage or into an EF, but we're just so sick of having to make up our tax bill and dental expenses. So that cut it down quite a bit before we left.

While we were gone, AS got two more freelance payments: $1226 and $758 net. We had to take some travel expenses out, but NT's raise hit with a $50 boost to his paycheck, so even with the travel expenses, our current deficit was reduced from about $1800 to just about $100.

Then I checked the Chase Sapphire rewards card. The bonus had hit and we could either get $601 cash or $775 travel rewards. Again, any other time I'd have saved it to use on travel expenses for our next trip. But seeing the end of the tax bill in sight, I couldn't resist: I cashed it out for $601.

So the upshot is, we've fully funded the tax bill and current dental bills and have a current surplus of $507! Our future projected surplus including all the money AS is anticipating from booked work: $7950!

Now, we still have a few dental bills expected later this year, and with how crazy this year has been, I'm not counting on that money at all. I'm just going to leave it there and we'll use it if we need it. But I declare the tax/dental challenge officially completed.

So what's next? Well, honestly, after about four months of this, there are so many deferred wants that it's hard to choose just one. But generally, we're going to continue to examine our purchases and try to be sensible for the rest of the year, so we don't get caught out by something like the tax/dental double whammy again.

I stopped tracking our spending on vacation once it became clear we weren't going to go over our limit, so I'm not sure exactly how much we spent from our UK account. Somewhere in the ballpark of 2,000 pounds or $3,000, about $200 per day. This included about $300 for car rental insurance, some bus journeys, souvenirs, groceries, eating out, petrol (gas), etc. We also spent some on our US credit cards, but that's already been taken from the budget surplus mentioned above. So I don't feel the need to do a detailed spending tracker, but I'd estimate it was:
UK flights & travel insurance: $5500
(UK lodging paid for by NT's parents)
Rental car & insurance: $900
Barcelona flight and lodging: $1300
Other spending: $2500-$3000

So, roughly $10K or $11K all told. Wow! But it really was an incredible and unforgettable trip, so no buyer's remorse there.

I can't tell if we're still waiting for some pending charges to hit NT's UK account, but I think they're all accounted for. If so, we have about 437 left over ($655). If so, we're saving that as the first drip toward building an emergency fund again. Yay for EFs!

Speaking of, I've decided for now that the EF goal will be $10,000. My reasoning is that we do tend to have a big surplus each month so could conceivably lose one income and still survive. (Technically we could probably survive if we lost one full income and half of another.) So we don't need a massive EF at this point. But I want to have at least enough to pay off our downstairs neighbors if the house deal were to fall through for any reason, plus a little extra. We "owe" them $9K, so I figure $10K is a reasonable figure.

I don't know that we'll go full tilt at this goal or just add to it incrementally. But for now I'll count the $655 in the UK account and go from there.

I'll try to post a more fun travel wrap-up with a few pictures later!

I'm back! Probably going to do several entries today to get all caught up. But first, our July debt payments. All mortgage payments hit, and at our old exchange rate for the UK mortgages, we paid:
US: $675 to principal
UK1: $226
UK2: $48
UK3: $50

So $999 total.

I could calculate it at the old rate, but I just didn't bother. I'll do it next month. We were so close to having $1K per month be the minimum, but now with the lower exchange rate, that won't happen for a while.

However, I'm now switching our debts to the $1.50 exchange rate, plus adding the $4K our neighbors gave us (they said it was toward buying their share of the house, but until we all sign a proper contract, I'm considering it a debt to them). So our new debt totals are:
US Mortgage (duplex) $403,626
Loan from friends (duplex) $9,000
UK Mortgage 1: $43,976
UK Mortgage 2: $9,270
UK Mortgage 3: $9,762
TOTAL DEBT $475,634

Doing this early since I won't get to it while we're on vacation in England ...

Assets:
NT's UK pensions:
#1: 17,105 pounds ($25,658)
#2: 20,501 pounds ($30,752)
#3: 4,452 pounds ($6,678)
NT's 401(k): $43,051
NT's Roth IRA: $10,168
AS's trad. IRA: $15,289
AS's Roth IRA: $26,367
AS's SEP IRA: $9,485
CJ's 401(k): $89,389
CJ's Roth IRA: $13,246
NT's flat: 180,000 pounds ($270,000)
CJ/NT/AS house: $470,000 (value -6%)
---
Total Assets: $1,010,083

Total Debt: $480,832

Current Estimated Net Worth: $529,251

May 2016 estimate: $519,476

Change in net worth: +$9,775

Summary: Boy, what didn't happen this month?!? I revised our U.S. home value up, but also added $4K of debt to our friends (see previous post for explanation). I changed the British pound exchange rate from $1.60 to $1.50 in light of the EU nonsense. (Current rate is $1.37 but I do believe it'll stabilize from there, so I went with the general average of the past few years.) So NT's retirement and home values decreased. However, all our U.S. retirement accounts were up this morning (no doubt the Brexit panic will be reflected in tomorrow's balance, so I snuck in just in time!)

Lots of ups and downs, but overall gain of nearly $10K. And our assets are up over a million for the first time since we sold the condo!

Notes on the numbers above: House value estimates are approximate. I don't have a way to check NT's UK pensions or flat value, so their values stay static for the purpose of this update (unless I happen to get some info by chance). UK asset values and debt amounts are calculated figuring $1.50 for every British pound.

So this is rather strange... My neighbor downstairs, the lawyer who was going to draw up a contract for me to review for part ownership of the house, had gone silent on this. I hadn't heard anything about it for maybe a year. I kept thinking about asking him about it, but I've been personally concerned that he needs to clear up a big tax issue (basically, he hasn't paid taxes for years--five or so? and he's self employed, so it's not like taxes are getting withheld from his paychecks). I really want to know that's cleared up before I enter into a big financial agreement anyway, so I haven't asked about the part-ownership thing.

He still hasn't done the tax thing, though I've started gently asking about it now and then so it doesn't get swept under the rug. He'd recently gotten a huge freelance payment, and his husband now has a second part-time job that pays as well as his full-time one, so he keeps saying it's a good time to clear up the tax thing, but he was kind of wrapped up in building a web business.

Well, last night he brings us $4,000 cash, and says he's quitting the online business idea because his supposed partners keep flaking on him. Now he has all this money he was going to invest in it, and wants to give another installment on their down payment for the house.

I think it was partly wanting to move forward on something, and partly because he's no doubt heard me grumbling about money this year. But it took me aback. First, I told him we should get the contract part figured out before he gives me any more money. He says he'll get that done really soon now that he's not working on the business, so he feels comfortable paying some more on the house. Then I say maybe he should keep the cash until he makes sure he doesn't need it for sorting out his back taxes. He says he has plenty more money for that.

So, I took it. At first I thought, I should put it toward the mortgage, since this means either we're $4K more in debt to him or we have $4K less home value (once the agreement is signed). (I mean, that's not how the agreement is structured, but it's how I'm going to calculate things.)

Then I thought, no, I should use it to start an EF. We realize that things would be a lot less bothersome if we didn't have to cashflow all unexpected stuff out of our budget surplus and AS's freelance inaltcome, so that is something we've been talking about doing once our tax/dental budget deficit is cleared up.

But then, AS and I agreed that we just really want this budget deficit gone. So even though I'm counting this as debt, I'm just adding it to the budget to take the deficit down. At least I'm increasing our home value in my net worth calculation, so it will be more than made up for (although I'm also going to downshift our pound-to-dollar exchange rate this month, so that's going to give our retirement values a pounding).

Well, long story short, I'd rather my neighbor had waited until he cleared up his taxes and finalized the purchase agreement, but it's not like we weren't planning him to pay for the house, so I'm just going to take it as a welcome windfall. And I do plan to pay it back should the house agreement fall through, as I plan to do with the original $5K they contributed to the down payment.

House down payment from neighbor: $4,000

Current deficit: $1,822.27
Projected future surplus: $7,661.99

Whew. Some planned hits, and several unexpected ones.

Unexpected: We reserved a car for the UK thinking it would just be a hold on the credit card and we could pay with the UK debit card. Nope, they charged us. We may bring cash home from the trip to pay it off, but for now counting it as an expense from our U.S. finances. $470.83.

Expected: Date night while the kids were at the daycare sleepover. We had a great dinner at a new vegan restaurant and drinks and snacks at another place we'd never been to before. It was a beautiful night. I had $55 stashed for the night but we spent $104.37 over that.

Unexpected: An escrow shortfall meaning our mortgage payment will go up $312.54 per month, starting Aug. 1! (Supposedly not permanently, just until the shortage is made up...) Since I've budgeted the shortfall/escrow through the end of the year, that means $1,562.70. Oof, that hurts. The only bright spot is that it's coming later, and in small increments, so I'm only taking it out of future surplus, not current deficit.

Expected: Father's Day festivities. NT wanted lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant, a day at the movies (Finding Dory: excellent by the way!) with snacks included, and we stopped by the grocery store for berries (were going to get ice cream but everyone was stuffed and sugared up). $160.98 -- almost exactly the same as date night, I just realized!

Anyway, the two expected expenses were totally worth it for the fun we had, and the two unexpected ones were unavoidable, so it is what it is.

UK car rental: $470.83
Date night: $104.37
Mortgage payment increase Aug-Dec: $1,562.70 (affects future surplus only)
Father's Day: $160.98

Actual deficit: $5,822.27
Projected future surplus: $3,661.99

Boo hiss.

AS booked two new gigs today: a $500 writing assignment from my job and a $1250 distance teaching gig (advising one student on their writing project) at one of the two colleges she works for.

Since she's only booked the work, not received the money, this only increases the future surplus, doesn't affect the current deficit.

AS freelance writing job net: $325
AS freelance teaching job net: $812.50

Actual deficit: $5,086.09
Projected future surplus: $5,960.87

We have an upcoming date night Friday (the kids are sleeping over at daycare) and Father's Day Sunday, so we'll probably pull from shared spending from both of those, increasing the deficit and reducing the surplus. But AS is also due about $1100 in checks, so hopefully those will come in yet this week.

I never know how seriously to take Zillow, so I rarely check it. But it seems like every house in our area gets snapped up within a week or two (or less) of the "for sale" sign going up. So I decided to check our property's estimated value.

When we bought in late 2014, Zillow valued it at $369K and we got it for $465K (only a bit less than it was listed at). Does that get used as a baseline measurement for Zillow then? Because it seems like it's been a constant climb from that price point (with just a few dips) and the property is now valued at $530K.

Overall the value has stayed above $500K except for three small dips since Sept. 2014. I don't know whether that's a safe value or not. Anyway, it doesn't really matter, but I'm curious.

My company is behind schedule on paying AS for a couple of jobs (frustrating!), but one of the checks ($500) finally arrived yesterday.

Since this was an expected payment it affects only the actual deficit, not the projected surplus.

AS payment net: $325

Actual deficit: $5,086.09
Future projected surplus: $4,823.37

Ever since the NYC trip, I've been managing to handle unplanned expenses with budget maneuvering. Flex spending, line items in the budget we ended up not needing the money for, random bits of credit card rewards, etc. But AS got a medical bill I can't swing any way except to add to our current deficit. Ah well, it was a good run!

Medical bill: $218.89

Actual deficit: $5,411.09
Future projected surplus: $4,823.37

It's frustrating hovering in the $5Ks after making such steady progress from the $10K mark. But looking at the future surplus, we're still doing OK. We'll get there.

NT let us know yesterday he'd gotten a 5% raise! A conservative estimate is $60 more per paycheck, but we'll see once it kicks in; supposedly it's effective June 1 but will appear in the June 31 paycheck, which I find a bit confusing. But not complaining! Counting AS's teaching raise and my recent one, we've all gotten them this year!

I went ahead and upped NT's 401(k) contribution by 1%. With all the crazy expenses this year I was going to wait to do that, but since it'll come out of raise money and we'll still have a net gain, I figured I could at least do a little. He's now contributing 5%, with a 2% company match, so at 7%. Eventually we'll get that up to 10% and someday 12% or 15%, but this is a good baby step.

We are now at 7% for him, 9.5% for me and 10% for AS, plus we hope to max out all three Roths for the first time this year.

I put in her Q2 SEP IRA contribution and it put her over the mark. I'm very pleased that we've built her retirement funds up from virtually nothing over the past several years. And she is 5 years younger than me (6 younger than NT), so I think it's a pretty good milestone for her age.

So the NYC spending comes out of shared spending, which means it increases our current deficit and lowers the future surplus. A big hit to both, but we got some good news today too: AS received a big check we were expecting ($2500) and found out her teaching gig gave her a tiny raise of $180 for this coming semester.

NYC spending: $913.50 (affects both actual and future #s)
AS freelance check net: $1625 (affects only actual deficit)
AS teaching raise net: $117 (affects only future surplus)

Actual deficit: $5,192.20
Future surplus: $5,042.26

Some upcoming challenges to our tax bill goal: We want to take the kids out tomorrow for dinner and bowling to celebrate AA completing kindergarten, and the adults will want a date night next Friday, since the kids are going to be at a daycare sleepover. I'm going to see what I can do to scrounge up CC rewards and other money so we take as little as possible from the above future surplus. I think there are some little adjustments to the budget I've been meaning to make that we could use to help pay for these two nights out.

Ah, we had a wonderful time in New York! I got to catch up with many of my best college friends and attend some thought-provoking events such as seminars and lectures.

About the only negative was I drank too much the final night of the reunion. I thought I was OK until I woke up the next morning and had to throw up. I haven't done that in years! I gradually felt better, but I didn't sleep well any of the nights I was there. Too much drinking every day was part of it, plus being in a strange bed, plus probably my mom senses being a little fraught from not having the kids around. This was the longest we've ever been away from them--from Thursday morning (we left before they woke up) to this morning (we got in at 2 am after our flight was delayed a few hours, so we didn't see them until around 7am when we woke up to get them to school and daycare).

We got to spend some time in Manhattan Thursday and Brooklyn Sunday, on either end of the reunion (which was in Bronxville). Even though the expenses added up more than I would have liked, we had a great time. And some of the places we ate and drank were actually really reasonable, on a par with or slightly cheaper than comparable offerings in Minneapolis!

One thing AS realized was she was feeling a little shy of talking in the seminars and feeling a little stymied vs. inspired by everyone talking about all the stuff they do. Over the course of the weekend, we realized that working at home all the time may be having a negative effect on her. So once we pay off the tax and dental bills, we're going to look at co-working options so she can get out of the house and be around others when she works.

So on to spending. It wasn't a crazy amount, if a bit more than I would have liked. We had prepaid a number of things, so those won't come out of the current deficit on the tax bill goal:
Reunion registration $495 (included lunch & dinner Fri. & Sat. plus several cocktail receptions and other events)
Donation to college: $500
Hotel 3 nights: $611.04
Airfare (after CC rewards used): $20.80

So $1626.84 for those in-advance purchases. Then the actual spending on the trip:

Money to one of our friends to help pay for childcare expenses (food, activities, transportation): $100.00
Took our downstairs neighbors out to dinner as a pre-thanks for watching the kids the other 2 days: $67.00
Took out cash for the trip (ended up spending it on subway, used books from an outdoor stand, lunch at a place that didn't take cards, and various other small purchases): $120.00
Lyft from home to airport: $22.07
Checked luggage: $25.00
AS in-flight snack: $5.00
Airtrain from airport +subway fare: $8.00 x3=$24
Luggage storage Thursday while we explored NYC: $10.00
Thursday lunch: $35.60
NT purchases at a record shop: $51.18
Drinks Thursday afternoon: $45.00
Thursday dinner: $140.00
Train from NYC to Bronxville: $46.50 (I bought 3 round trips but we all misplaced our tickets and had to buy new ones Sunday, so wasted $23.25!)
Taxi from train station to hotel: $14.14
AS snack at hotel Friday: $7.08
Hangover snack for me Sunday (fries and soda): $6.51
Train from Bronxville to NYC: $23.25
Subway fare from NYC to Brooklyn: $3.00 x3 = $9
Coffee: $6.36
Airtrain fare back to airport: $6.00 x3 = $18
Checked luggage: $25.00
Drinks at airport: $38.40
AS snack at airport: $10.88
Souvenirs for kids (my impulse purchase): $17.40
Airport snack for NT: $3.58
Taxi home: $42.55

So total additional spending for the 4 days: $913.50

All told, $2,540.34. That comes to a little over $200 per person per day. I suppose that's not too bad for a trip to New York!

Just recording our mortgage payments, a bit later than usual because we just got back from our NYC trip. More on that soon, including a detailed breakdown of spending!

All our mortgage payments hit:
US: $673 to principal
UK1: $224
UK2: $46
UK3: $50

That's $993 to principal this month.

Goal: $485,480 by 2019
(As a reminder, this is to get me to 3x my current salary which is now $66,625, so $199,875; NT to 3x his, which is now $57,083, so $171,249; and AS to 2x hers, which last year totaled $57,178, so $114,356)

Current balance: $269,301

April 2016 balance: $265,900

Progress: $3,401

To reach the goal by our birthdays in 2019, that's 33 months, so we'd need to contribute (or have assets appreciate) $6551 per month to reach it. I'll keep trying!

Assets:
NT's UK pensions:
#1: 17,105 pounds ($27,368)
#2: 20,501 pounds ($32,801)
#3: 4,452 pounds ($7,123)
NT's 401(k): $42,311
NT's Roth IRA: $9,932
AS's trad. IRA: $15,051
AS's Roth IRA: $25,950
AS's SEP IRA: $8,315
CJ's 401(k): $87,425
CJ's Roth IRA: $13,025
NT's flat: 180,000 pounds ($288,000)
CJ/NT/AS house: $440,000
---
Total Assets: $997,301

Total Debt: $477,825

Current Estimated Net Worth: $519,476

April 2016 estimate: $515,079

Change in net worth: +$4,397

Summary: Pretty much a repeat of last month: The market had a (very) modest gain, so our net worth went up. I also put a bit toward AS's SEP IRA. I can't wait until we start contributing to our Roths again, so we can hopefully top a million in assets yet this year!

Notes on the numbers above: House value estimates are approximate. I don't have a way to check NT's UK pensions or flat value, so their values stay static for the purpose of this update (unless I happen to get some info by chance). UK asset values and debt amounts are calculated figuring $1.60 for every British pound.

AS received a $1975 payment we didn't think she'd get until early June! So we squeaked one more May payment in. She did have to pay a $57.58 fee to get the payment through Paypal. So our future surplus is lowered a bit, but our current deficit is better. But then we got another dental bill, so that lowers future surplus and cuts into the deficit reduction.

AS freelance check net after tax/retirement: $1,283.75
Paypal fee: $57.58
AS dental bill: $650

Actual deficit: $5,903.70
Future surplus: $5,838.76

I'm hoping after the NY trip we can stop spending and knock out some more of the deficit! Most of the UK trip spending money is already saved up so hopefully that won't make too much of a dent. We have a couple of hopefully minor home repairs. Other than that I want to take it easy on spending until we're closer to funding this tax and dental stuff.

I cannot believe tomorrow is June 1. This year has seemed to fly by faster than any year before. It's just crazy.

The first of our summer trips is coming up: AS, NT and I fly to New York for my 20-year college reunion. We leave early Thursday morning, REALLY early. Since I had Monday off, that means a two-day work week.

The kids are staying here. Thursday and Friday, our downstairs neighbors will be taking care of them. Then Saturday (maybe beginning Friday night), another good friend will be staying over at our place and taking care of the kids until we get back Sunday night. Neither of them is charging us anything to do this, but we'll be sure to leave some cash just to cover the extra expense of feeding, transporting and entertaining the kids!

Our downstairs neighbors are out of town at one of THEIR 20-year college reunions. They come back tonight sometime. That gives them a break of one full day before they take over parenting two kids for a couple of days! We need to touch base with them to work out the logistics of where the kids will sleep Wednesday night and the other nights they'll be watching them.

We also need to finalize our plans for Thursday and Sunday, when we'll have some time outside of the reunion to explore NYC. I know we're thinking we'll do Manhattan on the Thursday (possibly meeting up with a friend) and Brooklyn on Sunday (meeting up with two or more friends). We know for food, we want to do soul food, dim sum and pizza, so we just need to figure out which ones we'll do Thursday vs. Sunday. NT also wants to browse a record store. I did at some point have a vague plan mapped out, but I didn't bookmark anything, so we'll need to figure it out again tonight and tomorrow.

I know it'll be easier to figure things out on the fly without having the kids with us, but I still feel like I need some idea of what we're doing. We're going to do public transportation vs. renting a car, so we need to figure out how to get from the airport to the city to my college on Thursday, then to Brooklyn and back to the airport on Sunday. The hotel we chose while at the reunion is about a mile away from the college, so that's an easy walk. While at the reunion, our schedule and meals are all taken care of, so we don't have to worry about that.

Once we get back from New York, AA will only have two days of kindergarten left! And I have only two full weeks of work then a four-day week before our trip to England and (for the grownups) Spain.

There's also a daycare sleepover mid-month. What a crazy month! So far, July (once we get back the 9th) and August look very uneventful. I think that'll be a relief!

My company does a lot of stuff related to the building and construction industry so we get sent a lot of news about it. Thought LAL would want to see this one, though I don't know how useful a national study is: http://qz.com/694181/the-us-housing-market-is-starting-to-boom/

My personal ones, that is.

I typically only check retirement accounts once a month, but lately I've been thinking about retirement savings more, and so sometimes I absentmindedly go check the balance of my main 401(k) to get an idea where the market is. Well I just did that right now and noticed it was up over $87K for the first time: $87,033.08, to be exact. I knew my Roth was close to $13K, so I went and checked that: $13,003.21. That puts my retirement funds value at $100,036.29!

I know it's just a drop in the bucket compared with what I need, but it sounds like such a massive number to me!

NT has been over $100K for about 2 years now, thanks to his early investing in pensions in the UK. AS, who had barely any retirement savings to speak of until a few years ago, is getting very close to $50K: She's at $49,151.47. Unless hers take a major dive, she should hit that milestone in early July, when we'll put $2750 in her Roth.

These were both expected expenses. The dental bill is just for the first part of AS's tooth implant procedure. It's a bit different amount from any of the estimates we got, so I'm not sure what the final total will end up being. But the next appointment is in September, so maybe we'll be done with the tax bill goal before new charges come in!

That does mean we'll need to spend up her Chase Sapphire with other stuff to get the bonus, because September will be too late. The NYC trip plus groceries and other regular expenses will hopefully get us to $4K. Who knows, maybe we'll open ANOTHER bonus card for September's charges!

AS also ordered business cards (finally!) for her freelance business.

Both of these expenses increase the actual deficit and reduce the future surplus.

AS dental bill: $1,450.57
AS business cards: $53.88

Actual deficit: $6,479.87
Future surplus: $6,546.34

The NYC trip (first weekend in June) will further increase the current deficit and reduce the future surplus. AS is expecting some freelance payments in early June that will reduce the actual deficit but have no effect on the future surplus.

The projected surplus is based on booked work to date; after our UK trip (last week in June/first week in July) she can continue to book work for the remaining six months of the year, so we hope there will be more money in play then.

Since we have such a large deficit to clear up first, we haven't formed any specific ideas about the projected surplus or any other money that comes in the second half of the year. Obviously a big chunk will go to AS's dental procedures. We may owe more on the basement bathroom than we have set aside; we still haven't spoken to our contractor since work was completed last month. We haven't put any more money into improving the house, so I imagine there may be some things this fall/winter. I wouldn't mind a warm-weather vacation in December or January, so maybe some of it would go to that. We've also talked about rebuilding an emergency fund. I also feel like the kids' mutual funds need some replenishing. And we'd all like to get back to charitable giving.

But I'm not going to make any specific plans because there could always be more unexpected expenses this year; we've already had so many big hits that nothing would surprise me!