Ceejay74's Personal Finance Blog

Sunday (the 6th): In the morning I played silly games with the kids (bad pony, baby pony and something about repeatedly sneaking up on a sleeping bad guy). In the afternoon, I helped them finish decorating the tree. In the evening, we decorated a mini-tree up in the book nook, and they helped me wrap the few presents we already had and put those under the big tree.

That night, I finished ordering Xmas presents for all four family members. Now all I need to worry about is gifts for my parents and whether we want to send Xmas cards to friends and other family.

Yesterday, NT and the kids got on the same bus as me on the way home from work, which is always a nice treat, because the kids run up yelling "Mom" and give me big hugs.

I watched the '66 How the Grinch Stole Christmas several times with SL. (It's not available free on Netflix or anywhere, but I can get it on a random website, so we watched on my laptop, cuddled up on the couch.)

I helped AA do her homework (reading 2 books per night); she's up to Level C on the books they send home and can sound out quite a few words without any help!

I cuddled up with NT on the couch for quite a while, because it seemed like all through November we hardly even hugged (what with my various awful illnesses).

We were all three going to have a family budget chat but I fell asleep on the couch before we could. I'm still getting tired sooner than normal, but my energy is coming back little by little.

So a few days ago I realized the mortgage payment still hadn't come out of my account. I sent an inquiry online, but when I didn't hear back in a day or two I called them.

Turns out my mortgage was sold to another company, and I must have missed the letter about it! They gave me the name and number of the new company.

I tried going on the new company's website and setting up a payment, but my old loan number didn't work and I didn't know my new one. So I called them and it turns out that I'll be able to pay them once I get a letter from them, but until then I can't. They assured me there would be no late fee or anything for 60 days. So now, I guess I just wait! So weird -- you'd think they'd have a way for me to pay them right away.

So that was stressful, because the only other time I've been late on a mortgage payment was when I supposedly didn't have to make one but the payoff of the condo got lost. I'm glad to know this, too, is just a weird administrative thing with hopefully no repercussions for me.

Yesterday's family doings:

Helped SL write her alphabet. I had no idea she could at least approximately make all of the letters! Right now they're barely legible giant scrawls, but she's farther along than I realized.

Took SL grocery shopping and to get haircuts. Bought her a piece of chocolate for being a good helper, and then our barber gave her MORE chocolate! Used a carshare for part of it and sang along to the radio together.

Drove AA, SL and NT to drop them off at a community event using another carshare. Oohed and aahed over the Christmas lights decorating people's houses along the way.

It's amazing, when you're being conscious of it, how the littlest day-to-day activities can feel like special family time.

I finally took "after" pics so I could share all the decorating we've been doing for the past few months!

You can see "before" photos

The third day got accidentally derailed from having much quality family time -- I went to a rally straight after work that I didn't know was going to lead into a three-hour march through the city! Got home after 9pm, exhausted, and the kids were in bed, so just vegged out on the couch with AS and NT.

Day four, NT and AS and I went to his company's holiday party. Afterward NT and I went to a music show. The kids had a sleepover with the downstairs neighbor, so AS got some much needed downtime at home.

Yesterday, AA was telling me a story she'd learned at kindergarten (The Gingerbread Man), and it was so good I asked her to do it again while I filmed her. Then I posted the video on Youtube so distant grandparents will be able to see it. (I did the same thing with SL "reading" a book she memorized a few days ago.)

Then, AS and NT and I went out for dinner to celebrate 10 years of being together and 9 years of marriage. We had a wonderful meal and a surprisingly deep conversation about goals, causes, childrearing and other things. It left me feeling very inspired and close to my family.

I thought I should try to document the family-oriented stuff I do this month, since I proclaimed it to be Family December. Yesterday, I worked with NT and AS to get the kids' Xmas lists together, and the three of us played videogames together.

The goal: $486,000 in retirement assets by 2019

Current balance: $256,156

Oct balance: $252,891

Progress: $3265

To reach the goal by our birthdays in 2019, that's 39 months, so we'd need $5893 per month to reach it. Not likely through straight contributions, so we'll have to hope for some growth on top of that!

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): $39,700
NT's Roth IRA: $7,473
AS's trad. IRA: $14,959
AS's Roth IRA: $24,409
AS's SEP IRA: $6,082
CJ's 401(k): $83,878
CJ's Roth IRA: $12,363
NT's flat: 180,000 pounds ($288,000)
CJ/NT/AS house: $440,000
---
Total Assets: $984,156

Total Debt: $483,753

Current Estimated Net Worth: $500,403

October 2015 estimate: $496,161

Change in net worth: +$4,242

Summary: Our retirement accounts pretty much stagnated, but we made some contributions and paid down some debt, so our net worth finally inched up over the half-million mark!

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.

Oh, hi.

So I see it's been a while since I posted. Let me recap my November.

My last entry was Nov. 5. On the morning of Nov. 7, I woke up with body aches and chills. (Yes, I got the flu shot back in September. Oh well.) For two days I crouched on the couch or lay in bed, alternately shivering and sweating. Monday I felt marginally better but stayed home sick. Tuesday, I felt a little better so I worked from home. I managed to go in Wednesday, but Thursday and Friday a cough developed that was really persistent, so I stayed home, billing a half day each day and resting up some more.

That weekend (Nov 14-15) I felt like I was improving so I went in Monday through Wednesday, sucking cough drops and putting on a brave face. By Wednesday afternoon I could tell I wasn't better yet, so I stayed home for a half-sick, half work from home day on Thursday. Friday I needed to go to a studio to help direct an all day video shoot for my job. I was chilly and lethargic but managed not to ruin any shots with my coughing. We ordered lunch from a great sushi place and I could barely eat my spring rolls and cucumber maki. I came home and felt like a zombie.

Saturday (Nov 21) I rested all day and thought if I didn't feel any better in the morning, I'd go see someone. I woke up with my face aching from congestion build-up overnight, and planned a bus ride to get to the nearest CVS minute clinic. Luckily I got there early and was the first one to sign up, because they only had one doctor on duty. She checked me out and said "Well, your ears look great! ... I thought I'd start with some good news." She told me I had sinusitis and was just on the verge of getting pneumonia. She also said judging from my symptoms that it sounded like this rollercoaster ride had started with the flu.

I got antibiotics, an inhaler and Mucinex and was told to cough up everything in my lungs so it didn't develop into pneumonia. I wonder now if I was overzealous with the cough drops and caused the mucus buildup.

Monday and Tuesday I just straight stayed home sick, not trying to do work except for answering one or two emails. Wednesday my office was closed and so I had a freebie day to rest up before Thanksgiving. By Tofurky day I felt mostly human; not a huge appetite, but I cooked all my dishes, tried a bit of everything and enjoyed myself. My 5-year-old woke up that day with diarrhea and ended the night with a fever and chills, but we put her to bed with some acetamenophin and she woke up Friday like nothing had happened. Ah, the miraculous healing powers of young bodies!

I too was feeling much better on Friday. Still a bit lethargic, but completely human. Stuffed myself with leftovers and got my Thanksgiving food coma just a day late.

Yesterday and today I've felt completely back to normal. Thank goodness! I haven't been that sick for that long maybe ever.

Oh, and did I mention I was doing NaNoWriMo? Some days I couldn't even muster the energy to type, so I would fall behind, and then other days I would lie on the couch and type on and off all day, sometimes getting 5000 or more words done over the course of a day. I finally finished (finished my story and got to 50,000 words) this evening! AS also did (and won) NaNoWriMo, as did one of my downstairs neighbors. NT was gone a ton of the holiday weekend for this group he belongs to, helping organize and attending several talks and music shows they had going on, so I felt like I barely saw him, and AS and I barely talked because we were hunched over our computers trying to finish our novels. I only took breaks to rest, play video games, take care of the kids' basic needs and eat.

Once I was done with NaNo it was time to catch up on my long-neglected budget. I finished that up tonight. I remembered to do a 400 pound payment to NT's mum, so now we only owe her 450 pounds. Luckily nothing else was late or too out of shape with our budget. It's been a hugely spendy month; the latest blow was an $800 bill from our contractor for going over budget on our living room. (Though, to be honest, he did run into a few snags, so I can understand why we didn't hit the original estimate.) But we're doing OK.

Oh, and while I was sick my city had another controversial homicide of a civilian by a police officer. (Getting justice for police brutality is my No. 1 cause.) There were marches, rallies, and now a large group of activists are camped outside the police station nearest the killing. A few days after they started the occupation, some racist armed guys that had been infiltrating the camp, saying weird things and filming, got chased away by some of the protesters, and they opened fire, wounding five people! All this was happening and I couldn't attend a single event. NT was able to attend a few things, and I donated money to three different causes related to the crisis, and shared tons of info on social media. Some sick days I just stayed glued to Twitter, following what happened.

My dad was calling and emailing on and off because he and Mom are doing their wills and he wanted to get various bits of info from me and keep me updated on what was going on with it. I was frankly shocked he didn't already have one in place; he's 84 and my mom is 81. I had my estate planning done when I was about 36! But then he's got a very standard traditional family structure, whereas I've got two partners and a non-biological kid, so the law defaults work for him, while we really needed to put protections in place.

While we were communicating I let him know I wouldn't be coming home in December. I'll aim for January, when I'll have more PTO. Plus, I just lost a month. I haven't done any Xmas preparation, planning or gift buying, and I feel like I've barely had any quality time with my nuclear family for a month. I want to stay home and make up for that lost time, plus get ready for Xmas.

Now I'm going to have some urgent stuff to do for work this week. I've got en email and intro for an infographic due by midmorning tomorrow, and three or four articles I'd really planned to turn in before the end of the month, but luckily we've got a bit of wiggle room on those. By the time I'm done with all that I'm sure I'll be butting up against deadlines on a few more of my projects. I suddenly seem to be constantly busy at work! But I've got some really high-profile projects and most of the stuff I'm doing is well within my comfort zone, so I'm happy at work. Just a little freaked that I'm going to be farther behind than I realize when I get in tomorrow!

But there were some high points to this lost month. First, I finished NaNoWriMo, proving that I really can write a novel in a month even under the worst possible circumstances.

Second, this was the first holiday when our kids played and/or watched shows by themselves for large periods of time, so we actually got time for adult relaxation (or would have, if I weren't sick and dealing with NaNoWriMo). It's bittersweet because I know someday they'll barely have time for us at all, but at the same time the taste of freedom is sweet!

Third, our 5-year-old AA had a breakthrough on reading and writing. She can now sound out and spell basic words!

Fourth, we should be able to pay off NT's mum by mid-December. That will feel really great!

Fifth, the El Nino winter has been really mild so far; we've barely had any days below freezing and just got our first real snow on Thanksgiving day (and that was only an inch or so). Winter will begin in earnest soon, but ordinarily it would have been here for a month already, so this has been a heck of a reprieve.

And sixth, it's over! I'm really looking forward to December, when I won't have NaNo and hopefully won't be sick; AS won't be doing NaNo, doesn't have as much work booked, and will finish her teaching semester in 2 weeks; and NT doesn't have nearly as many meetings and events planned for either of the volunteer organizations he belongs to. I'm calling it Family December, and I intend to have lots of quality time with them as well as with my kids. We also have at least three holiday parties (counting work, alumni and friend parties) to go to, and none that we have to organize ourselves. Our dating/wedding anniversary is this week and we've got a babysitter and reservations at a favorite restaurant. And I'm going to at least TWO music shows with NT. So a fun, social month, as long as my health holds out. I'm so looking forward to it!

With all the writing at work and for NaNoWriMo, I'm using a small window of downtime to fool around with numbers for a change.

I don't really work on a monthly budget anymore; I do an annual budget with real dates of predicted income and expenses. I do break it out by month, but some months have 5 weekends of grocery shopping, some have no haircut appointment, some have birthday or Xmas gift line items...you get the idea. Also, I don't factor AS's money in until she gets paid. So the surplus varies and I don't have a sense of how much my budget works out to monthly.

I do have an "emergency budget" amount figured out, but it's skewed because it assumes no daycare (if we were all out of work someone would stay home with the kids), and a tiny grocery budget, but does assume we all need to buy bus passes and healthcare out of pocket.

So I did a workup of an average month, with four weekends and no one-time events like Xmas. Then I factored in my and NT's take-home pay. I was pleased to see that even without AS's freelance income, we have over $1000 surplus:

Daycare (minus flex spending reimburse) -$668.34
Mortgage ($2789.40 -$1074 rental income) -$1,715.40
Utilities (est) -$400.00
Spending money -$120.00
Groceries -$200.00
Spending money -$120.00
Groceries -$200.00
AS dental -$27.95
Roth IRAs -$1,375.00
Spending money -$120.00
Groceries -$200.00
Spending money -$120.00
Groceries -$200.00
Barber -$100.00
Cell phones -$50.43
AS healthcare -$71.00
Carshare -$90.00
Bus pass -$85.00
---------------------------
Total expenses -$5,863.12


CJ paycheck x2 $3,344.12
NT paycheck x2 $3,579.46
--------------------------
Total net income $6,923.58

Budget surplus $1,060.46

Then I wondered, what would a bare bones budget (but not emergency where we'd need to cover our own healthcare and bus passes) look like relative to our budget? The last time we had a real bare-bones budget, our expenses were much higher because we hadn't refinanced or paid off all our non-mortgage debt. So I figured that out as well:

Daycare (minus flex spending reimburse) -$668.34
Mortgage ($2789.40 -$1074 rental income) -$1,715.40
Utilities (est) -$400.00
Groceries -$150.00
Groceries -$150.00
AS dental -$27.95
Groceries -$150.00
Groceries -$150.00
Barber (just NT, me every other month) -$30.00
Cell phones -$50.43
AS healthcare -$71.00
Bus pass -$85.00
---------------------------
Total expenses -$3,648.12

CJ paycheck x2 $3,344.12
NT paycheck x2 $3,579.46
----------------------------
Total net income $6,923.58

Budget surplus $3,275.46

Essentially, we're very close to being able to get by only using one income if need be! That is super cool to look at. This budget wouldn't be very fun, since it cuts grocery spending and omits fun money and carshare spending, but it would keep us alive, fed and sheltered.

That was a fun exercise. Now back to working with words.

Where is this month going?! Between NaNoWriMo and the craziest work week I've had in a long time, I haven't felt like I had even 5 minutes to post about my debt progress.

Anyway, our mortgage payments all posted:
US: $659 to principal
UK1: $221
UK2: $47
UK3: $50

All told, that's $977 paid to principal this month.

Since July, I haven't had any progress to report on the retirement goal to have $486,000 in retirement assets by 2019. Our plan values dropped for two months straight. However, this month they mostly recovered. With all the money we dumped in over the past couple months, our retirement assets are now at $252,891, or $4319 more than they were in late July.

To make the 2019 goal, I need to be growing by more than that per month, let alone by quarter. But I know investment values can be irregular. Hopefully we'll make up for lost time someday soon.

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): $39,277
NT's Roth IRA: $7,405
AS's trad. IRA: $14,933
AS's Roth IRA: $24,368
AS's SEP IRA: $6,069
CJ's 401(k): $82,887
CJ's Roth IRA: $10,660
NT's flat: 180,000 pounds ($288,000)
CJ/NT/AS house: $440,000
---
Total Assets: $980,891

Total Debt: $484,730

Current Estimated Net Worth: $496,161

September 2015 estimate: $479,334

Change in net worth: +$16,827

Summary: Our retirement accounts haven't quite recovered their value (my 401(k) was up over $85K at one point and now is less than $83K), they've recovered enough to show the benefit of our recent contributions and debt paydown. We'd previously lost nearly $10K of net worth over two months; now we've made that back plus nearly $7K more.

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.

It's been a busy week! What with planning for the 10/31 Halloween party AND for starting NaNoWriMo on 11/1, I haven't sat down to write a blog entry since I got back.

As I mentioned a couple posts ago, I went on an impromptu trip to Va. to see my mom. My sister had mentioned her declining health and I was worried.

The good news is, it wasn't a stark change. She barely got up and walked around last time I saw her; this time I never saw her get up. (She did mention going to the bathroom once but it was when I was asleep.) She has spent most of her time on the couch for the past decade, so it's only a slight change that she spent ALL her time there.

She has trouble using her arms and legs and doesn't have much of an appetite.(That said, I think I got her to eat a fair bit while I was there!) And her hearing is going, so I had to really raise my voice for her to understand me. But her personality is the same -- sweet, social, gossipy, mundane -- so if she's in a lot of pain, she's some kind of zen master at managing it.

That said, I don't see her getting any better, so I can see why my sister thought I should visit.

It was a good trip overall, though getting to the airport was insanely stressful because the carshare had a flat, then NT couldn't get into the 2nd carshare because he'd unknowingly deactivated his fob by asking to switch car access to his bus pass. My neighbor got me an Uber, but then I had to run this poor driver all over finding the kids, and I lost sight of my DRIVER at one point when I picked AA up from kindergarten, and I was staring into windows until he finally rolled his down and told me he was my driver. Stupid face blindness! But we got to the airport about half an hour before boarding and the flight was fine.

I was flying Spirit, so I packed super light. It was actually freeing to not have to worry about heavy bags! Me and the kids had backpacks and I had 2 booster seats for car rides.

Since my ticket was $200 less than the next cheapest, and I knew my family would provide most of my meals, I splurged on drinks for me and the kids the way there, and on snacks and drinks the way home.

While in Va. I also got to see one sister, two nieces and a boyfriend, AS's mom, and my dad.

AS suggested I get together with her mom since she hardly ever gets to see the kids. She doesn't have a car right now so my dad took me to pick her up and drop her off so she could hang out at my parents' house for a couple hours. I think she was over the moon; she doesn't have family in the area so it was nice for her to feel part of a big family group. And AA & SL are her only grandkids, so that's a big deal. She was getting on her phone and telling her sister and others, trying to get the kids to talk to them. She even made ME talk to her sister in Connecticut, whom I've never met or spoken to! LOL. She wanted me to come in her apartment and see some upholstering and other furniture rehab she was doing, so I took pics to show AS. Her electricity was out and she said it was just because she messed up the online billing. I hope that's all it was, because we just sent her $700 last month!

My dad is doing great; he was planning a road trip to Ohio to see his brother, see a guy he's editing a basketball book with, and meet a distant cousin who was related to this old-time baseball player we're related to. (My dad wrote a book about that guy and wants to do an updated edition.) He's showing his age, for sure, but he's also super active (walked a 5k before he came to get me from my sister's on Saturday!) and has lots of projects.

My mom seemed happy to have a bustling house full of people Saturday. She raised 5 kids and babysat tons of kids for decades, so she's used to a big noisy group. After everyone left/went to bed, we stayed up and chatted, and I learned some new things about her childhood (little anecdotes) that I hadn't heard or at least didn't remember hearing.

On the way home, Spirit had a CC offer where if you applied, you got some bonus points automatically and got to count that trip's miles. And if you got accepted and made one purchase, you got more bonus miles. Supposedly, you get the equivalent of 4 one-way trips. So I'm hoping I could visit my mom again in December and have the kids' tickets paid for by this offer and only have to buy one round-trip ticket. We'll see. I'm still waiting to get anything since I filled the application out.

I almost forgot to note this. I sent another payment to NT's mum this week: just 150 pounds because we also had to pay the twice-yearly management fee on our UK rental property.

That takes us to 1250 paid, 850 still owing. If nothing unforeseen happens, we'll pay about half of the remaining amount in November and the other half in December. Then we can start saving up spending money for the July trip to England!

NT and I both have 401(k)s through our jobs. For both of them, after watching the Frontline documentary on retirement plan costs, I went in and switched from a target-date fund to a customized mix of the lowest-cost options.

NT's job doesn't offer any really cheap options; the best prices are in the .9% to 1.1% range. I picked from each type of investment and did 20% in each of five options. Mine, when I initially switched a year or two ago, actually had three Vanguard funds available, so I did something like a 40%-40%-20% blend.

When you have your own mix, of course, there's no automatic rebalancing. I hadn't really thought much about going in and rebalancing myself, until the guy from our 401(k) provider did a talk in our office. Most of what he said was either nonsense or stuff I already knew, but he did bring up the fact that rebalancing is a way to follow the common wisdom of selling high and buying low.

Well, I'd been mulling that off and on for the past couple weeks, and finally I decided to see if I could figure out how to rebalance our portfolios myself.

When I went into mine, I was pleased to see we now have FIVE Vanguard funds available. So first I changed my future contributions to divide more evenly among five funds vs. three. I did smaller amounts to the two that had grown the least over the past 10 years and larger amounts to the three better-performing ones.

Then I discovered that there's a button you can press to have them move funds around to make your current holdings match your allocations. Sweet!

Then I discovered ANOTHER function that lets you enroll in automatic quarterly rebalancing even if you don't have a target-date fund. Even sweeter!

So now I have greater diversity in my work 401(k) AND I have automatic rebalancing set up so I can sell high and buy low without even doing anything.

I'm working on NT's now. He still doesn't have any cheap options, and I discovered he still had about $6 in a target-date fund which prevented me from rebalancing. But I set up a transfer of the remaining funds out of that target-date fund, and as soon as that's done I should be able to rebalance his, and maybe even set it up for automatic rebalancing in the future!

Very eventful weekend.

We finally heard back from our contractor about the basement bathroom. Just to get it up to code, it would be $4300. To cap it off and make it unusable, would be $1000-$2000. The getting it up to code wouldn't fix the walls or floor when they're done, though the shower walls and floor would be fixed. To get walls and floor refinished would take us up to $6000 or $7000

We spoke with our downstairs neighbors and they agreed we should do the basic up-to-code work for $4300, and that we'll attempt the floor and walls as a DIY tiling project. It'll be a good practice one because the basement bathroom isn't one we're worried about, looks-wise; we just want it functional for guests.

Since we're planning on the shared-ownership thing eventually, the neighbors want to pay two-fifths of it, which will be our division of expenses (mortgage, utilities) when we get everything straightened out. So our share of this project is going to be $2850.

That's good news, since we only had $4000 set aside for the basement bathroom issues.

We got the radiator covers in the living room and dining room! Hand-made by a guy who lives just three blocks away, really beautiful, and he finished them less than two weeks after we ordered them! Only $1100 for all three (already figured in to the decorating costs I listed a couple blog posts ago).

My sister visited this weekend, so we dipped even more into our UK airfare savings to buy a few meals out. Only about $200, plus about $50 for wine for the house, so not too bad.

The first day here she started talking about how I should go visit my parents. I started making excuses because we already saw them this summer at the family reunion, and now we're saving up to see the other grandparents in England next year, etc.

But she stopped me and said the reason she thought I should go now is that my mom isn't doing too well.

My mom is 81. She's really out of shape and probably has lots of undiagnosed problems; she refuses to visit doctors because she doesn't want to find out, basically. She did visit a doctor in 2012, because she had a small heart attack. They fixed her up and recommended she get some exercise, but of course she didn't listen and continued to sit around 23 hours a day. Her legs and knees tend to bother her when she does move around so she just avoids it as much as possible. She's been going in this direction for decades, ever since she hurt one of her knees in her 50s or 60s.

My sister explained that her legs and arms hurt constantly now, and she can't even stand long enough to make a cup of coffee in the kitchen, so when my dad is out and about (which he is a lot, because he's very active with lots of travels and projects) she just sits around, not even able to get coffee. My sister said her hearing is really going as well.

My sister and her family live somewhat close so they try to stop by when my dad's out of town, but it sounds like my mom is basically lonely, in pain and going downhill faster than before. She told me I should come see her before she's in so much pain and her hearing is so far gone that she won't be able to enjoy a visit from me.

It's hard to tell how fast my mom is going (especially hard with no doctor opinions to go on, and I know no one is going to be able to get her to visit one), but it did sound to me like she's on the decline.

So I made the decision to visit her next weekend. It's my only free weekend until late November. My sister said it wasn't THAT urgent, but after hearing all that, I didn't want to start gambling with how much fully lucid time my mom has left or anything.

I'm taking the kids since she really lives for her grandkids. The three of us are traveling Spirit for $948. Probably could have gotten there a lot cheaper in November, since this purchase was so last minute, but again, I didn't feel like quibbling on price.

I'll be staying with my sister, so no costs in that area. Maybe some eating out but I bet family will take care of most meals. I'll also try to see AS's mom, since she'd also like to see the kids.

I'll get there 8pm Friday night so not sure if I'll see my mom that first night or go straight to my sister's. Stay all day Saturday and leave 11am Sunday morning. So I don't know if I'll see my mom Sunday either. I'll have to work it out with my sister. I suppose there's some chance I could stay at my parents' house. My mom is a controlled hoarder (held back by my dad's organizing and decluttering) and they used to have a roach infestation, but I heard they got that taken care of. So maybe I'll try to stay at my mom's house Saturday night so I can have some time with her Sunday morning. (My sister lives about half an hour drive away from my parents.)

Hopefully I can just get AS's mom to visit at my mom's house, so I don't have to be away from her for a few hours in the little time I have there.

Still ironing out the details. We'll see.

If I sound calm, well, I DO feel pretty calm. I really faced my mom's mortality in 2012 when she had the heart attack. And I got a lot of crying out this past Saturday. I still feel freaked out that I'm writing about my mom as if she's going to die. But this last blow from my sister has made me finally accept it. It may not happen for months or even over a year, but of course she is, just like anyone else.

Anyway, I'm taking the money for the plane tickets out of the $4K I'd saved for the bathroom, since we only need $2850 plus some for DIY tiling supplies. So I'm not worried about the money. We have been spending a lot of money this month, but facing mortality makes me less afraid of spending, if it's spending that's really giving me something. The stuff we're doing to make our house our own, and money to hang out with my partners, my sister, my mom and dad -- these are things worth spending money on.

I've tried every which way to max out AS's Roth, but the mistake I made when opening her SEP -- which I only realized after I opened it I'd opened as a traditional IRA -- has made it too difficult.

I had AS call several times -- once she was on the phone for over an hour. Finally I just started calling as her (sue me) because she was intimidated by all the technical lingo. I don't blame her! They finally said I needed to fill out a form to recharacterize SEP funds to Roth funds. I got the form but couldn't figure out some of the answers, so I called them. This time they said the form wouldn't work because the Roth was a "legacy" account and the SEP was a "new" account. So they made me upgrade the Roth and call them back a day or two later.

Today I called and at first the guy said the only way I could contribute to the Roth would be through an outside bank account. I re-explained my situation to him, he put me on hold, and came back to say I was right, recharacterization was the only option. But -- too bad, so sad -- it could only happen during market hours. I could call again during market hours and they'd handle it right away.

Guess what? I don't think I can stand another call. It's no longer worth it to me. I contributed the amount I would have used to max out AS's Roth and put it into her SEP instead, and there it will stay. At less than $1000, it's just not worth another phone call and possibly some complicated tax reporting. We'll start maxing out her Roth next year.

Grump grump grump.

I'll still work on maxing out mine and NT's before the April deadline. I think I can get pretty far even if I don't max them out completely.

Whew! Our staycation at the beginning of October turned into a "spendcation," and we're still going. I've been holding out buying more decor for our living and dining rooms, but the new seating looked so weird and out of place in the mostly empty room. Plus we're having a Halloween party which will be our first major gathering at the new house, so I'd love to have the two main rooms done.

So we spent much of our Friday off going to various thrift, antique and furniture stores. We also supplemented with shopping online. Some things still have yet to arrive, but what we have so far is making the living room look much better.

How am I paying for it? Well, I decided to take some of the money allotted for future stuff. I felt like it would be worth the saving-up later to have a finished-looking living room/dining room sooner.

I took $800 from utilities line item, realizing I probably have way more than I need set aside, since next year's budget includes monthly line items based on real amounts.

I took $1000 from our UK airfare savings. I reckon we'll still have enough to buy tickets by the end of this year.

I took the $1500 I had saved for lawyer/application fees for transferring part ownership of the duplex and applying for permission to build an accessory dwelling unit (granny flat) on our property. I can't really move forward on these things until our downstairs neighbor (the lawyer) finishes drawing up the contract for joint ownership. He's been dragging his feet on it, so I figure if it takes me a while to save up the fees for MY lawyer to review it once he's done, fair is fair. I've been holding onto that money for months and months. He can wait once he gives me the draft of the contract.

The rest of the money for our new decor/renovations is coming out of money I'd earmarked for maxing out the 2015 Roths by January. I have until April to max them out, so I could still hit that goal. So far I've only taken about $600 of that line item, but I might use more of it before we're done. (We seem to be pretty close, though.)

The result is going to be rooms that look great, are comfortable and make us happy. And I can re-fund those other budget categories.

What did we get for the money? Let's see if I can remember (some of these are rounded numbers).
Vintage side table $45
Materials to build a behind-sofa table $60
Wood blinds for living and dining rooms $600
Radiator covers (including shelving and window seat) for living and dining rooms $1150
Lucite floor lamp $350
Modern side table $150
Flannel drink coasters $25
Art (three small framed pieces) $150
Picture frames, wall clock, plants, bedroom curtains $180
Dining room ceiling light $400
Wall clock $70
Wooden robot decoration $30
Wooden ferris wheel decoration $95
Wine fridge $100
Drinks cabinet $425
Magazine rack (to hold laptops while charging) $60
Throw blankets $60
Decorative bowls $25

We also "borrowed" about $1000 from the UK tickets fund for our staycation meals out, as well as a couple other wants/needs (sneakers, Halloween costumes, school lunches, cat adoption fee, underwear, etc.) We're getting at least $1700 of shared spending money by the end of November, possibly more, so we'll be able to make that up pretty easily as well.

Feels heady and weird to spend allocated money on something other than what it was intended for! But at the same time, not stressful or scary like putting stuff on credit cards would be. This is after all our money, and we can change our minds about what order we do things in.

To end on a savings note instead, I put nearly $1000 more toward AS's retirement, and it appears all our accounts have recovered (possibly temporarily, if the bear market comes back) about 75% of the value lost during the downturn.

I had a staycation Friday through Monday (more on that when I get a chance!), and what with catching up on work and other stuff, I'm just now getting around to checking on our mortgage payments. They all hit:
US: $657 to principal
UK1: $224
UK2: $46
UK3: $49

All told, that's $976 of debt paid for the month. Our current debt stands at $484,730. (That includes $5000 loan from our friends, which would be erased if we signed a joint-ownership contract -- but so would a commensurate amount of our home equity, so it'd be a wash in terms of net worth.)

I'm really excited. I've known about capsule wardrobes since early this year and been really intrigued. The concept is, you set a limit to how many pieces of clothing are in use at one time, and you make sure the pieces all go together, so you can wear them in various combinations.

Maybe because this was a more finite way of getting part of my life in order (vs. renovating the house, which could go on for years and cost tens of thousands of dollars), but when I realized I didn't have many fall/winter clothes, I decided to seriously try this concept.

So yesterday I made a list of the 33 items I thought I'd need, and AS and I went on a breakneck shopping spree (we put the kids down earlier than usual and had about an hour and a half until the store closed).

I didn't get everything on the list and got a few things that weren't on my list, but when I got home and also pulled out my current items I intend to keep, I realized I was very very close. So today AS and I went to a few more stores over my lunch hour and got the last few items we needed to round out our capsules.

We did have to go in the hole on our shared spending, but we won't carry a credit card balance or anything. All it means is we'll be floating our purchases using money that's allocated elsewhere for a month or two, and then when more spending money comes through the budget we'll be able to cover other expenses. (Sounds complicated but it's really very easy to do if you've got a lot of money set aside for various things.)

I spent between $500 and $600 to get 20 things, and AS spent a bit less than that. (She had more existing pieces of clothing that worked with her capsule.) This is the first major investment in my wardrobe in a long time, and the most I've ever spent at one go. But hopefully many of the pieces will last through the season and be able to be brought out again next fall/winter.

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): $36,077
NT's Roth IRA: $6,906
AS's trad. IRA: $13,845
AS's Roth IRA: $22,484
AS's SEP IRA: $4,706
CJ's 401(k): $75,895
CJ's Roth IRA: $9,835
NT's flat: 180,000 pounds ($288,000)
CJ/NT/AS house: $440,000
---
Total Assets: $965,040

Total Debt: $485,706

Current Estimated Net Worth: $479,334

August 2015 estimate: $486,035

Change in net worth: -$6,701

Summary: Despite dumping a couple thousand into retirement and paying off nearly a thousand of debt, our net worth is down -- more than doubly as bad as the $2800 dip we suffered from July to August. We've now lost nearly $10K in net worth value over two months. For a short while, our assets were worth more than twice our debt amount. That is no longer the case, since our net worth is now less than our debt amount.

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.

I've seen several of my fellow frugal bloggers over the past few weeks struggling with spending, sometimes incurring debt. I am so sympathetic! I have plans, but my resolve is getting tired. I've got the renovating/decorating bug bad, and it's hard to resist the idea of using some of the money we've got now, or putting some things on 0% credit. (I know! I know how bad that sounds coming from someone who spent the past 8 years paying off CC and student loan debt.)

One plan is to allot 35% of AS's paychecks to saving up for UK airfare, and not touch it until we have $5300. I've already relented somewhat on that, saying we could spend $600-$700 of what we've already saved up ($2349) on living-room furniture and still reach the airfare savings goal by the end of the year, based on what work AS has booked but not received payment for.

Another plan is to put every penny of my and NT's paycheck that doesn't cover our fixed budget categories toward Roth IRAs, with a goal to max all three out for 2015 by January or February. After that, I'll just allot enough to max us out for 2016 by the end of 2016, and any extra money from my and NT's paychecks can be used for other stuff. But January-February seems so far away!

I'm excited about maxing Roths for the first year ever, but it's HARD. The 35% of AS's pay that we use for shared spending money is great for extras such as date nights, kids' classes, wardrobe items that need replacing, and a few other irregular expenses and luxuries. But with diverting so much toward UK airfare, there's not enough left over to do any serious home improvement.

It's hard. I've got money in the bank: $4000 for home improvement; but I know some or all may be needed to get the basement bathroom up to code. $1500 for lawyer and city fees for the shared-ownership and accessory dwelling unit stuff that we'll be exploring soon. $15,200 in savings, but that's to pay taxes on the WV money.

All told, including the above, our checking account has over $12K and our savings account has over $15K. But it's all spoken for! I know I can't touch it.

Believe me, I'm not proud of feeling weak about this stuff. I'm staying the course. I'm staying the course. I'm staying the course.

Our living room furniture arrived! Well, some of it. When we had the living room renovated, we ordered a rug, a chair, a sofa, a chaise lounge and an ottoman. The last three we ordered a custom fabric for, so they told us we wouldn't get them until early October. It was a nice surprise when they called and let us know they were ready this week!

We're not quite ready to show before-and-after photos, though. We've managed to sell or give away most of our old furniture, but we still have a sofa and two end tables clashing with our new stuff. Plus, we haven't hung art up since the contractors painted the room -- been waiting to see how the other stuff looked.

We also haven't picked out end tables, lamps or any other decorative elements for the room, so at the moment it looks incomplete. We've started looking, so hopefully we'll make some decisions soon.

It'll be nice to have one whole room done! Meanwhile, we need to get the basement bathroom figured out, and then we can focus on the others. The dining room should be the cheapest reno of all the rooms. Basically we want new paint, a new light fixture, something to hold keys and sunglasses, and a window seat with a bit of storage under it. Oh, and we should figure out some art for that room as well. The floor needs redoing, but we think we'll focus on the other parts of the house for a while before we sink money into that.

The main-floor bathroom would be our next big reno, but with saving for the UK trip and making up retirement contributions, I'm doubtful we could do it this year. Maybe early next year.

Next year I'm hoping AS's income stays steady and NT and I get a raise. We have a lot of wants for the house! Including central AC, which in an older house with no vents can get rather expensive.

NT's UK rental income came in, and I was able to send 400 pounds to his mum. That leaves us owing her 1000 pounds by my calculations.

I peeked at my 401(k) as I've done every few days since the market stumbled. I'm back over $80K at least, though still under the high of $84K-$85K that I hit in early August. Performance wise, my holdings are still down about 5% from Aug. 11.

Our living room furniture will be coming next week! This puts us under the gun to A) replace the accessory stuff in the room (side tables, storage and art) and B) trim our foster cat's claws before then (he unwittingly gets them caught in our current old loveseat, pulling long strings from it, and our new furniture will have a similar material to the loveseat). To that end, we've trimmed two claws (we'll need to do just a couple at a time because it stresses him out) and listed the furniture we want to get rid of on FB and Freecycle. Only a few pieces have gone, so I'm going to try again on Craigslist and another FB site. When I get a chance! It's been a busy week.

We don't really have money carved out to buy the furniture, but we're ahead of where we need to be on saving for our UK plane tickets, so I'm thinking we take some from there and make it up later.

We had our basement bathroom inspection and our contractor has news about the results, but we haven't connected with him yet. Sounds like there does need to be work done, so I'm glad I resisted the temptation to spend the last $4K of WV money.

We're having a house meeting tonight to talk about various things, among them applying for city approval to turn our garage into an accessory dwelling unit (granny flat). I found the application online and my downstairs neighbor sounds interested in helping me investigate it. But I want to make sure no one has any concerns before we move forward.

I've started dieting and joined a pedometer challenge at work. I lost one pound last week, but I've been trying to eat less and walk more this week, so we'll see if the results are any better when I weigh in Sunday. Ideally I want to lose 15 lbs. (well, 14 now) before the whole Thanksgiving/Christmas season of decadence starts. So I'd need to lose a bit more than a pound a week!

It's a quiet night for me. I'm home alone with the kiddos, who so far only want to watch a movie and eat dinner on a blanket on the floor. I'm OK if they just want to veg out until bedtime. (Yep, they just asked me to put on another movie! )

Things have been going well, just not much to report on the financial front. One interesting thing is we seem to have more and more conversations about budgeting with various friends and acquaintances. At an alumni event, we were talking about our system and the other alums said they'd be interested if I hosted an event where I talked about it. So we'll see. I'll think about it even though I'm not good at public speaking.

AS wanted us to loan her mom some money. She asked about $800, I proposed $500 (which is what AS had left in her charitable giving fund from the WV windfall), and we settled at $700. (That also wiped out the $200 of my charitable giving that I'd been saving up to give to my college. We just got the first fundraising mailer of the annual drive this week. )

It bums me out because we've loaned and given money before and her situation never really improves permanently. In this case I was already reluctant, but especially enraged when I found out one of the reasons she was late on her rent was because she'd loaned her sister $500 and her sister wouldn't pay her back. (The sister, AS's aunt, and her husband make upwards of $200K, more than the three of us together and loads more than AS's mom.)

So, great, we're loaning money because someone who makes more than us foolishly borrowed money from a poor relation and couldn't pay it back. People. Come on.

Anyway, AS suggested to her mom that she consult me about setting up a budget. She PMed me on FB, I sent her my email address and she said she'd send me the details of her income and expenses. But she hasn't yet. So we'll see.

AS also told our downstairs neighbor, who is self-employed and hasn't paid or filed taxes in about three years, to get me to help him. He too has not approached me yet.

Another friend and her husband were talking at a party about how they save nothing and have no control of their finances. They're in their 40s and just got married (2nd marriage for at least one of them). Really cool people but you wonder what's going to happen to this generation that doesn't have the same safety net as previous generations, too much access to credit, and too little financial education. Hopefully I can help them sort it out a bit at some point!

My one friend I set up on spreadsheets similar to mine is still using them, over a year on! I'm so proud of her. I do still have access to the sheets and she asked me to help her with an issue recently, so I could see they were up to date. I couldn't help but notice that she still has about the same amount of debt as six months ago, but at least it isn't more, and her day-to-day budget is pretty under control. And she opened a Vanguard Roth that she puts a bit of money in on a regular basis. So that's kind of gratifying!

AS finally got some of the long-overdue freelance income, which was a relief; we hadn't had much spare money for a while. She's only been getting about $2K a month for the past few months, and a third of it goes to retirement/taxes and a third to the UK travel fund, so the rest has had to stretch.

With this latest influx I made up the shortage from going to the fair, paid for a delivery dinner night, and signed the kids up for swim classes again. I also sent AS and NT, who've both had big intense weeks, out for a date tonight. Hence being alone with the kids.

AS's teaching gig is going well. It's had its ups and downs but overall she seems to enjoy it. At least she's not terrified of the unknown anymore!

She also had an interview with a recruiter from the Fortune 500 company I mentioned in an earlier post. It sounds like an interesting job and one she could do, but on paper she's not at all qualified, so she's rather puzzled as to why they reached out. But, she sent her resume and some writing samples in anyway. We shall see. The salary is insane, high 90s to low 100s. Then again, if she's averaging $60K this year working about 2/3 time, it wouldn't be that big an HOURLY raise to make $90K working full time. But it would be a huge salary nonetheless. But none of us (including AS) is sure that a full-time corporate job is right for her. So we shall see!

We heard from our contractor that he hasn't heard from the city about the basement bathroom. He's going to follow up with them. We're kind of scared to spend the rest of our WV money until we know if anything needs to be done down there. I'm sure our contractor is eager to clear this up so he can get to work and get more of our money!

I've managed to send in all the October extra retirement money already, about $1450. I like staying a month ahead, but it makes me impatient, wondering when we'll be far enough ahead to put in the November amount. I just want to hurry up and max out our 2015 Roths. Once I do that I'll see if we're in a good enough place to put our retirement on autopilot and focus on other things.

We just heard from HMRC (the UK version of IRS) that we did get a late fee for turning in our 2014 taxes late. Jeez, we didn't even owe anything; they're harsh! It was 30 pounds and I had just enough in the UK checking account to pay it. This year we're going to try and file online; hopefully it works. The 2015 returns are due in early October, so we've got a reminder on the calendar to log in to their system Oct. 1 and make sure it works. If not, I can print out hard copies and hopefully get them in on time the old-fashioned way.

I guess that's about it. I've got some days off planned in October for various things, so I'm looking forward to that month. One is for my sister who's coming for a long weekend; another is for a long-weekend staycation with AS & NT (and the kids, though they'll be in school/daycare on the weekdays and have at least one sleepover with our downstairs neighbors).

We decided to have a Halloween party this year. We sent out the invite today, because with Halloween falling on a Saturday, I'm sure other people are pondering throwing parties. We want to get ours in front of people first! Lots of planning to do for that one, and it'll probably cost a fair bit of money for food, drinks, some decorations and some iTunes purchases.

I remember now that the weather is turning cool, I got rid of all clothing I didn't love. Now I have barely any slacks or sweaters. Methinks a trip to the discount outlet is in order this month or next! Probably I'll do it after AS receives more of the freelance money she's owed.

I feel like I've had lots of short weeks lately. Last week, I took Friday off to go the MN State Fair. This week, I took Thursday off and my job gave me Friday and (of course) Monday. So I had a three-day week and will have a four-day work week next week.

We've been running lean on shared spending money; AS hasn't tapered off too much, but my job in particular is being slow and clunky in getting her POs and checks. We've had enough to do some fun stuff, but this week we may go in the hole a little on shared spending. Luckily I'm confident the money is coming soon, just not WHEN.

For the State Fair, we probably spent $60 each on food and beer! We went without the kids and just made it a big foodfest, trying new offerings and old favorites.

The reason I took yesterday off is that daycare is closed, which means SL needed people to stay home with her. AS had a teaching-related appointment on Wed. and her first class on Thurs. So NT took Wed. off and I took off Thurs. Today, AS and I are both home with SL. Right now AS is attempting to have her "help" bake a pie.

We tried to plan a fun activity for each day, since we don't get much one-on-one time with either kid, but especially not with SL. So on Wednesday, NT took her to a nearby lake with a beach and let her play in the sand and water. Then he took her to our favorite pizza place for lunch. Yesterday, I took her to a kids' bookstore that has lots of pets wandering around and/or in cages. We browsed, read, hung out with the animals and bought a book each for her and AA. Then I took her to lunch at the cafe next door to the store. Today, she went grocery shopping with us, which is about a mile walk total, and is getting some hands-on kitchen experience. And we let her watch a ton of TV today, since she'd been out and about a lot the past couple days.

Our shared spending covered all of that, but with no new checks in the mail today, we'll have to go in the hole this weekend. We want wine for the long weekend, and we're heading out to the State Fair again, this time with the kids. Don't expect to spend as much because we already have some ride tickets, and we won't be able to stuff our faces quite as much. But a day at the Fair does add up.

Oh, and we need to pay for a carshare for an alumni event we're going to tomorrow. We have a line item for carshare, so we'll pay for it there. We've really gone through the carshare budget this month, though, so other rentals may have to come out of shared spending.

It's not a dire situation, though. AS is expecting $13K in freelance income through the end of the year, and that's without booking any new work, which she'll still do a bit of even with her teaching gig. $3900 of that will go to tax/retirement and $4550 toward our UK trip. But the other $4550 is up for grabs. If my company weren't being so disorganized, we'd have some of it by now!

Speaking of AS's work, her first class went really well. It's going to be interesting because she's using my NaNoWriMo novel for a semester-long mock publishing exercise, where they edit, print, develop a marketing plan, etc. Part of it is learning to correspond with authors, so I'll be helping AS with that (though she'll guide me on what to say if there are certain lessons she's trying to get across; I'm not a typical author so she may want me to act more typical in my correspondence).

Also speaking of her work, she got an interesting LinkedIn message from a local Fortune 500 company regarding a high-level job opportunity. She's not at all sure she's qualified or even wants it, but she emailed back to say she's interested in learning more. So more on that once we learn more about it!

I've been going kinda crazy on the food this summer. I haven't weighed myself, but my clothes tell me all I need to know about that. I've given myself until after the fair this Sunday. Then I'll weigh myself to see how bad it is, and start to formulate a plan to deal with it.

I guess that's it for now!

I checked in again tonight and the payment had posted. Guess I've just got to be patient with this new provider.


$656 went to principal, taking us to $976 of debt paid for the month, and taking our household debt down to $485,706.

I'll try to do a more interesting update this week, but right now I'm feeling very sleepy. Time to zone out and doze off.

Our new US mortgage holder doesn't post my payment right on the first, which drives me nuts. It's a pretty lo-tech website overall.

But the UK mortgage payments hit:
UK1: $222 to principal
UK2: $48
UK3: $50

All told, $320 paid toward debt, bringing our household debt to $486,362.

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): $36,811
NT's Roth IRA: $7,289
AS's trad. IRA: $14,557
AS's Roth IRA: $23,729
AS's SEP IRA: $6,041
CJ's 401(k): $80,072
CJ's Roth IRA: $8,926
NT's flat: 180,000 pounds ($288,000)
CJ/NT/AS house: $440,000
---
Total Assets: $972,717

Total Debt: $486,682

Current Estimated Net Worth: $486,035

July 2015 estimate: $488,922

Change in net worth: -$2,887

Summary: Well, as could be predicted, our net worth was down this month despite paying down some debt and dumping a few thousand dollars into our retirement accounts. Hopefully just a temporary slump.

I'll update the Individual Net Worth page shortly, breaking it out by person.

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.