Ceejay74's Personal Finance Blog

Oh good grief, lost another entry! Well, let's see if I can remember some of what I wrote...

This is my first day back at work (I'll be working two days a week most weeks until July), and it's really strange being apart from AA. But NT is home with her, so it wasn't as hard as it will be when we send her off to daycare! But I have photos up on my computer and I keep staring at them, missing her more than I thought I would.

Not much happening financially. I already used up my flex spending account, except for a couple bucks, and I have tons of receipts unreimbursed, so I'll send in one of those to get the last few dollars out. I once again underestimated my out-of-pocket expense for the year. I've grossly underestimated every year except one, when I put too much aside and ended up having to buy really expensive prescription sunglasses in order to not lose the money at the end of the year. I wish there was a better system that was less like gambling; like why can't you get your remaining funds back at the end of the year as taxable income, or be able to keep your leftover money for future years as you can with health savings accounts? I wonder if this is yet another stupid thing that only happens in the U.S., like having to pay for incoming cellphone calls...

I recently did a little research because I was wondering if it was really financial beneficial for me to be breastfeeding vs. formula-feeding, since we bought a really good pump for $300 and I needed a prescription ointment that cost $55. Plus, we have to buy storage bags and possibly pads for my bra, although these things aren't very expensive.

I concluded that formula costs approximately $120 per month, so if I breastfeed for at least 4 months, it will work out cheaper. Also, if AS uses the same pump when she has a baby, and if we're able to sell the motor after that, average cost will go down even more.

Oh, and here's that op-ed: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/opinion/06herbert.html
We at SavingAdvice likely don't need reminding, since there are so many military families represented here, but I thought it was a really good piece.

Nothing much going on financially. I've already wiped out my flex spending account--guess I underestimated my medical expenses AGAIN! I wish there was another system for flex spending that was less like gambling. Like if you put too much away, you get it back as taxable income at the end of the year. Would that be too hard? Or let us keep it in a tax-free account like HSAs.

Today is my first day back at work! I'm working two days a week until late June, when I work three days a week for a few weeks and then take off a full week to visit AA's grandparents in Virginia. NT is spending his first full day alone with her; he'll be home with her the days I'm working, until after the July 4th holiday.

It's a relief to not be tied to AA's side all day, but it's also really strange. I keep staring at her photos and missing her.

Also, AS went on a business trip this morning and won't be back until the weekend. It's the longest we'll have been apart in more than a decade, I believe! I'd be a lot sadder if I didn't think that AA will make the time fly by; AS and I haven't really had that much quality time recently anyway, what with the feeding, changing, soothing and general exhaustion. I think she'll enjoy the trip, so I'm just trying to focus on that.

Oh, one financial thing that I've done recently is try to figure out if breastfeeding is really more economical than formula-feeding. I looked on Amazon and it seems an average price for formula works out to about $120 per month. I spent $300 on a really good pump and $55 on an ointment to treat soreness. I also have to buy storage bags, but I don't think they're too expensive, and maybe some pads to put in my bra. So I think basically if I breastfeed for at least four months, I'll have saved money. Also, if AS uses the same pump when she has a baby, and we sell the motor after she's done with it, the cost will go down even more. If I weren't going back to work and had decided not to pump, it would've been virtually free except for the ointment and the pads. So from a financial standpoint, it's a good decision!

Oh, and here's a link to the op-ed I mentioned. I don't think this community needs to be reminded, what with all the military and spouses of military who are members of SavingAdvice, but it's a really moving editorial and worth passing along.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/opinion/06herbert.html

Yay, my $1225 extra payment to the credit card hit the account! $1970 down, $220 to go on the April debt goal.

That felt good! The credit card balance is now below $7000 and I feel more positive about getting it paid off by the end of the year, although I want to see what my reduced paychecks are going to look like before I completely relax.

Last night, I actually had a dream that I paid it off and was able to eliminate the "credit card/personal" category from my spreadsheet. That's right, I dreamt about my spreadsheet. (Nerd!) Also, in the dream, I believe the category was called "Weird debt." Very apt!

Dammit, when will I learn my lesson and copy my entries before trying to post? I'm still having problems with the new site, including getting logged out at random points, but the most annoying is definitely when I write an entry and then lose it.

Oh well, just wanted to post progress on my debt repayment:
US mortgage: $378 went to principal
UK #1: $256
UK #2: $54
UK #3: $57

$745 down, $1445 to go on the April debt goal.

Sorry, couldn't think of a good April Fool's title; I'm terrible at pranks.

All four mortgage payments hit today:
US: $378 toward principal
UK1: $256
UK2: $54
UK3: $57

So $745 down, $1445 to go on the April goal. Also added about $40 to the travel fund with money left over in the UK account after paying the mortgages.

I felt like I had some other news, but I'm completely exhausted, and The Boss sounds like she's ready to wake up for a feeding, so I'll cut this short.

There are a number of financial goals, or other goals that require money to accomplish, that are sort of stacking up, but our 2010 goals are already pretty aggressive considering the uncertain nature of our income and expenses this year. So they're sort of floating around in our minds and we bring them up once in awhile, but we don't know when we'll be able to fit them into our budget. Maybe later this year if our other goals go really well; if not, they'll become priorities for 2011.

I thought I'd list them so they're all in one place and it'll be easier to prioritize them if we do get to a place where we can address one or more of them. No particular order at present...and most money estimates are really rough.

* Consult financial planner about retirement, college savings ($200?)
* Consult CPA about UK & US taxes ($200?)
* Consult lawyer about how to secure AS's parental rights ($200?)
* Consult lawyer to set up wills, living wills, etc. ($200?)
* Begin contributing to charities (goal $150 per month)
* Get balcony screened in (approx. $1200)
* Get floor cleaned (approx. $85)
* Get floor "renewed" (approx. $1000)
* Look into FHA loan modification for mortgage (approx. $15K underwater)
* Paint & finish decorating/setting up AA's bedroom ($300?)

I may come back to this entry and add things as they occur to us...or maybe I'll start a separate blog page. I don't really want to overload my sidebar any more than it already is!

Oh yeah, and my question: Those of you who categorize your budget in order to make sure the ratios are acceptable to you, how do you categorize charitable contributions? For my working budget, my categories are: Mortgage/Utilities/Telecom, Debt Repayment/Savings, Spending/Entertainment/Travel, and Household/Groceries/Healthcare. I also recently looked at my total budget (including stuff that's taken out of our paychecks pretax) and broke everything down into three categories: needs, wants, and long-term savings/extra debt repay. Where would charitable donations fall in either of those scenarios? I mean, it's not a need, in that I don't need to contribute to survive, but in a cosmic sense, it is really a need that we try to make the world a better place for AA to live in.

My credit card payment hit and $140 went to principal. That means we passed the March goal of paying off $1130, with a total of $1221 paid toward debt.

I also booked our plane tickets for the Virginia trip in late June. $1059.66 including trip insurance for three nonstop tickets, leaving and returning at reasonable hours (didn't think we could handle a red-eye on our first trip with baby AA). I'm OK with that amount. I checked out UK fares for August but couldn't find an acceptable flight for under $1400 per person! Soo, think I'll hold off and desperately hope that rate goes down. Especially since we'll probably also purchase an infant fare so we don't have to hold AA on our laps for 8+ hours...

I decided what to do with the extra money AS brought in plus the flex spending and unplanned-for paid parental leave that NT informed me about. I'm putting aside some for vacations, so I now have $1000 spending money for Virginia and $3300 for buying UK tickets (really hope that'll be enough). We're accumulating funds in the UK checking account to buy rental car, hotel room or whatever else we decide on the make the UK trip more pleasant. So as long as we find affordable airfare, I consider our trips to be fully funded.

I also put some of the extra money into our dwindling medical and baby expense fund. Well, the part that sits in our checking account was dwindling; we still have a large chunk in savings, but I don't want to touch that as long as we can cashflow our expenses. So I made sure we now have $1000 sitting in checking for those expenses.

I had $1225 left over that's immediately available (some money will come later, as it came from adjusting NT's predicted future paychecks), so I'm sending that off to the credit card. Which makes our April debt payment target much more exciting than it was going to be:

Our April goal is to pay off at least $2190 of debt.

Beginning balances:
Credit card/personal: $8,222
Home/mortgage: $287,730
Education: $75,392
TOTAL HOUSEHOLD DEBT: $371,344

Another of AS's student loan payments hit the account, with $59 going toward principal. $1081 down and $49 to go on the March goal. My credit card payment should hit tomorrow and finish off the goal.

In addition to AS's $1325 freelance check she received yesterday, NT got $130 in flex spending reimbursement. He also e-mailed me about how many of his parental-leave days off will be paid via vacation or sick pay. I'd calculated that all his days would be unpaid for the purposes of budget planning, so this gave us about $1200 more than planned over the next few months. So this gives us about $2650 to put toward either vacation spending, debt repay or medical expenses. Pretty exciting! I'm tempted to put the lion's share on the stupid credit card, which I haven't been able to deal a really ugly blow to in a while.

Some of my paychecks will also be more than calculated since some of my maternity leave will be funded with vacation and sick pay; since I don't know how many days I've accrued, I calculated all the days as unpaid to be safe. Once I get a schedule of estimated paychecks from work, I should have more money in the budget than I do now.

I got my official doctor approval to return to work two days a week starting next week! My main restriction is on heavy lifting, and there will actually be less of that at work than at home, so I'm not worried. NT will be home with AA those two days; he's been really busy with work and school, so he's looking forward to getting to spend more time with her.

AS is going on a business trip for four nights next week. It's going to be so weird; we just never spend any time apart! This will probably be the longest chunk of time apart in over 10 years. But I'm excited for her to get some decent sleep and hopefully come home refreshed. And it should be an interesting trip, going to a writers and publishers conference.

Now that my return to work is approved, I know our schedule for sure these next few months, so we can go ahead and start planning our two trips for the year, Virginia in June/July and England in August/September. I'm a little worried that traveling will be hard but excited for our families to meet AA.

That reminds me, I need to get photo albums together for my and AS's moms. We're sending that as belated b-day presents (both our moms have late-March birthdays). That will be one of my projects this week.

Crap, lost a big long entry. Oh well, it was mostly whining about my slow recovery, which no one needs to hear. All I really meant to write about was progress on my debt payment: $121 went to one of AS's student loans, making it $1022 down, $108 to go on the March debt repayment goal.

Also deciding what to do with a $1325 freelance check AS got in the mail...I probably will put part toward the Va. trip, part to baby and health expenses, and some to the last credit card. But I haven't decided how much money to apply to each yet.

Update: recent photo of AA...

Ugh, today I'm so sick of feeling like an invalid. It's no fun recovering from C-section! I wonder if it's worse than recovering from regular delivery; I know there are different issues with each. For me it's trying not to use my stomach too much, which is hard with all the getting up in the middle of the night, picking up and putting down a cranky baby, etc. Also, every time I feel good and have a pretty active day, the next day is painful and bleeding increases. I'm interested to see how it is going back to work part-time next week; in some ways I think it'll be easier because less lifting and bending, but the commute might be a bit rough. At least I've been cutting back on painkillers a lot, so I know the pain is less intense and therefore I must be healing, even though progress is hard to detect.

Scoped out plane tickets to Va. last night; I don't think I'll be able to get nonstop tix for less than $1000, but I found three tickets for $1082, which isn't too bad, I suppose. I'm waiting until I see my doctor this week before booking, just to make sure I actually am healing at the right rate. If she were to say I'm not and have to stay home longer, it might throw off our leave schedule, so I don't want to commit to a trip until I know for sure.

AS just got her last big freelance check for the proofreading she did before AA was born: $1325 for two projects! There are so many places I want to put the money; into savings for spending money for the trip; into checking for baby and medical expenses; into a big payment on the last credit card, which I desperately want to pay off by the end of the year. I'll probably split it up between the three, but I haven't decided in what proportions yet. HR is supposed to send me a schedule of estimated paychecks, which would help me immensely in figuring out how realistic my credit-card payoff goal is this year, but I haven't received it yet.

Anyway, what was I supposed to be writing about? Oh yeah, a student loan payment went through for AS, and $121 went toward principal. So $1022 down, $108 to go on the March goal. I should have a credit card payment and maybe a student loan payment go through by the 31st, so I'm not worried.

I think that's it for now!

Is this really going on in my own country?

Ugh, I'm watching news about all the death threats and racist/antigay epithets directed at members of Congress and their children and spouses. Horrifying. And worse that Republican politicians will not stop the incendiary speeches long enough to strongly condemn these actions. I feel an assassination attempt coming. I mean, if your politicians are telling you that the Democratic tactics are illegal, and you've got violence-prone people posting politicians' addresses online, how long is it going to be? As illegal as I felt Bush's administration's actions to be sometimes, there was nowhere near this level of hostile and threatening rhetoric against him. (People were talking about impeaching him, not killing him.) I wish conservative leaders would show some public solidarity with their opponents -- if there was ever a time to put aside bipartisanship, it's when people's lives are in danger.

Anyway, hoping against hope that I'm blowing this out of proportion in my mind. To take my mind off it, I decided to follow Thriftorama's example and compare my finances to the median numbers in today's Yahoo article. I've quoted the article in each section.

Income

"For the 50 percent of families in the middle of the scale, household income ranges from $51,000 to $123,000 for a typical four-person, two-parent family. The median is about $81,000. Those numbers are from 2008, and have probably fallen 5 to 7 percent since then, on account of the recession. Median income for a single-parent, two-child family is about $25,000."

With three incomes and as a three-parent, one-child family, we're not typical. But just counting our gross paychecks, our income falls on the high side of the scale, well within the range of the four-person family. Delete any one of our incomes and we'd still fall within the range, closer to the middle.

Housing Costs

"For two-parent families, the typical home is worth about $231,000, accounting for $17,600 in mortgage payments and other costs per year. Housing costs have risen by more than twice as much as income since 1990, a trend that may finally be reversing thanks to the housing bust."

The home we live in is probably now worth between $145,000 and $160,000, so way below average. Our housing costs including utilities run about $21,650 per year, so much higher than the median. Just our mortgage and property tax costs us $15,075 per year, a little below the average. Not sure what we're supposed to count here, since utilities are mentioned below. Ours are rolled into condo association dues so are fixed expenses and not reduceable or optional.

We do own another home in the UK worth up to $260,000, and its housing costs are covered by the rental, so you could say that our home worth is way above average.

Home Size

"The housing bubble was one factor that boosted housing costs, but the typical family also lives in a much bigger home. The median size of a new, single-family home jumped by 40 percent between 1979 and 2007, to about 2,300 square feet. That may now be declining, as families downsize and some get booted from homes they can't afford."

The home we live in is about 950 square feet, so well below average. If you threw in the square footage of the UK home just for the heck of it, probably about 600 square feet, we'd still be well below average.

Medical Expenses

"You've probably heard — healthcare costs are going through the roof. A study by the middle-class task force headed by Vice President Joe Biden says the median two-parent family spends $5,100 per year on health insurance and non-covered expenses—assuming an employer provides health insurance. Healthcare costs have risen far more than any other aspect of the family budget since 1990, with no end in sight."

This is pretty accurate for us, although we're a little below the median; fixed health care expenses for us run about $4,100, and could go higher than that, but probably will stay below $5,100.

Cars

"They provide mobility and represent freedom, one reason the typical family spends about $12,400 per year on two medium-sized sedans or the equivalent, with a new-car value of $45,000. The recession may have dampened our love of the road, however: Americans are driving less and car sales are off about 40 percent."

With no car, we're way below average on both the cost of transportation (about $1200 annually for bus passes) and asset value ($0). In addition, not having a car enables us to rent our parking space for $75 per month, which defrays much of our bus-pass costs. While we rent cars from time to time, we allocate that from travel or other discretionary spending; it's not a necessary cost.

College Savings

"The typical family puts aside $4,100 for college expenses for two kids, estimated to cover about 75 percent of expenses at a state university. Financial aid helps with the rest. But if possible, toss more into the college fund: As states face budget crunches, tuition and fees are going up."

Way below this, as we have not started a college fund. We probably won't put a significant amount aside for college unless we quickly catch up on debt and retirement; I consider those to be much higher priority. Note that the Yahoo article advises people to "toss more" into college savings. I'll tell you why I think this is significant in a little bit...

Vacations

"One week at the beach or another destination is standard, at a cost of $3,000 or so for four. More affluent families can afford two weeks, at a typical cost of $6,100."

We take 2 vacations per year, and we tend to spend considerably more than $3,000 per trip, up to $6,000. We've probably averaged $4,000-$5,000 per vacation over the past several years, so we're way above the national median. This is one of our big splurge areas.

Retirement Savings

"A median-income family that saved 3.2 percent of its income—roughly equivalent to the national saving rate—would sock away nearly $2,600 per year for retirement. Of course many families don't hit even that modest goal, and stock-market losses over the last several years have further shrunk the national nest egg."

Currently we save about 5% of our gross income for retirement, but I hope to up this once our year of reduced income is over. Over time I want to increase retirement savings a LOT, though we need to concentrate on debt repayment for another year or two at least.

This section is the reason I highlighted the article's urging to increase college savings: Why on earth wouldn't they strongly admonish people to save way more than $2,600 per year?? I mean, ideally I want to put nearly $3,000 per MONTH aside for retirement. If I can also help our kids pay for college, great, but if I can't, there are other ways to get through college--there's no other way to have a comfortable retirement except to save for it! It's unfathomable to me that this article would especially call out the college savings as not being adequate without saying anything about this really shockingly poor savings rate.

Everyday Spending

"Clothes, food, utilities, entertainment and other living expenses amount to $14,200 a year for a median-income family. Not surprisingly, this is one set expenses many families are trying to reduce, by buying more discount brands, using less or doing without."

Hmm...well, for us, food, entertainment and other discretionary spending (minus travel and condo association fees) is nearly $29,000 per year, so double the median. I guess we really indulge ourselves in this area!

Number of Earners

"In 76 percent of two-parent families, both parents work. The higher the household income, the more likely it is that both parents are contributing."

All three of us have full-time jobs. This gives us more financial leeway, which we wouldn't have otherwise since none of us is in a high-income-potential profession.

Hours Worked

"Few parents will be surprised to hear that Moms and Dads are working more than they used to. The total number of hours worked in a two-parent family is 3,747 per year, up 5 percent since 1990. The increased hours add up to more than four 40-hour weeks of additional work per family."

If I calculate about four weeks off per person per year (counting holidays, vacation and sick leave), we work 5,760 hours per year, or 1,920 per person. If I count only two of us, the figure is 3,840, so a bit more than the median.

Education

"The typical household head has a high school degree plus about two years of college education, up by more than a full year of college since 1990. Good thing—education is a key factor in lifetime earnings, and high school dropouts face a dim future by nearly every measure."

We're above average in this area, since all three of us have high school degrees, I have a BA, AS has a BA and a master's, and NT is in his second year of a BA.

Free Time

"What's your top priority? In a 2008 poll by the Pew Research Center, it wasn't healthy kids, a strong marriage or a great career; 68 percent of respondents said it was free time. (And just 12 percent said it was being wealthy.)"

Free time sure is important, but we have other priorities that are higher (NT's education, additional income-generating activities, childrearing, home cooking). I don't know what the list looks like, but unless it was worded as "what do you want to improve on," I can't imagine putting free time before "strong marriage" or "healthy kids"!

Household Net Worth

"The typical household has a net worth of about $84,000, according to the Federal Reserve. That's down 30 percent since 2007, thanks to losses in stock portfolios and home values."

I'm happy to say that our net worth is much higher than average, thanks to NT's early home purchase and retirement contributions, coupled with our really aggressive debt repay of the past couple years.

Debt

"About 18 percent of disposable income, on average, goes toward mortgage payments, auto loans, credit cards and other forms of household debt. That's a bit higher than it was in the '70s and '80s. But since debt payments peaked at the beginning of 2008, at 18.9 percent of income, they've been steadily falling."

Strange figure to calculate, but here goes. I guess "disposable" means "net" income? OK, our minimum debt payments (including US mortgage but not UK) are $22,500 per year, and our net income (just paychecks, not rental or random freelance income) is $47,400. So our debt payments are 47% of our income. Yikes, that's much higher!

So interesting experiment. We differ from the median in nearly every category, higher in some, lower than others. Not sure it really tells me anything, but it was a fun activity anyway.

Assets:
NT's UK pensions: 7,250 pounds ($14,500)
14,721 pounds ($29,442)
NT's 401(k): $7,895
AS's 403(b): $3,237
AS's IRA: $1,681
AS's 401(k): $217
CJ's 401(k): $33,426
NT's flat: 130,000 pounds ($260,000)
CJ & AS's condo: $160,000
Baby/emergency fund (shared asset): $8,277
---
Total Assets: $518,675

Total Debt: $371,664

Current Estimated Net Worth: $147,011

February 2010 estimate: $143,201

Change in net worth: +$3,810

Summary: Despite not paying off very much debt, we got a nice bump because our retirement accounts performed well this month. So far we've managed to cashflow all the baby-related expenses, so we haven't dipped into the baby/EF even a little bit! I haven't had a chance to look at sale prices for condos in my building, so I don't know whether I need to lower my estimated value of our place. So I left it as is for this month.

I will update my "Individual Net Worth" page shortly so you can see how it breaks out.

Notes on the numbers above: House value estimates are conservative. 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 $2 for every British pound, which was the exchange rate when I started keeping track. I maintain that ratio for the purpose of tracking progress, even though the exchange rate is now closer to $1.60 per British pound.

So late March marks the beginning of our second year on three prepaid phones instead of a family plan. We bought some minutes recently:

CJ 1000 minutes T-Mobile fillup: $107.78
NT 300 minutes Net10 fillup: $32.82
Total cost for the year: $140.60

So our average monthly cost for this year is $140.60, since we're in the first month. Obviously, I expect that average to drop considerably over the next few months.

RECAP: I switched to prepaid in late March 2009. We have 2 phones on T-Mobile prepaid and 1 on Net10 prepaid. AS and I refill in 1000-minute increments and only need to refill when we run out or when it's been a year since our last fillup to stay active. NT needs to buy 300 more minutes every 60 days to keep his phone activated.

(Our cellphone bill, for three phones on a family plan, used to range from $80-$95, depending on texts, calls to 411, etc. Usually it was close to $85. My goal for next year is to get my average cost to $50 per month, but any average number below $85 will be a savings.)

Well, I've managed to keep up with my bills and my budget spreadsheets, but forget having the time to write anything! I already had to take a 10-minute break in this first paragraph to walk around with little Miss AA. We'll see how long she stays asleep now.

OK, financial stuff:
AA had the good grace to be born at the beginning of a slow period in my finances; not much happens between the 2nd of the month and the 15th, so it was easy to keep up on things.

One of AS's student loan payments went through, with $87 going to principal. That makes $901 down, $229 to go on the March debt goal.

I put $25 into the travel fund last week, as well as $1 in interest into the EF. We now have $1265 saved for the Va. trip and $3584 for the UK one. I'm waiting to make sure my doctor will authorize me to go back to work when I planned (hoping the C-section doesn't change that), and once that's confirmed I'll start to look for good deals on tickets.

I've had this small financial problem so boring I haven't even bothered to write about it, but it continues to annoy us. In a nutshell: NT and I opened another account at US Bank to take advantage of a deal where if you put $1000 into savings you got a $50 Visa card, and if you kept at least $1000 in savings for a year you get another one. We transferred the $1000 over right away, and received the first Visa card--for $36 instead of $50.

After weeks of inquiries we finally learned that NT was supposed to have given them a new tax form, which he'll have to do every couple years since he's a noncitizen permanent resident. Since he hadn't, federal withholding was going to be taken out of any interest income (which is what this Visa card counts as). We'd gotten the notice about the form ages ago, but when we went into the bank, whoever helped us thought it was sufficient to enter some data into the computer, and they never had us fill out that form.

Anyway, we filled out the form and got the $14 that had been withheld deposited into our account. Then the monthly interest hit our savings account that we've had for years--only this time, federal withholding was deducted from it. Sigh. Somehow this deal we signed up for has triggered a bigger problem having to do with NT's missing (but now provided) tax form. So now we're going to try filling out the form but with both of us signing it, and see if that fixes the problem. At least we've got an excellent banker working on the problem who's as annoyed with it as we are, so he's good at following up and keeping us informed.

My first paycheck at 60% disability pay hit my account, and it was about twice as much as I expected. I checked my paystub and realized they aren't withholding taxes. I thought about correcting that, but I'm only going to have one more paycheck of disability pay, and I think I've been cautious with my withholding on my regular paychecks, so I'm just going to leave it. Anyway, we could use the money now, and we'll be better able to pay any tax shortfall next year, when we're back on full pay.

I'm amazed AA let me write for this long! I should go ahead and post it rather than pushing my luck.

Hey, it's CJ again.

Just wanted to hop on and say we're back home finally. I've been reading everyone's comments but didn't feel focused enough to write anything while at the hospital. I'm slowly getting back into the groove (including finances) and will be posting soon.

Thank you so much for your comments; they were really great to read while recovering.

This is AS again. Thought I'd post more pictures while Ceejay's taking a nap (she's been really touched by all your comments, by the way!)

Miss AA. 6 lb 9 oz, 19 1/4". Both she and Ceejay are doing great.

Hi SavingsAdvicers, this is AS filling in for Ceejay because . . . she's in labor! We're at the hospital right now. We woke up at 4:00am, got to the hospital at 8:00am, and after several hours of contractions and pushing, the doctor's decided to perform a c-section, which we're totally fine with (she's in fact quite relieved.

I or NT will update you with more facts as we have them!

Not much to report, moneywise, but I thought I'd post just to say baby's still inside me. Doctor's appointment was routine; my blood pressure and baby's heart rate are good, so we're just still in a holding pattern. Monday is the due date, so we'll see if baby feels like playing ball by then.

I did spot a quarter on the bus this morning, a few rows up. I pointed it out to AS and she scooped it up as we were leaving. Woo hoo!

It's been super busy at work, and I was in late because of the appointment, so I haven't had much time to think about something to post. Tomorrow is my last day of work (unless today is!), so after that I'll have plenty of time to surf the Web. Tonight I'm going to call my insurance company and precertify my hospital stay, and call the hospital and make sure my registration is in the system. And that's the last thing on my to-do list before labor starts.

OK, back to work!

I'm still here! I'll try to post something every day until the birth so you'll know whether or not it has happened.

One rule of thumb that gets tossed around a lot on the SavingAdvice forums fascinates me: that generally, a good way to break down where your income should go is 50% to needs, 30% to wants and 20% to long-term savings.

I've also seen it said that extra debt repay beyond the minimums can count toward the savings 20% because it's helping your future.

That's not how I break down my expenses; my categories are Mortgage/Utilities/Telecom, Debt Repayment/Savings, Spending/Entertainment/Travel, and Household/Groceries/Healthcare/Transportation. I like the idea of the simpler needs/wants/savings one even though it breaks things out differently (some of my categories combine wants and needs, such as mortgage payment and Internet access). But I've never gotten around to seeing how this plays out, mainly because my everyday budget calculations are based on take-home U.S. income, not gross of all income. I think you'd need to start with the gross to accurately calculate needs and savings, since some things are taken automatically out of our income and don't show up in the take-home pay.

I've had a slow morning at work (which portends a horrible busy afternoon, unfortunately), so I finally sat down with our paychecks and worked it out. I was worried that needs and wants would be too big and savings/extra debt repay too small.

I was partially right, partially pleasantly surprised. Here's how our budget breaks out:
Needs: 53.37% of gross income
Wants: 22.30% of gross income
Saving/extra debt payment: 24.34% of gross income

So our "needs" category runs a little higher than the ideal, but our "wants" category is much lower and our savings and debt repay is a little higher. So overall, we're doing well.

Of course, our "needs" category is going to get bigger once we start paying for daycare and baby's health insurance. But it will also get smaller as I continue to slowly eliminate debt payments. So in a year or two, I'm hoping the category will get back to this level. The "wants" category I'm comfortable with; I don't feel like we need any more discretionary spending, and I now feel that we're not spending too much in that category when you consider our total income.

Also, if or when we get raises, if we could apply most of it to savings and extra debt repay, that would help our percentages.

In an ideal world, I would like to see the "wants" stay about the same while the "needs" shrink and the "savings" grow. Since we're still in a lot of debt and behind on retirement, I feel we need to keep that category higher than the rule of thumb suggests, at least until I feel we're more caught up.

The next four months are going to look kind of bad as far as the rule of thumb goes: Our reduced income will be taken out of wants and savings, while more will be put into the needs category. I reckon "needs" will grow to about 75% during this period, but I'm not going to make drastic lifestyle changes since I know it's temporary. There's not much we can cut out of "needs" anyway, at least not quickly enough to even out our categories for those four months.

So all in all, that was a fun and fairly encouraging exercise!

I actually forgot it was my birthday when I woke up this morning! But I soon felt special and birthday-girlish, because NT and AS had all my presents lined up on the kitchen island, and the first one was a 45 single of a song that my family would play at everyone's birthday, which was all set up on NT's turntable ready to play.

Anyway, last night I deposited a freelance check from AS and was able to put it all toward travel, so we've got our minimum goal amounts plus a bit more set aside. And two more freelance checks on the way. She got an offer for one more freelance job, and it was a very small one so she accepted (we've agreed she won't take any more full book edits until we're settled into our new routine a bit).

Also, the U.S. mortgage and one of AS's student loan payments hit the accounts, with $376 and $59 going to principal, respectively. So $814 down, $316 to go on our March repayment goal. (The next payment won't hit for two weeks; most of the action happens in the first day or two of the month.)

What a weird-feeling day. One week from my due date. One day from my 36th birthday. I have the day off and just feel like sitting around, but I set myself a number of tasks so I'm going to have to get going here soon.

But, one of the things I wanted to do was update my financial info, so this counts toward the day even though I'm still in my bathrobe.

The UK mortgages hit, with $379 total going to principal. $751 to go on the March repayment goal.

There was about 300 pounds left in the UK checking account, so I decided to leave most of it there in checking to put toward our UK trip. (I won't note it in my sidebar, because the $3000 I'm trying to raise is for plane tickets which I'm going to pay for with US funds.) It will be used to rent a car when we visit England. I'll probably keep more out of savings so we can also have a couple of dinners out while we're over there, and buy our own groceries (we'll be staying with various nonvegetarian friends and relatives).

I only have three things to do outdoors today: mail some thank-you cards for the shower and a care package for a sick friend (waiting to get some addresses before I go), pick up a gift certificate for another friend, and get my license renewed. Sucky timing: It expires tomorrow, and I was just going to leave it until after the birth, until I thought that maybe I'll need current ID for hospital, pediatric clinic, etc.? Sigh. So I'm going today and I'll at least have the paperwork that I've applied for a new one. And I'll have a round pregnant face on my driver's license for the next five years. Ah well.

The (controlled) spending continues: We had our birthday meals out, bought a bunch more groceries, and ordered the sewing cabinet this weekend. (AS is moving her sewing operations out into the dining area, and since we have an open kitchen/dining/living room area, we needed something that closed up and looked very neat and tidy when it wasn't in use. About $670, but it came from her business account, so it won't affect us. She had $900 to spend so she did pretty well. She can buy some other minor things if needed to complete the transition out of the nursery into the dining area.

We also started checking for price quotes on a good thorough floor cleaning and/or polish. The floor is just kind of grimy and dull; we haven't done a deep clean on it in years. Plus there are some spots with minor damage from furniture, sun, and in one spot an old stain from a spill of a very sticky substance that got into the veneer before it was detected. No real hurry on this, but we kind of want it at least clean before baby starts crawling around. I got an $85 quote for just a floor washing, $1250 for a "renewal" including polish, but we'll keep looking and see if we get wildly differing quotes from the ones we've got so far. If not, I think just a cleaning; after all, the floor is just going to get worn out again, so I'm inclined not to get it completely fixed and polished until we're ready to move out (years from now). I'd much rather focus on getting the stove paid for and the balcony screened in for next spring (probably can't raise the money in time for this spring).

On the income side, AS got another freelance check. She checked her records and saw that including the one she just got, she's expecting over $2000 in checks in the next week or so. That will all go to the travel fund; rounding out the UK airfare and giving us some spending money for Va. (for food, possibly rental car, maybe a night in a hotel to ourselves). Oh yeah, I should deposit that check today; another thing to do while out!

Another bit of good financial news: We found out that NT's job automatically enrolled him in flex spending last year and this year! We thought you had to opt in, and since he tends not to have any medical expenses we stopped enrolling after 2008, but they kept him on it anyway. $150 for 2009 and $150 for 2010. Why is this good news? We found out just in time to scrape some receipts together and claim the $150 from last year, and now we know to keep receipts for random over-the-counter stuff this year and we'll easily get the $150 back. So we won't lose any money and in fact I can replenish the medical expenses fund for almost all of the cost of the diaper service. Neat!

We had a fantastic month of debt repayment in February, which is good because otherwise it was not a particularly frugal month. In the February eat-at-home challenge, I think we maybe racked up 2 points. LOL.

First, I found out that AS frequently buys a Coke at work, nearly every day. Then, I've felt less inclined to go walking around with NT at lunch, so he's been coming over to my building, where the only place to sit is in the coffee shop. So we've been buying beverages to be able to sit together there.

Then, I've been trying to have date nights, and we've been too exhausted to cook some nights, so we've been eating out or getting takeout WAY more than we usually do. Also, my sugar and chocolate cravings have been so bad that I've been buying random candy bars and snacks, which I virtually NEVER did before I got pregnant.

Then there was Valentine's Day, and this weekend, AS and I are having our birthday dinners out. Our birthdays are March 2 and 4, but since we're so close to the due date we decided to celebrate early.

Also, our grocery spending has gone way over what it normally does because we've been buying all sorts of nonperishable foods (we usually eat mostly fresh foods and don't have a very heavily stocked pantry) and convenience meals in preparation for whatever the first few weeks have in store.

And then, we had a flurry of baby-supply buying for any supplies that we didn't get through hand-me-downs or baby-shower gifts.

Despite all that, we still managed to save up most of the money needed for our family trips and to put a bit away in the EF, so I don't feel bad about it, but it's just been a weird feeling to do so much buying.

For March, my debt-payment "goal" is just to pay the minimum required maintenance on everything, about $1130 total. So we'll follow our record-breaking month with another record--the lowest amount of debt paid since I started my journey. LOL.

Other than that, I have a whole huge list of to-dos for March, divided into pre- and post-birth, but I won't bore you with them. They'll get taken care of because they pretty much have to.

Well, we're lazing around watching movies, so I decided to check AS's student loan account, and our payment was there! $116 went to principal, so that brings our February debt repayment to $5079. Cracking $5K is a new record for us!

How did we do it? Some of it was planned. Some was due to bigger-than-expected tax refunds. Then there was a flurry of freelance income from AS. Plus, we'd been hanging onto some of her 2009 income in case she owed self-employment tax, so we were able to put that toward debt as well.

This is a good flourish before we settle into minimum payments only, which consist of about a grand a month, until probably late summer.

My credit card payment hit, just the minimum, with $144 going to principal. After a heady couple of months of paying down big chunks of debt, we need to pull back and pay the minimums for awhile until we've made sure the baby is all right, the months of reduced pay are over, and the trips to see the grandparents are fully funded.

So our total progress on debt in February is $4963. If one of AS's student loans hits tomorrow (not sure if they process payments on Saturdays), we'll crack $5000 this month. If not, still an awesome month.

Our biweekly $25 was transferred into savings, so I'm putting that toward our England trip: $2476 saved, $524 to go. AS just completed a freelance proofing job, so soon we'll get $600 or $700 (can't remember exactly) to put toward travel.

That's good, because I projected out the next six months or so, and I did some maneuvering so that we'll stay in our budget just fine, but we won't have ANY extra money (beyond the biweekly $25) to put toward travel until July at the earliest, and one of our trips will have already happened by then. I'm going to have a family meeting and see if they think we need more money for the Va. trip, and if so, what we should move around to do so. Thanks to momcents' recent blog post I'm feeling much more mellow about viewing our money as one big amount vs. separate untouchable buckets, so I feel confident we can come up with something.

Of course, I tried to be conservative in my estimates of our reduced paychecks, so I have some hope that they'll be a little higher than what I'm projecting, but not much. At some point my HR will give me a projection of what my checks will look like, but I'm not sure at what point they do that, and me being me I just had to work out some kind of rough estimate so we could be looking ahead.

A week and a half to go, if baby is planning to stick to the schedule! I just set up diaper cleaning service--weird! Have to figure out how I'm going to pay for that--leaning toward my medical-expense fund, since it's at a healthy level and doesn't feel as drastic as taking from the emergency fund. The good news is it's one lump sum that covers 12 weeks, so I only have to come up with it once--after that we're planning on managing the cleaning for ourselves, but we thought we could use any help we could get in the first couple months.

Assets:
NT's UK pensions: 7,250 pounds ($14,500)
14,721 pounds ($29,442)
NT's 401(k): $7,400
AS's 403(b): $3,237
AS's IRA: $1,681
AS's 401(k): $104
CJ's 401(k): $31,406
NT's flat: 130,000 pounds ($260,000)
CJ & AS's condo: $160,000
Baby/emergency fund (shared asset): $8,256
---
Total Assets: $516,026

Total Debt: $372,825

Current Estimated Net Worth: $143,201

January 2010 estimate: $135,321

Change in net worth: +$7,880

Summary: My dad cashed all the checks I gave him since my last update, so our net worth skyrocketed! I would be happier if I hadn't gotten a disturbing piece of mail: My property valuation by the county went down from about $151K to about $137K. Yikes! I haven't changed it on the info above because I go by sale prices, so I'll start watching for how comparable units in my condo are selling, and adjust my assets next time if necessary.

In other good news, though, I got a peek at how AS's old 403(b) account is doing--it's been gaining 6% all along, but I wasn't able to see that, so I got to record it as a nice lump gain this time. She also opened her 401(k) at her new job and we added $80 to her IRA. So her individual net worth should show a nice little bump (which may or may not be crushed next month by our condo's falling value, but c'est la vie).

I will update my "Individual Net Worth" page shortly so you can see how it breaks out.

Notes on the numbers above: House value estimates are conservative. 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 $2 for every British pound, which was the exchange rate when I started keeping track. I maintain that ratio for the purpose of tracking progress, even though the exchange rate is now closer to $1.60 per British pound.

AS needed a refill, so we spent $107.78 to buy 1000 more minutes. She made her minutes last 4.5 months this time, much better than the previous record of 3.5 months. Having a work phone has made a huge difference, and she didn't even have it for half of this time.

Initial layout to get us set up with phones and 2300 minutes: $241.63
NT's late-May Net10 fillup: $32.65
AS's late-June T-Mobile fillup: $107.40
NT's late-July Net10 fillup: $32.82
NT's late-September Net10 fillup: $32.82
AS's early-October T-Mobile fillup: $107.78
NT's late-November Net10 fillup: $32.82
NT's late-January Net10 fillup: $32.82
AS's late-February T-Mobile fillup: $107.78

So our total cost so far is $728.52.

I still have 140 of my original minutes, NT has 185 remaining on his phone, and of course AS has 1000 brand new minutes. We're assuming that's the last we'll have to buy before late March, at which point I'm going to start a fresh year of calculations. So, if I divide our total cost by 12, our new plan cost us an average $60.71 per month over the span of a year. That's much better than our $85 average on the T-Mobile family plan (and better than the $80 minimum which our family plan used to cost us in a really good month).

RECAP: I switched to prepaid in late March, meaning it's been 11 months. We have 2 phones on T-Mobile prepaid and 1 on Net10 prepaid. AS and I refill in 1000-minute increments and only need to refill when we run out or when it's been a year since our last fillup to stay active. NT needs to buy 300 more minutes every 60 days to keep his phone activated.

(Our cellphone bill, for three phones on a family plan, used to range from $80-$95, depending on texts, calls to 411, etc. Usually it was close to $85. My goal for next year is to get my average cost to $50 per month, but any average number below $85 will be a savings.)

One of AS's student loans hit: $79 to principal. Makes the February debt repayment toal $4819. This is also the loan that I want paid off by December 2011, so it's progress on one of my Big-Picture Goals.

I must be feeling protective of monkeymama because of the awful comments someone has been posting to her blog! I had a dream that I had this magical device where I could go through the SA website and directly into SA bloggers' homes. I used it to go into monkeymama's house where she was being robbed, and helped fight off the robber and call for help.

When everything was OK and the robber had been arrested, I said soemthing like, "And look! Since I came straight into your house, I still have no idea where you live. Your anonymity is still safe!" Then I went back to my life using the magic device. LOL.

I've developed two more financial goals that would be nice to accomplish in 2010, but I'm not sure I'll add them to the list since I still think my current goals are kind of ambitious, but it's in the back of my mind that they could be completed this year. One is that we want to screen in our 18th-floor balcony so it'll be safer for the kid (and the kitty) to be out there. For the kid, we won't really need it until summer 2011, but it would be nice to have it this summer for the cat. It costs about $1800 to get the screens installed.

The other is to find some experts to help me out with all the complex financial and familial situations we have, to make sure I'm protecting all of us and doing the best for the future. On the SA forums someone was asking who had a trusted financial adviser, and it reawakened my desire to get some help with our life.

I think I need a tax expert fluent in both U.S. and UK taxes to make sure I'm reporting everything correctly; I've been doing both for about three years now, so if I was making mistakes it would be good to correct them before I have too many years to fix.

Then I need a financial adviser who can address taxation practices for both the U.S. and the UK, and can steer us toward the right strategy for our unique situation, which is contributing to retirement in America now but eventually retiring in England. We also need to know whether it's beneficial to do a tax-free college fund in the U.S. if chances are our child will be going to school in England.

And finally, we need help from a family lawyer who has experience with nontraditional family structures, to see what parental rights we can put in place for AS, and to figure out wills and other documents to protect our family's cohesion in the event of serious injury or death of one or both of the (biological) parents.

So, all of that is going to cost me money. We'll see if I can afford to do anything about it this year.

My dad just e-mailed me to let me know he cashed the last three checks! Even though they haven't come out of my checking account yet, I'm counting this as PAID because he has the cash in hand and I know they're not going to bounce when they do hit my account.

Happy, happy, happy dance! He wrote a really nice note in response to my thanks for the loan--very unusual for my dad to write about anything resembling feelings, and my note to him was pretty effusive (by my family's standards) so I'm pretty touched he acknowledged it. My parents love me very much but are not so much about talking about it. LOL

This one's going on the Old Debt Graveyard page as soon as I come back from a meeting.

Oh! And it gets my (and by extension the household's) personal debt down below $10K!! Now we just have to tackle that last credit card.

Oh yeah, and it means I passed my February goal of payind off $1800--so far I've paid off $4740!