Ceejay74's Personal Finance Blog

OK, on to the next step in my Ad Hoc Plan. Now that NT's full-time job kicked in, I wanted to make our repayment a little more aggressive, though the bulk of this new money will go toward spending money and saving up for travel, home improvement, etc. $2500 seemed like a good goal, and $2525 was catchy, so I decided to make that our new monthly goal.

I updated our overall goal, and realized that means I'm aiming to pay off almost $20K by the end of March, before our trip! Sounds crazy until I realize that in August and September, we paid $5,008, more than a quarter of that.

If we were able to keep at this pace, we'd be able to pay off all our debt, including our mortgages, in 15 years. (That means if I manage to snowball payments once I start eliminating debts, it could be faster than that.) Another exciting thought: We could be free of consumer/credit debt in less than three years. I've had credit card debts since I was about 24, so that would be an amazing feeling.

It's all about positive visualization!

As I've probably mentioned, I find the UK side of our finances confusing. :-) So I just figured out how to check another credit card balance online, and turns out a payment had posted since the last time I got the balance in the mail. Its balance was 141 pounds (about $282) lower than last time, so that means we've reached our monthly goal!

Goal: pay off $2185
Results: Paid off $2427!

I can only check one of NT's UK credit cards online; the others I have to wait for the print statements to come. Annoying! I've gotten so spoiled by online access.

Anyway, the one I can check posted a small reduction in principal--3 pounds, or about 6 bucks. That brings us a tiny step closer to making our goal: $2145 down, $40 to go.

Today my personal loan payment posted. I managed to put a few extra hundred toward it, so I paid off $760 in principal! So $2139 down, only $46 to go in September. Hopefully I'll manage that somehow, but even if I don't, I got closer to my goal than expected.

I love doing taxes and will help out any friend as long as theirs aren't too complicated. This year I did taxes for a friend who has several different kinds of investments--that was different! Most of the ones I do are fairly straightforward, but I do love a challenge. The Tax Code is like a choose-your-own-adventure book in my geeky world.

But the other night I had to do British taxes! NT has never really had to do taxes; in the UK, the government will figure them out for you in most cases. But since he still has his flat in England and rents it out, that portion had to be figured out. I have the best financial head in the household, so it was my job.

At least we didn't have to calculate the tax, just send them figures related to the rental property. But still, it was so crazy to do, after being so comfortable with the IRS's way of wording things and organizing forms.

Turns out there was a loss of about 600 pounds ($1200) for the year ended April 4, 2007, due to maintenance that had to be done in order to rent the flat. I think that's good news, though; can't imagine the UK government will be able to tax us since we had no income, and we can carry that loss over to future years, so hopefully we won't have to pay any British taxes until we're in a better place to do so.

I'm also hoping that having no UK income will simplify my and NT's 2007 U.S. taxes. I ended up doing Married Filing Separately for 2006, since he had UK income and no U.S. income. I missed out on a little bit of deductions as a result, but I was afraid of all the extra forms that would come with reporting his international income!

I still may end up hiring someone this year just to make sure I'm not missing any important legal requirements. Sad since I'm H&R Block-certified, but I didn't get into learning anything very complicated when I worked for them.

AS's student loan payment posted today, paying off $55 in principal instead of the expected $48. Hooray! So that's $1,379 paid, $806 to go on my September challenge.

I sold 2 books on half.com and cleared $45, and we should be able to sell an unused TiVo box, which we got for $40, for $75. So I'm putting an extra $120 toward my personal loan payment going out on Friday. That will get me much closer to hitting my goal, even if I don't quite make it. I'll have to watch closely and make sure they put the extra toward principal, as this will be the first time I pay extra on this new loan.

Paid $296 toward principal. So $1324 down, $861 to go on my September goal.

It's frustrating having such large amounts of debt, because no matter how much I'm able to throw at it, it always feels like a drop in the bucket. These monthly goals really help me feel like I'm accomplishing something so I don't lose focus.

Another short-term thing that helps is tackling some smaller, high-interest debt. The low-hanging fruit, so to speak. I got rid of my own reserve line balance on my checking account first; now my sights are set on NT's overdraft balance on his UK account. I think I'll be able to pay more than half of it off in October and knock the rest out in early November. Then he's got a small credit card balance that I think I'll be able to pay off in December. So I'm hoping I'll be able to say I've paid off two more debts by the end of the year.

That'd make 2007 quite memorable, since I also paid off my student loan in May and my reserve line just recently. Four debts gone in one year would be exhilerating!

My mortgage payment and NT's UK mortgage payments posted, so I've finally chipped away some more of my September challenge. I estimate we paid off $436 in principal total. So that's $1028 paid, $1157 to go.

I think we'll fall a little short this month, but we'll come pretty close.

Well, it's not nearly that exciting; it's our own money. NT's job finally got straightened out, so we have a little more money in play than we did before. Some of it will be going to a more aggressive debt-repayment plan (which I will launch in October, after I get some other things straightened out). And some will be going toward a bigger cable package and DVR, which we've been dying to get. Some will go into a short-term savings account, where we'll save up money for various things like travel and home improvement. But there will still be some money left over. (This may change next year when some student loans come due and our ARM goes up, but not for awhile.)

So, since everyone in my family has been looking for motivation to work out, I've started an exercise incentive plan. There is now a reward of $5 extra spending money every time one of us works out for half an hour. If we don't work out enough to earn all the money I'm setting aside, it will go toward debt principal or into savings, wherever I need it.

To make it even more fun, I took out the first batch of workout money in $2 bills and the new dollar coins! They're really neat-looking. I had to special-order them from the bank because they didn't have any there.

So far it's working! We went for an hour-long brisk walk together around town on Sunday, "earning" $10 each, and each of us managed another half hour of exercise on Monday, so we each get another $5.

I could be putting this toward debt, but if I can get us healthier, that's just as big an investment in our future.

Still getting the hang of tracking the balances of all of NT's UK credit cards and mortgages. One of them, I'd written down an old balance and it was actually more. But, a couple others have gone down, to the tune of about 73 pounds and some change, or about US$147. I think. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Soooo, $592 down, $1593 to go for September. I know it looks like I'm way ahead, but it's still doubtful that I'll make my September goal. I'll keep trying, though!

Darn, I had thought they took my wire transfer fee out of my transfer amount, but they actually charged it separately. That means, looking at the exchange rate, it's more what I feared it was. I thought I saw a stronger exchange rate listed on the news last night, but maybe it didn't come in time to affect my transfer, or maybe the banks use a different one.

The good news is, my debt calculations were right. The downside is I have to deal with an extra $50 out of my own checking account.

Oh well, onward and upward. :-)

I finally figured out how to make wire transfers into NT's UK checking account, so now I can not only throw money in there to cover his regular bills, I can work on paying down his overdraft balance (now that mine is paid off). So yesterday I wired enough money to cover his August and September bills, plus a some extra to whittle down his overdraft debt. Thanks to a surge in the US dollar against the British pound, it ended up being more pounds than I'd hoped for! According to my calculations, I estimate I paid down about US$445 worth of his overdraft, so that's what I'm counting toward my September challenge.

I'll have to pay extra on one of my other bills in order to make the challenge, but luckily I have a month and a half to figure that out. I'm just happy I was able to pay some extra, and that the exchange rate worked in my favor!

So, $445 down, $1740 to go on my September goal.

My personal loan hit; $404 went to principal. Not as much as I thought, since my first payment last month paid off $475, but it's still a pretty good chunk.

On the upside, I've now reached and surpassed my August goal of paying off at least $2185 in principal. I paid a total of $2581! Overshot by $396.

I'm not sure if I'll see any more debt pay-down this month, so I'm going to go ahead and post my results on my sidebar. If I manage any more, I'll put it toward my September goal.

A student loan payment and a credit card payment both hit today: $48 went toward principal on the student loan and $307 of principal on the credit card, for a total of $355 today.

Soo, $2177 down, $8 to go on my August goal. I have a payment on my personal loan going out today, so I should reach my goal in a day or two.

Because I paid so aggressively this month, I may have trouble hitting my September goal, but I'm working on conserving money in other areas so I don't fall short!

Well, for the first time since I got serious, anyway. :-)

I'm having trouble figuring out how to transfer money to pay down NT's overdraft debt in the UK (plus put in the extra money he needs to make his automatic payments), but it'll be OK for about another month. I'll have to figure out my drop-dead deadline for getting some money over there, but meantime, I've got this money sitting here and it's driving me nuts not putting it toward something.

So I used most of what I currently have to pay off my own reserve line balance! This will eliminate future monthly payments and interest accrual, and the worst consequence will be that I overshoot my August goal and fall short on September's, but it will even out to the same amount in the challenge, so that doesn't bother me.

So...$672 toward principal bringing me to $1822 down, $363 to go for August. I'll easily surpass that just with my remaining minimum payments this month.

This is nice. I needed a little boost!

Made a small payment to my reserve line today; $29 went toward principal debt. So for the August challenge, I've paid $1150 so far, with $1035 to go.

I'll probably see what I can shuffle around to pay off some of NT's overdraft balance, but it'll be an international wire transfer to his UK checking account, so a little complicated. I signed up for Western Union and MoneyGram, but it looks like MoneyGram is the cheaper option for now--$25 to transfer $800. I'm hoping I can work something out with PayPal accounts where maybe we could get charged even less, but I'm not sure that's going to happen.

OK, I've updated my info with scary, scary new numbers, and made a new payment plan that incorporates the minimum principal we all typically pay in a month, plus $555 to pay down principal in the proposed amount of our spring '08 England trip (figured into our debt as $5,000 estimated future debt).

I'm calling it The Ad Hoc Plan, because hopefully I'll be able to switch to a more aggressive plan once I find out what NT's going to bring home once he finishes the temp-to-perm transition (which feels like it's taking forever!)

The new goal is to pay off $2,185 of principal per month through March 2008. We've paid $1121 so far in August, so we have $1062 to go by 8/31/07.

Well, I'm still getting my new total debt (with NT's now included) figured out, and waiting to hear what NT's salary will be so I can work out a payment schedule. Meanwhile, I'm going to keep to my 1099 + 555 Plan like nothing happened, because it will help me stay sane to have something to keep track of.

My mortgage payment came through and $283 went toward principal. So $683 down and $971 to go for the period of 7/26 to 8/26.

I'm going to update my sidebar without NT's debt for the time being. When I do update it with all I know, I'm going to keep that first successful goal for 7/26 at the top, just to remind myself that I didn't fail, just had to shift my priorities.

That was my mantra in my late 20s, when for a period of time I was diligently chipping away at mine and AS's $50K or so of debt (much of it student loan, some credit card). Well, I turned 33 this year, and when I totaled my debt in March, it had more than quintupled! Granted most was mortgage debt, but a good deal still student loan and much more credit card than before.

Another adult entered my household this year as well, with his own adult-sized debt. I just "took on" (psychologically) NT's debt as well last night, and that adds another $141K to my $277K, bringing me (psychologically) to $418K in debt. Whoa, close to half a million. That's nutty. At this point, you can't even freak out because there's no human reaction befitting that. And that's not counting the 4 years of college he hopes to get, I imagine to the tune of not much less than $40K total. And. And. And...

On the upside, whereas mine & AS's assets are only about $180K worth of home (that's an estimate; we bought it for $207K but I know home sales have been sluggish in my building) and $26K of retirement funds (probably less from the recent crash, but soon to build to that again), NT gives me (psychologically) with his debt a home worth $260K and a retirement fund of unknown value. That gives the three of us assets worth $466K not counting NT's retirement.

Coming to a net worth of $48,000 between us. (If you don't count the upcoming college costs, which could very well take us down to net worth of $8K.)

As a pick-me-up it ain't much, but I'll take it. Now to roll up my sleeves (or should I say shine my shoes?), because I have some fancy financial footwork ahead of me.

NT's rental income isn't quite covering his mortgage and credit card payments, so I have to come up with an extra $400 per month. He also has a new job which we should (hopefully) find out the compensation details of soon, but unfortunately I was already eyeing that extra income and thinking about where I could put it, so it's a bit of a downer that I have to spread it a little more thinly than I thought.

First step today: move back a credit card payment that I usually pay early, and use that money to do an emergency transfer into his checking account to cover some bills hitting tomorrow. Hoping everything happens in the right order; if not we'll have some overdraft fees to contend with.

Sigh. The funny thing is, I knew some reckoning was coming for at least a couple months, ever since NT told me he hadn't checked his accounts for awhile and wasn't sure the payments were being covered. I think the reason this all seems overwhelming is a tiny straw: AS charged $13 for drinks last night on our check card, and NT bought a messenger bag on one of his credit cards for $70. Now, neither of them rebels very often, and I've been reining them in pretty strictly since March, so these aren't huge deals in the grand scheme of things. But finding out about them at the same time that I'm trying to deal with all this just makes my stomach feel hollow.

Ah well. no one I've encountered on this site is in anywhere near this kind of debt, but at least I know you guys will be thinking of me (hopefully sympathetically) and pulling for me. It makes me feel less isolated.

Thanks for listening!
CJ

Just realized I had enough money to cover another $200 payment that was scheduled for next month. So $400 paid, $1,254 to go for August!

I may not get very far in this challenge before I have to reformulate it--but if so, it will be reformulated to be even more aggressive about debt repayment, so that'll be a good thing! Meanwhile, until I find out what NT's exact salary will be, it's business as usual with the 1099 + 555 Plan.

Well, I think maybe what I'll do, since someone mentioned starting a savings account for my emergency, entertainment and travel funds, is open a "goal savings account," which my bank offers. It's linked to my checking account, it's free as long as I make a $25 monthly automatic deposit, there's no minimum balance, and it even earns a teeny bit of interest. I'll keep my own records as to which parts of it are allocated to various funds.

This is, of course, assuming that NT gets offered enough money to meet some of my debt-repayment goals. Those come first, but I think it would help us control our spending if there were separate, finite funds for various things.

Our spending has been way controlled since I started budgeting us back in late March, but thinking long-term, if I'm going to keep my household on board, I have to be willing to spend a little on travel and entertainment! Don't want any mutinies down the road. :-)

Great news this morning: NT got confirmation that his current temp assignment is giving him a permanent job! He doesn't know the details of pay, but they know the minimum that he would take and have said it will be more than that for sure. He hasn't found out many other particulars either. One thing he stipulated is that he'd want a somewhat flexible schedule so he could go back to volunteering (tutoring disadvantaged youth), and they said that would be fine. He's going to continue temping as their receptionist until they get the new position all straightened out, so we know we'll have steady income from now on.

Now that I know we'll easily be able to stick with my accelerated payoff challenge, I'm thinking more about how some people on this site set money aside, and wanted to know how they do it. Those of you who build up funds for home improvement, travel, entertainment and emergencies, do you keep them as cash in envelopes, or separate offshoots of your checking accounts, or do you keep the money in your regular account but just pretend you can't use it?

I'm really hoping this job pays enough for my dream goal: paying for NT's school upfront. Well, by upfront I mean taking out student loans, but then paying off an equivalent extra amount on my consumer debt, so that we continue to pay down principal at the same rate and end up with less "bad" debt. Fingers crossed, though that's a bit more money than I expect him to be offered! :-)

CJ

Well, the next month of my challenge doesn't technically start until July 26, but I realized I have enough money to make a small payment, so I put $200 toward principal debt. My line of credit debt is now less than $1,000!

So, $200 paid, $1,454 to go by Aug. 26.

In other good news: Our best friends' ceremony was this weekend. I had all sorts of chunks of money set aside for all our various obligations for it. Well, it looks like we got in at least $20 under budget, and that's after buying a few extra things. If the grooms remember to pay us back for those, we'll be more like $60 under budget!

Also, NT is almost certainly guaranteed a job at the place where he's temping. It should be quite a bit more money and a lot more fun for him. He's waiting to hear from another place as well, that has its own pluses. Either way, we should be a lot better off soon!

CJ

Debt starting 7/26:
Personal loan: 29,525
Reserve line: 1,101
Credit card: 18,197
Trip to England: 5,000
Mortgage: 183,996
Loan from Dad: 7,000
Student loan 1: 16,129
Student loan 2: 3,388
Student loan 3: 12,848
-------
7/26 total debt: $277,184

Goal for 8/26: $275,530

6/26 total debt: $278,917
Goal for 7/26: $277,263

Actual debt balance on 7/17: $277,184

Ahead of goal by $79!

Yee haw! My final payment for the month came through; I was expecting $398 to go to principal but wasn't sure since this is my brand new loan. Instead, they whacked $475 off the principal balance! This means I met and exceeded my first month's goal for my 1099 + 555 Challenge! Let's hope it bodes well for the rest of the challenge as well.

Results for the first month coming as soon as I tally them...

I'm sorry; I try not to be controversial in places where it might be problematic.

But I just came back from a "bachelor party" for two male friends having a commitment ceremony next week. These are two friends who are moral, upright, religious and kind on all counts, and compeletely in love with one another (for the past 5 years). Yet family members who have supported them being together are having a problem with them having a commitment ceremony.

These familial haters keep bringing up the Bible or God, thinking the two lines of the Bible condeming homosexuality are somehow more powerful than the dozens of lines condemning shellfish and poly-cotton blends. I just don't get it.

I get having an opinion of something; I happen to think that eating, killing or using for entertainment an animal is just as wrong as eating, killing, or using for entertainment a human. But I realize I may not have all the answers where that is concerned, so I still love people who do such things to animals.

Basically, unless you kill or harm a human being deliberately, I will at least respect your basic nature. I can't believe these friends have to face so much petty judgment from these family members, who have taken a huge step interpreting God's will (where they've freely assumed other parts of the Bible are just dated per the era they were written in). I can't believe they'd take such a risk with the love of their sons/brothers.

Their loss, though. I will love these men their whole lives, feeling fortunate that I met them and know them.

Sorry again, but I just had to vent. This is so wrong.

CJ

Today a student loan payment showed up (I paid it over a week ago, but I don't count anything till I see it registered in the online balance), so $50 toward my goal. $1093 paid, $561 to go!

I have a loan payment going out Monday that I estimate will pay $398 toward interest, which would leave only $163. Well, I have enough money in the bank to do that and still cover expenses till NT's payday on Friday, so I went ahead and made an extra payment of $165 to my reserve-line debt. $1258 down, $396 to go. Now I know I'll hit my goal when my loan payment clears next week. Hooray!

I just retotaled my monthly budget because one of my regular payments went down. (I'll still pay extra on it; that's how it got lowered. But I do like to see my base budget.)

It hit a nice round number (with the help of rounding up every bill amount, of course): $4300. There are three adults in my household. $1040 is for groceries and other household expenses, $1892 for mortgage and association dues (including all utilities and cable TV), $141 goes to phone and internet for all three of us, and the rest ($1227) goes to debt (credit card, personal loan and student loans).

I know I could cut down a few other things, but if I just get rid of my straight-up debt, just think! $1227 a month left over to save, pay down my mortgage, up my 401(k), etc. That gives me even more impetus to push ahead, even if it takes years.

CJ

Made my regular payment to my reserve line today, plus a little bit extra, so that's $55 more toward principal.

My goal is to pay $1654 by 7/26, so that puts me at $611 left to pay, $1043 paid already. I have 2 more regular debt-bills this month, which should pay $398 and $51 in principal, leaving just $162 to reach my goal. Well, I was trying to save up $200 for an extra payment to my reserve line (small, high-interest debt driving me crazy), but even if I just put together $170 I should be in the black (goalwise). That's encouraging, since this is my first concrete goal and I really want to make it to show I can! :-)

CJ