AS's student loan hit. $141 went to principal, taking us to $1629 of debt paid in March. That exceeds the $1550 goal.

Although we'll be eliminating a lot of debt in April due to getting rid of the condo, but I don't think that counts as paying off debt, so I'm not sure what my goal will be. Maybe $1100, since we won't be making mortgage payments anymore. Still have to think about that one.

Our electrician reckons one of the condo repairs will involve going into the wall, which will mean patching it up and repainting. But he thinks it'll only be a couple hundred bucks and not very time-consuming, so that's good. He's going to consult with a more experienced electrician to see if there's another way he's not thinking of.

Monday I'm helping a recently divorced friend figure out a budget. I'm excited to have a second "client"!

So, time check on the other parts of this month:
- I'll contact my broker tomorrow to see if the streamline refi is open yet.
- 2 weeks until closing on the condo.
- 2 weeks and 3 days until the WV option expires.

I guess that's it for now!

NT's mom loaned us the full amount we needed to complete the UK renovation, so we wired that over to the management company. Now we don't have anything to do on that end except wait for updates from them.

NT scheduled an appointment for Thursday for an electrician to come check out the condo and give us a quote on the work that needs to be done per the purchase agreement. So we should know about that, one of the last uncertainties in terms of expense.

That's it for now! So we still need to:
- Hear about how much we need to bring to closing, and get a cashier's check
- Accept the quote and schedule the electrical work on the condo
- Check in with the broker (this Fri.) to see if the streamline refi is an option yet
- Close April 9
- Hear about WV option one way or the other by April 12

Today was a good mail day! NT got a bday check from my parents, AS got another freelance check, and I got a semi-surprise check for $2000 from my parents.

My dad explained in a letter that this was the one where they were expecting $4000 for each of his kids, but it ended up being less. I'm not complaining! This is to drill a well on the property. I can't believe it's so much less to drill a well vs. build a pipeline through. If I got $2500 on this deal that means it's $10K total. The pipeline, if it goes through, will pay us each $80K or $320K total. Dad mentioned this smaller deal may yield more money if they start producing from the well, so maybe that's why.

Confusing, but I can definitely use the $2K! As long as the repairs we need to do on the condo don't cost much, we're only $2800 away from being able to pay off the duplex seller without taking out the higher-interest reserve line loan, just the LOC loan which has a lower interest rate.

Of course, we're only 3 weeks away from the big WV deal option expiring, so might as well wait to see how that shakes out before paying off the seller promissory note. If I can restrain myself!

Got our tax packet back today, and there was a nice surprise the guy didn't mention in his email: AS is getting a $646 property tax return!

Also, NT got notice from one of his student loans that they're giving him a 1% reduction in his balance for good grades. Only $45, but we'll take it!

I got a callout in the daily work schedule email that it was my nine-year anniversary at work! Seems like a lot, but when I think about how much has changed (and how much I'VE grown and changed) since I started there, it makes sense. I should get a $25 gift card at the next staff meeting.

Annual performance reviews are coming up for everyone at work. My boss stopped by to let me know that I wouldn't be eligible for a raise since I've gotten one so recently, but that he thought I was doing really well and he could see another promotion in my future, maybe next year.

So on to my question: Tax guy said he'd provide a recommendation of how much AS should send in for taxes based on last year. I told him that AS is likely to make a lot more this year and asked if there were a certain percentage or other formula I should use to figure out how much to send in.

His answer: "I would say for AS it's best to pay the Estimates I prepare (as a minimum), unless she wants to increase them. If she keeps making money then start bumping up June 15 estimate etc."

So today, I got his estimated quarterly amounts: $1030 for federal and $240 for state.

I've been setting aside 14% for federal and 6% of state from every check she receives, and so far for Jan-March I have $2,594.86 for federal and $1,112.08 for state. I know I'll have more before March is over.

So my question to you: Is there any reason to pay in the smaller amounts the tax guy suggested, or should I just pay in what I've saved up? I feel like she's going to owe even more than I've saved, so I don't see why I should send less. But maybe I'm missing something.

I heard back from the tax guy that our taxes are done. He's charging us $700 for both sets. Considering the amount of complexity, that seems like a fair amount! The only open-ended thing left there is waiting to see his recommendation for how much AS should be sending in her quarterly payments.

I cleared up a few more things about closing, including how association dues are going to be handled. (I'll pay April, a bit early so the title company can get a final record, and I'll be reimbursed for part of the month at closing.)

So what else is left?
- Finding out the exact amount we need to bring to closing (in the next week or two).
- Finding out about the streamline refi option for the duplex (in the next week or two).
- Getting the loan from NT's mum and sending that to the UK rental management co. so they can complete the renovation (in the next week or two).
- Finding out about the WV land deal (in three and a half weeks at the latest).

After that I can really start to make some projections and goals regarding the bigger picture of our financial situation and future.

Soon soon soon!

The appraisal was scheduled for today. Not worried, but fingers crossed anyway!

We've gotten in touch with our contractor we liked so much during the condo renovation, and he says his electrician will be able to get into our place probably by next week, definitely before the end of the month, to make the two repairs that were part of the purchase agreement.

Our closing is officially set for the morning of April 9! On the advice of the title company, I've canceled autopay and will settle the final (April) payment along with everything else, at closing. I emailed my condo association to see how they'll handle the April dues. I've budgeted to pay the whole amount but I'm really expecting that I'll just have to pay a prorated portion. Who knows, maybe that gets handled at closing too.

We'll probably be frugal on transportation and take a bus to and from vs. a carshare, but I may splurge on some sparkling wine (and sparkling cider for the kids and teetotaller neighbor) so the whole house can celebrate! There are many shared-space (including outdoor) projects that we can now start to discuss with our tenants.

On another bright note, AS keeps hauling in work without even really trying to market herself. And she just invoiced for one $2K job that she worked less than 10 hours on! That's not the norm for her work, but she does have a couple more of those projects possibly going through in the next month or two.

Less than 4 weeks until the WV land deal option expires. Now that I know taxes will be handled before April 15, April 12 is our new "end of all uncertainty" date. Whee!

He got back to me with what we'll owe/get back. It was a year of crazy fluctuations with job changes, raises, home buying and new rental income, and he also decided it would be better for me and NT to claim SL instead of AS doing it.

Amazingly, with all that craziness, it balanced out to where we'll owe in a net of just $197! But the actual numbers are all over the map:
CJ/NT federal refund $3,577.00
CJ/NT owe state taxes (240.00)
AS owe federal taxes (3,099.00)
AS owe state taxes (435.00)

I'm glad the net effect of that is so minimal! I asked the tax guy if NT and I should adjust withholding, but he said most of this was from claiming part of the house stuff (points etc.) as losses to our rental income.

I still don't know how much he's going to charge. I had $800 set aside, and $197 is going to pay what we owe. Fingers crossed it's $600 or less!

I also don't know what he's going to recommend AS send in for her estimated quarterly payments. He said he'd work that up and send along with everything else.

Still, it's nice to have some clarity. I was mentally bracing myself to owe a TON this year, so I'm happy.

Today our UK management company needed us to send some money so they could start ordering things for the flat renovation. They also let us know the reno would cost 680 more (plus VAT, so more like 816). We were already going to have to borrow 500 pounds from NT's mum, so he asked if she could front us another 1000. We'll be able to pay her back pretty quickly once we start pulling in rent again.

We're also waiting for the last rental income to post to the account, so I could only send some of the money needed. I was going to send 12,000, but found out that HSBC will only transfer 10,000 per day, so I just did that. We'll transfer the rest once we get the rental income and the loan from NT's mom.

So today's transfer was 10,000 ($16,000). In a day or two we'll send the rest (about 4,000 or $6,400).

It's a lot, but will add at least as much value to the place, so it'll be worth it. At this point the place is barely rentable, but we'll be able to pull in a higher rent once it's fixed up.

It's good to start that process and not have it hanging over our heads anymore.

I also got an email from the tax guy and was hoping I was getting my returns back, but he just needed a bit more information about when we were living where last year. Oh well, at least I know he's looking at our return now.

I was looking at the calendar today (we keep everything on a shared Google calendar, and we've also got a Google calendar with our downstairs neighbors that feeds into it). We've got quite the month ahead of us! A lot of financial uncertainties will be settled in the next 30 days.

This Wed. (3/18) is the appraisal of the condo. Not concerned about it, but it'll be one more item checked off.

Sunday (3/22) we've rented a moving van to get the last of our stuff from the condo. We left our couch and dining room table there to give a sense of the size of the place. It'll be good to get them both back!

Friday 3/27 I'm going to contact the broker (if he hasn't gotten back to me yet) to see if the streamline refi option has opened up yet.

Thurs. 4/9 is still the tentative closing date, though it could still move sooner.

Sat. 4/12 is when the WV option expires, so we'll know one way or the other whether that money is coming. That will clear up a lot about our budget for the rest of the year.

And, of course, 4/15 is tax day. Not sure when we'll get our tax return back from our new guy, but it will for sure be by then! That will also clarify our budget because we'll know if we need to be withholding more of AS's freelance money (my guess is probably, just not sure how much).

So yeah, big month!

Our buyer's option to rescind expires at midnight Central. That's a little over 3 hours! I know our realtor would call or email right away if anything had happened, so feeling really good. I'll feel 100% great tomorrow morning, when it's over for sure.

Today I got notice that the appraisal was scheduled for 3/18, so that makes me feel confident too.

Got some answers of sorts from the broker. He's really knowledgable but can be kind of obtuse about when he's not providing a real answer or info that makes sense. As a result, he's quick to reply to emails but they can be kind of cryptic. At the same time I try not to get into phone calls with him because he rambles on and on; it's the opposite of his email style.

So anyway, finally got him to say today that he didn't think the duplex would appraise high enough for a traditional refi. And the streamline wouldn't go through; he thought it hadn't quite been long enough.

I thanked him and asked (just to be clear) if we still had to pay off the promissory note for a streamline refi. And if so, whether it mattered how we did it. One reason I've been in a hurry to do the refi is because we'll have much less cash after we close on the condo sale, and I remember how strict all the rules about cash were when we bought the duplex.

He wrote back that NO we don't have to pay off the promissory note for the streamline refi and if we do, it doesn't matter what funds we use to do it.

Oh. He was completely unclear about that before; he made it sound like neither refi would go through unless we paid off the promissory note.

But, even though it's bad news we won't have two options to choose from, it's good news that the one we may qualify for isn't dependent on paying off the promissory note. That means I can take my time on that one, find some lower-interest borrowing options after the condo and possibly the streamline refi. We've been getting some good 0% CC offers and AS has a potential ($2700) big check coming in for an acquisition deal she's been helping with. Plus, by mid-April we'll know about the WV deal, so that's another possibility for the promissory note.

So, not feeling as rushed to get everything taken care of. The broker said he'd get back to me in the next week or two as soon as the streamline refi was available. I'll give him two weeks off from my incessant emails and then bug him again.

For now, we'll just focus on the condo closing, getting that all taken care of. We need to get the electrical repairs done, and I was kind of sweating about how much that would cost. Now that we're not rushing to pay off the promissory note, I'm not as worried.

The UK flat renovation will start shortly. We're about 500 pounds short of what the management is estimating for the cost. NT needs to either borrow the difference from his family, work out a payment plan with the management co., or tell them they need to cut corners somewhere. I can't really do anything about it except nudge him, which I keep doing because we need to get it done ASAP so we can start pulling in rent again.

snafu asked a good question about the interest rates on the debts I'm considering taking on in order to pay off other debt. At this point it's hard to keep everything straight, so I thought I'd lay it out in an entry.

So the two main things I want to do are close on the sale of the condo, which I estimate will cost me $28,300, and pay off the promissory note to the duplex seller, which is $26,500. So $54,800 total.

I have $33,857 in available funds in our checking account. Of that $10,818 is cash we've saved up. The rest was accumulated by either taking on debts or delaying retirement and other contributions:
Owed to a friend $80
Owed to SL & AA Pax funds ($40 each) $80
Owed to AS retirement funds $2,723
Owed to Roth IRAs $5150
Slate credit card balance $10,540
NT extra student loan $4,466

I need $20,943 more to get rid of both the condo and the promissory note. I have a $15,000 line of credit and a $5,500 reserve line with my bank, which leaves just $443 to come up with. AS is expecting a few freelance checks in the next week or two that will easily cover that.

Interest rates/payments of the existing & proposed debts:
Promissory note (what I want to pay off):
5.375% until 08/2016, then 5.875% until 08/2019
Current min. payment (interest only): $118.70
Goes up to $285.96 (interest + principal) 09/2016

Slate credit card:
0% until 12/2015; 12.99% after
Current min. payment: $105

NT extra student loan:
6.365%
Current min. payment: $25
(interest may be variable, and payment may go up at some point since right now it basically just covers interest. The site is terrible -- I'd have to go find the original application or call them to find out.)

Bank line of credit (not borrowed on yet):
9.25%
Min. payment: Dunno...$275? according to online calculator

Bank reserve line (not borrowed on yet):
21.9%
Min. payment: Dunno...$156? according to online calculator

None of the interest rates are as favorable as the promissory note, but everything else about that loan is UNfavorable, so I don't mind paying extra to get rid of it.

***

I haven't really laid out the landscape of what bills will look like if both deals go through, partly because I'm still waiting to hear how the refi would affect the main duplex mortgage payment. But here's how it will look after the condo sale:

Before:
Condo mortgage $1030.32
Condo dues $696.03
Income: parking spot rental $85
Duplex mortgage $3149.72
Income: lower unit rent $1074
Promissory note $118.70
total: $3835.77

After with just condo sale:
Duplex mortgage $3149.72
Income: lower unit rent $1074
Promissory note $118.70
Slate card: $105
Extra student loan: $25
total: $2324.42

And, assuming a refi would take $300 off the payment (don't think I'd consider it worthwhile to do it for less of a benefit than that), here's what it would be:

After with both condo sale and refi/promissory payoff:
Duplex mortgage $2849.72
Income: lower unit rent $1074
Slate card: $105
Extra student loan: $25
Bank LOC $275
Bank reserve line $156
total: $2336.72

So if my estimates of the LOC and reserve line payments are correct, it looks like the refi would only be beneficial to the monthly budget if it took more than $300 off the main duplex mortgage. This is good to keep in mind!

The broker asked me last night about the 2nd mortgage on the duplex; we'd forgotten to discuss at all. I told him it was still there in full because my payments are interest-only at this point.

He said he wasn't sure if he could do anything, since that loan would need to be paid off for a streamline refi with no appraisal. Or he could talk to the appraiser about the likelihood of a high enough valuation to roll the 2nd loan into the refinance.

I'd already been thinking about throwing everything I have (including taking out the line of credit and reserve line I have with my bank) to both get out from under the condo and pay off the crazy duplex seller.

I was torn because the interest rates on the LOC and reserve line would be higher than what I'm paying the seller, but at least I could pay them down piecemeal without being worried it wouldn't get tracked (which I worry about with the seller) and I wouldn't have to worry about him not cashing the checks each month (he still hasn't cashed the March 1 check I sent out Feb 25 and I'm braced for a nasty email from him!).

But, if it meant the difference between a cheap refi of our main duplex mortgage, maybe it would be worth the higher payments to the LOC & RL, because we'd be saving hundreds monthly on the mortgage (plus not having to pay $118 per month to the seller).

I'd be cleaned out, pretty much, but not for long. And in the long run it'd be a big weight off my chest.

So I asked the broker to get me quotes assuming I'd pay off the 2nd duplex mortgage. Once I see how much we could save per month, I'll decide whether it's worth a little hustling or not!

Phew! Got through the most intense week of the birthday month. Even though it's fun, by the end it starts to feel like an endurance test.

Monday was my bday, Wednesday was AS's and Thursday was AA's. Saturday was AA's birthday party, and today one of her daycare friends had her 5th bday party as well.

Now we get to rest for a bit. Just in time, because this is promising to be a busy week at work for me.

The following weekend (21st) is NT's birthday, and the week after that (29th) is SL's birthday (her party will be on the same day).

AA's party was really really great for all the kids, I think, but super noisy and messy and hyper. I felt practically bruised afterward. I'm thinking that for SL's party I'll have a bunch of structured games and activities and basically play coach. Hopefully that'll keep them from spiralling into the heights of excitement they did at AA's.

So, pin the tail on the donkey, some kind of cake walk thing with little prizes maybe. Statues or Simon Says perhaps. Musical chairs? Possibly, though there are all sizes and ages of kids. No balloon popping games; AA spent half of today's bday party with her hands clamped over her ears because kids kept popping balloons.

Any other ideas? Kids' ages range from 2 to 10, with most of them falling in the 4-6 range.

I forgot that NT's federal loan went into repayment since he graduated. I mean, I remembered to set up the payment, but forgot that it would pay down some principal! Of the $50 payment, $35 went to principal. That takes us to $1488 down, $62 to go on the March goal.

Question for those of you who are self-employed/sole proprieters: What kind of retirement plan do you do? It looks like IRS kind of recommends SEP, but there are also 401K and SIMPLE options. Does anyone else participate in any of these? I'm trying to figure out where to put AS's money (besides her Roth, of course) when our budget loosens up.

Our listing officially says "contingent" on the real estate sites! We signed some stuff for the title company today. The contingency expires midnight next Friday, so almost exactly a week. The closing date out there is April 9 but it's not set in stone.

Our broker is still hemming and hawing about our refi prospects. First he was going to tell us Monday. Then he said today. I emailed him at the end of today and he hasn't gotten back to me (I know he checks his email 24/7). If I haven't heard from him Monday I'll email him again, then probably start looking around if he puts me off again. But I think he'll come through.

The big WV option expires in 5 weeks (three days after our tentative condo closing date), so we'll soon have closure on that one way or the other.

So, pretty much everything that's been up in the air will hopefully be cleared up by early April! Then I can really go crazy with planning our future.

All our mortgage payments hit:
US condo $495 to principal
US duplex $635
UK flat #1 $226
UK #2 $46
UK #3 $51

All told, that's $1453 down, $97 to go on the March debt goal.

Not much other news:

NT signed the condo offer and scanned/emailed it to our agent today. That's it on our end for a while, I believe.

I nudged my broker again and now he says it'll be Friday before he's ready with a refi offer for the duplex mortgage.

Birthdays are going well -- 2 down, 3 to go! AA had a little fever tonight and was devastated at the thought of being sick on her bday tomorrow. I think her sheer determination not to be might just heal her faster! We'll see tomorrow morning.

OMG.

So yesterday was my birthday. Sunday I got an email from my agent that a new buyer was interested in the condo and would be submitting an offer on Monday.

Monday I had the day off except one client meeting. I was at the meeting when I felt my phone buzz, so I was desperate for the meeting to end. Finally it did and I called my agent. The offer had come in: $126K, plus we pay half of closing costs, plus we make two small electrical repairs.

We're currently listed at $135K and places have been going for around that, so it was a disappointing offer. Our agent said she'd be meeting another of the interested parties the following morning (today) to get another offer, so we decided to wait and see what that offer amounted to.

Well, that buyer flaked, so we decided to counter the first one. We offered $134K and all the same terms.

The buyer countered back with ... $133K and all the same terms!

AS and I have the day off and were hanging out at a coffee shop, so our agent stopped by and we signed everything.

Since it's a condo, they have 10 days to review association rules etc. and back out if they want. So I guess we'll know for sure next Friday if it's going through.

FINGERS CROSSED!!

Well, I guess it's time to set our March debt goal. Still aiming for the minimum since we haven't heard anything on the potential condo offers. Sigh. So the goal is to pay off $1550 in March.

I'm back from the trip, which was uneventful. Got to see an old friend for dinner, and the co-worker I went with was very easygoing. I'm glad to be home. I woke up at 6 am and didn't sleep soundly last night, so I'm very tired.

We have three birthdays coming up next week. My 41st is on Monday, then AS's 36th on Wednesday, then AA's 5th on Thursday. Then Saturday is her actual party. Oh, and one of her daycare pal's bday party is Sunday.

We've got pretty low-key plans for everything. I'll take part of Monday off (have to go in for a client meeting) and that night have one of my favorite meals with some kind of dessert from AS. She and I might have breakfast at a favorite diner that day, too. Then I have Tuesday off.

On AS's bday Wednesday, we'll get sushi and other deli food from a grocery store for dinner.

Thursday we're making a weird assortment of foods of her choosing for AA's dinner. Molletes, veggie taco "meat," veggies, cheese and spaghettios. *shrug*

Friday all three grownups have the day off. Might have breakfast somewhere, maybe shop for our bday presents (we have $100 each budgeted).

Saturday is AA's bday party, which we'll have after swim class and naps. Nothing too organized, just a big noisy playdate but with streamers and cake. I've already bought most of the stuff for it except groceries for snacks, drinks and cake. Sunday is her little friend's 5th bday, but they requested no gifts, so we have nothing to do other than arrange transportation (and there's a chance it'll be on the bus).

Then we get more than a week to refresh before NT's 42nd bday, and another week after that before SL's 3rd bday.

I'm in Chicago right now! (Hi Laura, CB, Rachael! Wish I had time for a meetup!) It's for a work thing; I go back home tomorrow. Just trying to wake up so I can shower and get ready for the day, so of course I check my accounts and go to SA.

AS's student loan hit, with $140 going to principal. That takes us to $1581 of debt paid in February, exceeding the $1550 goal.

No news on any fronts, except I heard from my broker that I'll hear more about my refi chances next week.

AS is gearing up for her time off and daring to think it might actually happen. She has really bad luck with vacation time; either she's had to keep working a little bit during the vacation (when she was at her previous job) or the kids tend to get sick and have to stay home from daycare, and she's the default who has to care for them instead of relaxing.

So I'm determined to help make it happen. I've been watching her freelance commitments like a hawk to help her have the strength to turn down work if it's within the two-week period. She's only agreed to two things, I think: a meeting for a board she serves on, and a poetry-reading contest judging.

I'm also determined that if the kids get sick during her time off, I (or NT if he's able, I suppose) will take sick time to stay home with the kids, and send her out to enjoy herself somewhere else.

We finally heard back from the vet; our new kitty has FIV. We're pretty sure we're keeping her, as long as we can get her and the other cat on civil terms (so they're less likely to bite each other and maybe transmit the disease). We seem to be making slow progress, but at least it's progress. I think they'll settle down as they get more and more time together. We already love her, so we'll definitely give it every chance we can!

Our agent checked in after a week's vacation; she hasn't heard from either potential buyer, but she thinks one is still exploring government reimbursement for the adjustments they'd need to make (plus that agent was on vacation at the same time), and the other one wants to work with the listing agent (her) so has probably been waiting for her to get back in town. She's trying to track them both down.

One bit of maybe-good news she shared: the other 2-bed 1-bath units in our association have been taken off the market. On the one hand it shows what a weak market our buildings have right now. On the other hand, if someone wanted to buy our kind of unit in our building, we'd be the only option. Hopefully the good outweighs the bad.

My old agent finally showed our place, for the first time since we terminated our relationship with her 5 months ago. She works our building a lot because she lives in the complex, so either this was deliberate or she's had no clients. Surprise surprise, we got prompt feedback (which we never got when she was our agent) and it was negative; lower marks than anyone has given us before.

I touched base with our broker last week, and he said he was just running the two refi options to see which one would be preferable. Not sure why that's taking so long, but at least it's not off the table.

I don't expect to hear from the tax guy in a while, and the WV option (the bigger of the two potential deals) doesn't expire for 7 weeks. Not sure if the smaller deal has a time frame.

So, holding pattern continues. Frugal doings in the meantime:

* We're almost $70 under budget on groceries this week, even with bulk cooking for a good cause. Which apparently went over huge! (Most of the food we donated got eaten, but NT brought some containers of salad back and I had one for lunch today.)
* I won the Dietbet, so I got my money back plus $7.50. I'm just glad I won my money back!
* Went to a community chili fest on Sunday. For $3 apiece ($15 total), we got chili with toppings, crackers, cookies, soda and coffee. Plus NT won a poster and I won an assortment of spice blends. Not bad!
* Going to a free documentary tonight with NT and our neighbors, and he's bringing snacks from work so that will also be free.
* Another friend invited us to a reading/music thing that's free including snacks and drinks that's happening on my birthday. So my birthday entertainment will also be free!
* Planned the kids' birthday presents & parties and, not counting food (which we'll cover with grocery money), it came to about $130. I was aiming for $100, but we usually spend $200-plus (combined for both birthdays), so we did really well this year. The grownup bday budget is also cut in half ($100 for each of us) so we're letting one another say what we want for our gifts.

I can't think of a better term for it. I was thinking "seive list," but I know the bucket isn't about collecting experiences, it's about things you want to do before you kick the bucket.

Well, every once in a while I see someone cross something off their bucket list, and I think I'll actually be very happy if I manage to avoid that experience until my dying day.

The list is getting quite long, actually! Since I spend a fair amount of time thinking about the things I *would* like to do once we have money and time again, I thought it would be fun to share my anti-bucket list of things I wouldn't do even if I won the lottery tomorrow and had no responsibilities.

This is of course not to insult anyone else who *would* like to do these things; it's just my personal interests.

So, in no particular order, I hope I never have to:
* Get a fur coat.
* Eat caviar.
* Receive a diamond.
* Go skydiving.
* Go downhill skiing.
* Try surfing.
* Visit Dubai.
* Own a boat.
* Own (or even ride) a motorcycle.
* Go big game (or any game) hunting. Or own a gun, though I might be curious to try one out at a shooting range.
* Get a tattoo.
* Have a fancy wedding.
* Play golf (except mini-golf).
* Attend the Super Bowl.
* Own a horse.
* Go to Disneyland.

I'm sure there are others; maybe I'll edit this entry as I think of them! Do you have an anti-bucket list: experiences or things that are supposedly desirable but more than not caring whether or not you have them, you actually hope you never do?

Still waiting on everything...refi, condo, cat's health, taxes. A very disappointing week. I at least thought we'd hear about the cat.

But, AS got some really good news. First, the class she's teaching in the fall will pay not $4000, but $6000!

And she got a big job for later in March/April, after her vacation, that will pay $3500!

She told me on the phone that it kind of felt like she made $9500 in one day. LOL.

Still, with those jobs, she's now made or booked over $27,000 this year. Considering she left a job that grossed $37K, it's kind of amazing.

We managed some cheap charity this week: We made batches of burritos and salads for an activist conference NT is volunteering at, and we're putting one of the attendees up in our basement. The only cost was ingredients for the cooking, which we fit into our regular grocery budget.

Still no offer on the condo, still no more news on the duplex refi. No updates from the tax guy, and no news on the results of our new cat's second FIV test.

We just keep on keepin' on! Some money out this week; AS bought a small laptop for her work since our home laptop runs really slow, and we sent her mom $500 as an early bday gift toward a new sewing machine. Some money in too; AS booked a few jobs for after her upcoming vacation.

I worked from home today. AS helped me with my work project, and I got somewhat unstuck. Still no big "breakthrough" feeling, but at least AS confirmed that they're asking for the nearly impossible with all the requirements and conditions of this piece. I've just about got it to a point where I can let my boss take a look at it. If it's not what he wants, at least it's far enough along so he'll be able to give me specific feedback.

I got good news that a business trip I need to take next week may only require one night away. I don't like being away from my family! It may end up being two nights, but I was thinking it might be three, so even that would be great.

The cats had some highly supervised time together today. We really don't want any biting since Clue might have FIV, so I kept a water bottle and broke up any attempts at fighting. I only had to use it about twice. They were tense and cautious but neither one overly aggressive, so we think it was a good step. We'd be moving them along faster if we weren't concerned about the FIV. We should find out Thursday whether she has it.

I guess that's it! Still holding at my Dietbet weight. Most people are on track, so I'll probably just get my money back, maybe a few bucks more.

The rough goal is $486,000 in retirement assets by 2019

In January we were at $230,639.

Now we're at $234,068.

$3249 of progress; not terrible considering how little we're currently putting into our retirement accounts!

We heard from our agent that the 2nd interested person has gotten preapproval. She emailed the 1st party to let them know that an offer might be coming soon, in case they would be ready to make one soon too.

So nothing yet, but seems encouraging.

Our new kitty did great at her vet checkup on most points -- except she tested positive for FIV. They drew more blood for the more definitive test. It was going to be a free checkup but ended up being about $150 total. We're still trying to get them together on opposite sides of the door, but we're not letting them together until we hear the results. If it is FIV, we're pretty sure we'll still keep both cats, but we'll make the introduction process as slow as possible so they hopefully don't bite each other. The vet said biting and drawing blood was the biggest way to transmit FIV.

Work is going OK, but I'm kind of stuck on a project that I can't see clearly the best way to write. I'm hoping to pick AS's brain this weekend to see if she can help me think through it and have a breakthrough, but we're really busy. I may even work from home Tuesday (I have Monday off but I'm doing a campaign-type activity in the middle of the day) if I feel like I need quiet time to think about it. My boss can kind of rattle me by coming by all the time and throwing me his thoughts just as I'm trying to get something written.

Three people were let go at my job on Friday, so that wasn't great for my confidence either. They were all in finance, though; I don't think there's any plan to get rid of writers.

Tonight we're going out for Thai food and possibly drinks. We're all excited! The cold dreary weather and forced frugality and sense of being in a holding pattern are getting to us all. It'll be nice to get away from that.

Seems like a number of good things have been happening this week. Let's see if I can remember them all!

First off, I weighed in at 133.4 tonight, which is where I need to be to win Dietbet! But I have to at least stay at that weight until Feb. 19/20, so I have to be careful on Valentine's Day and our potluck the following day. My ultimate goal is 129, so I'd love to keep losing. But I'll feel happy if I can just plateau through those two challenging eating days.

Our cats are still being kept separate, but they're finally showing signs of lessening hostility to each other, and maybe a bit of friendly or neutral curiosity from time to time. We're still taking it slow but encouraged by that.

Both our kids are going through some great developmental stuff right now. Our 2-year-old is getting gradually more responsive and agreeable, less rebellious and spazzy. She's almost 3, so we're braced for more difficult behavior, but so far she seems to be going in the other direction. Our 4-year-old can almost read; some simple words she can sound out. Both girls are just leaps and bounds ahead of where I feel like they need to be educationally and in terms of maturity, so it's a really exciting time to be their mom. (If only the 2-year-old would show more initiative about potty training; that's the only lingering issue.)

NT can finally volunteer for this group he really admires but never had time for while he was in school. We're actually going to cook a bunch of food for attendees to a conference next weekend, and put one out-of-town attendee up in our basement "apartment."

AS met with the college that was interested in having her teach a class on publishing, and it's a go! We don't have an exact amount for pay but think it'll be $4K. She also floated another idea with the woman who interviewed her, and the woman was really excited about that too. So there may be more work with that college after the fall semester of teaching!

We still have nothing definitive from our first interested party on the condo but know they're working on getting things figured out. Meanwhile, someone else is interested and their agent said they're thinking about putting in an offer. We also had 2 showings today and have 3 more scheduled in the next week. So we'll see what comes of that.

My dad sent me $500 out of the blue. Apparently he's got a different deal on the table in WV, this one for a gas company to build a road through his land. If it goes through they'll pay another $20K (my share would be $4K)! I had no idea about this one; my dad didn't say a word about it. Again, no idea if that will go through, but the $500 is a great surprise. I'm setting it aside to help us get out from under the condo.

I checked in with our mortgage broker about the refi option for the duplex and he's going to send me something in the morning. I hope we qualify and that it's a good deal!

Tomorrow I meet with our new tax guy and AS takes the new kitty to the vet. Fingers crossed we keep our good luck rolling with not much owing on taxes and a clean bill of health for Clue.

I weighed in last night a pound down! And that was after a fairly hearty meal, so I feel good that it's real progress. I have half a pound to go on the Dietbet and about 7 lbs. to reach my ideal weight.

I contacted my mortgage broker last week to see if a refinance would be in the cards considering several negative factors (such as our not selling the condo, taking on some debt and credit scores being lower). He got back to say that there's a kind of FHA "streamline" refinance that might save us some money without needing an appraisal or even much in closing costs. He said he'd also weigh a traditional refi to see which one would be best for us. I'm going to follow up this week if I don't hear more from him about that.

Our cats are still in separate rooms for now. We try to get them close to each other on either side of a door from time to time, and they always hiss and growl and swipe. Especially the new cat, who's nice to everyone else in the house, including our neighbors' dog. I think she's really mistrustful after whatever it is Noodles did that first night when he broke into her room while we were out. We swapped their rooms last night so they could experience each other's smell (and not get too territorial about the rooms we've been keeping them in). If the hissing never gets better after a few more days I suppose we'll just have to start the next phase and hope it gets worked out eventually.

Today is a kind of waiting day at work; I have several meetings this afternoon and during the week that should set work in motion for me, but right now all I can do is read background materials on several projects and try to get my thoughts together on them without knowing much.

So I've been doing that off and on with taking care of personal business. First, I printed off the tax forms that didn't come out clear at home.

Then, I read in my email that the people interested in the condo are still interested but have "lots of moving parts" to manage before they can make an offer. No feedback from the other showings, so at present they're our only actively interested buyer.

Then I signed the kids up for swim class mid-Feb. through mid-April. $84 apiece, but I'd already planned for that so it's OK.

Then the tax guy called and we set up an appointment to meet Friday. I reserved a carshare for that since he's in St. Paul.

Tonight is a little treat; we're going with our downstairs neighbors to redeem our free Chipotle burritos we got for trying the tofu sofritas earlier this month. All five adults will get free food, so we'll only need to purchase one for the kids to split and maybe some beverages. And I plan to only eat half of my free burrito so I have lunch tomorrow as well!

Gah, it was so hard getting all the docs together. I somehow misplaced our 2013 federal returns, which I'd used to qualify for the new mortgage, and couldn't find a saved electronic copy anywhere either. I found out that the IRS will let you have a "transcript" which has much of the same info, so I hope it's enough for our tax guy to go on.

After a while I wasn't even filling in the questionnaire anymore, just stuffing forms and documents between the pages. I'll apologize when I see him, but it took hours as it was. Our printer stopped working properly halfway through, so I think I'm going to reprint some of the docs when I get to work Monday, for clearer copies.

I don't care. I'm dumping it in his lap and hoping he can make sense of our taxes this year.

We heard from our realtor that the interested buyer was supposed to get quotes back on Friday from two contractors on the work they'd want done to our condo, so we hope to hear news of an offer early this coming week. Fingers and toes crossed! We had showings Friday and Saturday but haven't received any feedback, so we're not sure if there was any interest there.

I'm going strong on calorie counting (though not very well on exercise), but I haven't lost any more weight after my initial 5-lb. loss. So I'm at 135 and hoping I can lose a pound and a half by mid-February to get my money back on Dietbet!

Well, our new kitty came home Wednesday evening. She has a little cold and is recovering from getting spayed, plus she needs to be quarantined from our first kitty Noodles until we can take her to the vet and get her checked out. Plus we don't want them fighting. So she's living in one of our bathrooms. A few times a day we lock Noodles in another room and let her roam around the house.

They actually did meet the first night she was here...we humans had gone downstairs to watch TV with our neighbors. When we came back up the bathroom door was open; Noodles had apparently rattled the door hard enough to pop the little latch NT had installed. We don't know what went down but Clue was huddled in her carrier and didn't want to come out.

Since then she's regained her confidence, but whenever they're close to each other (on opposite sides of the door) they hiss. That didn't happen until the incident.

Oh well, just a bump in the road hopefully. We're going to take it really slow with introducing them to each other.

Anyway, here's a picture of our pretty little girl.

It seems like exact numbers are a moving target, so you just have to pick something that looks good and start going for it.

Until we sell the condo, all I can do is plan. But it's nice to think about starting to boost retirement savings once things have loosened up. And if we can refi our duplex mortgage, that should loosen things up even further.

Based on the 8x rule and our current salaries (and AS's estimated income), I came up with a potential goal:
$486,000 in retirement assets by 2019.

Since we only have $230K now, we'd need $256K more in 4 years. That's $64K per year or $5300 per month. A long shot for sure, but better to shoot for that and fall short than just try to hit what we think we can.

We currently put 7.5% of my income away (including match), and 6% of NT's if I count his match, for a total of $8325 per year, $694 per month.

Once we sell the condo we'll be putting 10% of AS's away. So my estimate for all of that is $1176 per month, or $14,116 per year.

We'll also start contributing to Roths again. We used to do $450 per month but I'm thinking we should all max out our Roth's, so that's $1375 per month. I think we can manage that. That would take us to contributing $2551 per month, or $30,616 per year.

Then I'm thinking NT and I can bump up our 401(k)s to make it a nice even 10% each that we're putting away. That would add $327 per month or $3925 more per year, and would take us to $2878 per month, or $34,541.

It's not all the way to $5K a month, but it's getting there. And hopefully our investments would start to grow faster as we had more and more in our accounts. Of course, with all of this happening incrementally, we wouldn't actually get anywhere close to the first year goal, but that's OK.

We could probably achieve all of this and still have money left over for debt repayment, fun and renovations. So that seems like a good first set of goals to work on. If we can actually achieve all of these this year, then I can look and see if more aggressive saving is feasible or not.

But first, we play the waiting game some more...