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November 15th, 2011 at 03:35 pm
Gosh, has it really been nearly a month since I last posted? I need to be a better blogger. 
Things are going well with the short sale house. We've gutted the main bathroom down to the studs, hired a plumber to move some pipes around, and have dry walled everything back up. We still have a lot to do though:
-lay down tile
-buy vanities & toilet
-decorate (the fun stuff)
We did have to divert our attention from the bathroom for the past week though... to the laundry room. Our state was having its tax-free weekend on energy efficient appliances so we went ahead and scored a pretty nice deal on a stackable washer/dryer set. After all the discounts, we saved about $500 on the deal. So, in preparation for the delivery this week, we had to tackle the laundry room. Man, that was a chore as well with all the hole patching, replacement of the plumbing stuff, and painting... but all we have left now is to put up crown molding (there were issues where the walls met the ceiling).
Do you guys want pictures of any of the remodel as we go along? Or would it be more fun to get a full on before/after shots of the different projects?
Oh, and an update on the asbestos issue---- we sent off a sample and it came back NEGATIVE! This relieved my DH so much. Yay, for good news. Spent $1300 last week to get the rear wheel bearings replaced, rear brake pads and rotors filed down and turned, and an oil change
---------> Took the car in today because all the check engine kind of lights were on...Was just told that we need to have the ECM (the car's computer) replaced and that will be another $1200!!! Haven't told DH yet -- he's going to freak out.
We have a 2003 Toyota Sienna.
---------> This poor van has been neglected for so long in regards to routine maintenance. The tires are so bald (we don't drive it except within town to run errands so we've been putting it off). The dealer is having a tire sale next week so we've scheduled an appointment to have 4 new tires put on and for a well overdue oil change done. Estimated cost will be around $350.
Has anyone been adding all this up? If not, that's ok, cause I've already done it for you and it's a whopping $2850 in a few weeks time for stupid car maintenance issues. Aacckkk!!!
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[entry_title] => Reasons we hate our house...
[entry_stub] => reasons-we-hate-our-house
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[entry_date] => 1302528330
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-11 08:25:30
[entry_text] => Some of you have asked so here is the scoop...
House #1
Purchased in 1997
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1000 sq ft
Small but corner lot in a tight subdivision
House #2
Purchased in 2001
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1600 sq ft
Large (to us) 1/3 acre lot in a nice subdivision, backed up to farmland so was nice and private
House #3 CURRENT HOUSE
Purchased in 2006
3 story house, main living space on first floor, all bedrooms are upstairs, finished full basement
approx 2600 sq ft
.67 acre lot
So, our current house #3 might look to be a great step up for us, right? Well, not quite...
House #1 was our starter home when we just got married. It was a great little house but we got tired of the really, really tight subdivision. All the houses were so close together --- no privacy at all. So, we sold it and moved across town to House #2. This house was the smallest in the neighborhood. Most of the other houses were 2 story homes that looked really big compared to our house. But, we loved the flat lot of our house, the floorplan really worked for us, and it was a really good fit for our growing family.
Then, we moved 4 hours away, from the flat lands to the mountains, for a new job opportunity. We realized quickly that housing prices in the mountains were quite higher than they were in the big city that we came from. Also, the houses here were mainly multi-level homes since they were built alongside hill banks. We had only 2 main criteria when looking for this home: 1) I wanted a garage with main level access. I didn't want to haul groceries from a basement entry garage up stairs to the kitchen. I'd say 75% of homes here all have their garage in the basement. 2) I wanted a large lot with trees. Having lived in the city, we didn't have a lot of natural wooded areas. I thought that was what I wanted. So, we bought House #3 because these 2 main criteria were met and now 5 years later, we just hate the house. We had never lived in a multi-level home before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to go up and down stairs all the time. We had never lived on a wooded lot before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to pick up fallen limbs all the time. Ugh, ugh, and ugh. I guess it's one of those situations where the grass really isn't greener on the other side... all along we thought those bigger 2 story houses in our neighborhoods were so nice and roomy. Blah! We so miss our little ranch style homes!!!
So, a summary of all the things we hate about our current house:
1) Stairs, stairs, and more stairs!
2) All the trees! It gets windy here alot and those fallen branches are a pain to deal with
3) Hillsides! No flat place for the kids to play
4) Open floor plan of living space! Our 'great room' consists of the living room, kitchen, and dining spaces... all in one big open area. Now, I know this is all the rage in today's real estate market, but now that we actually live in this kind of living space, we just don't like it. It's really noisy!!
5) No air conditioning! As a mountain home, it is not common to have A/C here... or so one would think! The houses here just aren't built with A/C as standard. It gets pretty hot for just about one month out of the year but gosh, that one month nearly kills us each year!
So, those are the top 5 reasons why we hate our house. All these reasons were things that we just didn't realize would bother us until we actually bought the house and started living in it. We learn what we like and dislike from each home we live in and we certainly know what to look for in our House #4... we just need to sell this one first!
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[entry_title] => Should we sell or not?
[entry_stub] => should-we-sell-or-not
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[entry_date] => 1301930017
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-04 10:13:37
[entry_text] => Ack, what to do?? Ok, some back history. We tried selling our house for 2 years and had no offers. We took the house off the market for 6 months to take a break. We started asking for $349k and ended up our last listing price at $299k... Granted, we did start too high on the price for the market that we were in but settled on a price that is very fair -- but still no offers, so we pulled it off the market. Now that it is Spring, we are thinking about putting it on again.
Our past realtors were without a better term popping into my head right now, sucky. They just listed the house and didn't do much of anything else. We found another realtor that has come highly recommended... we met with him last week and he did a market analysis (CMA) on our house. If you've been following my blog, you know that we just installed granite in our kitchen... so, with that improvement, we really think we have an edge over the competition in our price range. DH and I thought we would stay at the $299k price as our listing price. After the CMA, the new realtor suggested listing it at $289k.... BUT in all honesty, the houses he compared to ours are nowhere near what ours has to offer. There just aren't too many sold houses he can compare ours to. So, he's comfortable in putting it on at $299k if that is what we still want to do. The bottom line that we are willing to sell for is $290k.
So, should we or shouldn't we try to sell the house again? DH and I just don't like it --- there is no other reason to sell. We both have stable jobs and we don't need to move anywhere. We've just HATEd our house since the day we moved in 5 years ago. If we end up at our bottom of $290k, we'd make zippo, and actually lose money really. We bought the house for $288k in 2006 (brand new) and put in $20k in improvements (granite and driveway/retaining wall work), so we've got $308k in the house. However, DH and I don't really consider the $20k we put into the house as additional cost for the house because those things were done to make the house more "liveable" for us. We wouldn't have to come to the table with any cash as our mortgage balance is low enough to where we will still have a bit of cash from the sale after the mortgage is paid.
So, what would you do? Would you go with the financially correct decision and just stay put? Or, would you do what would make you and the family happy and take a slight loss on the house?
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[entry_title] => Can a person LOVE a sink?
[entry_stub] => can-a-person-love-a-sink
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[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-29 15:29:58
[entry_text] => Here's a pic of my new sink and granite counters.... I absolutely love how everything turned out! We got them installed yesterday and tonight the realtor is coming over to start the process of listing our house (again). Wish us luck!!
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[entry_text] => Ok, we tried selling our house last year with no luck. We want to try it again beginning April 1. We decided to get rid of our laminate countertops and get granite installed. The cost will be $3800. Cross your fingers and toes that this will make the difference and that our house will sell this time around. We are doing the demo in the kitchen this weekend and should have the install done within 10 days, ready for our April 1 listing date. And... if the house doesn't sell, then I get to enjoy brand new granite countertops!
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[entry_title] => A new month, A clean start!
[entry_stub] => march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start
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[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-01 13:02:07
[entry_text] => Spring fever must be hitting me right now. I am in the mood to clean out my house and straighten up my life. For the past week, I've organized my closets, cabinets, and junk drawers. I have found a whole year's supply of contacts that I now remembered ordering and stashing so that I didn't have to go back to the eye doctor for another year. I totally forgot about these and I was going to place an order within the next month or so! I found 2 full size brand new containers of DH's favorite hair gel. I've donated bags of stuff to Goodwill. I've thrown away so much clutter that has literally just sat in our house for the past 5 years. It feels great! I highly recommend everyone to find a drawer or closet and get at it! I did an area each night for a week and it was painless.
A 2011 financial goal was to reach the $20,000 mark in our E-fund. I deposited a $100 credit card reward check today bringing the balance up to.... drum roll.... $20,049.28!!!!!!!! Now, let's cross our fingers that we won't see any kind of emergencies for a while so that I can enjoy seeing that awesome number. Wahoo!!!
Other random updates:
I gave my sister a blank check for her birthday payable to her power company. She's the one that is in a huge financial mess. The bill was for $210.55. I asked her how much of the bill was for late fees and penalties and she didn't even know the answer to that... it's quite sad. But, oh well, it's nice to be able to help her when I can (I only give her money for holidays instead of buying her nonsense so as to not try to enable her family's bad money habits). She did tell me that she went and applied for food stamps and other family aid which is about time in my opinion.
My co-worker is making great progress on her financial situation. She made it through Christmas without having to charge a dime. There are still a few debts that she has left to pay off but I see her getting to the finish line within the next year or two.
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[entry_title] => Government Foreclosure
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[entry_text] => Ok, so I've always been interested in investing in real estate. I've blogged about possibilities before on here but have never actually taken the plunge to go for anything. A family friend, who has a lot of experience in real estate investing, referred me to government foreclosures as a possibility. This was back in November. I got wrapped up in the Holidays and hadn't really had a chance to follow up or look for any foreclosures but long story short, after taking a peek today, I see that there is a foreclosure up for auction next week! The gov't bid is listed at $26k, whatever that means. I have a lot of research still left to do but my mind is racing with the opportunity to get a decent house for so cheap. I know the area and I know exactly where the house is --- nice family neighborhood. I'd estimate the retail value of the house at around $90-$100k. I'm going to talk to my friend tonight to get more guidance about the process. He started out with a government foreclosure and so he'll know what to do... Maybe this will be the one for us??
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[entry_text] => We had been saving $1,000 per month into savings (short-term, mid-term, and retirement). I just got online to all our accounts and increased everything to $1,500 per month. I think we can do more but let's see how this feels for a few months.
We also are going to start paying extra on our mortgage... just to round it up from $1,652 to $1,700 each month which is just $48 so no biggie. We used to pay a few hundred extra per month when we first got the mortgage but then scaled back to the regular monthly payment amount when we were trying to sell our house. Now that it looks like we'll be here for a while, I figured we'd start paying a little extra just because.
Some things I look forward to in 2011:
1. Reaching the $20,000 mark in our e-fund.
2. Would love to be 100-105 lbs! Before you think that is outrageous, please be aware that I am very petite and this would be normal (but on the lean side) for someone like me. I have thus far cut out soda (except for one can twice a week -- long story) which is going to help tremendously. I am trying to fit in some exercise too... so far, so good.
3. Cook at home more/eating out less. This has been working out pretty well thus far.
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[entry_text] => Ok, so I can't believe it's been nearly 3 months since I last posted. Things have been absolutely crazy around here and so I have a lot of catching up to do in blogland!
An update on my co-worker's situation. I started working with her on Oct 1 to straighten out her finances. Good news --- she's paid off two small credit card balances, one medical bill, and most importantly, the debt she had with her son (she'd borrow money from him from time to time to keep herself afloat). She has also put aside $820 in her savings account which she says is the first time she's ever saved anything. $600 of this is for Christmas and the rest is for buying new tires for her car. She still has a long way to go to pay off her debts but she's made huge progress in the couple of months I've been guiding her through. We meet about 2-3 times a month to make sure that she stays on track and for me to basically hold her hand... she still can't figure out what to pay first, how much to pay, or anything like that so I give her a roadmap everytime we meet.
Ok, now the big news on my side of things is that DH and I are considering going to NYC over New Year's. Isn't that just crazy to even think about being in all that chaos? But, we were looking at our work schedules and the kids' school calendar and wouldn't you know that we have a ton of time off available. My sister has offered to watch the kids for us so it'll just be a trip for the two of us which hasn't happened.... ever! So, I hop online and look at rates-- it will cost about $2500 for airline and hotel for 5 nights. Yikes! It would be cheaper if we didn't want to stay right near Times Square but this will be a trip of a lifetime for us so we thought we'd splurge a bit more than what we normally would do. With eating and shopping money, the trip will probably be around $3500. Anybody ever been to NY? Anything to look out for or suggestions on where to stay, eat, or do?
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[entry_text] => This morning, someone that works in our office comes to ask me to help her with her personal finances. This was completely out of the blue and I feel so honored that she would trust me with her money issues. She said she was thinking last night of who she could ask for help and thought of me... (after she got a denial yesterday from the local credit union for a new credit card account). Now, I'm on a quest to get her all squared away and you guys can come along on the journey. Here's her situation:
Married with 2 children (one in college and one in high school), but not a financially sound marriage ever, apparently... DH is a banker of all things but he apparently doesn't have his head on straight when it comes to their own money. He wants to keep everything completely separate in their household so the wife just deals with this (even though he makes probably 4 times what she does). For the major expenses, he covers the mortgage and utilities. She has to cover the groceries for the house.
Finances:
OUT categories we've identified thus far =
*groceries/eating out for household
*car payment on her car
*gas/maintenance on her car
*half of the household cell phone bill
*medical bills for household
*dog -vet/grooming bills
*multiple credit cards (highest balance is around $5k on one of them)
*three outstanding medical debts
She had her highest balance credit card statement with her and said she thought the interest rate on it was 90% (gasp) and I was like, um -- doubt it? So, I looked on her statement and showed her where the interest rate was indicated which is something like 25%. As you can see, she doesn't even know how to read her statements. She's a college graduate but when it comes to money and math, she's clueless and knows that is why she's in the trouble that she's in.
I gave her homework for the weekend -- I've asked her to write down exactly what her interest rates are on all the credit cards and their current balances. I told her to call each one of those credit card companies and ask for a lower interest rate. She also needs to identify exactly how much she owes on those outstanding medical bills and to estimate how much her other monthly expenses total up (she had no clue how much she spends on groceries, for example).
Next, I asked her about her paycheck. Since I have access to payroll, I looked up her check and all her deductions. She has zero withholdings and I asked if she gets a tax refund each year. Apparently, she just gives her W-2 to her DH each year and he does all the tax stuff. She does know that for 2009, they got back around $1500 total and then she got fussed at from her DH that it wasn't enough. He wanted the refund to be even higher and implied that she must not have withheld enough from her checks (jerk!). He keeps their refund and does whatever with the money even though it's "their" refund. I told her that was crazy. I calculated what increasing her withholdings to 1 and 2 would be, an additional $58 and $103 respectively, in each paycheck... Basically, by just increasing her withholdings to 1, she would have an additional $700 each year in her paychecks that her grubby hubby wouldn't have access to come tax time. She said she's all about having her withholdings changed to 1 now. Yay.
Anyway, I'll post more as we keep ironing out her budget...
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3 Comments »
October 19th, 2011 at 08:24 pm
So, it's been a while since I've posted... we've had the house now for a little over a month -- the roof has been replaced and we've demo'd one of the bathrooms down to the studs. After which, of course, was when we started thinking about possible asbestos in the house. The house was built in 1981 so it was in those few years of transition where builders were using up the stock they had left when the laws changed. Chances are our house doesn't have asbestos in it but we'd like to know (even though we've probably sucked it all in by now with the bathroom demo). So, does anyone have a clue as to how we can send samples out for testing or who we send the samples to?? Spent $1300 last week to get the rear wheel bearings replaced, rear brake pads and rotors filed down and turned, and an oil change
---------> Took the car in today because all the check engine kind of lights were on...Was just told that we need to have the ECM (the car's computer) replaced and that will be another $1200!!! Haven't told DH yet -- he's going to freak out.
We have a 2003 Toyota Sienna.
---------> This poor van has been neglected for so long in regards to routine maintenance. The tires are so bald (we don't drive it except within town to run errands so we've been putting it off). The dealer is having a tire sale next week so we've scheduled an appointment to have 4 new tires put on and for a well overdue oil change done. Estimated cost will be around $350.
Has anyone been adding all this up? If not, that's ok, cause I've already done it for you and it's a whopping $2850 in a few weeks time for stupid car maintenance issues. Aacckkk!!!
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[entry_title] => Reasons we hate our house...
[entry_stub] => reasons-we-hate-our-house
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/04/11/reasons-we-hate-our-house_68100/
[entry_date] => 1302528330
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-11 08:25:30
[entry_text] => Some of you have asked so here is the scoop...
House #1
Purchased in 1997
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1000 sq ft
Small but corner lot in a tight subdivision
House #2
Purchased in 2001
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1600 sq ft
Large (to us) 1/3 acre lot in a nice subdivision, backed up to farmland so was nice and private
House #3 CURRENT HOUSE
Purchased in 2006
3 story house, main living space on first floor, all bedrooms are upstairs, finished full basement
approx 2600 sq ft
.67 acre lot
So, our current house #3 might look to be a great step up for us, right? Well, not quite...
House #1 was our starter home when we just got married. It was a great little house but we got tired of the really, really tight subdivision. All the houses were so close together --- no privacy at all. So, we sold it and moved across town to House #2. This house was the smallest in the neighborhood. Most of the other houses were 2 story homes that looked really big compared to our house. But, we loved the flat lot of our house, the floorplan really worked for us, and it was a really good fit for our growing family.
Then, we moved 4 hours away, from the flat lands to the mountains, for a new job opportunity. We realized quickly that housing prices in the mountains were quite higher than they were in the big city that we came from. Also, the houses here were mainly multi-level homes since they were built alongside hill banks. We had only 2 main criteria when looking for this home: 1) I wanted a garage with main level access. I didn't want to haul groceries from a basement entry garage up stairs to the kitchen. I'd say 75% of homes here all have their garage in the basement. 2) I wanted a large lot with trees. Having lived in the city, we didn't have a lot of natural wooded areas. I thought that was what I wanted. So, we bought House #3 because these 2 main criteria were met and now 5 years later, we just hate the house. We had never lived in a multi-level home before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to go up and down stairs all the time. We had never lived on a wooded lot before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to pick up fallen limbs all the time. Ugh, ugh, and ugh. I guess it's one of those situations where the grass really isn't greener on the other side... all along we thought those bigger 2 story houses in our neighborhoods were so nice and roomy. Blah! We so miss our little ranch style homes!!!
So, a summary of all the things we hate about our current house:
1) Stairs, stairs, and more stairs!
2) All the trees! It gets windy here alot and those fallen branches are a pain to deal with
3) Hillsides! No flat place for the kids to play
4) Open floor plan of living space! Our 'great room' consists of the living room, kitchen, and dining spaces... all in one big open area. Now, I know this is all the rage in today's real estate market, but now that we actually live in this kind of living space, we just don't like it. It's really noisy!!
5) No air conditioning! As a mountain home, it is not common to have A/C here... or so one would think! The houses here just aren't built with A/C as standard. It gets pretty hot for just about one month out of the year but gosh, that one month nearly kills us each year!
So, those are the top 5 reasons why we hate our house. All these reasons were things that we just didn't realize would bother us until we actually bought the house and started living in it. We learn what we like and dislike from each home we live in and we certainly know what to look for in our House #4... we just need to sell this one first!
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[entry_title] => Should we sell or not?
[entry_stub] => should-we-sell-or-not
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/04/04/should-we-sell-or-not_67853/
[entry_date] => 1301930017
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-04 10:13:37
[entry_text] => Ack, what to do?? Ok, some back history. We tried selling our house for 2 years and had no offers. We took the house off the market for 6 months to take a break. We started asking for $349k and ended up our last listing price at $299k... Granted, we did start too high on the price for the market that we were in but settled on a price that is very fair -- but still no offers, so we pulled it off the market. Now that it is Spring, we are thinking about putting it on again.
Our past realtors were without a better term popping into my head right now, sucky. They just listed the house and didn't do much of anything else. We found another realtor that has come highly recommended... we met with him last week and he did a market analysis (CMA) on our house. If you've been following my blog, you know that we just installed granite in our kitchen... so, with that improvement, we really think we have an edge over the competition in our price range. DH and I thought we would stay at the $299k price as our listing price. After the CMA, the new realtor suggested listing it at $289k.... BUT in all honesty, the houses he compared to ours are nowhere near what ours has to offer. There just aren't too many sold houses he can compare ours to. So, he's comfortable in putting it on at $299k if that is what we still want to do. The bottom line that we are willing to sell for is $290k.
So, should we or shouldn't we try to sell the house again? DH and I just don't like it --- there is no other reason to sell. We both have stable jobs and we don't need to move anywhere. We've just HATEd our house since the day we moved in 5 years ago. If we end up at our bottom of $290k, we'd make zippo, and actually lose money really. We bought the house for $288k in 2006 (brand new) and put in $20k in improvements (granite and driveway/retaining wall work), so we've got $308k in the house. However, DH and I don't really consider the $20k we put into the house as additional cost for the house because those things were done to make the house more "liveable" for us. We wouldn't have to come to the table with any cash as our mortgage balance is low enough to where we will still have a bit of cash from the sale after the mortgage is paid.
So, what would you do? Would you go with the financially correct decision and just stay put? Or, would you do what would make you and the family happy and take a slight loss on the house?
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[entry_title] => Can a person LOVE a sink?
[entry_stub] => can-a-person-love-a-sink
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/03/29/can-a-person-love-a-sink_67618/
[entry_date] => 1301430598
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-29 15:29:58
[entry_text] => Here's a pic of my new sink and granite counters.... I absolutely love how everything turned out! We got them installed yesterday and tonight the realtor is coming over to start the process of listing our house (again). Wish us luck!!
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[entry_title] => Getting granite counters!
[entry_stub] => getting-granite-counters
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[entry_date] => 1300478106
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-18 14:55:06
[entry_text] => Ok, we tried selling our house last year with no luck. We want to try it again beginning April 1. We decided to get rid of our laminate countertops and get granite installed. The cost will be $3800. Cross your fingers and toes that this will make the difference and that our house will sell this time around. We are doing the demo in the kitchen this weekend and should have the install done within 10 days, ready for our April 1 listing date. And... if the house doesn't sell, then I get to enjoy brand new granite countertops!
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[entry_title] => A new month, A clean start!
[entry_stub] => march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/03/01/march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start_66521/
[entry_date] => 1299006127
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-01 13:02:07
[entry_text] => Spring fever must be hitting me right now. I am in the mood to clean out my house and straighten up my life. For the past week, I've organized my closets, cabinets, and junk drawers. I have found a whole year's supply of contacts that I now remembered ordering and stashing so that I didn't have to go back to the eye doctor for another year. I totally forgot about these and I was going to place an order within the next month or so! I found 2 full size brand new containers of DH's favorite hair gel. I've donated bags of stuff to Goodwill. I've thrown away so much clutter that has literally just sat in our house for the past 5 years. It feels great! I highly recommend everyone to find a drawer or closet and get at it! I did an area each night for a week and it was painless.
A 2011 financial goal was to reach the $20,000 mark in our E-fund. I deposited a $100 credit card reward check today bringing the balance up to.... drum roll.... $20,049.28!!!!!!!! Now, let's cross our fingers that we won't see any kind of emergencies for a while so that I can enjoy seeing that awesome number. Wahoo!!!
Other random updates:
I gave my sister a blank check for her birthday payable to her power company. She's the one that is in a huge financial mess. The bill was for $210.55. I asked her how much of the bill was for late fees and penalties and she didn't even know the answer to that... it's quite sad. But, oh well, it's nice to be able to help her when I can (I only give her money for holidays instead of buying her nonsense so as to not try to enable her family's bad money habits). She did tell me that she went and applied for food stamps and other family aid which is about time in my opinion.
My co-worker is making great progress on her financial situation. She made it through Christmas without having to charge a dime. There are still a few debts that she has left to pay off but I see her getting to the finish line within the next year or two.
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[entry_title] => Government Foreclosure
[entry_stub] => government-foreclosure
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/01/14/government-foreclosure_65304/
[entry_date] => 1295031503
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-14 12:58:23
[entry_text] => Ok, so I've always been interested in investing in real estate. I've blogged about possibilities before on here but have never actually taken the plunge to go for anything. A family friend, who has a lot of experience in real estate investing, referred me to government foreclosures as a possibility. This was back in November. I got wrapped up in the Holidays and hadn't really had a chance to follow up or look for any foreclosures but long story short, after taking a peek today, I see that there is a foreclosure up for auction next week! The gov't bid is listed at $26k, whatever that means. I have a lot of research still left to do but my mind is racing with the opportunity to get a decent house for so cheap. I know the area and I know exactly where the house is --- nice family neighborhood. I'd estimate the retail value of the house at around $90-$100k. I'm going to talk to my friend tonight to get more guidance about the process. He started out with a government foreclosure and so he'll know what to do... Maybe this will be the one for us??
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[entry_title] => Updating savings amounts for 2011
[entry_stub] => updating-savings-amounts-for-2011
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[entry_date] => 1294770581
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-11 12:29:41
[entry_text] => We had been saving $1,000 per month into savings (short-term, mid-term, and retirement). I just got online to all our accounts and increased everything to $1,500 per month. I think we can do more but let's see how this feels for a few months.
We also are going to start paying extra on our mortgage... just to round it up from $1,652 to $1,700 each month which is just $48 so no biggie. We used to pay a few hundred extra per month when we first got the mortgage but then scaled back to the regular monthly payment amount when we were trying to sell our house. Now that it looks like we'll be here for a while, I figured we'd start paying a little extra just because.
Some things I look forward to in 2011:
1. Reaching the $20,000 mark in our e-fund.
2. Would love to be 100-105 lbs! Before you think that is outrageous, please be aware that I am very petite and this would be normal (but on the lean side) for someone like me. I have thus far cut out soda (except for one can twice a week -- long story) which is going to help tremendously. I am trying to fit in some exercise too... so far, so good.
3. Cook at home more/eating out less. This has been working out pretty well thus far.
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[entry_title] => An update -- finally!
[entry_stub] => an-update-finally
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[entry_text] => Ok, so I can't believe it's been nearly 3 months since I last posted. Things have been absolutely crazy around here and so I have a lot of catching up to do in blogland!
An update on my co-worker's situation. I started working with her on Oct 1 to straighten out her finances. Good news --- she's paid off two small credit card balances, one medical bill, and most importantly, the debt she had with her son (she'd borrow money from him from time to time to keep herself afloat). She has also put aside $820 in her savings account which she says is the first time she's ever saved anything. $600 of this is for Christmas and the rest is for buying new tires for her car. She still has a long way to go to pay off her debts but she's made huge progress in the couple of months I've been guiding her through. We meet about 2-3 times a month to make sure that she stays on track and for me to basically hold her hand... she still can't figure out what to pay first, how much to pay, or anything like that so I give her a roadmap everytime we meet.
Ok, now the big news on my side of things is that DH and I are considering going to NYC over New Year's. Isn't that just crazy to even think about being in all that chaos? But, we were looking at our work schedules and the kids' school calendar and wouldn't you know that we have a ton of time off available. My sister has offered to watch the kids for us so it'll just be a trip for the two of us which hasn't happened.... ever! So, I hop online and look at rates-- it will cost about $2500 for airline and hotel for 5 nights. Yikes! It would be cheaper if we didn't want to stay right near Times Square but this will be a trip of a lifetime for us so we thought we'd splurge a bit more than what we normally would do. With eating and shopping money, the trip will probably be around $3500. Anybody ever been to NY? Anything to look out for or suggestions on where to stay, eat, or do?
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[entry_title] => Honored to be asked
[entry_stub] => honored-to-be-asked
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2010/09/17/honored-to-be-asked_62124/
[entry_date] => 1284733580
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[entry_text] => This morning, someone that works in our office comes to ask me to help her with her personal finances. This was completely out of the blue and I feel so honored that she would trust me with her money issues. She said she was thinking last night of who she could ask for help and thought of me... (after she got a denial yesterday from the local credit union for a new credit card account). Now, I'm on a quest to get her all squared away and you guys can come along on the journey. Here's her situation:
Married with 2 children (one in college and one in high school), but not a financially sound marriage ever, apparently... DH is a banker of all things but he apparently doesn't have his head on straight when it comes to their own money. He wants to keep everything completely separate in their household so the wife just deals with this (even though he makes probably 4 times what she does). For the major expenses, he covers the mortgage and utilities. She has to cover the groceries for the house.
Finances:
OUT categories we've identified thus far =
*groceries/eating out for household
*car payment on her car
*gas/maintenance on her car
*half of the household cell phone bill
*medical bills for household
*dog -vet/grooming bills
*multiple credit cards (highest balance is around $5k on one of them)
*three outstanding medical debts
She had her highest balance credit card statement with her and said she thought the interest rate on it was 90% (gasp) and I was like, um -- doubt it? So, I looked on her statement and showed her where the interest rate was indicated which is something like 25%. As you can see, she doesn't even know how to read her statements. She's a college graduate but when it comes to money and math, she's clueless and knows that is why she's in the trouble that she's in.
I gave her homework for the weekend -- I've asked her to write down exactly what her interest rates are on all the credit cards and their current balances. I told her to call each one of those credit card companies and ask for a lower interest rate. She also needs to identify exactly how much she owes on those outstanding medical bills and to estimate how much her other monthly expenses total up (she had no clue how much she spends on groceries, for example).
Next, I asked her about her paycheck. Since I have access to payroll, I looked up her check and all her deductions. She has zero withholdings and I asked if she gets a tax refund each year. Apparently, she just gives her W-2 to her DH each year and he does all the tax stuff. She does know that for 2009, they got back around $1500 total and then she got fussed at from her DH that it wasn't enough. He wanted the refund to be even higher and implied that she must not have withheld enough from her checks (jerk!). He keeps their refund and does whatever with the money even though it's "their" refund. I told her that was crazy. I calculated what increasing her withholdings to 1 and 2 would be, an additional $58 and $103 respectively, in each paycheck... Basically, by just increasing her withholdings to 1, she would have an additional $700 each year in her paychecks that her grubby hubby wouldn't have access to come tax time. She said she's all about having her withholdings changed to 1 now. Yay.
Anyway, I'll post more as we keep ironing out her budget...
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September 27th, 2011 at 03:57 pm
DH told me this morning that after some thought, he would rather us save the $8,500 that it would cost to hire professional painters to do the outside of the house and for us to try to do it ourselves. He thinks after some research, that we should be able to attempt this... and if all else fails, we may end up using the pro but at least we'll give it the ol' college try. Spent $1300 last week to get the rear wheel bearings replaced, rear brake pads and rotors filed down and turned, and an oil change
---------> Took the car in today because all the check engine kind of lights were on...Was just told that we need to have the ECM (the car's computer) replaced and that will be another $1200!!! Haven't told DH yet -- he's going to freak out.
We have a 2003 Toyota Sienna.
---------> This poor van has been neglected for so long in regards to routine maintenance. The tires are so bald (we don't drive it except within town to run errands so we've been putting it off). The dealer is having a tire sale next week so we've scheduled an appointment to have 4 new tires put on and for a well overdue oil change done. Estimated cost will be around $350.
Has anyone been adding all this up? If not, that's ok, cause I've already done it for you and it's a whopping $2850 in a few weeks time for stupid car maintenance issues. Aacckkk!!!
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[entry_title] => Reasons we hate our house...
[entry_stub] => reasons-we-hate-our-house
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[entry_text] => Some of you have asked so here is the scoop...
House #1
Purchased in 1997
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1000 sq ft
Small but corner lot in a tight subdivision
House #2
Purchased in 2001
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1600 sq ft
Large (to us) 1/3 acre lot in a nice subdivision, backed up to farmland so was nice and private
House #3 CURRENT HOUSE
Purchased in 2006
3 story house, main living space on first floor, all bedrooms are upstairs, finished full basement
approx 2600 sq ft
.67 acre lot
So, our current house #3 might look to be a great step up for us, right? Well, not quite...
House #1 was our starter home when we just got married. It was a great little house but we got tired of the really, really tight subdivision. All the houses were so close together --- no privacy at all. So, we sold it and moved across town to House #2. This house was the smallest in the neighborhood. Most of the other houses were 2 story homes that looked really big compared to our house. But, we loved the flat lot of our house, the floorplan really worked for us, and it was a really good fit for our growing family.
Then, we moved 4 hours away, from the flat lands to the mountains, for a new job opportunity. We realized quickly that housing prices in the mountains were quite higher than they were in the big city that we came from. Also, the houses here were mainly multi-level homes since they were built alongside hill banks. We had only 2 main criteria when looking for this home: 1) I wanted a garage with main level access. I didn't want to haul groceries from a basement entry garage up stairs to the kitchen. I'd say 75% of homes here all have their garage in the basement. 2) I wanted a large lot with trees. Having lived in the city, we didn't have a lot of natural wooded areas. I thought that was what I wanted. So, we bought House #3 because these 2 main criteria were met and now 5 years later, we just hate the house. We had never lived in a multi-level home before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to go up and down stairs all the time. We had never lived on a wooded lot before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to pick up fallen limbs all the time. Ugh, ugh, and ugh. I guess it's one of those situations where the grass really isn't greener on the other side... all along we thought those bigger 2 story houses in our neighborhoods were so nice and roomy. Blah! We so miss our little ranch style homes!!!
So, a summary of all the things we hate about our current house:
1) Stairs, stairs, and more stairs!
2) All the trees! It gets windy here alot and those fallen branches are a pain to deal with
3) Hillsides! No flat place for the kids to play
4) Open floor plan of living space! Our 'great room' consists of the living room, kitchen, and dining spaces... all in one big open area. Now, I know this is all the rage in today's real estate market, but now that we actually live in this kind of living space, we just don't like it. It's really noisy!!
5) No air conditioning! As a mountain home, it is not common to have A/C here... or so one would think! The houses here just aren't built with A/C as standard. It gets pretty hot for just about one month out of the year but gosh, that one month nearly kills us each year!
So, those are the top 5 reasons why we hate our house. All these reasons were things that we just didn't realize would bother us until we actually bought the house and started living in it. We learn what we like and dislike from each home we live in and we certainly know what to look for in our House #4... we just need to sell this one first!
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[entry_title] => Should we sell or not?
[entry_stub] => should-we-sell-or-not
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/04/04/should-we-sell-or-not_67853/
[entry_date] => 1301930017
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-04 10:13:37
[entry_text] => Ack, what to do?? Ok, some back history. We tried selling our house for 2 years and had no offers. We took the house off the market for 6 months to take a break. We started asking for $349k and ended up our last listing price at $299k... Granted, we did start too high on the price for the market that we were in but settled on a price that is very fair -- but still no offers, so we pulled it off the market. Now that it is Spring, we are thinking about putting it on again.
Our past realtors were without a better term popping into my head right now, sucky. They just listed the house and didn't do much of anything else. We found another realtor that has come highly recommended... we met with him last week and he did a market analysis (CMA) on our house. If you've been following my blog, you know that we just installed granite in our kitchen... so, with that improvement, we really think we have an edge over the competition in our price range. DH and I thought we would stay at the $299k price as our listing price. After the CMA, the new realtor suggested listing it at $289k.... BUT in all honesty, the houses he compared to ours are nowhere near what ours has to offer. There just aren't too many sold houses he can compare ours to. So, he's comfortable in putting it on at $299k if that is what we still want to do. The bottom line that we are willing to sell for is $290k.
So, should we or shouldn't we try to sell the house again? DH and I just don't like it --- there is no other reason to sell. We both have stable jobs and we don't need to move anywhere. We've just HATEd our house since the day we moved in 5 years ago. If we end up at our bottom of $290k, we'd make zippo, and actually lose money really. We bought the house for $288k in 2006 (brand new) and put in $20k in improvements (granite and driveway/retaining wall work), so we've got $308k in the house. However, DH and I don't really consider the $20k we put into the house as additional cost for the house because those things were done to make the house more "liveable" for us. We wouldn't have to come to the table with any cash as our mortgage balance is low enough to where we will still have a bit of cash from the sale after the mortgage is paid.
So, what would you do? Would you go with the financially correct decision and just stay put? Or, would you do what would make you and the family happy and take a slight loss on the house?
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[entry_title] => Can a person LOVE a sink?
[entry_stub] => can-a-person-love-a-sink
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/03/29/can-a-person-love-a-sink_67618/
[entry_date] => 1301430598
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-29 15:29:58
[entry_text] => Here's a pic of my new sink and granite counters.... I absolutely love how everything turned out! We got them installed yesterday and tonight the realtor is coming over to start the process of listing our house (again). Wish us luck!!
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[entry_title] => Getting granite counters!
[entry_stub] => getting-granite-counters
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[entry_date] => 1300478106
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-18 14:55:06
[entry_text] => Ok, we tried selling our house last year with no luck. We want to try it again beginning April 1. We decided to get rid of our laminate countertops and get granite installed. The cost will be $3800. Cross your fingers and toes that this will make the difference and that our house will sell this time around. We are doing the demo in the kitchen this weekend and should have the install done within 10 days, ready for our April 1 listing date. And... if the house doesn't sell, then I get to enjoy brand new granite countertops!
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[entry_title] => A new month, A clean start!
[entry_stub] => march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/03/01/march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start_66521/
[entry_date] => 1299006127
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-01 13:02:07
[entry_text] => Spring fever must be hitting me right now. I am in the mood to clean out my house and straighten up my life. For the past week, I've organized my closets, cabinets, and junk drawers. I have found a whole year's supply of contacts that I now remembered ordering and stashing so that I didn't have to go back to the eye doctor for another year. I totally forgot about these and I was going to place an order within the next month or so! I found 2 full size brand new containers of DH's favorite hair gel. I've donated bags of stuff to Goodwill. I've thrown away so much clutter that has literally just sat in our house for the past 5 years. It feels great! I highly recommend everyone to find a drawer or closet and get at it! I did an area each night for a week and it was painless.
A 2011 financial goal was to reach the $20,000 mark in our E-fund. I deposited a $100 credit card reward check today bringing the balance up to.... drum roll.... $20,049.28!!!!!!!! Now, let's cross our fingers that we won't see any kind of emergencies for a while so that I can enjoy seeing that awesome number. Wahoo!!!
Other random updates:
I gave my sister a blank check for her birthday payable to her power company. She's the one that is in a huge financial mess. The bill was for $210.55. I asked her how much of the bill was for late fees and penalties and she didn't even know the answer to that... it's quite sad. But, oh well, it's nice to be able to help her when I can (I only give her money for holidays instead of buying her nonsense so as to not try to enable her family's bad money habits). She did tell me that she went and applied for food stamps and other family aid which is about time in my opinion.
My co-worker is making great progress on her financial situation. She made it through Christmas without having to charge a dime. There are still a few debts that she has left to pay off but I see her getting to the finish line within the next year or two.
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[entry_title] => Government Foreclosure
[entry_stub] => government-foreclosure
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/01/14/government-foreclosure_65304/
[entry_date] => 1295031503
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-14 12:58:23
[entry_text] => Ok, so I've always been interested in investing in real estate. I've blogged about possibilities before on here but have never actually taken the plunge to go for anything. A family friend, who has a lot of experience in real estate investing, referred me to government foreclosures as a possibility. This was back in November. I got wrapped up in the Holidays and hadn't really had a chance to follow up or look for any foreclosures but long story short, after taking a peek today, I see that there is a foreclosure up for auction next week! The gov't bid is listed at $26k, whatever that means. I have a lot of research still left to do but my mind is racing with the opportunity to get a decent house for so cheap. I know the area and I know exactly where the house is --- nice family neighborhood. I'd estimate the retail value of the house at around $90-$100k. I'm going to talk to my friend tonight to get more guidance about the process. He started out with a government foreclosure and so he'll know what to do... Maybe this will be the one for us??
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[entry_title] => Updating savings amounts for 2011
[entry_stub] => updating-savings-amounts-for-2011
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[entry_date] => 1294770581
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-11 12:29:41
[entry_text] => We had been saving $1,000 per month into savings (short-term, mid-term, and retirement). I just got online to all our accounts and increased everything to $1,500 per month. I think we can do more but let's see how this feels for a few months.
We also are going to start paying extra on our mortgage... just to round it up from $1,652 to $1,700 each month which is just $48 so no biggie. We used to pay a few hundred extra per month when we first got the mortgage but then scaled back to the regular monthly payment amount when we were trying to sell our house. Now that it looks like we'll be here for a while, I figured we'd start paying a little extra just because.
Some things I look forward to in 2011:
1. Reaching the $20,000 mark in our e-fund.
2. Would love to be 100-105 lbs! Before you think that is outrageous, please be aware that I am very petite and this would be normal (but on the lean side) for someone like me. I have thus far cut out soda (except for one can twice a week -- long story) which is going to help tremendously. I am trying to fit in some exercise too... so far, so good.
3. Cook at home more/eating out less. This has been working out pretty well thus far.
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[entry_title] => An update -- finally!
[entry_stub] => an-update-finally
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[entry_date] => 1291296177
[entry_date_mysql] => 2010-12-02 07:22:57
[entry_text] => Ok, so I can't believe it's been nearly 3 months since I last posted. Things have been absolutely crazy around here and so I have a lot of catching up to do in blogland!
An update on my co-worker's situation. I started working with her on Oct 1 to straighten out her finances. Good news --- she's paid off two small credit card balances, one medical bill, and most importantly, the debt she had with her son (she'd borrow money from him from time to time to keep herself afloat). She has also put aside $820 in her savings account which she says is the first time she's ever saved anything. $600 of this is for Christmas and the rest is for buying new tires for her car. She still has a long way to go to pay off her debts but she's made huge progress in the couple of months I've been guiding her through. We meet about 2-3 times a month to make sure that she stays on track and for me to basically hold her hand... she still can't figure out what to pay first, how much to pay, or anything like that so I give her a roadmap everytime we meet.
Ok, now the big news on my side of things is that DH and I are considering going to NYC over New Year's. Isn't that just crazy to even think about being in all that chaos? But, we were looking at our work schedules and the kids' school calendar and wouldn't you know that we have a ton of time off available. My sister has offered to watch the kids for us so it'll just be a trip for the two of us which hasn't happened.... ever! So, I hop online and look at rates-- it will cost about $2500 for airline and hotel for 5 nights. Yikes! It would be cheaper if we didn't want to stay right near Times Square but this will be a trip of a lifetime for us so we thought we'd splurge a bit more than what we normally would do. With eating and shopping money, the trip will probably be around $3500. Anybody ever been to NY? Anything to look out for or suggestions on where to stay, eat, or do?
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[entry_title] => Honored to be asked
[entry_stub] => honored-to-be-asked
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[entry_date] => 1284733580
[entry_date_mysql] => 2010-09-17 09:26:20
[entry_text] => This morning, someone that works in our office comes to ask me to help her with her personal finances. This was completely out of the blue and I feel so honored that she would trust me with her money issues. She said she was thinking last night of who she could ask for help and thought of me... (after she got a denial yesterday from the local credit union for a new credit card account). Now, I'm on a quest to get her all squared away and you guys can come along on the journey. Here's her situation:
Married with 2 children (one in college and one in high school), but not a financially sound marriage ever, apparently... DH is a banker of all things but he apparently doesn't have his head on straight when it comes to their own money. He wants to keep everything completely separate in their household so the wife just deals with this (even though he makes probably 4 times what she does). For the major expenses, he covers the mortgage and utilities. She has to cover the groceries for the house.
Finances:
OUT categories we've identified thus far =
*groceries/eating out for household
*car payment on her car
*gas/maintenance on her car
*half of the household cell phone bill
*medical bills for household
*dog -vet/grooming bills
*multiple credit cards (highest balance is around $5k on one of them)
*three outstanding medical debts
She had her highest balance credit card statement with her and said she thought the interest rate on it was 90% (gasp) and I was like, um -- doubt it? So, I looked on her statement and showed her where the interest rate was indicated which is something like 25%. As you can see, she doesn't even know how to read her statements. She's a college graduate but when it comes to money and math, she's clueless and knows that is why she's in the trouble that she's in.
I gave her homework for the weekend -- I've asked her to write down exactly what her interest rates are on all the credit cards and their current balances. I told her to call each one of those credit card companies and ask for a lower interest rate. She also needs to identify exactly how much she owes on those outstanding medical bills and to estimate how much her other monthly expenses total up (she had no clue how much she spends on groceries, for example).
Next, I asked her about her paycheck. Since I have access to payroll, I looked up her check and all her deductions. She has zero withholdings and I asked if she gets a tax refund each year. Apparently, she just gives her W-2 to her DH each year and he does all the tax stuff. She does know that for 2009, they got back around $1500 total and then she got fussed at from her DH that it wasn't enough. He wanted the refund to be even higher and implied that she must not have withheld enough from her checks (jerk!). He keeps their refund and does whatever with the money even though it's "their" refund. I told her that was crazy. I calculated what increasing her withholdings to 1 and 2 would be, an additional $58 and $103 respectively, in each paycheck... Basically, by just increasing her withholdings to 1, she would have an additional $700 each year in her paychecks that her grubby hubby wouldn't have access to come tax time. She said she's all about having her withholdings changed to 1 now. Yay.
Anyway, I'll post more as we keep ironing out her budget...
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Posted in
GOALS
|
3 Comments »
September 26th, 2011 at 07:12 pm
So, we closed on the short sale house a couple of weeks ago... we've got roofers almost done putting up the much needed new roof at a cost of $11,000! The house also is in much need of a good paint job--- that will cost $8,500 (not including the decks/porches)!! So, for $19,500, we'll have a great looking house from the street... just don't go on the front porch or back deck or in the door yet! Those were the big expenses we knew we had to get done ASAP so we'll slow down now and just do a little renovation at a time and try to slow down the money drain! Spent $1300 last week to get the rear wheel bearings replaced, rear brake pads and rotors filed down and turned, and an oil change
---------> Took the car in today because all the check engine kind of lights were on...Was just told that we need to have the ECM (the car's computer) replaced and that will be another $1200!!! Haven't told DH yet -- he's going to freak out.
We have a 2003 Toyota Sienna.
---------> This poor van has been neglected for so long in regards to routine maintenance. The tires are so bald (we don't drive it except within town to run errands so we've been putting it off). The dealer is having a tire sale next week so we've scheduled an appointment to have 4 new tires put on and for a well overdue oil change done. Estimated cost will be around $350.
Has anyone been adding all this up? If not, that's ok, cause I've already done it for you and it's a whopping $2850 in a few weeks time for stupid car maintenance issues. Aacckkk!!!
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[entry_title] => Reasons we hate our house...
[entry_stub] => reasons-we-hate-our-house
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/04/11/reasons-we-hate-our-house_68100/
[entry_date] => 1302528330
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-11 08:25:30
[entry_text] => Some of you have asked so here is the scoop...
House #1
Purchased in 1997
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1000 sq ft
Small but corner lot in a tight subdivision
House #2
Purchased in 2001
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1600 sq ft
Large (to us) 1/3 acre lot in a nice subdivision, backed up to farmland so was nice and private
House #3 CURRENT HOUSE
Purchased in 2006
3 story house, main living space on first floor, all bedrooms are upstairs, finished full basement
approx 2600 sq ft
.67 acre lot
So, our current house #3 might look to be a great step up for us, right? Well, not quite...
House #1 was our starter home when we just got married. It was a great little house but we got tired of the really, really tight subdivision. All the houses were so close together --- no privacy at all. So, we sold it and moved across town to House #2. This house was the smallest in the neighborhood. Most of the other houses were 2 story homes that looked really big compared to our house. But, we loved the flat lot of our house, the floorplan really worked for us, and it was a really good fit for our growing family.
Then, we moved 4 hours away, from the flat lands to the mountains, for a new job opportunity. We realized quickly that housing prices in the mountains were quite higher than they were in the big city that we came from. Also, the houses here were mainly multi-level homes since they were built alongside hill banks. We had only 2 main criteria when looking for this home: 1) I wanted a garage with main level access. I didn't want to haul groceries from a basement entry garage up stairs to the kitchen. I'd say 75% of homes here all have their garage in the basement. 2) I wanted a large lot with trees. Having lived in the city, we didn't have a lot of natural wooded areas. I thought that was what I wanted. So, we bought House #3 because these 2 main criteria were met and now 5 years later, we just hate the house. We had never lived in a multi-level home before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to go up and down stairs all the time. We had never lived on a wooded lot before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to pick up fallen limbs all the time. Ugh, ugh, and ugh. I guess it's one of those situations where the grass really isn't greener on the other side... all along we thought those bigger 2 story houses in our neighborhoods were so nice and roomy. Blah! We so miss our little ranch style homes!!!
So, a summary of all the things we hate about our current house:
1) Stairs, stairs, and more stairs!
2) All the trees! It gets windy here alot and those fallen branches are a pain to deal with
3) Hillsides! No flat place for the kids to play
4) Open floor plan of living space! Our 'great room' consists of the living room, kitchen, and dining spaces... all in one big open area. Now, I know this is all the rage in today's real estate market, but now that we actually live in this kind of living space, we just don't like it. It's really noisy!!
5) No air conditioning! As a mountain home, it is not common to have A/C here... or so one would think! The houses here just aren't built with A/C as standard. It gets pretty hot for just about one month out of the year but gosh, that one month nearly kills us each year!
So, those are the top 5 reasons why we hate our house. All these reasons were things that we just didn't realize would bother us until we actually bought the house and started living in it. We learn what we like and dislike from each home we live in and we certainly know what to look for in our House #4... we just need to sell this one first!
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[entry_title] => Should we sell or not?
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[entry_date] => 1301930017
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-04 10:13:37
[entry_text] => Ack, what to do?? Ok, some back history. We tried selling our house for 2 years and had no offers. We took the house off the market for 6 months to take a break. We started asking for $349k and ended up our last listing price at $299k... Granted, we did start too high on the price for the market that we were in but settled on a price that is very fair -- but still no offers, so we pulled it off the market. Now that it is Spring, we are thinking about putting it on again.
Our past realtors were without a better term popping into my head right now, sucky. They just listed the house and didn't do much of anything else. We found another realtor that has come highly recommended... we met with him last week and he did a market analysis (CMA) on our house. If you've been following my blog, you know that we just installed granite in our kitchen... so, with that improvement, we really think we have an edge over the competition in our price range. DH and I thought we would stay at the $299k price as our listing price. After the CMA, the new realtor suggested listing it at $289k.... BUT in all honesty, the houses he compared to ours are nowhere near what ours has to offer. There just aren't too many sold houses he can compare ours to. So, he's comfortable in putting it on at $299k if that is what we still want to do. The bottom line that we are willing to sell for is $290k.
So, should we or shouldn't we try to sell the house again? DH and I just don't like it --- there is no other reason to sell. We both have stable jobs and we don't need to move anywhere. We've just HATEd our house since the day we moved in 5 years ago. If we end up at our bottom of $290k, we'd make zippo, and actually lose money really. We bought the house for $288k in 2006 (brand new) and put in $20k in improvements (granite and driveway/retaining wall work), so we've got $308k in the house. However, DH and I don't really consider the $20k we put into the house as additional cost for the house because those things were done to make the house more "liveable" for us. We wouldn't have to come to the table with any cash as our mortgage balance is low enough to where we will still have a bit of cash from the sale after the mortgage is paid.
So, what would you do? Would you go with the financially correct decision and just stay put? Or, would you do what would make you and the family happy and take a slight loss on the house?
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[entry_title] => Can a person LOVE a sink?
[entry_stub] => can-a-person-love-a-sink
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/03/29/can-a-person-love-a-sink_67618/
[entry_date] => 1301430598
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-29 15:29:58
[entry_text] => Here's a pic of my new sink and granite counters.... I absolutely love how everything turned out! We got them installed yesterday and tonight the realtor is coming over to start the process of listing our house (again). Wish us luck!!
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[entry_title] => Getting granite counters!
[entry_stub] => getting-granite-counters
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[entry_date] => 1300478106
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-18 14:55:06
[entry_text] => Ok, we tried selling our house last year with no luck. We want to try it again beginning April 1. We decided to get rid of our laminate countertops and get granite installed. The cost will be $3800. Cross your fingers and toes that this will make the difference and that our house will sell this time around. We are doing the demo in the kitchen this weekend and should have the install done within 10 days, ready for our April 1 listing date. And... if the house doesn't sell, then I get to enjoy brand new granite countertops!
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[entry_title] => A new month, A clean start!
[entry_stub] => march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/03/01/march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start_66521/
[entry_date] => 1299006127
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-01 13:02:07
[entry_text] => Spring fever must be hitting me right now. I am in the mood to clean out my house and straighten up my life. For the past week, I've organized my closets, cabinets, and junk drawers. I have found a whole year's supply of contacts that I now remembered ordering and stashing so that I didn't have to go back to the eye doctor for another year. I totally forgot about these and I was going to place an order within the next month or so! I found 2 full size brand new containers of DH's favorite hair gel. I've donated bags of stuff to Goodwill. I've thrown away so much clutter that has literally just sat in our house for the past 5 years. It feels great! I highly recommend everyone to find a drawer or closet and get at it! I did an area each night for a week and it was painless.
A 2011 financial goal was to reach the $20,000 mark in our E-fund. I deposited a $100 credit card reward check today bringing the balance up to.... drum roll.... $20,049.28!!!!!!!! Now, let's cross our fingers that we won't see any kind of emergencies for a while so that I can enjoy seeing that awesome number. Wahoo!!!
Other random updates:
I gave my sister a blank check for her birthday payable to her power company. She's the one that is in a huge financial mess. The bill was for $210.55. I asked her how much of the bill was for late fees and penalties and she didn't even know the answer to that... it's quite sad. But, oh well, it's nice to be able to help her when I can (I only give her money for holidays instead of buying her nonsense so as to not try to enable her family's bad money habits). She did tell me that she went and applied for food stamps and other family aid which is about time in my opinion.
My co-worker is making great progress on her financial situation. She made it through Christmas without having to charge a dime. There are still a few debts that she has left to pay off but I see her getting to the finish line within the next year or two.
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[entry_title] => Government Foreclosure
[entry_stub] => government-foreclosure
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[entry_date] => 1295031503
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-14 12:58:23
[entry_text] => Ok, so I've always been interested in investing in real estate. I've blogged about possibilities before on here but have never actually taken the plunge to go for anything. A family friend, who has a lot of experience in real estate investing, referred me to government foreclosures as a possibility. This was back in November. I got wrapped up in the Holidays and hadn't really had a chance to follow up or look for any foreclosures but long story short, after taking a peek today, I see that there is a foreclosure up for auction next week! The gov't bid is listed at $26k, whatever that means. I have a lot of research still left to do but my mind is racing with the opportunity to get a decent house for so cheap. I know the area and I know exactly where the house is --- nice family neighborhood. I'd estimate the retail value of the house at around $90-$100k. I'm going to talk to my friend tonight to get more guidance about the process. He started out with a government foreclosure and so he'll know what to do... Maybe this will be the one for us??
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[entry_title] => Updating savings amounts for 2011
[entry_stub] => updating-savings-amounts-for-2011
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[entry_date] => 1294770581
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-11 12:29:41
[entry_text] => We had been saving $1,000 per month into savings (short-term, mid-term, and retirement). I just got online to all our accounts and increased everything to $1,500 per month. I think we can do more but let's see how this feels for a few months.
We also are going to start paying extra on our mortgage... just to round it up from $1,652 to $1,700 each month which is just $48 so no biggie. We used to pay a few hundred extra per month when we first got the mortgage but then scaled back to the regular monthly payment amount when we were trying to sell our house. Now that it looks like we'll be here for a while, I figured we'd start paying a little extra just because.
Some things I look forward to in 2011:
1. Reaching the $20,000 mark in our e-fund.
2. Would love to be 100-105 lbs! Before you think that is outrageous, please be aware that I am very petite and this would be normal (but on the lean side) for someone like me. I have thus far cut out soda (except for one can twice a week -- long story) which is going to help tremendously. I am trying to fit in some exercise too... so far, so good.
3. Cook at home more/eating out less. This has been working out pretty well thus far.
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[entry_title] => An update -- finally!
[entry_stub] => an-update-finally
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[entry_date] => 1291296177
[entry_date_mysql] => 2010-12-02 07:22:57
[entry_text] => Ok, so I can't believe it's been nearly 3 months since I last posted. Things have been absolutely crazy around here and so I have a lot of catching up to do in blogland!
An update on my co-worker's situation. I started working with her on Oct 1 to straighten out her finances. Good news --- she's paid off two small credit card balances, one medical bill, and most importantly, the debt she had with her son (she'd borrow money from him from time to time to keep herself afloat). She has also put aside $820 in her savings account which she says is the first time she's ever saved anything. $600 of this is for Christmas and the rest is for buying new tires for her car. She still has a long way to go to pay off her debts but she's made huge progress in the couple of months I've been guiding her through. We meet about 2-3 times a month to make sure that she stays on track and for me to basically hold her hand... she still can't figure out what to pay first, how much to pay, or anything like that so I give her a roadmap everytime we meet.
Ok, now the big news on my side of things is that DH and I are considering going to NYC over New Year's. Isn't that just crazy to even think about being in all that chaos? But, we were looking at our work schedules and the kids' school calendar and wouldn't you know that we have a ton of time off available. My sister has offered to watch the kids for us so it'll just be a trip for the two of us which hasn't happened.... ever! So, I hop online and look at rates-- it will cost about $2500 for airline and hotel for 5 nights. Yikes! It would be cheaper if we didn't want to stay right near Times Square but this will be a trip of a lifetime for us so we thought we'd splurge a bit more than what we normally would do. With eating and shopping money, the trip will probably be around $3500. Anybody ever been to NY? Anything to look out for or suggestions on where to stay, eat, or do?
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[entry_title] => Honored to be asked
[entry_stub] => honored-to-be-asked
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[entry_date] => 1284733580
[entry_date_mysql] => 2010-09-17 09:26:20
[entry_text] => This morning, someone that works in our office comes to ask me to help her with her personal finances. This was completely out of the blue and I feel so honored that she would trust me with her money issues. She said she was thinking last night of who she could ask for help and thought of me... (after she got a denial yesterday from the local credit union for a new credit card account). Now, I'm on a quest to get her all squared away and you guys can come along on the journey. Here's her situation:
Married with 2 children (one in college and one in high school), but not a financially sound marriage ever, apparently... DH is a banker of all things but he apparently doesn't have his head on straight when it comes to their own money. He wants to keep everything completely separate in their household so the wife just deals with this (even though he makes probably 4 times what she does). For the major expenses, he covers the mortgage and utilities. She has to cover the groceries for the house.
Finances:
OUT categories we've identified thus far =
*groceries/eating out for household
*car payment on her car
*gas/maintenance on her car
*half of the household cell phone bill
*medical bills for household
*dog -vet/grooming bills
*multiple credit cards (highest balance is around $5k on one of them)
*three outstanding medical debts
She had her highest balance credit card statement with her and said she thought the interest rate on it was 90% (gasp) and I was like, um -- doubt it? So, I looked on her statement and showed her where the interest rate was indicated which is something like 25%. As you can see, she doesn't even know how to read her statements. She's a college graduate but when it comes to money and math, she's clueless and knows that is why she's in the trouble that she's in.
I gave her homework for the weekend -- I've asked her to write down exactly what her interest rates are on all the credit cards and their current balances. I told her to call each one of those credit card companies and ask for a lower interest rate. She also needs to identify exactly how much she owes on those outstanding medical bills and to estimate how much her other monthly expenses total up (she had no clue how much she spends on groceries, for example).
Next, I asked her about her paycheck. Since I have access to payroll, I looked up her check and all her deductions. She has zero withholdings and I asked if she gets a tax refund each year. Apparently, she just gives her W-2 to her DH each year and he does all the tax stuff. She does know that for 2009, they got back around $1500 total and then she got fussed at from her DH that it wasn't enough. He wanted the refund to be even higher and implied that she must not have withheld enough from her checks (jerk!). He keeps their refund and does whatever with the money even though it's "their" refund. I told her that was crazy. I calculated what increasing her withholdings to 1 and 2 would be, an additional $58 and $103 respectively, in each paycheck... Basically, by just increasing her withholdings to 1, she would have an additional $700 each year in her paychecks that her grubby hubby wouldn't have access to come tax time. She said she's all about having her withholdings changed to 1 now. Yay.
Anyway, I'll post more as we keep ironing out her budget...
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Posted in
GOALS
|
4 Comments »
September 15th, 2011 at 04:56 pm
Just closed on the deal about an hour ago!!! We officially own the great short sale house now. I'm so excited. I walked through the house this morning with our realtor just to make sure it was still in the same condition and it was. So, after a very smooth closing, we now have the keys to make it our own.
I got some information at closing that I thought was interesting... there was an offer on the house prior to ours. It was for $240k and after a counter here and there, the buyers' last offer to the bank was $280k. The bank at that point just dropped it because they didn't want to play anymore with those buyers. A few weeks later, we appeared in the picture and put in our original offer of $300k. I truly believe our realtor was the reason for our ultimate success with the deal. He suggested we offer a number beginning with a 3 and not a 2 so that we could get the bank's attention... and it worked. We were glad to offer $300k and it made perfect sense not to offend the bank with an offer in the $200's. Months later, the house is now ours for just $305k. Yahoo! Spent $1300 last week to get the rear wheel bearings replaced, rear brake pads and rotors filed down and turned, and an oil change
---------> Took the car in today because all the check engine kind of lights were on...Was just told that we need to have the ECM (the car's computer) replaced and that will be another $1200!!! Haven't told DH yet -- he's going to freak out.
We have a 2003 Toyota Sienna.
---------> This poor van has been neglected for so long in regards to routine maintenance. The tires are so bald (we don't drive it except within town to run errands so we've been putting it off). The dealer is having a tire sale next week so we've scheduled an appointment to have 4 new tires put on and for a well overdue oil change done. Estimated cost will be around $350.
Has anyone been adding all this up? If not, that's ok, cause I've already done it for you and it's a whopping $2850 in a few weeks time for stupid car maintenance issues. Aacckkk!!!
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[entry_title] => Reasons we hate our house...
[entry_stub] => reasons-we-hate-our-house
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/04/11/reasons-we-hate-our-house_68100/
[entry_date] => 1302528330
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-11 08:25:30
[entry_text] => Some of you have asked so here is the scoop...
House #1
Purchased in 1997
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1000 sq ft
Small but corner lot in a tight subdivision
House #2
Purchased in 2001
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1600 sq ft
Large (to us) 1/3 acre lot in a nice subdivision, backed up to farmland so was nice and private
House #3 CURRENT HOUSE
Purchased in 2006
3 story house, main living space on first floor, all bedrooms are upstairs, finished full basement
approx 2600 sq ft
.67 acre lot
So, our current house #3 might look to be a great step up for us, right? Well, not quite...
House #1 was our starter home when we just got married. It was a great little house but we got tired of the really, really tight subdivision. All the houses were so close together --- no privacy at all. So, we sold it and moved across town to House #2. This house was the smallest in the neighborhood. Most of the other houses were 2 story homes that looked really big compared to our house. But, we loved the flat lot of our house, the floorplan really worked for us, and it was a really good fit for our growing family.
Then, we moved 4 hours away, from the flat lands to the mountains, for a new job opportunity. We realized quickly that housing prices in the mountains were quite higher than they were in the big city that we came from. Also, the houses here were mainly multi-level homes since they were built alongside hill banks. We had only 2 main criteria when looking for this home: 1) I wanted a garage with main level access. I didn't want to haul groceries from a basement entry garage up stairs to the kitchen. I'd say 75% of homes here all have their garage in the basement. 2) I wanted a large lot with trees. Having lived in the city, we didn't have a lot of natural wooded areas. I thought that was what I wanted. So, we bought House #3 because these 2 main criteria were met and now 5 years later, we just hate the house. We had never lived in a multi-level home before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to go up and down stairs all the time. We had never lived on a wooded lot before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to pick up fallen limbs all the time. Ugh, ugh, and ugh. I guess it's one of those situations where the grass really isn't greener on the other side... all along we thought those bigger 2 story houses in our neighborhoods were so nice and roomy. Blah! We so miss our little ranch style homes!!!
So, a summary of all the things we hate about our current house:
1) Stairs, stairs, and more stairs!
2) All the trees! It gets windy here alot and those fallen branches are a pain to deal with
3) Hillsides! No flat place for the kids to play
4) Open floor plan of living space! Our 'great room' consists of the living room, kitchen, and dining spaces... all in one big open area. Now, I know this is all the rage in today's real estate market, but now that we actually live in this kind of living space, we just don't like it. It's really noisy!!
5) No air conditioning! As a mountain home, it is not common to have A/C here... or so one would think! The houses here just aren't built with A/C as standard. It gets pretty hot for just about one month out of the year but gosh, that one month nearly kills us each year!
So, those are the top 5 reasons why we hate our house. All these reasons were things that we just didn't realize would bother us until we actually bought the house and started living in it. We learn what we like and dislike from each home we live in and we certainly know what to look for in our House #4... we just need to sell this one first!
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[entry_title] => Should we sell or not?
[entry_stub] => should-we-sell-or-not
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[entry_date] => 1301930017
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-04 10:13:37
[entry_text] => Ack, what to do?? Ok, some back history. We tried selling our house for 2 years and had no offers. We took the house off the market for 6 months to take a break. We started asking for $349k and ended up our last listing price at $299k... Granted, we did start too high on the price for the market that we were in but settled on a price that is very fair -- but still no offers, so we pulled it off the market. Now that it is Spring, we are thinking about putting it on again.
Our past realtors were without a better term popping into my head right now, sucky. They just listed the house and didn't do much of anything else. We found another realtor that has come highly recommended... we met with him last week and he did a market analysis (CMA) on our house. If you've been following my blog, you know that we just installed granite in our kitchen... so, with that improvement, we really think we have an edge over the competition in our price range. DH and I thought we would stay at the $299k price as our listing price. After the CMA, the new realtor suggested listing it at $289k.... BUT in all honesty, the houses he compared to ours are nowhere near what ours has to offer. There just aren't too many sold houses he can compare ours to. So, he's comfortable in putting it on at $299k if that is what we still want to do. The bottom line that we are willing to sell for is $290k.
So, should we or shouldn't we try to sell the house again? DH and I just don't like it --- there is no other reason to sell. We both have stable jobs and we don't need to move anywhere. We've just HATEd our house since the day we moved in 5 years ago. If we end up at our bottom of $290k, we'd make zippo, and actually lose money really. We bought the house for $288k in 2006 (brand new) and put in $20k in improvements (granite and driveway/retaining wall work), so we've got $308k in the house. However, DH and I don't really consider the $20k we put into the house as additional cost for the house because those things were done to make the house more "liveable" for us. We wouldn't have to come to the table with any cash as our mortgage balance is low enough to where we will still have a bit of cash from the sale after the mortgage is paid.
So, what would you do? Would you go with the financially correct decision and just stay put? Or, would you do what would make you and the family happy and take a slight loss on the house?
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[entry_title] => Can a person LOVE a sink?
[entry_stub] => can-a-person-love-a-sink
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/03/29/can-a-person-love-a-sink_67618/
[entry_date] => 1301430598
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-29 15:29:58
[entry_text] => Here's a pic of my new sink and granite counters.... I absolutely love how everything turned out! We got them installed yesterday and tonight the realtor is coming over to start the process of listing our house (again). Wish us luck!!
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[entry_title] => Getting granite counters!
[entry_stub] => getting-granite-counters
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/03/18/getting-granite-counters_67124/
[entry_date] => 1300478106
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-18 14:55:06
[entry_text] => Ok, we tried selling our house last year with no luck. We want to try it again beginning April 1. We decided to get rid of our laminate countertops and get granite installed. The cost will be $3800. Cross your fingers and toes that this will make the difference and that our house will sell this time around. We are doing the demo in the kitchen this weekend and should have the install done within 10 days, ready for our April 1 listing date. And... if the house doesn't sell, then I get to enjoy brand new granite countertops!
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[entry_title] => A new month, A clean start!
[entry_stub] => march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/03/01/march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start_66521/
[entry_date] => 1299006127
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-01 13:02:07
[entry_text] => Spring fever must be hitting me right now. I am in the mood to clean out my house and straighten up my life. For the past week, I've organized my closets, cabinets, and junk drawers. I have found a whole year's supply of contacts that I now remembered ordering and stashing so that I didn't have to go back to the eye doctor for another year. I totally forgot about these and I was going to place an order within the next month or so! I found 2 full size brand new containers of DH's favorite hair gel. I've donated bags of stuff to Goodwill. I've thrown away so much clutter that has literally just sat in our house for the past 5 years. It feels great! I highly recommend everyone to find a drawer or closet and get at it! I did an area each night for a week and it was painless.
A 2011 financial goal was to reach the $20,000 mark in our E-fund. I deposited a $100 credit card reward check today bringing the balance up to.... drum roll.... $20,049.28!!!!!!!! Now, let's cross our fingers that we won't see any kind of emergencies for a while so that I can enjoy seeing that awesome number. Wahoo!!!
Other random updates:
I gave my sister a blank check for her birthday payable to her power company. She's the one that is in a huge financial mess. The bill was for $210.55. I asked her how much of the bill was for late fees and penalties and she didn't even know the answer to that... it's quite sad. But, oh well, it's nice to be able to help her when I can (I only give her money for holidays instead of buying her nonsense so as to not try to enable her family's bad money habits). She did tell me that she went and applied for food stamps and other family aid which is about time in my opinion.
My co-worker is making great progress on her financial situation. She made it through Christmas without having to charge a dime. There are still a few debts that she has left to pay off but I see her getting to the finish line within the next year or two.
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[entry_title] => Government Foreclosure
[entry_stub] => government-foreclosure
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[entry_date] => 1295031503
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-14 12:58:23
[entry_text] => Ok, so I've always been interested in investing in real estate. I've blogged about possibilities before on here but have never actually taken the plunge to go for anything. A family friend, who has a lot of experience in real estate investing, referred me to government foreclosures as a possibility. This was back in November. I got wrapped up in the Holidays and hadn't really had a chance to follow up or look for any foreclosures but long story short, after taking a peek today, I see that there is a foreclosure up for auction next week! The gov't bid is listed at $26k, whatever that means. I have a lot of research still left to do but my mind is racing with the opportunity to get a decent house for so cheap. I know the area and I know exactly where the house is --- nice family neighborhood. I'd estimate the retail value of the house at around $90-$100k. I'm going to talk to my friend tonight to get more guidance about the process. He started out with a government foreclosure and so he'll know what to do... Maybe this will be the one for us??
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[entry_title] => Updating savings amounts for 2011
[entry_stub] => updating-savings-amounts-for-2011
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[entry_date] => 1294770581
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-11 12:29:41
[entry_text] => We had been saving $1,000 per month into savings (short-term, mid-term, and retirement). I just got online to all our accounts and increased everything to $1,500 per month. I think we can do more but let's see how this feels for a few months.
We also are going to start paying extra on our mortgage... just to round it up from $1,652 to $1,700 each month which is just $48 so no biggie. We used to pay a few hundred extra per month when we first got the mortgage but then scaled back to the regular monthly payment amount when we were trying to sell our house. Now that it looks like we'll be here for a while, I figured we'd start paying a little extra just because.
Some things I look forward to in 2011:
1. Reaching the $20,000 mark in our e-fund.
2. Would love to be 100-105 lbs! Before you think that is outrageous, please be aware that I am very petite and this would be normal (but on the lean side) for someone like me. I have thus far cut out soda (except for one can twice a week -- long story) which is going to help tremendously. I am trying to fit in some exercise too... so far, so good.
3. Cook at home more/eating out less. This has been working out pretty well thus far.
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[entry_title] => An update -- finally!
[entry_stub] => an-update-finally
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2010/12/02/an-update-finally_63975/
[entry_date] => 1291296177
[entry_date_mysql] => 2010-12-02 07:22:57
[entry_text] => Ok, so I can't believe it's been nearly 3 months since I last posted. Things have been absolutely crazy around here and so I have a lot of catching up to do in blogland!
An update on my co-worker's situation. I started working with her on Oct 1 to straighten out her finances. Good news --- she's paid off two small credit card balances, one medical bill, and most importantly, the debt she had with her son (she'd borrow money from him from time to time to keep herself afloat). She has also put aside $820 in her savings account which she says is the first time she's ever saved anything. $600 of this is for Christmas and the rest is for buying new tires for her car. She still has a long way to go to pay off her debts but she's made huge progress in the couple of months I've been guiding her through. We meet about 2-3 times a month to make sure that she stays on track and for me to basically hold her hand... she still can't figure out what to pay first, how much to pay, or anything like that so I give her a roadmap everytime we meet.
Ok, now the big news on my side of things is that DH and I are considering going to NYC over New Year's. Isn't that just crazy to even think about being in all that chaos? But, we were looking at our work schedules and the kids' school calendar and wouldn't you know that we have a ton of time off available. My sister has offered to watch the kids for us so it'll just be a trip for the two of us which hasn't happened.... ever! So, I hop online and look at rates-- it will cost about $2500 for airline and hotel for 5 nights. Yikes! It would be cheaper if we didn't want to stay right near Times Square but this will be a trip of a lifetime for us so we thought we'd splurge a bit more than what we normally would do. With eating and shopping money, the trip will probably be around $3500. Anybody ever been to NY? Anything to look out for or suggestions on where to stay, eat, or do?
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[entry_title] => Honored to be asked
[entry_stub] => honored-to-be-asked
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2010/09/17/honored-to-be-asked_62124/
[entry_date] => 1284733580
[entry_date_mysql] => 2010-09-17 09:26:20
[entry_text] => This morning, someone that works in our office comes to ask me to help her with her personal finances. This was completely out of the blue and I feel so honored that she would trust me with her money issues. She said she was thinking last night of who she could ask for help and thought of me... (after she got a denial yesterday from the local credit union for a new credit card account). Now, I'm on a quest to get her all squared away and you guys can come along on the journey. Here's her situation:
Married with 2 children (one in college and one in high school), but not a financially sound marriage ever, apparently... DH is a banker of all things but he apparently doesn't have his head on straight when it comes to their own money. He wants to keep everything completely separate in their household so the wife just deals with this (even though he makes probably 4 times what she does). For the major expenses, he covers the mortgage and utilities. She has to cover the groceries for the house.
Finances:
OUT categories we've identified thus far =
*groceries/eating out for household
*car payment on her car
*gas/maintenance on her car
*half of the household cell phone bill
*medical bills for household
*dog -vet/grooming bills
*multiple credit cards (highest balance is around $5k on one of them)
*three outstanding medical debts
She had her highest balance credit card statement with her and said she thought the interest rate on it was 90% (gasp) and I was like, um -- doubt it? So, I looked on her statement and showed her where the interest rate was indicated which is something like 25%. As you can see, she doesn't even know how to read her statements. She's a college graduate but when it comes to money and math, she's clueless and knows that is why she's in the trouble that she's in.
I gave her homework for the weekend -- I've asked her to write down exactly what her interest rates are on all the credit cards and their current balances. I told her to call each one of those credit card companies and ask for a lower interest rate. She also needs to identify exactly how much she owes on those outstanding medical bills and to estimate how much her other monthly expenses total up (she had no clue how much she spends on groceries, for example).
Next, I asked her about her paycheck. Since I have access to payroll, I looked up her check and all her deductions. She has zero withholdings and I asked if she gets a tax refund each year. Apparently, she just gives her W-2 to her DH each year and he does all the tax stuff. She does know that for 2009, they got back around $1500 total and then she got fussed at from her DH that it wasn't enough. He wanted the refund to be even higher and implied that she must not have withheld enough from her checks (jerk!). He keeps their refund and does whatever with the money even though it's "their" refund. I told her that was crazy. I calculated what increasing her withholdings to 1 and 2 would be, an additional $58 and $103 respectively, in each paycheck... Basically, by just increasing her withholdings to 1, she would have an additional $700 each year in her paychecks that her grubby hubby wouldn't have access to come tax time. She said she's all about having her withholdings changed to 1 now. Yay.
Anyway, I'll post more as we keep ironing out her budget...
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-->
Posted in
GOALS
|
8 Comments »
September 8th, 2011 at 11:53 pm
OMG, how things are moving quickly since the contract was put into play!
A timeline for the curious:
June 14
We put in an offer of $300k on a short sale house that is listed at $395k (down from $550k)
June 24
The sellers accept but the bank says no and counters us at $375k
June 28
We offer a counter to their counter of $305k plus $1k in seller's closing costs
July 28
The bank says OK to our offer!!
August 25
Finally all the paperwork is signed and completed...officially in contract now
August 31
Inspection of house with contractor went very well -- just the obvious expense which is to replace the roof like yesterday
September 1
Met with the bank to finalize mortgage... ugh
September 8
Appraisal of house comes back at $360,000 so we are good there
September 15
CLOSING DATE!!! Spent $1300 last week to get the rear wheel bearings replaced, rear brake pads and rotors filed down and turned, and an oil change
---------> Took the car in today because all the check engine kind of lights were on...Was just told that we need to have the ECM (the car's computer) replaced and that will be another $1200!!! Haven't told DH yet -- he's going to freak out.
We have a 2003 Toyota Sienna.
---------> This poor van has been neglected for so long in regards to routine maintenance. The tires are so bald (we don't drive it except within town to run errands so we've been putting it off). The dealer is having a tire sale next week so we've scheduled an appointment to have 4 new tires put on and for a well overdue oil change done. Estimated cost will be around $350.
Has anyone been adding all this up? If not, that's ok, cause I've already done it for you and it's a whopping $2850 in a few weeks time for stupid car maintenance issues. Aacckkk!!!
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[entry_title] => Reasons we hate our house...
[entry_stub] => reasons-we-hate-our-house
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/04/11/reasons-we-hate-our-house_68100/
[entry_date] => 1302528330
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-11 08:25:30
[entry_text] => Some of you have asked so here is the scoop...
House #1
Purchased in 1997
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1000 sq ft
Small but corner lot in a tight subdivision
House #2
Purchased in 2001
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1600 sq ft
Large (to us) 1/3 acre lot in a nice subdivision, backed up to farmland so was nice and private
House #3 CURRENT HOUSE
Purchased in 2006
3 story house, main living space on first floor, all bedrooms are upstairs, finished full basement
approx 2600 sq ft
.67 acre lot
So, our current house #3 might look to be a great step up for us, right? Well, not quite...
House #1 was our starter home when we just got married. It was a great little house but we got tired of the really, really tight subdivision. All the houses were so close together --- no privacy at all. So, we sold it and moved across town to House #2. This house was the smallest in the neighborhood. Most of the other houses were 2 story homes that looked really big compared to our house. But, we loved the flat lot of our house, the floorplan really worked for us, and it was a really good fit for our growing family.
Then, we moved 4 hours away, from the flat lands to the mountains, for a new job opportunity. We realized quickly that housing prices in the mountains were quite higher than they were in the big city that we came from. Also, the houses here were mainly multi-level homes since they were built alongside hill banks. We had only 2 main criteria when looking for this home: 1) I wanted a garage with main level access. I didn't want to haul groceries from a basement entry garage up stairs to the kitchen. I'd say 75% of homes here all have their garage in the basement. 2) I wanted a large lot with trees. Having lived in the city, we didn't have a lot of natural wooded areas. I thought that was what I wanted. So, we bought House #3 because these 2 main criteria were met and now 5 years later, we just hate the house. We had never lived in a multi-level home before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to go up and down stairs all the time. We had never lived on a wooded lot before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to pick up fallen limbs all the time. Ugh, ugh, and ugh. I guess it's one of those situations where the grass really isn't greener on the other side... all along we thought those bigger 2 story houses in our neighborhoods were so nice and roomy. Blah! We so miss our little ranch style homes!!!
So, a summary of all the things we hate about our current house:
1) Stairs, stairs, and more stairs!
2) All the trees! It gets windy here alot and those fallen branches are a pain to deal with
3) Hillsides! No flat place for the kids to play
4) Open floor plan of living space! Our 'great room' consists of the living room, kitchen, and dining spaces... all in one big open area. Now, I know this is all the rage in today's real estate market, but now that we actually live in this kind of living space, we just don't like it. It's really noisy!!
5) No air conditioning! As a mountain home, it is not common to have A/C here... or so one would think! The houses here just aren't built with A/C as standard. It gets pretty hot for just about one month out of the year but gosh, that one month nearly kills us each year!
So, those are the top 5 reasons why we hate our house. All these reasons were things that we just didn't realize would bother us until we actually bought the house and started living in it. We learn what we like and dislike from each home we live in and we certainly know what to look for in our House #4... we just need to sell this one first!
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[entry_title] => Should we sell or not?
[entry_stub] => should-we-sell-or-not
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/04/04/should-we-sell-or-not_67853/
[entry_date] => 1301930017
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-04 10:13:37
[entry_text] => Ack, what to do?? Ok, some back history. We tried selling our house for 2 years and had no offers. We took the house off the market for 6 months to take a break. We started asking for $349k and ended up our last listing price at $299k... Granted, we did start too high on the price for the market that we were in but settled on a price that is very fair -- but still no offers, so we pulled it off the market. Now that it is Spring, we are thinking about putting it on again.
Our past realtors were without a better term popping into my head right now, sucky. They just listed the house and didn't do much of anything else. We found another realtor that has come highly recommended... we met with him last week and he did a market analysis (CMA) on our house. If you've been following my blog, you know that we just installed granite in our kitchen... so, with that improvement, we really think we have an edge over the competition in our price range. DH and I thought we would stay at the $299k price as our listing price. After the CMA, the new realtor suggested listing it at $289k.... BUT in all honesty, the houses he compared to ours are nowhere near what ours has to offer. There just aren't too many sold houses he can compare ours to. So, he's comfortable in putting it on at $299k if that is what we still want to do. The bottom line that we are willing to sell for is $290k.
So, should we or shouldn't we try to sell the house again? DH and I just don't like it --- there is no other reason to sell. We both have stable jobs and we don't need to move anywhere. We've just HATEd our house since the day we moved in 5 years ago. If we end up at our bottom of $290k, we'd make zippo, and actually lose money really. We bought the house for $288k in 2006 (brand new) and put in $20k in improvements (granite and driveway/retaining wall work), so we've got $308k in the house. However, DH and I don't really consider the $20k we put into the house as additional cost for the house because those things were done to make the house more "liveable" for us. We wouldn't have to come to the table with any cash as our mortgage balance is low enough to where we will still have a bit of cash from the sale after the mortgage is paid.
So, what would you do? Would you go with the financially correct decision and just stay put? Or, would you do what would make you and the family happy and take a slight loss on the house?
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[entry_title] => Can a person LOVE a sink?
[entry_stub] => can-a-person-love-a-sink
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[entry_date] => 1301430598
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-29 15:29:58
[entry_text] => Here's a pic of my new sink and granite counters.... I absolutely love how everything turned out! We got them installed yesterday and tonight the realtor is coming over to start the process of listing our house (again). Wish us luck!!
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[entry_title] => Getting granite counters!
[entry_stub] => getting-granite-counters
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[entry_date] => 1300478106
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-18 14:55:06
[entry_text] => Ok, we tried selling our house last year with no luck. We want to try it again beginning April 1. We decided to get rid of our laminate countertops and get granite installed. The cost will be $3800. Cross your fingers and toes that this will make the difference and that our house will sell this time around. We are doing the demo in the kitchen this weekend and should have the install done within 10 days, ready for our April 1 listing date. And... if the house doesn't sell, then I get to enjoy brand new granite countertops!
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[entry_title] => A new month, A clean start!
[entry_stub] => march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/03/01/march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start_66521/
[entry_date] => 1299006127
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-01 13:02:07
[entry_text] => Spring fever must be hitting me right now. I am in the mood to clean out my house and straighten up my life. For the past week, I've organized my closets, cabinets, and junk drawers. I have found a whole year's supply of contacts that I now remembered ordering and stashing so that I didn't have to go back to the eye doctor for another year. I totally forgot about these and I was going to place an order within the next month or so! I found 2 full size brand new containers of DH's favorite hair gel. I've donated bags of stuff to Goodwill. I've thrown away so much clutter that has literally just sat in our house for the past 5 years. It feels great! I highly recommend everyone to find a drawer or closet and get at it! I did an area each night for a week and it was painless.
A 2011 financial goal was to reach the $20,000 mark in our E-fund. I deposited a $100 credit card reward check today bringing the balance up to.... drum roll.... $20,049.28!!!!!!!! Now, let's cross our fingers that we won't see any kind of emergencies for a while so that I can enjoy seeing that awesome number. Wahoo!!!
Other random updates:
I gave my sister a blank check for her birthday payable to her power company. She's the one that is in a huge financial mess. The bill was for $210.55. I asked her how much of the bill was for late fees and penalties and she didn't even know the answer to that... it's quite sad. But, oh well, it's nice to be able to help her when I can (I only give her money for holidays instead of buying her nonsense so as to not try to enable her family's bad money habits). She did tell me that she went and applied for food stamps and other family aid which is about time in my opinion.
My co-worker is making great progress on her financial situation. She made it through Christmas without having to charge a dime. There are still a few debts that she has left to pay off but I see her getting to the finish line within the next year or two.
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[entry_title] => Government Foreclosure
[entry_stub] => government-foreclosure
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[entry_date] => 1295031503
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-14 12:58:23
[entry_text] => Ok, so I've always been interested in investing in real estate. I've blogged about possibilities before on here but have never actually taken the plunge to go for anything. A family friend, who has a lot of experience in real estate investing, referred me to government foreclosures as a possibility. This was back in November. I got wrapped up in the Holidays and hadn't really had a chance to follow up or look for any foreclosures but long story short, after taking a peek today, I see that there is a foreclosure up for auction next week! The gov't bid is listed at $26k, whatever that means. I have a lot of research still left to do but my mind is racing with the opportunity to get a decent house for so cheap. I know the area and I know exactly where the house is --- nice family neighborhood. I'd estimate the retail value of the house at around $90-$100k. I'm going to talk to my friend tonight to get more guidance about the process. He started out with a government foreclosure and so he'll know what to do... Maybe this will be the one for us??
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[entry_title] => Updating savings amounts for 2011
[entry_stub] => updating-savings-amounts-for-2011
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/01/11/updating-savings-amounts-for-2011_65211/
[entry_date] => 1294770581
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-11 12:29:41
[entry_text] => We had been saving $1,000 per month into savings (short-term, mid-term, and retirement). I just got online to all our accounts and increased everything to $1,500 per month. I think we can do more but let's see how this feels for a few months.
We also are going to start paying extra on our mortgage... just to round it up from $1,652 to $1,700 each month which is just $48 so no biggie. We used to pay a few hundred extra per month when we first got the mortgage but then scaled back to the regular monthly payment amount when we were trying to sell our house. Now that it looks like we'll be here for a while, I figured we'd start paying a little extra just because.
Some things I look forward to in 2011:
1. Reaching the $20,000 mark in our e-fund.
2. Would love to be 100-105 lbs! Before you think that is outrageous, please be aware that I am very petite and this would be normal (but on the lean side) for someone like me. I have thus far cut out soda (except for one can twice a week -- long story) which is going to help tremendously. I am trying to fit in some exercise too... so far, so good.
3. Cook at home more/eating out less. This has been working out pretty well thus far.
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[entry_title] => An update -- finally!
[entry_stub] => an-update-finally
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[entry_date_mysql] => 2010-12-02 07:22:57
[entry_text] => Ok, so I can't believe it's been nearly 3 months since I last posted. Things have been absolutely crazy around here and so I have a lot of catching up to do in blogland!
An update on my co-worker's situation. I started working with her on Oct 1 to straighten out her finances. Good news --- she's paid off two small credit card balances, one medical bill, and most importantly, the debt she had with her son (she'd borrow money from him from time to time to keep herself afloat). She has also put aside $820 in her savings account which she says is the first time she's ever saved anything. $600 of this is for Christmas and the rest is for buying new tires for her car. She still has a long way to go to pay off her debts but she's made huge progress in the couple of months I've been guiding her through. We meet about 2-3 times a month to make sure that she stays on track and for me to basically hold her hand... she still can't figure out what to pay first, how much to pay, or anything like that so I give her a roadmap everytime we meet.
Ok, now the big news on my side of things is that DH and I are considering going to NYC over New Year's. Isn't that just crazy to even think about being in all that chaos? But, we were looking at our work schedules and the kids' school calendar and wouldn't you know that we have a ton of time off available. My sister has offered to watch the kids for us so it'll just be a trip for the two of us which hasn't happened.... ever! So, I hop online and look at rates-- it will cost about $2500 for airline and hotel for 5 nights. Yikes! It would be cheaper if we didn't want to stay right near Times Square but this will be a trip of a lifetime for us so we thought we'd splurge a bit more than what we normally would do. With eating and shopping money, the trip will probably be around $3500. Anybody ever been to NY? Anything to look out for or suggestions on where to stay, eat, or do?
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[entry_title] => Honored to be asked
[entry_stub] => honored-to-be-asked
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[entry_date] => 1284733580
[entry_date_mysql] => 2010-09-17 09:26:20
[entry_text] => This morning, someone that works in our office comes to ask me to help her with her personal finances. This was completely out of the blue and I feel so honored that she would trust me with her money issues. She said she was thinking last night of who she could ask for help and thought of me... (after she got a denial yesterday from the local credit union for a new credit card account). Now, I'm on a quest to get her all squared away and you guys can come along on the journey. Here's her situation:
Married with 2 children (one in college and one in high school), but not a financially sound marriage ever, apparently... DH is a banker of all things but he apparently doesn't have his head on straight when it comes to their own money. He wants to keep everything completely separate in their household so the wife just deals with this (even though he makes probably 4 times what she does). For the major expenses, he covers the mortgage and utilities. She has to cover the groceries for the house.
Finances:
OUT categories we've identified thus far =
*groceries/eating out for household
*car payment on her car
*gas/maintenance on her car
*half of the household cell phone bill
*medical bills for household
*dog -vet/grooming bills
*multiple credit cards (highest balance is around $5k on one of them)
*three outstanding medical debts
She had her highest balance credit card statement with her and said she thought the interest rate on it was 90% (gasp) and I was like, um -- doubt it? So, I looked on her statement and showed her where the interest rate was indicated which is something like 25%. As you can see, she doesn't even know how to read her statements. She's a college graduate but when it comes to money and math, she's clueless and knows that is why she's in the trouble that she's in.
I gave her homework for the weekend -- I've asked her to write down exactly what her interest rates are on all the credit cards and their current balances. I told her to call each one of those credit card companies and ask for a lower interest rate. She also needs to identify exactly how much she owes on those outstanding medical bills and to estimate how much her other monthly expenses total up (she had no clue how much she spends on groceries, for example).
Next, I asked her about her paycheck. Since I have access to payroll, I looked up her check and all her deductions. She has zero withholdings and I asked if she gets a tax refund each year. Apparently, she just gives her W-2 to her DH each year and he does all the tax stuff. She does know that for 2009, they got back around $1500 total and then she got fussed at from her DH that it wasn't enough. He wanted the refund to be even higher and implied that she must not have withheld enough from her checks (jerk!). He keeps their refund and does whatever with the money even though it's "their" refund. I told her that was crazy. I calculated what increasing her withholdings to 1 and 2 would be, an additional $58 and $103 respectively, in each paycheck... Basically, by just increasing her withholdings to 1, she would have an additional $700 each year in her paychecks that her grubby hubby wouldn't have access to come tax time. She said she's all about having her withholdings changed to 1 now. Yay.
Anyway, I'll post more as we keep ironing out her budget...
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-->
Posted in
GOALS
|
2 Comments »
September 1st, 2011 at 01:48 pm
We got our good faith estimate from the bank yesterday... yuck. With each of the 3 houses we've bought in the past, we always negotiated for the sellers to cover closing costs. So, it was a shocker to see how much we'll have to bring to the table with this short sale deal!! Yuck, is all I can say. Poo! Spent $1300 last week to get the rear wheel bearings replaced, rear brake pads and rotors filed down and turned, and an oil change
---------> Took the car in today because all the check engine kind of lights were on...Was just told that we need to have the ECM (the car's computer) replaced and that will be another $1200!!! Haven't told DH yet -- he's going to freak out.
We have a 2003 Toyota Sienna.
---------> This poor van has been neglected for so long in regards to routine maintenance. The tires are so bald (we don't drive it except within town to run errands so we've been putting it off). The dealer is having a tire sale next week so we've scheduled an appointment to have 4 new tires put on and for a well overdue oil change done. Estimated cost will be around $350.
Has anyone been adding all this up? If not, that's ok, cause I've already done it for you and it's a whopping $2850 in a few weeks time for stupid car maintenance issues. Aacckkk!!!
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[entry_title] => Reasons we hate our house...
[entry_stub] => reasons-we-hate-our-house
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/04/11/reasons-we-hate-our-house_68100/
[entry_date] => 1302528330
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-11 08:25:30
[entry_text] => Some of you have asked so here is the scoop...
House #1
Purchased in 1997
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1000 sq ft
Small but corner lot in a tight subdivision
House #2
Purchased in 2001
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1600 sq ft
Large (to us) 1/3 acre lot in a nice subdivision, backed up to farmland so was nice and private
House #3 CURRENT HOUSE
Purchased in 2006
3 story house, main living space on first floor, all bedrooms are upstairs, finished full basement
approx 2600 sq ft
.67 acre lot
So, our current house #3 might look to be a great step up for us, right? Well, not quite...
House #1 was our starter home when we just got married. It was a great little house but we got tired of the really, really tight subdivision. All the houses were so close together --- no privacy at all. So, we sold it and moved across town to House #2. This house was the smallest in the neighborhood. Most of the other houses were 2 story homes that looked really big compared to our house. But, we loved the flat lot of our house, the floorplan really worked for us, and it was a really good fit for our growing family.
Then, we moved 4 hours away, from the flat lands to the mountains, for a new job opportunity. We realized quickly that housing prices in the mountains were quite higher than they were in the big city that we came from. Also, the houses here were mainly multi-level homes since they were built alongside hill banks. We had only 2 main criteria when looking for this home: 1) I wanted a garage with main level access. I didn't want to haul groceries from a basement entry garage up stairs to the kitchen. I'd say 75% of homes here all have their garage in the basement. 2) I wanted a large lot with trees. Having lived in the city, we didn't have a lot of natural wooded areas. I thought that was what I wanted. So, we bought House #3 because these 2 main criteria were met and now 5 years later, we just hate the house. We had never lived in a multi-level home before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to go up and down stairs all the time. We had never lived on a wooded lot before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to pick up fallen limbs all the time. Ugh, ugh, and ugh. I guess it's one of those situations where the grass really isn't greener on the other side... all along we thought those bigger 2 story houses in our neighborhoods were so nice and roomy. Blah! We so miss our little ranch style homes!!!
So, a summary of all the things we hate about our current house:
1) Stairs, stairs, and more stairs!
2) All the trees! It gets windy here alot and those fallen branches are a pain to deal with
3) Hillsides! No flat place for the kids to play
4) Open floor plan of living space! Our 'great room' consists of the living room, kitchen, and dining spaces... all in one big open area. Now, I know this is all the rage in today's real estate market, but now that we actually live in this kind of living space, we just don't like it. It's really noisy!!
5) No air conditioning! As a mountain home, it is not common to have A/C here... or so one would think! The houses here just aren't built with A/C as standard. It gets pretty hot for just about one month out of the year but gosh, that one month nearly kills us each year!
So, those are the top 5 reasons why we hate our house. All these reasons were things that we just didn't realize would bother us until we actually bought the house and started living in it. We learn what we like and dislike from each home we live in and we certainly know what to look for in our House #4... we just need to sell this one first!
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[entry_title] => Should we sell or not?
[entry_stub] => should-we-sell-or-not
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/04/04/should-we-sell-or-not_67853/
[entry_date] => 1301930017
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-04 10:13:37
[entry_text] => Ack, what to do?? Ok, some back history. We tried selling our house for 2 years and had no offers. We took the house off the market for 6 months to take a break. We started asking for $349k and ended up our last listing price at $299k... Granted, we did start too high on the price for the market that we were in but settled on a price that is very fair -- but still no offers, so we pulled it off the market. Now that it is Spring, we are thinking about putting it on again.
Our past realtors were without a better term popping into my head right now, sucky. They just listed the house and didn't do much of anything else. We found another realtor that has come highly recommended... we met with him last week and he did a market analysis (CMA) on our house. If you've been following my blog, you know that we just installed granite in our kitchen... so, with that improvement, we really think we have an edge over the competition in our price range. DH and I thought we would stay at the $299k price as our listing price. After the CMA, the new realtor suggested listing it at $289k.... BUT in all honesty, the houses he compared to ours are nowhere near what ours has to offer. There just aren't too many sold houses he can compare ours to. So, he's comfortable in putting it on at $299k if that is what we still want to do. The bottom line that we are willing to sell for is $290k.
So, should we or shouldn't we try to sell the house again? DH and I just don't like it --- there is no other reason to sell. We both have stable jobs and we don't need to move anywhere. We've just HATEd our house since the day we moved in 5 years ago. If we end up at our bottom of $290k, we'd make zippo, and actually lose money really. We bought the house for $288k in 2006 (brand new) and put in $20k in improvements (granite and driveway/retaining wall work), so we've got $308k in the house. However, DH and I don't really consider the $20k we put into the house as additional cost for the house because those things were done to make the house more "liveable" for us. We wouldn't have to come to the table with any cash as our mortgage balance is low enough to where we will still have a bit of cash from the sale after the mortgage is paid.
So, what would you do? Would you go with the financially correct decision and just stay put? Or, would you do what would make you and the family happy and take a slight loss on the house?
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[entry_title] => Can a person LOVE a sink?
[entry_stub] => can-a-person-love-a-sink
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/03/29/can-a-person-love-a-sink_67618/
[entry_date] => 1301430598
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-29 15:29:58
[entry_text] => Here's a pic of my new sink and granite counters.... I absolutely love how everything turned out! We got them installed yesterday and tonight the realtor is coming over to start the process of listing our house (again). Wish us luck!!
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[entry_title] => Getting granite counters!
[entry_stub] => getting-granite-counters
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/03/18/getting-granite-counters_67124/
[entry_date] => 1300478106
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-18 14:55:06
[entry_text] => Ok, we tried selling our house last year with no luck. We want to try it again beginning April 1. We decided to get rid of our laminate countertops and get granite installed. The cost will be $3800. Cross your fingers and toes that this will make the difference and that our house will sell this time around. We are doing the demo in the kitchen this weekend and should have the install done within 10 days, ready for our April 1 listing date. And... if the house doesn't sell, then I get to enjoy brand new granite countertops!
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[entry_title] => A new month, A clean start!
[entry_stub] => march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/03/01/march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start_66521/
[entry_date] => 1299006127
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-01 13:02:07
[entry_text] => Spring fever must be hitting me right now. I am in the mood to clean out my house and straighten up my life. For the past week, I've organized my closets, cabinets, and junk drawers. I have found a whole year's supply of contacts that I now remembered ordering and stashing so that I didn't have to go back to the eye doctor for another year. I totally forgot about these and I was going to place an order within the next month or so! I found 2 full size brand new containers of DH's favorite hair gel. I've donated bags of stuff to Goodwill. I've thrown away so much clutter that has literally just sat in our house for the past 5 years. It feels great! I highly recommend everyone to find a drawer or closet and get at it! I did an area each night for a week and it was painless.
A 2011 financial goal was to reach the $20,000 mark in our E-fund. I deposited a $100 credit card reward check today bringing the balance up to.... drum roll.... $20,049.28!!!!!!!! Now, let's cross our fingers that we won't see any kind of emergencies for a while so that I can enjoy seeing that awesome number. Wahoo!!!
Other random updates:
I gave my sister a blank check for her birthday payable to her power company. She's the one that is in a huge financial mess. The bill was for $210.55. I asked her how much of the bill was for late fees and penalties and she didn't even know the answer to that... it's quite sad. But, oh well, it's nice to be able to help her when I can (I only give her money for holidays instead of buying her nonsense so as to not try to enable her family's bad money habits). She did tell me that she went and applied for food stamps and other family aid which is about time in my opinion.
My co-worker is making great progress on her financial situation. She made it through Christmas without having to charge a dime. There are still a few debts that she has left to pay off but I see her getting to the finish line within the next year or two.
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[entry_title] => Government Foreclosure
[entry_stub] => government-foreclosure
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/01/14/government-foreclosure_65304/
[entry_date] => 1295031503
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-14 12:58:23
[entry_text] => Ok, so I've always been interested in investing in real estate. I've blogged about possibilities before on here but have never actually taken the plunge to go for anything. A family friend, who has a lot of experience in real estate investing, referred me to government foreclosures as a possibility. This was back in November. I got wrapped up in the Holidays and hadn't really had a chance to follow up or look for any foreclosures but long story short, after taking a peek today, I see that there is a foreclosure up for auction next week! The gov't bid is listed at $26k, whatever that means. I have a lot of research still left to do but my mind is racing with the opportunity to get a decent house for so cheap. I know the area and I know exactly where the house is --- nice family neighborhood. I'd estimate the retail value of the house at around $90-$100k. I'm going to talk to my friend tonight to get more guidance about the process. He started out with a government foreclosure and so he'll know what to do... Maybe this will be the one for us??
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[entry_title] => Updating savings amounts for 2011
[entry_stub] => updating-savings-amounts-for-2011
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[entry_date] => 1294770581
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-11 12:29:41
[entry_text] => We had been saving $1,000 per month into savings (short-term, mid-term, and retirement). I just got online to all our accounts and increased everything to $1,500 per month. I think we can do more but let's see how this feels for a few months.
We also are going to start paying extra on our mortgage... just to round it up from $1,652 to $1,700 each month which is just $48 so no biggie. We used to pay a few hundred extra per month when we first got the mortgage but then scaled back to the regular monthly payment amount when we were trying to sell our house. Now that it looks like we'll be here for a while, I figured we'd start paying a little extra just because.
Some things I look forward to in 2011:
1. Reaching the $20,000 mark in our e-fund.
2. Would love to be 100-105 lbs! Before you think that is outrageous, please be aware that I am very petite and this would be normal (but on the lean side) for someone like me. I have thus far cut out soda (except for one can twice a week -- long story) which is going to help tremendously. I am trying to fit in some exercise too... so far, so good.
3. Cook at home more/eating out less. This has been working out pretty well thus far.
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[entry_title] => An update -- finally!
[entry_stub] => an-update-finally
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[entry_date_mysql] => 2010-12-02 07:22:57
[entry_text] => Ok, so I can't believe it's been nearly 3 months since I last posted. Things have been absolutely crazy around here and so I have a lot of catching up to do in blogland!
An update on my co-worker's situation. I started working with her on Oct 1 to straighten out her finances. Good news --- she's paid off two small credit card balances, one medical bill, and most importantly, the debt she had with her son (she'd borrow money from him from time to time to keep herself afloat). She has also put aside $820 in her savings account which she says is the first time she's ever saved anything. $600 of this is for Christmas and the rest is for buying new tires for her car. She still has a long way to go to pay off her debts but she's made huge progress in the couple of months I've been guiding her through. We meet about 2-3 times a month to make sure that she stays on track and for me to basically hold her hand... she still can't figure out what to pay first, how much to pay, or anything like that so I give her a roadmap everytime we meet.
Ok, now the big news on my side of things is that DH and I are considering going to NYC over New Year's. Isn't that just crazy to even think about being in all that chaos? But, we were looking at our work schedules and the kids' school calendar and wouldn't you know that we have a ton of time off available. My sister has offered to watch the kids for us so it'll just be a trip for the two of us which hasn't happened.... ever! So, I hop online and look at rates-- it will cost about $2500 for airline and hotel for 5 nights. Yikes! It would be cheaper if we didn't want to stay right near Times Square but this will be a trip of a lifetime for us so we thought we'd splurge a bit more than what we normally would do. With eating and shopping money, the trip will probably be around $3500. Anybody ever been to NY? Anything to look out for or suggestions on where to stay, eat, or do?
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[entry_title] => Honored to be asked
[entry_stub] => honored-to-be-asked
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[entry_date] => 1284733580
[entry_date_mysql] => 2010-09-17 09:26:20
[entry_text] => This morning, someone that works in our office comes to ask me to help her with her personal finances. This was completely out of the blue and I feel so honored that she would trust me with her money issues. She said she was thinking last night of who she could ask for help and thought of me... (after she got a denial yesterday from the local credit union for a new credit card account). Now, I'm on a quest to get her all squared away and you guys can come along on the journey. Here's her situation:
Married with 2 children (one in college and one in high school), but not a financially sound marriage ever, apparently... DH is a banker of all things but he apparently doesn't have his head on straight when it comes to their own money. He wants to keep everything completely separate in their household so the wife just deals with this (even though he makes probably 4 times what she does). For the major expenses, he covers the mortgage and utilities. She has to cover the groceries for the house.
Finances:
OUT categories we've identified thus far =
*groceries/eating out for household
*car payment on her car
*gas/maintenance on her car
*half of the household cell phone bill
*medical bills for household
*dog -vet/grooming bills
*multiple credit cards (highest balance is around $5k on one of them)
*three outstanding medical debts
She had her highest balance credit card statement with her and said she thought the interest rate on it was 90% (gasp) and I was like, um -- doubt it? So, I looked on her statement and showed her where the interest rate was indicated which is something like 25%. As you can see, she doesn't even know how to read her statements. She's a college graduate but when it comes to money and math, she's clueless and knows that is why she's in the trouble that she's in.
I gave her homework for the weekend -- I've asked her to write down exactly what her interest rates are on all the credit cards and their current balances. I told her to call each one of those credit card companies and ask for a lower interest rate. She also needs to identify exactly how much she owes on those outstanding medical bills and to estimate how much her other monthly expenses total up (she had no clue how much she spends on groceries, for example).
Next, I asked her about her paycheck. Since I have access to payroll, I looked up her check and all her deductions. She has zero withholdings and I asked if she gets a tax refund each year. Apparently, she just gives her W-2 to her DH each year and he does all the tax stuff. She does know that for 2009, they got back around $1500 total and then she got fussed at from her DH that it wasn't enough. He wanted the refund to be even higher and implied that she must not have withheld enough from her checks (jerk!). He keeps their refund and does whatever with the money even though it's "their" refund. I told her that was crazy. I calculated what increasing her withholdings to 1 and 2 would be, an additional $58 and $103 respectively, in each paycheck... Basically, by just increasing her withholdings to 1, she would have an additional $700 each year in her paychecks that her grubby hubby wouldn't have access to come tax time. She said she's all about having her withholdings changed to 1 now. Yay.
Anyway, I'll post more as we keep ironing out her budget...
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Posted in
Uncategorized
|
1 Comments »
August 31st, 2011 at 01:14 pm
So, we had the contractor come out and do an inspection of our short sale house. We were cautiously optimistic as the house is 30 years old. We knew that it needed a new roof like yesterday but other than that, we thought it looked alright from our naive viewpoint. Since the house has been vacant for over 5 years, we wanted to make sure the structure and major systems were okay instead of the minor stuff that inspectors look at so we hired a contractor to come out to investigate rather than a typical home inspector.
He came yesterday and the news was great! He said that we definitely need a new roof but other than that he said the house was built very well. He said even the sub-flooring was built in a way that was top notch and not just with regular particle board stuff. We went through a small punch list of items to address but other than that, the contractor said that we were getting a solid house that just needed cosmetic updating. Whew!! This is what I wanted to hear.
So, now I am heading to the bank today to finalize our mortgage process. Looks like we are moving full steam ahead!
I've shared some pictures before but here are a couple more to tease you with:
Nice gas fireplace
French doors to the office
Some of the backyard (that stuff in the bottom right corner is a ton of MINT growing!)
Spent $1300 last week to get the rear wheel bearings replaced, rear brake pads and rotors filed down and turned, and an oil change
---------> Took the car in today because all the check engine kind of lights were on...Was just told that we need to have the ECM (the car's computer) replaced and that will be another $1200!!! Haven't told DH yet -- he's going to freak out.
We have a 2003 Toyota Sienna.
---------> This poor van has been neglected for so long in regards to routine maintenance. The tires are so bald (we don't drive it except within town to run errands so we've been putting it off). The dealer is having a tire sale next week so we've scheduled an appointment to have 4 new tires put on and for a well overdue oil change done. Estimated cost will be around $350.
Has anyone been adding all this up? If not, that's ok, cause I've already done it for you and it's a whopping $2850 in a few weeks time for stupid car maintenance issues. Aacckkk!!!
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[entry_title] => Reasons we hate our house...
[entry_stub] => reasons-we-hate-our-house
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/04/11/reasons-we-hate-our-house_68100/
[entry_date] => 1302528330
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-11 08:25:30
[entry_text] => Some of you have asked so here is the scoop...
House #1
Purchased in 1997
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1000 sq ft
Small but corner lot in a tight subdivision
House #2
Purchased in 2001
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1600 sq ft
Large (to us) 1/3 acre lot in a nice subdivision, backed up to farmland so was nice and private
House #3 CURRENT HOUSE
Purchased in 2006
3 story house, main living space on first floor, all bedrooms are upstairs, finished full basement
approx 2600 sq ft
.67 acre lot
So, our current house #3 might look to be a great step up for us, right? Well, not quite...
House #1 was our starter home when we just got married. It was a great little house but we got tired of the really, really tight subdivision. All the houses were so close together --- no privacy at all. So, we sold it and moved across town to House #2. This house was the smallest in the neighborhood. Most of the other houses were 2 story homes that looked really big compared to our house. But, we loved the flat lot of our house, the floorplan really worked for us, and it was a really good fit for our growing family.
Then, we moved 4 hours away, from the flat lands to the mountains, for a new job opportunity. We realized quickly that housing prices in the mountains were quite higher than they were in the big city that we came from. Also, the houses here were mainly multi-level homes since they were built alongside hill banks. We had only 2 main criteria when looking for this home: 1) I wanted a garage with main level access. I didn't want to haul groceries from a basement entry garage up stairs to the kitchen. I'd say 75% of homes here all have their garage in the basement. 2) I wanted a large lot with trees. Having lived in the city, we didn't have a lot of natural wooded areas. I thought that was what I wanted. So, we bought House #3 because these 2 main criteria were met and now 5 years later, we just hate the house. We had never lived in a multi-level home before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to go up and down stairs all the time. We had never lived on a wooded lot before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to pick up fallen limbs all the time. Ugh, ugh, and ugh. I guess it's one of those situations where the grass really isn't greener on the other side... all along we thought those bigger 2 story houses in our neighborhoods were so nice and roomy. Blah! We so miss our little ranch style homes!!!
So, a summary of all the things we hate about our current house:
1) Stairs, stairs, and more stairs!
2) All the trees! It gets windy here alot and those fallen branches are a pain to deal with
3) Hillsides! No flat place for the kids to play
4) Open floor plan of living space! Our 'great room' consists of the living room, kitchen, and dining spaces... all in one big open area. Now, I know this is all the rage in today's real estate market, but now that we actually live in this kind of living space, we just don't like it. It's really noisy!!
5) No air conditioning! As a mountain home, it is not common to have A/C here... or so one would think! The houses here just aren't built with A/C as standard. It gets pretty hot for just about one month out of the year but gosh, that one month nearly kills us each year!
So, those are the top 5 reasons why we hate our house. All these reasons were things that we just didn't realize would bother us until we actually bought the house and started living in it. We learn what we like and dislike from each home we live in and we certainly know what to look for in our House #4... we just need to sell this one first!
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[entry_title] => Should we sell or not?
[entry_stub] => should-we-sell-or-not
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[entry_date] => 1301930017
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-04 10:13:37
[entry_text] => Ack, what to do?? Ok, some back history. We tried selling our house for 2 years and had no offers. We took the house off the market for 6 months to take a break. We started asking for $349k and ended up our last listing price at $299k... Granted, we did start too high on the price for the market that we were in but settled on a price that is very fair -- but still no offers, so we pulled it off the market. Now that it is Spring, we are thinking about putting it on again.
Our past realtors were without a better term popping into my head right now, sucky. They just listed the house and didn't do much of anything else. We found another realtor that has come highly recommended... we met with him last week and he did a market analysis (CMA) on our house. If you've been following my blog, you know that we just installed granite in our kitchen... so, with that improvement, we really think we have an edge over the competition in our price range. DH and I thought we would stay at the $299k price as our listing price. After the CMA, the new realtor suggested listing it at $289k.... BUT in all honesty, the houses he compared to ours are nowhere near what ours has to offer. There just aren't too many sold houses he can compare ours to. So, he's comfortable in putting it on at $299k if that is what we still want to do. The bottom line that we are willing to sell for is $290k.
So, should we or shouldn't we try to sell the house again? DH and I just don't like it --- there is no other reason to sell. We both have stable jobs and we don't need to move anywhere. We've just HATEd our house since the day we moved in 5 years ago. If we end up at our bottom of $290k, we'd make zippo, and actually lose money really. We bought the house for $288k in 2006 (brand new) and put in $20k in improvements (granite and driveway/retaining wall work), so we've got $308k in the house. However, DH and I don't really consider the $20k we put into the house as additional cost for the house because those things were done to make the house more "liveable" for us. We wouldn't have to come to the table with any cash as our mortgage balance is low enough to where we will still have a bit of cash from the sale after the mortgage is paid.
So, what would you do? Would you go with the financially correct decision and just stay put? Or, would you do what would make you and the family happy and take a slight loss on the house?
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[entry_title] => Can a person LOVE a sink?
[entry_stub] => can-a-person-love-a-sink
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[entry_date] => 1301430598
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-29 15:29:58
[entry_text] => Here's a pic of my new sink and granite counters.... I absolutely love how everything turned out! We got them installed yesterday and tonight the realtor is coming over to start the process of listing our house (again). Wish us luck!!
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[entry_title] => Getting granite counters!
[entry_stub] => getting-granite-counters
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[entry_date] => 1300478106
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-18 14:55:06
[entry_text] => Ok, we tried selling our house last year with no luck. We want to try it again beginning April 1. We decided to get rid of our laminate countertops and get granite installed. The cost will be $3800. Cross your fingers and toes that this will make the difference and that our house will sell this time around. We are doing the demo in the kitchen this weekend and should have the install done within 10 days, ready for our April 1 listing date. And... if the house doesn't sell, then I get to enjoy brand new granite countertops!
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[entry_title] => A new month, A clean start!
[entry_stub] => march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/03/01/march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start_66521/
[entry_date] => 1299006127
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-01 13:02:07
[entry_text] => Spring fever must be hitting me right now. I am in the mood to clean out my house and straighten up my life. For the past week, I've organized my closets, cabinets, and junk drawers. I have found a whole year's supply of contacts that I now remembered ordering and stashing so that I didn't have to go back to the eye doctor for another year. I totally forgot about these and I was going to place an order within the next month or so! I found 2 full size brand new containers of DH's favorite hair gel. I've donated bags of stuff to Goodwill. I've thrown away so much clutter that has literally just sat in our house for the past 5 years. It feels great! I highly recommend everyone to find a drawer or closet and get at it! I did an area each night for a week and it was painless.
A 2011 financial goal was to reach the $20,000 mark in our E-fund. I deposited a $100 credit card reward check today bringing the balance up to.... drum roll.... $20,049.28!!!!!!!! Now, let's cross our fingers that we won't see any kind of emergencies for a while so that I can enjoy seeing that awesome number. Wahoo!!!
Other random updates:
I gave my sister a blank check for her birthday payable to her power company. She's the one that is in a huge financial mess. The bill was for $210.55. I asked her how much of the bill was for late fees and penalties and she didn't even know the answer to that... it's quite sad. But, oh well, it's nice to be able to help her when I can (I only give her money for holidays instead of buying her nonsense so as to not try to enable her family's bad money habits). She did tell me that she went and applied for food stamps and other family aid which is about time in my opinion.
My co-worker is making great progress on her financial situation. She made it through Christmas without having to charge a dime. There are still a few debts that she has left to pay off but I see her getting to the finish line within the next year or two.
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[entry_title] => Government Foreclosure
[entry_stub] => government-foreclosure
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[entry_text] => Ok, so I've always been interested in investing in real estate. I've blogged about possibilities before on here but have never actually taken the plunge to go for anything. A family friend, who has a lot of experience in real estate investing, referred me to government foreclosures as a possibility. This was back in November. I got wrapped up in the Holidays and hadn't really had a chance to follow up or look for any foreclosures but long story short, after taking a peek today, I see that there is a foreclosure up for auction next week! The gov't bid is listed at $26k, whatever that means. I have a lot of research still left to do but my mind is racing with the opportunity to get a decent house for so cheap. I know the area and I know exactly where the house is --- nice family neighborhood. I'd estimate the retail value of the house at around $90-$100k. I'm going to talk to my friend tonight to get more guidance about the process. He started out with a government foreclosure and so he'll know what to do... Maybe this will be the one for us??
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[entry_title] => Updating savings amounts for 2011
[entry_stub] => updating-savings-amounts-for-2011
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[entry_date] => 1294770581
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-11 12:29:41
[entry_text] => We had been saving $1,000 per month into savings (short-term, mid-term, and retirement). I just got online to all our accounts and increased everything to $1,500 per month. I think we can do more but let's see how this feels for a few months.
We also are going to start paying extra on our mortgage... just to round it up from $1,652 to $1,700 each month which is just $48 so no biggie. We used to pay a few hundred extra per month when we first got the mortgage but then scaled back to the regular monthly payment amount when we were trying to sell our house. Now that it looks like we'll be here for a while, I figured we'd start paying a little extra just because.
Some things I look forward to in 2011:
1. Reaching the $20,000 mark in our e-fund.
2. Would love to be 100-105 lbs! Before you think that is outrageous, please be aware that I am very petite and this would be normal (but on the lean side) for someone like me. I have thus far cut out soda (except for one can twice a week -- long story) which is going to help tremendously. I am trying to fit in some exercise too... so far, so good.
3. Cook at home more/eating out less. This has been working out pretty well thus far.
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[entry_title] => An update -- finally!
[entry_stub] => an-update-finally
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[entry_text] => Ok, so I can't believe it's been nearly 3 months since I last posted. Things have been absolutely crazy around here and so I have a lot of catching up to do in blogland!
An update on my co-worker's situation. I started working with her on Oct 1 to straighten out her finances. Good news --- she's paid off two small credit card balances, one medical bill, and most importantly, the debt she had with her son (she'd borrow money from him from time to time to keep herself afloat). She has also put aside $820 in her savings account which she says is the first time she's ever saved anything. $600 of this is for Christmas and the rest is for buying new tires for her car. She still has a long way to go to pay off her debts but she's made huge progress in the couple of months I've been guiding her through. We meet about 2-3 times a month to make sure that she stays on track and for me to basically hold her hand... she still can't figure out what to pay first, how much to pay, or anything like that so I give her a roadmap everytime we meet.
Ok, now the big news on my side of things is that DH and I are considering going to NYC over New Year's. Isn't that just crazy to even think about being in all that chaos? But, we were looking at our work schedules and the kids' school calendar and wouldn't you know that we have a ton of time off available. My sister has offered to watch the kids for us so it'll just be a trip for the two of us which hasn't happened.... ever! So, I hop online and look at rates-- it will cost about $2500 for airline and hotel for 5 nights. Yikes! It would be cheaper if we didn't want to stay right near Times Square but this will be a trip of a lifetime for us so we thought we'd splurge a bit more than what we normally would do. With eating and shopping money, the trip will probably be around $3500. Anybody ever been to NY? Anything to look out for or suggestions on where to stay, eat, or do?
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[entry_title] => Honored to be asked
[entry_stub] => honored-to-be-asked
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[entry_date] => 1284733580
[entry_date_mysql] => 2010-09-17 09:26:20
[entry_text] => This morning, someone that works in our office comes to ask me to help her with her personal finances. This was completely out of the blue and I feel so honored that she would trust me with her money issues. She said she was thinking last night of who she could ask for help and thought of me... (after she got a denial yesterday from the local credit union for a new credit card account). Now, I'm on a quest to get her all squared away and you guys can come along on the journey. Here's her situation:
Married with 2 children (one in college and one in high school), but not a financially sound marriage ever, apparently... DH is a banker of all things but he apparently doesn't have his head on straight when it comes to their own money. He wants to keep everything completely separate in their household so the wife just deals with this (even though he makes probably 4 times what she does). For the major expenses, he covers the mortgage and utilities. She has to cover the groceries for the house.
Finances:
OUT categories we've identified thus far =
*groceries/eating out for household
*car payment on her car
*gas/maintenance on her car
*half of the household cell phone bill
*medical bills for household
*dog -vet/grooming bills
*multiple credit cards (highest balance is around $5k on one of them)
*three outstanding medical debts
She had her highest balance credit card statement with her and said she thought the interest rate on it was 90% (gasp) and I was like, um -- doubt it? So, I looked on her statement and showed her where the interest rate was indicated which is something like 25%. As you can see, she doesn't even know how to read her statements. She's a college graduate but when it comes to money and math, she's clueless and knows that is why she's in the trouble that she's in.
I gave her homework for the weekend -- I've asked her to write down exactly what her interest rates are on all the credit cards and their current balances. I told her to call each one of those credit card companies and ask for a lower interest rate. She also needs to identify exactly how much she owes on those outstanding medical bills and to estimate how much her other monthly expenses total up (she had no clue how much she spends on groceries, for example).
Next, I asked her about her paycheck. Since I have access to payroll, I looked up her check and all her deductions. She has zero withholdings and I asked if she gets a tax refund each year. Apparently, she just gives her W-2 to her DH each year and he does all the tax stuff. She does know that for 2009, they got back around $1500 total and then she got fussed at from her DH that it wasn't enough. He wanted the refund to be even higher and implied that she must not have withheld enough from her checks (jerk!). He keeps their refund and does whatever with the money even though it's "their" refund. I told her that was crazy. I calculated what increasing her withholdings to 1 and 2 would be, an additional $58 and $103 respectively, in each paycheck... Basically, by just increasing her withholdings to 1, she would have an additional $700 each year in her paychecks that her grubby hubby wouldn't have access to come tax time. She said she's all about having her withholdings changed to 1 now. Yay.
Anyway, I'll post more as we keep ironing out her budget...
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Posted in
Uncategorized
|
4 Comments »
August 26th, 2011 at 01:41 am
We have finally received the signed agreement from the seller's bank approving the short sale. Looks like we have ourselves a contract, folks! Our realtor has scheduled a contractor to come out to look at the house next week... so sit down and buckle up. Here we go! Spent $1300 last week to get the rear wheel bearings replaced, rear brake pads and rotors filed down and turned, and an oil change
---------> Took the car in today because all the check engine kind of lights were on...Was just told that we need to have the ECM (the car's computer) replaced and that will be another $1200!!! Haven't told DH yet -- he's going to freak out.
We have a 2003 Toyota Sienna.
---------> This poor van has been neglected for so long in regards to routine maintenance. The tires are so bald (we don't drive it except within town to run errands so we've been putting it off). The dealer is having a tire sale next week so we've scheduled an appointment to have 4 new tires put on and for a well overdue oil change done. Estimated cost will be around $350.
Has anyone been adding all this up? If not, that's ok, cause I've already done it for you and it's a whopping $2850 in a few weeks time for stupid car maintenance issues. Aacckkk!!!
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[entry_title] => Reasons we hate our house...
[entry_stub] => reasons-we-hate-our-house
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[entry_date] => 1302528330
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-11 08:25:30
[entry_text] => Some of you have asked so here is the scoop...
House #1
Purchased in 1997
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1000 sq ft
Small but corner lot in a tight subdivision
House #2
Purchased in 2001
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1600 sq ft
Large (to us) 1/3 acre lot in a nice subdivision, backed up to farmland so was nice and private
House #3 CURRENT HOUSE
Purchased in 2006
3 story house, main living space on first floor, all bedrooms are upstairs, finished full basement
approx 2600 sq ft
.67 acre lot
So, our current house #3 might look to be a great step up for us, right? Well, not quite...
House #1 was our starter home when we just got married. It was a great little house but we got tired of the really, really tight subdivision. All the houses were so close together --- no privacy at all. So, we sold it and moved across town to House #2. This house was the smallest in the neighborhood. Most of the other houses were 2 story homes that looked really big compared to our house. But, we loved the flat lot of our house, the floorplan really worked for us, and it was a really good fit for our growing family.
Then, we moved 4 hours away, from the flat lands to the mountains, for a new job opportunity. We realized quickly that housing prices in the mountains were quite higher than they were in the big city that we came from. Also, the houses here were mainly multi-level homes since they were built alongside hill banks. We had only 2 main criteria when looking for this home: 1) I wanted a garage with main level access. I didn't want to haul groceries from a basement entry garage up stairs to the kitchen. I'd say 75% of homes here all have their garage in the basement. 2) I wanted a large lot with trees. Having lived in the city, we didn't have a lot of natural wooded areas. I thought that was what I wanted. So, we bought House #3 because these 2 main criteria were met and now 5 years later, we just hate the house. We had never lived in a multi-level home before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to go up and down stairs all the time. We had never lived on a wooded lot before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to pick up fallen limbs all the time. Ugh, ugh, and ugh. I guess it's one of those situations where the grass really isn't greener on the other side... all along we thought those bigger 2 story houses in our neighborhoods were so nice and roomy. Blah! We so miss our little ranch style homes!!!
So, a summary of all the things we hate about our current house:
1) Stairs, stairs, and more stairs!
2) All the trees! It gets windy here alot and those fallen branches are a pain to deal with
3) Hillsides! No flat place for the kids to play
4) Open floor plan of living space! Our 'great room' consists of the living room, kitchen, and dining spaces... all in one big open area. Now, I know this is all the rage in today's real estate market, but now that we actually live in this kind of living space, we just don't like it. It's really noisy!!
5) No air conditioning! As a mountain home, it is not common to have A/C here... or so one would think! The houses here just aren't built with A/C as standard. It gets pretty hot for just about one month out of the year but gosh, that one month nearly kills us each year!
So, those are the top 5 reasons why we hate our house. All these reasons were things that we just didn't realize would bother us until we actually bought the house and started living in it. We learn what we like and dislike from each home we live in and we certainly know what to look for in our House #4... we just need to sell this one first!
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[entry_title] => Should we sell or not?
[entry_stub] => should-we-sell-or-not
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[entry_date] => 1301930017
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-04 10:13:37
[entry_text] => Ack, what to do?? Ok, some back history. We tried selling our house for 2 years and had no offers. We took the house off the market for 6 months to take a break. We started asking for $349k and ended up our last listing price at $299k... Granted, we did start too high on the price for the market that we were in but settled on a price that is very fair -- but still no offers, so we pulled it off the market. Now that it is Spring, we are thinking about putting it on again.
Our past realtors were without a better term popping into my head right now, sucky. They just listed the house and didn't do much of anything else. We found another realtor that has come highly recommended... we met with him last week and he did a market analysis (CMA) on our house. If you've been following my blog, you know that we just installed granite in our kitchen... so, with that improvement, we really think we have an edge over the competition in our price range. DH and I thought we would stay at the $299k price as our listing price. After the CMA, the new realtor suggested listing it at $289k.... BUT in all honesty, the houses he compared to ours are nowhere near what ours has to offer. There just aren't too many sold houses he can compare ours to. So, he's comfortable in putting it on at $299k if that is what we still want to do. The bottom line that we are willing to sell for is $290k.
So, should we or shouldn't we try to sell the house again? DH and I just don't like it --- there is no other reason to sell. We both have stable jobs and we don't need to move anywhere. We've just HATEd our house since the day we moved in 5 years ago. If we end up at our bottom of $290k, we'd make zippo, and actually lose money really. We bought the house for $288k in 2006 (brand new) and put in $20k in improvements (granite and driveway/retaining wall work), so we've got $308k in the house. However, DH and I don't really consider the $20k we put into the house as additional cost for the house because those things were done to make the house more "liveable" for us. We wouldn't have to come to the table with any cash as our mortgage balance is low enough to where we will still have a bit of cash from the sale after the mortgage is paid.
So, what would you do? Would you go with the financially correct decision and just stay put? Or, would you do what would make you and the family happy and take a slight loss on the house?
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[entry_title] => Can a person LOVE a sink?
[entry_stub] => can-a-person-love-a-sink
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[entry_date] => 1301430598
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-29 15:29:58
[entry_text] => Here's a pic of my new sink and granite counters.... I absolutely love how everything turned out! We got them installed yesterday and tonight the realtor is coming over to start the process of listing our house (again). Wish us luck!!
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[entry_title] => Getting granite counters!
[entry_stub] => getting-granite-counters
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[entry_date] => 1300478106
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-18 14:55:06
[entry_text] => Ok, we tried selling our house last year with no luck. We want to try it again beginning April 1. We decided to get rid of our laminate countertops and get granite installed. The cost will be $3800. Cross your fingers and toes that this will make the difference and that our house will sell this time around. We are doing the demo in the kitchen this weekend and should have the install done within 10 days, ready for our April 1 listing date. And... if the house doesn't sell, then I get to enjoy brand new granite countertops!
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[entry_title] => A new month, A clean start!
[entry_stub] => march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/03/01/march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start_66521/
[entry_date] => 1299006127
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-01 13:02:07
[entry_text] => Spring fever must be hitting me right now. I am in the mood to clean out my house and straighten up my life. For the past week, I've organized my closets, cabinets, and junk drawers. I have found a whole year's supply of contacts that I now remembered ordering and stashing so that I didn't have to go back to the eye doctor for another year. I totally forgot about these and I was going to place an order within the next month or so! I found 2 full size brand new containers of DH's favorite hair gel. I've donated bags of stuff to Goodwill. I've thrown away so much clutter that has literally just sat in our house for the past 5 years. It feels great! I highly recommend everyone to find a drawer or closet and get at it! I did an area each night for a week and it was painless.
A 2011 financial goal was to reach the $20,000 mark in our E-fund. I deposited a $100 credit card reward check today bringing the balance up to.... drum roll.... $20,049.28!!!!!!!! Now, let's cross our fingers that we won't see any kind of emergencies for a while so that I can enjoy seeing that awesome number. Wahoo!!!
Other random updates:
I gave my sister a blank check for her birthday payable to her power company. She's the one that is in a huge financial mess. The bill was for $210.55. I asked her how much of the bill was for late fees and penalties and she didn't even know the answer to that... it's quite sad. But, oh well, it's nice to be able to help her when I can (I only give her money for holidays instead of buying her nonsense so as to not try to enable her family's bad money habits). She did tell me that she went and applied for food stamps and other family aid which is about time in my opinion.
My co-worker is making great progress on her financial situation. She made it through Christmas without having to charge a dime. There are still a few debts that she has left to pay off but I see her getting to the finish line within the next year or two.
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[entry_title] => Government Foreclosure
[entry_stub] => government-foreclosure
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[entry_date] => 1295031503
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-14 12:58:23
[entry_text] => Ok, so I've always been interested in investing in real estate. I've blogged about possibilities before on here but have never actually taken the plunge to go for anything. A family friend, who has a lot of experience in real estate investing, referred me to government foreclosures as a possibility. This was back in November. I got wrapped up in the Holidays and hadn't really had a chance to follow up or look for any foreclosures but long story short, after taking a peek today, I see that there is a foreclosure up for auction next week! The gov't bid is listed at $26k, whatever that means. I have a lot of research still left to do but my mind is racing with the opportunity to get a decent house for so cheap. I know the area and I know exactly where the house is --- nice family neighborhood. I'd estimate the retail value of the house at around $90-$100k. I'm going to talk to my friend tonight to get more guidance about the process. He started out with a government foreclosure and so he'll know what to do... Maybe this will be the one for us??
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[entry_stub] => updating-savings-amounts-for-2011
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[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-11 12:29:41
[entry_text] => We had been saving $1,000 per month into savings (short-term, mid-term, and retirement). I just got online to all our accounts and increased everything to $1,500 per month. I think we can do more but let's see how this feels for a few months.
We also are going to start paying extra on our mortgage... just to round it up from $1,652 to $1,700 each month which is just $48 so no biggie. We used to pay a few hundred extra per month when we first got the mortgage but then scaled back to the regular monthly payment amount when we were trying to sell our house. Now that it looks like we'll be here for a while, I figured we'd start paying a little extra just because.
Some things I look forward to in 2011:
1. Reaching the $20,000 mark in our e-fund.
2. Would love to be 100-105 lbs! Before you think that is outrageous, please be aware that I am very petite and this would be normal (but on the lean side) for someone like me. I have thus far cut out soda (except for one can twice a week -- long story) which is going to help tremendously. I am trying to fit in some exercise too... so far, so good.
3. Cook at home more/eating out less. This has been working out pretty well thus far.
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[entry_title] => An update -- finally!
[entry_stub] => an-update-finally
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[entry_date_mysql] => 2010-12-02 07:22:57
[entry_text] => Ok, so I can't believe it's been nearly 3 months since I last posted. Things have been absolutely crazy around here and so I have a lot of catching up to do in blogland!
An update on my co-worker's situation. I started working with her on Oct 1 to straighten out her finances. Good news --- she's paid off two small credit card balances, one medical bill, and most importantly, the debt she had with her son (she'd borrow money from him from time to time to keep herself afloat). She has also put aside $820 in her savings account which she says is the first time she's ever saved anything. $600 of this is for Christmas and the rest is for buying new tires for her car. She still has a long way to go to pay off her debts but she's made huge progress in the couple of months I've been guiding her through. We meet about 2-3 times a month to make sure that she stays on track and for me to basically hold her hand... she still can't figure out what to pay first, how much to pay, or anything like that so I give her a roadmap everytime we meet.
Ok, now the big news on my side of things is that DH and I are considering going to NYC over New Year's. Isn't that just crazy to even think about being in all that chaos? But, we were looking at our work schedules and the kids' school calendar and wouldn't you know that we have a ton of time off available. My sister has offered to watch the kids for us so it'll just be a trip for the two of us which hasn't happened.... ever! So, I hop online and look at rates-- it will cost about $2500 for airline and hotel for 5 nights. Yikes! It would be cheaper if we didn't want to stay right near Times Square but this will be a trip of a lifetime for us so we thought we'd splurge a bit more than what we normally would do. With eating and shopping money, the trip will probably be around $3500. Anybody ever been to NY? Anything to look out for or suggestions on where to stay, eat, or do?
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[entry_title] => Honored to be asked
[entry_stub] => honored-to-be-asked
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[entry_date] => 1284733580
[entry_date_mysql] => 2010-09-17 09:26:20
[entry_text] => This morning, someone that works in our office comes to ask me to help her with her personal finances. This was completely out of the blue and I feel so honored that she would trust me with her money issues. She said she was thinking last night of who she could ask for help and thought of me... (after she got a denial yesterday from the local credit union for a new credit card account). Now, I'm on a quest to get her all squared away and you guys can come along on the journey. Here's her situation:
Married with 2 children (one in college and one in high school), but not a financially sound marriage ever, apparently... DH is a banker of all things but he apparently doesn't have his head on straight when it comes to their own money. He wants to keep everything completely separate in their household so the wife just deals with this (even though he makes probably 4 times what she does). For the major expenses, he covers the mortgage and utilities. She has to cover the groceries for the house.
Finances:
OUT categories we've identified thus far =
*groceries/eating out for household
*car payment on her car
*gas/maintenance on her car
*half of the household cell phone bill
*medical bills for household
*dog -vet/grooming bills
*multiple credit cards (highest balance is around $5k on one of them)
*three outstanding medical debts
She had her highest balance credit card statement with her and said she thought the interest rate on it was 90% (gasp) and I was like, um -- doubt it? So, I looked on her statement and showed her where the interest rate was indicated which is something like 25%. As you can see, she doesn't even know how to read her statements. She's a college graduate but when it comes to money and math, she's clueless and knows that is why she's in the trouble that she's in.
I gave her homework for the weekend -- I've asked her to write down exactly what her interest rates are on all the credit cards and their current balances. I told her to call each one of those credit card companies and ask for a lower interest rate. She also needs to identify exactly how much she owes on those outstanding medical bills and to estimate how much her other monthly expenses total up (she had no clue how much she spends on groceries, for example).
Next, I asked her about her paycheck. Since I have access to payroll, I looked up her check and all her deductions. She has zero withholdings and I asked if she gets a tax refund each year. Apparently, she just gives her W-2 to her DH each year and he does all the tax stuff. She does know that for 2009, they got back around $1500 total and then she got fussed at from her DH that it wasn't enough. He wanted the refund to be even higher and implied that she must not have withheld enough from her checks (jerk!). He keeps their refund and does whatever with the money even though it's "their" refund. I told her that was crazy. I calculated what increasing her withholdings to 1 and 2 would be, an additional $58 and $103 respectively, in each paycheck... Basically, by just increasing her withholdings to 1, she would have an additional $700 each year in her paychecks that her grubby hubby wouldn't have access to come tax time. She said she's all about having her withholdings changed to 1 now. Yay.
Anyway, I'll post more as we keep ironing out her budget...
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Posted in
GOALS
|
5 Comments »
August 9th, 2011 at 08:34 pm
I helped my mom do a yard sale at her company's annual yard sale event this past Sat. Let me tell ya, my mother can sell anything to anyone!! Together we made $582! She gave me $382 and she kept $200. I put $100 in each of the kid's accounts and put the rest in our savings account. Love it when we make money like that.
In other news, we are still waiting for the fully executed contract on that short sale. The realtors on both side are very positive that things are going to go through just fine. We are just waiting for the seller's bank to sign off on everything and then we'll schedule the inspection, etc... DH and I can't wait to get our hands on that house! Spent $1300 last week to get the rear wheel bearings replaced, rear brake pads and rotors filed down and turned, and an oil change
---------> Took the car in today because all the check engine kind of lights were on...Was just told that we need to have the ECM (the car's computer) replaced and that will be another $1200!!! Haven't told DH yet -- he's going to freak out.
We have a 2003 Toyota Sienna.
---------> This poor van has been neglected for so long in regards to routine maintenance. The tires are so bald (we don't drive it except within town to run errands so we've been putting it off). The dealer is having a tire sale next week so we've scheduled an appointment to have 4 new tires put on and for a well overdue oil change done. Estimated cost will be around $350.
Has anyone been adding all this up? If not, that's ok, cause I've already done it for you and it's a whopping $2850 in a few weeks time for stupid car maintenance issues. Aacckkk!!!
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[entry_title] => Reasons we hate our house...
[entry_stub] => reasons-we-hate-our-house
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/04/11/reasons-we-hate-our-house_68100/
[entry_date] => 1302528330
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-11 08:25:30
[entry_text] => Some of you have asked so here is the scoop...
House #1
Purchased in 1997
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1000 sq ft
Small but corner lot in a tight subdivision
House #2
Purchased in 2001
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1600 sq ft
Large (to us) 1/3 acre lot in a nice subdivision, backed up to farmland so was nice and private
House #3 CURRENT HOUSE
Purchased in 2006
3 story house, main living space on first floor, all bedrooms are upstairs, finished full basement
approx 2600 sq ft
.67 acre lot
So, our current house #3 might look to be a great step up for us, right? Well, not quite...
House #1 was our starter home when we just got married. It was a great little house but we got tired of the really, really tight subdivision. All the houses were so close together --- no privacy at all. So, we sold it and moved across town to House #2. This house was the smallest in the neighborhood. Most of the other houses were 2 story homes that looked really big compared to our house. But, we loved the flat lot of our house, the floorplan really worked for us, and it was a really good fit for our growing family.
Then, we moved 4 hours away, from the flat lands to the mountains, for a new job opportunity. We realized quickly that housing prices in the mountains were quite higher than they were in the big city that we came from. Also, the houses here were mainly multi-level homes since they were built alongside hill banks. We had only 2 main criteria when looking for this home: 1) I wanted a garage with main level access. I didn't want to haul groceries from a basement entry garage up stairs to the kitchen. I'd say 75% of homes here all have their garage in the basement. 2) I wanted a large lot with trees. Having lived in the city, we didn't have a lot of natural wooded areas. I thought that was what I wanted. So, we bought House #3 because these 2 main criteria were met and now 5 years later, we just hate the house. We had never lived in a multi-level home before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to go up and down stairs all the time. We had never lived on a wooded lot before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to pick up fallen limbs all the time. Ugh, ugh, and ugh. I guess it's one of those situations where the grass really isn't greener on the other side... all along we thought those bigger 2 story houses in our neighborhoods were so nice and roomy. Blah! We so miss our little ranch style homes!!!
So, a summary of all the things we hate about our current house:
1) Stairs, stairs, and more stairs!
2) All the trees! It gets windy here alot and those fallen branches are a pain to deal with
3) Hillsides! No flat place for the kids to play
4) Open floor plan of living space! Our 'great room' consists of the living room, kitchen, and dining spaces... all in one big open area. Now, I know this is all the rage in today's real estate market, but now that we actually live in this kind of living space, we just don't like it. It's really noisy!!
5) No air conditioning! As a mountain home, it is not common to have A/C here... or so one would think! The houses here just aren't built with A/C as standard. It gets pretty hot for just about one month out of the year but gosh, that one month nearly kills us each year!
So, those are the top 5 reasons why we hate our house. All these reasons were things that we just didn't realize would bother us until we actually bought the house and started living in it. We learn what we like and dislike from each home we live in and we certainly know what to look for in our House #4... we just need to sell this one first!
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[entry_title] => Should we sell or not?
[entry_stub] => should-we-sell-or-not
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[entry_date] => 1301930017
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-04 10:13:37
[entry_text] => Ack, what to do?? Ok, some back history. We tried selling our house for 2 years and had no offers. We took the house off the market for 6 months to take a break. We started asking for $349k and ended up our last listing price at $299k... Granted, we did start too high on the price for the market that we were in but settled on a price that is very fair -- but still no offers, so we pulled it off the market. Now that it is Spring, we are thinking about putting it on again.
Our past realtors were without a better term popping into my head right now, sucky. They just listed the house and didn't do much of anything else. We found another realtor that has come highly recommended... we met with him last week and he did a market analysis (CMA) on our house. If you've been following my blog, you know that we just installed granite in our kitchen... so, with that improvement, we really think we have an edge over the competition in our price range. DH and I thought we would stay at the $299k price as our listing price. After the CMA, the new realtor suggested listing it at $289k.... BUT in all honesty, the houses he compared to ours are nowhere near what ours has to offer. There just aren't too many sold houses he can compare ours to. So, he's comfortable in putting it on at $299k if that is what we still want to do. The bottom line that we are willing to sell for is $290k.
So, should we or shouldn't we try to sell the house again? DH and I just don't like it --- there is no other reason to sell. We both have stable jobs and we don't need to move anywhere. We've just HATEd our house since the day we moved in 5 years ago. If we end up at our bottom of $290k, we'd make zippo, and actually lose money really. We bought the house for $288k in 2006 (brand new) and put in $20k in improvements (granite and driveway/retaining wall work), so we've got $308k in the house. However, DH and I don't really consider the $20k we put into the house as additional cost for the house because those things were done to make the house more "liveable" for us. We wouldn't have to come to the table with any cash as our mortgage balance is low enough to where we will still have a bit of cash from the sale after the mortgage is paid.
So, what would you do? Would you go with the financially correct decision and just stay put? Or, would you do what would make you and the family happy and take a slight loss on the house?
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[entry_title] => Can a person LOVE a sink?
[entry_stub] => can-a-person-love-a-sink
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[entry_date] => 1301430598
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-29 15:29:58
[entry_text] => Here's a pic of my new sink and granite counters.... I absolutely love how everything turned out! We got them installed yesterday and tonight the realtor is coming over to start the process of listing our house (again). Wish us luck!!
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[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-18 14:55:06
[entry_text] => Ok, we tried selling our house last year with no luck. We want to try it again beginning April 1. We decided to get rid of our laminate countertops and get granite installed. The cost will be $3800. Cross your fingers and toes that this will make the difference and that our house will sell this time around. We are doing the demo in the kitchen this weekend and should have the install done within 10 days, ready for our April 1 listing date. And... if the house doesn't sell, then I get to enjoy brand new granite countertops!
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[entry_title] => A new month, A clean start!
[entry_stub] => march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start
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[entry_date] => 1299006127
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-01 13:02:07
[entry_text] => Spring fever must be hitting me right now. I am in the mood to clean out my house and straighten up my life. For the past week, I've organized my closets, cabinets, and junk drawers. I have found a whole year's supply of contacts that I now remembered ordering and stashing so that I didn't have to go back to the eye doctor for another year. I totally forgot about these and I was going to place an order within the next month or so! I found 2 full size brand new containers of DH's favorite hair gel. I've donated bags of stuff to Goodwill. I've thrown away so much clutter that has literally just sat in our house for the past 5 years. It feels great! I highly recommend everyone to find a drawer or closet and get at it! I did an area each night for a week and it was painless.
A 2011 financial goal was to reach the $20,000 mark in our E-fund. I deposited a $100 credit card reward check today bringing the balance up to.... drum roll.... $20,049.28!!!!!!!! Now, let's cross our fingers that we won't see any kind of emergencies for a while so that I can enjoy seeing that awesome number. Wahoo!!!
Other random updates:
I gave my sister a blank check for her birthday payable to her power company. She's the one that is in a huge financial mess. The bill was for $210.55. I asked her how much of the bill was for late fees and penalties and she didn't even know the answer to that... it's quite sad. But, oh well, it's nice to be able to help her when I can (I only give her money for holidays instead of buying her nonsense so as to not try to enable her family's bad money habits). She did tell me that she went and applied for food stamps and other family aid which is about time in my opinion.
My co-worker is making great progress on her financial situation. She made it through Christmas without having to charge a dime. There are still a few debts that she has left to pay off but I see her getting to the finish line within the next year or two.
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[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-14 12:58:23
[entry_text] => Ok, so I've always been interested in investing in real estate. I've blogged about possibilities before on here but have never actually taken the plunge to go for anything. A family friend, who has a lot of experience in real estate investing, referred me to government foreclosures as a possibility. This was back in November. I got wrapped up in the Holidays and hadn't really had a chance to follow up or look for any foreclosures but long story short, after taking a peek today, I see that there is a foreclosure up for auction next week! The gov't bid is listed at $26k, whatever that means. I have a lot of research still left to do but my mind is racing with the opportunity to get a decent house for so cheap. I know the area and I know exactly where the house is --- nice family neighborhood. I'd estimate the retail value of the house at around $90-$100k. I'm going to talk to my friend tonight to get more guidance about the process. He started out with a government foreclosure and so he'll know what to do... Maybe this will be the one for us??
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[entry_text] => We had been saving $1,000 per month into savings (short-term, mid-term, and retirement). I just got online to all our accounts and increased everything to $1,500 per month. I think we can do more but let's see how this feels for a few months.
We also are going to start paying extra on our mortgage... just to round it up from $1,652 to $1,700 each month which is just $48 so no biggie. We used to pay a few hundred extra per month when we first got the mortgage but then scaled back to the regular monthly payment amount when we were trying to sell our house. Now that it looks like we'll be here for a while, I figured we'd start paying a little extra just because.
Some things I look forward to in 2011:
1. Reaching the $20,000 mark in our e-fund.
2. Would love to be 100-105 lbs! Before you think that is outrageous, please be aware that I am very petite and this would be normal (but on the lean side) for someone like me. I have thus far cut out soda (except for one can twice a week -- long story) which is going to help tremendously. I am trying to fit in some exercise too... so far, so good.
3. Cook at home more/eating out less. This has been working out pretty well thus far.
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[entry_title] => An update -- finally!
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[entry_text] => Ok, so I can't believe it's been nearly 3 months since I last posted. Things have been absolutely crazy around here and so I have a lot of catching up to do in blogland!
An update on my co-worker's situation. I started working with her on Oct 1 to straighten out her finances. Good news --- she's paid off two small credit card balances, one medical bill, and most importantly, the debt she had with her son (she'd borrow money from him from time to time to keep herself afloat). She has also put aside $820 in her savings account which she says is the first time she's ever saved anything. $600 of this is for Christmas and the rest is for buying new tires for her car. She still has a long way to go to pay off her debts but she's made huge progress in the couple of months I've been guiding her through. We meet about 2-3 times a month to make sure that she stays on track and for me to basically hold her hand... she still can't figure out what to pay first, how much to pay, or anything like that so I give her a roadmap everytime we meet.
Ok, now the big news on my side of things is that DH and I are considering going to NYC over New Year's. Isn't that just crazy to even think about being in all that chaos? But, we were looking at our work schedules and the kids' school calendar and wouldn't you know that we have a ton of time off available. My sister has offered to watch the kids for us so it'll just be a trip for the two of us which hasn't happened.... ever! So, I hop online and look at rates-- it will cost about $2500 for airline and hotel for 5 nights. Yikes! It would be cheaper if we didn't want to stay right near Times Square but this will be a trip of a lifetime for us so we thought we'd splurge a bit more than what we normally would do. With eating and shopping money, the trip will probably be around $3500. Anybody ever been to NY? Anything to look out for or suggestions on where to stay, eat, or do?
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[entry_text] => This morning, someone that works in our office comes to ask me to help her with her personal finances. This was completely out of the blue and I feel so honored that she would trust me with her money issues. She said she was thinking last night of who she could ask for help and thought of me... (after she got a denial yesterday from the local credit union for a new credit card account). Now, I'm on a quest to get her all squared away and you guys can come along on the journey. Here's her situation:
Married with 2 children (one in college and one in high school), but not a financially sound marriage ever, apparently... DH is a banker of all things but he apparently doesn't have his head on straight when it comes to their own money. He wants to keep everything completely separate in their household so the wife just deals with this (even though he makes probably 4 times what she does). For the major expenses, he covers the mortgage and utilities. She has to cover the groceries for the house.
Finances:
OUT categories we've identified thus far =
*groceries/eating out for household
*car payment on her car
*gas/maintenance on her car
*half of the household cell phone bill
*medical bills for household
*dog -vet/grooming bills
*multiple credit cards (highest balance is around $5k on one of them)
*three outstanding medical debts
She had her highest balance credit card statement with her and said she thought the interest rate on it was 90% (gasp) and I was like, um -- doubt it? So, I looked on her statement and showed her where the interest rate was indicated which is something like 25%. As you can see, she doesn't even know how to read her statements. She's a college graduate but when it comes to money and math, she's clueless and knows that is why she's in the trouble that she's in.
I gave her homework for the weekend -- I've asked her to write down exactly what her interest rates are on all the credit cards and their current balances. I told her to call each one of those credit card companies and ask for a lower interest rate. She also needs to identify exactly how much she owes on those outstanding medical bills and to estimate how much her other monthly expenses total up (she had no clue how much she spends on groceries, for example).
Next, I asked her about her paycheck. Since I have access to payroll, I looked up her check and all her deductions. She has zero withholdings and I asked if she gets a tax refund each year. Apparently, she just gives her W-2 to her DH each year and he does all the tax stuff. She does know that for 2009, they got back around $1500 total and then she got fussed at from her DH that it wasn't enough. He wanted the refund to be even higher and implied that she must not have withheld enough from her checks (jerk!). He keeps their refund and does whatever with the money even though it's "their" refund. I told her that was crazy. I calculated what increasing her withholdings to 1 and 2 would be, an additional $58 and $103 respectively, in each paycheck... Basically, by just increasing her withholdings to 1, she would have an additional $700 each year in her paychecks that her grubby hubby wouldn't have access to come tax time. She said she's all about having her withholdings changed to 1 now. Yay.
Anyway, I'll post more as we keep ironing out her budget...
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Posted in
SAVINGS AND INVESTMENTS,
GOALS
|
3 Comments »
July 29th, 2011 at 01:28 am
Ok, let's back up and review...
June 14
We put in an offer of $300k on a short sale house that is listed at $395k (down from $550k)
June 24
The sellers accept but the bank says no and counters us at $375k
June 28
We offer a counter to their counter of $305k plus $1k in sellers closing costs
July 28
The bank says OK to our offer!!
OMG! I am happy but freaked out at the same time. Never in a million years did we (nor our realtor) think that the bank would actually agree to our lowball offer! So, we are officially in contract now and expect to close in 60 days. We can back out for any reason so we'll have to wait and see what will be found during the inspection process. Wish us luck! Spent $1300 last week to get the rear wheel bearings replaced, rear brake pads and rotors filed down and turned, and an oil change
---------> Took the car in today because all the check engine kind of lights were on...Was just told that we need to have the ECM (the car's computer) replaced and that will be another $1200!!! Haven't told DH yet -- he's going to freak out.
We have a 2003 Toyota Sienna.
---------> This poor van has been neglected for so long in regards to routine maintenance. The tires are so bald (we don't drive it except within town to run errands so we've been putting it off). The dealer is having a tire sale next week so we've scheduled an appointment to have 4 new tires put on and for a well overdue oil change done. Estimated cost will be around $350.
Has anyone been adding all this up? If not, that's ok, cause I've already done it for you and it's a whopping $2850 in a few weeks time for stupid car maintenance issues. Aacckkk!!!
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[entry_title] => Reasons we hate our house...
[entry_stub] => reasons-we-hate-our-house
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/04/11/reasons-we-hate-our-house_68100/
[entry_date] => 1302528330
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-11 08:25:30
[entry_text] => Some of you have asked so here is the scoop...
House #1
Purchased in 1997
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1000 sq ft
Small but corner lot in a tight subdivision
House #2
Purchased in 2001
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1600 sq ft
Large (to us) 1/3 acre lot in a nice subdivision, backed up to farmland so was nice and private
House #3 CURRENT HOUSE
Purchased in 2006
3 story house, main living space on first floor, all bedrooms are upstairs, finished full basement
approx 2600 sq ft
.67 acre lot
So, our current house #3 might look to be a great step up for us, right? Well, not quite...
House #1 was our starter home when we just got married. It was a great little house but we got tired of the really, really tight subdivision. All the houses were so close together --- no privacy at all. So, we sold it and moved across town to House #2. This house was the smallest in the neighborhood. Most of the other houses were 2 story homes that looked really big compared to our house. But, we loved the flat lot of our house, the floorplan really worked for us, and it was a really good fit for our growing family.
Then, we moved 4 hours away, from the flat lands to the mountains, for a new job opportunity. We realized quickly that housing prices in the mountains were quite higher than they were in the big city that we came from. Also, the houses here were mainly multi-level homes since they were built alongside hill banks. We had only 2 main criteria when looking for this home: 1) I wanted a garage with main level access. I didn't want to haul groceries from a basement entry garage up stairs to the kitchen. I'd say 75% of homes here all have their garage in the basement. 2) I wanted a large lot with trees. Having lived in the city, we didn't have a lot of natural wooded areas. I thought that was what I wanted. So, we bought House #3 because these 2 main criteria were met and now 5 years later, we just hate the house. We had never lived in a multi-level home before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to go up and down stairs all the time. We had never lived on a wooded lot before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to pick up fallen limbs all the time. Ugh, ugh, and ugh. I guess it's one of those situations where the grass really isn't greener on the other side... all along we thought those bigger 2 story houses in our neighborhoods were so nice and roomy. Blah! We so miss our little ranch style homes!!!
So, a summary of all the things we hate about our current house:
1) Stairs, stairs, and more stairs!
2) All the trees! It gets windy here alot and those fallen branches are a pain to deal with
3) Hillsides! No flat place for the kids to play
4) Open floor plan of living space! Our 'great room' consists of the living room, kitchen, and dining spaces... all in one big open area. Now, I know this is all the rage in today's real estate market, but now that we actually live in this kind of living space, we just don't like it. It's really noisy!!
5) No air conditioning! As a mountain home, it is not common to have A/C here... or so one would think! The houses here just aren't built with A/C as standard. It gets pretty hot for just about one month out of the year but gosh, that one month nearly kills us each year!
So, those are the top 5 reasons why we hate our house. All these reasons were things that we just didn't realize would bother us until we actually bought the house and started living in it. We learn what we like and dislike from each home we live in and we certainly know what to look for in our House #4... we just need to sell this one first!
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[entry_title] => Should we sell or not?
[entry_stub] => should-we-sell-or-not
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[entry_date] => 1301930017
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-04 10:13:37
[entry_text] => Ack, what to do?? Ok, some back history. We tried selling our house for 2 years and had no offers. We took the house off the market for 6 months to take a break. We started asking for $349k and ended up our last listing price at $299k... Granted, we did start too high on the price for the market that we were in but settled on a price that is very fair -- but still no offers, so we pulled it off the market. Now that it is Spring, we are thinking about putting it on again.
Our past realtors were without a better term popping into my head right now, sucky. They just listed the house and didn't do much of anything else. We found another realtor that has come highly recommended... we met with him last week and he did a market analysis (CMA) on our house. If you've been following my blog, you know that we just installed granite in our kitchen... so, with that improvement, we really think we have an edge over the competition in our price range. DH and I thought we would stay at the $299k price as our listing price. After the CMA, the new realtor suggested listing it at $289k.... BUT in all honesty, the houses he compared to ours are nowhere near what ours has to offer. There just aren't too many sold houses he can compare ours to. So, he's comfortable in putting it on at $299k if that is what we still want to do. The bottom line that we are willing to sell for is $290k.
So, should we or shouldn't we try to sell the house again? DH and I just don't like it --- there is no other reason to sell. We both have stable jobs and we don't need to move anywhere. We've just HATEd our house since the day we moved in 5 years ago. If we end up at our bottom of $290k, we'd make zippo, and actually lose money really. We bought the house for $288k in 2006 (brand new) and put in $20k in improvements (granite and driveway/retaining wall work), so we've got $308k in the house. However, DH and I don't really consider the $20k we put into the house as additional cost for the house because those things were done to make the house more "liveable" for us. We wouldn't have to come to the table with any cash as our mortgage balance is low enough to where we will still have a bit of cash from the sale after the mortgage is paid.
So, what would you do? Would you go with the financially correct decision and just stay put? Or, would you do what would make you and the family happy and take a slight loss on the house?
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[entry_title] => Can a person LOVE a sink?
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[entry_date] => 1301430598
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-29 15:29:58
[entry_text] => Here's a pic of my new sink and granite counters.... I absolutely love how everything turned out! We got them installed yesterday and tonight the realtor is coming over to start the process of listing our house (again). Wish us luck!!
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[entry_date] => 1300478106
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-18 14:55:06
[entry_text] => Ok, we tried selling our house last year with no luck. We want to try it again beginning April 1. We decided to get rid of our laminate countertops and get granite installed. The cost will be $3800. Cross your fingers and toes that this will make the difference and that our house will sell this time around. We are doing the demo in the kitchen this weekend and should have the install done within 10 days, ready for our April 1 listing date. And... if the house doesn't sell, then I get to enjoy brand new granite countertops!
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[entry_title] => A new month, A clean start!
[entry_stub] => march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start
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[entry_date] => 1299006127
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-01 13:02:07
[entry_text] => Spring fever must be hitting me right now. I am in the mood to clean out my house and straighten up my life. For the past week, I've organized my closets, cabinets, and junk drawers. I have found a whole year's supply of contacts that I now remembered ordering and stashing so that I didn't have to go back to the eye doctor for another year. I totally forgot about these and I was going to place an order within the next month or so! I found 2 full size brand new containers of DH's favorite hair gel. I've donated bags of stuff to Goodwill. I've thrown away so much clutter that has literally just sat in our house for the past 5 years. It feels great! I highly recommend everyone to find a drawer or closet and get at it! I did an area each night for a week and it was painless.
A 2011 financial goal was to reach the $20,000 mark in our E-fund. I deposited a $100 credit card reward check today bringing the balance up to.... drum roll.... $20,049.28!!!!!!!! Now, let's cross our fingers that we won't see any kind of emergencies for a while so that I can enjoy seeing that awesome number. Wahoo!!!
Other random updates:
I gave my sister a blank check for her birthday payable to her power company. She's the one that is in a huge financial mess. The bill was for $210.55. I asked her how much of the bill was for late fees and penalties and she didn't even know the answer to that... it's quite sad. But, oh well, it's nice to be able to help her when I can (I only give her money for holidays instead of buying her nonsense so as to not try to enable her family's bad money habits). She did tell me that she went and applied for food stamps and other family aid which is about time in my opinion.
My co-worker is making great progress on her financial situation. She made it through Christmas without having to charge a dime. There are still a few debts that she has left to pay off but I see her getting to the finish line within the next year or two.
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[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-14 12:58:23
[entry_text] => Ok, so I've always been interested in investing in real estate. I've blogged about possibilities before on here but have never actually taken the plunge to go for anything. A family friend, who has a lot of experience in real estate investing, referred me to government foreclosures as a possibility. This was back in November. I got wrapped up in the Holidays and hadn't really had a chance to follow up or look for any foreclosures but long story short, after taking a peek today, I see that there is a foreclosure up for auction next week! The gov't bid is listed at $26k, whatever that means. I have a lot of research still left to do but my mind is racing with the opportunity to get a decent house for so cheap. I know the area and I know exactly where the house is --- nice family neighborhood. I'd estimate the retail value of the house at around $90-$100k. I'm going to talk to my friend tonight to get more guidance about the process. He started out with a government foreclosure and so he'll know what to do... Maybe this will be the one for us??
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[entry_title] => Updating savings amounts for 2011
[entry_stub] => updating-savings-amounts-for-2011
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[entry_date] => 1294770581
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[entry_text] => We had been saving $1,000 per month into savings (short-term, mid-term, and retirement). I just got online to all our accounts and increased everything to $1,500 per month. I think we can do more but let's see how this feels for a few months.
We also are going to start paying extra on our mortgage... just to round it up from $1,652 to $1,700 each month which is just $48 so no biggie. We used to pay a few hundred extra per month when we first got the mortgage but then scaled back to the regular monthly payment amount when we were trying to sell our house. Now that it looks like we'll be here for a while, I figured we'd start paying a little extra just because.
Some things I look forward to in 2011:
1. Reaching the $20,000 mark in our e-fund.
2. Would love to be 100-105 lbs! Before you think that is outrageous, please be aware that I am very petite and this would be normal (but on the lean side) for someone like me. I have thus far cut out soda (except for one can twice a week -- long story) which is going to help tremendously. I am trying to fit in some exercise too... so far, so good.
3. Cook at home more/eating out less. This has been working out pretty well thus far.
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[entry_title] => An update -- finally!
[entry_stub] => an-update-finally
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[entry_text] => Ok, so I can't believe it's been nearly 3 months since I last posted. Things have been absolutely crazy around here and so I have a lot of catching up to do in blogland!
An update on my co-worker's situation. I started working with her on Oct 1 to straighten out her finances. Good news --- she's paid off two small credit card balances, one medical bill, and most importantly, the debt she had with her son (she'd borrow money from him from time to time to keep herself afloat). She has also put aside $820 in her savings account which she says is the first time she's ever saved anything. $600 of this is for Christmas and the rest is for buying new tires for her car. She still has a long way to go to pay off her debts but she's made huge progress in the couple of months I've been guiding her through. We meet about 2-3 times a month to make sure that she stays on track and for me to basically hold her hand... she still can't figure out what to pay first, how much to pay, or anything like that so I give her a roadmap everytime we meet.
Ok, now the big news on my side of things is that DH and I are considering going to NYC over New Year's. Isn't that just crazy to even think about being in all that chaos? But, we were looking at our work schedules and the kids' school calendar and wouldn't you know that we have a ton of time off available. My sister has offered to watch the kids for us so it'll just be a trip for the two of us which hasn't happened.... ever! So, I hop online and look at rates-- it will cost about $2500 for airline and hotel for 5 nights. Yikes! It would be cheaper if we didn't want to stay right near Times Square but this will be a trip of a lifetime for us so we thought we'd splurge a bit more than what we normally would do. With eating and shopping money, the trip will probably be around $3500. Anybody ever been to NY? Anything to look out for or suggestions on where to stay, eat, or do?
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[entry_text] => This morning, someone that works in our office comes to ask me to help her with her personal finances. This was completely out of the blue and I feel so honored that she would trust me with her money issues. She said she was thinking last night of who she could ask for help and thought of me... (after she got a denial yesterday from the local credit union for a new credit card account). Now, I'm on a quest to get her all squared away and you guys can come along on the journey. Here's her situation:
Married with 2 children (one in college and one in high school), but not a financially sound marriage ever, apparently... DH is a banker of all things but he apparently doesn't have his head on straight when it comes to their own money. He wants to keep everything completely separate in their household so the wife just deals with this (even though he makes probably 4 times what she does). For the major expenses, he covers the mortgage and utilities. She has to cover the groceries for the house.
Finances:
OUT categories we've identified thus far =
*groceries/eating out for household
*car payment on her car
*gas/maintenance on her car
*half of the household cell phone bill
*medical bills for household
*dog -vet/grooming bills
*multiple credit cards (highest balance is around $5k on one of them)
*three outstanding medical debts
She had her highest balance credit card statement with her and said she thought the interest rate on it was 90% (gasp) and I was like, um -- doubt it? So, I looked on her statement and showed her where the interest rate was indicated which is something like 25%. As you can see, she doesn't even know how to read her statements. She's a college graduate but when it comes to money and math, she's clueless and knows that is why she's in the trouble that she's in.
I gave her homework for the weekend -- I've asked her to write down exactly what her interest rates are on all the credit cards and their current balances. I told her to call each one of those credit card companies and ask for a lower interest rate. She also needs to identify exactly how much she owes on those outstanding medical bills and to estimate how much her other monthly expenses total up (she had no clue how much she spends on groceries, for example).
Next, I asked her about her paycheck. Since I have access to payroll, I looked up her check and all her deductions. She has zero withholdings and I asked if she gets a tax refund each year. Apparently, she just gives her W-2 to her DH each year and he does all the tax stuff. She does know that for 2009, they got back around $1500 total and then she got fussed at from her DH that it wasn't enough. He wanted the refund to be even higher and implied that she must not have withheld enough from her checks (jerk!). He keeps their refund and does whatever with the money even though it's "their" refund. I told her that was crazy. I calculated what increasing her withholdings to 1 and 2 would be, an additional $58 and $103 respectively, in each paycheck... Basically, by just increasing her withholdings to 1, she would have an additional $700 each year in her paychecks that her grubby hubby wouldn't have access to come tax time. She said she's all about having her withholdings changed to 1 now. Yay.
Anyway, I'll post more as we keep ironing out her budget...
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Posted in
GOALS
|
7 Comments »
July 13th, 2011 at 02:17 pm
Back in April, someone told me that I could propagate African Violets! Who would've thunk it!!
So, I cut one healthy leaf off of a plant that hubby had bought me a couple of years ago, stuck it in some dirt, and voila! Fast forward 4 months and look at what I have now...
That big leaf in the top left is the original one that I had cut off and look at all the babies that have sprouted... love! I hope that once it gets big enough that it will bloom beautiful flowers just like its momma plant does. I've now just done 2 more cuttings today so here's to hoping that these will be just as successful! I love free plants! Spent $1300 last week to get the rear wheel bearings replaced, rear brake pads and rotors filed down and turned, and an oil change
---------> Took the car in today because all the check engine kind of lights were on...Was just told that we need to have the ECM (the car's computer) replaced and that will be another $1200!!! Haven't told DH yet -- he's going to freak out.
We have a 2003 Toyota Sienna.
---------> This poor van has been neglected for so long in regards to routine maintenance. The tires are so bald (we don't drive it except within town to run errands so we've been putting it off). The dealer is having a tire sale next week so we've scheduled an appointment to have 4 new tires put on and for a well overdue oil change done. Estimated cost will be around $350.
Has anyone been adding all this up? If not, that's ok, cause I've already done it for you and it's a whopping $2850 in a few weeks time for stupid car maintenance issues. Aacckkk!!!
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[entry_title] => Reasons we hate our house...
[entry_stub] => reasons-we-hate-our-house
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[entry_date] => 1302528330
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-11 08:25:30
[entry_text] => Some of you have asked so here is the scoop...
House #1
Purchased in 1997
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1000 sq ft
Small but corner lot in a tight subdivision
House #2
Purchased in 2001
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1600 sq ft
Large (to us) 1/3 acre lot in a nice subdivision, backed up to farmland so was nice and private
House #3 CURRENT HOUSE
Purchased in 2006
3 story house, main living space on first floor, all bedrooms are upstairs, finished full basement
approx 2600 sq ft
.67 acre lot
So, our current house #3 might look to be a great step up for us, right? Well, not quite...
House #1 was our starter home when we just got married. It was a great little house but we got tired of the really, really tight subdivision. All the houses were so close together --- no privacy at all. So, we sold it and moved across town to House #2. This house was the smallest in the neighborhood. Most of the other houses were 2 story homes that looked really big compared to our house. But, we loved the flat lot of our house, the floorplan really worked for us, and it was a really good fit for our growing family.
Then, we moved 4 hours away, from the flat lands to the mountains, for a new job opportunity. We realized quickly that housing prices in the mountains were quite higher than they were in the big city that we came from. Also, the houses here were mainly multi-level homes since they were built alongside hill banks. We had only 2 main criteria when looking for this home: 1) I wanted a garage with main level access. I didn't want to haul groceries from a basement entry garage up stairs to the kitchen. I'd say 75% of homes here all have their garage in the basement. 2) I wanted a large lot with trees. Having lived in the city, we didn't have a lot of natural wooded areas. I thought that was what I wanted. So, we bought House #3 because these 2 main criteria were met and now 5 years later, we just hate the house. We had never lived in a multi-level home before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to go up and down stairs all the time. We had never lived on a wooded lot before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to pick up fallen limbs all the time. Ugh, ugh, and ugh. I guess it's one of those situations where the grass really isn't greener on the other side... all along we thought those bigger 2 story houses in our neighborhoods were so nice and roomy. Blah! We so miss our little ranch style homes!!!
So, a summary of all the things we hate about our current house:
1) Stairs, stairs, and more stairs!
2) All the trees! It gets windy here alot and those fallen branches are a pain to deal with
3) Hillsides! No flat place for the kids to play
4) Open floor plan of living space! Our 'great room' consists of the living room, kitchen, and dining spaces... all in one big open area. Now, I know this is all the rage in today's real estate market, but now that we actually live in this kind of living space, we just don't like it. It's really noisy!!
5) No air conditioning! As a mountain home, it is not common to have A/C here... or so one would think! The houses here just aren't built with A/C as standard. It gets pretty hot for just about one month out of the year but gosh, that one month nearly kills us each year!
So, those are the top 5 reasons why we hate our house. All these reasons were things that we just didn't realize would bother us until we actually bought the house and started living in it. We learn what we like and dislike from each home we live in and we certainly know what to look for in our House #4... we just need to sell this one first!
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[entry_title] => Should we sell or not?
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[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-04 10:13:37
[entry_text] => Ack, what to do?? Ok, some back history. We tried selling our house for 2 years and had no offers. We took the house off the market for 6 months to take a break. We started asking for $349k and ended up our last listing price at $299k... Granted, we did start too high on the price for the market that we were in but settled on a price that is very fair -- but still no offers, so we pulled it off the market. Now that it is Spring, we are thinking about putting it on again.
Our past realtors were without a better term popping into my head right now, sucky. They just listed the house and didn't do much of anything else. We found another realtor that has come highly recommended... we met with him last week and he did a market analysis (CMA) on our house. If you've been following my blog, you know that we just installed granite in our kitchen... so, with that improvement, we really think we have an edge over the competition in our price range. DH and I thought we would stay at the $299k price as our listing price. After the CMA, the new realtor suggested listing it at $289k.... BUT in all honesty, the houses he compared to ours are nowhere near what ours has to offer. There just aren't too many sold houses he can compare ours to. So, he's comfortable in putting it on at $299k if that is what we still want to do. The bottom line that we are willing to sell for is $290k.
So, should we or shouldn't we try to sell the house again? DH and I just don't like it --- there is no other reason to sell. We both have stable jobs and we don't need to move anywhere. We've just HATEd our house since the day we moved in 5 years ago. If we end up at our bottom of $290k, we'd make zippo, and actually lose money really. We bought the house for $288k in 2006 (brand new) and put in $20k in improvements (granite and driveway/retaining wall work), so we've got $308k in the house. However, DH and I don't really consider the $20k we put into the house as additional cost for the house because those things were done to make the house more "liveable" for us. We wouldn't have to come to the table with any cash as our mortgage balance is low enough to where we will still have a bit of cash from the sale after the mortgage is paid.
So, what would you do? Would you go with the financially correct decision and just stay put? Or, would you do what would make you and the family happy and take a slight loss on the house?
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[entry_title] => Can a person LOVE a sink?
[entry_stub] => can-a-person-love-a-sink
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[entry_date] => 1301430598
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-29 15:29:58
[entry_text] => Here's a pic of my new sink and granite counters.... I absolutely love how everything turned out! We got them installed yesterday and tonight the realtor is coming over to start the process of listing our house (again). Wish us luck!!
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[entry_date] => 1300478106
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-18 14:55:06
[entry_text] => Ok, we tried selling our house last year with no luck. We want to try it again beginning April 1. We decided to get rid of our laminate countertops and get granite installed. The cost will be $3800. Cross your fingers and toes that this will make the difference and that our house will sell this time around. We are doing the demo in the kitchen this weekend and should have the install done within 10 days, ready for our April 1 listing date. And... if the house doesn't sell, then I get to enjoy brand new granite countertops!
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[entry_title] => A new month, A clean start!
[entry_stub] => march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/03/01/march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start_66521/
[entry_date] => 1299006127
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-01 13:02:07
[entry_text] => Spring fever must be hitting me right now. I am in the mood to clean out my house and straighten up my life. For the past week, I've organized my closets, cabinets, and junk drawers. I have found a whole year's supply of contacts that I now remembered ordering and stashing so that I didn't have to go back to the eye doctor for another year. I totally forgot about these and I was going to place an order within the next month or so! I found 2 full size brand new containers of DH's favorite hair gel. I've donated bags of stuff to Goodwill. I've thrown away so much clutter that has literally just sat in our house for the past 5 years. It feels great! I highly recommend everyone to find a drawer or closet and get at it! I did an area each night for a week and it was painless.
A 2011 financial goal was to reach the $20,000 mark in our E-fund. I deposited a $100 credit card reward check today bringing the balance up to.... drum roll.... $20,049.28!!!!!!!! Now, let's cross our fingers that we won't see any kind of emergencies for a while so that I can enjoy seeing that awesome number. Wahoo!!!
Other random updates:
I gave my sister a blank check for her birthday payable to her power company. She's the one that is in a huge financial mess. The bill was for $210.55. I asked her how much of the bill was for late fees and penalties and she didn't even know the answer to that... it's quite sad. But, oh well, it's nice to be able to help her when I can (I only give her money for holidays instead of buying her nonsense so as to not try to enable her family's bad money habits). She did tell me that she went and applied for food stamps and other family aid which is about time in my opinion.
My co-worker is making great progress on her financial situation. She made it through Christmas without having to charge a dime. There are still a few debts that she has left to pay off but I see her getting to the finish line within the next year or two.
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[entry_title] => Government Foreclosure
[entry_stub] => government-foreclosure
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[entry_date] => 1295031503
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-14 12:58:23
[entry_text] => Ok, so I've always been interested in investing in real estate. I've blogged about possibilities before on here but have never actually taken the plunge to go for anything. A family friend, who has a lot of experience in real estate investing, referred me to government foreclosures as a possibility. This was back in November. I got wrapped up in the Holidays and hadn't really had a chance to follow up or look for any foreclosures but long story short, after taking a peek today, I see that there is a foreclosure up for auction next week! The gov't bid is listed at $26k, whatever that means. I have a lot of research still left to do but my mind is racing with the opportunity to get a decent house for so cheap. I know the area and I know exactly where the house is --- nice family neighborhood. I'd estimate the retail value of the house at around $90-$100k. I'm going to talk to my friend tonight to get more guidance about the process. He started out with a government foreclosure and so he'll know what to do... Maybe this will be the one for us??
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[entry_title] => Updating savings amounts for 2011
[entry_stub] => updating-savings-amounts-for-2011
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[entry_date] => 1294770581
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-11 12:29:41
[entry_text] => We had been saving $1,000 per month into savings (short-term, mid-term, and retirement). I just got online to all our accounts and increased everything to $1,500 per month. I think we can do more but let's see how this feels for a few months.
We also are going to start paying extra on our mortgage... just to round it up from $1,652 to $1,700 each month which is just $48 so no biggie. We used to pay a few hundred extra per month when we first got the mortgage but then scaled back to the regular monthly payment amount when we were trying to sell our house. Now that it looks like we'll be here for a while, I figured we'd start paying a little extra just because.
Some things I look forward to in 2011:
1. Reaching the $20,000 mark in our e-fund.
2. Would love to be 100-105 lbs! Before you think that is outrageous, please be aware that I am very petite and this would be normal (but on the lean side) for someone like me. I have thus far cut out soda (except for one can twice a week -- long story) which is going to help tremendously. I am trying to fit in some exercise too... so far, so good.
3. Cook at home more/eating out less. This has been working out pretty well thus far.
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[entry_title] => An update -- finally!
[entry_stub] => an-update-finally
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[entry_text] => Ok, so I can't believe it's been nearly 3 months since I last posted. Things have been absolutely crazy around here and so I have a lot of catching up to do in blogland!
An update on my co-worker's situation. I started working with her on Oct 1 to straighten out her finances. Good news --- she's paid off two small credit card balances, one medical bill, and most importantly, the debt she had with her son (she'd borrow money from him from time to time to keep herself afloat). She has also put aside $820 in her savings account which she says is the first time she's ever saved anything. $600 of this is for Christmas and the rest is for buying new tires for her car. She still has a long way to go to pay off her debts but she's made huge progress in the couple of months I've been guiding her through. We meet about 2-3 times a month to make sure that she stays on track and for me to basically hold her hand... she still can't figure out what to pay first, how much to pay, or anything like that so I give her a roadmap everytime we meet.
Ok, now the big news on my side of things is that DH and I are considering going to NYC over New Year's. Isn't that just crazy to even think about being in all that chaos? But, we were looking at our work schedules and the kids' school calendar and wouldn't you know that we have a ton of time off available. My sister has offered to watch the kids for us so it'll just be a trip for the two of us which hasn't happened.... ever! So, I hop online and look at rates-- it will cost about $2500 for airline and hotel for 5 nights. Yikes! It would be cheaper if we didn't want to stay right near Times Square but this will be a trip of a lifetime for us so we thought we'd splurge a bit more than what we normally would do. With eating and shopping money, the trip will probably be around $3500. Anybody ever been to NY? Anything to look out for or suggestions on where to stay, eat, or do?
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[entry_text] => This morning, someone that works in our office comes to ask me to help her with her personal finances. This was completely out of the blue and I feel so honored that she would trust me with her money issues. She said she was thinking last night of who she could ask for help and thought of me... (after she got a denial yesterday from the local credit union for a new credit card account). Now, I'm on a quest to get her all squared away and you guys can come along on the journey. Here's her situation:
Married with 2 children (one in college and one in high school), but not a financially sound marriage ever, apparently... DH is a banker of all things but he apparently doesn't have his head on straight when it comes to their own money. He wants to keep everything completely separate in their household so the wife just deals with this (even though he makes probably 4 times what she does). For the major expenses, he covers the mortgage and utilities. She has to cover the groceries for the house.
Finances:
OUT categories we've identified thus far =
*groceries/eating out for household
*car payment on her car
*gas/maintenance on her car
*half of the household cell phone bill
*medical bills for household
*dog -vet/grooming bills
*multiple credit cards (highest balance is around $5k on one of them)
*three outstanding medical debts
She had her highest balance credit card statement with her and said she thought the interest rate on it was 90% (gasp) and I was like, um -- doubt it? So, I looked on her statement and showed her where the interest rate was indicated which is something like 25%. As you can see, she doesn't even know how to read her statements. She's a college graduate but when it comes to money and math, she's clueless and knows that is why she's in the trouble that she's in.
I gave her homework for the weekend -- I've asked her to write down exactly what her interest rates are on all the credit cards and their current balances. I told her to call each one of those credit card companies and ask for a lower interest rate. She also needs to identify exactly how much she owes on those outstanding medical bills and to estimate how much her other monthly expenses total up (she had no clue how much she spends on groceries, for example).
Next, I asked her about her paycheck. Since I have access to payroll, I looked up her check and all her deductions. She has zero withholdings and I asked if she gets a tax refund each year. Apparently, she just gives her W-2 to her DH each year and he does all the tax stuff. She does know that for 2009, they got back around $1500 total and then she got fussed at from her DH that it wasn't enough. He wanted the refund to be even higher and implied that she must not have withheld enough from her checks (jerk!). He keeps their refund and does whatever with the money even though it's "their" refund. I told her that was crazy. I calculated what increasing her withholdings to 1 and 2 would be, an additional $58 and $103 respectively, in each paycheck... Basically, by just increasing her withholdings to 1, she would have an additional $700 each year in her paychecks that her grubby hubby wouldn't have access to come tax time. She said she's all about having her withholdings changed to 1 now. Yay.
Anyway, I'll post more as we keep ironing out her budget...
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Posted in
Uncategorized
|
4 Comments »
June 27th, 2011 at 08:53 pm
Ok, so we suggested going up to $305k on our counter to the bank's counter. Our realtor suggested that we do $305k and include offering to pay the seller's closing costs up to a max of $1,500. He said for some reason, this bank is hung up on not forcing the sellers to have to pay anything at closing. I think I'll tweak it to be just $1,000 and not $1,500 just because. Here we go with round 2! Spent $1300 last week to get the rear wheel bearings replaced, rear brake pads and rotors filed down and turned, and an oil change
---------> Took the car in today because all the check engine kind of lights were on...Was just told that we need to have the ECM (the car's computer) replaced and that will be another $1200!!! Haven't told DH yet -- he's going to freak out.
We have a 2003 Toyota Sienna.
---------> This poor van has been neglected for so long in regards to routine maintenance. The tires are so bald (we don't drive it except within town to run errands so we've been putting it off). The dealer is having a tire sale next week so we've scheduled an appointment to have 4 new tires put on and for a well overdue oil change done. Estimated cost will be around $350.
Has anyone been adding all this up? If not, that's ok, cause I've already done it for you and it's a whopping $2850 in a few weeks time for stupid car maintenance issues. Aacckkk!!!
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[entry_title] => Reasons we hate our house...
[entry_stub] => reasons-we-hate-our-house
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/04/11/reasons-we-hate-our-house_68100/
[entry_date] => 1302528330
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-11 08:25:30
[entry_text] => Some of you have asked so here is the scoop...
House #1
Purchased in 1997
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1000 sq ft
Small but corner lot in a tight subdivision
House #2
Purchased in 2001
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1600 sq ft
Large (to us) 1/3 acre lot in a nice subdivision, backed up to farmland so was nice and private
House #3 CURRENT HOUSE
Purchased in 2006
3 story house, main living space on first floor, all bedrooms are upstairs, finished full basement
approx 2600 sq ft
.67 acre lot
So, our current house #3 might look to be a great step up for us, right? Well, not quite...
House #1 was our starter home when we just got married. It was a great little house but we got tired of the really, really tight subdivision. All the houses were so close together --- no privacy at all. So, we sold it and moved across town to House #2. This house was the smallest in the neighborhood. Most of the other houses were 2 story homes that looked really big compared to our house. But, we loved the flat lot of our house, the floorplan really worked for us, and it was a really good fit for our growing family.
Then, we moved 4 hours away, from the flat lands to the mountains, for a new job opportunity. We realized quickly that housing prices in the mountains were quite higher than they were in the big city that we came from. Also, the houses here were mainly multi-level homes since they were built alongside hill banks. We had only 2 main criteria when looking for this home: 1) I wanted a garage with main level access. I didn't want to haul groceries from a basement entry garage up stairs to the kitchen. I'd say 75% of homes here all have their garage in the basement. 2) I wanted a large lot with trees. Having lived in the city, we didn't have a lot of natural wooded areas. I thought that was what I wanted. So, we bought House #3 because these 2 main criteria were met and now 5 years later, we just hate the house. We had never lived in a multi-level home before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to go up and down stairs all the time. We had never lived on a wooded lot before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to pick up fallen limbs all the time. Ugh, ugh, and ugh. I guess it's one of those situations where the grass really isn't greener on the other side... all along we thought those bigger 2 story houses in our neighborhoods were so nice and roomy. Blah! We so miss our little ranch style homes!!!
So, a summary of all the things we hate about our current house:
1) Stairs, stairs, and more stairs!
2) All the trees! It gets windy here alot and those fallen branches are a pain to deal with
3) Hillsides! No flat place for the kids to play
4) Open floor plan of living space! Our 'great room' consists of the living room, kitchen, and dining spaces... all in one big open area. Now, I know this is all the rage in today's real estate market, but now that we actually live in this kind of living space, we just don't like it. It's really noisy!!
5) No air conditioning! As a mountain home, it is not common to have A/C here... or so one would think! The houses here just aren't built with A/C as standard. It gets pretty hot for just about one month out of the year but gosh, that one month nearly kills us each year!
So, those are the top 5 reasons why we hate our house. All these reasons were things that we just didn't realize would bother us until we actually bought the house and started living in it. We learn what we like and dislike from each home we live in and we certainly know what to look for in our House #4... we just need to sell this one first!
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[entry_title] => Should we sell or not?
[entry_stub] => should-we-sell-or-not
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/04/04/should-we-sell-or-not_67853/
[entry_date] => 1301930017
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-04 10:13:37
[entry_text] => Ack, what to do?? Ok, some back history. We tried selling our house for 2 years and had no offers. We took the house off the market for 6 months to take a break. We started asking for $349k and ended up our last listing price at $299k... Granted, we did start too high on the price for the market that we were in but settled on a price that is very fair -- but still no offers, so we pulled it off the market. Now that it is Spring, we are thinking about putting it on again.
Our past realtors were without a better term popping into my head right now, sucky. They just listed the house and didn't do much of anything else. We found another realtor that has come highly recommended... we met with him last week and he did a market analysis (CMA) on our house. If you've been following my blog, you know that we just installed granite in our kitchen... so, with that improvement, we really think we have an edge over the competition in our price range. DH and I thought we would stay at the $299k price as our listing price. After the CMA, the new realtor suggested listing it at $289k.... BUT in all honesty, the houses he compared to ours are nowhere near what ours has to offer. There just aren't too many sold houses he can compare ours to. So, he's comfortable in putting it on at $299k if that is what we still want to do. The bottom line that we are willing to sell for is $290k.
So, should we or shouldn't we try to sell the house again? DH and I just don't like it --- there is no other reason to sell. We both have stable jobs and we don't need to move anywhere. We've just HATEd our house since the day we moved in 5 years ago. If we end up at our bottom of $290k, we'd make zippo, and actually lose money really. We bought the house for $288k in 2006 (brand new) and put in $20k in improvements (granite and driveway/retaining wall work), so we've got $308k in the house. However, DH and I don't really consider the $20k we put into the house as additional cost for the house because those things were done to make the house more "liveable" for us. We wouldn't have to come to the table with any cash as our mortgage balance is low enough to where we will still have a bit of cash from the sale after the mortgage is paid.
So, what would you do? Would you go with the financially correct decision and just stay put? Or, would you do what would make you and the family happy and take a slight loss on the house?
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[entry_title] => Can a person LOVE a sink?
[entry_stub] => can-a-person-love-a-sink
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/03/29/can-a-person-love-a-sink_67618/
[entry_date] => 1301430598
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-29 15:29:58
[entry_text] => Here's a pic of my new sink and granite counters.... I absolutely love how everything turned out! We got them installed yesterday and tonight the realtor is coming over to start the process of listing our house (again). Wish us luck!!
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[entry_title] => Getting granite counters!
[entry_stub] => getting-granite-counters
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[entry_date] => 1300478106
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-18 14:55:06
[entry_text] => Ok, we tried selling our house last year with no luck. We want to try it again beginning April 1. We decided to get rid of our laminate countertops and get granite installed. The cost will be $3800. Cross your fingers and toes that this will make the difference and that our house will sell this time around. We are doing the demo in the kitchen this weekend and should have the install done within 10 days, ready for our April 1 listing date. And... if the house doesn't sell, then I get to enjoy brand new granite countertops!
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[entry_title] => A new month, A clean start!
[entry_stub] => march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/03/01/march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start_66521/
[entry_date] => 1299006127
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-01 13:02:07
[entry_text] => Spring fever must be hitting me right now. I am in the mood to clean out my house and straighten up my life. For the past week, I've organized my closets, cabinets, and junk drawers. I have found a whole year's supply of contacts that I now remembered ordering and stashing so that I didn't have to go back to the eye doctor for another year. I totally forgot about these and I was going to place an order within the next month or so! I found 2 full size brand new containers of DH's favorite hair gel. I've donated bags of stuff to Goodwill. I've thrown away so much clutter that has literally just sat in our house for the past 5 years. It feels great! I highly recommend everyone to find a drawer or closet and get at it! I did an area each night for a week and it was painless.
A 2011 financial goal was to reach the $20,000 mark in our E-fund. I deposited a $100 credit card reward check today bringing the balance up to.... drum roll.... $20,049.28!!!!!!!! Now, let's cross our fingers that we won't see any kind of emergencies for a while so that I can enjoy seeing that awesome number. Wahoo!!!
Other random updates:
I gave my sister a blank check for her birthday payable to her power company. She's the one that is in a huge financial mess. The bill was for $210.55. I asked her how much of the bill was for late fees and penalties and she didn't even know the answer to that... it's quite sad. But, oh well, it's nice to be able to help her when I can (I only give her money for holidays instead of buying her nonsense so as to not try to enable her family's bad money habits). She did tell me that she went and applied for food stamps and other family aid which is about time in my opinion.
My co-worker is making great progress on her financial situation. She made it through Christmas without having to charge a dime. There are still a few debts that she has left to pay off but I see her getting to the finish line within the next year or two.
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[entry_title] => Government Foreclosure
[entry_stub] => government-foreclosure
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/01/14/government-foreclosure_65304/
[entry_date] => 1295031503
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-14 12:58:23
[entry_text] => Ok, so I've always been interested in investing in real estate. I've blogged about possibilities before on here but have never actually taken the plunge to go for anything. A family friend, who has a lot of experience in real estate investing, referred me to government foreclosures as a possibility. This was back in November. I got wrapped up in the Holidays and hadn't really had a chance to follow up or look for any foreclosures but long story short, after taking a peek today, I see that there is a foreclosure up for auction next week! The gov't bid is listed at $26k, whatever that means. I have a lot of research still left to do but my mind is racing with the opportunity to get a decent house for so cheap. I know the area and I know exactly where the house is --- nice family neighborhood. I'd estimate the retail value of the house at around $90-$100k. I'm going to talk to my friend tonight to get more guidance about the process. He started out with a government foreclosure and so he'll know what to do... Maybe this will be the one for us??
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[entry_title] => Updating savings amounts for 2011
[entry_stub] => updating-savings-amounts-for-2011
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/01/11/updating-savings-amounts-for-2011_65211/
[entry_date] => 1294770581
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-11 12:29:41
[entry_text] => We had been saving $1,000 per month into savings (short-term, mid-term, and retirement). I just got online to all our accounts and increased everything to $1,500 per month. I think we can do more but let's see how this feels for a few months.
We also are going to start paying extra on our mortgage... just to round it up from $1,652 to $1,700 each month which is just $48 so no biggie. We used to pay a few hundred extra per month when we first got the mortgage but then scaled back to the regular monthly payment amount when we were trying to sell our house. Now that it looks like we'll be here for a while, I figured we'd start paying a little extra just because.
Some things I look forward to in 2011:
1. Reaching the $20,000 mark in our e-fund.
2. Would love to be 100-105 lbs! Before you think that is outrageous, please be aware that I am very petite and this would be normal (but on the lean side) for someone like me. I have thus far cut out soda (except for one can twice a week -- long story) which is going to help tremendously. I am trying to fit in some exercise too... so far, so good.
3. Cook at home more/eating out less. This has been working out pretty well thus far.
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[entry_title] => An update -- finally!
[entry_stub] => an-update-finally
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[entry_date] => 1291296177
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[entry_text] => Ok, so I can't believe it's been nearly 3 months since I last posted. Things have been absolutely crazy around here and so I have a lot of catching up to do in blogland!
An update on my co-worker's situation. I started working with her on Oct 1 to straighten out her finances. Good news --- she's paid off two small credit card balances, one medical bill, and most importantly, the debt she had with her son (she'd borrow money from him from time to time to keep herself afloat). She has also put aside $820 in her savings account which she says is the first time she's ever saved anything. $600 of this is for Christmas and the rest is for buying new tires for her car. She still has a long way to go to pay off her debts but she's made huge progress in the couple of months I've been guiding her through. We meet about 2-3 times a month to make sure that she stays on track and for me to basically hold her hand... she still can't figure out what to pay first, how much to pay, or anything like that so I give her a roadmap everytime we meet.
Ok, now the big news on my side of things is that DH and I are considering going to NYC over New Year's. Isn't that just crazy to even think about being in all that chaos? But, we were looking at our work schedules and the kids' school calendar and wouldn't you know that we have a ton of time off available. My sister has offered to watch the kids for us so it'll just be a trip for the two of us which hasn't happened.... ever! So, I hop online and look at rates-- it will cost about $2500 for airline and hotel for 5 nights. Yikes! It would be cheaper if we didn't want to stay right near Times Square but this will be a trip of a lifetime for us so we thought we'd splurge a bit more than what we normally would do. With eating and shopping money, the trip will probably be around $3500. Anybody ever been to NY? Anything to look out for or suggestions on where to stay, eat, or do?
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[entry_title] => Honored to be asked
[entry_stub] => honored-to-be-asked
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[entry_date] => 1284733580
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[entry_text] => This morning, someone that works in our office comes to ask me to help her with her personal finances. This was completely out of the blue and I feel so honored that she would trust me with her money issues. She said she was thinking last night of who she could ask for help and thought of me... (after she got a denial yesterday from the local credit union for a new credit card account). Now, I'm on a quest to get her all squared away and you guys can come along on the journey. Here's her situation:
Married with 2 children (one in college and one in high school), but not a financially sound marriage ever, apparently... DH is a banker of all things but he apparently doesn't have his head on straight when it comes to their own money. He wants to keep everything completely separate in their household so the wife just deals with this (even though he makes probably 4 times what she does). For the major expenses, he covers the mortgage and utilities. She has to cover the groceries for the house.
Finances:
OUT categories we've identified thus far =
*groceries/eating out for household
*car payment on her car
*gas/maintenance on her car
*half of the household cell phone bill
*medical bills for household
*dog -vet/grooming bills
*multiple credit cards (highest balance is around $5k on one of them)
*three outstanding medical debts
She had her highest balance credit card statement with her and said she thought the interest rate on it was 90% (gasp) and I was like, um -- doubt it? So, I looked on her statement and showed her where the interest rate was indicated which is something like 25%. As you can see, she doesn't even know how to read her statements. She's a college graduate but when it comes to money and math, she's clueless and knows that is why she's in the trouble that she's in.
I gave her homework for the weekend -- I've asked her to write down exactly what her interest rates are on all the credit cards and their current balances. I told her to call each one of those credit card companies and ask for a lower interest rate. She also needs to identify exactly how much she owes on those outstanding medical bills and to estimate how much her other monthly expenses total up (she had no clue how much she spends on groceries, for example).
Next, I asked her about her paycheck. Since I have access to payroll, I looked up her check and all her deductions. She has zero withholdings and I asked if she gets a tax refund each year. Apparently, she just gives her W-2 to her DH each year and he does all the tax stuff. She does know that for 2009, they got back around $1500 total and then she got fussed at from her DH that it wasn't enough. He wanted the refund to be even higher and implied that she must not have withheld enough from her checks (jerk!). He keeps their refund and does whatever with the money even though it's "their" refund. I told her that was crazy. I calculated what increasing her withholdings to 1 and 2 would be, an additional $58 and $103 respectively, in each paycheck... Basically, by just increasing her withholdings to 1, she would have an additional $700 each year in her paychecks that her grubby hubby wouldn't have access to come tax time. She said she's all about having her withholdings changed to 1 now. Yay.
Anyway, I'll post more as we keep ironing out her budget...
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Posted in
GOALS
|
2 Comments »
June 27th, 2011 at 12:22 pm
We received a counter to our offer on that short sale house. The list price was $395k. We offered $300k due to the extremely poor condition of the house. The bank has countered at $375k. The bank's listing agent is so frustrated because she tried to get them to accept our offer since it was the best one that they had received in 5 years. At least they didn't shut us down completely like they did with the people who offered less than $300k before us. So, now what do we do? Our max that we would pay is $310k in all honesty and it doesn't look like the bank wants to go down that low at all. Guess we'll go back with $310k and just walk away if they don't take it, but I so want this house!! Ugh! Spent $1300 last week to get the rear wheel bearings replaced, rear brake pads and rotors filed down and turned, and an oil change
---------> Took the car in today because all the check engine kind of lights were on...Was just told that we need to have the ECM (the car's computer) replaced and that will be another $1200!!! Haven't told DH yet -- he's going to freak out.
We have a 2003 Toyota Sienna.
---------> This poor van has been neglected for so long in regards to routine maintenance. The tires are so bald (we don't drive it except within town to run errands so we've been putting it off). The dealer is having a tire sale next week so we've scheduled an appointment to have 4 new tires put on and for a well overdue oil change done. Estimated cost will be around $350.
Has anyone been adding all this up? If not, that's ok, cause I've already done it for you and it's a whopping $2850 in a few weeks time for stupid car maintenance issues. Aacckkk!!!
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[entry_title] => Reasons we hate our house...
[entry_stub] => reasons-we-hate-our-house
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/04/11/reasons-we-hate-our-house_68100/
[entry_date] => 1302528330
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-11 08:25:30
[entry_text] => Some of you have asked so here is the scoop...
House #1
Purchased in 1997
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1000 sq ft
Small but corner lot in a tight subdivision
House #2
Purchased in 2001
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1600 sq ft
Large (to us) 1/3 acre lot in a nice subdivision, backed up to farmland so was nice and private
House #3 CURRENT HOUSE
Purchased in 2006
3 story house, main living space on first floor, all bedrooms are upstairs, finished full basement
approx 2600 sq ft
.67 acre lot
So, our current house #3 might look to be a great step up for us, right? Well, not quite...
House #1 was our starter home when we just got married. It was a great little house but we got tired of the really, really tight subdivision. All the houses were so close together --- no privacy at all. So, we sold it and moved across town to House #2. This house was the smallest in the neighborhood. Most of the other houses were 2 story homes that looked really big compared to our house. But, we loved the flat lot of our house, the floorplan really worked for us, and it was a really good fit for our growing family.
Then, we moved 4 hours away, from the flat lands to the mountains, for a new job opportunity. We realized quickly that housing prices in the mountains were quite higher than they were in the big city that we came from. Also, the houses here were mainly multi-level homes since they were built alongside hill banks. We had only 2 main criteria when looking for this home: 1) I wanted a garage with main level access. I didn't want to haul groceries from a basement entry garage up stairs to the kitchen. I'd say 75% of homes here all have their garage in the basement. 2) I wanted a large lot with trees. Having lived in the city, we didn't have a lot of natural wooded areas. I thought that was what I wanted. So, we bought House #3 because these 2 main criteria were met and now 5 years later, we just hate the house. We had never lived in a multi-level home before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to go up and down stairs all the time. We had never lived on a wooded lot before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to pick up fallen limbs all the time. Ugh, ugh, and ugh. I guess it's one of those situations where the grass really isn't greener on the other side... all along we thought those bigger 2 story houses in our neighborhoods were so nice and roomy. Blah! We so miss our little ranch style homes!!!
So, a summary of all the things we hate about our current house:
1) Stairs, stairs, and more stairs!
2) All the trees! It gets windy here alot and those fallen branches are a pain to deal with
3) Hillsides! No flat place for the kids to play
4) Open floor plan of living space! Our 'great room' consists of the living room, kitchen, and dining spaces... all in one big open area. Now, I know this is all the rage in today's real estate market, but now that we actually live in this kind of living space, we just don't like it. It's really noisy!!
5) No air conditioning! As a mountain home, it is not common to have A/C here... or so one would think! The houses here just aren't built with A/C as standard. It gets pretty hot for just about one month out of the year but gosh, that one month nearly kills us each year!
So, those are the top 5 reasons why we hate our house. All these reasons were things that we just didn't realize would bother us until we actually bought the house and started living in it. We learn what we like and dislike from each home we live in and we certainly know what to look for in our House #4... we just need to sell this one first!
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[entry_title] => Should we sell or not?
[entry_stub] => should-we-sell-or-not
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/04/04/should-we-sell-or-not_67853/
[entry_date] => 1301930017
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-04 10:13:37
[entry_text] => Ack, what to do?? Ok, some back history. We tried selling our house for 2 years and had no offers. We took the house off the market for 6 months to take a break. We started asking for $349k and ended up our last listing price at $299k... Granted, we did start too high on the price for the market that we were in but settled on a price that is very fair -- but still no offers, so we pulled it off the market. Now that it is Spring, we are thinking about putting it on again.
Our past realtors were without a better term popping into my head right now, sucky. They just listed the house and didn't do much of anything else. We found another realtor that has come highly recommended... we met with him last week and he did a market analysis (CMA) on our house. If you've been following my blog, you know that we just installed granite in our kitchen... so, with that improvement, we really think we have an edge over the competition in our price range. DH and I thought we would stay at the $299k price as our listing price. After the CMA, the new realtor suggested listing it at $289k.... BUT in all honesty, the houses he compared to ours are nowhere near what ours has to offer. There just aren't too many sold houses he can compare ours to. So, he's comfortable in putting it on at $299k if that is what we still want to do. The bottom line that we are willing to sell for is $290k.
So, should we or shouldn't we try to sell the house again? DH and I just don't like it --- there is no other reason to sell. We both have stable jobs and we don't need to move anywhere. We've just HATEd our house since the day we moved in 5 years ago. If we end up at our bottom of $290k, we'd make zippo, and actually lose money really. We bought the house for $288k in 2006 (brand new) and put in $20k in improvements (granite and driveway/retaining wall work), so we've got $308k in the house. However, DH and I don't really consider the $20k we put into the house as additional cost for the house because those things were done to make the house more "liveable" for us. We wouldn't have to come to the table with any cash as our mortgage balance is low enough to where we will still have a bit of cash from the sale after the mortgage is paid.
So, what would you do? Would you go with the financially correct decision and just stay put? Or, would you do what would make you and the family happy and take a slight loss on the house?
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[entry_title] => Can a person LOVE a sink?
[entry_stub] => can-a-person-love-a-sink
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/03/29/can-a-person-love-a-sink_67618/
[entry_date] => 1301430598
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-29 15:29:58
[entry_text] => Here's a pic of my new sink and granite counters.... I absolutely love how everything turned out! We got them installed yesterday and tonight the realtor is coming over to start the process of listing our house (again). Wish us luck!!
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[entry_title] => Getting granite counters!
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[entry_date] => 1300478106
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-18 14:55:06
[entry_text] => Ok, we tried selling our house last year with no luck. We want to try it again beginning April 1. We decided to get rid of our laminate countertops and get granite installed. The cost will be $3800. Cross your fingers and toes that this will make the difference and that our house will sell this time around. We are doing the demo in the kitchen this weekend and should have the install done within 10 days, ready for our April 1 listing date. And... if the house doesn't sell, then I get to enjoy brand new granite countertops!
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[entry_title] => A new month, A clean start!
[entry_stub] => march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/03/01/march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start_66521/
[entry_date] => 1299006127
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-01 13:02:07
[entry_text] => Spring fever must be hitting me right now. I am in the mood to clean out my house and straighten up my life. For the past week, I've organized my closets, cabinets, and junk drawers. I have found a whole year's supply of contacts that I now remembered ordering and stashing so that I didn't have to go back to the eye doctor for another year. I totally forgot about these and I was going to place an order within the next month or so! I found 2 full size brand new containers of DH's favorite hair gel. I've donated bags of stuff to Goodwill. I've thrown away so much clutter that has literally just sat in our house for the past 5 years. It feels great! I highly recommend everyone to find a drawer or closet and get at it! I did an area each night for a week and it was painless.
A 2011 financial goal was to reach the $20,000 mark in our E-fund. I deposited a $100 credit card reward check today bringing the balance up to.... drum roll.... $20,049.28!!!!!!!! Now, let's cross our fingers that we won't see any kind of emergencies for a while so that I can enjoy seeing that awesome number. Wahoo!!!
Other random updates:
I gave my sister a blank check for her birthday payable to her power company. She's the one that is in a huge financial mess. The bill was for $210.55. I asked her how much of the bill was for late fees and penalties and she didn't even know the answer to that... it's quite sad. But, oh well, it's nice to be able to help her when I can (I only give her money for holidays instead of buying her nonsense so as to not try to enable her family's bad money habits). She did tell me that she went and applied for food stamps and other family aid which is about time in my opinion.
My co-worker is making great progress on her financial situation. She made it through Christmas without having to charge a dime. There are still a few debts that she has left to pay off but I see her getting to the finish line within the next year or two.
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[entry_title] => Government Foreclosure
[entry_stub] => government-foreclosure
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/01/14/government-foreclosure_65304/
[entry_date] => 1295031503
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-14 12:58:23
[entry_text] => Ok, so I've always been interested in investing in real estate. I've blogged about possibilities before on here but have never actually taken the plunge to go for anything. A family friend, who has a lot of experience in real estate investing, referred me to government foreclosures as a possibility. This was back in November. I got wrapped up in the Holidays and hadn't really had a chance to follow up or look for any foreclosures but long story short, after taking a peek today, I see that there is a foreclosure up for auction next week! The gov't bid is listed at $26k, whatever that means. I have a lot of research still left to do but my mind is racing with the opportunity to get a decent house for so cheap. I know the area and I know exactly where the house is --- nice family neighborhood. I'd estimate the retail value of the house at around $90-$100k. I'm going to talk to my friend tonight to get more guidance about the process. He started out with a government foreclosure and so he'll know what to do... Maybe this will be the one for us??
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[entry_title] => Updating savings amounts for 2011
[entry_stub] => updating-savings-amounts-for-2011
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[entry_date] => 1294770581
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-11 12:29:41
[entry_text] => We had been saving $1,000 per month into savings (short-term, mid-term, and retirement). I just got online to all our accounts and increased everything to $1,500 per month. I think we can do more but let's see how this feels for a few months.
We also are going to start paying extra on our mortgage... just to round it up from $1,652 to $1,700 each month which is just $48 so no biggie. We used to pay a few hundred extra per month when we first got the mortgage but then scaled back to the regular monthly payment amount when we were trying to sell our house. Now that it looks like we'll be here for a while, I figured we'd start paying a little extra just because.
Some things I look forward to in 2011:
1. Reaching the $20,000 mark in our e-fund.
2. Would love to be 100-105 lbs! Before you think that is outrageous, please be aware that I am very petite and this would be normal (but on the lean side) for someone like me. I have thus far cut out soda (except for one can twice a week -- long story) which is going to help tremendously. I am trying to fit in some exercise too... so far, so good.
3. Cook at home more/eating out less. This has been working out pretty well thus far.
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[entry_title] => An update -- finally!
[entry_stub] => an-update-finally
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[entry_date] => 1291296177
[entry_date_mysql] => 2010-12-02 07:22:57
[entry_text] => Ok, so I can't believe it's been nearly 3 months since I last posted. Things have been absolutely crazy around here and so I have a lot of catching up to do in blogland!
An update on my co-worker's situation. I started working with her on Oct 1 to straighten out her finances. Good news --- she's paid off two small credit card balances, one medical bill, and most importantly, the debt she had with her son (she'd borrow money from him from time to time to keep herself afloat). She has also put aside $820 in her savings account which she says is the first time she's ever saved anything. $600 of this is for Christmas and the rest is for buying new tires for her car. She still has a long way to go to pay off her debts but she's made huge progress in the couple of months I've been guiding her through. We meet about 2-3 times a month to make sure that she stays on track and for me to basically hold her hand... she still can't figure out what to pay first, how much to pay, or anything like that so I give her a roadmap everytime we meet.
Ok, now the big news on my side of things is that DH and I are considering going to NYC over New Year's. Isn't that just crazy to even think about being in all that chaos? But, we were looking at our work schedules and the kids' school calendar and wouldn't you know that we have a ton of time off available. My sister has offered to watch the kids for us so it'll just be a trip for the two of us which hasn't happened.... ever! So, I hop online and look at rates-- it will cost about $2500 for airline and hotel for 5 nights. Yikes! It would be cheaper if we didn't want to stay right near Times Square but this will be a trip of a lifetime for us so we thought we'd splurge a bit more than what we normally would do. With eating and shopping money, the trip will probably be around $3500. Anybody ever been to NY? Anything to look out for or suggestions on where to stay, eat, or do?
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[entry_title] => Honored to be asked
[entry_stub] => honored-to-be-asked
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[entry_date] => 1284733580
[entry_date_mysql] => 2010-09-17 09:26:20
[entry_text] => This morning, someone that works in our office comes to ask me to help her with her personal finances. This was completely out of the blue and I feel so honored that she would trust me with her money issues. She said she was thinking last night of who she could ask for help and thought of me... (after she got a denial yesterday from the local credit union for a new credit card account). Now, I'm on a quest to get her all squared away and you guys can come along on the journey. Here's her situation:
Married with 2 children (one in college and one in high school), but not a financially sound marriage ever, apparently... DH is a banker of all things but he apparently doesn't have his head on straight when it comes to their own money. He wants to keep everything completely separate in their household so the wife just deals with this (even though he makes probably 4 times what she does). For the major expenses, he covers the mortgage and utilities. She has to cover the groceries for the house.
Finances:
OUT categories we've identified thus far =
*groceries/eating out for household
*car payment on her car
*gas/maintenance on her car
*half of the household cell phone bill
*medical bills for household
*dog -vet/grooming bills
*multiple credit cards (highest balance is around $5k on one of them)
*three outstanding medical debts
She had her highest balance credit card statement with her and said she thought the interest rate on it was 90% (gasp) and I was like, um -- doubt it? So, I looked on her statement and showed her where the interest rate was indicated which is something like 25%. As you can see, she doesn't even know how to read her statements. She's a college graduate but when it comes to money and math, she's clueless and knows that is why she's in the trouble that she's in.
I gave her homework for the weekend -- I've asked her to write down exactly what her interest rates are on all the credit cards and their current balances. I told her to call each one of those credit card companies and ask for a lower interest rate. She also needs to identify exactly how much she owes on those outstanding medical bills and to estimate how much her other monthly expenses total up (she had no clue how much she spends on groceries, for example).
Next, I asked her about her paycheck. Since I have access to payroll, I looked up her check and all her deductions. She has zero withholdings and I asked if she gets a tax refund each year. Apparently, she just gives her W-2 to her DH each year and he does all the tax stuff. She does know that for 2009, they got back around $1500 total and then she got fussed at from her DH that it wasn't enough. He wanted the refund to be even higher and implied that she must not have withheld enough from her checks (jerk!). He keeps their refund and does whatever with the money even though it's "their" refund. I told her that was crazy. I calculated what increasing her withholdings to 1 and 2 would be, an additional $58 and $103 respectively, in each paycheck... Basically, by just increasing her withholdings to 1, she would have an additional $700 each year in her paychecks that her grubby hubby wouldn't have access to come tax time. She said she's all about having her withholdings changed to 1 now. Yay.
Anyway, I'll post more as we keep ironing out her budget...
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-->
Posted in
GOALS
|
4 Comments »
June 22nd, 2011 at 08:07 pm
Just got this email from our realtor about the offer we put in on that short sale house.
"I met with the listing agent for the house this morning and she brought me up to date on her conversations with the lender. She's pretty confident that they aren't going to accept your offer (we already figured that) but she's trying to get them to come back with something reasonable. They evidently have two Broker Price Opinions saying the house is worth $100k more than what we offered. She is telling them that it isn't, and the fact that your offer is the highest one of the only two offers they've had in 5 years is proof. She's hoping to have a counter offer in the next week or so. One thing to keep in mind, whatever they come back with, they are going to want you to pay the seller's closing costs. She said they are hung up on not allowing the seller to pay them. Not uncommon with short sale deals."
It's amazing to me how a bank sitting halfway across the country would want to be stubborn about this. On paper, the house may be worth what they say, but in reality, it isn't because of the condition it is in. It's only going to be worth what someone is willing to pay for it and apparently, our offer is the highest of the two the agent has ever received over the course of the 5 years for this property. Spent $1300 last week to get the rear wheel bearings replaced, rear brake pads and rotors filed down and turned, and an oil change
---------> Took the car in today because all the check engine kind of lights were on...Was just told that we need to have the ECM (the car's computer) replaced and that will be another $1200!!! Haven't told DH yet -- he's going to freak out.
We have a 2003 Toyota Sienna.
---------> This poor van has been neglected for so long in regards to routine maintenance. The tires are so bald (we don't drive it except within town to run errands so we've been putting it off). The dealer is having a tire sale next week so we've scheduled an appointment to have 4 new tires put on and for a well overdue oil change done. Estimated cost will be around $350.
Has anyone been adding all this up? If not, that's ok, cause I've already done it for you and it's a whopping $2850 in a few weeks time for stupid car maintenance issues. Aacckkk!!!
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[entry_title] => Reasons we hate our house...
[entry_stub] => reasons-we-hate-our-house
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/04/11/reasons-we-hate-our-house_68100/
[entry_date] => 1302528330
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-11 08:25:30
[entry_text] => Some of you have asked so here is the scoop...
House #1
Purchased in 1997
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1000 sq ft
Small but corner lot in a tight subdivision
House #2
Purchased in 2001
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1600 sq ft
Large (to us) 1/3 acre lot in a nice subdivision, backed up to farmland so was nice and private
House #3 CURRENT HOUSE
Purchased in 2006
3 story house, main living space on first floor, all bedrooms are upstairs, finished full basement
approx 2600 sq ft
.67 acre lot
So, our current house #3 might look to be a great step up for us, right? Well, not quite...
House #1 was our starter home when we just got married. It was a great little house but we got tired of the really, really tight subdivision. All the houses were so close together --- no privacy at all. So, we sold it and moved across town to House #2. This house was the smallest in the neighborhood. Most of the other houses were 2 story homes that looked really big compared to our house. But, we loved the flat lot of our house, the floorplan really worked for us, and it was a really good fit for our growing family.
Then, we moved 4 hours away, from the flat lands to the mountains, for a new job opportunity. We realized quickly that housing prices in the mountains were quite higher than they were in the big city that we came from. Also, the houses here were mainly multi-level homes since they were built alongside hill banks. We had only 2 main criteria when looking for this home: 1) I wanted a garage with main level access. I didn't want to haul groceries from a basement entry garage up stairs to the kitchen. I'd say 75% of homes here all have their garage in the basement. 2) I wanted a large lot with trees. Having lived in the city, we didn't have a lot of natural wooded areas. I thought that was what I wanted. So, we bought House #3 because these 2 main criteria were met and now 5 years later, we just hate the house. We had never lived in a multi-level home before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to go up and down stairs all the time. We had never lived on a wooded lot before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to pick up fallen limbs all the time. Ugh, ugh, and ugh. I guess it's one of those situations where the grass really isn't greener on the other side... all along we thought those bigger 2 story houses in our neighborhoods were so nice and roomy. Blah! We so miss our little ranch style homes!!!
So, a summary of all the things we hate about our current house:
1) Stairs, stairs, and more stairs!
2) All the trees! It gets windy here alot and those fallen branches are a pain to deal with
3) Hillsides! No flat place for the kids to play
4) Open floor plan of living space! Our 'great room' consists of the living room, kitchen, and dining spaces... all in one big open area. Now, I know this is all the rage in today's real estate market, but now that we actually live in this kind of living space, we just don't like it. It's really noisy!!
5) No air conditioning! As a mountain home, it is not common to have A/C here... or so one would think! The houses here just aren't built with A/C as standard. It gets pretty hot for just about one month out of the year but gosh, that one month nearly kills us each year!
So, those are the top 5 reasons why we hate our house. All these reasons were things that we just didn't realize would bother us until we actually bought the house and started living in it. We learn what we like and dislike from each home we live in and we certainly know what to look for in our House #4... we just need to sell this one first!
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[entry_title] => Should we sell or not?
[entry_stub] => should-we-sell-or-not
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/04/04/should-we-sell-or-not_67853/
[entry_date] => 1301930017
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-04 10:13:37
[entry_text] => Ack, what to do?? Ok, some back history. We tried selling our house for 2 years and had no offers. We took the house off the market for 6 months to take a break. We started asking for $349k and ended up our last listing price at $299k... Granted, we did start too high on the price for the market that we were in but settled on a price that is very fair -- but still no offers, so we pulled it off the market. Now that it is Spring, we are thinking about putting it on again.
Our past realtors were without a better term popping into my head right now, sucky. They just listed the house and didn't do much of anything else. We found another realtor that has come highly recommended... we met with him last week and he did a market analysis (CMA) on our house. If you've been following my blog, you know that we just installed granite in our kitchen... so, with that improvement, we really think we have an edge over the competition in our price range. DH and I thought we would stay at the $299k price as our listing price. After the CMA, the new realtor suggested listing it at $289k.... BUT in all honesty, the houses he compared to ours are nowhere near what ours has to offer. There just aren't too many sold houses he can compare ours to. So, he's comfortable in putting it on at $299k if that is what we still want to do. The bottom line that we are willing to sell for is $290k.
So, should we or shouldn't we try to sell the house again? DH and I just don't like it --- there is no other reason to sell. We both have stable jobs and we don't need to move anywhere. We've just HATEd our house since the day we moved in 5 years ago. If we end up at our bottom of $290k, we'd make zippo, and actually lose money really. We bought the house for $288k in 2006 (brand new) and put in $20k in improvements (granite and driveway/retaining wall work), so we've got $308k in the house. However, DH and I don't really consider the $20k we put into the house as additional cost for the house because those things were done to make the house more "liveable" for us. We wouldn't have to come to the table with any cash as our mortgage balance is low enough to where we will still have a bit of cash from the sale after the mortgage is paid.
So, what would you do? Would you go with the financially correct decision and just stay put? Or, would you do what would make you and the family happy and take a slight loss on the house?
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[entry_title] => Can a person LOVE a sink?
[entry_stub] => can-a-person-love-a-sink
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/03/29/can-a-person-love-a-sink_67618/
[entry_date] => 1301430598
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-29 15:29:58
[entry_text] => Here's a pic of my new sink and granite counters.... I absolutely love how everything turned out! We got them installed yesterday and tonight the realtor is coming over to start the process of listing our house (again). Wish us luck!!
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[entry_title] => Getting granite counters!
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[entry_text] => Ok, we tried selling our house last year with no luck. We want to try it again beginning April 1. We decided to get rid of our laminate countertops and get granite installed. The cost will be $3800. Cross your fingers and toes that this will make the difference and that our house will sell this time around. We are doing the demo in the kitchen this weekend and should have the install done within 10 days, ready for our April 1 listing date. And... if the house doesn't sell, then I get to enjoy brand new granite countertops!
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[entry_title] => A new month, A clean start!
[entry_stub] => march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/03/01/march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start_66521/
[entry_date] => 1299006127
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-01 13:02:07
[entry_text] => Spring fever must be hitting me right now. I am in the mood to clean out my house and straighten up my life. For the past week, I've organized my closets, cabinets, and junk drawers. I have found a whole year's supply of contacts that I now remembered ordering and stashing so that I didn't have to go back to the eye doctor for another year. I totally forgot about these and I was going to place an order within the next month or so! I found 2 full size brand new containers of DH's favorite hair gel. I've donated bags of stuff to Goodwill. I've thrown away so much clutter that has literally just sat in our house for the past 5 years. It feels great! I highly recommend everyone to find a drawer or closet and get at it! I did an area each night for a week and it was painless.
A 2011 financial goal was to reach the $20,000 mark in our E-fund. I deposited a $100 credit card reward check today bringing the balance up to.... drum roll.... $20,049.28!!!!!!!! Now, let's cross our fingers that we won't see any kind of emergencies for a while so that I can enjoy seeing that awesome number. Wahoo!!!
Other random updates:
I gave my sister a blank check for her birthday payable to her power company. She's the one that is in a huge financial mess. The bill was for $210.55. I asked her how much of the bill was for late fees and penalties and she didn't even know the answer to that... it's quite sad. But, oh well, it's nice to be able to help her when I can (I only give her money for holidays instead of buying her nonsense so as to not try to enable her family's bad money habits). She did tell me that she went and applied for food stamps and other family aid which is about time in my opinion.
My co-worker is making great progress on her financial situation. She made it through Christmas without having to charge a dime. There are still a few debts that she has left to pay off but I see her getting to the finish line within the next year or two.
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[entry_title] => Government Foreclosure
[entry_stub] => government-foreclosure
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[entry_date] => 1295031503
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-14 12:58:23
[entry_text] => Ok, so I've always been interested in investing in real estate. I've blogged about possibilities before on here but have never actually taken the plunge to go for anything. A family friend, who has a lot of experience in real estate investing, referred me to government foreclosures as a possibility. This was back in November. I got wrapped up in the Holidays and hadn't really had a chance to follow up or look for any foreclosures but long story short, after taking a peek today, I see that there is a foreclosure up for auction next week! The gov't bid is listed at $26k, whatever that means. I have a lot of research still left to do but my mind is racing with the opportunity to get a decent house for so cheap. I know the area and I know exactly where the house is --- nice family neighborhood. I'd estimate the retail value of the house at around $90-$100k. I'm going to talk to my friend tonight to get more guidance about the process. He started out with a government foreclosure and so he'll know what to do... Maybe this will be the one for us??
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[entry_title] => Updating savings amounts for 2011
[entry_stub] => updating-savings-amounts-for-2011
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[entry_date] => 1294770581
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-11 12:29:41
[entry_text] => We had been saving $1,000 per month into savings (short-term, mid-term, and retirement). I just got online to all our accounts and increased everything to $1,500 per month. I think we can do more but let's see how this feels for a few months.
We also are going to start paying extra on our mortgage... just to round it up from $1,652 to $1,700 each month which is just $48 so no biggie. We used to pay a few hundred extra per month when we first got the mortgage but then scaled back to the regular monthly payment amount when we were trying to sell our house. Now that it looks like we'll be here for a while, I figured we'd start paying a little extra just because.
Some things I look forward to in 2011:
1. Reaching the $20,000 mark in our e-fund.
2. Would love to be 100-105 lbs! Before you think that is outrageous, please be aware that I am very petite and this would be normal (but on the lean side) for someone like me. I have thus far cut out soda (except for one can twice a week -- long story) which is going to help tremendously. I am trying to fit in some exercise too... so far, so good.
3. Cook at home more/eating out less. This has been working out pretty well thus far.
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[entry_title] => An update -- finally!
[entry_stub] => an-update-finally
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[entry_date] => 1291296177
[entry_date_mysql] => 2010-12-02 07:22:57
[entry_text] => Ok, so I can't believe it's been nearly 3 months since I last posted. Things have been absolutely crazy around here and so I have a lot of catching up to do in blogland!
An update on my co-worker's situation. I started working with her on Oct 1 to straighten out her finances. Good news --- she's paid off two small credit card balances, one medical bill, and most importantly, the debt she had with her son (she'd borrow money from him from time to time to keep herself afloat). She has also put aside $820 in her savings account which she says is the first time she's ever saved anything. $600 of this is for Christmas and the rest is for buying new tires for her car. She still has a long way to go to pay off her debts but she's made huge progress in the couple of months I've been guiding her through. We meet about 2-3 times a month to make sure that she stays on track and for me to basically hold her hand... she still can't figure out what to pay first, how much to pay, or anything like that so I give her a roadmap everytime we meet.
Ok, now the big news on my side of things is that DH and I are considering going to NYC over New Year's. Isn't that just crazy to even think about being in all that chaos? But, we were looking at our work schedules and the kids' school calendar and wouldn't you know that we have a ton of time off available. My sister has offered to watch the kids for us so it'll just be a trip for the two of us which hasn't happened.... ever! So, I hop online and look at rates-- it will cost about $2500 for airline and hotel for 5 nights. Yikes! It would be cheaper if we didn't want to stay right near Times Square but this will be a trip of a lifetime for us so we thought we'd splurge a bit more than what we normally would do. With eating and shopping money, the trip will probably be around $3500. Anybody ever been to NY? Anything to look out for or suggestions on where to stay, eat, or do?
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[entry_title] => Honored to be asked
[entry_stub] => honored-to-be-asked
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[entry_date] => 1284733580
[entry_date_mysql] => 2010-09-17 09:26:20
[entry_text] => This morning, someone that works in our office comes to ask me to help her with her personal finances. This was completely out of the blue and I feel so honored that she would trust me with her money issues. She said she was thinking last night of who she could ask for help and thought of me... (after she got a denial yesterday from the local credit union for a new credit card account). Now, I'm on a quest to get her all squared away and you guys can come along on the journey. Here's her situation:
Married with 2 children (one in college and one in high school), but not a financially sound marriage ever, apparently... DH is a banker of all things but he apparently doesn't have his head on straight when it comes to their own money. He wants to keep everything completely separate in their household so the wife just deals with this (even though he makes probably 4 times what she does). For the major expenses, he covers the mortgage and utilities. She has to cover the groceries for the house.
Finances:
OUT categories we've identified thus far =
*groceries/eating out for household
*car payment on her car
*gas/maintenance on her car
*half of the household cell phone bill
*medical bills for household
*dog -vet/grooming bills
*multiple credit cards (highest balance is around $5k on one of them)
*three outstanding medical debts
She had her highest balance credit card statement with her and said she thought the interest rate on it was 90% (gasp) and I was like, um -- doubt it? So, I looked on her statement and showed her where the interest rate was indicated which is something like 25%. As you can see, she doesn't even know how to read her statements. She's a college graduate but when it comes to money and math, she's clueless and knows that is why she's in the trouble that she's in.
I gave her homework for the weekend -- I've asked her to write down exactly what her interest rates are on all the credit cards and their current balances. I told her to call each one of those credit card companies and ask for a lower interest rate. She also needs to identify exactly how much she owes on those outstanding medical bills and to estimate how much her other monthly expenses total up (she had no clue how much she spends on groceries, for example).
Next, I asked her about her paycheck. Since I have access to payroll, I looked up her check and all her deductions. She has zero withholdings and I asked if she gets a tax refund each year. Apparently, she just gives her W-2 to her DH each year and he does all the tax stuff. She does know that for 2009, they got back around $1500 total and then she got fussed at from her DH that it wasn't enough. He wanted the refund to be even higher and implied that she must not have withheld enough from her checks (jerk!). He keeps their refund and does whatever with the money even though it's "their" refund. I told her that was crazy. I calculated what increasing her withholdings to 1 and 2 would be, an additional $58 and $103 respectively, in each paycheck... Basically, by just increasing her withholdings to 1, she would have an additional $700 each year in her paychecks that her grubby hubby wouldn't have access to come tax time. She said she's all about having her withholdings changed to 1 now. Yay.
Anyway, I'll post more as we keep ironing out her budget...
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Posted in
GOALS
|
5 Comments »
June 22nd, 2011 at 12:20 pm
I am heading to the San Jose, CA area within the next couple of weeks with my parents. We are going to see some family members that we have not seen in over 30 years! This is my first trip out to CA so I'm uber excited to go. Best thing is that I have to pay zippo for the trip. My parents covered my flight costs since I'm going as a favor to them (they need a chaperone when they travel as they don't understand airports at all). We'll be staying with family so that covers lodging. I'll just spend a bit for souvenirs to bring back to the fam.
I am also hoping to have a nice small and simple vacation to the beach at the end of July. My in-laws wanted us to go with them but honestly, the chaos of vacationing with that whole side of the family is just not mine or DH's cup of tea. They are so "not us" when it comes to how to vacation, you know what I mean? We are simple and realistic, but they want all the bells and whistles (like only staying where the kitchen has granite countertops!) So, bless DH for telling his mom that we just can't go with all 11 of them again this year. I look forward to just DH and me taking our girls ourselves to stay in some modest hotel and enjoying simple family time without the roo-rah of fancy (and stupid) details.
Spent $1300 last week to get the rear wheel bearings replaced, rear brake pads and rotors filed down and turned, and an oil change
---------> Took the car in today because all the check engine kind of lights were on...Was just told that we need to have the ECM (the car's computer) replaced and that will be another $1200!!! Haven't told DH yet -- he's going to freak out.
We have a 2003 Toyota Sienna.
---------> This poor van has been neglected for so long in regards to routine maintenance. The tires are so bald (we don't drive it except within town to run errands so we've been putting it off). The dealer is having a tire sale next week so we've scheduled an appointment to have 4 new tires put on and for a well overdue oil change done. Estimated cost will be around $350.
Has anyone been adding all this up? If not, that's ok, cause I've already done it for you and it's a whopping $2850 in a few weeks time for stupid car maintenance issues. Aacckkk!!!
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[entry_title] => Reasons we hate our house...
[entry_stub] => reasons-we-hate-our-house
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/04/11/reasons-we-hate-our-house_68100/
[entry_date] => 1302528330
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-11 08:25:30
[entry_text] => Some of you have asked so here is the scoop...
House #1
Purchased in 1997
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1000 sq ft
Small but corner lot in a tight subdivision
House #2
Purchased in 2001
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1600 sq ft
Large (to us) 1/3 acre lot in a nice subdivision, backed up to farmland so was nice and private
House #3 CURRENT HOUSE
Purchased in 2006
3 story house, main living space on first floor, all bedrooms are upstairs, finished full basement
approx 2600 sq ft
.67 acre lot
So, our current house #3 might look to be a great step up for us, right? Well, not quite...
House #1 was our starter home when we just got married. It was a great little house but we got tired of the really, really tight subdivision. All the houses were so close together --- no privacy at all. So, we sold it and moved across town to House #2. This house was the smallest in the neighborhood. Most of the other houses were 2 story homes that looked really big compared to our house. But, we loved the flat lot of our house, the floorplan really worked for us, and it was a really good fit for our growing family.
Then, we moved 4 hours away, from the flat lands to the mountains, for a new job opportunity. We realized quickly that housing prices in the mountains were quite higher than they were in the big city that we came from. Also, the houses here were mainly multi-level homes since they were built alongside hill banks. We had only 2 main criteria when looking for this home: 1) I wanted a garage with main level access. I didn't want to haul groceries from a basement entry garage up stairs to the kitchen. I'd say 75% of homes here all have their garage in the basement. 2) I wanted a large lot with trees. Having lived in the city, we didn't have a lot of natural wooded areas. I thought that was what I wanted. So, we bought House #3 because these 2 main criteria were met and now 5 years later, we just hate the house. We had never lived in a multi-level home before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to go up and down stairs all the time. We had never lived on a wooded lot before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to pick up fallen limbs all the time. Ugh, ugh, and ugh. I guess it's one of those situations where the grass really isn't greener on the other side... all along we thought those bigger 2 story houses in our neighborhoods were so nice and roomy. Blah! We so miss our little ranch style homes!!!
So, a summary of all the things we hate about our current house:
1) Stairs, stairs, and more stairs!
2) All the trees! It gets windy here alot and those fallen branches are a pain to deal with
3) Hillsides! No flat place for the kids to play
4) Open floor plan of living space! Our 'great room' consists of the living room, kitchen, and dining spaces... all in one big open area. Now, I know this is all the rage in today's real estate market, but now that we actually live in this kind of living space, we just don't like it. It's really noisy!!
5) No air conditioning! As a mountain home, it is not common to have A/C here... or so one would think! The houses here just aren't built with A/C as standard. It gets pretty hot for just about one month out of the year but gosh, that one month nearly kills us each year!
So, those are the top 5 reasons why we hate our house. All these reasons were things that we just didn't realize would bother us until we actually bought the house and started living in it. We learn what we like and dislike from each home we live in and we certainly know what to look for in our House #4... we just need to sell this one first!
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[entry_title] => Should we sell or not?
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[entry_date] => 1301930017
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-04 10:13:37
[entry_text] => Ack, what to do?? Ok, some back history. We tried selling our house for 2 years and had no offers. We took the house off the market for 6 months to take a break. We started asking for $349k and ended up our last listing price at $299k... Granted, we did start too high on the price for the market that we were in but settled on a price that is very fair -- but still no offers, so we pulled it off the market. Now that it is Spring, we are thinking about putting it on again.
Our past realtors were without a better term popping into my head right now, sucky. They just listed the house and didn't do much of anything else. We found another realtor that has come highly recommended... we met with him last week and he did a market analysis (CMA) on our house. If you've been following my blog, you know that we just installed granite in our kitchen... so, with that improvement, we really think we have an edge over the competition in our price range. DH and I thought we would stay at the $299k price as our listing price. After the CMA, the new realtor suggested listing it at $289k.... BUT in all honesty, the houses he compared to ours are nowhere near what ours has to offer. There just aren't too many sold houses he can compare ours to. So, he's comfortable in putting it on at $299k if that is what we still want to do. The bottom line that we are willing to sell for is $290k.
So, should we or shouldn't we try to sell the house again? DH and I just don't like it --- there is no other reason to sell. We both have stable jobs and we don't need to move anywhere. We've just HATEd our house since the day we moved in 5 years ago. If we end up at our bottom of $290k, we'd make zippo, and actually lose money really. We bought the house for $288k in 2006 (brand new) and put in $20k in improvements (granite and driveway/retaining wall work), so we've got $308k in the house. However, DH and I don't really consider the $20k we put into the house as additional cost for the house because those things were done to make the house more "liveable" for us. We wouldn't have to come to the table with any cash as our mortgage balance is low enough to where we will still have a bit of cash from the sale after the mortgage is paid.
So, what would you do? Would you go with the financially correct decision and just stay put? Or, would you do what would make you and the family happy and take a slight loss on the house?
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[entry_title] => Can a person LOVE a sink?
[entry_stub] => can-a-person-love-a-sink
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/03/29/can-a-person-love-a-sink_67618/
[entry_date] => 1301430598
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-29 15:29:58
[entry_text] => Here's a pic of my new sink and granite counters.... I absolutely love how everything turned out! We got them installed yesterday and tonight the realtor is coming over to start the process of listing our house (again). Wish us luck!!
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[entry_title] => Getting granite counters!
[entry_stub] => getting-granite-counters
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[entry_date] => 1300478106
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-18 14:55:06
[entry_text] => Ok, we tried selling our house last year with no luck. We want to try it again beginning April 1. We decided to get rid of our laminate countertops and get granite installed. The cost will be $3800. Cross your fingers and toes that this will make the difference and that our house will sell this time around. We are doing the demo in the kitchen this weekend and should have the install done within 10 days, ready for our April 1 listing date. And... if the house doesn't sell, then I get to enjoy brand new granite countertops!
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[entry_title] => A new month, A clean start!
[entry_stub] => march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start
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[entry_date] => 1299006127
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-01 13:02:07
[entry_text] => Spring fever must be hitting me right now. I am in the mood to clean out my house and straighten up my life. For the past week, I've organized my closets, cabinets, and junk drawers. I have found a whole year's supply of contacts that I now remembered ordering and stashing so that I didn't have to go back to the eye doctor for another year. I totally forgot about these and I was going to place an order within the next month or so! I found 2 full size brand new containers of DH's favorite hair gel. I've donated bags of stuff to Goodwill. I've thrown away so much clutter that has literally just sat in our house for the past 5 years. It feels great! I highly recommend everyone to find a drawer or closet and get at it! I did an area each night for a week and it was painless.
A 2011 financial goal was to reach the $20,000 mark in our E-fund. I deposited a $100 credit card reward check today bringing the balance up to.... drum roll.... $20,049.28!!!!!!!! Now, let's cross our fingers that we won't see any kind of emergencies for a while so that I can enjoy seeing that awesome number. Wahoo!!!
Other random updates:
I gave my sister a blank check for her birthday payable to her power company. She's the one that is in a huge financial mess. The bill was for $210.55. I asked her how much of the bill was for late fees and penalties and she didn't even know the answer to that... it's quite sad. But, oh well, it's nice to be able to help her when I can (I only give her money for holidays instead of buying her nonsense so as to not try to enable her family's bad money habits). She did tell me that she went and applied for food stamps and other family aid which is about time in my opinion.
My co-worker is making great progress on her financial situation. She made it through Christmas without having to charge a dime. There are still a few debts that she has left to pay off but I see her getting to the finish line within the next year or two.
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[entry_title] => Government Foreclosure
[entry_stub] => government-foreclosure
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[entry_date] => 1295031503
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-14 12:58:23
[entry_text] => Ok, so I've always been interested in investing in real estate. I've blogged about possibilities before on here but have never actually taken the plunge to go for anything. A family friend, who has a lot of experience in real estate investing, referred me to government foreclosures as a possibility. This was back in November. I got wrapped up in the Holidays and hadn't really had a chance to follow up or look for any foreclosures but long story short, after taking a peek today, I see that there is a foreclosure up for auction next week! The gov't bid is listed at $26k, whatever that means. I have a lot of research still left to do but my mind is racing with the opportunity to get a decent house for so cheap. I know the area and I know exactly where the house is --- nice family neighborhood. I'd estimate the retail value of the house at around $90-$100k. I'm going to talk to my friend tonight to get more guidance about the process. He started out with a government foreclosure and so he'll know what to do... Maybe this will be the one for us??
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[entry_title] => Updating savings amounts for 2011
[entry_stub] => updating-savings-amounts-for-2011
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[entry_date] => 1294770581
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-11 12:29:41
[entry_text] => We had been saving $1,000 per month into savings (short-term, mid-term, and retirement). I just got online to all our accounts and increased everything to $1,500 per month. I think we can do more but let's see how this feels for a few months.
We also are going to start paying extra on our mortgage... just to round it up from $1,652 to $1,700 each month which is just $48 so no biggie. We used to pay a few hundred extra per month when we first got the mortgage but then scaled back to the regular monthly payment amount when we were trying to sell our house. Now that it looks like we'll be here for a while, I figured we'd start paying a little extra just because.
Some things I look forward to in 2011:
1. Reaching the $20,000 mark in our e-fund.
2. Would love to be 100-105 lbs! Before you think that is outrageous, please be aware that I am very petite and this would be normal (but on the lean side) for someone like me. I have thus far cut out soda (except for one can twice a week -- long story) which is going to help tremendously. I am trying to fit in some exercise too... so far, so good.
3. Cook at home more/eating out less. This has been working out pretty well thus far.
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[entry_title] => An update -- finally!
[entry_stub] => an-update-finally
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[entry_date] => 1291296177
[entry_date_mysql] => 2010-12-02 07:22:57
[entry_text] => Ok, so I can't believe it's been nearly 3 months since I last posted. Things have been absolutely crazy around here and so I have a lot of catching up to do in blogland!
An update on my co-worker's situation. I started working with her on Oct 1 to straighten out her finances. Good news --- she's paid off two small credit card balances, one medical bill, and most importantly, the debt she had with her son (she'd borrow money from him from time to time to keep herself afloat). She has also put aside $820 in her savings account which she says is the first time she's ever saved anything. $600 of this is for Christmas and the rest is for buying new tires for her car. She still has a long way to go to pay off her debts but she's made huge progress in the couple of months I've been guiding her through. We meet about 2-3 times a month to make sure that she stays on track and for me to basically hold her hand... she still can't figure out what to pay first, how much to pay, or anything like that so I give her a roadmap everytime we meet.
Ok, now the big news on my side of things is that DH and I are considering going to NYC over New Year's. Isn't that just crazy to even think about being in all that chaos? But, we were looking at our work schedules and the kids' school calendar and wouldn't you know that we have a ton of time off available. My sister has offered to watch the kids for us so it'll just be a trip for the two of us which hasn't happened.... ever! So, I hop online and look at rates-- it will cost about $2500 for airline and hotel for 5 nights. Yikes! It would be cheaper if we didn't want to stay right near Times Square but this will be a trip of a lifetime for us so we thought we'd splurge a bit more than what we normally would do. With eating and shopping money, the trip will probably be around $3500. Anybody ever been to NY? Anything to look out for or suggestions on where to stay, eat, or do?
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[entry_title] => Honored to be asked
[entry_stub] => honored-to-be-asked
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[entry_date] => 1284733580
[entry_date_mysql] => 2010-09-17 09:26:20
[entry_text] => This morning, someone that works in our office comes to ask me to help her with her personal finances. This was completely out of the blue and I feel so honored that she would trust me with her money issues. She said she was thinking last night of who she could ask for help and thought of me... (after she got a denial yesterday from the local credit union for a new credit card account). Now, I'm on a quest to get her all squared away and you guys can come along on the journey. Here's her situation:
Married with 2 children (one in college and one in high school), but not a financially sound marriage ever, apparently... DH is a banker of all things but he apparently doesn't have his head on straight when it comes to their own money. He wants to keep everything completely separate in their household so the wife just deals with this (even though he makes probably 4 times what she does). For the major expenses, he covers the mortgage and utilities. She has to cover the groceries for the house.
Finances:
OUT categories we've identified thus far =
*groceries/eating out for household
*car payment on her car
*gas/maintenance on her car
*half of the household cell phone bill
*medical bills for household
*dog -vet/grooming bills
*multiple credit cards (highest balance is around $5k on one of them)
*three outstanding medical debts
She had her highest balance credit card statement with her and said she thought the interest rate on it was 90% (gasp) and I was like, um -- doubt it? So, I looked on her statement and showed her where the interest rate was indicated which is something like 25%. As you can see, she doesn't even know how to read her statements. She's a college graduate but when it comes to money and math, she's clueless and knows that is why she's in the trouble that she's in.
I gave her homework for the weekend -- I've asked her to write down exactly what her interest rates are on all the credit cards and their current balances. I told her to call each one of those credit card companies and ask for a lower interest rate. She also needs to identify exactly how much she owes on those outstanding medical bills and to estimate how much her other monthly expenses total up (she had no clue how much she spends on groceries, for example).
Next, I asked her about her paycheck. Since I have access to payroll, I looked up her check and all her deductions. She has zero withholdings and I asked if she gets a tax refund each year. Apparently, she just gives her W-2 to her DH each year and he does all the tax stuff. She does know that for 2009, they got back around $1500 total and then she got fussed at from her DH that it wasn't enough. He wanted the refund to be even higher and implied that she must not have withheld enough from her checks (jerk!). He keeps their refund and does whatever with the money even though it's "their" refund. I told her that was crazy. I calculated what increasing her withholdings to 1 and 2 would be, an additional $58 and $103 respectively, in each paycheck... Basically, by just increasing her withholdings to 1, she would have an additional $700 each year in her paychecks that her grubby hubby wouldn't have access to come tax time. She said she's all about having her withholdings changed to 1 now. Yay.
Anyway, I'll post more as we keep ironing out her budget...
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Posted in
GOALS
|
2 Comments »
June 15th, 2011 at 06:11 pm
I love seeing pictures on the blogs so here are some pics of the short sale house we just offered on:
Nasty roof:
Wallpaper everywhere:
Master bedroom:
Master bathroom with yucky toile wallpaper:
Nasty back porch:
Yucky garage:
Big but yucky kitchen:
Family room:
Spent $1300 last week to get the rear wheel bearings replaced, rear brake pads and rotors filed down and turned, and an oil change
---------> Took the car in today because all the check engine kind of lights were on...Was just told that we need to have the ECM (the car's computer) replaced and that will be another $1200!!! Haven't told DH yet -- he's going to freak out.
We have a 2003 Toyota Sienna.
---------> This poor van has been neglected for so long in regards to routine maintenance. The tires are so bald (we don't drive it except within town to run errands so we've been putting it off). The dealer is having a tire sale next week so we've scheduled an appointment to have 4 new tires put on and for a well overdue oil change done. Estimated cost will be around $350.
Has anyone been adding all this up? If not, that's ok, cause I've already done it for you and it's a whopping $2850 in a few weeks time for stupid car maintenance issues. Aacckkk!!!
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[entry_title] => Reasons we hate our house...
[entry_stub] => reasons-we-hate-our-house
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/04/11/reasons-we-hate-our-house_68100/
[entry_date] => 1302528330
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-11 08:25:30
[entry_text] => Some of you have asked so here is the scoop...
House #1
Purchased in 1997
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1000 sq ft
Small but corner lot in a tight subdivision
House #2
Purchased in 2001
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1600 sq ft
Large (to us) 1/3 acre lot in a nice subdivision, backed up to farmland so was nice and private
House #3 CURRENT HOUSE
Purchased in 2006
3 story house, main living space on first floor, all bedrooms are upstairs, finished full basement
approx 2600 sq ft
.67 acre lot
So, our current house #3 might look to be a great step up for us, right? Well, not quite...
House #1 was our starter home when we just got married. It was a great little house but we got tired of the really, really tight subdivision. All the houses were so close together --- no privacy at all. So, we sold it and moved across town to House #2. This house was the smallest in the neighborhood. Most of the other houses were 2 story homes that looked really big compared to our house. But, we loved the flat lot of our house, the floorplan really worked for us, and it was a really good fit for our growing family.
Then, we moved 4 hours away, from the flat lands to the mountains, for a new job opportunity. We realized quickly that housing prices in the mountains were quite higher than they were in the big city that we came from. Also, the houses here were mainly multi-level homes since they were built alongside hill banks. We had only 2 main criteria when looking for this home: 1) I wanted a garage with main level access. I didn't want to haul groceries from a basement entry garage up stairs to the kitchen. I'd say 75% of homes here all have their garage in the basement. 2) I wanted a large lot with trees. Having lived in the city, we didn't have a lot of natural wooded areas. I thought that was what I wanted. So, we bought House #3 because these 2 main criteria were met and now 5 years later, we just hate the house. We had never lived in a multi-level home before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to go up and down stairs all the time. We had never lived on a wooded lot before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to pick up fallen limbs all the time. Ugh, ugh, and ugh. I guess it's one of those situations where the grass really isn't greener on the other side... all along we thought those bigger 2 story houses in our neighborhoods were so nice and roomy. Blah! We so miss our little ranch style homes!!!
So, a summary of all the things we hate about our current house:
1) Stairs, stairs, and more stairs!
2) All the trees! It gets windy here alot and those fallen branches are a pain to deal with
3) Hillsides! No flat place for the kids to play
4) Open floor plan of living space! Our 'great room' consists of the living room, kitchen, and dining spaces... all in one big open area. Now, I know this is all the rage in today's real estate market, but now that we actually live in this kind of living space, we just don't like it. It's really noisy!!
5) No air conditioning! As a mountain home, it is not common to have A/C here... or so one would think! The houses here just aren't built with A/C as standard. It gets pretty hot for just about one month out of the year but gosh, that one month nearly kills us each year!
So, those are the top 5 reasons why we hate our house. All these reasons were things that we just didn't realize would bother us until we actually bought the house and started living in it. We learn what we like and dislike from each home we live in and we certainly know what to look for in our House #4... we just need to sell this one first!
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[entry_title] => Should we sell or not?
[entry_stub] => should-we-sell-or-not
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[entry_date] => 1301930017
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-04 10:13:37
[entry_text] => Ack, what to do?? Ok, some back history. We tried selling our house for 2 years and had no offers. We took the house off the market for 6 months to take a break. We started asking for $349k and ended up our last listing price at $299k... Granted, we did start too high on the price for the market that we were in but settled on a price that is very fair -- but still no offers, so we pulled it off the market. Now that it is Spring, we are thinking about putting it on again.
Our past realtors were without a better term popping into my head right now, sucky. They just listed the house and didn't do much of anything else. We found another realtor that has come highly recommended... we met with him last week and he did a market analysis (CMA) on our house. If you've been following my blog, you know that we just installed granite in our kitchen... so, with that improvement, we really think we have an edge over the competition in our price range. DH and I thought we would stay at the $299k price as our listing price. After the CMA, the new realtor suggested listing it at $289k.... BUT in all honesty, the houses he compared to ours are nowhere near what ours has to offer. There just aren't too many sold houses he can compare ours to. So, he's comfortable in putting it on at $299k if that is what we still want to do. The bottom line that we are willing to sell for is $290k.
So, should we or shouldn't we try to sell the house again? DH and I just don't like it --- there is no other reason to sell. We both have stable jobs and we don't need to move anywhere. We've just HATEd our house since the day we moved in 5 years ago. If we end up at our bottom of $290k, we'd make zippo, and actually lose money really. We bought the house for $288k in 2006 (brand new) and put in $20k in improvements (granite and driveway/retaining wall work), so we've got $308k in the house. However, DH and I don't really consider the $20k we put into the house as additional cost for the house because those things were done to make the house more "liveable" for us. We wouldn't have to come to the table with any cash as our mortgage balance is low enough to where we will still have a bit of cash from the sale after the mortgage is paid.
So, what would you do? Would you go with the financially correct decision and just stay put? Or, would you do what would make you and the family happy and take a slight loss on the house?
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[entry_title] => Can a person LOVE a sink?
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[entry_date] => 1301430598
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-29 15:29:58
[entry_text] => Here's a pic of my new sink and granite counters.... I absolutely love how everything turned out! We got them installed yesterday and tonight the realtor is coming over to start the process of listing our house (again). Wish us luck!!
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[entry_title] => Getting granite counters!
[entry_stub] => getting-granite-counters
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[entry_date] => 1300478106
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-18 14:55:06
[entry_text] => Ok, we tried selling our house last year with no luck. We want to try it again beginning April 1. We decided to get rid of our laminate countertops and get granite installed. The cost will be $3800. Cross your fingers and toes that this will make the difference and that our house will sell this time around. We are doing the demo in the kitchen this weekend and should have the install done within 10 days, ready for our April 1 listing date. And... if the house doesn't sell, then I get to enjoy brand new granite countertops!
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[entry_title] => A new month, A clean start!
[entry_stub] => march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/03/01/march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start_66521/
[entry_date] => 1299006127
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-01 13:02:07
[entry_text] => Spring fever must be hitting me right now. I am in the mood to clean out my house and straighten up my life. For the past week, I've organized my closets, cabinets, and junk drawers. I have found a whole year's supply of contacts that I now remembered ordering and stashing so that I didn't have to go back to the eye doctor for another year. I totally forgot about these and I was going to place an order within the next month or so! I found 2 full size brand new containers of DH's favorite hair gel. I've donated bags of stuff to Goodwill. I've thrown away so much clutter that has literally just sat in our house for the past 5 years. It feels great! I highly recommend everyone to find a drawer or closet and get at it! I did an area each night for a week and it was painless.
A 2011 financial goal was to reach the $20,000 mark in our E-fund. I deposited a $100 credit card reward check today bringing the balance up to.... drum roll.... $20,049.28!!!!!!!! Now, let's cross our fingers that we won't see any kind of emergencies for a while so that I can enjoy seeing that awesome number. Wahoo!!!
Other random updates:
I gave my sister a blank check for her birthday payable to her power company. She's the one that is in a huge financial mess. The bill was for $210.55. I asked her how much of the bill was for late fees and penalties and she didn't even know the answer to that... it's quite sad. But, oh well, it's nice to be able to help her when I can (I only give her money for holidays instead of buying her nonsense so as to not try to enable her family's bad money habits). She did tell me that she went and applied for food stamps and other family aid which is about time in my opinion.
My co-worker is making great progress on her financial situation. She made it through Christmas without having to charge a dime. There are still a few debts that she has left to pay off but I see her getting to the finish line within the next year or two.
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[entry_title] => Government Foreclosure
[entry_stub] => government-foreclosure
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[entry_date] => 1295031503
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-14 12:58:23
[entry_text] => Ok, so I've always been interested in investing in real estate. I've blogged about possibilities before on here but have never actually taken the plunge to go for anything. A family friend, who has a lot of experience in real estate investing, referred me to government foreclosures as a possibility. This was back in November. I got wrapped up in the Holidays and hadn't really had a chance to follow up or look for any foreclosures but long story short, after taking a peek today, I see that there is a foreclosure up for auction next week! The gov't bid is listed at $26k, whatever that means. I have a lot of research still left to do but my mind is racing with the opportunity to get a decent house for so cheap. I know the area and I know exactly where the house is --- nice family neighborhood. I'd estimate the retail value of the house at around $90-$100k. I'm going to talk to my friend tonight to get more guidance about the process. He started out with a government foreclosure and so he'll know what to do... Maybe this will be the one for us??
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[entry_title] => Updating savings amounts for 2011
[entry_stub] => updating-savings-amounts-for-2011
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[entry_date] => 1294770581
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[entry_text] => We had been saving $1,000 per month into savings (short-term, mid-term, and retirement). I just got online to all our accounts and increased everything to $1,500 per month. I think we can do more but let's see how this feels for a few months.
We also are going to start paying extra on our mortgage... just to round it up from $1,652 to $1,700 each month which is just $48 so no biggie. We used to pay a few hundred extra per month when we first got the mortgage but then scaled back to the regular monthly payment amount when we were trying to sell our house. Now that it looks like we'll be here for a while, I figured we'd start paying a little extra just because.
Some things I look forward to in 2011:
1. Reaching the $20,000 mark in our e-fund.
2. Would love to be 100-105 lbs! Before you think that is outrageous, please be aware that I am very petite and this would be normal (but on the lean side) for someone like me. I have thus far cut out soda (except for one can twice a week -- long story) which is going to help tremendously. I am trying to fit in some exercise too... so far, so good.
3. Cook at home more/eating out less. This has been working out pretty well thus far.
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[entry_title] => An update -- finally!
[entry_stub] => an-update-finally
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[entry_date] => 1291296177
[entry_date_mysql] => 2010-12-02 07:22:57
[entry_text] => Ok, so I can't believe it's been nearly 3 months since I last posted. Things have been absolutely crazy around here and so I have a lot of catching up to do in blogland!
An update on my co-worker's situation. I started working with her on Oct 1 to straighten out her finances. Good news --- she's paid off two small credit card balances, one medical bill, and most importantly, the debt she had with her son (she'd borrow money from him from time to time to keep herself afloat). She has also put aside $820 in her savings account which she says is the first time she's ever saved anything. $600 of this is for Christmas and the rest is for buying new tires for her car. She still has a long way to go to pay off her debts but she's made huge progress in the couple of months I've been guiding her through. We meet about 2-3 times a month to make sure that she stays on track and for me to basically hold her hand... she still can't figure out what to pay first, how much to pay, or anything like that so I give her a roadmap everytime we meet.
Ok, now the big news on my side of things is that DH and I are considering going to NYC over New Year's. Isn't that just crazy to even think about being in all that chaos? But, we were looking at our work schedules and the kids' school calendar and wouldn't you know that we have a ton of time off available. My sister has offered to watch the kids for us so it'll just be a trip for the two of us which hasn't happened.... ever! So, I hop online and look at rates-- it will cost about $2500 for airline and hotel for 5 nights. Yikes! It would be cheaper if we didn't want to stay right near Times Square but this will be a trip of a lifetime for us so we thought we'd splurge a bit more than what we normally would do. With eating and shopping money, the trip will probably be around $3500. Anybody ever been to NY? Anything to look out for or suggestions on where to stay, eat, or do?
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[entry_title] => Honored to be asked
[entry_stub] => honored-to-be-asked
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[entry_date] => 1284733580
[entry_date_mysql] => 2010-09-17 09:26:20
[entry_text] => This morning, someone that works in our office comes to ask me to help her with her personal finances. This was completely out of the blue and I feel so honored that she would trust me with her money issues. She said she was thinking last night of who she could ask for help and thought of me... (after she got a denial yesterday from the local credit union for a new credit card account). Now, I'm on a quest to get her all squared away and you guys can come along on the journey. Here's her situation:
Married with 2 children (one in college and one in high school), but not a financially sound marriage ever, apparently... DH is a banker of all things but he apparently doesn't have his head on straight when it comes to their own money. He wants to keep everything completely separate in their household so the wife just deals with this (even though he makes probably 4 times what she does). For the major expenses, he covers the mortgage and utilities. She has to cover the groceries for the house.
Finances:
OUT categories we've identified thus far =
*groceries/eating out for household
*car payment on her car
*gas/maintenance on her car
*half of the household cell phone bill
*medical bills for household
*dog -vet/grooming bills
*multiple credit cards (highest balance is around $5k on one of them)
*three outstanding medical debts
She had her highest balance credit card statement with her and said she thought the interest rate on it was 90% (gasp) and I was like, um -- doubt it? So, I looked on her statement and showed her where the interest rate was indicated which is something like 25%. As you can see, she doesn't even know how to read her statements. She's a college graduate but when it comes to money and math, she's clueless and knows that is why she's in the trouble that she's in.
I gave her homework for the weekend -- I've asked her to write down exactly what her interest rates are on all the credit cards and their current balances. I told her to call each one of those credit card companies and ask for a lower interest rate. She also needs to identify exactly how much she owes on those outstanding medical bills and to estimate how much her other monthly expenses total up (she had no clue how much she spends on groceries, for example).
Next, I asked her about her paycheck. Since I have access to payroll, I looked up her check and all her deductions. She has zero withholdings and I asked if she gets a tax refund each year. Apparently, she just gives her W-2 to her DH each year and he does all the tax stuff. She does know that for 2009, they got back around $1500 total and then she got fussed at from her DH that it wasn't enough. He wanted the refund to be even higher and implied that she must not have withheld enough from her checks (jerk!). He keeps their refund and does whatever with the money even though it's "their" refund. I told her that was crazy. I calculated what increasing her withholdings to 1 and 2 would be, an additional $58 and $103 respectively, in each paycheck... Basically, by just increasing her withholdings to 1, she would have an additional $700 each year in her paychecks that her grubby hubby wouldn't have access to come tax time. She said she's all about having her withholdings changed to 1 now. Yay.
Anyway, I'll post more as we keep ironing out her budget...
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-->
Posted in
Uncategorized
|
14 Comments »
June 14th, 2011 at 08:11 pm
I'm doing it folks. In one hour, I'll be heading down to the realtor's office and we are submitting an offer on the potential short sale house! Ack! I'm completely nervous because of 2 things:
1) We haven't sold our current house yet! We'll have two houses and two mortgages. Yes, our house is on the market but no telling how long it will take to actually sell it. We decided that we would offer very low (like $100k lower than asking price) on this short sale and if they accepted, then great -- we'll then adjust our asking price of our current home to rock bottom and that should sell it pronto. If they don't accept the offer, then we'll walk away because of the following reason number 2...
2) This short sale house needs a TON of work done to it. It needs a new roof first and foremost. Then there is so much more to do outside and inside. It will drain our cash reserves to do all the work but we just love the house and its location. If we do get this house, it will be our forever home and we'll have the rest of our lives to make it ours.
Call us crazy or foolish but we've been searching and searching for years. This one keeps coming up on our radar and when the price came down low enough (due to the short sale potential), I just felt like it was meant to be... stay tuned to hear how this all turns out. Spent $1300 last week to get the rear wheel bearings replaced, rear brake pads and rotors filed down and turned, and an oil change
---------> Took the car in today because all the check engine kind of lights were on...Was just told that we need to have the ECM (the car's computer) replaced and that will be another $1200!!! Haven't told DH yet -- he's going to freak out.
We have a 2003 Toyota Sienna.
---------> This poor van has been neglected for so long in regards to routine maintenance. The tires are so bald (we don't drive it except within town to run errands so we've been putting it off). The dealer is having a tire sale next week so we've scheduled an appointment to have 4 new tires put on and for a well overdue oil change done. Estimated cost will be around $350.
Has anyone been adding all this up? If not, that's ok, cause I've already done it for you and it's a whopping $2850 in a few weeks time for stupid car maintenance issues. Aacckkk!!!
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[entry_title] => Reasons we hate our house...
[entry_stub] => reasons-we-hate-our-house
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/04/11/reasons-we-hate-our-house_68100/
[entry_date] => 1302528330
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-11 08:25:30
[entry_text] => Some of you have asked so here is the scoop...
House #1
Purchased in 1997
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1000 sq ft
Small but corner lot in a tight subdivision
House #2
Purchased in 2001
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1600 sq ft
Large (to us) 1/3 acre lot in a nice subdivision, backed up to farmland so was nice and private
House #3 CURRENT HOUSE
Purchased in 2006
3 story house, main living space on first floor, all bedrooms are upstairs, finished full basement
approx 2600 sq ft
.67 acre lot
So, our current house #3 might look to be a great step up for us, right? Well, not quite...
House #1 was our starter home when we just got married. It was a great little house but we got tired of the really, really tight subdivision. All the houses were so close together --- no privacy at all. So, we sold it and moved across town to House #2. This house was the smallest in the neighborhood. Most of the other houses were 2 story homes that looked really big compared to our house. But, we loved the flat lot of our house, the floorplan really worked for us, and it was a really good fit for our growing family.
Then, we moved 4 hours away, from the flat lands to the mountains, for a new job opportunity. We realized quickly that housing prices in the mountains were quite higher than they were in the big city that we came from. Also, the houses here were mainly multi-level homes since they were built alongside hill banks. We had only 2 main criteria when looking for this home: 1) I wanted a garage with main level access. I didn't want to haul groceries from a basement entry garage up stairs to the kitchen. I'd say 75% of homes here all have their garage in the basement. 2) I wanted a large lot with trees. Having lived in the city, we didn't have a lot of natural wooded areas. I thought that was what I wanted. So, we bought House #3 because these 2 main criteria were met and now 5 years later, we just hate the house. We had never lived in a multi-level home before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to go up and down stairs all the time. We had never lived on a wooded lot before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to pick up fallen limbs all the time. Ugh, ugh, and ugh. I guess it's one of those situations where the grass really isn't greener on the other side... all along we thought those bigger 2 story houses in our neighborhoods were so nice and roomy. Blah! We so miss our little ranch style homes!!!
So, a summary of all the things we hate about our current house:
1) Stairs, stairs, and more stairs!
2) All the trees! It gets windy here alot and those fallen branches are a pain to deal with
3) Hillsides! No flat place for the kids to play
4) Open floor plan of living space! Our 'great room' consists of the living room, kitchen, and dining spaces... all in one big open area. Now, I know this is all the rage in today's real estate market, but now that we actually live in this kind of living space, we just don't like it. It's really noisy!!
5) No air conditioning! As a mountain home, it is not common to have A/C here... or so one would think! The houses here just aren't built with A/C as standard. It gets pretty hot for just about one month out of the year but gosh, that one month nearly kills us each year!
So, those are the top 5 reasons why we hate our house. All these reasons were things that we just didn't realize would bother us until we actually bought the house and started living in it. We learn what we like and dislike from each home we live in and we certainly know what to look for in our House #4... we just need to sell this one first!
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[entry_title] => Should we sell or not?
[entry_stub] => should-we-sell-or-not
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[entry_date] => 1301930017
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-04 10:13:37
[entry_text] => Ack, what to do?? Ok, some back history. We tried selling our house for 2 years and had no offers. We took the house off the market for 6 months to take a break. We started asking for $349k and ended up our last listing price at $299k... Granted, we did start too high on the price for the market that we were in but settled on a price that is very fair -- but still no offers, so we pulled it off the market. Now that it is Spring, we are thinking about putting it on again.
Our past realtors were without a better term popping into my head right now, sucky. They just listed the house and didn't do much of anything else. We found another realtor that has come highly recommended... we met with him last week and he did a market analysis (CMA) on our house. If you've been following my blog, you know that we just installed granite in our kitchen... so, with that improvement, we really think we have an edge over the competition in our price range. DH and I thought we would stay at the $299k price as our listing price. After the CMA, the new realtor suggested listing it at $289k.... BUT in all honesty, the houses he compared to ours are nowhere near what ours has to offer. There just aren't too many sold houses he can compare ours to. So, he's comfortable in putting it on at $299k if that is what we still want to do. The bottom line that we are willing to sell for is $290k.
So, should we or shouldn't we try to sell the house again? DH and I just don't like it --- there is no other reason to sell. We both have stable jobs and we don't need to move anywhere. We've just HATEd our house since the day we moved in 5 years ago. If we end up at our bottom of $290k, we'd make zippo, and actually lose money really. We bought the house for $288k in 2006 (brand new) and put in $20k in improvements (granite and driveway/retaining wall work), so we've got $308k in the house. However, DH and I don't really consider the $20k we put into the house as additional cost for the house because those things were done to make the house more "liveable" for us. We wouldn't have to come to the table with any cash as our mortgage balance is low enough to where we will still have a bit of cash from the sale after the mortgage is paid.
So, what would you do? Would you go with the financially correct decision and just stay put? Or, would you do what would make you and the family happy and take a slight loss on the house?
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[entry_title] => Can a person LOVE a sink?
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[entry_text] => Here's a pic of my new sink and granite counters.... I absolutely love how everything turned out! We got them installed yesterday and tonight the realtor is coming over to start the process of listing our house (again). Wish us luck!!
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[entry_title] => Getting granite counters!
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[entry_text] => Ok, we tried selling our house last year with no luck. We want to try it again beginning April 1. We decided to get rid of our laminate countertops and get granite installed. The cost will be $3800. Cross your fingers and toes that this will make the difference and that our house will sell this time around. We are doing the demo in the kitchen this weekend and should have the install done within 10 days, ready for our April 1 listing date. And... if the house doesn't sell, then I get to enjoy brand new granite countertops!
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[entry_id] => 66521
[entry_title] => A new month, A clean start!
[entry_stub] => march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/03/01/march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start_66521/
[entry_date] => 1299006127
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-01 13:02:07
[entry_text] => Spring fever must be hitting me right now. I am in the mood to clean out my house and straighten up my life. For the past week, I've organized my closets, cabinets, and junk drawers. I have found a whole year's supply of contacts that I now remembered ordering and stashing so that I didn't have to go back to the eye doctor for another year. I totally forgot about these and I was going to place an order within the next month or so! I found 2 full size brand new containers of DH's favorite hair gel. I've donated bags of stuff to Goodwill. I've thrown away so much clutter that has literally just sat in our house for the past 5 years. It feels great! I highly recommend everyone to find a drawer or closet and get at it! I did an area each night for a week and it was painless.
A 2011 financial goal was to reach the $20,000 mark in our E-fund. I deposited a $100 credit card reward check today bringing the balance up to.... drum roll.... $20,049.28!!!!!!!! Now, let's cross our fingers that we won't see any kind of emergencies for a while so that I can enjoy seeing that awesome number. Wahoo!!!
Other random updates:
I gave my sister a blank check for her birthday payable to her power company. She's the one that is in a huge financial mess. The bill was for $210.55. I asked her how much of the bill was for late fees and penalties and she didn't even know the answer to that... it's quite sad. But, oh well, it's nice to be able to help her when I can (I only give her money for holidays instead of buying her nonsense so as to not try to enable her family's bad money habits). She did tell me that she went and applied for food stamps and other family aid which is about time in my opinion.
My co-worker is making great progress on her financial situation. She made it through Christmas without having to charge a dime. There are still a few debts that she has left to pay off but I see her getting to the finish line within the next year or two.
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[entry_title] => Government Foreclosure
[entry_stub] => government-foreclosure
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/01/14/government-foreclosure_65304/
[entry_date] => 1295031503
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-14 12:58:23
[entry_text] => Ok, so I've always been interested in investing in real estate. I've blogged about possibilities before on here but have never actually taken the plunge to go for anything. A family friend, who has a lot of experience in real estate investing, referred me to government foreclosures as a possibility. This was back in November. I got wrapped up in the Holidays and hadn't really had a chance to follow up or look for any foreclosures but long story short, after taking a peek today, I see that there is a foreclosure up for auction next week! The gov't bid is listed at $26k, whatever that means. I have a lot of research still left to do but my mind is racing with the opportunity to get a decent house for so cheap. I know the area and I know exactly where the house is --- nice family neighborhood. I'd estimate the retail value of the house at around $90-$100k. I'm going to talk to my friend tonight to get more guidance about the process. He started out with a government foreclosure and so he'll know what to do... Maybe this will be the one for us??
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[entry_title] => Updating savings amounts for 2011
[entry_stub] => updating-savings-amounts-for-2011
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[entry_date] => 1294770581
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-11 12:29:41
[entry_text] => We had been saving $1,000 per month into savings (short-term, mid-term, and retirement). I just got online to all our accounts and increased everything to $1,500 per month. I think we can do more but let's see how this feels for a few months.
We also are going to start paying extra on our mortgage... just to round it up from $1,652 to $1,700 each month which is just $48 so no biggie. We used to pay a few hundred extra per month when we first got the mortgage but then scaled back to the regular monthly payment amount when we were trying to sell our house. Now that it looks like we'll be here for a while, I figured we'd start paying a little extra just because.
Some things I look forward to in 2011:
1. Reaching the $20,000 mark in our e-fund.
2. Would love to be 100-105 lbs! Before you think that is outrageous, please be aware that I am very petite and this would be normal (but on the lean side) for someone like me. I have thus far cut out soda (except for one can twice a week -- long story) which is going to help tremendously. I am trying to fit in some exercise too... so far, so good.
3. Cook at home more/eating out less. This has been working out pretty well thus far.
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[entry_title] => An update -- finally!
[entry_stub] => an-update-finally
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[entry_date] => 1291296177
[entry_date_mysql] => 2010-12-02 07:22:57
[entry_text] => Ok, so I can't believe it's been nearly 3 months since I last posted. Things have been absolutely crazy around here and so I have a lot of catching up to do in blogland!
An update on my co-worker's situation. I started working with her on Oct 1 to straighten out her finances. Good news --- she's paid off two small credit card balances, one medical bill, and most importantly, the debt she had with her son (she'd borrow money from him from time to time to keep herself afloat). She has also put aside $820 in her savings account which she says is the first time she's ever saved anything. $600 of this is for Christmas and the rest is for buying new tires for her car. She still has a long way to go to pay off her debts but she's made huge progress in the couple of months I've been guiding her through. We meet about 2-3 times a month to make sure that she stays on track and for me to basically hold her hand... she still can't figure out what to pay first, how much to pay, or anything like that so I give her a roadmap everytime we meet.
Ok, now the big news on my side of things is that DH and I are considering going to NYC over New Year's. Isn't that just crazy to even think about being in all that chaos? But, we were looking at our work schedules and the kids' school calendar and wouldn't you know that we have a ton of time off available. My sister has offered to watch the kids for us so it'll just be a trip for the two of us which hasn't happened.... ever! So, I hop online and look at rates-- it will cost about $2500 for airline and hotel for 5 nights. Yikes! It would be cheaper if we didn't want to stay right near Times Square but this will be a trip of a lifetime for us so we thought we'd splurge a bit more than what we normally would do. With eating and shopping money, the trip will probably be around $3500. Anybody ever been to NY? Anything to look out for or suggestions on where to stay, eat, or do?
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[entry_title] => Honored to be asked
[entry_stub] => honored-to-be-asked
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2010/09/17/honored-to-be-asked_62124/
[entry_date] => 1284733580
[entry_date_mysql] => 2010-09-17 09:26:20
[entry_text] => This morning, someone that works in our office comes to ask me to help her with her personal finances. This was completely out of the blue and I feel so honored that she would trust me with her money issues. She said she was thinking last night of who she could ask for help and thought of me... (after she got a denial yesterday from the local credit union for a new credit card account). Now, I'm on a quest to get her all squared away and you guys can come along on the journey. Here's her situation:
Married with 2 children (one in college and one in high school), but not a financially sound marriage ever, apparently... DH is a banker of all things but he apparently doesn't have his head on straight when it comes to their own money. He wants to keep everything completely separate in their household so the wife just deals with this (even though he makes probably 4 times what she does). For the major expenses, he covers the mortgage and utilities. She has to cover the groceries for the house.
Finances:
OUT categories we've identified thus far =
*groceries/eating out for household
*car payment on her car
*gas/maintenance on her car
*half of the household cell phone bill
*medical bills for household
*dog -vet/grooming bills
*multiple credit cards (highest balance is around $5k on one of them)
*three outstanding medical debts
She had her highest balance credit card statement with her and said she thought the interest rate on it was 90% (gasp) and I was like, um -- doubt it? So, I looked on her statement and showed her where the interest rate was indicated which is something like 25%. As you can see, she doesn't even know how to read her statements. She's a college graduate but when it comes to money and math, she's clueless and knows that is why she's in the trouble that she's in.
I gave her homework for the weekend -- I've asked her to write down exactly what her interest rates are on all the credit cards and their current balances. I told her to call each one of those credit card companies and ask for a lower interest rate. She also needs to identify exactly how much she owes on those outstanding medical bills and to estimate how much her other monthly expenses total up (she had no clue how much she spends on groceries, for example).
Next, I asked her about her paycheck. Since I have access to payroll, I looked up her check and all her deductions. She has zero withholdings and I asked if she gets a tax refund each year. Apparently, she just gives her W-2 to her DH each year and he does all the tax stuff. She does know that for 2009, they got back around $1500 total and then she got fussed at from her DH that it wasn't enough. He wanted the refund to be even higher and implied that she must not have withheld enough from her checks (jerk!). He keeps their refund and does whatever with the money even though it's "their" refund. I told her that was crazy. I calculated what increasing her withholdings to 1 and 2 would be, an additional $58 and $103 respectively, in each paycheck... Basically, by just increasing her withholdings to 1, she would have an additional $700 each year in her paychecks that her grubby hubby wouldn't have access to come tax time. She said she's all about having her withholdings changed to 1 now. Yay.
Anyway, I'll post more as we keep ironing out her budget...
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-->
Posted in
GOALS
|
4 Comments »
May 30th, 2011 at 05:56 pm
DH and I normally charge every penny we spend and then pay off the credit card each month. We have done this for YEARS. Although we have the cash to pay it off each month, we know that this does assist in our needless spending sprees at times...
Last week, we were talking and decided to try all cash for a month to see if it would make any difference. We also wanted to try to cut our unnecessary spending at the same time. It's been a week and there really is a huge difference in mentality. It's so tough to hand over the cash instead of the plastic. But once you make the commitment, it really is not that difficult to just say no to mindless purchases. For example, I took the girls to the mall yesterday. They each had $25 to spend of their own money that they earned from our recent yard sale so we thought we'd go and see what they might want. I found the most perfect summer cardigan sweater that was on sale for $12. I was so tempted to get it, but I ended up putting it down and walking away. I asked myself if the sweater was a necessity and the answer was clearly NO, so it was easy peasy... (not really), but I did it! The girls didn't find anything that was a must have either so we all left the mall with absolutely no needless purchases....... and it felt great! And what's better, I still have my cash in my pocket. Spent $1300 last week to get the rear wheel bearings replaced, rear brake pads and rotors filed down and turned, and an oil change
---------> Took the car in today because all the check engine kind of lights were on...Was just told that we need to have the ECM (the car's computer) replaced and that will be another $1200!!! Haven't told DH yet -- he's going to freak out.
We have a 2003 Toyota Sienna.
---------> This poor van has been neglected for so long in regards to routine maintenance. The tires are so bald (we don't drive it except within town to run errands so we've been putting it off). The dealer is having a tire sale next week so we've scheduled an appointment to have 4 new tires put on and for a well overdue oil change done. Estimated cost will be around $350.
Has anyone been adding all this up? If not, that's ok, cause I've already done it for you and it's a whopping $2850 in a few weeks time for stupid car maintenance issues. Aacckkk!!!
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[entry_title] => Reasons we hate our house...
[entry_stub] => reasons-we-hate-our-house
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/04/11/reasons-we-hate-our-house_68100/
[entry_date] => 1302528330
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-11 08:25:30
[entry_text] => Some of you have asked so here is the scoop...
House #1
Purchased in 1997
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1000 sq ft
Small but corner lot in a tight subdivision
House #2
Purchased in 2001
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1600 sq ft
Large (to us) 1/3 acre lot in a nice subdivision, backed up to farmland so was nice and private
House #3 CURRENT HOUSE
Purchased in 2006
3 story house, main living space on first floor, all bedrooms are upstairs, finished full basement
approx 2600 sq ft
.67 acre lot
So, our current house #3 might look to be a great step up for us, right? Well, not quite...
House #1 was our starter home when we just got married. It was a great little house but we got tired of the really, really tight subdivision. All the houses were so close together --- no privacy at all. So, we sold it and moved across town to House #2. This house was the smallest in the neighborhood. Most of the other houses were 2 story homes that looked really big compared to our house. But, we loved the flat lot of our house, the floorplan really worked for us, and it was a really good fit for our growing family.
Then, we moved 4 hours away, from the flat lands to the mountains, for a new job opportunity. We realized quickly that housing prices in the mountains were quite higher than they were in the big city that we came from. Also, the houses here were mainly multi-level homes since they were built alongside hill banks. We had only 2 main criteria when looking for this home: 1) I wanted a garage with main level access. I didn't want to haul groceries from a basement entry garage up stairs to the kitchen. I'd say 75% of homes here all have their garage in the basement. 2) I wanted a large lot with trees. Having lived in the city, we didn't have a lot of natural wooded areas. I thought that was what I wanted. So, we bought House #3 because these 2 main criteria were met and now 5 years later, we just hate the house. We had never lived in a multi-level home before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to go up and down stairs all the time. We had never lived on a wooded lot before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to pick up fallen limbs all the time. Ugh, ugh, and ugh. I guess it's one of those situations where the grass really isn't greener on the other side... all along we thought those bigger 2 story houses in our neighborhoods were so nice and roomy. Blah! We so miss our little ranch style homes!!!
So, a summary of all the things we hate about our current house:
1) Stairs, stairs, and more stairs!
2) All the trees! It gets windy here alot and those fallen branches are a pain to deal with
3) Hillsides! No flat place for the kids to play
4) Open floor plan of living space! Our 'great room' consists of the living room, kitchen, and dining spaces... all in one big open area. Now, I know this is all the rage in today's real estate market, but now that we actually live in this kind of living space, we just don't like it. It's really noisy!!
5) No air conditioning! As a mountain home, it is not common to have A/C here... or so one would think! The houses here just aren't built with A/C as standard. It gets pretty hot for just about one month out of the year but gosh, that one month nearly kills us each year!
So, those are the top 5 reasons why we hate our house. All these reasons were things that we just didn't realize would bother us until we actually bought the house and started living in it. We learn what we like and dislike from each home we live in and we certainly know what to look for in our House #4... we just need to sell this one first!
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[entry_title] => Should we sell or not?
[entry_stub] => should-we-sell-or-not
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/04/04/should-we-sell-or-not_67853/
[entry_date] => 1301930017
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-04 10:13:37
[entry_text] => Ack, what to do?? Ok, some back history. We tried selling our house for 2 years and had no offers. We took the house off the market for 6 months to take a break. We started asking for $349k and ended up our last listing price at $299k... Granted, we did start too high on the price for the market that we were in but settled on a price that is very fair -- but still no offers, so we pulled it off the market. Now that it is Spring, we are thinking about putting it on again.
Our past realtors were without a better term popping into my head right now, sucky. They just listed the house and didn't do much of anything else. We found another realtor that has come highly recommended... we met with him last week and he did a market analysis (CMA) on our house. If you've been following my blog, you know that we just installed granite in our kitchen... so, with that improvement, we really think we have an edge over the competition in our price range. DH and I thought we would stay at the $299k price as our listing price. After the CMA, the new realtor suggested listing it at $289k.... BUT in all honesty, the houses he compared to ours are nowhere near what ours has to offer. There just aren't too many sold houses he can compare ours to. So, he's comfortable in putting it on at $299k if that is what we still want to do. The bottom line that we are willing to sell for is $290k.
So, should we or shouldn't we try to sell the house again? DH and I just don't like it --- there is no other reason to sell. We both have stable jobs and we don't need to move anywhere. We've just HATEd our house since the day we moved in 5 years ago. If we end up at our bottom of $290k, we'd make zippo, and actually lose money really. We bought the house for $288k in 2006 (brand new) and put in $20k in improvements (granite and driveway/retaining wall work), so we've got $308k in the house. However, DH and I don't really consider the $20k we put into the house as additional cost for the house because those things were done to make the house more "liveable" for us. We wouldn't have to come to the table with any cash as our mortgage balance is low enough to where we will still have a bit of cash from the sale after the mortgage is paid.
So, what would you do? Would you go with the financially correct decision and just stay put? Or, would you do what would make you and the family happy and take a slight loss on the house?
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[entry_title] => Can a person LOVE a sink?
[entry_stub] => can-a-person-love-a-sink
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[entry_date] => 1301430598
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-29 15:29:58
[entry_text] => Here's a pic of my new sink and granite counters.... I absolutely love how everything turned out! We got them installed yesterday and tonight the realtor is coming over to start the process of listing our house (again). Wish us luck!!
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[entry_title] => Getting granite counters!
[entry_stub] => getting-granite-counters
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[entry_date] => 1300478106
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-18 14:55:06
[entry_text] => Ok, we tried selling our house last year with no luck. We want to try it again beginning April 1. We decided to get rid of our laminate countertops and get granite installed. The cost will be $3800. Cross your fingers and toes that this will make the difference and that our house will sell this time around. We are doing the demo in the kitchen this weekend and should have the install done within 10 days, ready for our April 1 listing date. And... if the house doesn't sell, then I get to enjoy brand new granite countertops!
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[entry_title] => A new month, A clean start!
[entry_stub] => march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/03/01/march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start_66521/
[entry_date] => 1299006127
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-01 13:02:07
[entry_text] => Spring fever must be hitting me right now. I am in the mood to clean out my house and straighten up my life. For the past week, I've organized my closets, cabinets, and junk drawers. I have found a whole year's supply of contacts that I now remembered ordering and stashing so that I didn't have to go back to the eye doctor for another year. I totally forgot about these and I was going to place an order within the next month or so! I found 2 full size brand new containers of DH's favorite hair gel. I've donated bags of stuff to Goodwill. I've thrown away so much clutter that has literally just sat in our house for the past 5 years. It feels great! I highly recommend everyone to find a drawer or closet and get at it! I did an area each night for a week and it was painless.
A 2011 financial goal was to reach the $20,000 mark in our E-fund. I deposited a $100 credit card reward check today bringing the balance up to.... drum roll.... $20,049.28!!!!!!!! Now, let's cross our fingers that we won't see any kind of emergencies for a while so that I can enjoy seeing that awesome number. Wahoo!!!
Other random updates:
I gave my sister a blank check for her birthday payable to her power company. She's the one that is in a huge financial mess. The bill was for $210.55. I asked her how much of the bill was for late fees and penalties and she didn't even know the answer to that... it's quite sad. But, oh well, it's nice to be able to help her when I can (I only give her money for holidays instead of buying her nonsense so as to not try to enable her family's bad money habits). She did tell me that she went and applied for food stamps and other family aid which is about time in my opinion.
My co-worker is making great progress on her financial situation. She made it through Christmas without having to charge a dime. There are still a few debts that she has left to pay off but I see her getting to the finish line within the next year or two.
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[entry_title] => Government Foreclosure
[entry_stub] => government-foreclosure
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[entry_date] => 1295031503
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-14 12:58:23
[entry_text] => Ok, so I've always been interested in investing in real estate. I've blogged about possibilities before on here but have never actually taken the plunge to go for anything. A family friend, who has a lot of experience in real estate investing, referred me to government foreclosures as a possibility. This was back in November. I got wrapped up in the Holidays and hadn't really had a chance to follow up or look for any foreclosures but long story short, after taking a peek today, I see that there is a foreclosure up for auction next week! The gov't bid is listed at $26k, whatever that means. I have a lot of research still left to do but my mind is racing with the opportunity to get a decent house for so cheap. I know the area and I know exactly where the house is --- nice family neighborhood. I'd estimate the retail value of the house at around $90-$100k. I'm going to talk to my friend tonight to get more guidance about the process. He started out with a government foreclosure and so he'll know what to do... Maybe this will be the one for us??
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[entry_title] => Updating savings amounts for 2011
[entry_stub] => updating-savings-amounts-for-2011
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[entry_date] => 1294770581
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[entry_text] => We had been saving $1,000 per month into savings (short-term, mid-term, and retirement). I just got online to all our accounts and increased everything to $1,500 per month. I think we can do more but let's see how this feels for a few months.
We also are going to start paying extra on our mortgage... just to round it up from $1,652 to $1,700 each month which is just $48 so no biggie. We used to pay a few hundred extra per month when we first got the mortgage but then scaled back to the regular monthly payment amount when we were trying to sell our house. Now that it looks like we'll be here for a while, I figured we'd start paying a little extra just because.
Some things I look forward to in 2011:
1. Reaching the $20,000 mark in our e-fund.
2. Would love to be 100-105 lbs! Before you think that is outrageous, please be aware that I am very petite and this would be normal (but on the lean side) for someone like me. I have thus far cut out soda (except for one can twice a week -- long story) which is going to help tremendously. I am trying to fit in some exercise too... so far, so good.
3. Cook at home more/eating out less. This has been working out pretty well thus far.
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[entry_title] => An update -- finally!
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[entry_text] => Ok, so I can't believe it's been nearly 3 months since I last posted. Things have been absolutely crazy around here and so I have a lot of catching up to do in blogland!
An update on my co-worker's situation. I started working with her on Oct 1 to straighten out her finances. Good news --- she's paid off two small credit card balances, one medical bill, and most importantly, the debt she had with her son (she'd borrow money from him from time to time to keep herself afloat). She has also put aside $820 in her savings account which she says is the first time she's ever saved anything. $600 of this is for Christmas and the rest is for buying new tires for her car. She still has a long way to go to pay off her debts but she's made huge progress in the couple of months I've been guiding her through. We meet about 2-3 times a month to make sure that she stays on track and for me to basically hold her hand... she still can't figure out what to pay first, how much to pay, or anything like that so I give her a roadmap everytime we meet.
Ok, now the big news on my side of things is that DH and I are considering going to NYC over New Year's. Isn't that just crazy to even think about being in all that chaos? But, we were looking at our work schedules and the kids' school calendar and wouldn't you know that we have a ton of time off available. My sister has offered to watch the kids for us so it'll just be a trip for the two of us which hasn't happened.... ever! So, I hop online and look at rates-- it will cost about $2500 for airline and hotel for 5 nights. Yikes! It would be cheaper if we didn't want to stay right near Times Square but this will be a trip of a lifetime for us so we thought we'd splurge a bit more than what we normally would do. With eating and shopping money, the trip will probably be around $3500. Anybody ever been to NY? Anything to look out for or suggestions on where to stay, eat, or do?
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[entry_title] => Honored to be asked
[entry_stub] => honored-to-be-asked
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[entry_date] => 1284733580
[entry_date_mysql] => 2010-09-17 09:26:20
[entry_text] => This morning, someone that works in our office comes to ask me to help her with her personal finances. This was completely out of the blue and I feel so honored that she would trust me with her money issues. She said she was thinking last night of who she could ask for help and thought of me... (after she got a denial yesterday from the local credit union for a new credit card account). Now, I'm on a quest to get her all squared away and you guys can come along on the journey. Here's her situation:
Married with 2 children (one in college and one in high school), but not a financially sound marriage ever, apparently... DH is a banker of all things but he apparently doesn't have his head on straight when it comes to their own money. He wants to keep everything completely separate in their household so the wife just deals with this (even though he makes probably 4 times what she does). For the major expenses, he covers the mortgage and utilities. She has to cover the groceries for the house.
Finances:
OUT categories we've identified thus far =
*groceries/eating out for household
*car payment on her car
*gas/maintenance on her car
*half of the household cell phone bill
*medical bills for household
*dog -vet/grooming bills
*multiple credit cards (highest balance is around $5k on one of them)
*three outstanding medical debts
She had her highest balance credit card statement with her and said she thought the interest rate on it was 90% (gasp) and I was like, um -- doubt it? So, I looked on her statement and showed her where the interest rate was indicated which is something like 25%. As you can see, she doesn't even know how to read her statements. She's a college graduate but when it comes to money and math, she's clueless and knows that is why she's in the trouble that she's in.
I gave her homework for the weekend -- I've asked her to write down exactly what her interest rates are on all the credit cards and their current balances. I told her to call each one of those credit card companies and ask for a lower interest rate. She also needs to identify exactly how much she owes on those outstanding medical bills and to estimate how much her other monthly expenses total up (she had no clue how much she spends on groceries, for example).
Next, I asked her about her paycheck. Since I have access to payroll, I looked up her check and all her deductions. She has zero withholdings and I asked if she gets a tax refund each year. Apparently, she just gives her W-2 to her DH each year and he does all the tax stuff. She does know that for 2009, they got back around $1500 total and then she got fussed at from her DH that it wasn't enough. He wanted the refund to be even higher and implied that she must not have withheld enough from her checks (jerk!). He keeps their refund and does whatever with the money even though it's "their" refund. I told her that was crazy. I calculated what increasing her withholdings to 1 and 2 would be, an additional $58 and $103 respectively, in each paycheck... Basically, by just increasing her withholdings to 1, she would have an additional $700 each year in her paychecks that her grubby hubby wouldn't have access to come tax time. She said she's all about having her withholdings changed to 1 now. Yay.
Anyway, I'll post more as we keep ironing out her budget...
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Posted in
GOALS
|
1 Comments »
May 23rd, 2011 at 06:27 pm
Anyone try to buy a short sale house before?
Ok, I've said it a million times before but this time I really mean it! We found the house of our "dreams"...
Let me give some history first. About 5 years ago, we were moving due to a job relocation. The new job was in the same town as family so we stayed with family as we were looking for a home of our own. As I flipped through real estate magazines and the online MLS, I kept getting drawn back to one particular house. It met a lot of our criteria except for one thing --- price! It was much too expensive for us. I even told my MIL one time that if the price would decrease into our budget range at all, I would buy the house without even looking at the inside of it. The location of the house and the topography of the lot itself sold me on it. Alas, the house price never dropped so we ended up buying the house we currently live in (and are trying to sell).
Fast forward to the present. The house from way back then has been on the market since we first saw it 5 years ago! I love looking through the MLS listings as a hobby so I've noticed it on there all this time --- again, the price never budging. But, lo and behold, what do I see now? The price of the house has dropped over $150k in one sh'bang! It is now subject to a short sale with bank approval. DH and I went out to finally take a peek into our "forever" home. It needs A TON of work... the house had been vacant since that fateful day 5 years ago when I first noticed it for sale. Needless to say, it needs a lot of TLC. It was built in 1981 but looks pitiful now. The roof has to be replaced, the carpets in the bedrooms are hideous, there is wallpaper everywhere, and don't even get me started on the bathrooms! But, now that I've seen the inside of it, I love it even more! I can see the potential in it and think it would be a showstopper once we get done fixing it back up.
So, although the price has come down $150k from the original listing price, DH and I still think it's a bit overpriced for the sad condition it is in. We would be willing to buy it for another $100k off the current asking price. Would anyone out there have any experience dealing and negotiating with potential short sale offers??? I don't want to waste anyone's time if the banks don't even consider lowering the price anymore than what is listed --- but really, this is the one!! Spent $1300 last week to get the rear wheel bearings replaced, rear brake pads and rotors filed down and turned, and an oil change
---------> Took the car in today because all the check engine kind of lights were on...Was just told that we need to have the ECM (the car's computer) replaced and that will be another $1200!!! Haven't told DH yet -- he's going to freak out.
We have a 2003 Toyota Sienna.
---------> This poor van has been neglected for so long in regards to routine maintenance. The tires are so bald (we don't drive it except within town to run errands so we've been putting it off). The dealer is having a tire sale next week so we've scheduled an appointment to have 4 new tires put on and for a well overdue oil change done. Estimated cost will be around $350.
Has anyone been adding all this up? If not, that's ok, cause I've already done it for you and it's a whopping $2850 in a few weeks time for stupid car maintenance issues. Aacckkk!!!
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[entry_title] => Reasons we hate our house...
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[entry_date] => 1302528330
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-11 08:25:30
[entry_text] => Some of you have asked so here is the scoop...
House #1
Purchased in 1997
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1000 sq ft
Small but corner lot in a tight subdivision
House #2
Purchased in 2001
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1600 sq ft
Large (to us) 1/3 acre lot in a nice subdivision, backed up to farmland so was nice and private
House #3 CURRENT HOUSE
Purchased in 2006
3 story house, main living space on first floor, all bedrooms are upstairs, finished full basement
approx 2600 sq ft
.67 acre lot
So, our current house #3 might look to be a great step up for us, right? Well, not quite...
House #1 was our starter home when we just got married. It was a great little house but we got tired of the really, really tight subdivision. All the houses were so close together --- no privacy at all. So, we sold it and moved across town to House #2. This house was the smallest in the neighborhood. Most of the other houses were 2 story homes that looked really big compared to our house. But, we loved the flat lot of our house, the floorplan really worked for us, and it was a really good fit for our growing family.
Then, we moved 4 hours away, from the flat lands to the mountains, for a new job opportunity. We realized quickly that housing prices in the mountains were quite higher than they were in the big city that we came from. Also, the houses here were mainly multi-level homes since they were built alongside hill banks. We had only 2 main criteria when looking for this home: 1) I wanted a garage with main level access. I didn't want to haul groceries from a basement entry garage up stairs to the kitchen. I'd say 75% of homes here all have their garage in the basement. 2) I wanted a large lot with trees. Having lived in the city, we didn't have a lot of natural wooded areas. I thought that was what I wanted. So, we bought House #3 because these 2 main criteria were met and now 5 years later, we just hate the house. We had never lived in a multi-level home before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to go up and down stairs all the time. We had never lived on a wooded lot before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to pick up fallen limbs all the time. Ugh, ugh, and ugh. I guess it's one of those situations where the grass really isn't greener on the other side... all along we thought those bigger 2 story houses in our neighborhoods were so nice and roomy. Blah! We so miss our little ranch style homes!!!
So, a summary of all the things we hate about our current house:
1) Stairs, stairs, and more stairs!
2) All the trees! It gets windy here alot and those fallen branches are a pain to deal with
3) Hillsides! No flat place for the kids to play
4) Open floor plan of living space! Our 'great room' consists of the living room, kitchen, and dining spaces... all in one big open area. Now, I know this is all the rage in today's real estate market, but now that we actually live in this kind of living space, we just don't like it. It's really noisy!!
5) No air conditioning! As a mountain home, it is not common to have A/C here... or so one would think! The houses here just aren't built with A/C as standard. It gets pretty hot for just about one month out of the year but gosh, that one month nearly kills us each year!
So, those are the top 5 reasons why we hate our house. All these reasons were things that we just didn't realize would bother us until we actually bought the house and started living in it. We learn what we like and dislike from each home we live in and we certainly know what to look for in our House #4... we just need to sell this one first!
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[entry_title] => Should we sell or not?
[entry_stub] => should-we-sell-or-not
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[entry_date] => 1301930017
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-04 10:13:37
[entry_text] => Ack, what to do?? Ok, some back history. We tried selling our house for 2 years and had no offers. We took the house off the market for 6 months to take a break. We started asking for $349k and ended up our last listing price at $299k... Granted, we did start too high on the price for the market that we were in but settled on a price that is very fair -- but still no offers, so we pulled it off the market. Now that it is Spring, we are thinking about putting it on again.
Our past realtors were without a better term popping into my head right now, sucky. They just listed the house and didn't do much of anything else. We found another realtor that has come highly recommended... we met with him last week and he did a market analysis (CMA) on our house. If you've been following my blog, you know that we just installed granite in our kitchen... so, with that improvement, we really think we have an edge over the competition in our price range. DH and I thought we would stay at the $299k price as our listing price. After the CMA, the new realtor suggested listing it at $289k.... BUT in all honesty, the houses he compared to ours are nowhere near what ours has to offer. There just aren't too many sold houses he can compare ours to. So, he's comfortable in putting it on at $299k if that is what we still want to do. The bottom line that we are willing to sell for is $290k.
So, should we or shouldn't we try to sell the house again? DH and I just don't like it --- there is no other reason to sell. We both have stable jobs and we don't need to move anywhere. We've just HATEd our house since the day we moved in 5 years ago. If we end up at our bottom of $290k, we'd make zippo, and actually lose money really. We bought the house for $288k in 2006 (brand new) and put in $20k in improvements (granite and driveway/retaining wall work), so we've got $308k in the house. However, DH and I don't really consider the $20k we put into the house as additional cost for the house because those things were done to make the house more "liveable" for us. We wouldn't have to come to the table with any cash as our mortgage balance is low enough to where we will still have a bit of cash from the sale after the mortgage is paid.
So, what would you do? Would you go with the financially correct decision and just stay put? Or, would you do what would make you and the family happy and take a slight loss on the house?
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[entry_title] => Can a person LOVE a sink?
[entry_stub] => can-a-person-love-a-sink
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[entry_date] => 1301430598
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-29 15:29:58
[entry_text] => Here's a pic of my new sink and granite counters.... I absolutely love how everything turned out! We got them installed yesterday and tonight the realtor is coming over to start the process of listing our house (again). Wish us luck!!
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[entry_title] => Getting granite counters!
[entry_stub] => getting-granite-counters
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[entry_date] => 1300478106
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-18 14:55:06
[entry_text] => Ok, we tried selling our house last year with no luck. We want to try it again beginning April 1. We decided to get rid of our laminate countertops and get granite installed. The cost will be $3800. Cross your fingers and toes that this will make the difference and that our house will sell this time around. We are doing the demo in the kitchen this weekend and should have the install done within 10 days, ready for our April 1 listing date. And... if the house doesn't sell, then I get to enjoy brand new granite countertops!
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[entry_title] => A new month, A clean start!
[entry_stub] => march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/03/01/march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start_66521/
[entry_date] => 1299006127
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-01 13:02:07
[entry_text] => Spring fever must be hitting me right now. I am in the mood to clean out my house and straighten up my life. For the past week, I've organized my closets, cabinets, and junk drawers. I have found a whole year's supply of contacts that I now remembered ordering and stashing so that I didn't have to go back to the eye doctor for another year. I totally forgot about these and I was going to place an order within the next month or so! I found 2 full size brand new containers of DH's favorite hair gel. I've donated bags of stuff to Goodwill. I've thrown away so much clutter that has literally just sat in our house for the past 5 years. It feels great! I highly recommend everyone to find a drawer or closet and get at it! I did an area each night for a week and it was painless.
A 2011 financial goal was to reach the $20,000 mark in our E-fund. I deposited a $100 credit card reward check today bringing the balance up to.... drum roll.... $20,049.28!!!!!!!! Now, let's cross our fingers that we won't see any kind of emergencies for a while so that I can enjoy seeing that awesome number. Wahoo!!!
Other random updates:
I gave my sister a blank check for her birthday payable to her power company. She's the one that is in a huge financial mess. The bill was for $210.55. I asked her how much of the bill was for late fees and penalties and she didn't even know the answer to that... it's quite sad. But, oh well, it's nice to be able to help her when I can (I only give her money for holidays instead of buying her nonsense so as to not try to enable her family's bad money habits). She did tell me that she went and applied for food stamps and other family aid which is about time in my opinion.
My co-worker is making great progress on her financial situation. She made it through Christmas without having to charge a dime. There are still a few debts that she has left to pay off but I see her getting to the finish line within the next year or two.
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[entry_title] => Government Foreclosure
[entry_stub] => government-foreclosure
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/01/14/government-foreclosure_65304/
[entry_date] => 1295031503
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-14 12:58:23
[entry_text] => Ok, so I've always been interested in investing in real estate. I've blogged about possibilities before on here but have never actually taken the plunge to go for anything. A family friend, who has a lot of experience in real estate investing, referred me to government foreclosures as a possibility. This was back in November. I got wrapped up in the Holidays and hadn't really had a chance to follow up or look for any foreclosures but long story short, after taking a peek today, I see that there is a foreclosure up for auction next week! The gov't bid is listed at $26k, whatever that means. I have a lot of research still left to do but my mind is racing with the opportunity to get a decent house for so cheap. I know the area and I know exactly where the house is --- nice family neighborhood. I'd estimate the retail value of the house at around $90-$100k. I'm going to talk to my friend tonight to get more guidance about the process. He started out with a government foreclosure and so he'll know what to do... Maybe this will be the one for us??
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[entry_title] => Updating savings amounts for 2011
[entry_stub] => updating-savings-amounts-for-2011
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[entry_date] => 1294770581
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-11 12:29:41
[entry_text] => We had been saving $1,000 per month into savings (short-term, mid-term, and retirement). I just got online to all our accounts and increased everything to $1,500 per month. I think we can do more but let's see how this feels for a few months.
We also are going to start paying extra on our mortgage... just to round it up from $1,652 to $1,700 each month which is just $48 so no biggie. We used to pay a few hundred extra per month when we first got the mortgage but then scaled back to the regular monthly payment amount when we were trying to sell our house. Now that it looks like we'll be here for a while, I figured we'd start paying a little extra just because.
Some things I look forward to in 2011:
1. Reaching the $20,000 mark in our e-fund.
2. Would love to be 100-105 lbs! Before you think that is outrageous, please be aware that I am very petite and this would be normal (but on the lean side) for someone like me. I have thus far cut out soda (except for one can twice a week -- long story) which is going to help tremendously. I am trying to fit in some exercise too... so far, so good.
3. Cook at home more/eating out less. This has been working out pretty well thus far.
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[entry_title] => An update -- finally!
[entry_stub] => an-update-finally
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[entry_date_mysql] => 2010-12-02 07:22:57
[entry_text] => Ok, so I can't believe it's been nearly 3 months since I last posted. Things have been absolutely crazy around here and so I have a lot of catching up to do in blogland!
An update on my co-worker's situation. I started working with her on Oct 1 to straighten out her finances. Good news --- she's paid off two small credit card balances, one medical bill, and most importantly, the debt she had with her son (she'd borrow money from him from time to time to keep herself afloat). She has also put aside $820 in her savings account which she says is the first time she's ever saved anything. $600 of this is for Christmas and the rest is for buying new tires for her car. She still has a long way to go to pay off her debts but she's made huge progress in the couple of months I've been guiding her through. We meet about 2-3 times a month to make sure that she stays on track and for me to basically hold her hand... she still can't figure out what to pay first, how much to pay, or anything like that so I give her a roadmap everytime we meet.
Ok, now the big news on my side of things is that DH and I are considering going to NYC over New Year's. Isn't that just crazy to even think about being in all that chaos? But, we were looking at our work schedules and the kids' school calendar and wouldn't you know that we have a ton of time off available. My sister has offered to watch the kids for us so it'll just be a trip for the two of us which hasn't happened.... ever! So, I hop online and look at rates-- it will cost about $2500 for airline and hotel for 5 nights. Yikes! It would be cheaper if we didn't want to stay right near Times Square but this will be a trip of a lifetime for us so we thought we'd splurge a bit more than what we normally would do. With eating and shopping money, the trip will probably be around $3500. Anybody ever been to NY? Anything to look out for or suggestions on where to stay, eat, or do?
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[entry_title] => Honored to be asked
[entry_stub] => honored-to-be-asked
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[entry_date] => 1284733580
[entry_date_mysql] => 2010-09-17 09:26:20
[entry_text] => This morning, someone that works in our office comes to ask me to help her with her personal finances. This was completely out of the blue and I feel so honored that she would trust me with her money issues. She said she was thinking last night of who she could ask for help and thought of me... (after she got a denial yesterday from the local credit union for a new credit card account). Now, I'm on a quest to get her all squared away and you guys can come along on the journey. Here's her situation:
Married with 2 children (one in college and one in high school), but not a financially sound marriage ever, apparently... DH is a banker of all things but he apparently doesn't have his head on straight when it comes to their own money. He wants to keep everything completely separate in their household so the wife just deals with this (even though he makes probably 4 times what she does). For the major expenses, he covers the mortgage and utilities. She has to cover the groceries for the house.
Finances:
OUT categories we've identified thus far =
*groceries/eating out for household
*car payment on her car
*gas/maintenance on her car
*half of the household cell phone bill
*medical bills for household
*dog -vet/grooming bills
*multiple credit cards (highest balance is around $5k on one of them)
*three outstanding medical debts
She had her highest balance credit card statement with her and said she thought the interest rate on it was 90% (gasp) and I was like, um -- doubt it? So, I looked on her statement and showed her where the interest rate was indicated which is something like 25%. As you can see, she doesn't even know how to read her statements. She's a college graduate but when it comes to money and math, she's clueless and knows that is why she's in the trouble that she's in.
I gave her homework for the weekend -- I've asked her to write down exactly what her interest rates are on all the credit cards and their current balances. I told her to call each one of those credit card companies and ask for a lower interest rate. She also needs to identify exactly how much she owes on those outstanding medical bills and to estimate how much her other monthly expenses total up (she had no clue how much she spends on groceries, for example).
Next, I asked her about her paycheck. Since I have access to payroll, I looked up her check and all her deductions. She has zero withholdings and I asked if she gets a tax refund each year. Apparently, she just gives her W-2 to her DH each year and he does all the tax stuff. She does know that for 2009, they got back around $1500 total and then she got fussed at from her DH that it wasn't enough. He wanted the refund to be even higher and implied that she must not have withheld enough from her checks (jerk!). He keeps their refund and does whatever with the money even though it's "their" refund. I told her that was crazy. I calculated what increasing her withholdings to 1 and 2 would be, an additional $58 and $103 respectively, in each paycheck... Basically, by just increasing her withholdings to 1, she would have an additional $700 each year in her paychecks that her grubby hubby wouldn't have access to come tax time. She said she's all about having her withholdings changed to 1 now. Yay.
Anyway, I'll post more as we keep ironing out her budget...
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Posted in
GOALS
|
7 Comments »
May 13th, 2011 at 07:33 pm
and all our money is leaking through it! Come on, already! Someone send me some savings account super glue!
We have a 2006 Toyota Rav4.
---------> Spent $1300 last week to get the rear wheel bearings replaced, rear brake pads and rotors filed down and turned, and an oil change
---------> Took the car in today because all the check engine kind of lights were on...Was just told that we need to have the ECM (the car's computer) replaced and that will be another $1200!!! Haven't told DH yet -- he's going to freak out.
We have a 2003 Toyota Sienna.
---------> This poor van has been neglected for so long in regards to routine maintenance. The tires are so bald (we don't drive it except within town to run errands so we've been putting it off). The dealer is having a tire sale next week so we've scheduled an appointment to have 4 new tires put on and for a well overdue oil change done. Estimated cost will be around $350.
Has anyone been adding all this up? If not, that's ok, cause I've already done it for you and it's a whopping $2850 in a few weeks time for stupid car maintenance issues. Aacckkk!!! Spent $1300 last week to get the rear wheel bearings replaced, rear brake pads and rotors filed down and turned, and an oil change
---------> Took the car in today because all the check engine kind of lights were on...Was just told that we need to have the ECM (the car's computer) replaced and that will be another $1200!!! Haven't told DH yet -- he's going to freak out.
We have a 2003 Toyota Sienna.
---------> This poor van has been neglected for so long in regards to routine maintenance. The tires are so bald (we don't drive it except within town to run errands so we've been putting it off). The dealer is having a tire sale next week so we've scheduled an appointment to have 4 new tires put on and for a well overdue oil change done. Estimated cost will be around $350.
Has anyone been adding all this up? If not, that's ok, cause I've already done it for you and it's a whopping $2850 in a few weeks time for stupid car maintenance issues. Aacckkk!!!
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[entry_title] => Reasons we hate our house...
[entry_stub] => reasons-we-hate-our-house
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/04/11/reasons-we-hate-our-house_68100/
[entry_date] => 1302528330
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-11 08:25:30
[entry_text] => Some of you have asked so here is the scoop...
House #1
Purchased in 1997
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1000 sq ft
Small but corner lot in a tight subdivision
House #2
Purchased in 2001
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1600 sq ft
Large (to us) 1/3 acre lot in a nice subdivision, backed up to farmland so was nice and private
House #3 CURRENT HOUSE
Purchased in 2006
3 story house, main living space on first floor, all bedrooms are upstairs, finished full basement
approx 2600 sq ft
.67 acre lot
So, our current house #3 might look to be a great step up for us, right? Well, not quite...
House #1 was our starter home when we just got married. It was a great little house but we got tired of the really, really tight subdivision. All the houses were so close together --- no privacy at all. So, we sold it and moved across town to House #2. This house was the smallest in the neighborhood. Most of the other houses were 2 story homes that looked really big compared to our house. But, we loved the flat lot of our house, the floorplan really worked for us, and it was a really good fit for our growing family.
Then, we moved 4 hours away, from the flat lands to the mountains, for a new job opportunity. We realized quickly that housing prices in the mountains were quite higher than they were in the big city that we came from. Also, the houses here were mainly multi-level homes since they were built alongside hill banks. We had only 2 main criteria when looking for this home: 1) I wanted a garage with main level access. I didn't want to haul groceries from a basement entry garage up stairs to the kitchen. I'd say 75% of homes here all have their garage in the basement. 2) I wanted a large lot with trees. Having lived in the city, we didn't have a lot of natural wooded areas. I thought that was what I wanted. So, we bought House #3 because these 2 main criteria were met and now 5 years later, we just hate the house. We had never lived in a multi-level home before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to go up and down stairs all the time. We had never lived on a wooded lot before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to pick up fallen limbs all the time. Ugh, ugh, and ugh. I guess it's one of those situations where the grass really isn't greener on the other side... all along we thought those bigger 2 story houses in our neighborhoods were so nice and roomy. Blah! We so miss our little ranch style homes!!!
So, a summary of all the things we hate about our current house:
1) Stairs, stairs, and more stairs!
2) All the trees! It gets windy here alot and those fallen branches are a pain to deal with
3) Hillsides! No flat place for the kids to play
4) Open floor plan of living space! Our 'great room' consists of the living room, kitchen, and dining spaces... all in one big open area. Now, I know this is all the rage in today's real estate market, but now that we actually live in this kind of living space, we just don't like it. It's really noisy!!
5) No air conditioning! As a mountain home, it is not common to have A/C here... or so one would think! The houses here just aren't built with A/C as standard. It gets pretty hot for just about one month out of the year but gosh, that one month nearly kills us each year!
So, those are the top 5 reasons why we hate our house. All these reasons were things that we just didn't realize would bother us until we actually bought the house and started living in it. We learn what we like and dislike from each home we live in and we certainly know what to look for in our House #4... we just need to sell this one first!
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[entry_title] => Should we sell or not?
[entry_stub] => should-we-sell-or-not
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/04/04/should-we-sell-or-not_67853/
[entry_date] => 1301930017
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-04 10:13:37
[entry_text] => Ack, what to do?? Ok, some back history. We tried selling our house for 2 years and had no offers. We took the house off the market for 6 months to take a break. We started asking for $349k and ended up our last listing price at $299k... Granted, we did start too high on the price for the market that we were in but settled on a price that is very fair -- but still no offers, so we pulled it off the market. Now that it is Spring, we are thinking about putting it on again.
Our past realtors were without a better term popping into my head right now, sucky. They just listed the house and didn't do much of anything else. We found another realtor that has come highly recommended... we met with him last week and he did a market analysis (CMA) on our house. If you've been following my blog, you know that we just installed granite in our kitchen... so, with that improvement, we really think we have an edge over the competition in our price range. DH and I thought we would stay at the $299k price as our listing price. After the CMA, the new realtor suggested listing it at $289k.... BUT in all honesty, the houses he compared to ours are nowhere near what ours has to offer. There just aren't too many sold houses he can compare ours to. So, he's comfortable in putting it on at $299k if that is what we still want to do. The bottom line that we are willing to sell for is $290k.
So, should we or shouldn't we try to sell the house again? DH and I just don't like it --- there is no other reason to sell. We both have stable jobs and we don't need to move anywhere. We've just HATEd our house since the day we moved in 5 years ago. If we end up at our bottom of $290k, we'd make zippo, and actually lose money really. We bought the house for $288k in 2006 (brand new) and put in $20k in improvements (granite and driveway/retaining wall work), so we've got $308k in the house. However, DH and I don't really consider the $20k we put into the house as additional cost for the house because those things were done to make the house more "liveable" for us. We wouldn't have to come to the table with any cash as our mortgage balance is low enough to where we will still have a bit of cash from the sale after the mortgage is paid.
So, what would you do? Would you go with the financially correct decision and just stay put? Or, would you do what would make you and the family happy and take a slight loss on the house?
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[entry_title] => Can a person LOVE a sink?
[entry_stub] => can-a-person-love-a-sink
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[entry_date] => 1301430598
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-29 15:29:58
[entry_text] => Here's a pic of my new sink and granite counters.... I absolutely love how everything turned out! We got them installed yesterday and tonight the realtor is coming over to start the process of listing our house (again). Wish us luck!!
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[entry_title] => Getting granite counters!
[entry_stub] => getting-granite-counters
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[entry_date] => 1300478106
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-18 14:55:06
[entry_text] => Ok, we tried selling our house last year with no luck. We want to try it again beginning April 1. We decided to get rid of our laminate countertops and get granite installed. The cost will be $3800. Cross your fingers and toes that this will make the difference and that our house will sell this time around. We are doing the demo in the kitchen this weekend and should have the install done within 10 days, ready for our April 1 listing date. And... if the house doesn't sell, then I get to enjoy brand new granite countertops!
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[entry_title] => A new month, A clean start!
[entry_stub] => march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/03/01/march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start_66521/
[entry_date] => 1299006127
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-01 13:02:07
[entry_text] => Spring fever must be hitting me right now. I am in the mood to clean out my house and straighten up my life. For the past week, I've organized my closets, cabinets, and junk drawers. I have found a whole year's supply of contacts that I now remembered ordering and stashing so that I didn't have to go back to the eye doctor for another year. I totally forgot about these and I was going to place an order within the next month or so! I found 2 full size brand new containers of DH's favorite hair gel. I've donated bags of stuff to Goodwill. I've thrown away so much clutter that has literally just sat in our house for the past 5 years. It feels great! I highly recommend everyone to find a drawer or closet and get at it! I did an area each night for a week and it was painless.
A 2011 financial goal was to reach the $20,000 mark in our E-fund. I deposited a $100 credit card reward check today bringing the balance up to.... drum roll.... $20,049.28!!!!!!!! Now, let's cross our fingers that we won't see any kind of emergencies for a while so that I can enjoy seeing that awesome number. Wahoo!!!
Other random updates:
I gave my sister a blank check for her birthday payable to her power company. She's the one that is in a huge financial mess. The bill was for $210.55. I asked her how much of the bill was for late fees and penalties and she didn't even know the answer to that... it's quite sad. But, oh well, it's nice to be able to help her when I can (I only give her money for holidays instead of buying her nonsense so as to not try to enable her family's bad money habits). She did tell me that she went and applied for food stamps and other family aid which is about time in my opinion.
My co-worker is making great progress on her financial situation. She made it through Christmas without having to charge a dime. There are still a few debts that she has left to pay off but I see her getting to the finish line within the next year or two.
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[entry_stub] => government-foreclosure
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[entry_date] => 1295031503
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-14 12:58:23
[entry_text] => Ok, so I've always been interested in investing in real estate. I've blogged about possibilities before on here but have never actually taken the plunge to go for anything. A family friend, who has a lot of experience in real estate investing, referred me to government foreclosures as a possibility. This was back in November. I got wrapped up in the Holidays and hadn't really had a chance to follow up or look for any foreclosures but long story short, after taking a peek today, I see that there is a foreclosure up for auction next week! The gov't bid is listed at $26k, whatever that means. I have a lot of research still left to do but my mind is racing with the opportunity to get a decent house for so cheap. I know the area and I know exactly where the house is --- nice family neighborhood. I'd estimate the retail value of the house at around $90-$100k. I'm going to talk to my friend tonight to get more guidance about the process. He started out with a government foreclosure and so he'll know what to do... Maybe this will be the one for us??
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[entry_title] => Updating savings amounts for 2011
[entry_stub] => updating-savings-amounts-for-2011
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/01/11/updating-savings-amounts-for-2011_65211/
[entry_date] => 1294770581
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-11 12:29:41
[entry_text] => We had been saving $1,000 per month into savings (short-term, mid-term, and retirement). I just got online to all our accounts and increased everything to $1,500 per month. I think we can do more but let's see how this feels for a few months.
We also are going to start paying extra on our mortgage... just to round it up from $1,652 to $1,700 each month which is just $48 so no biggie. We used to pay a few hundred extra per month when we first got the mortgage but then scaled back to the regular monthly payment amount when we were trying to sell our house. Now that it looks like we'll be here for a while, I figured we'd start paying a little extra just because.
Some things I look forward to in 2011:
1. Reaching the $20,000 mark in our e-fund.
2. Would love to be 100-105 lbs! Before you think that is outrageous, please be aware that I am very petite and this would be normal (but on the lean side) for someone like me. I have thus far cut out soda (except for one can twice a week -- long story) which is going to help tremendously. I am trying to fit in some exercise too... so far, so good.
3. Cook at home more/eating out less. This has been working out pretty well thus far.
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[entry_title] => An update -- finally!
[entry_stub] => an-update-finally
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[entry_date] => 1291296177
[entry_date_mysql] => 2010-12-02 07:22:57
[entry_text] => Ok, so I can't believe it's been nearly 3 months since I last posted. Things have been absolutely crazy around here and so I have a lot of catching up to do in blogland!
An update on my co-worker's situation. I started working with her on Oct 1 to straighten out her finances. Good news --- she's paid off two small credit card balances, one medical bill, and most importantly, the debt she had with her son (she'd borrow money from him from time to time to keep herself afloat). She has also put aside $820 in her savings account which she says is the first time she's ever saved anything. $600 of this is for Christmas and the rest is for buying new tires for her car. She still has a long way to go to pay off her debts but she's made huge progress in the couple of months I've been guiding her through. We meet about 2-3 times a month to make sure that she stays on track and for me to basically hold her hand... she still can't figure out what to pay first, how much to pay, or anything like that so I give her a roadmap everytime we meet.
Ok, now the big news on my side of things is that DH and I are considering going to NYC over New Year's. Isn't that just crazy to even think about being in all that chaos? But, we were looking at our work schedules and the kids' school calendar and wouldn't you know that we have a ton of time off available. My sister has offered to watch the kids for us so it'll just be a trip for the two of us which hasn't happened.... ever! So, I hop online and look at rates-- it will cost about $2500 for airline and hotel for 5 nights. Yikes! It would be cheaper if we didn't want to stay right near Times Square but this will be a trip of a lifetime for us so we thought we'd splurge a bit more than what we normally would do. With eating and shopping money, the trip will probably be around $3500. Anybody ever been to NY? Anything to look out for or suggestions on where to stay, eat, or do?
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[entry_title] => Honored to be asked
[entry_stub] => honored-to-be-asked
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2010/09/17/honored-to-be-asked_62124/
[entry_date] => 1284733580
[entry_date_mysql] => 2010-09-17 09:26:20
[entry_text] => This morning, someone that works in our office comes to ask me to help her with her personal finances. This was completely out of the blue and I feel so honored that she would trust me with her money issues. She said she was thinking last night of who she could ask for help and thought of me... (after she got a denial yesterday from the local credit union for a new credit card account). Now, I'm on a quest to get her all squared away and you guys can come along on the journey. Here's her situation:
Married with 2 children (one in college and one in high school), but not a financially sound marriage ever, apparently... DH is a banker of all things but he apparently doesn't have his head on straight when it comes to their own money. He wants to keep everything completely separate in their household so the wife just deals with this (even though he makes probably 4 times what she does). For the major expenses, he covers the mortgage and utilities. She has to cover the groceries for the house.
Finances:
OUT categories we've identified thus far =
*groceries/eating out for household
*car payment on her car
*gas/maintenance on her car
*half of the household cell phone bill
*medical bills for household
*dog -vet/grooming bills
*multiple credit cards (highest balance is around $5k on one of them)
*three outstanding medical debts
She had her highest balance credit card statement with her and said she thought the interest rate on it was 90% (gasp) and I was like, um -- doubt it? So, I looked on her statement and showed her where the interest rate was indicated which is something like 25%. As you can see, she doesn't even know how to read her statements. She's a college graduate but when it comes to money and math, she's clueless and knows that is why she's in the trouble that she's in.
I gave her homework for the weekend -- I've asked her to write down exactly what her interest rates are on all the credit cards and their current balances. I told her to call each one of those credit card companies and ask for a lower interest rate. She also needs to identify exactly how much she owes on those outstanding medical bills and to estimate how much her other monthly expenses total up (she had no clue how much she spends on groceries, for example).
Next, I asked her about her paycheck. Since I have access to payroll, I looked up her check and all her deductions. She has zero withholdings and I asked if she gets a tax refund each year. Apparently, she just gives her W-2 to her DH each year and he does all the tax stuff. She does know that for 2009, they got back around $1500 total and then she got fussed at from her DH that it wasn't enough. He wanted the refund to be even higher and implied that she must not have withheld enough from her checks (jerk!). He keeps their refund and does whatever with the money even though it's "their" refund. I told her that was crazy. I calculated what increasing her withholdings to 1 and 2 would be, an additional $58 and $103 respectively, in each paycheck... Basically, by just increasing her withholdings to 1, she would have an additional $700 each year in her paychecks that her grubby hubby wouldn't have access to come tax time. She said she's all about having her withholdings changed to 1 now. Yay.
Anyway, I'll post more as we keep ironing out her budget...
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Posted in
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5 Comments »
April 11th, 2011 at 01:25 pm
Some of you have asked so here is the scoop...
House #1
Purchased in 1997
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1000 sq ft
Small but corner lot in a tight subdivision
House #2
Purchased in 2001
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1600 sq ft
Large (to us) 1/3 acre lot in a nice subdivision, backed up to farmland so was nice and private
House #3 CURRENT HOUSE
Purchased in 2006
3 story house, main living space on first floor, all bedrooms are upstairs, finished full basement
approx 2600 sq ft
.67 acre lot
So, our current house #3 might look to be a great step up for us, right? Well, not quite...
House #1 was our starter home when we just got married. It was a great little house but we got tired of the really, really tight subdivision. All the houses were so close together --- no privacy at all. So, we sold it and moved across town to House #2. This house was the smallest in the neighborhood. Most of the other houses were 2 story homes that looked really big compared to our house. But, we loved the flat lot of our house, the floorplan really worked for us, and it was a really good fit for our growing family.
Then, we moved 4 hours away, from the flat lands to the mountains, for a new job opportunity. We realized quickly that housing prices in the mountains were quite higher than they were in the big city that we came from. Also, the houses here were mainly multi-level homes since they were built alongside hill banks. We had only 2 main criteria when looking for this home: 1) I wanted a garage with main level access. I didn't want to haul groceries from a basement entry garage up stairs to the kitchen. I'd say 75% of homes here all have their garage in the basement. 2) I wanted a large lot with trees. Having lived in the city, we didn't have a lot of natural wooded areas. I thought that was what I wanted. So, we bought House #3 because these 2 main criteria were met and now 5 years later, we just hate the house. We had never lived in a multi-level home before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to go up and down stairs all the time. We had never lived on a wooded lot before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to pick up fallen limbs all the time. Ugh, ugh, and ugh. I guess it's one of those situations where the grass really isn't greener on the other side... all along we thought those bigger 2 story houses in our neighborhoods were so nice and roomy. Blah! We so miss our little ranch style homes!!!
So, a summary of all the things we hate about our current house:
1) Stairs, stairs, and more stairs!
2) All the trees! It gets windy here alot and those fallen branches are a pain to deal with
3) Hillsides! No flat place for the kids to play
4) Open floor plan of living space! Our 'great room' consists of the living room, kitchen, and dining spaces... all in one big open area. Now, I know this is all the rage in today's real estate market, but now that we actually live in this kind of living space, we just don't like it. It's really noisy!!
5) No air conditioning! As a mountain home, it is not common to have A/C here... or so one would think! The houses here just aren't built with A/C as standard. It gets pretty hot for just about one month out of the year but gosh, that one month nearly kills us each year!
So, those are the top 5 reasons why we hate our house. All these reasons were things that we just didn't realize would bother us until we actually bought the house and started living in it. We learn what we like and dislike from each home we live in and we certainly know what to look for in our House #4... we just need to sell this one first! Spent $1300 last week to get the rear wheel bearings replaced, rear brake pads and rotors filed down and turned, and an oil change
---------> Took the car in today because all the check engine kind of lights were on...Was just told that we need to have the ECM (the car's computer) replaced and that will be another $1200!!! Haven't told DH yet -- he's going to freak out.
We have a 2003 Toyota Sienna.
---------> This poor van has been neglected for so long in regards to routine maintenance. The tires are so bald (we don't drive it except within town to run errands so we've been putting it off). The dealer is having a tire sale next week so we've scheduled an appointment to have 4 new tires put on and for a well overdue oil change done. Estimated cost will be around $350.
Has anyone been adding all this up? If not, that's ok, cause I've already done it for you and it's a whopping $2850 in a few weeks time for stupid car maintenance issues. Aacckkk!!!
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[entry_title] => Reasons we hate our house...
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[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-11 08:25:30
[entry_text] => Some of you have asked so here is the scoop...
House #1
Purchased in 1997
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1000 sq ft
Small but corner lot in a tight subdivision
House #2
Purchased in 2001
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1600 sq ft
Large (to us) 1/3 acre lot in a nice subdivision, backed up to farmland so was nice and private
House #3 CURRENT HOUSE
Purchased in 2006
3 story house, main living space on first floor, all bedrooms are upstairs, finished full basement
approx 2600 sq ft
.67 acre lot
So, our current house #3 might look to be a great step up for us, right? Well, not quite...
House #1 was our starter home when we just got married. It was a great little house but we got tired of the really, really tight subdivision. All the houses were so close together --- no privacy at all. So, we sold it and moved across town to House #2. This house was the smallest in the neighborhood. Most of the other houses were 2 story homes that looked really big compared to our house. But, we loved the flat lot of our house, the floorplan really worked for us, and it was a really good fit for our growing family.
Then, we moved 4 hours away, from the flat lands to the mountains, for a new job opportunity. We realized quickly that housing prices in the mountains were quite higher than they were in the big city that we came from. Also, the houses here were mainly multi-level homes since they were built alongside hill banks. We had only 2 main criteria when looking for this home: 1) I wanted a garage with main level access. I didn't want to haul groceries from a basement entry garage up stairs to the kitchen. I'd say 75% of homes here all have their garage in the basement. 2) I wanted a large lot with trees. Having lived in the city, we didn't have a lot of natural wooded areas. I thought that was what I wanted. So, we bought House #3 because these 2 main criteria were met and now 5 years later, we just hate the house. We had never lived in a multi-level home before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to go up and down stairs all the time. We had never lived on a wooded lot before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to pick up fallen limbs all the time. Ugh, ugh, and ugh. I guess it's one of those situations where the grass really isn't greener on the other side... all along we thought those bigger 2 story houses in our neighborhoods were so nice and roomy. Blah! We so miss our little ranch style homes!!!
So, a summary of all the things we hate about our current house:
1) Stairs, stairs, and more stairs!
2) All the trees! It gets windy here alot and those fallen branches are a pain to deal with
3) Hillsides! No flat place for the kids to play
4) Open floor plan of living space! Our 'great room' consists of the living room, kitchen, and dining spaces... all in one big open area. Now, I know this is all the rage in today's real estate market, but now that we actually live in this kind of living space, we just don't like it. It's really noisy!!
5) No air conditioning! As a mountain home, it is not common to have A/C here... or so one would think! The houses here just aren't built with A/C as standard. It gets pretty hot for just about one month out of the year but gosh, that one month nearly kills us each year!
So, those are the top 5 reasons why we hate our house. All these reasons were things that we just didn't realize would bother us until we actually bought the house and started living in it. We learn what we like and dislike from each home we live in and we certainly know what to look for in our House #4... we just need to sell this one first!
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[entry_title] => Should we sell or not?
[entry_stub] => should-we-sell-or-not
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[entry_date] => 1301930017
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-04 10:13:37
[entry_text] => Ack, what to do?? Ok, some back history. We tried selling our house for 2 years and had no offers. We took the house off the market for 6 months to take a break. We started asking for $349k and ended up our last listing price at $299k... Granted, we did start too high on the price for the market that we were in but settled on a price that is very fair -- but still no offers, so we pulled it off the market. Now that it is Spring, we are thinking about putting it on again.
Our past realtors were without a better term popping into my head right now, sucky. They just listed the house and didn't do much of anything else. We found another realtor that has come highly recommended... we met with him last week and he did a market analysis (CMA) on our house. If you've been following my blog, you know that we just installed granite in our kitchen... so, with that improvement, we really think we have an edge over the competition in our price range. DH and I thought we would stay at the $299k price as our listing price. After the CMA, the new realtor suggested listing it at $289k.... BUT in all honesty, the houses he compared to ours are nowhere near what ours has to offer. There just aren't too many sold houses he can compare ours to. So, he's comfortable in putting it on at $299k if that is what we still want to do. The bottom line that we are willing to sell for is $290k.
So, should we or shouldn't we try to sell the house again? DH and I just don't like it --- there is no other reason to sell. We both have stable jobs and we don't need to move anywhere. We've just HATEd our house since the day we moved in 5 years ago. If we end up at our bottom of $290k, we'd make zippo, and actually lose money really. We bought the house for $288k in 2006 (brand new) and put in $20k in improvements (granite and driveway/retaining wall work), so we've got $308k in the house. However, DH and I don't really consider the $20k we put into the house as additional cost for the house because those things were done to make the house more "liveable" for us. We wouldn't have to come to the table with any cash as our mortgage balance is low enough to where we will still have a bit of cash from the sale after the mortgage is paid.
So, what would you do? Would you go with the financially correct decision and just stay put? Or, would you do what would make you and the family happy and take a slight loss on the house?
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[entry_title] => Can a person LOVE a sink?
[entry_stub] => can-a-person-love-a-sink
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[entry_date] => 1301430598
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-29 15:29:58
[entry_text] => Here's a pic of my new sink and granite counters.... I absolutely love how everything turned out! We got them installed yesterday and tonight the realtor is coming over to start the process of listing our house (again). Wish us luck!!
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[entry_title] => Getting granite counters!
[entry_stub] => getting-granite-counters
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[entry_date] => 1300478106
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-18 14:55:06
[entry_text] => Ok, we tried selling our house last year with no luck. We want to try it again beginning April 1. We decided to get rid of our laminate countertops and get granite installed. The cost will be $3800. Cross your fingers and toes that this will make the difference and that our house will sell this time around. We are doing the demo in the kitchen this weekend and should have the install done within 10 days, ready for our April 1 listing date. And... if the house doesn't sell, then I get to enjoy brand new granite countertops!
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[entry_title] => A new month, A clean start!
[entry_stub] => march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/03/01/march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start_66521/
[entry_date] => 1299006127
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-01 13:02:07
[entry_text] => Spring fever must be hitting me right now. I am in the mood to clean out my house and straighten up my life. For the past week, I've organized my closets, cabinets, and junk drawers. I have found a whole year's supply of contacts that I now remembered ordering and stashing so that I didn't have to go back to the eye doctor for another year. I totally forgot about these and I was going to place an order within the next month or so! I found 2 full size brand new containers of DH's favorite hair gel. I've donated bags of stuff to Goodwill. I've thrown away so much clutter that has literally just sat in our house for the past 5 years. It feels great! I highly recommend everyone to find a drawer or closet and get at it! I did an area each night for a week and it was painless.
A 2011 financial goal was to reach the $20,000 mark in our E-fund. I deposited a $100 credit card reward check today bringing the balance up to.... drum roll.... $20,049.28!!!!!!!! Now, let's cross our fingers that we won't see any kind of emergencies for a while so that I can enjoy seeing that awesome number. Wahoo!!!
Other random updates:
I gave my sister a blank check for her birthday payable to her power company. She's the one that is in a huge financial mess. The bill was for $210.55. I asked her how much of the bill was for late fees and penalties and she didn't even know the answer to that... it's quite sad. But, oh well, it's nice to be able to help her when I can (I only give her money for holidays instead of buying her nonsense so as to not try to enable her family's bad money habits). She did tell me that she went and applied for food stamps and other family aid which is about time in my opinion.
My co-worker is making great progress on her financial situation. She made it through Christmas without having to charge a dime. There are still a few debts that she has left to pay off but I see her getting to the finish line within the next year or two.
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[entry_title] => Government Foreclosure
[entry_stub] => government-foreclosure
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[entry_date] => 1295031503
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-14 12:58:23
[entry_text] => Ok, so I've always been interested in investing in real estate. I've blogged about possibilities before on here but have never actually taken the plunge to go for anything. A family friend, who has a lot of experience in real estate investing, referred me to government foreclosures as a possibility. This was back in November. I got wrapped up in the Holidays and hadn't really had a chance to follow up or look for any foreclosures but long story short, after taking a peek today, I see that there is a foreclosure up for auction next week! The gov't bid is listed at $26k, whatever that means. I have a lot of research still left to do but my mind is racing with the opportunity to get a decent house for so cheap. I know the area and I know exactly where the house is --- nice family neighborhood. I'd estimate the retail value of the house at around $90-$100k. I'm going to talk to my friend tonight to get more guidance about the process. He started out with a government foreclosure and so he'll know what to do... Maybe this will be the one for us??
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[entry_stub] => updating-savings-amounts-for-2011
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[entry_date] => 1294770581
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-11 12:29:41
[entry_text] => We had been saving $1,000 per month into savings (short-term, mid-term, and retirement). I just got online to all our accounts and increased everything to $1,500 per month. I think we can do more but let's see how this feels for a few months.
We also are going to start paying extra on our mortgage... just to round it up from $1,652 to $1,700 each month which is just $48 so no biggie. We used to pay a few hundred extra per month when we first got the mortgage but then scaled back to the regular monthly payment amount when we were trying to sell our house. Now that it looks like we'll be here for a while, I figured we'd start paying a little extra just because.
Some things I look forward to in 2011:
1. Reaching the $20,000 mark in our e-fund.
2. Would love to be 100-105 lbs! Before you think that is outrageous, please be aware that I am very petite and this would be normal (but on the lean side) for someone like me. I have thus far cut out soda (except for one can twice a week -- long story) which is going to help tremendously. I am trying to fit in some exercise too... so far, so good.
3. Cook at home more/eating out less. This has been working out pretty well thus far.
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[entry_title] => An update -- finally!
[entry_stub] => an-update-finally
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2010/12/02/an-update-finally_63975/
[entry_date] => 1291296177
[entry_date_mysql] => 2010-12-02 07:22:57
[entry_text] => Ok, so I can't believe it's been nearly 3 months since I last posted. Things have been absolutely crazy around here and so I have a lot of catching up to do in blogland!
An update on my co-worker's situation. I started working with her on Oct 1 to straighten out her finances. Good news --- she's paid off two small credit card balances, one medical bill, and most importantly, the debt she had with her son (she'd borrow money from him from time to time to keep herself afloat). She has also put aside $820 in her savings account which she says is the first time she's ever saved anything. $600 of this is for Christmas and the rest is for buying new tires for her car. She still has a long way to go to pay off her debts but she's made huge progress in the couple of months I've been guiding her through. We meet about 2-3 times a month to make sure that she stays on track and for me to basically hold her hand... she still can't figure out what to pay first, how much to pay, or anything like that so I give her a roadmap everytime we meet.
Ok, now the big news on my side of things is that DH and I are considering going to NYC over New Year's. Isn't that just crazy to even think about being in all that chaos? But, we were looking at our work schedules and the kids' school calendar and wouldn't you know that we have a ton of time off available. My sister has offered to watch the kids for us so it'll just be a trip for the two of us which hasn't happened.... ever! So, I hop online and look at rates-- it will cost about $2500 for airline and hotel for 5 nights. Yikes! It would be cheaper if we didn't want to stay right near Times Square but this will be a trip of a lifetime for us so we thought we'd splurge a bit more than what we normally would do. With eating and shopping money, the trip will probably be around $3500. Anybody ever been to NY? Anything to look out for or suggestions on where to stay, eat, or do?
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[entry_title] => Honored to be asked
[entry_stub] => honored-to-be-asked
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2010/09/17/honored-to-be-asked_62124/
[entry_date] => 1284733580
[entry_date_mysql] => 2010-09-17 09:26:20
[entry_text] => This morning, someone that works in our office comes to ask me to help her with her personal finances. This was completely out of the blue and I feel so honored that she would trust me with her money issues. She said she was thinking last night of who she could ask for help and thought of me... (after she got a denial yesterday from the local credit union for a new credit card account). Now, I'm on a quest to get her all squared away and you guys can come along on the journey. Here's her situation:
Married with 2 children (one in college and one in high school), but not a financially sound marriage ever, apparently... DH is a banker of all things but he apparently doesn't have his head on straight when it comes to their own money. He wants to keep everything completely separate in their household so the wife just deals with this (even though he makes probably 4 times what she does). For the major expenses, he covers the mortgage and utilities. She has to cover the groceries for the house.
Finances:
OUT categories we've identified thus far =
*groceries/eating out for household
*car payment on her car
*gas/maintenance on her car
*half of the household cell phone bill
*medical bills for household
*dog -vet/grooming bills
*multiple credit cards (highest balance is around $5k on one of them)
*three outstanding medical debts
She had her highest balance credit card statement with her and said she thought the interest rate on it was 90% (gasp) and I was like, um -- doubt it? So, I looked on her statement and showed her where the interest rate was indicated which is something like 25%. As you can see, she doesn't even know how to read her statements. She's a college graduate but when it comes to money and math, she's clueless and knows that is why she's in the trouble that she's in.
I gave her homework for the weekend -- I've asked her to write down exactly what her interest rates are on all the credit cards and their current balances. I told her to call each one of those credit card companies and ask for a lower interest rate. She also needs to identify exactly how much she owes on those outstanding medical bills and to estimate how much her other monthly expenses total up (she had no clue how much she spends on groceries, for example).
Next, I asked her about her paycheck. Since I have access to payroll, I looked up her check and all her deductions. She has zero withholdings and I asked if she gets a tax refund each year. Apparently, she just gives her W-2 to her DH each year and he does all the tax stuff. She does know that for 2009, they got back around $1500 total and then she got fussed at from her DH that it wasn't enough. He wanted the refund to be even higher and implied that she must not have withheld enough from her checks (jerk!). He keeps their refund and does whatever with the money even though it's "their" refund. I told her that was crazy. I calculated what increasing her withholdings to 1 and 2 would be, an additional $58 and $103 respectively, in each paycheck... Basically, by just increasing her withholdings to 1, she would have an additional $700 each year in her paychecks that her grubby hubby wouldn't have access to come tax time. She said she's all about having her withholdings changed to 1 now. Yay.
Anyway, I'll post more as we keep ironing out her budget...
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Posted in
Uncategorized
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3 Comments »
April 4th, 2011 at 03:13 pm
Ack, what to do?? Ok, some back history. We tried selling our house for 2 years and had no offers. We took the house off the market for 6 months to take a break. We started asking for $349k and ended up our last listing price at $299k... Granted, we did start too high on the price for the market that we were in but settled on a price that is very fair -- but still no offers, so we pulled it off the market. Now that it is Spring, we are thinking about putting it on again.
Our past realtors were without a better term popping into my head right now, sucky. They just listed the house and didn't do much of anything else. We found another realtor that has come highly recommended... we met with him last week and he did a market analysis (CMA) on our house. If you've been following my blog, you know that we just installed granite in our kitchen... so, with that improvement, we really think we have an edge over the competition in our price range. DH and I thought we would stay at the $299k price as our listing price. After the CMA, the new realtor suggested listing it at $289k.... BUT in all honesty, the houses he compared to ours are nowhere near what ours has to offer. There just aren't too many sold houses he can compare ours to. So, he's comfortable in putting it on at $299k if that is what we still want to do. The bottom line that we are willing to sell for is $290k.
So, should we or shouldn't we try to sell the house again? DH and I just don't like it --- there is no other reason to sell. We both have stable jobs and we don't need to move anywhere. We've just HATEd our house since the day we moved in 5 years ago. If we end up at our bottom of $290k, we'd make zippo, and actually lose money really. We bought the house for $288k in 2006 (brand new) and put in $20k in improvements (granite and driveway/retaining wall work), so we've got $308k in the house. However, DH and I don't really consider the $20k we put into the house as additional cost for the house because those things were done to make the house more "liveable" for us. We wouldn't have to come to the table with any cash as our mortgage balance is low enough to where we will still have a bit of cash from the sale after the mortgage is paid.
So, what would you do? Would you go with the financially correct decision and just stay put? Or, would you do what would make you and the family happy and take a slight loss on the house? Spent $1300 last week to get the rear wheel bearings replaced, rear brake pads and rotors filed down and turned, and an oil change
---------> Took the car in today because all the check engine kind of lights were on...Was just told that we need to have the ECM (the car's computer) replaced and that will be another $1200!!! Haven't told DH yet -- he's going to freak out.
We have a 2003 Toyota Sienna.
---------> This poor van has been neglected for so long in regards to routine maintenance. The tires are so bald (we don't drive it except within town to run errands so we've been putting it off). The dealer is having a tire sale next week so we've scheduled an appointment to have 4 new tires put on and for a well overdue oil change done. Estimated cost will be around $350.
Has anyone been adding all this up? If not, that's ok, cause I've already done it for you and it's a whopping $2850 in a few weeks time for stupid car maintenance issues. Aacckkk!!!
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[entry_title] => Reasons we hate our house...
[entry_stub] => reasons-we-hate-our-house
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/04/11/reasons-we-hate-our-house_68100/
[entry_date] => 1302528330
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-11 08:25:30
[entry_text] => Some of you have asked so here is the scoop...
House #1
Purchased in 1997
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1000 sq ft
Small but corner lot in a tight subdivision
House #2
Purchased in 2001
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1600 sq ft
Large (to us) 1/3 acre lot in a nice subdivision, backed up to farmland so was nice and private
House #3 CURRENT HOUSE
Purchased in 2006
3 story house, main living space on first floor, all bedrooms are upstairs, finished full basement
approx 2600 sq ft
.67 acre lot
So, our current house #3 might look to be a great step up for us, right? Well, not quite...
House #1 was our starter home when we just got married. It was a great little house but we got tired of the really, really tight subdivision. All the houses were so close together --- no privacy at all. So, we sold it and moved across town to House #2. This house was the smallest in the neighborhood. Most of the other houses were 2 story homes that looked really big compared to our house. But, we loved the flat lot of our house, the floorplan really worked for us, and it was a really good fit for our growing family.
Then, we moved 4 hours away, from the flat lands to the mountains, for a new job opportunity. We realized quickly that housing prices in the mountains were quite higher than they were in the big city that we came from. Also, the houses here were mainly multi-level homes since they were built alongside hill banks. We had only 2 main criteria when looking for this home: 1) I wanted a garage with main level access. I didn't want to haul groceries from a basement entry garage up stairs to the kitchen. I'd say 75% of homes here all have their garage in the basement. 2) I wanted a large lot with trees. Having lived in the city, we didn't have a lot of natural wooded areas. I thought that was what I wanted. So, we bought House #3 because these 2 main criteria were met and now 5 years later, we just hate the house. We had never lived in a multi-level home before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to go up and down stairs all the time. We had never lived on a wooded lot before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to pick up fallen limbs all the time. Ugh, ugh, and ugh. I guess it's one of those situations where the grass really isn't greener on the other side... all along we thought those bigger 2 story houses in our neighborhoods were so nice and roomy. Blah! We so miss our little ranch style homes!!!
So, a summary of all the things we hate about our current house:
1) Stairs, stairs, and more stairs!
2) All the trees! It gets windy here alot and those fallen branches are a pain to deal with
3) Hillsides! No flat place for the kids to play
4) Open floor plan of living space! Our 'great room' consists of the living room, kitchen, and dining spaces... all in one big open area. Now, I know this is all the rage in today's real estate market, but now that we actually live in this kind of living space, we just don't like it. It's really noisy!!
5) No air conditioning! As a mountain home, it is not common to have A/C here... or so one would think! The houses here just aren't built with A/C as standard. It gets pretty hot for just about one month out of the year but gosh, that one month nearly kills us each year!
So, those are the top 5 reasons why we hate our house. All these reasons were things that we just didn't realize would bother us until we actually bought the house and started living in it. We learn what we like and dislike from each home we live in and we certainly know what to look for in our House #4... we just need to sell this one first!
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[entry_title] => Should we sell or not?
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[entry_date] => 1301930017
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-04 10:13:37
[entry_text] => Ack, what to do?? Ok, some back history. We tried selling our house for 2 years and had no offers. We took the house off the market for 6 months to take a break. We started asking for $349k and ended up our last listing price at $299k... Granted, we did start too high on the price for the market that we were in but settled on a price that is very fair -- but still no offers, so we pulled it off the market. Now that it is Spring, we are thinking about putting it on again.
Our past realtors were without a better term popping into my head right now, sucky. They just listed the house and didn't do much of anything else. We found another realtor that has come highly recommended... we met with him last week and he did a market analysis (CMA) on our house. If you've been following my blog, you know that we just installed granite in our kitchen... so, with that improvement, we really think we have an edge over the competition in our price range. DH and I thought we would stay at the $299k price as our listing price. After the CMA, the new realtor suggested listing it at $289k.... BUT in all honesty, the houses he compared to ours are nowhere near what ours has to offer. There just aren't too many sold houses he can compare ours to. So, he's comfortable in putting it on at $299k if that is what we still want to do. The bottom line that we are willing to sell for is $290k.
So, should we or shouldn't we try to sell the house again? DH and I just don't like it --- there is no other reason to sell. We both have stable jobs and we don't need to move anywhere. We've just HATEd our house since the day we moved in 5 years ago. If we end up at our bottom of $290k, we'd make zippo, and actually lose money really. We bought the house for $288k in 2006 (brand new) and put in $20k in improvements (granite and driveway/retaining wall work), so we've got $308k in the house. However, DH and I don't really consider the $20k we put into the house as additional cost for the house because those things were done to make the house more "liveable" for us. We wouldn't have to come to the table with any cash as our mortgage balance is low enough to where we will still have a bit of cash from the sale after the mortgage is paid.
So, what would you do? Would you go with the financially correct decision and just stay put? Or, would you do what would make you and the family happy and take a slight loss on the house?
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[entry_title] => Can a person LOVE a sink?
[entry_stub] => can-a-person-love-a-sink
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[entry_date] => 1301430598
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-29 15:29:58
[entry_text] => Here's a pic of my new sink and granite counters.... I absolutely love how everything turned out! We got them installed yesterday and tonight the realtor is coming over to start the process of listing our house (again). Wish us luck!!
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[entry_title] => Getting granite counters!
[entry_stub] => getting-granite-counters
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/03/18/getting-granite-counters_67124/
[entry_date] => 1300478106
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-18 14:55:06
[entry_text] => Ok, we tried selling our house last year with no luck. We want to try it again beginning April 1. We decided to get rid of our laminate countertops and get granite installed. The cost will be $3800. Cross your fingers and toes that this will make the difference and that our house will sell this time around. We are doing the demo in the kitchen this weekend and should have the install done within 10 days, ready for our April 1 listing date. And... if the house doesn't sell, then I get to enjoy brand new granite countertops!
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[entry_title] => A new month, A clean start!
[entry_stub] => march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/03/01/march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start_66521/
[entry_date] => 1299006127
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-01 13:02:07
[entry_text] => Spring fever must be hitting me right now. I am in the mood to clean out my house and straighten up my life. For the past week, I've organized my closets, cabinets, and junk drawers. I have found a whole year's supply of contacts that I now remembered ordering and stashing so that I didn't have to go back to the eye doctor for another year. I totally forgot about these and I was going to place an order within the next month or so! I found 2 full size brand new containers of DH's favorite hair gel. I've donated bags of stuff to Goodwill. I've thrown away so much clutter that has literally just sat in our house for the past 5 years. It feels great! I highly recommend everyone to find a drawer or closet and get at it! I did an area each night for a week and it was painless.
A 2011 financial goal was to reach the $20,000 mark in our E-fund. I deposited a $100 credit card reward check today bringing the balance up to.... drum roll.... $20,049.28!!!!!!!! Now, let's cross our fingers that we won't see any kind of emergencies for a while so that I can enjoy seeing that awesome number. Wahoo!!!
Other random updates:
I gave my sister a blank check for her birthday payable to her power company. She's the one that is in a huge financial mess. The bill was for $210.55. I asked her how much of the bill was for late fees and penalties and she didn't even know the answer to that... it's quite sad. But, oh well, it's nice to be able to help her when I can (I only give her money for holidays instead of buying her nonsense so as to not try to enable her family's bad money habits). She did tell me that she went and applied for food stamps and other family aid which is about time in my opinion.
My co-worker is making great progress on her financial situation. She made it through Christmas without having to charge a dime. There are still a few debts that she has left to pay off but I see her getting to the finish line within the next year or two.
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[entry_title] => Government Foreclosure
[entry_stub] => government-foreclosure
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[entry_date] => 1295031503
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-14 12:58:23
[entry_text] => Ok, so I've always been interested in investing in real estate. I've blogged about possibilities before on here but have never actually taken the plunge to go for anything. A family friend, who has a lot of experience in real estate investing, referred me to government foreclosures as a possibility. This was back in November. I got wrapped up in the Holidays and hadn't really had a chance to follow up or look for any foreclosures but long story short, after taking a peek today, I see that there is a foreclosure up for auction next week! The gov't bid is listed at $26k, whatever that means. I have a lot of research still left to do but my mind is racing with the opportunity to get a decent house for so cheap. I know the area and I know exactly where the house is --- nice family neighborhood. I'd estimate the retail value of the house at around $90-$100k. I'm going to talk to my friend tonight to get more guidance about the process. He started out with a government foreclosure and so he'll know what to do... Maybe this will be the one for us??
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[entry_title] => Updating savings amounts for 2011
[entry_stub] => updating-savings-amounts-for-2011
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[entry_date] => 1294770581
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-11 12:29:41
[entry_text] => We had been saving $1,000 per month into savings (short-term, mid-term, and retirement). I just got online to all our accounts and increased everything to $1,500 per month. I think we can do more but let's see how this feels for a few months.
We also are going to start paying extra on our mortgage... just to round it up from $1,652 to $1,700 each month which is just $48 so no biggie. We used to pay a few hundred extra per month when we first got the mortgage but then scaled back to the regular monthly payment amount when we were trying to sell our house. Now that it looks like we'll be here for a while, I figured we'd start paying a little extra just because.
Some things I look forward to in 2011:
1. Reaching the $20,000 mark in our e-fund.
2. Would love to be 100-105 lbs! Before you think that is outrageous, please be aware that I am very petite and this would be normal (but on the lean side) for someone like me. I have thus far cut out soda (except for one can twice a week -- long story) which is going to help tremendously. I am trying to fit in some exercise too... so far, so good.
3. Cook at home more/eating out less. This has been working out pretty well thus far.
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[entry_title] => An update -- finally!
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[entry_text] => Ok, so I can't believe it's been nearly 3 months since I last posted. Things have been absolutely crazy around here and so I have a lot of catching up to do in blogland!
An update on my co-worker's situation. I started working with her on Oct 1 to straighten out her finances. Good news --- she's paid off two small credit card balances, one medical bill, and most importantly, the debt she had with her son (she'd borrow money from him from time to time to keep herself afloat). She has also put aside $820 in her savings account which she says is the first time she's ever saved anything. $600 of this is for Christmas and the rest is for buying new tires for her car. She still has a long way to go to pay off her debts but she's made huge progress in the couple of months I've been guiding her through. We meet about 2-3 times a month to make sure that she stays on track and for me to basically hold her hand... she still can't figure out what to pay first, how much to pay, or anything like that so I give her a roadmap everytime we meet.
Ok, now the big news on my side of things is that DH and I are considering going to NYC over New Year's. Isn't that just crazy to even think about being in all that chaos? But, we were looking at our work schedules and the kids' school calendar and wouldn't you know that we have a ton of time off available. My sister has offered to watch the kids for us so it'll just be a trip for the two of us which hasn't happened.... ever! So, I hop online and look at rates-- it will cost about $2500 for airline and hotel for 5 nights. Yikes! It would be cheaper if we didn't want to stay right near Times Square but this will be a trip of a lifetime for us so we thought we'd splurge a bit more than what we normally would do. With eating and shopping money, the trip will probably be around $3500. Anybody ever been to NY? Anything to look out for or suggestions on where to stay, eat, or do?
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[entry_title] => Honored to be asked
[entry_stub] => honored-to-be-asked
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[entry_text] => This morning, someone that works in our office comes to ask me to help her with her personal finances. This was completely out of the blue and I feel so honored that she would trust me with her money issues. She said she was thinking last night of who she could ask for help and thought of me... (after she got a denial yesterday from the local credit union for a new credit card account). Now, I'm on a quest to get her all squared away and you guys can come along on the journey. Here's her situation:
Married with 2 children (one in college and one in high school), but not a financially sound marriage ever, apparently... DH is a banker of all things but he apparently doesn't have his head on straight when it comes to their own money. He wants to keep everything completely separate in their household so the wife just deals with this (even though he makes probably 4 times what she does). For the major expenses, he covers the mortgage and utilities. She has to cover the groceries for the house.
Finances:
OUT categories we've identified thus far =
*groceries/eating out for household
*car payment on her car
*gas/maintenance on her car
*half of the household cell phone bill
*medical bills for household
*dog -vet/grooming bills
*multiple credit cards (highest balance is around $5k on one of them)
*three outstanding medical debts
She had her highest balance credit card statement with her and said she thought the interest rate on it was 90% (gasp) and I was like, um -- doubt it? So, I looked on her statement and showed her where the interest rate was indicated which is something like 25%. As you can see, she doesn't even know how to read her statements. She's a college graduate but when it comes to money and math, she's clueless and knows that is why she's in the trouble that she's in.
I gave her homework for the weekend -- I've asked her to write down exactly what her interest rates are on all the credit cards and their current balances. I told her to call each one of those credit card companies and ask for a lower interest rate. She also needs to identify exactly how much she owes on those outstanding medical bills and to estimate how much her other monthly expenses total up (she had no clue how much she spends on groceries, for example).
Next, I asked her about her paycheck. Since I have access to payroll, I looked up her check and all her deductions. She has zero withholdings and I asked if she gets a tax refund each year. Apparently, she just gives her W-2 to her DH each year and he does all the tax stuff. She does know that for 2009, they got back around $1500 total and then she got fussed at from her DH that it wasn't enough. He wanted the refund to be even higher and implied that she must not have withheld enough from her checks (jerk!). He keeps their refund and does whatever with the money even though it's "their" refund. I told her that was crazy. I calculated what increasing her withholdings to 1 and 2 would be, an additional $58 and $103 respectively, in each paycheck... Basically, by just increasing her withholdings to 1, she would have an additional $700 each year in her paychecks that her grubby hubby wouldn't have access to come tax time. She said she's all about having her withholdings changed to 1 now. Yay.
Anyway, I'll post more as we keep ironing out her budget...
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Posted in
GOALS
|
5 Comments »
March 29th, 2011 at 08:29 pm
Here's a pic of my new sink and granite counters.... I absolutely love how everything turned out! We got them installed yesterday and tonight the realtor is coming over to start the process of listing our house (again). Wish us luck!!
Spent $1300 last week to get the rear wheel bearings replaced, rear brake pads and rotors filed down and turned, and an oil change
---------> Took the car in today because all the check engine kind of lights were on...Was just told that we need to have the ECM (the car's computer) replaced and that will be another $1200!!! Haven't told DH yet -- he's going to freak out.
We have a 2003 Toyota Sienna.
---------> This poor van has been neglected for so long in regards to routine maintenance. The tires are so bald (we don't drive it except within town to run errands so we've been putting it off). The dealer is having a tire sale next week so we've scheduled an appointment to have 4 new tires put on and for a well overdue oil change done. Estimated cost will be around $350.
Has anyone been adding all this up? If not, that's ok, cause I've already done it for you and it's a whopping $2850 in a few weeks time for stupid car maintenance issues. Aacckkk!!!
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[entry_title] => Reasons we hate our house...
[entry_stub] => reasons-we-hate-our-house
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[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-11 08:25:30
[entry_text] => Some of you have asked so here is the scoop...
House #1
Purchased in 1997
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1000 sq ft
Small but corner lot in a tight subdivision
House #2
Purchased in 2001
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1600 sq ft
Large (to us) 1/3 acre lot in a nice subdivision, backed up to farmland so was nice and private
House #3 CURRENT HOUSE
Purchased in 2006
3 story house, main living space on first floor, all bedrooms are upstairs, finished full basement
approx 2600 sq ft
.67 acre lot
So, our current house #3 might look to be a great step up for us, right? Well, not quite...
House #1 was our starter home when we just got married. It was a great little house but we got tired of the really, really tight subdivision. All the houses were so close together --- no privacy at all. So, we sold it and moved across town to House #2. This house was the smallest in the neighborhood. Most of the other houses were 2 story homes that looked really big compared to our house. But, we loved the flat lot of our house, the floorplan really worked for us, and it was a really good fit for our growing family.
Then, we moved 4 hours away, from the flat lands to the mountains, for a new job opportunity. We realized quickly that housing prices in the mountains were quite higher than they were in the big city that we came from. Also, the houses here were mainly multi-level homes since they were built alongside hill banks. We had only 2 main criteria when looking for this home: 1) I wanted a garage with main level access. I didn't want to haul groceries from a basement entry garage up stairs to the kitchen. I'd say 75% of homes here all have their garage in the basement. 2) I wanted a large lot with trees. Having lived in the city, we didn't have a lot of natural wooded areas. I thought that was what I wanted. So, we bought House #3 because these 2 main criteria were met and now 5 years later, we just hate the house. We had never lived in a multi-level home before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to go up and down stairs all the time. We had never lived on a wooded lot before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to pick up fallen limbs all the time. Ugh, ugh, and ugh. I guess it's one of those situations where the grass really isn't greener on the other side... all along we thought those bigger 2 story houses in our neighborhoods were so nice and roomy. Blah! We so miss our little ranch style homes!!!
So, a summary of all the things we hate about our current house:
1) Stairs, stairs, and more stairs!
2) All the trees! It gets windy here alot and those fallen branches are a pain to deal with
3) Hillsides! No flat place for the kids to play
4) Open floor plan of living space! Our 'great room' consists of the living room, kitchen, and dining spaces... all in one big open area. Now, I know this is all the rage in today's real estate market, but now that we actually live in this kind of living space, we just don't like it. It's really noisy!!
5) No air conditioning! As a mountain home, it is not common to have A/C here... or so one would think! The houses here just aren't built with A/C as standard. It gets pretty hot for just about one month out of the year but gosh, that one month nearly kills us each year!
So, those are the top 5 reasons why we hate our house. All these reasons were things that we just didn't realize would bother us until we actually bought the house and started living in it. We learn what we like and dislike from each home we live in and we certainly know what to look for in our House #4... we just need to sell this one first!
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[entry_title] => Should we sell or not?
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[entry_text] => Ack, what to do?? Ok, some back history. We tried selling our house for 2 years and had no offers. We took the house off the market for 6 months to take a break. We started asking for $349k and ended up our last listing price at $299k... Granted, we did start too high on the price for the market that we were in but settled on a price that is very fair -- but still no offers, so we pulled it off the market. Now that it is Spring, we are thinking about putting it on again.
Our past realtors were without a better term popping into my head right now, sucky. They just listed the house and didn't do much of anything else. We found another realtor that has come highly recommended... we met with him last week and he did a market analysis (CMA) on our house. If you've been following my blog, you know that we just installed granite in our kitchen... so, with that improvement, we really think we have an edge over the competition in our price range. DH and I thought we would stay at the $299k price as our listing price. After the CMA, the new realtor suggested listing it at $289k.... BUT in all honesty, the houses he compared to ours are nowhere near what ours has to offer. There just aren't too many sold houses he can compare ours to. So, he's comfortable in putting it on at $299k if that is what we still want to do. The bottom line that we are willing to sell for is $290k.
So, should we or shouldn't we try to sell the house again? DH and I just don't like it --- there is no other reason to sell. We both have stable jobs and we don't need to move anywhere. We've just HATEd our house since the day we moved in 5 years ago. If we end up at our bottom of $290k, we'd make zippo, and actually lose money really. We bought the house for $288k in 2006 (brand new) and put in $20k in improvements (granite and driveway/retaining wall work), so we've got $308k in the house. However, DH and I don't really consider the $20k we put into the house as additional cost for the house because those things were done to make the house more "liveable" for us. We wouldn't have to come to the table with any cash as our mortgage balance is low enough to where we will still have a bit of cash from the sale after the mortgage is paid.
So, what would you do? Would you go with the financially correct decision and just stay put? Or, would you do what would make you and the family happy and take a slight loss on the house?
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[entry_title] => Can a person LOVE a sink?
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[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-29 15:29:58
[entry_text] => Here's a pic of my new sink and granite counters.... I absolutely love how everything turned out! We got them installed yesterday and tonight the realtor is coming over to start the process of listing our house (again). Wish us luck!!
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[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-18 14:55:06
[entry_text] => Ok, we tried selling our house last year with no luck. We want to try it again beginning April 1. We decided to get rid of our laminate countertops and get granite installed. The cost will be $3800. Cross your fingers and toes that this will make the difference and that our house will sell this time around. We are doing the demo in the kitchen this weekend and should have the install done within 10 days, ready for our April 1 listing date. And... if the house doesn't sell, then I get to enjoy brand new granite countertops!
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[entry_title] => A new month, A clean start!
[entry_stub] => march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start
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[entry_date] => 1299006127
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-01 13:02:07
[entry_text] => Spring fever must be hitting me right now. I am in the mood to clean out my house and straighten up my life. For the past week, I've organized my closets, cabinets, and junk drawers. I have found a whole year's supply of contacts that I now remembered ordering and stashing so that I didn't have to go back to the eye doctor for another year. I totally forgot about these and I was going to place an order within the next month or so! I found 2 full size brand new containers of DH's favorite hair gel. I've donated bags of stuff to Goodwill. I've thrown away so much clutter that has literally just sat in our house for the past 5 years. It feels great! I highly recommend everyone to find a drawer or closet and get at it! I did an area each night for a week and it was painless.
A 2011 financial goal was to reach the $20,000 mark in our E-fund. I deposited a $100 credit card reward check today bringing the balance up to.... drum roll.... $20,049.28!!!!!!!! Now, let's cross our fingers that we won't see any kind of emergencies for a while so that I can enjoy seeing that awesome number. Wahoo!!!
Other random updates:
I gave my sister a blank check for her birthday payable to her power company. She's the one that is in a huge financial mess. The bill was for $210.55. I asked her how much of the bill was for late fees and penalties and she didn't even know the answer to that... it's quite sad. But, oh well, it's nice to be able to help her when I can (I only give her money for holidays instead of buying her nonsense so as to not try to enable her family's bad money habits). She did tell me that she went and applied for food stamps and other family aid which is about time in my opinion.
My co-worker is making great progress on her financial situation. She made it through Christmas without having to charge a dime. There are still a few debts that she has left to pay off but I see her getting to the finish line within the next year or two.
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[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-14 12:58:23
[entry_text] => Ok, so I've always been interested in investing in real estate. I've blogged about possibilities before on here but have never actually taken the plunge to go for anything. A family friend, who has a lot of experience in real estate investing, referred me to government foreclosures as a possibility. This was back in November. I got wrapped up in the Holidays and hadn't really had a chance to follow up or look for any foreclosures but long story short, after taking a peek today, I see that there is a foreclosure up for auction next week! The gov't bid is listed at $26k, whatever that means. I have a lot of research still left to do but my mind is racing with the opportunity to get a decent house for so cheap. I know the area and I know exactly where the house is --- nice family neighborhood. I'd estimate the retail value of the house at around $90-$100k. I'm going to talk to my friend tonight to get more guidance about the process. He started out with a government foreclosure and so he'll know what to do... Maybe this will be the one for us??
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[entry_stub] => updating-savings-amounts-for-2011
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[entry_text] => We had been saving $1,000 per month into savings (short-term, mid-term, and retirement). I just got online to all our accounts and increased everything to $1,500 per month. I think we can do more but let's see how this feels for a few months.
We also are going to start paying extra on our mortgage... just to round it up from $1,652 to $1,700 each month which is just $48 so no biggie. We used to pay a few hundred extra per month when we first got the mortgage but then scaled back to the regular monthly payment amount when we were trying to sell our house. Now that it looks like we'll be here for a while, I figured we'd start paying a little extra just because.
Some things I look forward to in 2011:
1. Reaching the $20,000 mark in our e-fund.
2. Would love to be 100-105 lbs! Before you think that is outrageous, please be aware that I am very petite and this would be normal (but on the lean side) for someone like me. I have thus far cut out soda (except for one can twice a week -- long story) which is going to help tremendously. I am trying to fit in some exercise too... so far, so good.
3. Cook at home more/eating out less. This has been working out pretty well thus far.
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[entry_title] => An update -- finally!
[entry_stub] => an-update-finally
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[entry_text] => Ok, so I can't believe it's been nearly 3 months since I last posted. Things have been absolutely crazy around here and so I have a lot of catching up to do in blogland!
An update on my co-worker's situation. I started working with her on Oct 1 to straighten out her finances. Good news --- she's paid off two small credit card balances, one medical bill, and most importantly, the debt she had with her son (she'd borrow money from him from time to time to keep herself afloat). She has also put aside $820 in her savings account which she says is the first time she's ever saved anything. $600 of this is for Christmas and the rest is for buying new tires for her car. She still has a long way to go to pay off her debts but she's made huge progress in the couple of months I've been guiding her through. We meet about 2-3 times a month to make sure that she stays on track and for me to basically hold her hand... she still can't figure out what to pay first, how much to pay, or anything like that so I give her a roadmap everytime we meet.
Ok, now the big news on my side of things is that DH and I are considering going to NYC over New Year's. Isn't that just crazy to even think about being in all that chaos? But, we were looking at our work schedules and the kids' school calendar and wouldn't you know that we have a ton of time off available. My sister has offered to watch the kids for us so it'll just be a trip for the two of us which hasn't happened.... ever! So, I hop online and look at rates-- it will cost about $2500 for airline and hotel for 5 nights. Yikes! It would be cheaper if we didn't want to stay right near Times Square but this will be a trip of a lifetime for us so we thought we'd splurge a bit more than what we normally would do. With eating and shopping money, the trip will probably be around $3500. Anybody ever been to NY? Anything to look out for or suggestions on where to stay, eat, or do?
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[entry_title] => Honored to be asked
[entry_stub] => honored-to-be-asked
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[entry_date] => 1284733580
[entry_date_mysql] => 2010-09-17 09:26:20
[entry_text] => This morning, someone that works in our office comes to ask me to help her with her personal finances. This was completely out of the blue and I feel so honored that she would trust me with her money issues. She said she was thinking last night of who she could ask for help and thought of me... (after she got a denial yesterday from the local credit union for a new credit card account). Now, I'm on a quest to get her all squared away and you guys can come along on the journey. Here's her situation:
Married with 2 children (one in college and one in high school), but not a financially sound marriage ever, apparently... DH is a banker of all things but he apparently doesn't have his head on straight when it comes to their own money. He wants to keep everything completely separate in their household so the wife just deals with this (even though he makes probably 4 times what she does). For the major expenses, he covers the mortgage and utilities. She has to cover the groceries for the house.
Finances:
OUT categories we've identified thus far =
*groceries/eating out for household
*car payment on her car
*gas/maintenance on her car
*half of the household cell phone bill
*medical bills for household
*dog -vet/grooming bills
*multiple credit cards (highest balance is around $5k on one of them)
*three outstanding medical debts
She had her highest balance credit card statement with her and said she thought the interest rate on it was 90% (gasp) and I was like, um -- doubt it? So, I looked on her statement and showed her where the interest rate was indicated which is something like 25%. As you can see, she doesn't even know how to read her statements. She's a college graduate but when it comes to money and math, she's clueless and knows that is why she's in the trouble that she's in.
I gave her homework for the weekend -- I've asked her to write down exactly what her interest rates are on all the credit cards and their current balances. I told her to call each one of those credit card companies and ask for a lower interest rate. She also needs to identify exactly how much she owes on those outstanding medical bills and to estimate how much her other monthly expenses total up (she had no clue how much she spends on groceries, for example).
Next, I asked her about her paycheck. Since I have access to payroll, I looked up her check and all her deductions. She has zero withholdings and I asked if she gets a tax refund each year. Apparently, she just gives her W-2 to her DH each year and he does all the tax stuff. She does know that for 2009, they got back around $1500 total and then she got fussed at from her DH that it wasn't enough. He wanted the refund to be even higher and implied that she must not have withheld enough from her checks (jerk!). He keeps their refund and does whatever with the money even though it's "their" refund. I told her that was crazy. I calculated what increasing her withholdings to 1 and 2 would be, an additional $58 and $103 respectively, in each paycheck... Basically, by just increasing her withholdings to 1, she would have an additional $700 each year in her paychecks that her grubby hubby wouldn't have access to come tax time. She said she's all about having her withholdings changed to 1 now. Yay.
Anyway, I'll post more as we keep ironing out her budget...
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Posted in
GOALS
|
8 Comments »
March 18th, 2011 at 07:55 pm
Ok, we tried selling our house last year with no luck. We want to try it again beginning April 1. We decided to get rid of our laminate countertops and get granite installed. The cost will be $3800. Cross your fingers and toes that this will make the difference and that our house will sell this time around. We are doing the demo in the kitchen this weekend and should have the install done within 10 days, ready for our April 1 listing date. And... if the house doesn't sell, then I get to enjoy brand new granite countertops! Spent $1300 last week to get the rear wheel bearings replaced, rear brake pads and rotors filed down and turned, and an oil change
---------> Took the car in today because all the check engine kind of lights were on...Was just told that we need to have the ECM (the car's computer) replaced and that will be another $1200!!! Haven't told DH yet -- he's going to freak out.
We have a 2003 Toyota Sienna.
---------> This poor van has been neglected for so long in regards to routine maintenance. The tires are so bald (we don't drive it except within town to run errands so we've been putting it off). The dealer is having a tire sale next week so we've scheduled an appointment to have 4 new tires put on and for a well overdue oil change done. Estimated cost will be around $350.
Has anyone been adding all this up? If not, that's ok, cause I've already done it for you and it's a whopping $2850 in a few weeks time for stupid car maintenance issues. Aacckkk!!!
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[entry_title] => Reasons we hate our house...
[entry_stub] => reasons-we-hate-our-house
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/04/11/reasons-we-hate-our-house_68100/
[entry_date] => 1302528330
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-11 08:25:30
[entry_text] => Some of you have asked so here is the scoop...
House #1
Purchased in 1997
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1000 sq ft
Small but corner lot in a tight subdivision
House #2
Purchased in 2001
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1600 sq ft
Large (to us) 1/3 acre lot in a nice subdivision, backed up to farmland so was nice and private
House #3 CURRENT HOUSE
Purchased in 2006
3 story house, main living space on first floor, all bedrooms are upstairs, finished full basement
approx 2600 sq ft
.67 acre lot
So, our current house #3 might look to be a great step up for us, right? Well, not quite...
House #1 was our starter home when we just got married. It was a great little house but we got tired of the really, really tight subdivision. All the houses were so close together --- no privacy at all. So, we sold it and moved across town to House #2. This house was the smallest in the neighborhood. Most of the other houses were 2 story homes that looked really big compared to our house. But, we loved the flat lot of our house, the floorplan really worked for us, and it was a really good fit for our growing family.
Then, we moved 4 hours away, from the flat lands to the mountains, for a new job opportunity. We realized quickly that housing prices in the mountains were quite higher than they were in the big city that we came from. Also, the houses here were mainly multi-level homes since they were built alongside hill banks. We had only 2 main criteria when looking for this home: 1) I wanted a garage with main level access. I didn't want to haul groceries from a basement entry garage up stairs to the kitchen. I'd say 75% of homes here all have their garage in the basement. 2) I wanted a large lot with trees. Having lived in the city, we didn't have a lot of natural wooded areas. I thought that was what I wanted. So, we bought House #3 because these 2 main criteria were met and now 5 years later, we just hate the house. We had never lived in a multi-level home before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to go up and down stairs all the time. We had never lived on a wooded lot before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to pick up fallen limbs all the time. Ugh, ugh, and ugh. I guess it's one of those situations where the grass really isn't greener on the other side... all along we thought those bigger 2 story houses in our neighborhoods were so nice and roomy. Blah! We so miss our little ranch style homes!!!
So, a summary of all the things we hate about our current house:
1) Stairs, stairs, and more stairs!
2) All the trees! It gets windy here alot and those fallen branches are a pain to deal with
3) Hillsides! No flat place for the kids to play
4) Open floor plan of living space! Our 'great room' consists of the living room, kitchen, and dining spaces... all in one big open area. Now, I know this is all the rage in today's real estate market, but now that we actually live in this kind of living space, we just don't like it. It's really noisy!!
5) No air conditioning! As a mountain home, it is not common to have A/C here... or so one would think! The houses here just aren't built with A/C as standard. It gets pretty hot for just about one month out of the year but gosh, that one month nearly kills us each year!
So, those are the top 5 reasons why we hate our house. All these reasons were things that we just didn't realize would bother us until we actually bought the house and started living in it. We learn what we like and dislike from each home we live in and we certainly know what to look for in our House #4... we just need to sell this one first!
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[entry_title] => Should we sell or not?
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[entry_date] => 1301930017
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-04 10:13:37
[entry_text] => Ack, what to do?? Ok, some back history. We tried selling our house for 2 years and had no offers. We took the house off the market for 6 months to take a break. We started asking for $349k and ended up our last listing price at $299k... Granted, we did start too high on the price for the market that we were in but settled on a price that is very fair -- but still no offers, so we pulled it off the market. Now that it is Spring, we are thinking about putting it on again.
Our past realtors were without a better term popping into my head right now, sucky. They just listed the house and didn't do much of anything else. We found another realtor that has come highly recommended... we met with him last week and he did a market analysis (CMA) on our house. If you've been following my blog, you know that we just installed granite in our kitchen... so, with that improvement, we really think we have an edge over the competition in our price range. DH and I thought we would stay at the $299k price as our listing price. After the CMA, the new realtor suggested listing it at $289k.... BUT in all honesty, the houses he compared to ours are nowhere near what ours has to offer. There just aren't too many sold houses he can compare ours to. So, he's comfortable in putting it on at $299k if that is what we still want to do. The bottom line that we are willing to sell for is $290k.
So, should we or shouldn't we try to sell the house again? DH and I just don't like it --- there is no other reason to sell. We both have stable jobs and we don't need to move anywhere. We've just HATEd our house since the day we moved in 5 years ago. If we end up at our bottom of $290k, we'd make zippo, and actually lose money really. We bought the house for $288k in 2006 (brand new) and put in $20k in improvements (granite and driveway/retaining wall work), so we've got $308k in the house. However, DH and I don't really consider the $20k we put into the house as additional cost for the house because those things were done to make the house more "liveable" for us. We wouldn't have to come to the table with any cash as our mortgage balance is low enough to where we will still have a bit of cash from the sale after the mortgage is paid.
So, what would you do? Would you go with the financially correct decision and just stay put? Or, would you do what would make you and the family happy and take a slight loss on the house?
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[entry_title] => Can a person LOVE a sink?
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[entry_date] => 1301430598
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-29 15:29:58
[entry_text] => Here's a pic of my new sink and granite counters.... I absolutely love how everything turned out! We got them installed yesterday and tonight the realtor is coming over to start the process of listing our house (again). Wish us luck!!
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[entry_date] => 1300478106
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-18 14:55:06
[entry_text] => Ok, we tried selling our house last year with no luck. We want to try it again beginning April 1. We decided to get rid of our laminate countertops and get granite installed. The cost will be $3800. Cross your fingers and toes that this will make the difference and that our house will sell this time around. We are doing the demo in the kitchen this weekend and should have the install done within 10 days, ready for our April 1 listing date. And... if the house doesn't sell, then I get to enjoy brand new granite countertops!
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[entry_title] => A new month, A clean start!
[entry_stub] => march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/03/01/march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start_66521/
[entry_date] => 1299006127
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-01 13:02:07
[entry_text] => Spring fever must be hitting me right now. I am in the mood to clean out my house and straighten up my life. For the past week, I've organized my closets, cabinets, and junk drawers. I have found a whole year's supply of contacts that I now remembered ordering and stashing so that I didn't have to go back to the eye doctor for another year. I totally forgot about these and I was going to place an order within the next month or so! I found 2 full size brand new containers of DH's favorite hair gel. I've donated bags of stuff to Goodwill. I've thrown away so much clutter that has literally just sat in our house for the past 5 years. It feels great! I highly recommend everyone to find a drawer or closet and get at it! I did an area each night for a week and it was painless.
A 2011 financial goal was to reach the $20,000 mark in our E-fund. I deposited a $100 credit card reward check today bringing the balance up to.... drum roll.... $20,049.28!!!!!!!! Now, let's cross our fingers that we won't see any kind of emergencies for a while so that I can enjoy seeing that awesome number. Wahoo!!!
Other random updates:
I gave my sister a blank check for her birthday payable to her power company. She's the one that is in a huge financial mess. The bill was for $210.55. I asked her how much of the bill was for late fees and penalties and she didn't even know the answer to that... it's quite sad. But, oh well, it's nice to be able to help her when I can (I only give her money for holidays instead of buying her nonsense so as to not try to enable her family's bad money habits). She did tell me that she went and applied for food stamps and other family aid which is about time in my opinion.
My co-worker is making great progress on her financial situation. She made it through Christmas without having to charge a dime. There are still a few debts that she has left to pay off but I see her getting to the finish line within the next year or two.
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[entry_date] => 1295031503
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-14 12:58:23
[entry_text] => Ok, so I've always been interested in investing in real estate. I've blogged about possibilities before on here but have never actually taken the plunge to go for anything. A family friend, who has a lot of experience in real estate investing, referred me to government foreclosures as a possibility. This was back in November. I got wrapped up in the Holidays and hadn't really had a chance to follow up or look for any foreclosures but long story short, after taking a peek today, I see that there is a foreclosure up for auction next week! The gov't bid is listed at $26k, whatever that means. I have a lot of research still left to do but my mind is racing with the opportunity to get a decent house for so cheap. I know the area and I know exactly where the house is --- nice family neighborhood. I'd estimate the retail value of the house at around $90-$100k. I'm going to talk to my friend tonight to get more guidance about the process. He started out with a government foreclosure and so he'll know what to do... Maybe this will be the one for us??
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[entry_text] => We had been saving $1,000 per month into savings (short-term, mid-term, and retirement). I just got online to all our accounts and increased everything to $1,500 per month. I think we can do more but let's see how this feels for a few months.
We also are going to start paying extra on our mortgage... just to round it up from $1,652 to $1,700 each month which is just $48 so no biggie. We used to pay a few hundred extra per month when we first got the mortgage but then scaled back to the regular monthly payment amount when we were trying to sell our house. Now that it looks like we'll be here for a while, I figured we'd start paying a little extra just because.
Some things I look forward to in 2011:
1. Reaching the $20,000 mark in our e-fund.
2. Would love to be 100-105 lbs! Before you think that is outrageous, please be aware that I am very petite and this would be normal (but on the lean side) for someone like me. I have thus far cut out soda (except for one can twice a week -- long story) which is going to help tremendously. I am trying to fit in some exercise too... so far, so good.
3. Cook at home more/eating out less. This has been working out pretty well thus far.
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[entry_title] => An update -- finally!
[entry_stub] => an-update-finally
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[entry_text] => Ok, so I can't believe it's been nearly 3 months since I last posted. Things have been absolutely crazy around here and so I have a lot of catching up to do in blogland!
An update on my co-worker's situation. I started working with her on Oct 1 to straighten out her finances. Good news --- she's paid off two small credit card balances, one medical bill, and most importantly, the debt she had with her son (she'd borrow money from him from time to time to keep herself afloat). She has also put aside $820 in her savings account which she says is the first time she's ever saved anything. $600 of this is for Christmas and the rest is for buying new tires for her car. She still has a long way to go to pay off her debts but she's made huge progress in the couple of months I've been guiding her through. We meet about 2-3 times a month to make sure that she stays on track and for me to basically hold her hand... she still can't figure out what to pay first, how much to pay, or anything like that so I give her a roadmap everytime we meet.
Ok, now the big news on my side of things is that DH and I are considering going to NYC over New Year's. Isn't that just crazy to even think about being in all that chaos? But, we were looking at our work schedules and the kids' school calendar and wouldn't you know that we have a ton of time off available. My sister has offered to watch the kids for us so it'll just be a trip for the two of us which hasn't happened.... ever! So, I hop online and look at rates-- it will cost about $2500 for airline and hotel for 5 nights. Yikes! It would be cheaper if we didn't want to stay right near Times Square but this will be a trip of a lifetime for us so we thought we'd splurge a bit more than what we normally would do. With eating and shopping money, the trip will probably be around $3500. Anybody ever been to NY? Anything to look out for or suggestions on where to stay, eat, or do?
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[entry_text] => This morning, someone that works in our office comes to ask me to help her with her personal finances. This was completely out of the blue and I feel so honored that she would trust me with her money issues. She said she was thinking last night of who she could ask for help and thought of me... (after she got a denial yesterday from the local credit union for a new credit card account). Now, I'm on a quest to get her all squared away and you guys can come along on the journey. Here's her situation:
Married with 2 children (one in college and one in high school), but not a financially sound marriage ever, apparently... DH is a banker of all things but he apparently doesn't have his head on straight when it comes to their own money. He wants to keep everything completely separate in their household so the wife just deals with this (even though he makes probably 4 times what she does). For the major expenses, he covers the mortgage and utilities. She has to cover the groceries for the house.
Finances:
OUT categories we've identified thus far =
*groceries/eating out for household
*car payment on her car
*gas/maintenance on her car
*half of the household cell phone bill
*medical bills for household
*dog -vet/grooming bills
*multiple credit cards (highest balance is around $5k on one of them)
*three outstanding medical debts
She had her highest balance credit card statement with her and said she thought the interest rate on it was 90% (gasp) and I was like, um -- doubt it? So, I looked on her statement and showed her where the interest rate was indicated which is something like 25%. As you can see, she doesn't even know how to read her statements. She's a college graduate but when it comes to money and math, she's clueless and knows that is why she's in the trouble that she's in.
I gave her homework for the weekend -- I've asked her to write down exactly what her interest rates are on all the credit cards and their current balances. I told her to call each one of those credit card companies and ask for a lower interest rate. She also needs to identify exactly how much she owes on those outstanding medical bills and to estimate how much her other monthly expenses total up (she had no clue how much she spends on groceries, for example).
Next, I asked her about her paycheck. Since I have access to payroll, I looked up her check and all her deductions. She has zero withholdings and I asked if she gets a tax refund each year. Apparently, she just gives her W-2 to her DH each year and he does all the tax stuff. She does know that for 2009, they got back around $1500 total and then she got fussed at from her DH that it wasn't enough. He wanted the refund to be even higher and implied that she must not have withheld enough from her checks (jerk!). He keeps their refund and does whatever with the money even though it's "their" refund. I told her that was crazy. I calculated what increasing her withholdings to 1 and 2 would be, an additional $58 and $103 respectively, in each paycheck... Basically, by just increasing her withholdings to 1, she would have an additional $700 each year in her paychecks that her grubby hubby wouldn't have access to come tax time. She said she's all about having her withholdings changed to 1 now. Yay.
Anyway, I'll post more as we keep ironing out her budget...
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Posted in
GOALS
|
2 Comments »
March 1st, 2011 at 07:02 pm
Spring fever must be hitting me right now. I am in the mood to clean out my house and straighten up my life. For the past week, I've organized my closets, cabinets, and junk drawers. I have found a whole year's supply of contacts that I now remembered ordering and stashing so that I didn't have to go back to the eye doctor for another year. I totally forgot about these and I was going to place an order within the next month or so! I found 2 full size brand new containers of DH's favorite hair gel. I've donated bags of stuff to Goodwill. I've thrown away so much clutter that has literally just sat in our house for the past 5 years. It feels great! I highly recommend everyone to find a drawer or closet and get at it! I did an area each night for a week and it was painless.
A 2011 financial goal was to reach the $20,000 mark in our E-fund. I deposited a $100 credit card reward check today bringing the balance up to.... drum roll.... $20,049.28!!!!!!!! Now, let's cross our fingers that we won't see any kind of emergencies for a while so that I can enjoy seeing that awesome number. Wahoo!!!
Other random updates:
I gave my sister a blank check for her birthday payable to her power company. She's the one that is in a huge financial mess. The bill was for $210.55. I asked her how much of the bill was for late fees and penalties and she didn't even know the answer to that... it's quite sad. But, oh well, it's nice to be able to help her when I can (I only give her money for holidays instead of buying her nonsense so as to not try to enable her family's bad money habits). She did tell me that she went and applied for food stamps and other family aid which is about time in my opinion.
My co-worker is making great progress on her financial situation. She made it through Christmas without having to charge a dime. There are still a few debts that she has left to pay off but I see her getting to the finish line within the next year or two.
Spent $1300 last week to get the rear wheel bearings replaced, rear brake pads and rotors filed down and turned, and an oil change
---------> Took the car in today because all the check engine kind of lights were on...Was just told that we need to have the ECM (the car's computer) replaced and that will be another $1200!!! Haven't told DH yet -- he's going to freak out.
We have a 2003 Toyota Sienna.
---------> This poor van has been neglected for so long in regards to routine maintenance. The tires are so bald (we don't drive it except within town to run errands so we've been putting it off). The dealer is having a tire sale next week so we've scheduled an appointment to have 4 new tires put on and for a well overdue oil change done. Estimated cost will be around $350.
Has anyone been adding all this up? If not, that's ok, cause I've already done it for you and it's a whopping $2850 in a few weeks time for stupid car maintenance issues. Aacckkk!!!
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[entry_title] => Reasons we hate our house...
[entry_stub] => reasons-we-hate-our-house
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/04/11/reasons-we-hate-our-house_68100/
[entry_date] => 1302528330
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-11 08:25:30
[entry_text] => Some of you have asked so here is the scoop...
House #1
Purchased in 1997
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1000 sq ft
Small but corner lot in a tight subdivision
House #2
Purchased in 2001
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1600 sq ft
Large (to us) 1/3 acre lot in a nice subdivision, backed up to farmland so was nice and private
House #3 CURRENT HOUSE
Purchased in 2006
3 story house, main living space on first floor, all bedrooms are upstairs, finished full basement
approx 2600 sq ft
.67 acre lot
So, our current house #3 might look to be a great step up for us, right? Well, not quite...
House #1 was our starter home when we just got married. It was a great little house but we got tired of the really, really tight subdivision. All the houses were so close together --- no privacy at all. So, we sold it and moved across town to House #2. This house was the smallest in the neighborhood. Most of the other houses were 2 story homes that looked really big compared to our house. But, we loved the flat lot of our house, the floorplan really worked for us, and it was a really good fit for our growing family.
Then, we moved 4 hours away, from the flat lands to the mountains, for a new job opportunity. We realized quickly that housing prices in the mountains were quite higher than they were in the big city that we came from. Also, the houses here were mainly multi-level homes since they were built alongside hill banks. We had only 2 main criteria when looking for this home: 1) I wanted a garage with main level access. I didn't want to haul groceries from a basement entry garage up stairs to the kitchen. I'd say 75% of homes here all have their garage in the basement. 2) I wanted a large lot with trees. Having lived in the city, we didn't have a lot of natural wooded areas. I thought that was what I wanted. So, we bought House #3 because these 2 main criteria were met and now 5 years later, we just hate the house. We had never lived in a multi-level home before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to go up and down stairs all the time. We had never lived on a wooded lot before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to pick up fallen limbs all the time. Ugh, ugh, and ugh. I guess it's one of those situations where the grass really isn't greener on the other side... all along we thought those bigger 2 story houses in our neighborhoods were so nice and roomy. Blah! We so miss our little ranch style homes!!!
So, a summary of all the things we hate about our current house:
1) Stairs, stairs, and more stairs!
2) All the trees! It gets windy here alot and those fallen branches are a pain to deal with
3) Hillsides! No flat place for the kids to play
4) Open floor plan of living space! Our 'great room' consists of the living room, kitchen, and dining spaces... all in one big open area. Now, I know this is all the rage in today's real estate market, but now that we actually live in this kind of living space, we just don't like it. It's really noisy!!
5) No air conditioning! As a mountain home, it is not common to have A/C here... or so one would think! The houses here just aren't built with A/C as standard. It gets pretty hot for just about one month out of the year but gosh, that one month nearly kills us each year!
So, those are the top 5 reasons why we hate our house. All these reasons were things that we just didn't realize would bother us until we actually bought the house and started living in it. We learn what we like and dislike from each home we live in and we certainly know what to look for in our House #4... we just need to sell this one first!
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[entry_title] => Should we sell or not?
[entry_stub] => should-we-sell-or-not
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[entry_date] => 1301930017
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-04 10:13:37
[entry_text] => Ack, what to do?? Ok, some back history. We tried selling our house for 2 years and had no offers. We took the house off the market for 6 months to take a break. We started asking for $349k and ended up our last listing price at $299k... Granted, we did start too high on the price for the market that we were in but settled on a price that is very fair -- but still no offers, so we pulled it off the market. Now that it is Spring, we are thinking about putting it on again.
Our past realtors were without a better term popping into my head right now, sucky. They just listed the house and didn't do much of anything else. We found another realtor that has come highly recommended... we met with him last week and he did a market analysis (CMA) on our house. If you've been following my blog, you know that we just installed granite in our kitchen... so, with that improvement, we really think we have an edge over the competition in our price range. DH and I thought we would stay at the $299k price as our listing price. After the CMA, the new realtor suggested listing it at $289k.... BUT in all honesty, the houses he compared to ours are nowhere near what ours has to offer. There just aren't too many sold houses he can compare ours to. So, he's comfortable in putting it on at $299k if that is what we still want to do. The bottom line that we are willing to sell for is $290k.
So, should we or shouldn't we try to sell the house again? DH and I just don't like it --- there is no other reason to sell. We both have stable jobs and we don't need to move anywhere. We've just HATEd our house since the day we moved in 5 years ago. If we end up at our bottom of $290k, we'd make zippo, and actually lose money really. We bought the house for $288k in 2006 (brand new) and put in $20k in improvements (granite and driveway/retaining wall work), so we've got $308k in the house. However, DH and I don't really consider the $20k we put into the house as additional cost for the house because those things were done to make the house more "liveable" for us. We wouldn't have to come to the table with any cash as our mortgage balance is low enough to where we will still have a bit of cash from the sale after the mortgage is paid.
So, what would you do? Would you go with the financially correct decision and just stay put? Or, would you do what would make you and the family happy and take a slight loss on the house?
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[entry_title] => Can a person LOVE a sink?
[entry_stub] => can-a-person-love-a-sink
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[entry_date] => 1301430598
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-29 15:29:58
[entry_text] => Here's a pic of my new sink and granite counters.... I absolutely love how everything turned out! We got them installed yesterday and tonight the realtor is coming over to start the process of listing our house (again). Wish us luck!!
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[entry_title] => Getting granite counters!
[entry_stub] => getting-granite-counters
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[entry_date] => 1300478106
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-18 14:55:06
[entry_text] => Ok, we tried selling our house last year with no luck. We want to try it again beginning April 1. We decided to get rid of our laminate countertops and get granite installed. The cost will be $3800. Cross your fingers and toes that this will make the difference and that our house will sell this time around. We are doing the demo in the kitchen this weekend and should have the install done within 10 days, ready for our April 1 listing date. And... if the house doesn't sell, then I get to enjoy brand new granite countertops!
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[entry_title] => A new month, A clean start!
[entry_stub] => march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/03/01/march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start_66521/
[entry_date] => 1299006127
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-01 13:02:07
[entry_text] => Spring fever must be hitting me right now. I am in the mood to clean out my house and straighten up my life. For the past week, I've organized my closets, cabinets, and junk drawers. I have found a whole year's supply of contacts that I now remembered ordering and stashing so that I didn't have to go back to the eye doctor for another year. I totally forgot about these and I was going to place an order within the next month or so! I found 2 full size brand new containers of DH's favorite hair gel. I've donated bags of stuff to Goodwill. I've thrown away so much clutter that has literally just sat in our house for the past 5 years. It feels great! I highly recommend everyone to find a drawer or closet and get at it! I did an area each night for a week and it was painless.
A 2011 financial goal was to reach the $20,000 mark in our E-fund. I deposited a $100 credit card reward check today bringing the balance up to.... drum roll.... $20,049.28!!!!!!!! Now, let's cross our fingers that we won't see any kind of emergencies for a while so that I can enjoy seeing that awesome number. Wahoo!!!
Other random updates:
I gave my sister a blank check for her birthday payable to her power company. She's the one that is in a huge financial mess. The bill was for $210.55. I asked her how much of the bill was for late fees and penalties and she didn't even know the answer to that... it's quite sad. But, oh well, it's nice to be able to help her when I can (I only give her money for holidays instead of buying her nonsense so as to not try to enable her family's bad money habits). She did tell me that she went and applied for food stamps and other family aid which is about time in my opinion.
My co-worker is making great progress on her financial situation. She made it through Christmas without having to charge a dime. There are still a few debts that she has left to pay off but I see her getting to the finish line within the next year or two.
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[entry_title] => Government Foreclosure
[entry_stub] => government-foreclosure
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/01/14/government-foreclosure_65304/
[entry_date] => 1295031503
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-14 12:58:23
[entry_text] => Ok, so I've always been interested in investing in real estate. I've blogged about possibilities before on here but have never actually taken the plunge to go for anything. A family friend, who has a lot of experience in real estate investing, referred me to government foreclosures as a possibility. This was back in November. I got wrapped up in the Holidays and hadn't really had a chance to follow up or look for any foreclosures but long story short, after taking a peek today, I see that there is a foreclosure up for auction next week! The gov't bid is listed at $26k, whatever that means. I have a lot of research still left to do but my mind is racing with the opportunity to get a decent house for so cheap. I know the area and I know exactly where the house is --- nice family neighborhood. I'd estimate the retail value of the house at around $90-$100k. I'm going to talk to my friend tonight to get more guidance about the process. He started out with a government foreclosure and so he'll know what to do... Maybe this will be the one for us??
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[entry_title] => Updating savings amounts for 2011
[entry_stub] => updating-savings-amounts-for-2011
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[entry_date] => 1294770581
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-11 12:29:41
[entry_text] => We had been saving $1,000 per month into savings (short-term, mid-term, and retirement). I just got online to all our accounts and increased everything to $1,500 per month. I think we can do more but let's see how this feels for a few months.
We also are going to start paying extra on our mortgage... just to round it up from $1,652 to $1,700 each month which is just $48 so no biggie. We used to pay a few hundred extra per month when we first got the mortgage but then scaled back to the regular monthly payment amount when we were trying to sell our house. Now that it looks like we'll be here for a while, I figured we'd start paying a little extra just because.
Some things I look forward to in 2011:
1. Reaching the $20,000 mark in our e-fund.
2. Would love to be 100-105 lbs! Before you think that is outrageous, please be aware that I am very petite and this would be normal (but on the lean side) for someone like me. I have thus far cut out soda (except for one can twice a week -- long story) which is going to help tremendously. I am trying to fit in some exercise too... so far, so good.
3. Cook at home more/eating out less. This has been working out pretty well thus far.
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[entry_title] => An update -- finally!
[entry_stub] => an-update-finally
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[entry_date] => 1291296177
[entry_date_mysql] => 2010-12-02 07:22:57
[entry_text] => Ok, so I can't believe it's been nearly 3 months since I last posted. Things have been absolutely crazy around here and so I have a lot of catching up to do in blogland!
An update on my co-worker's situation. I started working with her on Oct 1 to straighten out her finances. Good news --- she's paid off two small credit card balances, one medical bill, and most importantly, the debt she had with her son (she'd borrow money from him from time to time to keep herself afloat). She has also put aside $820 in her savings account which she says is the first time she's ever saved anything. $600 of this is for Christmas and the rest is for buying new tires for her car. She still has a long way to go to pay off her debts but she's made huge progress in the couple of months I've been guiding her through. We meet about 2-3 times a month to make sure that she stays on track and for me to basically hold her hand... she still can't figure out what to pay first, how much to pay, or anything like that so I give her a roadmap everytime we meet.
Ok, now the big news on my side of things is that DH and I are considering going to NYC over New Year's. Isn't that just crazy to even think about being in all that chaos? But, we were looking at our work schedules and the kids' school calendar and wouldn't you know that we have a ton of time off available. My sister has offered to watch the kids for us so it'll just be a trip for the two of us which hasn't happened.... ever! So, I hop online and look at rates-- it will cost about $2500 for airline and hotel for 5 nights. Yikes! It would be cheaper if we didn't want to stay right near Times Square but this will be a trip of a lifetime for us so we thought we'd splurge a bit more than what we normally would do. With eating and shopping money, the trip will probably be around $3500. Anybody ever been to NY? Anything to look out for or suggestions on where to stay, eat, or do?
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[entry_title] => Honored to be asked
[entry_stub] => honored-to-be-asked
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[entry_date] => 1284733580
[entry_date_mysql] => 2010-09-17 09:26:20
[entry_text] => This morning, someone that works in our office comes to ask me to help her with her personal finances. This was completely out of the blue and I feel so honored that she would trust me with her money issues. She said she was thinking last night of who she could ask for help and thought of me... (after she got a denial yesterday from the local credit union for a new credit card account). Now, I'm on a quest to get her all squared away and you guys can come along on the journey. Here's her situation:
Married with 2 children (one in college and one in high school), but not a financially sound marriage ever, apparently... DH is a banker of all things but he apparently doesn't have his head on straight when it comes to their own money. He wants to keep everything completely separate in their household so the wife just deals with this (even though he makes probably 4 times what she does). For the major expenses, he covers the mortgage and utilities. She has to cover the groceries for the house.
Finances:
OUT categories we've identified thus far =
*groceries/eating out for household
*car payment on her car
*gas/maintenance on her car
*half of the household cell phone bill
*medical bills for household
*dog -vet/grooming bills
*multiple credit cards (highest balance is around $5k on one of them)
*three outstanding medical debts
She had her highest balance credit card statement with her and said she thought the interest rate on it was 90% (gasp) and I was like, um -- doubt it? So, I looked on her statement and showed her where the interest rate was indicated which is something like 25%. As you can see, she doesn't even know how to read her statements. She's a college graduate but when it comes to money and math, she's clueless and knows that is why she's in the trouble that she's in.
I gave her homework for the weekend -- I've asked her to write down exactly what her interest rates are on all the credit cards and their current balances. I told her to call each one of those credit card companies and ask for a lower interest rate. She also needs to identify exactly how much she owes on those outstanding medical bills and to estimate how much her other monthly expenses total up (she had no clue how much she spends on groceries, for example).
Next, I asked her about her paycheck. Since I have access to payroll, I looked up her check and all her deductions. She has zero withholdings and I asked if she gets a tax refund each year. Apparently, she just gives her W-2 to her DH each year and he does all the tax stuff. She does know that for 2009, they got back around $1500 total and then she got fussed at from her DH that it wasn't enough. He wanted the refund to be even higher and implied that she must not have withheld enough from her checks (jerk!). He keeps their refund and does whatever with the money even though it's "their" refund. I told her that was crazy. I calculated what increasing her withholdings to 1 and 2 would be, an additional $58 and $103 respectively, in each paycheck... Basically, by just increasing her withholdings to 1, she would have an additional $700 each year in her paychecks that her grubby hubby wouldn't have access to come tax time. She said she's all about having her withholdings changed to 1 now. Yay.
Anyway, I'll post more as we keep ironing out her budget...
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Posted in
SAVINGS AND INVESTMENTS,
GOALS
|
6 Comments »
January 14th, 2011 at 06:58 pm
Ok, so I've always been interested in investing in real estate. I've blogged about possibilities before on here but have never actually taken the plunge to go for anything. A family friend, who has a lot of experience in real estate investing, referred me to government foreclosures as a possibility. This was back in November. I got wrapped up in the Holidays and hadn't really had a chance to follow up or look for any foreclosures but long story short, after taking a peek today, I see that there is a foreclosure up for auction next week! The gov't bid is listed at $26k, whatever that means. I have a lot of research still left to do but my mind is racing with the opportunity to get a decent house for so cheap. I know the area and I know exactly where the house is --- nice family neighborhood. I'd estimate the retail value of the house at around $90-$100k. I'm going to talk to my friend tonight to get more guidance about the process. He started out with a government foreclosure and so he'll know what to do... Maybe this will be the one for us?? Spent $1300 last week to get the rear wheel bearings replaced, rear brake pads and rotors filed down and turned, and an oil change
---------> Took the car in today because all the check engine kind of lights were on...Was just told that we need to have the ECM (the car's computer) replaced and that will be another $1200!!! Haven't told DH yet -- he's going to freak out.
We have a 2003 Toyota Sienna.
---------> This poor van has been neglected for so long in regards to routine maintenance. The tires are so bald (we don't drive it except within town to run errands so we've been putting it off). The dealer is having a tire sale next week so we've scheduled an appointment to have 4 new tires put on and for a well overdue oil change done. Estimated cost will be around $350.
Has anyone been adding all this up? If not, that's ok, cause I've already done it for you and it's a whopping $2850 in a few weeks time for stupid car maintenance issues. Aacckkk!!!
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[entry_title] => Reasons we hate our house...
[entry_stub] => reasons-we-hate-our-house
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[entry_text] => Some of you have asked so here is the scoop...
House #1
Purchased in 1997
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1000 sq ft
Small but corner lot in a tight subdivision
House #2
Purchased in 2001
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1600 sq ft
Large (to us) 1/3 acre lot in a nice subdivision, backed up to farmland so was nice and private
House #3 CURRENT HOUSE
Purchased in 2006
3 story house, main living space on first floor, all bedrooms are upstairs, finished full basement
approx 2600 sq ft
.67 acre lot
So, our current house #3 might look to be a great step up for us, right? Well, not quite...
House #1 was our starter home when we just got married. It was a great little house but we got tired of the really, really tight subdivision. All the houses were so close together --- no privacy at all. So, we sold it and moved across town to House #2. This house was the smallest in the neighborhood. Most of the other houses were 2 story homes that looked really big compared to our house. But, we loved the flat lot of our house, the floorplan really worked for us, and it was a really good fit for our growing family.
Then, we moved 4 hours away, from the flat lands to the mountains, for a new job opportunity. We realized quickly that housing prices in the mountains were quite higher than they were in the big city that we came from. Also, the houses here were mainly multi-level homes since they were built alongside hill banks. We had only 2 main criteria when looking for this home: 1) I wanted a garage with main level access. I didn't want to haul groceries from a basement entry garage up stairs to the kitchen. I'd say 75% of homes here all have their garage in the basement. 2) I wanted a large lot with trees. Having lived in the city, we didn't have a lot of natural wooded areas. I thought that was what I wanted. So, we bought House #3 because these 2 main criteria were met and now 5 years later, we just hate the house. We had never lived in a multi-level home before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to go up and down stairs all the time. We had never lived on a wooded lot before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to pick up fallen limbs all the time. Ugh, ugh, and ugh. I guess it's one of those situations where the grass really isn't greener on the other side... all along we thought those bigger 2 story houses in our neighborhoods were so nice and roomy. Blah! We so miss our little ranch style homes!!!
So, a summary of all the things we hate about our current house:
1) Stairs, stairs, and more stairs!
2) All the trees! It gets windy here alot and those fallen branches are a pain to deal with
3) Hillsides! No flat place for the kids to play
4) Open floor plan of living space! Our 'great room' consists of the living room, kitchen, and dining spaces... all in one big open area. Now, I know this is all the rage in today's real estate market, but now that we actually live in this kind of living space, we just don't like it. It's really noisy!!
5) No air conditioning! As a mountain home, it is not common to have A/C here... or so one would think! The houses here just aren't built with A/C as standard. It gets pretty hot for just about one month out of the year but gosh, that one month nearly kills us each year!
So, those are the top 5 reasons why we hate our house. All these reasons were things that we just didn't realize would bother us until we actually bought the house and started living in it. We learn what we like and dislike from each home we live in and we certainly know what to look for in our House #4... we just need to sell this one first!
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[entry_title] => Should we sell or not?
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[entry_text] => Ack, what to do?? Ok, some back history. We tried selling our house for 2 years and had no offers. We took the house off the market for 6 months to take a break. We started asking for $349k and ended up our last listing price at $299k... Granted, we did start too high on the price for the market that we were in but settled on a price that is very fair -- but still no offers, so we pulled it off the market. Now that it is Spring, we are thinking about putting it on again.
Our past realtors were without a better term popping into my head right now, sucky. They just listed the house and didn't do much of anything else. We found another realtor that has come highly recommended... we met with him last week and he did a market analysis (CMA) on our house. If you've been following my blog, you know that we just installed granite in our kitchen... so, with that improvement, we really think we have an edge over the competition in our price range. DH and I thought we would stay at the $299k price as our listing price. After the CMA, the new realtor suggested listing it at $289k.... BUT in all honesty, the houses he compared to ours are nowhere near what ours has to offer. There just aren't too many sold houses he can compare ours to. So, he's comfortable in putting it on at $299k if that is what we still want to do. The bottom line that we are willing to sell for is $290k.
So, should we or shouldn't we try to sell the house again? DH and I just don't like it --- there is no other reason to sell. We both have stable jobs and we don't need to move anywhere. We've just HATEd our house since the day we moved in 5 years ago. If we end up at our bottom of $290k, we'd make zippo, and actually lose money really. We bought the house for $288k in 2006 (brand new) and put in $20k in improvements (granite and driveway/retaining wall work), so we've got $308k in the house. However, DH and I don't really consider the $20k we put into the house as additional cost for the house because those things were done to make the house more "liveable" for us. We wouldn't have to come to the table with any cash as our mortgage balance is low enough to where we will still have a bit of cash from the sale after the mortgage is paid.
So, what would you do? Would you go with the financially correct decision and just stay put? Or, would you do what would make you and the family happy and take a slight loss on the house?
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[entry_title] => Can a person LOVE a sink?
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[entry_text] => Here's a pic of my new sink and granite counters.... I absolutely love how everything turned out! We got them installed yesterday and tonight the realtor is coming over to start the process of listing our house (again). Wish us luck!!
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[entry_text] => Ok, we tried selling our house last year with no luck. We want to try it again beginning April 1. We decided to get rid of our laminate countertops and get granite installed. The cost will be $3800. Cross your fingers and toes that this will make the difference and that our house will sell this time around. We are doing the demo in the kitchen this weekend and should have the install done within 10 days, ready for our April 1 listing date. And... if the house doesn't sell, then I get to enjoy brand new granite countertops!
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[entry_title] => A new month, A clean start!
[entry_stub] => march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start
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[entry_text] => Spring fever must be hitting me right now. I am in the mood to clean out my house and straighten up my life. For the past week, I've organized my closets, cabinets, and junk drawers. I have found a whole year's supply of contacts that I now remembered ordering and stashing so that I didn't have to go back to the eye doctor for another year. I totally forgot about these and I was going to place an order within the next month or so! I found 2 full size brand new containers of DH's favorite hair gel. I've donated bags of stuff to Goodwill. I've thrown away so much clutter that has literally just sat in our house for the past 5 years. It feels great! I highly recommend everyone to find a drawer or closet and get at it! I did an area each night for a week and it was painless.
A 2011 financial goal was to reach the $20,000 mark in our E-fund. I deposited a $100 credit card reward check today bringing the balance up to.... drum roll.... $20,049.28!!!!!!!! Now, let's cross our fingers that we won't see any kind of emergencies for a while so that I can enjoy seeing that awesome number. Wahoo!!!
Other random updates:
I gave my sister a blank check for her birthday payable to her power company. She's the one that is in a huge financial mess. The bill was for $210.55. I asked her how much of the bill was for late fees and penalties and she didn't even know the answer to that... it's quite sad. But, oh well, it's nice to be able to help her when I can (I only give her money for holidays instead of buying her nonsense so as to not try to enable her family's bad money habits). She did tell me that she went and applied for food stamps and other family aid which is about time in my opinion.
My co-worker is making great progress on her financial situation. She made it through Christmas without having to charge a dime. There are still a few debts that she has left to pay off but I see her getting to the finish line within the next year or two.
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[entry_text] => Ok, so I've always been interested in investing in real estate. I've blogged about possibilities before on here but have never actually taken the plunge to go for anything. A family friend, who has a lot of experience in real estate investing, referred me to government foreclosures as a possibility. This was back in November. I got wrapped up in the Holidays and hadn't really had a chance to follow up or look for any foreclosures but long story short, after taking a peek today, I see that there is a foreclosure up for auction next week! The gov't bid is listed at $26k, whatever that means. I have a lot of research still left to do but my mind is racing with the opportunity to get a decent house for so cheap. I know the area and I know exactly where the house is --- nice family neighborhood. I'd estimate the retail value of the house at around $90-$100k. I'm going to talk to my friend tonight to get more guidance about the process. He started out with a government foreclosure and so he'll know what to do... Maybe this will be the one for us??
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[entry_text] => We had been saving $1,000 per month into savings (short-term, mid-term, and retirement). I just got online to all our accounts and increased everything to $1,500 per month. I think we can do more but let's see how this feels for a few months.
We also are going to start paying extra on our mortgage... just to round it up from $1,652 to $1,700 each month which is just $48 so no biggie. We used to pay a few hundred extra per month when we first got the mortgage but then scaled back to the regular monthly payment amount when we were trying to sell our house. Now that it looks like we'll be here for a while, I figured we'd start paying a little extra just because.
Some things I look forward to in 2011:
1. Reaching the $20,000 mark in our e-fund.
2. Would love to be 100-105 lbs! Before you think that is outrageous, please be aware that I am very petite and this would be normal (but on the lean side) for someone like me. I have thus far cut out soda (except for one can twice a week -- long story) which is going to help tremendously. I am trying to fit in some exercise too... so far, so good.
3. Cook at home more/eating out less. This has been working out pretty well thus far.
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[entry_text] => Ok, so I can't believe it's been nearly 3 months since I last posted. Things have been absolutely crazy around here and so I have a lot of catching up to do in blogland!
An update on my co-worker's situation. I started working with her on Oct 1 to straighten out her finances. Good news --- she's paid off two small credit card balances, one medical bill, and most importantly, the debt she had with her son (she'd borrow money from him from time to time to keep herself afloat). She has also put aside $820 in her savings account which she says is the first time she's ever saved anything. $600 of this is for Christmas and the rest is for buying new tires for her car. She still has a long way to go to pay off her debts but she's made huge progress in the couple of months I've been guiding her through. We meet about 2-3 times a month to make sure that she stays on track and for me to basically hold her hand... she still can't figure out what to pay first, how much to pay, or anything like that so I give her a roadmap everytime we meet.
Ok, now the big news on my side of things is that DH and I are considering going to NYC over New Year's. Isn't that just crazy to even think about being in all that chaos? But, we were looking at our work schedules and the kids' school calendar and wouldn't you know that we have a ton of time off available. My sister has offered to watch the kids for us so it'll just be a trip for the two of us which hasn't happened.... ever! So, I hop online and look at rates-- it will cost about $2500 for airline and hotel for 5 nights. Yikes! It would be cheaper if we didn't want to stay right near Times Square but this will be a trip of a lifetime for us so we thought we'd splurge a bit more than what we normally would do. With eating and shopping money, the trip will probably be around $3500. Anybody ever been to NY? Anything to look out for or suggestions on where to stay, eat, or do?
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[entry_text] => This morning, someone that works in our office comes to ask me to help her with her personal finances. This was completely out of the blue and I feel so honored that she would trust me with her money issues. She said she was thinking last night of who she could ask for help and thought of me... (after she got a denial yesterday from the local credit union for a new credit card account). Now, I'm on a quest to get her all squared away and you guys can come along on the journey. Here's her situation:
Married with 2 children (one in college and one in high school), but not a financially sound marriage ever, apparently... DH is a banker of all things but he apparently doesn't have his head on straight when it comes to their own money. He wants to keep everything completely separate in their household so the wife just deals with this (even though he makes probably 4 times what she does). For the major expenses, he covers the mortgage and utilities. She has to cover the groceries for the house.
Finances:
OUT categories we've identified thus far =
*groceries/eating out for household
*car payment on her car
*gas/maintenance on her car
*half of the household cell phone bill
*medical bills for household
*dog -vet/grooming bills
*multiple credit cards (highest balance is around $5k on one of them)
*three outstanding medical debts
She had her highest balance credit card statement with her and said she thought the interest rate on it was 90% (gasp) and I was like, um -- doubt it? So, I looked on her statement and showed her where the interest rate was indicated which is something like 25%. As you can see, she doesn't even know how to read her statements. She's a college graduate but when it comes to money and math, she's clueless and knows that is why she's in the trouble that she's in.
I gave her homework for the weekend -- I've asked her to write down exactly what her interest rates are on all the credit cards and their current balances. I told her to call each one of those credit card companies and ask for a lower interest rate. She also needs to identify exactly how much she owes on those outstanding medical bills and to estimate how much her other monthly expenses total up (she had no clue how much she spends on groceries, for example).
Next, I asked her about her paycheck. Since I have access to payroll, I looked up her check and all her deductions. She has zero withholdings and I asked if she gets a tax refund each year. Apparently, she just gives her W-2 to her DH each year and he does all the tax stuff. She does know that for 2009, they got back around $1500 total and then she got fussed at from her DH that it wasn't enough. He wanted the refund to be even higher and implied that she must not have withheld enough from her checks (jerk!). He keeps their refund and does whatever with the money even though it's "their" refund. I told her that was crazy. I calculated what increasing her withholdings to 1 and 2 would be, an additional $58 and $103 respectively, in each paycheck... Basically, by just increasing her withholdings to 1, she would have an additional $700 each year in her paychecks that her grubby hubby wouldn't have access to come tax time. She said she's all about having her withholdings changed to 1 now. Yay.
Anyway, I'll post more as we keep ironing out her budget...
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Posted in
GOALS
|
4 Comments »
January 11th, 2011 at 06:29 pm
We had been saving $1,000 per month into savings (short-term, mid-term, and retirement). I just got online to all our accounts and increased everything to $1,500 per month. I think we can do more but let's see how this feels for a few months.
We also are going to start paying extra on our mortgage... just to round it up from $1,652 to $1,700 each month which is just $48 so no biggie. We used to pay a few hundred extra per month when we first got the mortgage but then scaled back to the regular monthly payment amount when we were trying to sell our house. Now that it looks like we'll be here for a while, I figured we'd start paying a little extra just because.
Some things I look forward to in 2011:
1. Reaching the $20,000 mark in our e-fund.
2. Would love to be 100-105 lbs! Before you think that is outrageous, please be aware that I am very petite and this would be normal (but on the lean side) for someone like me. I have thus far cut out soda (except for one can twice a week -- long story) which is going to help tremendously. I am trying to fit in some exercise too... so far, so good.
3. Cook at home more/eating out less. This has been working out pretty well thus far.
Spent $1300 last week to get the rear wheel bearings replaced, rear brake pads and rotors filed down and turned, and an oil change
---------> Took the car in today because all the check engine kind of lights were on...Was just told that we need to have the ECM (the car's computer) replaced and that will be another $1200!!! Haven't told DH yet -- he's going to freak out.
We have a 2003 Toyota Sienna.
---------> This poor van has been neglected for so long in regards to routine maintenance. The tires are so bald (we don't drive it except within town to run errands so we've been putting it off). The dealer is having a tire sale next week so we've scheduled an appointment to have 4 new tires put on and for a well overdue oil change done. Estimated cost will be around $350.
Has anyone been adding all this up? If not, that's ok, cause I've already done it for you and it's a whopping $2850 in a few weeks time for stupid car maintenance issues. Aacckkk!!!
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[entry_title] => Reasons we hate our house...
[entry_stub] => reasons-we-hate-our-house
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/04/11/reasons-we-hate-our-house_68100/
[entry_date] => 1302528330
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-11 08:25:30
[entry_text] => Some of you have asked so here is the scoop...
House #1
Purchased in 1997
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1000 sq ft
Small but corner lot in a tight subdivision
House #2
Purchased in 2001
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1600 sq ft
Large (to us) 1/3 acre lot in a nice subdivision, backed up to farmland so was nice and private
House #3 CURRENT HOUSE
Purchased in 2006
3 story house, main living space on first floor, all bedrooms are upstairs, finished full basement
approx 2600 sq ft
.67 acre lot
So, our current house #3 might look to be a great step up for us, right? Well, not quite...
House #1 was our starter home when we just got married. It was a great little house but we got tired of the really, really tight subdivision. All the houses were so close together --- no privacy at all. So, we sold it and moved across town to House #2. This house was the smallest in the neighborhood. Most of the other houses were 2 story homes that looked really big compared to our house. But, we loved the flat lot of our house, the floorplan really worked for us, and it was a really good fit for our growing family.
Then, we moved 4 hours away, from the flat lands to the mountains, for a new job opportunity. We realized quickly that housing prices in the mountains were quite higher than they were in the big city that we came from. Also, the houses here were mainly multi-level homes since they were built alongside hill banks. We had only 2 main criteria when looking for this home: 1) I wanted a garage with main level access. I didn't want to haul groceries from a basement entry garage up stairs to the kitchen. I'd say 75% of homes here all have their garage in the basement. 2) I wanted a large lot with trees. Having lived in the city, we didn't have a lot of natural wooded areas. I thought that was what I wanted. So, we bought House #3 because these 2 main criteria were met and now 5 years later, we just hate the house. We had never lived in a multi-level home before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to go up and down stairs all the time. We had never lived on a wooded lot before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to pick up fallen limbs all the time. Ugh, ugh, and ugh. I guess it's one of those situations where the grass really isn't greener on the other side... all along we thought those bigger 2 story houses in our neighborhoods were so nice and roomy. Blah! We so miss our little ranch style homes!!!
So, a summary of all the things we hate about our current house:
1) Stairs, stairs, and more stairs!
2) All the trees! It gets windy here alot and those fallen branches are a pain to deal with
3) Hillsides! No flat place for the kids to play
4) Open floor plan of living space! Our 'great room' consists of the living room, kitchen, and dining spaces... all in one big open area. Now, I know this is all the rage in today's real estate market, but now that we actually live in this kind of living space, we just don't like it. It's really noisy!!
5) No air conditioning! As a mountain home, it is not common to have A/C here... or so one would think! The houses here just aren't built with A/C as standard. It gets pretty hot for just about one month out of the year but gosh, that one month nearly kills us each year!
So, those are the top 5 reasons why we hate our house. All these reasons were things that we just didn't realize would bother us until we actually bought the house and started living in it. We learn what we like and dislike from each home we live in and we certainly know what to look for in our House #4... we just need to sell this one first!
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[entry_title] => Should we sell or not?
[entry_stub] => should-we-sell-or-not
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/04/04/should-we-sell-or-not_67853/
[entry_date] => 1301930017
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-04 10:13:37
[entry_text] => Ack, what to do?? Ok, some back history. We tried selling our house for 2 years and had no offers. We took the house off the market for 6 months to take a break. We started asking for $349k and ended up our last listing price at $299k... Granted, we did start too high on the price for the market that we were in but settled on a price that is very fair -- but still no offers, so we pulled it off the market. Now that it is Spring, we are thinking about putting it on again.
Our past realtors were without a better term popping into my head right now, sucky. They just listed the house and didn't do much of anything else. We found another realtor that has come highly recommended... we met with him last week and he did a market analysis (CMA) on our house. If you've been following my blog, you know that we just installed granite in our kitchen... so, with that improvement, we really think we have an edge over the competition in our price range. DH and I thought we would stay at the $299k price as our listing price. After the CMA, the new realtor suggested listing it at $289k.... BUT in all honesty, the houses he compared to ours are nowhere near what ours has to offer. There just aren't too many sold houses he can compare ours to. So, he's comfortable in putting it on at $299k if that is what we still want to do. The bottom line that we are willing to sell for is $290k.
So, should we or shouldn't we try to sell the house again? DH and I just don't like it --- there is no other reason to sell. We both have stable jobs and we don't need to move anywhere. We've just HATEd our house since the day we moved in 5 years ago. If we end up at our bottom of $290k, we'd make zippo, and actually lose money really. We bought the house for $288k in 2006 (brand new) and put in $20k in improvements (granite and driveway/retaining wall work), so we've got $308k in the house. However, DH and I don't really consider the $20k we put into the house as additional cost for the house because those things were done to make the house more "liveable" for us. We wouldn't have to come to the table with any cash as our mortgage balance is low enough to where we will still have a bit of cash from the sale after the mortgage is paid.
So, what would you do? Would you go with the financially correct decision and just stay put? Or, would you do what would make you and the family happy and take a slight loss on the house?
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[entry_title] => Can a person LOVE a sink?
[entry_stub] => can-a-person-love-a-sink
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/03/29/can-a-person-love-a-sink_67618/
[entry_date] => 1301430598
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-29 15:29:58
[entry_text] => Here's a pic of my new sink and granite counters.... I absolutely love how everything turned out! We got them installed yesterday and tonight the realtor is coming over to start the process of listing our house (again). Wish us luck!!
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[entry_title] => Getting granite counters!
[entry_stub] => getting-granite-counters
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[entry_date] => 1300478106
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-18 14:55:06
[entry_text] => Ok, we tried selling our house last year with no luck. We want to try it again beginning April 1. We decided to get rid of our laminate countertops and get granite installed. The cost will be $3800. Cross your fingers and toes that this will make the difference and that our house will sell this time around. We are doing the demo in the kitchen this weekend and should have the install done within 10 days, ready for our April 1 listing date. And... if the house doesn't sell, then I get to enjoy brand new granite countertops!
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[entry_title] => A new month, A clean start!
[entry_stub] => march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/03/01/march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start_66521/
[entry_date] => 1299006127
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-01 13:02:07
[entry_text] => Spring fever must be hitting me right now. I am in the mood to clean out my house and straighten up my life. For the past week, I've organized my closets, cabinets, and junk drawers. I have found a whole year's supply of contacts that I now remembered ordering and stashing so that I didn't have to go back to the eye doctor for another year. I totally forgot about these and I was going to place an order within the next month or so! I found 2 full size brand new containers of DH's favorite hair gel. I've donated bags of stuff to Goodwill. I've thrown away so much clutter that has literally just sat in our house for the past 5 years. It feels great! I highly recommend everyone to find a drawer or closet and get at it! I did an area each night for a week and it was painless.
A 2011 financial goal was to reach the $20,000 mark in our E-fund. I deposited a $100 credit card reward check today bringing the balance up to.... drum roll.... $20,049.28!!!!!!!! Now, let's cross our fingers that we won't see any kind of emergencies for a while so that I can enjoy seeing that awesome number. Wahoo!!!
Other random updates:
I gave my sister a blank check for her birthday payable to her power company. She's the one that is in a huge financial mess. The bill was for $210.55. I asked her how much of the bill was for late fees and penalties and she didn't even know the answer to that... it's quite sad. But, oh well, it's nice to be able to help her when I can (I only give her money for holidays instead of buying her nonsense so as to not try to enable her family's bad money habits). She did tell me that she went and applied for food stamps and other family aid which is about time in my opinion.
My co-worker is making great progress on her financial situation. She made it through Christmas without having to charge a dime. There are still a few debts that she has left to pay off but I see her getting to the finish line within the next year or two.
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[entry_title] => Government Foreclosure
[entry_stub] => government-foreclosure
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/01/14/government-foreclosure_65304/
[entry_date] => 1295031503
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-14 12:58:23
[entry_text] => Ok, so I've always been interested in investing in real estate. I've blogged about possibilities before on here but have never actually taken the plunge to go for anything. A family friend, who has a lot of experience in real estate investing, referred me to government foreclosures as a possibility. This was back in November. I got wrapped up in the Holidays and hadn't really had a chance to follow up or look for any foreclosures but long story short, after taking a peek today, I see that there is a foreclosure up for auction next week! The gov't bid is listed at $26k, whatever that means. I have a lot of research still left to do but my mind is racing with the opportunity to get a decent house for so cheap. I know the area and I know exactly where the house is --- nice family neighborhood. I'd estimate the retail value of the house at around $90-$100k. I'm going to talk to my friend tonight to get more guidance about the process. He started out with a government foreclosure and so he'll know what to do... Maybe this will be the one for us??
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[entry_title] => Updating savings amounts for 2011
[entry_stub] => updating-savings-amounts-for-2011
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/01/11/updating-savings-amounts-for-2011_65211/
[entry_date] => 1294770581
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-11 12:29:41
[entry_text] => We had been saving $1,000 per month into savings (short-term, mid-term, and retirement). I just got online to all our accounts and increased everything to $1,500 per month. I think we can do more but let's see how this feels for a few months.
We also are going to start paying extra on our mortgage... just to round it up from $1,652 to $1,700 each month which is just $48 so no biggie. We used to pay a few hundred extra per month when we first got the mortgage but then scaled back to the regular monthly payment amount when we were trying to sell our house. Now that it looks like we'll be here for a while, I figured we'd start paying a little extra just because.
Some things I look forward to in 2011:
1. Reaching the $20,000 mark in our e-fund.
2. Would love to be 100-105 lbs! Before you think that is outrageous, please be aware that I am very petite and this would be normal (but on the lean side) for someone like me. I have thus far cut out soda (except for one can twice a week -- long story) which is going to help tremendously. I am trying to fit in some exercise too... so far, so good.
3. Cook at home more/eating out less. This has been working out pretty well thus far.
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[entry_title] => An update -- finally!
[entry_stub] => an-update-finally
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[entry_text] => Ok, so I can't believe it's been nearly 3 months since I last posted. Things have been absolutely crazy around here and so I have a lot of catching up to do in blogland!
An update on my co-worker's situation. I started working with her on Oct 1 to straighten out her finances. Good news --- she's paid off two small credit card balances, one medical bill, and most importantly, the debt she had with her son (she'd borrow money from him from time to time to keep herself afloat). She has also put aside $820 in her savings account which she says is the first time she's ever saved anything. $600 of this is for Christmas and the rest is for buying new tires for her car. She still has a long way to go to pay off her debts but she's made huge progress in the couple of months I've been guiding her through. We meet about 2-3 times a month to make sure that she stays on track and for me to basically hold her hand... she still can't figure out what to pay first, how much to pay, or anything like that so I give her a roadmap everytime we meet.
Ok, now the big news on my side of things is that DH and I are considering going to NYC over New Year's. Isn't that just crazy to even think about being in all that chaos? But, we were looking at our work schedules and the kids' school calendar and wouldn't you know that we have a ton of time off available. My sister has offered to watch the kids for us so it'll just be a trip for the two of us which hasn't happened.... ever! So, I hop online and look at rates-- it will cost about $2500 for airline and hotel for 5 nights. Yikes! It would be cheaper if we didn't want to stay right near Times Square but this will be a trip of a lifetime for us so we thought we'd splurge a bit more than what we normally would do. With eating and shopping money, the trip will probably be around $3500. Anybody ever been to NY? Anything to look out for or suggestions on where to stay, eat, or do?
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[entry_title] => Honored to be asked
[entry_stub] => honored-to-be-asked
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[entry_date] => 1284733580
[entry_date_mysql] => 2010-09-17 09:26:20
[entry_text] => This morning, someone that works in our office comes to ask me to help her with her personal finances. This was completely out of the blue and I feel so honored that she would trust me with her money issues. She said she was thinking last night of who she could ask for help and thought of me... (after she got a denial yesterday from the local credit union for a new credit card account). Now, I'm on a quest to get her all squared away and you guys can come along on the journey. Here's her situation:
Married with 2 children (one in college and one in high school), but not a financially sound marriage ever, apparently... DH is a banker of all things but he apparently doesn't have his head on straight when it comes to their own money. He wants to keep everything completely separate in their household so the wife just deals with this (even though he makes probably 4 times what she does). For the major expenses, he covers the mortgage and utilities. She has to cover the groceries for the house.
Finances:
OUT categories we've identified thus far =
*groceries/eating out for household
*car payment on her car
*gas/maintenance on her car
*half of the household cell phone bill
*medical bills for household
*dog -vet/grooming bills
*multiple credit cards (highest balance is around $5k on one of them)
*three outstanding medical debts
She had her highest balance credit card statement with her and said she thought the interest rate on it was 90% (gasp) and I was like, um -- doubt it? So, I looked on her statement and showed her where the interest rate was indicated which is something like 25%. As you can see, she doesn't even know how to read her statements. She's a college graduate but when it comes to money and math, she's clueless and knows that is why she's in the trouble that she's in.
I gave her homework for the weekend -- I've asked her to write down exactly what her interest rates are on all the credit cards and their current balances. I told her to call each one of those credit card companies and ask for a lower interest rate. She also needs to identify exactly how much she owes on those outstanding medical bills and to estimate how much her other monthly expenses total up (she had no clue how much she spends on groceries, for example).
Next, I asked her about her paycheck. Since I have access to payroll, I looked up her check and all her deductions. She has zero withholdings and I asked if she gets a tax refund each year. Apparently, she just gives her W-2 to her DH each year and he does all the tax stuff. She does know that for 2009, they got back around $1500 total and then she got fussed at from her DH that it wasn't enough. He wanted the refund to be even higher and implied that she must not have withheld enough from her checks (jerk!). He keeps their refund and does whatever with the money even though it's "their" refund. I told her that was crazy. I calculated what increasing her withholdings to 1 and 2 would be, an additional $58 and $103 respectively, in each paycheck... Basically, by just increasing her withholdings to 1, she would have an additional $700 each year in her paychecks that her grubby hubby wouldn't have access to come tax time. She said she's all about having her withholdings changed to 1 now. Yay.
Anyway, I'll post more as we keep ironing out her budget...
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-->
Posted in
SAVINGS AND INVESTMENTS,
GOALS
|
2 Comments »
December 2nd, 2010 at 01:22 pm
Ok, so I can't believe it's been nearly 3 months since I last posted. Things have been absolutely crazy around here and so I have a lot of catching up to do in blogland!
An update on my co-worker's situation. I started working with her on Oct 1 to straighten out her finances. Good news --- she's paid off two small credit card balances, one medical bill, and most importantly, the debt she had with her son (she'd borrow money from him from time to time to keep herself afloat). She has also put aside $820 in her savings account which she says is the first time she's ever saved anything. $600 of this is for Christmas and the rest is for buying new tires for her car. She still has a long way to go to pay off her debts but she's made huge progress in the couple of months I've been guiding her through. We meet about 2-3 times a month to make sure that she stays on track and for me to basically hold her hand... she still can't figure out what to pay first, how much to pay, or anything like that so I give her a roadmap everytime we meet.
Ok, now the big news on my side of things is that DH and I are considering going to NYC over New Year's. Isn't that just crazy to even think about being in all that chaos? But, we were looking at our work schedules and the kids' school calendar and wouldn't you know that we have a ton of time off available. My sister has offered to watch the kids for us so it'll just be a trip for the two of us which hasn't happened.... ever! So, I hop online and look at rates-- it will cost about $2500 for airline and hotel for 5 nights. Yikes! It would be cheaper if we didn't want to stay right near Times Square but this will be a trip of a lifetime for us so we thought we'd splurge a bit more than what we normally would do. With eating and shopping money, the trip will probably be around $3500. Anybody ever been to NY? Anything to look out for or suggestions on where to stay, eat, or do? Spent $1300 last week to get the rear wheel bearings replaced, rear brake pads and rotors filed down and turned, and an oil change
---------> Took the car in today because all the check engine kind of lights were on...Was just told that we need to have the ECM (the car's computer) replaced and that will be another $1200!!! Haven't told DH yet -- he's going to freak out.
We have a 2003 Toyota Sienna.
---------> This poor van has been neglected for so long in regards to routine maintenance. The tires are so bald (we don't drive it except within town to run errands so we've been putting it off). The dealer is having a tire sale next week so we've scheduled an appointment to have 4 new tires put on and for a well overdue oil change done. Estimated cost will be around $350.
Has anyone been adding all this up? If not, that's ok, cause I've already done it for you and it's a whopping $2850 in a few weeks time for stupid car maintenance issues. Aacckkk!!!
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[entry_title] => Reasons we hate our house...
[entry_stub] => reasons-we-hate-our-house
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[entry_date] => 1302528330
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[entry_text] => Some of you have asked so here is the scoop...
House #1
Purchased in 1997
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1000 sq ft
Small but corner lot in a tight subdivision
House #2
Purchased in 2001
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1600 sq ft
Large (to us) 1/3 acre lot in a nice subdivision, backed up to farmland so was nice and private
House #3 CURRENT HOUSE
Purchased in 2006
3 story house, main living space on first floor, all bedrooms are upstairs, finished full basement
approx 2600 sq ft
.67 acre lot
So, our current house #3 might look to be a great step up for us, right? Well, not quite...
House #1 was our starter home when we just got married. It was a great little house but we got tired of the really, really tight subdivision. All the houses were so close together --- no privacy at all. So, we sold it and moved across town to House #2. This house was the smallest in the neighborhood. Most of the other houses were 2 story homes that looked really big compared to our house. But, we loved the flat lot of our house, the floorplan really worked for us, and it was a really good fit for our growing family.
Then, we moved 4 hours away, from the flat lands to the mountains, for a new job opportunity. We realized quickly that housing prices in the mountains were quite higher than they were in the big city that we came from. Also, the houses here were mainly multi-level homes since they were built alongside hill banks. We had only 2 main criteria when looking for this home: 1) I wanted a garage with main level access. I didn't want to haul groceries from a basement entry garage up stairs to the kitchen. I'd say 75% of homes here all have their garage in the basement. 2) I wanted a large lot with trees. Having lived in the city, we didn't have a lot of natural wooded areas. I thought that was what I wanted. So, we bought House #3 because these 2 main criteria were met and now 5 years later, we just hate the house. We had never lived in a multi-level home before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to go up and down stairs all the time. We had never lived on a wooded lot before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to pick up fallen limbs all the time. Ugh, ugh, and ugh. I guess it's one of those situations where the grass really isn't greener on the other side... all along we thought those bigger 2 story houses in our neighborhoods were so nice and roomy. Blah! We so miss our little ranch style homes!!!
So, a summary of all the things we hate about our current house:
1) Stairs, stairs, and more stairs!
2) All the trees! It gets windy here alot and those fallen branches are a pain to deal with
3) Hillsides! No flat place for the kids to play
4) Open floor plan of living space! Our 'great room' consists of the living room, kitchen, and dining spaces... all in one big open area. Now, I know this is all the rage in today's real estate market, but now that we actually live in this kind of living space, we just don't like it. It's really noisy!!
5) No air conditioning! As a mountain home, it is not common to have A/C here... or so one would think! The houses here just aren't built with A/C as standard. It gets pretty hot for just about one month out of the year but gosh, that one month nearly kills us each year!
So, those are the top 5 reasons why we hate our house. All these reasons were things that we just didn't realize would bother us until we actually bought the house and started living in it. We learn what we like and dislike from each home we live in and we certainly know what to look for in our House #4... we just need to sell this one first!
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[entry_title] => Should we sell or not?
[entry_stub] => should-we-sell-or-not
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/04/04/should-we-sell-or-not_67853/
[entry_date] => 1301930017
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-04 10:13:37
[entry_text] => Ack, what to do?? Ok, some back history. We tried selling our house for 2 years and had no offers. We took the house off the market for 6 months to take a break. We started asking for $349k and ended up our last listing price at $299k... Granted, we did start too high on the price for the market that we were in but settled on a price that is very fair -- but still no offers, so we pulled it off the market. Now that it is Spring, we are thinking about putting it on again.
Our past realtors were without a better term popping into my head right now, sucky. They just listed the house and didn't do much of anything else. We found another realtor that has come highly recommended... we met with him last week and he did a market analysis (CMA) on our house. If you've been following my blog, you know that we just installed granite in our kitchen... so, with that improvement, we really think we have an edge over the competition in our price range. DH and I thought we would stay at the $299k price as our listing price. After the CMA, the new realtor suggested listing it at $289k.... BUT in all honesty, the houses he compared to ours are nowhere near what ours has to offer. There just aren't too many sold houses he can compare ours to. So, he's comfortable in putting it on at $299k if that is what we still want to do. The bottom line that we are willing to sell for is $290k.
So, should we or shouldn't we try to sell the house again? DH and I just don't like it --- there is no other reason to sell. We both have stable jobs and we don't need to move anywhere. We've just HATEd our house since the day we moved in 5 years ago. If we end up at our bottom of $290k, we'd make zippo, and actually lose money really. We bought the house for $288k in 2006 (brand new) and put in $20k in improvements (granite and driveway/retaining wall work), so we've got $308k in the house. However, DH and I don't really consider the $20k we put into the house as additional cost for the house because those things were done to make the house more "liveable" for us. We wouldn't have to come to the table with any cash as our mortgage balance is low enough to where we will still have a bit of cash from the sale after the mortgage is paid.
So, what would you do? Would you go with the financially correct decision and just stay put? Or, would you do what would make you and the family happy and take a slight loss on the house?
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[entry_title] => Can a person LOVE a sink?
[entry_stub] => can-a-person-love-a-sink
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/03/29/can-a-person-love-a-sink_67618/
[entry_date] => 1301430598
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-29 15:29:58
[entry_text] => Here's a pic of my new sink and granite counters.... I absolutely love how everything turned out! We got them installed yesterday and tonight the realtor is coming over to start the process of listing our house (again). Wish us luck!!
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[entry_title] => Getting granite counters!
[entry_stub] => getting-granite-counters
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[entry_date] => 1300478106
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-18 14:55:06
[entry_text] => Ok, we tried selling our house last year with no luck. We want to try it again beginning April 1. We decided to get rid of our laminate countertops and get granite installed. The cost will be $3800. Cross your fingers and toes that this will make the difference and that our house will sell this time around. We are doing the demo in the kitchen this weekend and should have the install done within 10 days, ready for our April 1 listing date. And... if the house doesn't sell, then I get to enjoy brand new granite countertops!
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[entry_title] => A new month, A clean start!
[entry_stub] => march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/03/01/march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start_66521/
[entry_date] => 1299006127
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-01 13:02:07
[entry_text] => Spring fever must be hitting me right now. I am in the mood to clean out my house and straighten up my life. For the past week, I've organized my closets, cabinets, and junk drawers. I have found a whole year's supply of contacts that I now remembered ordering and stashing so that I didn't have to go back to the eye doctor for another year. I totally forgot about these and I was going to place an order within the next month or so! I found 2 full size brand new containers of DH's favorite hair gel. I've donated bags of stuff to Goodwill. I've thrown away so much clutter that has literally just sat in our house for the past 5 years. It feels great! I highly recommend everyone to find a drawer or closet and get at it! I did an area each night for a week and it was painless.
A 2011 financial goal was to reach the $20,000 mark in our E-fund. I deposited a $100 credit card reward check today bringing the balance up to.... drum roll.... $20,049.28!!!!!!!! Now, let's cross our fingers that we won't see any kind of emergencies for a while so that I can enjoy seeing that awesome number. Wahoo!!!
Other random updates:
I gave my sister a blank check for her birthday payable to her power company. She's the one that is in a huge financial mess. The bill was for $210.55. I asked her how much of the bill was for late fees and penalties and she didn't even know the answer to that... it's quite sad. But, oh well, it's nice to be able to help her when I can (I only give her money for holidays instead of buying her nonsense so as to not try to enable her family's bad money habits). She did tell me that she went and applied for food stamps and other family aid which is about time in my opinion.
My co-worker is making great progress on her financial situation. She made it through Christmas without having to charge a dime. There are still a few debts that she has left to pay off but I see her getting to the finish line within the next year or two.
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[entry_title] => Government Foreclosure
[entry_stub] => government-foreclosure
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/01/14/government-foreclosure_65304/
[entry_date] => 1295031503
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-14 12:58:23
[entry_text] => Ok, so I've always been interested in investing in real estate. I've blogged about possibilities before on here but have never actually taken the plunge to go for anything. A family friend, who has a lot of experience in real estate investing, referred me to government foreclosures as a possibility. This was back in November. I got wrapped up in the Holidays and hadn't really had a chance to follow up or look for any foreclosures but long story short, after taking a peek today, I see that there is a foreclosure up for auction next week! The gov't bid is listed at $26k, whatever that means. I have a lot of research still left to do but my mind is racing with the opportunity to get a decent house for so cheap. I know the area and I know exactly where the house is --- nice family neighborhood. I'd estimate the retail value of the house at around $90-$100k. I'm going to talk to my friend tonight to get more guidance about the process. He started out with a government foreclosure and so he'll know what to do... Maybe this will be the one for us??
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[entry_title] => Updating savings amounts for 2011
[entry_stub] => updating-savings-amounts-for-2011
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/01/11/updating-savings-amounts-for-2011_65211/
[entry_date] => 1294770581
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-11 12:29:41
[entry_text] => We had been saving $1,000 per month into savings (short-term, mid-term, and retirement). I just got online to all our accounts and increased everything to $1,500 per month. I think we can do more but let's see how this feels for a few months.
We also are going to start paying extra on our mortgage... just to round it up from $1,652 to $1,700 each month which is just $48 so no biggie. We used to pay a few hundred extra per month when we first got the mortgage but then scaled back to the regular monthly payment amount when we were trying to sell our house. Now that it looks like we'll be here for a while, I figured we'd start paying a little extra just because.
Some things I look forward to in 2011:
1. Reaching the $20,000 mark in our e-fund.
2. Would love to be 100-105 lbs! Before you think that is outrageous, please be aware that I am very petite and this would be normal (but on the lean side) for someone like me. I have thus far cut out soda (except for one can twice a week -- long story) which is going to help tremendously. I am trying to fit in some exercise too... so far, so good.
3. Cook at home more/eating out less. This has been working out pretty well thus far.
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[entry_title] => An update -- finally!
[entry_stub] => an-update-finally
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[entry_date] => 1291296177
[entry_date_mysql] => 2010-12-02 07:22:57
[entry_text] => Ok, so I can't believe it's been nearly 3 months since I last posted. Things have been absolutely crazy around here and so I have a lot of catching up to do in blogland!
An update on my co-worker's situation. I started working with her on Oct 1 to straighten out her finances. Good news --- she's paid off two small credit card balances, one medical bill, and most importantly, the debt she had with her son (she'd borrow money from him from time to time to keep herself afloat). She has also put aside $820 in her savings account which she says is the first time she's ever saved anything. $600 of this is for Christmas and the rest is for buying new tires for her car. She still has a long way to go to pay off her debts but she's made huge progress in the couple of months I've been guiding her through. We meet about 2-3 times a month to make sure that she stays on track and for me to basically hold her hand... she still can't figure out what to pay first, how much to pay, or anything like that so I give her a roadmap everytime we meet.
Ok, now the big news on my side of things is that DH and I are considering going to NYC over New Year's. Isn't that just crazy to even think about being in all that chaos? But, we were looking at our work schedules and the kids' school calendar and wouldn't you know that we have a ton of time off available. My sister has offered to watch the kids for us so it'll just be a trip for the two of us which hasn't happened.... ever! So, I hop online and look at rates-- it will cost about $2500 for airline and hotel for 5 nights. Yikes! It would be cheaper if we didn't want to stay right near Times Square but this will be a trip of a lifetime for us so we thought we'd splurge a bit more than what we normally would do. With eating and shopping money, the trip will probably be around $3500. Anybody ever been to NY? Anything to look out for or suggestions on where to stay, eat, or do?
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[entry_title] => Honored to be asked
[entry_stub] => honored-to-be-asked
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[entry_date] => 1284733580
[entry_date_mysql] => 2010-09-17 09:26:20
[entry_text] => This morning, someone that works in our office comes to ask me to help her with her personal finances. This was completely out of the blue and I feel so honored that she would trust me with her money issues. She said she was thinking last night of who she could ask for help and thought of me... (after she got a denial yesterday from the local credit union for a new credit card account). Now, I'm on a quest to get her all squared away and you guys can come along on the journey. Here's her situation:
Married with 2 children (one in college and one in high school), but not a financially sound marriage ever, apparently... DH is a banker of all things but he apparently doesn't have his head on straight when it comes to their own money. He wants to keep everything completely separate in their household so the wife just deals with this (even though he makes probably 4 times what she does). For the major expenses, he covers the mortgage and utilities. She has to cover the groceries for the house.
Finances:
OUT categories we've identified thus far =
*groceries/eating out for household
*car payment on her car
*gas/maintenance on her car
*half of the household cell phone bill
*medical bills for household
*dog -vet/grooming bills
*multiple credit cards (highest balance is around $5k on one of them)
*three outstanding medical debts
She had her highest balance credit card statement with her and said she thought the interest rate on it was 90% (gasp) and I was like, um -- doubt it? So, I looked on her statement and showed her where the interest rate was indicated which is something like 25%. As you can see, she doesn't even know how to read her statements. She's a college graduate but when it comes to money and math, she's clueless and knows that is why she's in the trouble that she's in.
I gave her homework for the weekend -- I've asked her to write down exactly what her interest rates are on all the credit cards and their current balances. I told her to call each one of those credit card companies and ask for a lower interest rate. She also needs to identify exactly how much she owes on those outstanding medical bills and to estimate how much her other monthly expenses total up (she had no clue how much she spends on groceries, for example).
Next, I asked her about her paycheck. Since I have access to payroll, I looked up her check and all her deductions. She has zero withholdings and I asked if she gets a tax refund each year. Apparently, she just gives her W-2 to her DH each year and he does all the tax stuff. She does know that for 2009, they got back around $1500 total and then she got fussed at from her DH that it wasn't enough. He wanted the refund to be even higher and implied that she must not have withheld enough from her checks (jerk!). He keeps their refund and does whatever with the money even though it's "their" refund. I told her that was crazy. I calculated what increasing her withholdings to 1 and 2 would be, an additional $58 and $103 respectively, in each paycheck... Basically, by just increasing her withholdings to 1, she would have an additional $700 each year in her paychecks that her grubby hubby wouldn't have access to come tax time. She said she's all about having her withholdings changed to 1 now. Yay.
Anyway, I'll post more as we keep ironing out her budget...
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-->
Posted in
GOALS
|
1 Comments »
September 17th, 2010 at 02:26 pm
This morning, someone that works in our office comes to ask me to help her with her personal finances. This was completely out of the blue and I feel so honored that she would trust me with her money issues. She said she was thinking last night of who she could ask for help and thought of me... (after she got a denial yesterday from the local credit union for a new credit card account). Now, I'm on a quest to get her all squared away and you guys can come along on the journey. Here's her situation:
Married with 2 children (one in college and one in high school), but not a financially sound marriage ever, apparently... DH is a banker of all things but he apparently doesn't have his head on straight when it comes to their own money. He wants to keep everything completely separate in their household so the wife just deals with this (even though he makes probably 4 times what she does). For the major expenses, he covers the mortgage and utilities. She has to cover the groceries for the house.
Finances:
OUT categories we've identified thus far =
*groceries/eating out for household
*car payment on her car
*gas/maintenance on her car
*half of the household cell phone bill
*medical bills for household
*dog -vet/grooming bills
*multiple credit cards (highest balance is around $5k on one of them)
*three outstanding medical debts
She had her highest balance credit card statement with her and said she thought the interest rate on it was 90% (gasp) and I was like, um -- doubt it? So, I looked on her statement and showed her where the interest rate was indicated which is something like 25%. As you can see, she doesn't even know how to read her statements. She's a college graduate but when it comes to money and math, she's clueless and knows that is why she's in the trouble that she's in.
I gave her homework for the weekend -- I've asked her to write down exactly what her interest rates are on all the credit cards and their current balances. I told her to call each one of those credit card companies and ask for a lower interest rate. She also needs to identify exactly how much she owes on those outstanding medical bills and to estimate how much her other monthly expenses total up (she had no clue how much she spends on groceries, for example).
Next, I asked her about her paycheck. Since I have access to payroll, I looked up her check and all her deductions. She has zero withholdings and I asked if she gets a tax refund each year. Apparently, she just gives her W-2 to her DH each year and he does all the tax stuff. She does know that for 2009, they got back around $1500 total and then she got fussed at from her DH that it wasn't enough. He wanted the refund to be even higher and implied that she must not have withheld enough from her checks (jerk!). He keeps their refund and does whatever with the money even though it's "their" refund. I told her that was crazy. I calculated what increasing her withholdings to 1 and 2 would be, an additional $58 and $103 respectively, in each paycheck... Basically, by just increasing her withholdings to 1, she would have an additional $700 each year in her paychecks that her grubby hubby wouldn't have access to come tax time. She said she's all about having her withholdings changed to 1 now. Yay.
Anyway, I'll post more as we keep ironing out her budget... Spent $1300 last week to get the rear wheel bearings replaced, rear brake pads and rotors filed down and turned, and an oil change
---------> Took the car in today because all the check engine kind of lights were on...Was just told that we need to have the ECM (the car's computer) replaced and that will be another $1200!!! Haven't told DH yet -- he's going to freak out.
We have a 2003 Toyota Sienna.
---------> This poor van has been neglected for so long in regards to routine maintenance. The tires are so bald (we don't drive it except within town to run errands so we've been putting it off). The dealer is having a tire sale next week so we've scheduled an appointment to have 4 new tires put on and for a well overdue oil change done. Estimated cost will be around $350.
Has anyone been adding all this up? If not, that's ok, cause I've already done it for you and it's a whopping $2850 in a few weeks time for stupid car maintenance issues. Aacckkk!!!
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[entry_title] => Reasons we hate our house...
[entry_stub] => reasons-we-hate-our-house
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/04/11/reasons-we-hate-our-house_68100/
[entry_date] => 1302528330
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-11 08:25:30
[entry_text] => Some of you have asked so here is the scoop...
House #1
Purchased in 1997
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1000 sq ft
Small but corner lot in a tight subdivision
House #2
Purchased in 2001
Ranch style, (no basement or upstairs)
approx 1600 sq ft
Large (to us) 1/3 acre lot in a nice subdivision, backed up to farmland so was nice and private
House #3 CURRENT HOUSE
Purchased in 2006
3 story house, main living space on first floor, all bedrooms are upstairs, finished full basement
approx 2600 sq ft
.67 acre lot
So, our current house #3 might look to be a great step up for us, right? Well, not quite...
House #1 was our starter home when we just got married. It was a great little house but we got tired of the really, really tight subdivision. All the houses were so close together --- no privacy at all. So, we sold it and moved across town to House #2. This house was the smallest in the neighborhood. Most of the other houses were 2 story homes that looked really big compared to our house. But, we loved the flat lot of our house, the floorplan really worked for us, and it was a really good fit for our growing family.
Then, we moved 4 hours away, from the flat lands to the mountains, for a new job opportunity. We realized quickly that housing prices in the mountains were quite higher than they were in the big city that we came from. Also, the houses here were mainly multi-level homes since they were built alongside hill banks. We had only 2 main criteria when looking for this home: 1) I wanted a garage with main level access. I didn't want to haul groceries from a basement entry garage up stairs to the kitchen. I'd say 75% of homes here all have their garage in the basement. 2) I wanted a large lot with trees. Having lived in the city, we didn't have a lot of natural wooded areas. I thought that was what I wanted. So, we bought House #3 because these 2 main criteria were met and now 5 years later, we just hate the house. We had never lived in a multi-level home before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to go up and down stairs all the time. We had never lived on a wooded lot before so we didn't realize how much we would hate having to pick up fallen limbs all the time. Ugh, ugh, and ugh. I guess it's one of those situations where the grass really isn't greener on the other side... all along we thought those bigger 2 story houses in our neighborhoods were so nice and roomy. Blah! We so miss our little ranch style homes!!!
So, a summary of all the things we hate about our current house:
1) Stairs, stairs, and more stairs!
2) All the trees! It gets windy here alot and those fallen branches are a pain to deal with
3) Hillsides! No flat place for the kids to play
4) Open floor plan of living space! Our 'great room' consists of the living room, kitchen, and dining spaces... all in one big open area. Now, I know this is all the rage in today's real estate market, but now that we actually live in this kind of living space, we just don't like it. It's really noisy!!
5) No air conditioning! As a mountain home, it is not common to have A/C here... or so one would think! The houses here just aren't built with A/C as standard. It gets pretty hot for just about one month out of the year but gosh, that one month nearly kills us each year!
So, those are the top 5 reasons why we hate our house. All these reasons were things that we just didn't realize would bother us until we actually bought the house and started living in it. We learn what we like and dislike from each home we live in and we certainly know what to look for in our House #4... we just need to sell this one first!
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[entry_title] => Should we sell or not?
[entry_stub] => should-we-sell-or-not
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/04/04/should-we-sell-or-not_67853/
[entry_date] => 1301930017
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-04-04 10:13:37
[entry_text] => Ack, what to do?? Ok, some back history. We tried selling our house for 2 years and had no offers. We took the house off the market for 6 months to take a break. We started asking for $349k and ended up our last listing price at $299k... Granted, we did start too high on the price for the market that we were in but settled on a price that is very fair -- but still no offers, so we pulled it off the market. Now that it is Spring, we are thinking about putting it on again.
Our past realtors were without a better term popping into my head right now, sucky. They just listed the house and didn't do much of anything else. We found another realtor that has come highly recommended... we met with him last week and he did a market analysis (CMA) on our house. If you've been following my blog, you know that we just installed granite in our kitchen... so, with that improvement, we really think we have an edge over the competition in our price range. DH and I thought we would stay at the $299k price as our listing price. After the CMA, the new realtor suggested listing it at $289k.... BUT in all honesty, the houses he compared to ours are nowhere near what ours has to offer. There just aren't too many sold houses he can compare ours to. So, he's comfortable in putting it on at $299k if that is what we still want to do. The bottom line that we are willing to sell for is $290k.
So, should we or shouldn't we try to sell the house again? DH and I just don't like it --- there is no other reason to sell. We both have stable jobs and we don't need to move anywhere. We've just HATEd our house since the day we moved in 5 years ago. If we end up at our bottom of $290k, we'd make zippo, and actually lose money really. We bought the house for $288k in 2006 (brand new) and put in $20k in improvements (granite and driveway/retaining wall work), so we've got $308k in the house. However, DH and I don't really consider the $20k we put into the house as additional cost for the house because those things were done to make the house more "liveable" for us. We wouldn't have to come to the table with any cash as our mortgage balance is low enough to where we will still have a bit of cash from the sale after the mortgage is paid.
So, what would you do? Would you go with the financially correct decision and just stay put? Or, would you do what would make you and the family happy and take a slight loss on the house?
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[entry_title] => Can a person LOVE a sink?
[entry_stub] => can-a-person-love-a-sink
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/03/29/can-a-person-love-a-sink_67618/
[entry_date] => 1301430598
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-29 15:29:58
[entry_text] => Here's a pic of my new sink and granite counters.... I absolutely love how everything turned out! We got them installed yesterday and tonight the realtor is coming over to start the process of listing our house (again). Wish us luck!!
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[entry_title] => Getting granite counters!
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[entry_date] => 1300478106
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-18 14:55:06
[entry_text] => Ok, we tried selling our house last year with no luck. We want to try it again beginning April 1. We decided to get rid of our laminate countertops and get granite installed. The cost will be $3800. Cross your fingers and toes that this will make the difference and that our house will sell this time around. We are doing the demo in the kitchen this weekend and should have the install done within 10 days, ready for our April 1 listing date. And... if the house doesn't sell, then I get to enjoy brand new granite countertops!
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[entry_title] => A new month, A clean start!
[entry_stub] => march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/03/01/march-1-2011-a-new-month-a-clean-start_66521/
[entry_date] => 1299006127
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-03-01 13:02:07
[entry_text] => Spring fever must be hitting me right now. I am in the mood to clean out my house and straighten up my life. For the past week, I've organized my closets, cabinets, and junk drawers. I have found a whole year's supply of contacts that I now remembered ordering and stashing so that I didn't have to go back to the eye doctor for another year. I totally forgot about these and I was going to place an order within the next month or so! I found 2 full size brand new containers of DH's favorite hair gel. I've donated bags of stuff to Goodwill. I've thrown away so much clutter that has literally just sat in our house for the past 5 years. It feels great! I highly recommend everyone to find a drawer or closet and get at it! I did an area each night for a week and it was painless.
A 2011 financial goal was to reach the $20,000 mark in our E-fund. I deposited a $100 credit card reward check today bringing the balance up to.... drum roll.... $20,049.28!!!!!!!! Now, let's cross our fingers that we won't see any kind of emergencies for a while so that I can enjoy seeing that awesome number. Wahoo!!!
Other random updates:
I gave my sister a blank check for her birthday payable to her power company. She's the one that is in a huge financial mess. The bill was for $210.55. I asked her how much of the bill was for late fees and penalties and she didn't even know the answer to that... it's quite sad. But, oh well, it's nice to be able to help her when I can (I only give her money for holidays instead of buying her nonsense so as to not try to enable her family's bad money habits). She did tell me that she went and applied for food stamps and other family aid which is about time in my opinion.
My co-worker is making great progress on her financial situation. She made it through Christmas without having to charge a dime. There are still a few debts that she has left to pay off but I see her getting to the finish line within the next year or two.
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[entry_title] => Government Foreclosure
[entry_stub] => government-foreclosure
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/01/14/government-foreclosure_65304/
[entry_date] => 1295031503
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-14 12:58:23
[entry_text] => Ok, so I've always been interested in investing in real estate. I've blogged about possibilities before on here but have never actually taken the plunge to go for anything. A family friend, who has a lot of experience in real estate investing, referred me to government foreclosures as a possibility. This was back in November. I got wrapped up in the Holidays and hadn't really had a chance to follow up or look for any foreclosures but long story short, after taking a peek today, I see that there is a foreclosure up for auction next week! The gov't bid is listed at $26k, whatever that means. I have a lot of research still left to do but my mind is racing with the opportunity to get a decent house for so cheap. I know the area and I know exactly where the house is --- nice family neighborhood. I'd estimate the retail value of the house at around $90-$100k. I'm going to talk to my friend tonight to get more guidance about the process. He started out with a government foreclosure and so he'll know what to do... Maybe this will be the one for us??
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[entry_title] => Updating savings amounts for 2011
[entry_stub] => updating-savings-amounts-for-2011
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2011/01/11/updating-savings-amounts-for-2011_65211/
[entry_date] => 1294770581
[entry_date_mysql] => 2011-01-11 12:29:41
[entry_text] => We had been saving $1,000 per month into savings (short-term, mid-term, and retirement). I just got online to all our accounts and increased everything to $1,500 per month. I think we can do more but let's see how this feels for a few months.
We also are going to start paying extra on our mortgage... just to round it up from $1,652 to $1,700 each month which is just $48 so no biggie. We used to pay a few hundred extra per month when we first got the mortgage but then scaled back to the regular monthly payment amount when we were trying to sell our house. Now that it looks like we'll be here for a while, I figured we'd start paying a little extra just because.
Some things I look forward to in 2011:
1. Reaching the $20,000 mark in our e-fund.
2. Would love to be 100-105 lbs! Before you think that is outrageous, please be aware that I am very petite and this would be normal (but on the lean side) for someone like me. I have thus far cut out soda (except for one can twice a week -- long story) which is going to help tremendously. I am trying to fit in some exercise too... so far, so good.
3. Cook at home more/eating out less. This has been working out pretty well thus far.
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[entry_title] => An update -- finally!
[entry_stub] => an-update-finally
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[entry_date] => 1291296177
[entry_date_mysql] => 2010-12-02 07:22:57
[entry_text] => Ok, so I can't believe it's been nearly 3 months since I last posted. Things have been absolutely crazy around here and so I have a lot of catching up to do in blogland!
An update on my co-worker's situation. I started working with her on Oct 1 to straighten out her finances. Good news --- she's paid off two small credit card balances, one medical bill, and most importantly, the debt she had with her son (she'd borrow money from him from time to time to keep herself afloat). She has also put aside $820 in her savings account which she says is the first time she's ever saved anything. $600 of this is for Christmas and the rest is for buying new tires for her car. She still has a long way to go to pay off her debts but she's made huge progress in the couple of months I've been guiding her through. We meet about 2-3 times a month to make sure that she stays on track and for me to basically hold her hand... she still can't figure out what to pay first, how much to pay, or anything like that so I give her a roadmap everytime we meet.
Ok, now the big news on my side of things is that DH and I are considering going to NYC over New Year's. Isn't that just crazy to even think about being in all that chaos? But, we were looking at our work schedules and the kids' school calendar and wouldn't you know that we have a ton of time off available. My sister has offered to watch the kids for us so it'll just be a trip for the two of us which hasn't happened.... ever! So, I hop online and look at rates-- it will cost about $2500 for airline and hotel for 5 nights. Yikes! It would be cheaper if we didn't want to stay right near Times Square but this will be a trip of a lifetime for us so we thought we'd splurge a bit more than what we normally would do. With eating and shopping money, the trip will probably be around $3500. Anybody ever been to NY? Anything to look out for or suggestions on where to stay, eat, or do?
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[entry_title] => Honored to be asked
[entry_stub] => honored-to-be-asked
[entry_url] => https://all4money.savingadvice.com/2010/09/17/honored-to-be-asked_62124/
[entry_date] => 1284733580
[entry_date_mysql] => 2010-09-17 09:26:20
[entry_text] => This morning, someone that works in our office comes to ask me to help her with her personal finances. This was completely out of the blue and I feel so honored that she would trust me with her money issues. She said she was thinking last night of who she could ask for help and thought of me... (after she got a denial yesterday from the local credit union for a new credit card account). Now, I'm on a quest to get her all squared away and you guys can come along on the journey. Here's her situation:
Married with 2 children (one in college and one in high school), but not a financially sound marriage ever, apparently... DH is a banker of all things but he apparently doesn't have his head on straight when it comes to their own money. He wants to keep everything completely separate in their household so the wife just deals with this (even though he makes probably 4 times what she does). For the major expenses, he covers the mortgage and utilities. She has to cover the groceries for the house.
Finances:
OUT categories we've identified thus far =
*groceries/eating out for household
*car payment on her car
*gas/maintenance on her car
*half of the household cell phone bill
*medical bills for household
*dog -vet/grooming bills
*multiple credit cards (highest balance is around $5k on one of them)
*three outstanding medical debts
She had her highest balance credit card statement with her and said she thought the interest rate on it was 90% (gasp) and I was like, um -- doubt it? So, I looked on her statement and showed her where the interest rate was indicated which is something like 25%. As you can see, she doesn't even know how to read her statements. She's a college graduate but when it comes to money and math, she's clueless and knows that is why she's in the trouble that she's in.
I gave her homework for the weekend -- I've asked her to write down exactly what her interest rates are on all the credit cards and their current balances. I told her to call each one of those credit card companies and ask for a lower interest rate. She also needs to identify exactly how much she owes on those outstanding medical bills and to estimate how much her other monthly expenses total up (she had no clue how much she spends on groceries, for example).
Next, I asked her about her paycheck. Since I have access to payroll, I looked up her check and all her deductions. She has zero withholdings and I asked if she gets a tax refund each year. Apparently, she just gives her W-2 to her DH each year and he does all the tax stuff. She does know that for 2009, they got back around $1500 total and then she got fussed at from her DH that it wasn't enough. He wanted the refund to be even higher and implied that she must not have withheld enough from her checks (jerk!). He keeps their refund and does whatever with the money even though it's "their" refund. I told her that was crazy. I calculated what increasing her withholdings to 1 and 2 would be, an additional $58 and $103 respectively, in each paycheck... Basically, by just increasing her withholdings to 1, she would have an additional $700 each year in her paychecks that her grubby hubby wouldn't have access to come tax time. She said she's all about having her withholdings changed to 1 now. Yay.
Anyway, I'll post more as we keep ironing out her budget...
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