Thursday, May 16, 2013
NetWorthIQ
Although I lost my blog link to our NetWorthIQ.Com profile, it looks like the system is back up and running.
Whoo-hoo!
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
2013 Goals - May Update
(1) Max out 401k(s) - $15,736 (45%) (goal is $35,000)
(2) Max out IRA(s) - $6,013 (55%) (goal is $11,000)
(3) Add to e/r fund - $3,600 (36%) (goal is $10,000)
(4) Pay down mortgage - $1,660 (25%) (goal is $5,000)
(5) Trading account fund - $50 (1%) (goal is $5,000)
(6) House projects - $900 (30%) (goal is $3,000)
Total: $27,959 (41%)
We are about $1400 ahead of where we should be.
Otherwise, we continue to chug along. I've got some unbudgeted car expenses coming up, new tires, new breaks, tune up, etc. which is likely to run more than a thousand. My eating out/ordering in expenses continue to be high. The busier I am at work, and I'm super busy right now, the more I spend on eating in because I don't have the time or energy to prepare food. Last week I spent close to $100 on eating in (yikes!) which is way too much.
I was trying to get into networthiq today, and its not working. Another yikes! I love that site and I have a lot of data stored in it, so I'm trying not to freak out and hoping it will be back up and running shortly.
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Dow Closes Above 15,000
Did you hear that the Dow closed above 15,000 yesterday for the first time ever?
How did you celebrate? Me, I updated our NetWorthIQ profile and reviewed our Roth IRA holdings, which is where we hold individual stocks, to see if there are any holdings we should be selling.
How did you celebrate? Me, I updated our NetWorthIQ profile and reviewed our Roth IRA holdings, which is where we hold individual stocks, to see if there are any holdings we should be selling.
Friday, May 3, 2013
ProFlower's Scummy Scam
At one point I used to regularly use ProFlowers as my go to company to send flowers across the miles. It was so easy as I had all my information and my recipients' information stored. I could just log in, click, click and click and flowers would arrive for birthdays, Mother's Day and other occasions. But there was a reason I stopped using them and that reason reared its ugly head this past week.
I had a coupon code for ProFlowers and since Mother's Day and a birthday is coming up I figured sending flowers would be easy for both. I logged in, picked my flowers, one arrangement was $25 and the other was $29 with my coupon code. And then onto easy step two, picked my delivery day, clicked on my recipients (data already saved) and then went to check out.
Ugh!! Now I remember why I stopped using ProFlowers, when I went to check out, up popped charge after charge. Delivery charge, delivery day up charge, care and handling charge. That discount coupon doesn't end up being much of a discount with all the charges at the end. The total for the two arrangements was more than $120. In the end I cancelled the order, just can't give my business to this company even if its super easy.
For one of the recipients, I have a local florist that I will order from (have used them before and they do a great job). I'll figure out something for the other recipient.
I had a coupon code for ProFlowers and since Mother's Day and a birthday is coming up I figured sending flowers would be easy for both. I logged in, picked my flowers, one arrangement was $25 and the other was $29 with my coupon code. And then onto easy step two, picked my delivery day, clicked on my recipients (data already saved) and then went to check out.
Ugh!! Now I remember why I stopped using ProFlowers, when I went to check out, up popped charge after charge. Delivery charge, delivery day up charge, care and handling charge. That discount coupon doesn't end up being much of a discount with all the charges at the end. The total for the two arrangements was more than $120. In the end I cancelled the order, just can't give my business to this company even if its super easy.
For one of the recipients, I have a local florist that I will order from (have used them before and they do a great job). I'll figure out something for the other recipient.
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Ask, and you shall receive
I have been a DirecTv customer for years. We also have an HBO package which includes access to HBO Go. HBO Go is a great service, we can watch any and all HBO series, including past seasons and current seasons, on an iPad or iPhone anywhere (assuming access to WiFi) at anytime.
But, there is a down side of DirecTv and HBO and that is the price. While, I feel like we get a lot of enjoyment out of the service, DirecTv has been inching up and inching up in price. So I've developed a habit of calling once every 13 months or so and asking for a discount. I used to call armed with information from their competitors, but now I just call up and tell them I want to keep our same services but I want to pay less and it seems to work.
Last night I called, and I received a $10 discount on our DirecTv package and then I spoke to someone in the premium channel department and received a $10 discount on our HBO package. The general discount is good for a year and the HBO discount is good for six months. So in 5 minutes I saved us $180.
This is a good lesson for all who are working on killing debt, sticking to a budget or increasing savings. While you may have to cut certain things out in your quest for improved personal finances, there are also opportunities to keep the same services but pay less.
When we were killing our credit card debt in 2007 I regret that I never called, on the cards that were not 0%, and asked for reductions in interest rate or some other accommodations. Last year, we combined and redid our car insurance (more than 5 years after we got married). We dramatically increased our coverage and saved a ton of money (which we put towards our umbrella insurance policy). We could have saved thousands of dollars over the 5 years of insurance status quo, but we didn't make the time to investigate our options.
But, there is a down side of DirecTv and HBO and that is the price. While, I feel like we get a lot of enjoyment out of the service, DirecTv has been inching up and inching up in price. So I've developed a habit of calling once every 13 months or so and asking for a discount. I used to call armed with information from their competitors, but now I just call up and tell them I want to keep our same services but I want to pay less and it seems to work.
Last night I called, and I received a $10 discount on our DirecTv package and then I spoke to someone in the premium channel department and received a $10 discount on our HBO package. The general discount is good for a year and the HBO discount is good for six months. So in 5 minutes I saved us $180.
This is a good lesson for all who are working on killing debt, sticking to a budget or increasing savings. While you may have to cut certain things out in your quest for improved personal finances, there are also opportunities to keep the same services but pay less.
When we were killing our credit card debt in 2007 I regret that I never called, on the cards that were not 0%, and asked for reductions in interest rate or some other accommodations. Last year, we combined and redid our car insurance (more than 5 years after we got married). We dramatically increased our coverage and saved a ton of money (which we put towards our umbrella insurance policy). We could have saved thousands of dollars over the 5 years of insurance status quo, but we didn't make the time to investigate our options.
Monday, April 22, 2013
2013 Goals - April Update
(1) Max out 401k(s) - $13,392 (38%) (goal is $35,000)
(2) Max out IRA(s) - $6,010 (55%) (goal is $11,000)
(3) Add to e/r fund - $3,200 (32%) (goal is $10,000)
(4) Pay down mortgage - $1,245 (25%) (goal is $5,000)
(5) Trading account fund - $50 (1%) (goal is $5,000)
(6) House projects - $800 (27%) (goal is $3,000)
Total: $24,697 (23%)
We are a couple of thousand ahead of where we should be. I'm not sure how that happened except that Mr. Sam is ahead on his 401k contributions which may have occurred when he received his bonus but just showed up now.
Friday, April 12, 2013
An Interesting Analysis of the Envelope System of Budgeting
I enjoyed this interesting post from Slate by Emily Oster on the Dave Ramsey envelope budgeting system.
While I am a big fan of Dave Ramsey's philosophy and we utilized his snowball system of paying down our unsecured debt, I've never used his budgeting plan.
Rather we use a allowance system which works like this. I pay all the fixed and semi-fixed bills, the mortgage, car insurance, utilities, etc. Then I allocate and move money to savings which can include savings for upcoming annual bills, i.e. property taxes, or upcoming expenses, i.e. vacations.
Then each of us receives the same amount for day to day discretionary spending which includes groceries, gas, dry cleaning, personal expenses, gifts (but not holiday spending), eating out, entertainment. And part of the reason for this is our expenditures in these categories changes from month to month as Ms. Oster pointed out.
Additionally, neither of us likes to feel overly restricted so with one pot to spend on day to day spending we can spend as we like on different categories but we restrict the overall amount of money.
How do you budget your day to day expenses?
While I am a big fan of Dave Ramsey's philosophy and we utilized his snowball system of paying down our unsecured debt, I've never used his budgeting plan.
Rather we use a allowance system which works like this. I pay all the fixed and semi-fixed bills, the mortgage, car insurance, utilities, etc. Then I allocate and move money to savings which can include savings for upcoming annual bills, i.e. property taxes, or upcoming expenses, i.e. vacations.
Then each of us receives the same amount for day to day discretionary spending which includes groceries, gas, dry cleaning, personal expenses, gifts (but not holiday spending), eating out, entertainment. And part of the reason for this is our expenditures in these categories changes from month to month as Ms. Oster pointed out.
Example: You go to the store and milk is more expensive than usual (something about the sequester?) Because you have your limited grocery envelope, you have to respond to this by buying less of some grocery. You could buy less milk, or fewer veggies, or less pasta. However: It may very well be that you’d rather keep with your normal grocery purchase and cut back somewhere else—say, two fewer lattes this week. But because the “coffee” budget is separate from the grocery budget, you end up with the same number of lattes and fewer bananas.
Additionally, neither of us likes to feel overly restricted so with one pot to spend on day to day spending we can spend as we like on different categories but we restrict the overall amount of money.
How do you budget your day to day expenses?
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Remote Check Deposit - Follow Up
Earlier, I posted about Wells Fargo's new remote deposit feature which allows you to take a photo of your check and deposit it remotely.
Since its a new month, I used the remote deposit feature of our first two rental checks received in April. I found the feature easy to use and saved me the 10 minutes of running to the bank to deposit the check at the ATM (times two, saved me 20 minutes).
My only complaint is that I'm limited to $1000.00 remote deposit per day. However, I'm not clear if that limitation is per account (we have different accounts set up for our rental properties). So, for the first two rental checks, just under $1000.00 each, I received the checks on separate days and was able to remotely deposit both. But, the third rental checks is $1500.00 and it was rejected when I tried to deposit it using the remote deposit feature. I'm going to call Wells Fargo and see if I can get my daily balance bumped up to $1500.00 per day.
Since its a new month, I used the remote deposit feature of our first two rental checks received in April. I found the feature easy to use and saved me the 10 minutes of running to the bank to deposit the check at the ATM (times two, saved me 20 minutes).
My only complaint is that I'm limited to $1000.00 remote deposit per day. However, I'm not clear if that limitation is per account (we have different accounts set up for our rental properties). So, for the first two rental checks, just under $1000.00 each, I received the checks on separate days and was able to remotely deposit both. But, the third rental checks is $1500.00 and it was rejected when I tried to deposit it using the remote deposit feature. I'm going to call Wells Fargo and see if I can get my daily balance bumped up to $1500.00 per day.
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