REFI

We have our appraisal on Monday which is the last step to qualify for our refinance on our primary home. We have a great low interest rate locked in, but we have to get past the appraisal.

I'm nervous about whether our house will appraise for what we paid for it in 2004. Reasons, we bought our house in 2004 (not at the top of the market but on the way up), we live in South Florida (ground 0 for mortgage/foreclosure mess) and our house is hard to value because its (1) historic, (2) unusual, (3) located in an eclectic neighborhood.

Keep your fingers crossed for us. A new lower interest rate will help us to pay off our house in less than 25 years (because we will keep paying our current payment each month, about $200 more than the new payment) and save us $70,000+ in interest.

1/30/09 numbers

We are kind of off to a slow start in 2009.

(1) Max out 401ks - $33,000
(2) Max out 2009 IRAs - $10,000
(3) House project and furniture - $10,000
(4) Add to baby fund - $5,000
(5) Lasik surgery for Mr. Sam - $5,000
(6) Add to emergency fund - $10,000
Total - $73,000

(1) $1881
(2) $3000
(3) $312
(4) $141
(5) $0
(6) $0 ($20,129 currently in ING e/r fund)**
Total - $5334

** If you followed our 2008 savings adventure, you'll note that when we closed out our 2008 goals we had $1752 more in our e/r fund than we do now. We put $1000 towards our mortgage principal at the end of 2008 and Mr. Sam bought an expensive toy. I won't count additions to our e/r fund until we are back up to $21,881.

2009 Saving/Investing goals

It is that time of year again, time to plan out our saving/investing goals for 2009. We sat down and talked about what we want to accomplish this year, what we accomplished last year, our long term plans, spending plan, etc.

(1) Max out 401ks - $33,000 (we have not tracked this goal in the past, but I think its important to keep track of it and to include it in our yearly savings goals.)
(2) Max out 2009 IRAs - $10,000
(3) House project and furniture - $10,000
(4) Add to baby fund - $5,000
(5) Lasik surgery for Mr. Sam - $5,000
(6) Add to emergency fund - $10,000
Total - $73,000

The total seems super high for us, but that is due to the fact that we are counting our 401k contributions.

Mortgage Refi

We have locked in a REFI for our home (the one we live in). We locked in a 4.78% fixed rate, no points on a 25 year loan (we are currently 4 years into a 30 year mortgage).

Now we've got to get the paper work done and hope the house appraises (here in So. Fla. there is a risk that our appraisal will derail the REFI).

Our plan is to continue to pay the same amount we currently pay each month (about $200 more than the new payment) in addition to paying an extra $250 a month to total $450 a month ($5400 a year) extra towards principal. Without paying anything extra towards principal, the REFI will save us @$75,000 in interest over the life of the new loan.

Happy New Year

Wishing you and yours a healthy, happy and successful 2009.

Have you made any interesting New Year's resolutions??