I'm sorry I've not posted here more. But, now I understand how busy one gets with a full time job and a new baby.
Financially, we are all over the place. We can't seem to get back on track post baby. While our incoming salaries remain the same or better, our outgoing expenses are much. much higher than normal.
Child care is running $1900 a month ($22,800 a year) which appears to be way higher than normal for Florida, but I don't know anyone in my circle paying the Florida annual average of $8300. Add in diapers, formula, wipes, etc. at $300 a month or so and we are up to $2200 in expenses. And, we actually don't spend much on Baby Sam, we hit the thrift stores for books and toys and I stick to super sales for baby clothes. At present, we are also adding $200 a month to Baby Sam's college fund. So in total, about $2400 a month in baby expenses.
Another challenge, we are converting a rental property from rental to family. We have, in the past, utilized one of rental properties for our snow bird relatives which was a financial hit. Now, that we are turning the rental property to a family property, we have had a couple of months where our old tenants have not paid us. So that also, obviously, impacts our cash flow.
Anyways, we continue to contribute to our 401ks, at max level, and continue to put money into savings, but we need to catch up on our IRAs.
Hope your summer is going well.
Showing posts with label Catch Up. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Catch Up. Show all posts
Thursday, July 23, 2015
Tuesday, May 5, 2015
Trying Out Swap.com
I am normally the type of person who simply donates rather than resells items. For me, my time and effort is generally worth way more than any small profit to be made in reselling items at a garage sale or consignment, etc.
But, when it came time to re-purpose my maternity clothes I gave second thought to donation as my first option. Specifically, because I work in a professional setting I had ended up investing a fair amount in some very good maternity clothes. In particular, I had invested in several Seraphine maternity dresses (Kate Middleton is a fan) since I work in a field where I need to look good and present a polished, professional appearance. And, I had at least three or four dresses that I had only worn two or three times.
I did a fair amount of research regarding on-line maternity (and baby) consignment stores. First, I sure wish I had known about these sites when I was buying maternity clothes as I would have tried out some of these sites for my own needs. I had thought about consignment stores when I first started my maternity clothes shopping, indeed I had even tried to find one. But, I was thinking and looking for physical stores and not virtual. Dang! Second, a lot of these sites have very mixed reviews and reputations.
After doing my due diligence, I decided to go with swap.com for a couple of reasons. Importantly, they seemed to have the best reputation based on my research (please note - I've not received anything in exchange for this review). Also of importance, to me, they do almost all the work. They take the photos, write the description and they mail out the packages to folks who buy. As I mentioned before, I don't have the time to be shipping out packages to customers since with work and a baby I can barely complete one chore a week.
So, this is how it works. (1) Sign up as a seller. (2) Order a UPS shipping slip. (3) Pack up neat, clean and in good condition items and send them off to Swap.com. You can also bundle items together so they sell as a set. Swap.com then does the rest, taking photos, writing description, mailing to buyers, sending you the money (via PayPal).
As a test, I sent in a box of mostly maternity clothes (a few newborn baby items) consisting of mainly casual, lower cost items (not my fancy maternity work apparel). And, I would say that it generally worked as promised.
Communication was good. When Swap.com received my package they emailed me. When my items were ready to price (about two weeks later) they emailed me. While I am still learning the site, I found pricing to be relatively easy. An error in a description and classification for an item was promptly corrected after notification.
And, so far, I have actually sold some items and money has been sent to my PayPal account. I think the fees are generally reasonable since Swap.com does most of the work and they store the items for months with no charge (there are storage charges after a set time passes). There is a charge for the in-bound UPS shipping and a $1.50 plus 25% sales commission for each sold item (or set).
With fees and competition, pricing is an art. I set my prices by looking at what similar items were priced at. So, I priced maternity t-shirts at $7 and sold several. Not much of a profit at $3.75 but better than nothing.
I must say it was painful to price a skirt that I wore once at $12 when it cost me $70. And my super expensive maternity jeans that cost $150 are currently priced at $15 (but they were worn many times). With my next box, the professional maternity items, I will need to price so I can recoup drycleaning costs (since I had it all recently cleaned in preparation for consignment) and make a decent profit so that will be tricky.
I was somewhat befuddled by what was rejected and they don't really tell you why. I had sent in a barely worn maternity maxi dress that was in the rejected pile. You can choose to have rejected items shipped back to you, but there is a charge (of course). I'm not sure what happens to the items if you donate them (which is what I probably will choose to do). No idea whether they actually get donated or if the site simply sells them. Inexplicable rejections was a very common complaint in my research regarding other sites.
I haven't yet bought anything from Swap.com, but I do plan to try it out for baby clothes. I already know that with my baby there are outfits, especially the fancy ones, that get worn once (and some not at all). One trick I've learned about recently is to leave tags on baby clothes until they are worn. That way, if baby never wears them you can list them as "new with tags". If you remove the tags, even if baby never wears that outfit, you can only list them as "good condition".
But, when it came time to re-purpose my maternity clothes I gave second thought to donation as my first option. Specifically, because I work in a professional setting I had ended up investing a fair amount in some very good maternity clothes. In particular, I had invested in several Seraphine maternity dresses (Kate Middleton is a fan) since I work in a field where I need to look good and present a polished, professional appearance. And, I had at least three or four dresses that I had only worn two or three times.
I did a fair amount of research regarding on-line maternity (and baby) consignment stores. First, I sure wish I had known about these sites when I was buying maternity clothes as I would have tried out some of these sites for my own needs. I had thought about consignment stores when I first started my maternity clothes shopping, indeed I had even tried to find one. But, I was thinking and looking for physical stores and not virtual. Dang! Second, a lot of these sites have very mixed reviews and reputations.
After doing my due diligence, I decided to go with swap.com for a couple of reasons. Importantly, they seemed to have the best reputation based on my research (please note - I've not received anything in exchange for this review). Also of importance, to me, they do almost all the work. They take the photos, write the description and they mail out the packages to folks who buy. As I mentioned before, I don't have the time to be shipping out packages to customers since with work and a baby I can barely complete one chore a week.
So, this is how it works. (1) Sign up as a seller. (2) Order a UPS shipping slip. (3) Pack up neat, clean and in good condition items and send them off to Swap.com. You can also bundle items together so they sell as a set. Swap.com then does the rest, taking photos, writing description, mailing to buyers, sending you the money (via PayPal).
As a test, I sent in a box of mostly maternity clothes (a few newborn baby items) consisting of mainly casual, lower cost items (not my fancy maternity work apparel). And, I would say that it generally worked as promised.
Communication was good. When Swap.com received my package they emailed me. When my items were ready to price (about two weeks later) they emailed me. While I am still learning the site, I found pricing to be relatively easy. An error in a description and classification for an item was promptly corrected after notification.
And, so far, I have actually sold some items and money has been sent to my PayPal account. I think the fees are generally reasonable since Swap.com does most of the work and they store the items for months with no charge (there are storage charges after a set time passes). There is a charge for the in-bound UPS shipping and a $1.50 plus 25% sales commission for each sold item (or set).
With fees and competition, pricing is an art. I set my prices by looking at what similar items were priced at. So, I priced maternity t-shirts at $7 and sold several. Not much of a profit at $3.75 but better than nothing.
I must say it was painful to price a skirt that I wore once at $12 when it cost me $70. And my super expensive maternity jeans that cost $150 are currently priced at $15 (but they were worn many times). With my next box, the professional maternity items, I will need to price so I can recoup drycleaning costs (since I had it all recently cleaned in preparation for consignment) and make a decent profit so that will be tricky.
I was somewhat befuddled by what was rejected and they don't really tell you why. I had sent in a barely worn maternity maxi dress that was in the rejected pile. You can choose to have rejected items shipped back to you, but there is a charge (of course). I'm not sure what happens to the items if you donate them (which is what I probably will choose to do). No idea whether they actually get donated or if the site simply sells them. Inexplicable rejections was a very common complaint in my research regarding other sites.
I haven't yet bought anything from Swap.com, but I do plan to try it out for baby clothes. I already know that with my baby there are outfits, especially the fancy ones, that get worn once (and some not at all). One trick I've learned about recently is to leave tags on baby clothes until they are worn. That way, if baby never wears them you can list them as "new with tags". If you remove the tags, even if baby never wears that outfit, you can only list them as "good condition".
Sunday, July 13, 2014
July Update - 2014 Savings Goals
(1) Max out 401k(s) - $9,436 27% (goal is $35,000)
(2) Max out IRA(s) - $9,343 85% (goal is $11,000)
(3) Add to e/r fund - $5,600 56% (goal is $10,000)
(4) Roof project - $5,000 100% (goal is $5,000)
(5) Vehicle replacement - $5,000 100% (goal is $5,000)
(6) House projects - $200 7% (goal is $3,000)
Total: $34,579 50% (Goal is $69,000)
At present, we are about $3900 behind on our goals.
(2) Max out IRA(s) - $9,343 85% (goal is $11,000)
(3) Add to e/r fund - $5,600 56% (goal is $10,000)
(4) Roof project - $5,000 100% (goal is $5,000)
(5) Vehicle replacement - $5,000 100% (goal is $5,000)
(6) House projects - $200 7% (goal is $3,000)
Total: $34,579 50% (Goal is $69,000)
At present, we are about $3900 behind on our goals.
Monday, March 10, 2014
Royal Screw Up
So, I have a pretty good system set up for our personal finances. I have a system for paying bills and for our savings that works off of our spending plant. But, every once in a while things go surprisingly wrong.
At the end of last month, February, I was getting ready to do some work travel and I made the decision to pay our home mortgage March payment in February. What was I thinking, well it seemed like I had lots of cash laying around our joint checking account, I knew I was traveling and I figured let me just take care of that big bill now instead of later.
Big mistake! Several auto transfers and other obligations drafted after I made this payment and I, of course, came up short. And further, of course, I had to try and fix this mistake while traveling. Ugh, ugh, ugh.
Two weeks later, I am still undoing the damage that was incurred.
At the end of last month, February, I was getting ready to do some work travel and I made the decision to pay our home mortgage March payment in February. What was I thinking, well it seemed like I had lots of cash laying around our joint checking account, I knew I was traveling and I figured let me just take care of that big bill now instead of later.
Big mistake! Several auto transfers and other obligations drafted after I made this payment and I, of course, came up short. And further, of course, I had to try and fix this mistake while traveling. Ugh, ugh, ugh.
Two weeks later, I am still undoing the damage that was incurred.
Monday, December 23, 2013
NetWorth - Retirement Investment Progress
So, at almost the end of 2013 we have just over $800,000 in total retirement investment accounts which is mostly due to the performance of the market. $200,000 more and our investments will be evenly divided between real estate and retirement accounts.
Thursday, December 12, 2013
2013 Savings Goals - 5 Down
(1) Max out 401k(s) - $28,327 (80%) (goal is $35,000)
(2) Max out IRA(s) - $11,000 (100%) (goal is $11,000) completed
(3) Add to e/r fund - $10,000 (100%) (goal is $10,000) completed
(4) Pay down mortgage - $5,000 (100%) (goal is $5,000) completed
(5) Trading account fund - $5,000 (100%) (goal is $5,000) completed
(6) House projects - $3,000 (100%) (goal is $3,000) completed
Total: $62,327 (90%)
Completed, completed, completed - feels fun to type that five times in a row.
In July when Mr. Sam was laid off, I assumed we would just have to throw our 2013 savings goals out the window. But, he was able to find reemployment before his severance ran out. And while he took a pay cut, I received a raise that off set his pay cut so overall our household income remained the same. Even so, we had to work hard to catch up since I had put many of our savings efforts on hold while he was job searching.
I have one more pay check before the end of the year, so the 401k number will increase and, as a result, we will exceed our savings from 2012 and come close to saving $63,000 in 2013.
(2) Max out IRA(s) - $11,000 (100%) (goal is $11,000) completed
(3) Add to e/r fund - $10,000 (100%) (goal is $10,000) completed
(4) Pay down mortgage - $5,000 (100%) (goal is $5,000) completed
(5) Trading account fund - $5,000 (100%) (goal is $5,000) completed
(6) House projects - $3,000 (100%) (goal is $3,000) completed
Total: $62,327 (90%)
Completed, completed, completed - feels fun to type that five times in a row.
In July when Mr. Sam was laid off, I assumed we would just have to throw our 2013 savings goals out the window. But, he was able to find reemployment before his severance ran out. And while he took a pay cut, I received a raise that off set his pay cut so overall our household income remained the same. Even so, we had to work hard to catch up since I had put many of our savings efforts on hold while he was job searching.
I have one more pay check before the end of the year, so the 401k number will increase and, as a result, we will exceed our savings from 2012 and come close to saving $63,000 in 2013.
Monday, November 4, 2013
2013 Savings Goals - November Update
(1) Max out 401k(s) - $26,231 (75%) (goal is $35,000)
(2) Max out IRA(s) - $11,000 (100%) (goal is $11,000) completed
(3) Add to e/r fund - $8,000 (80%) (goal is $10,000)
(4) Pay down mortgage - $4,150 (83%) (goal is $5,000)
(5) Trading account fund - $3,900 (78%) (goal is $5,000)
(6) House projects - $2,000 (67%) (goal is $3,000)
Total: $55,281 (80%)
At present we are about $3100 behind on our goals.
We have just under two (2) months to go to complete our goals. And, like most years, it will be a challenge to come close to hitting our goal numbers. For at least one category it will be impossible to meet our goals since Mr. Sam was unable to continue contributing to his 401k post layoff. While we continue to stretch towards our original goals as we close the year out, I remind myself that I will be content if we exceed our savings goals from last year (meaning our re-calibrated 2013 savings goal is really $63,000). That would mean that we need to save at least another $7,750 which will be a challenge. I will max out my 401k which is about another $3000, we will meet our emergency account savings goal, another $2000, and we will meet our mortgage principal prepayment efforts, another $850. And, that leaves another $2000 we need to scrape together to exceed our 2012 savings numbers which I really would like to do even with Mr. Sam's layoff and his subsequent salary reduction at the new job.
(2) Max out IRA(s) - $11,000 (100%) (goal is $11,000) completed
(3) Add to e/r fund - $8,000 (80%) (goal is $10,000)
(4) Pay down mortgage - $4,150 (83%) (goal is $5,000)
(5) Trading account fund - $3,900 (78%) (goal is $5,000)
(6) House projects - $2,000 (67%) (goal is $3,000)
Total: $55,281 (80%)
At present we are about $3100 behind on our goals.
We have just under two (2) months to go to complete our goals. And, like most years, it will be a challenge to come close to hitting our goal numbers. For at least one category it will be impossible to meet our goals since Mr. Sam was unable to continue contributing to his 401k post layoff. While we continue to stretch towards our original goals as we close the year out, I remind myself that I will be content if we exceed our savings goals from last year (meaning our re-calibrated 2013 savings goal is really $63,000). That would mean that we need to save at least another $7,750 which will be a challenge. I will max out my 401k which is about another $3000, we will meet our emergency account savings goal, another $2000, and we will meet our mortgage principal prepayment efforts, another $850. And, that leaves another $2000 we need to scrape together to exceed our 2012 savings numbers which I really would like to do even with Mr. Sam's layoff and his subsequent salary reduction at the new job.
Friday, October 4, 2013
2013 Savings Goals - Rapid Catch Up
(1) Max out 401k(s) - $25,581 (73%) (goal is $35,000)
(2) Max out IRA(s) - $11,000 (100%) (goal is $11,000)
(3) Add to e/r fund - $7,600 (76%) (goal is $10,000)
(4) Pay down mortgage - $3,735 (75%) (goal is $5,000)
(5) Trading account fund - $3,900 (75%) (goal is $5,000)
(6) House projects - $1,900 (63%) (goal is $3,000)
Total: $53,716 (78%)
Since my last savings goal update post, I've done some noodling and some moving of monies. As such, we are now on target to complete most of our 2013 savings goals.
First, as previously noted, I have maxed out our 2013 IRAs savings account, meaning that I have that money sitting in cash but ready to invest. And depending on the market, I may invest sooner rather than later if the government shutdown continues to depress the market.
Second, I have taken a chunk of Mr. Sam's severance monies and put it into our trading account fund. Again, this money is simply sitting in cash, but the idea would be for Mr. Sam to invest these funds, even if not tax advantages, to make up for the fact that he was unable to max out his 2012 401k due to his layoff.
Third, I have caught up on our principal prepayment goal and I'm now back on track to complete the goal of paying down an extra $5,000 on our mortgage (on our primary home)
Accordingly, right now we are $600 ahead on our savings goals. Whoo-hoo!!
(2) Max out IRA(s) - $11,000 (100%) (goal is $11,000)
(3) Add to e/r fund - $7,600 (76%) (goal is $10,000)
(4) Pay down mortgage - $3,735 (75%) (goal is $5,000)
(5) Trading account fund - $3,900 (75%) (goal is $5,000)
(6) House projects - $1,900 (63%) (goal is $3,000)
Total: $53,716 (78%)
Since my last savings goal update post, I've done some noodling and some moving of monies. As such, we are now on target to complete most of our 2013 savings goals.
First, as previously noted, I have maxed out our 2013 IRAs savings account, meaning that I have that money sitting in cash but ready to invest. And depending on the market, I may invest sooner rather than later if the government shutdown continues to depress the market.
Second, I have taken a chunk of Mr. Sam's severance monies and put it into our trading account fund. Again, this money is simply sitting in cash, but the idea would be for Mr. Sam to invest these funds, even if not tax advantages, to make up for the fact that he was unable to max out his 2012 401k due to his layoff.
Third, I have caught up on our principal prepayment goal and I'm now back on track to complete the goal of paying down an extra $5,000 on our mortgage (on our primary home)
Accordingly, right now we are $600 ahead on our savings goals. Whoo-hoo!!
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