Frugalicious's Personal Finance Blog

It is 13 more years away.
I spoke with DH and we have decided to consider retiring out of CA to a cheaper state.
I know it is a ways off, but it will have an impact on paying extra principal to our mortgage.

DH would love to retire on 5+ acres, and I would too.

We have 2 SF homes and 13 years or longer depending on when we decide to pull the trigger!

I will be timing the RE cycle for sure and maybe we will rent for a few years...

Well, I got ready for work, got in the car. I clicked the remote to open the garage door.

The spring broke.
I called a cab but the cab was late.
So I called in sick.
Where I work, if you are late 1 minute you get an occurance, and after 4 in 1 year you get terminated.
Calling in sick, I still get paid.

I googled garage door repair. I got a few big companies.
I have learned 1 thing by being an out of state landlord:
Small biz is the way to deal.
I went on craiglist and searched.
I found a company who quoted me $170.00 plus tax.
So he shows up and spends 2 hours and also does a garage tune up and replaces cables etc.
Final bill is $268.00.
So, our MMA took a hit for that amount.
Interest earnings are at $100.00 so I think we will absorb this repair just fine.

Not much. $50.00.

We now owe $296000.00 on the primary.

I am considering paying an extra $200.00 to the principal on the rental in Jan 08.
The PMI is $141.07 per month. I calculated we will be paying PMI for 5 more years unless we pay extra to principal.

The rental is newer and it will be a great asset when we retire, which is still a long ways away.

I work full time and my job is the kind where I will be getting a pension.

But, I do not get paid much. For 2007, I made around 32K.

So, I am going to take online classes to get my Real Estate License.

Yes, I know RE is in the dumper now, but that is why now is the best time to learn the ropes.

I can take my time and when I retire with my pension, I will be able to supplement our income too!
Very excited about this new endeavor!
I will be paying off all consumer debt first though, looking to begin in Spring of 08!

I just found out my Grandma gave us $1000.00 dollars for Christmas.

Now, this is not new, she has done this for the past 2 years for each of her grandchildren, all 8 of us.
I just am not the type to "expect" monetary gifts.

Anyways, I mulled over what to do with the money, and guess what?

That $1800.00 @ 0% I owe to Citi will be paid back long before the 0% rate expires in April 08.
I will pay the $1000.00
and will have 700 left due and will divide it by 3 and get it paid off by March 08!
OMG! 2 years ago we had around $13000.00 in consumer debt (auto loan + credit cards)
This is a very good feeling indeed!!

I am going to use my existing Share builder account to begin investing.
I am looking at maybe bonds or ??.

There are a lot of things I do not know about investing, but I do want to make some money so in 3.4 years.
By then,
I would like to have (total invested) 20-30K,
so I need to do some research now.

Citi card: $1800.00 @0% until 4/08.

Plan to pay more than minimum and pay off card in full in March.

Chase Sony Card: $18000.00 @0% until 4/08.

This was a great deal.
I got a $100.00 statement credit.
So after I activated the card, I bought
$25.00 of gas.
Then, I consolidated existing Chase cards to the Sony.
That made the total balance available
$23000.00
I then paid off the $25.00 in gas I charged.
Then I wrote the Balance Transfer check for $21000.00 and deposited it in the MMA.
The max BT fee was $75.00.
6 weeks later, I got the $100.00 statement credit.
YAY! Free gas and free BT!!
Now, I owe $18000.00.

We made quite a bit of interest income on this since the money was added to our existing savings.

Here are the stats of our savings.
My goal is to save $1000.00 per month for 10 months. 9 months left to go.

$10069.00 GMAC MMA
$1078.00 Penfed 3 year cd

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I have decided to explore and learn about investing our money so it will work harder for us.
My future goal has not changed, I still want to pay extra principal to our mortgages.
However, after reading up in the Personal Finance Forum about whether to pre pay a mortgage or invest for a higher return,
I have decided to invest instead.
Savings update: I transferred $500.00 over today. I will update when savings reaches $15000.00. I have $5000.00 to go...
Thank you to Disney Steve for commenting on my new blog and pointing me in the right direction.

Merry Christmas to All!

I am pretty good at accounting and balancing the checkbook. Math is another story.
My plan is to get out of the habit of leaving excess amounts of money in the main checking account.
For me, it is a psychological issue. I feel good seeing the money sit there.

Bad habit indeed!!

I need to find a balance of how much to keep in the main account. I think I will start with $1000.00.

$3079.37-$1000.00= $2079.37


I am working on paying extra principal to the primary mortgage which has a 4.5% interest rate... and saving to the MMA at 4.8%.
I am just crunching numbers, I have not paid anything off at this point.

$969.37

Hi Everyone!
Thanks in advance for any advice or comments. And thanks for any encouragement. I tend to get depressed about debt.
Just to update everyone:
In the past 2 years we paid off $14000.00 in consumer debt and auto loans
Time to tackle the mortgage debt.
Goals:

1. Pay down our Primary before the loan resets in 2011. We owe about what homes are selling for today. Not sure of the future, but I want us to pay this debt down as much as possible! GAWD We put $100000.00 down!

2.Get rid of that PMI! I need to pay down 1 mortgage about 15K for this to happen.

Ok, here are the numbers:
House 1: $296050.00 (Primary)
House 2: $178925.67 (Rental)
Rental is 30 year fixed @ 6.0%

For this pay period, before any bills or expenses, the money in the checking account is:
$3223.54.

Bills due before next payday on 1/4/07:
Ace Parking: $40.00
T-mobile $63.17 (due 1/4)
ADT Alarm: $41.47 (due 1/4)
Mortgage on primary: $1110.22 (late after 1/16)
Other expenses:
FOOD, GAS

My goal is to save $500.00+ to savings and send between $600-$900 to the Primary mortgage.

Other debts:
$1800.00 on Citi Credit Card @0% up April 2008. Minimum payment is $27.00.

MMA Savings: $9569.85
Penfed 3 year CD: 1075.00 @ 6.25%
State Farm Mutual Fund: $1200.00
No Load Fund(father was an agent) I may convert to no load Roth IRA in 2008.

Retirement Savings:
We both have Calpers pension plans.
The money is deducted from our paychecks through payroll.

We both also contribute to Calpers ARSC.
This allowed us to buy 5 additional years
of retirement. This is also deducted from our paycheck through payroll.

Other retirement savings: ICMA is a government sponsored program that allows us to have money pretaxed from our paychecks and the money can be invested in whichever funds we choose.
Goal in next 2 years is to increase the amounts we contribute to 10%.