Well, yesterday was pretty worthless. I didn't do much.

Exhausted from Saturday I guess.

I went to a MLM sales party. I went because it was my friend. & it was food. I didn't even take my checkbook. I thought if she was short of some sales goal I might spend $20.

LOL.

Oh boy. The whole thing bugged me on some level. On many levels. But I was a sucker. I spent $70. !!!!!!!!!

To be fair, about $20 of it was Father's Day gifts. Some of it I had in mind for the kids' birthday party.

I don't really have any inkling if the stuff was worth it. It's rather vague how much you get for the prices (no doubt intentional). So we'll see.

I generally as a rule don't do sales parties. BEcause they bug me. & it's usually crap I would never buy anyway. I mean seriously, I probably get invited to one every weekend. I have blogged much before that in the mommy crowd you start to feel like people only look at you as a $$$$$$$. So many just trying to make a side income and just want to sell crap to you. I'd rather have friends that invited me to a non-sales party once in a while. Yikes!

So I guess my new rule is no more food sales parties. Even if it is a really good friend who sees me more than as $$$$$$$$$$. I didn't exhibit near the self control I would have liked. The whole time I was grumbling to myself, "what am I doing?"

Without common sense I could have easily spent hundreds.

Most of it was rather, eh. Just add water and you have gourmet food? It's all natural. (It reminded me of fast food in the sense you just add water and go. Add this and go. Blech). IT wasn't terribly appealing because my dh is my personal chef. So a lot of their products were to replace cooking and fresh fruits and veggies, etc. Wasn't seeing the health benefit, or the convenience factor since I have my chef. So a large chunk wasn't appealing at all.

But they get me on the drinks, breads, dips, etc. Oh - the sauces were DIVINE. Since we don't really BBQ I found it easy to pass though.

Anyway, I learned that going to a sales party because the product didn't sound so bad, was a TERRIBLE idea.

When I get the stuff I will carefully consider if it is worth it. The price per serving and other comparable options. But since it is MLM I have the feeling it is all pretty much a rip off. I have plenty of time to find replacement products though, or homemade recipes. Thank you internet! I doubt I would ever reorder any of the stuff.

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Well, yesterday I did gather up how much of my old MLM stuff I want to auction off. I came up with about $700 retail. Dh was appalled. I assured him I had paid little for all of it. We get 50% profit and in general I applied my profits to personal purchases (which we got at 50% off). I couldn't really justify the expense otherwise. So I really and truly had little cash flow going out in this particular MLM. I figure I will probably get $100 easy on ebay - if I just do one lot to be rid of it. Dh was arguing I should break it up into smaller lots. HE maybe has a point, but I just don't care. I want to be RID of the stuff. All at once, preferred. If I am lucky I will get upwards of $100.

With the cable change we will probably sell our TIVO as well. We have a transferable lifetime subscription so we may be able to sell for $150.

Dh went on a garage sale kick this weekend. & bought a couple of things off Craigslist. He thinks he can make $100 off his finds this weekend.

We'll see. He really wants a Wii. He bought one this weekend to sell. He has been seeing a lot in the $200 range (steals). So figured if he buys and sells enough (just a couple at that price) he can raise $200 to buy his own.

Oh boy. I honestly just really wish he had that commitment to our retirement fund. & I think we need to have a talk about it.

For now he is getting a Wii. I am just sitting back and seeing how much effort it takes.

We were to buy a GPS this year, so I think I will encourage him to fund it this way - with ebay sales and such.

From there I think we need to have a talk. I think at least a percentage of his sales should go to retirement. Even is just 10% or something.

Then again, this is probably the biggest thing we quibble about. So if he can make the money he can buy whatever his heart desires. I'd be kind of glad not to worry about how to figure out how to fit in his big purchases in our little budget.

I think he has enough common sense we can strike some deal, that a portion must go to savings. Or that when he doesn't want to buy something, I appreciate the extra income, anyway. Hint hint. We just need to sit down and talk. For now I guess I am sitting back and seeing if he makes as much as he thinks he will.

Truth be told there is a business to be had there. HE loves buying and selling old game systems and games, etc. So this might be an interesting side line for him.

Problem is it makes it way easier to justify buying more stuff, when he makes money off of it. It just feeds his hobby more.

The downside is that there will be considerable tax ramifications here. & complicated record keeping. He needs to start logging his miles to pick up the stuff, etc. Because lord know if we are reporting that income, we need to offset the revenues with all this gas/driving.

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Anyway, he took the kids garage sale-ing yesterday and was going to allow the kids to buy some stuff from their piggy bank cash.

They spent $1 and found $1 on the floor later. Their piggy banks remain intact.

I would love to follow that lesson through and take the kids to the store and have a lesson on finances. Tell them, you could buy this for $20 here. Or for $1 at a garage sale. What do you think we should do?

These lessons should start young.

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On our cable switch (forced since out cable company got bought out) I think we have settled on a package that is $15 more for month. We justified it was okay because with one out of preschool I am saving $300 of that per month, and I have $15 left over. The timing is really perfect.

BUT I had decided to put that $15 to the mortgage, and was bummed on that.

I am paying $13/month for my ID theft monitoring right now. It has been almost a year (maybe 9 months) since my ID theft and it is all cleaned up. I am thinking of dropping that and applying it to my mortgage.

I still haven't decided if I should get a credit freeze or not. *sigh* I kind of would like to freeze it if I can't monitor it daily. & I am still a bit paranoid. But for now, it seems to be under control. The $13/month was priceless in the beginning as we cleared things up. But further out, it is turning out to be less needed. Phew!!!!!!!!!

I am pleased I found a way to afford the cable and the mortgage payment bump, with no change to our monthly budget. Woohoo!

I added a page on the left to try to track our driving a little better.

http://monkeymama.savingadvice.com/driving-log.html

As with a cash budget, we need to look at our driving habits and see where the drains are.

I mentioned in my last post that my commute really costs little, but that one of our biggest luxuries is really the ability to drive anywhere/anytime.

Of course, as it comes with a higher price, it is something we need to evaluate.

We highly value being able to see visit family.

We highly value traveling around and doing hikes, etc. (So much we would give up our vacation budget to keep the freedom to travel more on a regular basis, within the state).

So we place very high value on being able to pick up and go on longer car rides.

& commuting is not a very expensive endeavor - a fill up twice a month would cover my commute and probably even both of the kids' school commutes.

So everything else is the drain that we want to close so we can enjoy our two extremes.

For now, just trying to keep track and see where we are at.

Dh has been a little Craigslist crazy, but assured me he was considering gas prices in his cost analysis.

I also had to add when I was a kid we never went on vacations, so they aren't terribly important to me (know kids will survive without and appreciate them more with age). The reason being is my parent's entire vacation budget (little as is) generally went to drives to the mid-west every year or 2 to visit family.

Needless to say, I am extremely jealous how close the kids are to their grandparents and cousins. I find that whole thing to be priceless.

They've been staying less with Grandma lately because we have been less inclined to drive, and I assume she has been too (has not asked as much). But she did slip us $60 when we picked up the kids sunday, for gas, so maybe we will get some help there too in ensuring we don't slow down our visits with gas prices. We assumed they had been feeling the pinch too, but I guess it was her way of saying she wants to see the kids more during the summer.

Our gas tolerance is probably rather high. We moved 2 hours away to significantly cut our cost of living. So upping our gas budget to stay in touch is a-okay with us. The alternative is pay $500k+ for a house to live closer. Ugh. So anyway, keeping our living costs so low in comparison, we knew moving here we would have a high gas budget to keep in close touch with family. Particularly since we had kids. I think they are so lucky to have the opportunity to be so close to their extended family.

Well, it is official, Comcast bought up our mom & pop cable company.

We will grieve on that for a while.

They are offering a deal of the same price as we have been paying, for their most premium package, for one year. Considering it as a means to test them out. Also will the most seamless, probably. Dh said the premium package doubles to about $150/month in a year. I worried aloud about this and dh said, "Are you crazy? I would NEVER pay $150/month for cable. Especially if I was working too. When would I have time to enjoy?"

But, for now they also have a cable/internet/phone package that is mirrors what we already have in both price and channels. So for now I don't expect a budget change. We'll probably enjoy the premium stuff and switch to the big package deal in a year.

Phew!!

I unfortunately expect their prices to rise instead of drop (our cable prices have dropped in the 6 years we have lived here and gone with mom/pop).

We also don't expect near the customer service.

I guess it reminds me though, that his TV obsession has exploded with many hours home alone. He has a point, and this is one area where he usually has little common sense. So I am glad he is displaying major common sense in this regard.

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Gas. I had a wonderful long gas post and I couldn't post it. Was it perhaps a sign? I figured it would spark controversy. But trying to summarize:

I was looking at gas articles when I saw gas had topped $4.50 on Wednesday, and came across the West Coast average gas price for the last 15 years or so, every June 4.

Anyway, the last time we REALLY felt the gas pinch was 2003. It was then that gas had doubled just about from the year before. I remember in particular because I was on maternity leave and glad I had nowhere to drive.

I remember my 2005 maternity leave being the same story.

As I looked at the data in this article, gas was largely $1/gallon until 2003 when it topped $2.

This was also when we went down to one-income so we REALLY felt the pinch.

Looking at the numbers, gas has spiked 40% about every other year since that point. This year has not even reached 40% yet. But of course as the numbers rise, smaller percentages are felt more strongly. Of course.

Anyway, in 2005 I couldn't justify driving home at lunch any more. That had always been my luxury. So 2005 with another 40% increase, we dropped that luxury.

I remember dh and I feeling the pinch and everyone we know buying SUVs.

Anyway, so in 2006 I set my gas budget at $300. I was quite certain gas would go up a solid 40% again.

So anyway, reminded me someone seemed all amazed I made my gas budget in April. Which just bugs me. Where is the rocket science here? Gas has been spiraling out of control for years. I try to plan accordingly.

Believe me, we are trying to drive less. We are parking the van. We are considering staying in instead of all the road trips we wanted to do this summer.

But believe me, you don't have to be rich to see gas prices rising and to prepare accordingly. I think people have taken my blase-ness about gas prices as an attitude of one rich.

Ah, I wish. It's an attitude of one prepared. I am not surprised in the least. My budget gas allowed for it.

I am considering that I will probably have to "up" my gas budget for 2009. Maybe to $350 from $300, to be well covered. BUT this year's $300 is well more than plenty to cover a commute that costs about $80 monthly with current gas prices. The rest is gravy and driving is one of our main luxuries.

I guess mostly my point is I set my gas budget very high in 2006. & I haven't changed it since. It will suffice this year.

I am at a loss why so many people on this board are so confuzzled by gas prices. Usually I identify more with this board, but I guess I feel odd woman out. I can't believe I am the only one who saw this coming a mile away???

& don't get my wrong. I totally understand that people are just reaching a tipping point. I am just surprised so many frugal people on a board like this are reaching their tipping points so fast. To me all I see is a long established pattern being continued. Thus where as mostly I see a lot of panic in the masses, I wonder what's new.

I admit though, even with all this said, we are feeling gas pinch. As I said the last time we felt so pinched was when it topped $2. IT changed our lifestyle dramatically. & I sense as gas tops $4 our lifestyle will change quite a bit. It is a bummer that one of our biggest luxuries is our cars. We just love the freedom to drive any time/ any where. But as prices rise, it is a luxury that is harder to justify.

It's also more maddening than usual to live in an area with such subpar mas transit (both expensive and not terribly useful). I would gladly commute to work or take the train to visit family, to have more weekend gas budget. BUT there just isn't much out there. The train, for one, costs like 5 times what it does to fill up the gas tank for a round trip. So much for that...

Anyway, last time gas prices jumped like this was the worst time for us financially. I guess this time around we are in a better spot, and more prepared. That is the jist of my feelings. It does make all the difference.

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But man, how about the news yesterday? Doom and gloom. I was depressed just looking at the news.

I read 1 in 4 homeowners in US has zedro or negative equity.

Seriously? Egads!!!!!

GAs prices up.

Dow down.

Unemployment, highest jump since the 70s?

Oh boy, you get the feeling the country is just about to implode.

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Which also reminds me. I made an offhand comment about the economy to a client yesterday, and she laughed. "The economy?" she said. They had the highest revenue day, ever, last week. This is our most successful client. Mostly doctors. But this one specializes in cosmetic procedures. So, yeah, the rich are still getting their laser treatments and botox. That is for sure.

This bodes very well for my job.

We have 2 young doctors in this area and believe me, they make bank. Where as most of our doctors net around $100k-$500k, after expenses but before taxes,they net millions. I have never seen 2 people who have so much more money than they even know what to do with it. IT's insane, and their businesses are booming. That is my glimpse into the economy. As we get further in the year, we'll see how much the economy is affecting the rest of our clients. I expect expenses up with gas prices, but revenues rather the same since the insurance companies rule. We'll see...

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Well, I have been busily shopping.

Bought 2 camping chairs, and 3 sleeping bags (thank you amazon.com).

Today I need to buy some new shoes - will order from zappos.com. My workout shoes are dead/old/useless. I have waited too long to replace (as usual - a terrible habit I have).

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Dh has been applying for a few side income jobs. He hadn't exactly told me but perusing our shared e-mail I saw lots of correspondence re: video jobs. Many of them paid. Which is actually quite odd because usually there isn't much out there with paid offers. I can't help but wonder if he just saw the ads and responded, not necessarily thinking of looking for paid work but spotting the ads all the same.

I will keep my fingers crossed. !!

He has applied for many jobs, and not gotten anywhere, the last 7 years or so. I mean hell, McDonalds won't hire him. I have NO IDEA what is up with that. We ventured he was over-qualified and kind of gave up. I have posted in the past that we both scooped up jobs like that in the fistfuls when we were in college. But an old guy with a degree? You don't just get those jobs I guess. (Old meaning mid 20s with a degree). I told dh to drop his education on his resume. Seriously. For a McDs job? Whatevah.

Anyway, these jobs were second video camera on wedding videos, for good money. He is certainly well qualified. & also some independent film productions with paid positions. His experience may warrant pay.

We shall see.

At this point I would love to hoarde some cash for work around the house. I think he is motivated to buy toys. We'll find some middle ground. I don't mind that if it motivates him to bring cash. But we have to be realistic too - a large chunk has to go to household and savings.

In the interim we have some catching up to do. In the more long-term, a little extra cash can go a long way to funding retirement.

Anyway, for the first time since having kids dh has some actual TIME to devote to work. & it hasn't been that long that the kids have been sleeping well too. The playing field has completely changed, and you don't know how happy I am to see dh making an attempt at some cash. On one hand I think, "It's about time!" On the other hand I know that times have not been so great the last few years - the kids have kept us insanely busy. Even I find a large amount of time that wasn't there before. & I imagine this is rather new to dh as well.

Likewise, it is nice to see dh applying for way better paying, and yet more realistically achievable, jobs.

A mere $100/month could make a huge difference in our finances/savings.

Well, we'll see!!!

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Oh yeah, beyond all that I noticed a small flood in our backyard yesterday. IT looks like something completely chewed through the flower bed irrigation tubing. I looked at it rather dumbfounded. You wonder if the gardener had been careless, and whacked it with a saw or something, until you see it is completely gnawed through. We had some mouse problems last year. I have no idea what else would gnaw through it. I have to investigate the front yard today. I am confident dh will be able to patch it together with a trip to the hardware store. & I am mostly relieved it seems to be only that one spot. But you got me at a loss there.

Ugh!

We also had no idea one of our trees is fruit bearing. ???? My best guess is purple plum (from web searching). We've had the tree a few years and never noticed fruit until yesterday (& lots of it!). It doesn't appear to be edible to humans. Bummer. I remember when we were house hunting seeing a large yard covered in purple bird droppings from some sort of dark purple fruit. These aren't quite so dark, but it does have me worried. !!!!!!!! Especially if you knew the number the birds have done in the past with their white droppings. I think the only real money we have put to our house to date is bird proofing. Seriously. Thank goodness, before our house and yard was to be covered in purple poop.

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This weekend:

1 - Clean up the house

2 - Put some stuff up on ebay/craigslist. I have been WAY lazy on both fronts. I probably have an easy couple of hundred dollars to be had if I list some things this weekend. Maybe more.

I feel behind...

I will be saving $315/month come August, with BM out of preschool.

I have been at a loss what to do with the $15.

I decided today I would put that $15 to the mortgage.

My mind changes often in this regard. I think I was putting an extra $30 there for a while, and then stopped.

But I feel obligated to save that $15 and don't really have anywhere else to put it.

So I'll go with that for now.

Actually, I put about $11 to the mortgage to make it an even $1330.

I've said many times I don't see the point in paying down the mortgage any faster without the ROTHs maxed out. (Likewise, I see little point in putting more money to the mortgage just so I can borrow more later for home improvement projects. ?? So I have a tendency to prefer to save up cash for that stuff).

BUT I also don't mind diverting a small amount I wouldn't save otherwise. I like saving big round numbers to cash and retirement, and so upping the mortgage payment a bit, with this small amount, seems rather reasonable. Maybe I will "up" it to $1350 when LM is out of school.

Otherwise, this money would just go to more stuff or food or something.

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I feel now that I have more time, there is not enough hours in the day for all I want to do.

I have decided to rethink things in terms of where I am at my best for certain activities.

Reading in the evenings before bed is NOT working. I am lucky if I can read 2 pages.

So I am thinking:

Mornings - reading/going to work early
(Going to work early means quiet uninterrupted reading time at work also. Tempting! Like at lunch. Or if I stick around after shift is over for quiet time).

Evenings - crafts (kids LOVE to watch and help).

Exercise - walks with the kids. Gym/aerobics. I do well with these in the evening, though the latter does take time from the kids. But worth it in the long run.

Household Chores - Mornings. I am thinking of taking one weekend morning a week to catch up a bit on stuff around the house. I find on the weekends by 2pm I am spent. I generally nap and am useless after I wake up.

I could work some of these in on the weekdays.

TV - I found recently I am watching WAY too much TV. They are fine for evenings, when I am completely useless anyway. BUT I have been staying up late way too much to get in all my shows. So I think I will cut a few out.

So I am working on a plan.

I have also struggled in teaching piano to BM. It is something I Want to do, but am unsure how far I can take it (it is a big "no no" to teach your own kids - for various reasons).

Though I am sure it is fine for an intro and the basics.

Dh has started to show him guitar though, so this motivated me.

He is also excited about piano so for now I said remind me every evening and we can have a short lesson. I figure a five-minute lesson almost every day is pretty equivalent to the 30-minute classes I used to do for his age group (no one ever practices at home anyway).

So far it is going well. I tried a bit when he was 3 but just couldn't commit. It is always 10 times easier to teach a 5-year-old than a child any younger. Though he was very bright at 3, I see the ease now that he is so close to 5. Plus I couldn't teach him on the piano before - keys were too heavy. He is ready now for the big piano - yay!

I personally took piano lessons from very young, and learned violin and flute in public school. It is saddening the kids probably won't get the same opportunities at school, but there are a lot of affordable programs all the same.

I always figured I could play any instrument after covering the 3 corners of instruments. Piano is much like percussion and a string instrument. I translated that easily into guitar (with my violin experience as well) and drums. With the flute experience I can pretty much pick up any wind instrument.

So I would like to do the same with my kids. Probably will be piano from me, guitar from dh, and the wind instrument of their choice when they are older.

I think we will wait a while and see where their true interests lie before we start shelling out money for private lessons. Oh boy, the thought makes me cringe. Expensive... But I hope to hold off for a while and teach what we can ourselves.

Likewise, I have kept it up little since I had stopped teaching in 1999. With teaching them it gets me to practice a bit more.

I am relieved it is like riding a bicycle and I haven't forgotten how to play. Though I do sound extremely unpracticed.

I have to admit I am tempted to take on some students to get me practicing again. Maybe when the kids are older. If nothing else I can earn enough money to pay for their lessons. Seriously!

Plugged things in and am making small progress.

Keep in mind, my goal is to increase net worth by $25k-$30k this year.

As of 5/31, I am up $4900.

I just got a statement on the kids' 529. Their investments are officially down $500 for the year.

You can argue if there money should be included, but I figure the more we put in there now the less we have to come up with later, so I count it, for now. For the long run I am sure we won't.

Retirement is up about $3300. We have contributed about $3300 this year, so basically I think it is safe to assume our investment return has been 0%, thus far this year.

We have paid $1600 off of our mortgage (just regular payments).

Oh, and cash is up $500. Our mid-term fund is doing well, but our short-term fund is in the red, for now. It fluctuates much, but makes our cash savings look pitiful for the moment.

I can pretty much break it down to:

$3300 Retirement Contributions
$1600 Mortgage Payments
$ 500 Cash Increase
$(500)Loss on 529s
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$4900
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With the market the way it is, our goal will be very hard to meet this year. (Which just means we need to make up for it in good stock years...)

Yikes. Guess I am in a bloggy mood today...



I whipped up some muffins at some point over the weekend, and had forgotten the leftovers. So grabbed them for breakfast this morning.

I probably already blogged this in the past, but I just LOVE that jiffy hasn't change the look of its packaging, like ever. For it's blueberry muffin mix.

Love the quick/simple treat. But have blogged often how I am sick of going to the store and trying to find plain pepsi in a sea of 50 different kinds of pepsi, and same for the toothpaste, etc. I go mad.

So kudos to Jiffy for keeping it simple. Some of us like it like that.

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I also had another topic to write on.

Being in California has been interesting since we were in the thick of the tech bubble, when we lived in San Jose, and now we live in the thick of the housing bubble, in Sacramento.

But interestingly, I had some thoughts that I don't see mentioned much in the media.

The tech bubble probably would have ended much worse, but people started dipping into their homes, much to survive. Sure, I have seen more than my fair share of excess when it comes to home equity. But the reason a lot of people started borrowing way over their head was because of the tech bubble burst. I can hardly think of a family I know that didn't face lay offs in 2002-2004. Significant, long layoffs. Even up here in Sacramento. My dad has never been laid off more than like a month in his life and he was out of work well over a year. We figured much of that had to do with age, but employment opportunities have been booming for him the last year or 2. So it seems it was more economy than anything.

So to be fair, a lot of people around here started digging into their homes, merely to stay afloat.

I was thinking about this since quite a few friends are starting to face layoffs, and lament they have barely recovered from the last round.

& so I do have to sympathize.

I was googling the subject a bit and didn't see much. California stastics showed 7% unemployment level at the peak. Today we are already wooshing past 6%.

IT's all a little deja vu.

I think this makes this forecasted recession much scarier. I am not sure how people will get through this round. The debt solution is pretty much gone.

I don't know.

I am surprised there is not a lot more observation about this though, in the media and in other blogs, etc.

OF course, "significant" and "long" are relative terms when it comes to layoffs. I Was perusing California unemployment data and it hit 10% for much of the 70s and 80s.

Ouch.

So anyway, I am back to, "Who couldn't see this coming?" Who could live in this area and not see this mess unfolding?

I guess a lot of people!

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That kind of reminds me I haven't seen gas up past $3.99, like gas stations were hesitant to raise above $4. Well today as I drove to preschool I noted $4.10 gas and $4.15 gas at the cheapie gas stations.

WOW!

I can only imagine what the Chevron on the corner here has gone up to. I'll have to look when I leave work tonight. IT had been holding steady at $3.99, prior.

& this reminds me, when all the gas hype started, I think where I Was with the housing bubble. "Who couldn't see this coming?"

Or maybe I just feel behind the times. Gas has taken quite a chunk out of our budget in recent years. I think we felt the pinch much stronger earlier in our one-income years (it had risen more percentage-wise in the years I had my children). So I found this all rather predictable, felt we were nowhere near the worst, and was unsure why the sudden panic. Though obviously we have reached a tipping point for the masses; I reached my personal tipping point LONG ago. PRobably what it mostly comes down to.

But I do admit that today my jaw dropped when I saw Arco for $4.10. Knew it was coming, but egads.

Likewise, I feel much the same about healthcare. Everyone is freaking out, and I wonder where the hell they have been. Where was the panic when rates increased 300% in a few short years? Not that they have for everyone. But in 2003 it was in the ballpark of $200/month to have full insurance coverage and small co-pays, for us. Now we pay $800/month for the privelege of giant copays and less coverage.

I feel like I should have invested in healthcare stock the last decade, and not be so proud of our efforts to keep housing costs down. For the short term, housing is decreasing greatly, and I am not sure how long until our healthcare costs more than our mortgage. Ouch! The interest on our mortgage is $1k monthly, so it's getting pretty close. At least the principal on our mortgage is a return on capital. But it makes our healthcare look that much more astronomical to look at it that way.

Anyway, with all this running in my head I am not sure what it is. I think just being a major planner and forward thinker means I panicked long ago about all of this stuff and have had time to adjust. It's all I can figure...

Every time I pick up the paper, all I Can think is, "Old News..."

Gas prices are insane and the healthcare system is bankrupting families. Well, where have you all been? I've been here for a while.

Maybe I should start making predictions of the economy. Hmmm... Though I have nothing to predict for now. Healthcare is the thorn in my side, for now. But I'll give you a heads up if I find a new thorn.

Actually, I just thought of it. Income taxes on the elderly. You'll be hearing a LOT more about that in 5 years. I'll be yawning at the headlines, as usual.

(I do need to do a post on that - I really do. I guess I have a fair amount of insider info - preparing taxes and all).

Oh I can assure you the next thorn in all of our sides will be taxes, taxes, taxes. Maybe I should start blogging about that. Seriously.

But back to gas, yeah. I used to drive home every day for lunch. Every single day. I stopped in 2006 because gas prices had just gotten so out of control. So 2006 was a bad gas year for our family (well years like 2002-2006 slowly creeped up to that point). It's just something I Could probably never justify again. I miss that luxury. I just held out until my youngest weaned from breastfeeding. Probably would have cut back on the gas sooner, otherwise.

For now we budget $300/month for gas which gives us quite a bit of wiggle room. We can stretch it farther by driving the van less and the compact more. So that gives us lots of wiggle room. When our gas bills regularly exceeds $300/month is probably our next tipping point. At this rate it is not terribly far away, but I have already made the major sacrifices for gas prices, a couple of years ago... SO for that, it is old news to me. Our next step would maybe be selling the van (far more gas guzzler than I ever imagined) and/or carpooling more. Driving to see family less, etc. Just not there yet. Phew. Though I find those all to be rather small sacrifices except for the big one - less affordable to see our family. That is what I dread, and is already affecting our driving decisions...

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Well, in other news, dh and I are planning an elaborate date. Oooohh la la.

I got an e-mail about a comedy show coming to a small theater in the city. I have a friend who was in some productions, but haven't talked to her in a while, so wondered if she was involved. Anyway, I mentioned to dh that it looked interesting, and he said he had wanted to go see it - his friend was the Director.

Well, lah de dah.

The tickets will be $25 for the 2 of us, so really quite a splurge for us.

Plus the daycare.

I am a little uneasy since it is only on Fri/Sat night, on the later side. Kids stay up late, so no biggie, but we have been taking advantage of the drop-in care at slow times. So it will be a test to drop them off on a busy night. BM is fine, but LM much more timid. He needs more one-on-one care. But he does good with his brother. We'll see. Not sure it's any preferable to see out a babysitter we don't really know. They love the place at least.

I guess this will turn into a true test of our "freedom." The ability to drop the kids off and go out on a Fri/Sat night sounds absolutely divine. A luxury long ago forgotten...

I think with BM we have reached "freedom." I still worry about LM a bit too much...

Of course, I thought while we were downtown, what we really needed to do was to dine at our favorite upscale Indian restuarant. We rarely go because of the prices, but the food can not be beat.

The night will easily be $100, probably more. With show, daycare and food. But I think it will be a nice splurge.

Well we haven't picked a date for our date yet. Sometime in June. I do look foreard to that.

I was just updating Quicken and noticed our retirement balance is a solid $75k. For now anyway.

This is actually my gross salary for the year. So one years' saved!

Of course, the interesting thing about measuring your goals in terms of salary, is that I for one, had already met this goal last year (maybe the year before). Likewise, in past years I way exceeded this goal (because my income was much smaller...)

So though $75k is a new milestone for me, I can't say the one year salary saved is a new or exciting milestone... It is turning into an impossible moving target that makes me feel a little at a standstill.

If dh returned to work tomorrow it would be a long road to save up one year of salary.

Which probably illustrates much why I so love the idea of measuring progress against "annual expenses."

I guess this idea particularly makes sense for us.

In school we both made $10k annually. Out of school we made $60k combined, and that quickly climbed to $100k.

But then we slowed down for kids and lived a couple of years on $45k (the years I took maternity leave anyway). But my full salary was a mere $50k when I had my first child. In the meantime, my income has ballooned to $75k rather quickly. Though a good chunk of the last decade we really made less than $60k. So it is hard to measure progress in terms of an ever growing income.

Of course, no complaints on the ever-growing income.

But our expenses, on the other hand, have remained rather steady. Probably a bit of a jump when we bought our first home (okay, a significant jump since we lived on pennies before that). & probably a bit of a jump when we had kids. But overall our expenses have remained rather steady and predictable. So we find that a much better measure of our forward progress.

We generally live on $50k-$60k annually (after taxes) so we are trying to grow our net worth half of that, annually. ($25k-$30k/year). If our income grows astronomically (possible, could double if dh returned to work) and our expenses remain the same (possible) than we really need to work on goals that support our lifestyle, not our income. So this is where a lot of our thinking on expenses comes in. Income means little to us. (Which is the ideal!)

But $75k is a milestone, indeed. Of course, I was wondering, recently, when our cash and retirement would hit $100k. I think we will probably hit it in 2009. Not so sure on 2008. But we'll see. (We have a fair amount of cash, in addition to our retirement investments).

We've also paid a good $90k off our house. So our more liquid assets seem to be neck and neck with how much we have invested in our house.

I expect that to change greatly in the future. Our goal in the nearer future is to put away $10k/year to retirement, in addition to 10% contributed at my job. So ideally our retirement will be growing $18k/year or so, plus investment returns, while we are only paying the minimum on our mortgage, about $4k principal every year.

I think our 20s was our decade of home ownership. & we have accomplished a chunk there. I would like our 30s to be the decade of retirement funding. Which is also why I don't sweat the mortgage prepayment. We worked very hard while young to keep our mortgage costs down (putting a chunk down and paying it off aggressively). That work will save us tens of thousands, if not more, in the long run. So it feels like it is off to the next battle - Retirement!

Likewise, I look forward to do the day our cash/investments far exceed our mortgage.

Well, we're getting there.

Anyway, I don't think we will put $10k to our IRAs anytime REAL soon. My goal is about $1500 this year, and $5k next year. But I think we may make it in 2011, when LM is entirely out of preschool. Working up to it. So though our goal is $10k/year, to IRAs, we got a ways to go.

Of course, in our 20s, retirement was only a mere afterthought, after the token 10% contributions we have always done. So I look forward to what we can do with retirement as the forethought. I expect to zoom ahead rather quickly... In fact, my roundabout goal has been $150k in retirement by age 35... (So doubled in 4 years?). Kind of aggressive, but doable.

Well, as we move past the expensive months of April & May, summer should be pretty good to us. (I hope!)

June is our last payment to our mortgage where interest exceeds $1,000. Woohoo! Our July interest payment is $999.99 (something like that - hehe).

Psychological, yes, and little more. But it is still nice.

Dh told me he is waiting for our principle payments to exceed the interest portion. Agreed, but so that is so long in the future I have to find something sooner to get excited about. We also drop below the $200k balance in 2010. So that will be cool too. Another psychological advance...

Of course, as usual, looking at it - I am tempted to throw $50/month to the mortgage, extra, next year.

I talked myself out of it for now.

Another $150/month would really put us at our goal to pay off in our 40s. Quite simple really. BUT doesn't make much sense for now.

The other thing about this summer is the stimulus check (which will help greatly) and the removal of one child from the ever expensive preschool.

So summer seems like a turning point of sorts, for us financially.

As of summer I hope to have:

*Replenished the $1k I unexpectedly owe the IRS and sucked out of the emergency fund for now.

*$3k balance in our mid-term savings (which has been 0 for a while).

*Contributing $315/month to our ROTHs. (bumps our retirement savings to 15% from 12%. Phew).

I really hope to have another $100/month raise come next year to allocate to the ROTHs and get to the max for one roth and about 17% income to retirement. From there I think it is a good spot and we will just try to increase it 1% a year. (Minimum anyway. Certainly more if we have bigger raises or windfalls).

*Up our short-term savings from $900 monthly to $1k monthly, which really should suffice to cover more of the unexpected things (like a similar IRS bill).

So I would say our retirement and short-term savings should be in pretty good shape come summer.

As tempting as it is to earmark a token $50 to the mortgage, I know we really need to focus on getting our mid-term savings up to snuff. My goal is to save $5k this year, but we have some catching up to do AND I will barely squeak by this but for the help of a large stimulus check.

Of course, I also just remembered the other competing want is college money for the kids. With BM our of expensive preschool I had considered saving $50/month for that.

There's only so many directions it will go. But I admit that is probably where the money is best spent, for now.

Short-Term Savings up to snuff
Retirement up to snuff
Work on BM's college money

I guess all I can hope for is a really decent raise next year so I can put some more to mid-term savings as well. We have cars to save up to buy and home maintenance to save up for.

Dh may consider some temp work with the kids in school. I am not sure we are hot on the idea right now, but the option is certainly nice. It could significantly help the cash savings. (For now is working on a movie script and a movie which I rather him do now while he has some significant child rearing to do. BEcause lord knows I will be pushing for more income if we are not doing better when LM starts public school. Just giving him the space to do his thing for now).

Getting there, but still a ways to go...

Getting so close to where we were before we dropped to one income... That part is nice. I don't think we expected to get back to this point, so soon, on my income alone. & I am excited as we near this sort of crossover point where we are so close to getting back to a larger measure of financial security.

We've done without a lot of savings and retirement contributions and a lot of things as we slowed down to raise kids. I didn't exactly imagine with time we would find a way to have our cake and eat it too (so soon anyway). Our lifestyle for now is far cushier than I imagined it would be when we made sacrifices for our kids. For that I am extremely grateful.

& I am certainly enjoying!

The idea of putting $5k in a ROTH next year is DIVINE. To me, that is luxury.

Well, I will try not to make a post 10-miles long.

We just got back from our week-long vacation to Disney, last night. & I am rather pleased with how it went. We had a really great time, and it didn't break the bank at all. Woohoo. Total cost $1111. The in-laws gave me $150 before we left and we are expecting $250 cash back from our credit card in a couple of weeks, so this will lower our out-of-pocket to about $700. Not half bad?

Particularly since we generally do Disney as a weekend thing (we live close enough). It's usually not a big expensive week-long thing for us. So this was a very unique trip for us. I wanted to really take our time driving and spend more than one day at Disney, etc. I don't think we'll go to Disneyland for a week again, for a VERY long time, if ever. So, it was just different.



*Other - this category was for souvenirs and unforeseen things. $40 was for valet parking at our hotel (blech - totally unexpected, and annoying). $27 was for stroller rentals - 3 days(rather expected). $20 on souvenirs and $20 for Lego Sets from Lego Land (cheaper than we had seen retail so picked some up).

*Gas - Gas wasn't bad. Prices here have been $3.65 - $3.99 (depending on coupons and brand). We only got stuck paying more ($4.08) on the last leg of our trip. So we only filled up half tank, which we estimated, and was, exactly enough to get home. We filled up for $3.77 when we got home (Safeway, with discount). We paid $3.99 somewhere on the way down (prices seemed cheaper last Monday on the way down). We found $3.83 near our hotel, though we actually found some $3.75 gas after we had filled up twice. Right in front of Disney where we thought it would have been more expensive. But that is where we saw $3.75 gas when we drove past on our last day. Figured. We had already filled up for the drive home, when we saw it.

So we drive about 1200 miles total for $106. Not bad (sure beat flying) and dh's car did get awfully close to 40mpg most of the trip. Freeway. We didn't see much traffic all week, except it was horrid on our way out Saturday morning (no idea why). So we got some pretty decent gas mileage most of the trip.

I know many acquaintances thought it was horrible not only we drove, but we took the subcompact. But man, the 6 hour drive was really nothing. I have driven to Kansas too many times (family there) to sweat a 6-hour drive. Dh fashioned a makeshift TV with his DS2 so the kids did watch some shows on the way (maybe an hour each way). The thing that shocked us was they did not sleep either way, at all. Figures. They were okay considering the close quarters and everything though. Though LM did have the great meltdown of 2008 shortly after we got out of LA yesterday. Egads. He seemed to be a little under the weather all week, so poor guy. But after that he was pretty pleasant the rest of the 6 hours. Phew.

Disneyland - I was going to buy tickets online for a $6 discount, but the $3 service fee and the whole "will call" thing (couldn't print them out) annoyed me. We figured we'd just buy tickets there. Which did work our since the first day there was no line for tickets.

Legoland, I was going to buy online as well, but saw we would get a $10 pr ticket discount with AAA if we bought in person there. So we just bought there as well.

LM was free everywhere, since he is not quite 3 yet.

Our hotel was 1 mile from the park so we decided to walk it the first day (it seemed closer once we got there. though we noted the hotel was next to Motel 6 - will consider Motel 6 next time - great location - probably an expensive Motel 6). Our hotel was completely free (relative's timeshare) except for the mandatory valet parking. We didn't have full kitchen, but was 2 rooms, microwave, fridge, etc.

We were nervous when we got there but put the kids together on the pull-out couch bed, and they did great. (I think they were too exhausted every night to do little more than sleep. We were worried they'd play too much, or disturb each other).

We also brought lots of food and stocked up on juice and milk once we got there. The breakfast was right across from our room and had long hours, so probably would have sufficed. We ate much more breakfast there than we had planned/expected.

Anyway, day 1 we walked to D-Land and we probably could have gone all day without a stroller, but LM really needed a nap and so we got one for him to nap in, late in the afternoon. I think dh carried him back to the hotel most of the way that night. The second day we went as long as we could without stroller (just a PITA) but we got one much earlier day 2. Friday we went to Legoland and picked one up when we got there. He was just fed up with walking by then. BM on the other hand, outgrew strollers long ago. I figured we would probably rent strollers all 3 days, and was pleased the rest of us could do just fine without the shuttle. The walk was not a big deal at all.

On our beach day we did not have to pay to park, so we didn't spend any money that day outside food and gas. LM walked that day since we didn't do so much walking.

Which leaves food! I just budgeted $100/day or so because food is always so insane. I know we could have easily spent less, but with some advanced planning we had saved a lot, and the second half of the week we ate rather well. So, really, no complaints.

We ate lunch in the parks 3 days and dinner out of the parks every night. Wasn't so sure we would swing the late dinners, but in the end it worked out well to walk over to the IHOP/Denny's outside the park and rest before our walk back to the hotel.

So, $367 was to feed us all for 6 full days. IT also included treating 2 friends to dinner one night. So, not bad.

Day 1 we packed a picnic lunch and ate at a rest stop. We stopped to visit dh's aunt for dinner, which worked out really well. They say it never rains in So Cal, but last time we drove down (September 2006?) it poured and it kicked up so much oil and grime from the road our car was just black. It was very memorable. So Monday we are driving into LA and it is sprinkling. We are just confused. What is up with the rain???? We stopped at the convent and had dinner with the nuns there - beautiful real estate - as I expected - nestled in the hills. Their dinner spread wasn't very big (I've had many lunches when I audited other religious organizations) and they did say lunch was generally bigger. So we had a light dinner and enjoyed walking around the grounds (though admittedly it was wet and cold). Lots of pretty flowers. We saw lots of poppies driving in and lots of trees with purple blooms. I have no idea what those are. I tried to remember if I had ever been to LA in the spring before. Probably not in many years - was just gorgeous.

So, anyway, this made day 1 a cheap eating day.

Days 2 & 3 we ate expensive lunches in the park and dinner right outside the park at IHOP/Denny's. Kids were free at IHOP I believe, though of course prices were inflated due to location.

We snuck in some trail mix and brought bottled water (from home - refilled with tap water) but it was so hot I bought a few cold waters and sodas. Particularly Friday. IT seems like the hotter it was the hungrier we were too. So bought more snacks on those days. That is where they REALLY gouge you though and we tried to keep it to a minimum. I kept cold sodas as the hotel too and we did not order any soda while out at. Though in the parks the water was so expensive I would just get soda because it cost the same anyway.

I think we got really sick of burgers and greasy food the first couple of days. Thursday we went to San Diego to the beach and we went to a placed called Panini's. I had looked up places ahead of time and was more upscale than I expected but the food was DIVINE.

For dinner that night we tried out a Thai place near our hotel and it was excellent. So we ate VERY well that day. We spent $95 on those 2 meals, but we met some friends for dinner and treated them, so it was more than just us.

Friday at Legoland we stumbled upon a wonderful restaurant. Lunch was $45, but was worth getting more than grease. Dh had stir fry and I stocked up at the salad bar (with potato salad and pasta, rolls, etc.). We also got a cake for dessert. Splurged a little. Was another great meal though.

For dinner that night we had Taco Bell and Dairy Queen for dessert ($12). Which really we could have done that every night and saved a lot. Was just nice to eat more than fast food. Though really IHOP and Denny's kind of fell short when we looked forward to some more homemade-like food. Just so greasy.

On the drive home we mostly went fast food.

& that sums up the nitty gritty of our trip.

I was really pleased how it panned out because Thursday we really needed a day of rest. Besides the drive to the beach, and dinner with friends, we did little that day. Had a chance to rest our feet.

Friday was the hottest day of the week (in the 90s in LA?) so was a great day to spend in LegoLand - much closer to the cooler shore. They also had a lot of great water rides. So was easy to keep cool.

So I don't think we could have planned it any better. D-Land closed at 8:00 the days we were there, but it was empty enough, we got a lot done. Though, last time I believe we went on a Saturday, and with the whole Fast Pass thing we found little advantage during the week. Most of the Fast Passes were closed which meant we waited in lines longer than we were accustomed to. Fast Pass wait is usually like 0 if you come back in an hour, and we waited in a lot of 15-minute to 1/2-hour lines. Though certainly no longer lines - I'll give you that. But we were a little disappointed at the amount of 1/2 hour lines we had to wait in. However, it was significantly less crowded than the last Friday we were there (particularly in the afternoon/evening) which was probably preferable with the kids. The BIG crowds would have been a lot harder to navigate. But my feelings were kind of mixed about the mid-week advantage. We have just gotten so accustomed to the Fast Pass thing - felt lost without it. I don't think we were able to use Fast Pass once. As a result, lines were longer than we have grown accustomed to. I guess the good thing is a weekend trip in the future doesn't sound so bad.

Oh yeah, in D-Land I thought I read that some restaurants had 10% AAA discount. But it was rather hit and miss. At one restaurant dh got food for him and the kids and when I went to get my food they wouldn't give me AAA discount. They had just given it to dh, but insisted it had been a mistake and they don't have AAA discounts. Of course, dh showed me his receipt and it said "-10% AAA." So we were rather frustrated. I still have no idea what the deal with that is. Do they take AAA or do they not? Maybe haven't updated the registers?

We also went to California Adventure for a few hours while at Disney, and we really liked the park. It was really great for the kids and we really enjoyed it (had heard mixed reviews before).

Legoland was perfect for the kids' age range. I don't know if we will ever get back there (if they will be too old for it next time) but we just had a blast there. It was a great little park. The water area was just perfect on such a hot day, and probably where we had the most fun.

One reason why we went was because unexpectedly, LM LOVED Disney World in the fall. He was feeling a little under the weather all week and I don't think he particularly enjoyed Disney this round. Which was a little disappointing. BUT CA Adventure had some great kiddie areas, and LegoLand was very much his speed. BM actually went on all the big rides at Disney. He has no fear, and LM was terrified of just about everything. I don't think they could have been more opposite, so we split up a lot. But dh and I took turns with the kids and got to go on most of the big rides, etc.

LM absolutely LOVED seeing all the characters in the park though. & there was certainly much he enjoyed.

We also happened to catch the Disney fireworks show on our drive home Friday night from dinner, so it worked out pretty good. LM would have been terrified if we were any closer, but we watched from the car and our hotel, and the kids loved it. Seemed a fitting finale for our trip.

& it certainly feels good to be home.

Today we are unpacking, laundry, grocery shopping.

Oh yes, we left the A/C on 86 for the cat (we just left it on downstairs). So when we got home last night it was 91 degrees upstairs, and took quite a while to cool down to 80. I can't imagine how hot it would have been without the A/C on down here. I am glad I thought ahead. Not sure I exactly expected this weather in May, but heard a heat wave was coming so thought ahead to leave the air on for the cat.

We have a cat, but we just left her plenty of food and water. Sometimes we talk about getting a dog, but eh. Cats are such low maintenance... Makes it easy to vacation. Though if we were gone any longer we'd have someone check in on her at least once.

Well, I guess I have to adjust back to reality now. Bummer!

BEfore I forget - here is a simple recipe:

Cheeseburger Pasta

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/bacon-cheeseburger-pasta/detail...

This is my lunch - leftovers. & I look forward to it.

I had burrito leftovers last night (another thing that lasta forever).

I Watched Top Chef last night and they had a challenge to create dinner for four with $10. They were absolutely freaking out. I was imagning a million things I could cook for $10 to feed my family. Burritos would come to mind as awfully close - meat, beans, tomato sauce, spices, tortillas, cheese. Leftovers for days...

OF course, admittedly, we don't eat a lot of gourmet.

Though I was craving salsa on my way home from the gym last night and I wondered if we had salsa since Easter. Probably not with our rounds of illness. Dh said he would maybe make some this weekend. Woohoo. we have some chips - but no salsa. Kind of sad...

The salsa recipe is quite cheap as is usually made primarily with leftover veggies. The chips we bulk up on, when on sale.

No doubt kids are having PBJ for lunch, with grapes, and dh is having some sort of leftovers. We had some spinach lasagna and soup leftover as well.

I was surprised when dh told me he is making another pasta/beef dish tonight. Sausage penne pasta, with cheese and sour cream, etc. Certainly not a light meal, but we eat smaller portions and will have lots of leftovers for next week.

Oh I found this one too - we get most of these subscribing to Taste of Home Cooking mags - LOVE THEM. We have the "Light & Tasty" & the "Quick Cooking" - though they keep changing the names - I couldn't tell you what they are called now.

http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Cheesy-Sausage-Penne

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Dh told me today that Raley's (our primariy grocery store) is offering 10% return on stimulus rebates.

I have mixed feelings about it.

It is certainly an easy $180 - will about turn our stimulus into $2k. $2k in free groceries. Wow!

I had earmarked the money for other savings, which we could still do. IT would just be delayed, but I think it would be a record keeping nightmare.

I told dh we could get 3% in the bank and so the true savings will be 7% for us. BUT we would have to be committed to replenish our savings with the grocery savings (easier said than done) and it will be a record keeping nightmare for me. We figure we average $250/month at Bel Air and may take almost a year to recoupe.

Likewise, who wants to carry around a $2k gift card in their wallet for a year? Oy vey. What if it is lost???????

I did look it up to see what other grocery stores are offering and saw since our stimulus is $1800 that they would issue us 2 gift cards for $990. At least that is more reasonable, we can keep the second one under lock and key until we use up the first.

Well, overall I think it is worth it. But I don't think it is as clear cut that we save 10%. WE save 7%. & lord hope that $990 gift card is not lost or stolen. !!!

There is something (a lot actually) to be said for cash in the bank.

I do like the choice to get 10% extra for groceries (as opposed to consumer goods, as many retailers are offering). I am just not sure I am convinced.

We have 2 months to decide, and see how our cash flow is when we get our stimulus in late June.

If we do it this way we will have to keep meticulous track of our grocery receipts and add them up monthly, and transfer that amount of cash to our savings every month.

It might take us 4 months just to replenish our short-term savings. Which is fine, since that is mostly for December bills.

But the more I think about it, the more it gives me a headache. Though I know in the end we'll be ahead $180.

I really think the whole risk factor thing has to be considered though. Since we are pretty disciplined with our savings, I find the odds slim that the cash would be used elsewhere, with all that grocery savings monthly. BUT I am less convinced I like the risk of carrying around almost $1k in my wallet. I usually carry $20 cash most.

Dh is good with his wallet and good at keeping on top of that stuff, but it still makes me a wee bit nervous. I guess we can talk about locking the card up at home and only getting it out for grocery store trips. HE is good at remembering things and I think is probably the best plan. cuts down the risk a bit...

Likewise, I would probably want to save every grocery receipt until the gift card is used. Computers are not foolproof. Last thing I need is a bad card or computer reading issues.

All that in place? We'll probably spend our stimulus in this manner. (Was to go to savings, we'll just trickle it into savings over the next year, with our grocery savings).

I don't think either way this is what the government had in mind.

Anyway, what people probably just jump into, I probably tend to over analyze. Slow and cautious says I.

Well, in my last post, I shared how I keep track of all of my savings buckets, in excel. But I ran out of time to post visuals.

So, here is my running total for my Short-Term savings account. Kind of sad, but it generally has a decent balance most of the year and we drain it in April and December. It's not just property tax time, but when all our bills seem to come due.

& I didn't expect the IRS bill at all, which really puts me in the red for April.

& to clarify, I am adding $450 every paycheck, for now. But upping that to $500 come summer.



Likewise, I add up all the funds as such. I just came up with this spreadsheet though, to reconcile to my actual cash balances. Wouldn't you know it, I was only $2 off. So not bad (better than I expected). I will probably try this method going forward.

I figured it is probably not terribly prudent to share all the balances I have at each of my financial institutions (down to the penny). So I blacked out all the names. I have 2 online savings accounts, a local savings account, and a CD with that same bank (the famed 5.7% CD I have through the end of the year).

Likewise, I have 2 balance transfers I am still earning interest off of.



Of course, since most of that is in a CD, and I don't have a lot of liquid cash, the 7% CD offer from Patelco CU is rather tempting, but hard to justify for now. I probably have more that I would like tied up in my CD as is. I guess 5.7% isn't half bad though.

On the flip side, my overtime bonus is due soon. I think $5k is about my comfort level. The bare minimum I prefer to have in liquid cash at all times. But I expect to be there within the end of the month, with my bonus.

OF course, how lucky is it that the one year I have a 4-figure IRS bill is the one year the IRS wants to send me $1800. I call that lucky. I would have much preferred to plump up my other savings, etc. But yeah, it saves my bacon.

Finally, I keep my emergency fund spread out in a few different places. So keeping track of that as well:



My goal is to let the interest in my ROTH cash account (ROTH EFUND) accrue to $7k cash. Then it will be easy to keep $5k cash for the rest of my efund.

Likewise, once my ROTH cash hits $7k, I will divert the interest on it to my retirement "bucket." Will invest it.

I have $1350 of my efund in my checking account to pay bills earlier (less running to the bank on payday). But down the road I will probably use my mid-term fund for that. It's not a great place for an efund, though I am not particularly concerned about it either. I have no desire to drain my efund, no matter where it is.

I just wanted to discuss my method of saving for different things (different buckets).

I don't think I have the easiest or the best method. But just wanted to share for anyone curious. & to clarify for any blog readers.

Of course, I try to keep a minimal amount of accounts/savings goals. It would drive me nuts to save for like 10 little things. I don't see the point of being so exact. (Much of my philosophy comes from being an accountant. Simpler is good, and being exact is often a waste of time. As long as I am close!). Likewise, I track everything in excel and I probably find it quite simple in an accountant kind of way. I am sure this may be a bit complex for non-accountants. But to me, it just makes sense.

I guess the first thing I have done is defined my savings buckets. Instead of cars, vacations, insurance, and specific things, I divide my savings buckets as follows:

*Short-Term Savings
*Mid-Term Savings
*Long-Term Savings
*Retirement
*Medical Savings
*Emergency Fund

Short-Term Savings

I started this fund last year and added up all of my insurances and property taxes, and divided by 12. I actually came up with a whopping $800/month (rounded up a bit) and found after a full year that it was quite sufficient. I pulled money out for some smaller things throughout the year.

So this year I am adding $1k/month to this fund. It's a work in progress, but I feel like I am about there (with getting this figured out). I am tending to pay all one-time bills, no matter how big or small, out of this account. This year I added subscriptions and auto registartion, etc. Just little stuff like that - I had plenty of room in the $800/month. The additional $200/month is for vacations, car repairs, and christmas expenses, etc. All the stuff I reasonably expect to spend in the year, but that come generally only once or twice a year. In my head I am thinking, approximately $500 for christmas, $1k for vacation, etc. I don't track each expense much beyond that. We always do vacation and christmas budgets though. So we know we aren't going to suddenly spend way too much this year and blow our savings out of the water.

This fund needs to be $1k on January 1 to fund all of the early year expenses. So if I have any money left at 12/31, over $1k, I will transfer it to retirement or other savings (the excess). Last year was year 1 with this method, and we drained the account to $0 come Christmas. So we took $1k christmas cash to give it a kickstart for 2008. (I'd prefer not to do it, but it's our backup plan. It works).

Mid-Term Savings

We have always paid cash for our cars. However, we have historically not paid much for our cars OR we had a hefty second income to pay for them.

Likewise, we have never spent a lot on house repairs/appliances, etc. Certainly not since we have been on one income. Part of our goals was to buy a newer home that needed little work, so we could save for maintenance in the long run. I know this is not a fool-proof plan. But we have been in this house 6 years and have put hardly any money into it. So I would say it has paid off for us.

Anyway, without the second income we were used to, and wads of cash, we had to come up with a plan. So we are trying to save up $5k/year towards our next car purchase and for things like house maintenance, painting the exterior, replacing appliances down the road, etc. I'd say ideally 50% of this is car fund and 50% of this is house fund. IT may have more to it in the future (other expenses/goals), and ideally we'll add more as well. But we keep this money liquid, in cash, and it's a start for us.

We are funding it right now with interest earned off of our emergency fund and other cash. We are also funding it with overtime and windfalls. Overtime and interest equates to about $5k/year, so where we started.


Long-Term Savings

We don't have any money in our long-term savings right now. I think mostly this is money we save that can not be put in an official tax-deferred retirement account. Any money we save beyond official retirement, we have discussed using for college, for early retirement, for enjoying more (nicer vacations? nicer toys?) and/or a contra-mortgage account. We think about how if dh returns to work we will be able to save way more than our retirement plans allow, and where this account comes in. Likewise, with future raises and all that, it's still quite a possibility on one income.

But for now, it's just a dream.

Retirement

Retirement is an easy bucket to keep track of. For now it is 50% in ROTHs and 50% in my employer's plan. But it's all our tax-deferred, aggressively invested investments.

We try to invest a minimum percentage of income, and consider windfalls for maxing out.

Medical Savings

I know, I know. I don't want a lot of buckets. But we switched to a HDHP this year, and our premiums lowered by $250/month in exchange for a $3k deductible. $250 x 12 = $3k, so we have been saving the difference to fund the cash on hand to cover our deductible. In an IDEAL world we will get this to $3k and just tack it on to our emergency fund. If we get to that point, we will divert the $250/month savings elsewhere. Retirement or mid-term...

We are only 4 months into this health plan, and I think we have spent all the deductible we have saved. So this medical savings may be around for a while. I dream of diverting some of that money and saving it. Maybe getting ahead.

Reality is we'll probably spend our deductible every year.

Emergency Fund

I almost forgot the emergency fund. Which is good. I don't really consider it part of our liquid savings, and don't think much about it.

The emergency fund is 3 months of expenses saved up in cash. I actually keep some of it in a ROTH. We always keep a minimum of $5k in the liquid cash account. The rest is in the ROTH, for now. When we have more money, sure we'll keep all of our emergency fund in cash. For now, I couldn't give up the 2007 IRA contribution, so we diverted it to a ROTH. That part of the emergency fund is like out of work for months or house is destroyed, kind of emergency fund. Those are really the emergencies we consider. Likewise, we find the odds extremely slim we would touch it. (My job is quite recession proof & I could hardly see any reason to be out of work more than a day with the current CPA shortage). So why we came up with just 3 months expenses, and why a lot of it is in our ROTH (in cash of course). Likewise, in tough time, a 0% loan from our parents (or low interest rate) is a pretty viable option. It's a big reason why I am not big on oodles of cash right now. Our family has decently deep pockets.

Oh, and I do have to add we have adequate disability and life insurance, etc.

For now though, the efund is doing double duty until we can build up our mid-term fund now. If we had a large expense tomorrow when it came to the car or house, we would have to dip in the efund. But with time we are getting past that. Likewise, with time, we will put more in our efund. For now, it's at the bare minimum I feel it needs to be, and I feel we have bigger fish to fry.

& so that explains all of our different savings buckets.

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Now, how do I track all these? Well the retirement fund is self-explanatory - those are all in their own accounts.

For the rest, I track them in excel.

I have a spreadsheet for the short-term savings. I add in my $500 every paycheck (for $1k/month) and then deduct all the short-term expenses out, as they come due.

Ideally I keep this in the low-interest savings linked to my checking account up to the first $1k, and then if it starts to accumulate, I transfer additional amounts to my online savings (higher interest).

For the emergency fund, mid-term and medical savings, I just track it all on one spreadsheet. I don't know why, just how it evolved. They are all more long-term savings, and I don't want to track 5 different spreadsheets.

But I just enter all the additions, interest every month, windfalls added, and $250 monthly medical contribution, minus any medical expenses. Then I subtotal each fund on the side, and make sure it equals the ending balance on my register.

As far as reconciling all my accounts, every month I just add up all my cash savings in my spreadsheets and make sure it equals all my cash savings accounts. IT it is close, wala. Once or twice a year I adjust it to my actual cash balance. (Will generally get off with small interest amounts that I don't track - like the 8 cents a month I earn on one small savings account).

& that's about it. It works for me, because I am pretty vigilant about reporting everything on my spreadsheet as I enter it in Quicken. So I have to say it is pretty rare when I miss something. Likewise, this method could be a nightmare to reconcile otherwise. But for me I don't spend a lot of time on it.

Likewise, I do use Quicken to track all of my finances.

Since I have a lot of buckets I am saving for monthly, and pulling money out of monthly, I do not make a transfer for each and every item. Money market accounts only allow you so many transfers a month, and I am afraid I would be way beyond.

So I enter everything in Quicken separately. $500/month to short-term savings with each paycheck. $250 to medical on the last day of each month. I actually have the balance transfers thrown in to complicate things. So I pull the money from savings to pay down the balance transfers (separate entry). & then I enter the reimbursements I need from the medical fund and the short-term savings, for these bills as they come due. All of this was a good 8 entries for MArch, for example.

Instead of doing 8 transfers, I try to date them all around mid-month and end-of month. I add up all the mid-month transfers, and figure out the net - if I need to pull money from savings, or transfer some in. Whatever the net is, is the transfer I do to/from my savings account.

I do the same thing at the end of the month.

Wala.

I like this method too because if I did forget to enter something in excel, I guess it wouldn't be too bad to reconcile. I try to record everything in Quicken as a separate item. Likewise, all my Quicken reports are in great detail. It is pretty easy to reconcile everything in Quicken as well. I imagine if I was reconciling my cash accounts by hand, that this could drive me nuts. But reconciling is usually just a click of the button (or 2 or 3).

I also have all of my regular savings transfers set up in Quicken. They pop up every month, so I won't forget them. I actually generally go through the first of every month and pay all the bills, enter all my paychecks for the month, and enter all the regular savings/retirement transfers (pay myself first). So though it may seem like a lot to remember, there isn't a lot to remember. Quicken remembers for me. I chose $1k/month for my short-term savings because it was easy, more than any other reason. I mean it covers everything, but I rounded up considerably for easiness.

This way, it is kind of a complex system, but it is actually pretty simple in execution.

However, as an accountant, I have to say a plain old paper/pencil system doesn't cut it for me. I like the advancedness (is that a word?) of something like Quicken, coupled with its ease of use. & that is certainly the accountant in me. I want to easily manipulate all my data and generate reports any which way with the click of a button. & I appreciate the time savings of an electronic system. Since most of my entries every month are recurring, it really doesn't take more than a few minutes to pay all my bills every month and track them in Quicken.

Anyway, this is a long entry, so I will share snapshots of my excel sheets, in my next post.

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I just had to add too, we used to be great savers, but we had no method to our savings. I think a lot of it was we were saving for either very specific things (down payment on a home) or very unknown things, like a cash cushion for life on one income and with maternity leaves.

Likewise, in the past we had a lot of cash and savings, but didn't use it as efficiently as we should have. Not a lot of long-term planning - beyond the tomorrow. IF we had, I really think we would have much more cash remaining today.

So, I just had to add this method has made life tremendously easier. Every dollar has a name, and it makes budgeting easier. There is also a bigger, more long-term, complete picture to all of our savings. & well, that makes a lot more sense.

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ETA: I just had to add that I have heard of Quicken Virtual subaccounts and I personally find them WAY too complicated.

Likewise, I saw this post which did give me an idea:

http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/07/17/several-funds-one-...

I think this was makes way more sense. I have to rework my spreadsheet, but makes sense. I actually do this on my investment accounts already. So I Can track contributions and performance separately (dh's and mine) but also look at the "big picture" total.

Duh, why didn't I think of that for my cash accounts?

I read something this week about how people are really bad budgeting month to month, but were generally good at budgeting on an annual basis. Just interesting, as I tend to be more big picture, and look at things at more of an annual level. The month to month doesn't really matter so much to me. I mean I am not going to get caught up in the fact that I had a LOT of expenses in April, and my short-term savings account is negative right now. Mostly well known and planned for... In April my summary will be UGLY as I will have expended $4k in one-time bills. But that's okay. May/June tend to be pretty low expense months, by contrast...

IT helps me to look at the big picture.

Reminds me I read a comment before about not having "typical months." I agree - I never have a typical month. But we do tend to have typical years. Which I guess is a perfect example of what the article tried to say. (Likewise, if we had a large emergency, we would likely cut back on other expenses for the rest of the year, etc. Our budget is very flexible, and I think that is another reason. If you have some expensive months early in the year, I think people tend to reign in more later in the year then, etc.)

Anyway, without further ado - here's March (just one small slice of my year):



Allowance - $0 - I just noticed dh and I didn't spend any of our discretionary money this month. Weird. LOL.

Auto - $650 repairs/maintenance & $200 fuel (was a good month for us - no long trips - phew). Car repairs paid from short-term savings.

Childcare - an extra $100 this month. LM went to school one day when dh was sick. & we also registered for a drop-in childcare and tried it out. Which was an AWESOME splurge - to get a date out. We are committed to one date a month (even if we can only afford the childcare, and stay home. It's not the going out, but the childcare which is SO nice).

I just sent off the preschool payment for April, and only 2 full months (of 2) to go. I tell you, I am thrilled.

Dining - $20 my lunches out for the month. $10 was a lunch date dh and I had Monday actually. WE are going to start up twice a month. Oh - and almost $30 on our sushi date. We splurged on a trip to McDs to get the kids out of the house early in the month. So it was a more spendy than usual month in this regard, but this is going to go up with our effort to enjoy more. Lunch dates if nothing else - $20/month for 2 lunch dates are not bad. This week we had buffet at Round Table - it was a pretty good deal - 2 for $10 (and sodas).

We dropped the cloth diaper service which was $50/month and kind of find we have some room in the budget. & I think dining/dates is the area we feel most deprived. So where we decided to put that money.

& with the economy we have coupons out our ears (particularly lunch which is why we are trying to take advantage when kids are in school anyway). This is a perfect example when things go bad for everyone else, the frugal prevail. I just feel like life is better/easier lately.

Entertainment - monthly blockbuster

Groceries - pretty average month - includes a lot of household stuff

Household - gardener - I still LOVE our gardener.

Medical - insurance premiums and around $200 in prescriptions/appointments/medical tests

Misc - some toys, some easter stuff, some household items from the dollar store. A trip to the movies. & $130 for a show. (We usually budget $150 here, but we were way under on the gas budget and we had extra income to pay for the show).

Personal Care - I got a haircut (rare, indeed)

Utilities - down because I had a free month on my cell phone ($80 off), and the water company did not bill water. They said they were ready to meter water late last year, but they don't seem very prepared for me. Took forever to get set up, and then last month they didn't even bill me for water? We'll see... They generally bill every other month and had been for a short while. Just not on my bill the last 2 months. Strange.

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*As you see, we deposited $100 to our ROTHs. (1.5% income)

*Earned $625 in work retirement plan. (10% income)

*We added $250 to our medical fund and pulled out $130 for doctor visits. We still have not received a bill from the ambulance/emergency room early in the year. ??? But I now have the cash to cover it... (I think!)

*Added $100 interest to our mid-term savings fund.

*Paid off one balance transfer, leaving 2 (which is why we are earning so much interest - all the balance transfers). Interest will go down next month.

*Saved $900 for short-term bills (& this account was drained, and then some, for April, already).

I think that about covers it...

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I went through and paid all the April bills. I am waiting for the water bill (the one that always comes rather late - will come on the 15th and be due the 20th - just how it seems to be. Drives me nuts). Also, waiting on the final credit card #. I think we might hit $2k this month. Which doesn't help me - we get a bonus if we hit $2k each of the next 3 months. Who knew March would be such a spendy month...

But card closes tomorrow and we have no plans to spend anything until Friday. We'll see...

April cash flow looks good. We want to get the carpets cleaned and I have some cash in the bank for that - as well as for a trip to the ATM for our outing next weekend.

(I still can't believe we splurged so much last month and it was all well within budget. Was a nice month).

Well, my net worth is up about $2k for the quarter. Not bad...

Mortgage - paid $933
Cash - Up $1333

& that is most of it. My investments are quite breakeven. We put in $2100 this year (to retirement) and that looks about exactly how much we have lost in the market this year.

Down about 5%? (Rough guess from those numbers. My investments include a decent amount of cash. I know my mutual funds are all down more than that. But the cash is helping I guess).

I wasn't really sure what to expect.

Second quarter is always a good quarter for us, as I get my overtime bonus. This year we will get the stimulus rebate as well.

Likewise, $2k/quarter is about the minimum I would want to be at, as far as net worth progress. So I am relieved it wasn't worse! & expect a pretty solid second quarter (as we will plump up our cash savings considerably).

Here's to the second quarter!!

I also updated my cash balances to the left. In April I am mailing out $4k in checks - IRS, property taxes, and life insurance. Anyway, so I have a big fat negative in my short-term savings for the interim, but generally don't touch it in May or June (so will replenish it soon enough). Plus $1k or so for the IRS was completely unexpected, and I am using the stimulus payment to replenish $1k of the short-term fund, when it arrives.

I guess the money comes out of the efund in the interim. (For the long-term I expect the mid-term fund to float negatives in the short-term fund. Just inevitable since the short-term fund is an escrow I budget annually, but the expenses fall where they may. Since it also covers the unexpected. Ideally it does. I just don't have much money in that mid-term fund yet. Soon enough...).

I'll look at my Quarter 1 Net Worth progress after all my interest posts Monday/Tuesday.

I don't expect much. (same as 12/31? loss?)

We'll see.

The credit card also closes Friday, so a little premature to start summarizing expenses. Though overall, we had a lot of "unexpected" bills this month. I felt like we were well prepared and, even more importantly, I felt we have had more wiggle room in our budget lately. This month most noteable, even with all the medical, daycare, car expenses.

Which is good.

Of course, I try not to get too excited, because this time of year we are always both busy and sick. Not a lot of going out and having fun. Certainly makes the budget easier! We'll see how we fare in summer...

OF course, we were going to go on a 2-hour hike a couple of weekends ago, but dh fell ill. We are going to try again tomorrow. So far it looks like the weather will be okay.

We all went to the park Thursday I believe, and the weather was DIVINE. Since it has cooled off and we even ran the heat a little bit. Today is gloomy and wet. I hope tomorrow is the sunny 65-degree weather promised. We'll see... IT's hard to do much with just one free day a week, at the whim of the weather...

On the flip side, I have had TERRIBLE allergies ever since we moved here. This year - nada/nothing. ??? I mean the last 5 years were horrid in the spring. I maybe only had bouts with allergies once or twice where I grew up, and for specific reasons. So I have been pretty miserable here.

Anyway, I kept telling dh that maybe it was early, but not a thing. Usually I can't go outside on Easter because my eyes get so irritated. But I wondered aloud if it hasn't struck yet because Easter was early.

Anyway, dh just read that pollen counts were at a very high level this year. So I find that interesting. Though I wonder if it is not the pollen, but something else. There are many other allergens. So we'll see. So far so good (knock on wood). I have even questioned the sanity of getting a convertible down the road (you know, my dream) because I have to admit when I had one, I didn't use it as much up here. Weather is just too extreme (From what I Am used to anyway - used to 70s year-round) and in the spring I had to keep the top up and the windows shut with my allergies. So this gives me hope. Maybe I am acclimating!

I also told the kids I would treat them to IHOP. So we were thinking that would be good to refuel after our hike tomorrow.

Seems like we have been getting more restaurant coupons than usual (with the economy) and we will certainly take advantage! Trying to go home for lunch dates more with dh. But we have a coupon for buy one buffet/get one free - for Round Table pizza. Was going to use last week but didn't pan out. Will try next week again. We have the same coupon for a new Japanese buffet. A little further out, but I want to try it. Much cheaper at lunch, and we already pay for the kids' care anyway, during some weekdays. So trying to take advantage more.

IF we can lunch out like that for under $20/month, while the kids are in school? Indeed!!! This is the one thing I miss with the kids. We just don't have the money to eat out much. & I find great pleasure in squeezing these kind of dates in.

Likewise, every other week we can have a lunch date at home. Those are nice too. Just nice to have quiet time together. So rare!

The following weekend, MIL is taking LM for a few days, and we figured we would leave BM at daycare for a few hours on a Saturday so we could get some time out. We keep getting coupons for this drop-in care place and the kids LOVED it. So, woohoo. One free hour and will pay $7/hour for just the one, to leave for a few hours.

Not bad. He has been begging for a return visit. For now we are trying to utilize the place for date night once a month. Maybe more once BM graduates preschool. (Twice a month?).

But the weekend will be busy. We picked that date since I will be in the Bay Area next Sunday. So dh will meet his mom 1/2 way to drop off LM during the week, and I will pick him up Sunday. I think she has not offered to babysit so much lately due to gas. Certainly why we have not asked. IT has popped into mind, we consider the gas, and quickly change our minds... Meeting half way is a 120-mile round trip.

So this will be nice. Fitting the pick-up in with an already planned trip.

For Sunday, I am taking BM to the Holi Festival again this year. It was so fun last year and we are hooked. Great Indian Food, lots of fun, and a big mess. It's a spring celebration where everyone throws this colored powder on each other. LAst year was my first time and I took a friend. We have been looking forward to it again. Woohoo. I am not sure who had more fun, us or the kids? This year we are bringing more people, will caravan down. We'll see how it goes.

The busyness at work is REALLY winding down. It's a tad early, but I am quite stoked. Plus it is only like a month to my big summer vacation. Woohoo!

April is usually busy because I am so behind on everything (regular, non-tax work, and April/May deadlines). But I am pretty caught up and don't expect to work too much overtime in April. I think 2 more Saturdays will do it. I know my family can not wait. Working 40 hours after tax season always seems so easy. Like a calm, relaxing work schedule. So I look forward to it too, of course.

We'll see though. Anything can happen... Just don't want to get too optimistic, too soon...

In the meantime, I am enjoying the pace. I certainly don't mind the overtime either - it will go a long way to fund our savings. I'll get a nice OT bonus in the next month or so. KEeps me going strong all these weekends...

I am SO cash poor right now too. (For my comfort level anyway). So OT bonuses and stimulus payments will go a long way to replenish our reserves. Phew.

Well, several financial things running through my head today that I Realized I haven't mentioned much about.

Firstly, my coworker mentioned recently something about paying individuals through online bill pay. I am not sure why, but I knew I could do this, but never thought to. She brought it up so I looked at it. I entered my gardener and the preschool's phone #s and they immediately pop up. Someone at my CU had already payed both of them, so that was that. Entered their phone # and I was set.

This will save me almost $5/year in stamps for the gardener (I had taken to mailing the checks since it was unpredicatble when I would see him).

The preschool? I usually hand it over, so just one LESS check to write every month.

I am estatic! Kind of like a duh, why didn't I think of this sooner.

My CU is happy to print out the checks AND mail them for me, all at no charge.

Be my guest!

Along with me trying my darnedest not to use cash ever again, this makes for a very cashless/checkless month.

OF course, I did write checks out of my online savings account because I knew I could write them, get them all ready, pop them in the mail closer to the due date, and they would probably clear afterwards. (IRS and property taxes - rather large). More interest for me. So though I could have transferred the money to my checking and done online bill pay, I chose not to. I'll earn a lot more interest, phew.

So still a few checks for me...

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Also, when I first joined the site and was less organized, I found if I kept extra money in my checking, it would just get spent.

Bad news.

I have been aiming to run my balance to $0 and transfer any excess to savings, very purposefully. Sure, I can spend it, but it is a little extra step than just spending all the money in my account. Likewise, I have been saving more with this mindset. Extra to savings, not splurging.

Anyway, in the course of all this I took out most of the float in my checking account and put it in savings. IT helped me reach my efund goal sooner. Instead of paying bills when I got them I started paying them on the due date instead.

Overall, I am fine with this. BUT I find myself running my paycheck to the bank now (which I have never had to do before, I could wait days/weeks before if I wanted). IT primarily drives me nuts with them mortgage and credit cards. The due date is a little too close to paydate and it makes me nervous every single month. Always the worst case in my head, what if I don't get to the bank with my paycheck in time?

Anyway, I have never lived like this before, and likewise, I am VERY tired of it. LOL.

By the same token, I also feel like our budget is way under control. So one day I was just wishing I had a $1300 windfall and I would pop it in the bank and start paying my credit card and mortgage early again. Then I thought, well. If I could be disciplined, I could transfetr $1300 from my efund to do so, transferring it into my checking account. I think I really could be good about not touching it.

But it would completely eliminate the need to RUN to the bank every payday.

So I thought, this sounds mighty nice. I'm giving it a whirl. We'll see how it goes.

I am sure it will be fine. At some point though I am just going to have a goal to keep an extra $1500 in there or something just because. For the long term no, that is not where I Want my efund to be. & I will lose a little interest (though I guess not much these days). So we'll see... But in the short term, a piece of the efund will do the trick.

I just have to add this is EXTREMELY psychological. It has nothing to do with my budget. IT's just since I put that $1300 in my efund, it got me to my goal much faster. & I am working on other goals now. I have no desire to work on my efund right now. !! (Though this is the first place any unexpected windfall would go!!)

Likewise, I guess I can justify "borrowing it" from my efund more than I could see draining it to make life easier. BEcause them my efund would drop below the goal, and that is depressing!

However, if I was bad and I overspent what was in my checking account, well it would have come from the efund anyway. Right?

So in the end nothing has changed except I made my life a little easier and lost interest on $1300 of my efund. We'll see though.

I don't think the money in my checking account will make me any more inclined to spend it. But it could. If so, I guess the price to pay will be running to the bank every payday. But if I am more inclined to spend it there, well, yeah, that is just psychological too.

I just wanted to be clear it is one big psychological mess. LOL. Which in the ends really makes little difference. !!
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Beyond all that, I am pondering my net worth. My holy grail of net worth is this article:

http://www.emarotta.com/article.php?ID=165

If nothing else, a good starting point and a practical way of measuring progress.

The jist is between ages 40 and 60, you should save 1/2 of your annual spending every year. Well, your net worth should grow by that much every year. Which is very different than your savings I guess. Though I am a good decade younger, I have been aiming for that.

Of course, last year was a year of a windfalls and a great stock year. So the whole 50% thing was easy peasy.

This year is going to be really slow going.

I am trying to think of the givens:

$4k to mortgage (regular payments)
$8k work retirement
$4k ROTHs
$3k Savings
$2k Kids' Savings
($2k) Car Depreciation
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$19k Total?
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That's kind of the bare minimum I Expect, as long as I am working.

OF course, stock losses will likely take my net worth further down.

So I consulted the holy grail to see what the minimums were. Not sure I was pleased with them, but was rather refreshing.

BEtween age 30 & 35 my net worth only really needs to go up by 1/5 of my spending, every year?

My employers' retirement contributions and the regular mortgage payments has that down pat.

From age 35 to 39 it looks like you aim for 25% of spending every year (to increase your net worth by).

Then at 40 you get to 50%.

Well a $10k-$15k increase will mostly do the job for my true age range. I find that quite doable.

I think I can then be okay to take a little hit for bad stock years. Maybe age 30 was a little too agressive. Maybe I should commit to age 35 to start the 50% per year thing. I mean the thing is, sure, I made it last year. But just not at a sustainable level. Maybe by 35 the average of the good and bad stock years will get us there.

Of course, if I can pull the 50% thing, consistently, starting now, it will put our net worth at about $500k at age 40. I don't find that half bad at all.

Oh well, it suddenly doesn't feel so dire if we don't make our net worth goal this year. But I will still try my darnedest - that is for sure!!! My goal has been more in the $25k-$30k range. & that is certainly what I will shoot for.

To remove the whole housing volatility out of it I just valued my home at assessed value (pretty close to what we paid and far below current market rates). We'll see. I wouldn't rule out having to decrease that either. But of course hoping and optimisitc it won't come to that. The market is a big yo you right now. Low prices got close but then buyers started to move in and snatch up the low prices, and drove up prices again, so who knows. I never counted much on home equity before and I am certainly not trying to track it now. !!

Which puts our net worth at about 50% cash paid into our house and 50% retirement/savings. It's just too depressing not to count all the cash we have paid into our house. I have to count that for now. Over time, it will matter less (should be a much smaller piece of our net worth, with time!!). But yeah, all that is how I arrived at using assessed value. IT goes up something like 1.5% every year. Whereas our house went up 100% in value, and then down 40% in the last few months. Who can keep track??? What a roller coaster... I try to keep that out of all my goal tracking. IF we end up with a lot of equity, even better. But not exactly holding my breath.

I am looking at the credit card and am so confused. I feel like we have spent spent spent but it looks like we could have money to spare this month.

Huh?

LOL.

It's just, weird.

Our budget is considerably relaxed, this year, or we are just adjusting well. (I mean the budget #s haven't changed. Just feels like we have more).

I've already said it 2 or 3 times. But yeesh.

Of course the one thing killing our budget end of last year was all the trips to see family (like every weekend for 2 or 3 months). That's a fine line. We have talked a few times about going to see my nieces or this or that. Which is far more important than money. But gas prices have been getting SO ugly. It's hard to justify during busy tax season anyway, but we have to think seriously about our driving come summer.

Likewise, I asked dh why his mom had not offered to take a kid in a while (she usually begs). I was about to say call and offer her a grandkid for a few days (please!!). Then we started talking about the logistics. The gas. Even if we just met 1/2 way as we have been tending to do.

I said, nevermind. That's one expensive babysitter when you factor the 120-mile distance. LOL. By the same token I imagine it's why she hasn't offered.

Well, this weekend wasn't so hot. Dh wasn't feeling well. While I was at work Saturday he took the kids to the movies. I didn't even ask because I didn't want to know (the cost). But I saw on the card today it was only $14. I forgot LM was free. IT wasn't so bad.

LM did good, sat through the movie and all. Getting to a better movie age. They saw the Dr. Seuss movie.

When I came home dh wasn't doing so hot so I went to the store to pick up some things and made sloppy joes for dinner.

Sunday I had a lot planned, but started feeling like I was coming down with something. (Never amounted to much, so I am thinking it is the dreaded allergies. If so, certainly milder than usual. That's the only good I can say about that. My allergies are just TERRIBLE here - though never really suffered back home).

Every year I look so forward to spring and then I quickly wish it was OVER. LOL. Just still not used to it.

Anyway, Sunday I took the kids to the doctor to get BM's TB test read. He's all certified for school.

We then went to Fairytale Town (a cute little glorified park we have membership too). We hadn't been since fall (just too cold/wet) but we generally go every week or 2 in the milder seasons. I was surprised when we got there to see how PACKED it was. They had easter egg hunts every hour which the kids really enjoyed (lord knows why. Too many people; not enough eggs. LOL). But they loved it and LM got a little bunny "pencil topper" - pretty much what it looks like. He hasn't let it out of his sight since then. HE is in love with his bunny. BM got some jelly beans which he quickly devoured.

I had packed a lunch but could not resist the nachos. Got a nacho and a soda and we all shared each other's food. I am not sure I would have if I had remembered how expensive it was. The day cost $4 for my nachos/soda. Yikes.

In the evening I just heated up hot dogs for the kids. & did the laundry and dishes and all that stuff. Ugh, exhausted!!!!!!

At work the topic often comes up who has time to do anything like shop, cook, run errands... I always say I don't need time for that. That's what my house hubby is for. Listening to them talk I feel like I have the most free time of anyone. (I mean I look at time with my kids as fun time mostly). Likewise, they all say they shouldn't complain because I have small kids and must have it the worst. (Meanwhile dh takes care of most of the household "work" so I don't have to worry about much).

Of course the same people are always constantly asking when he is returning to work. They just don't get it in the least. I don't want to give up my house hubby for nothing! They always look at me like I have a third eye when I say, well, no plans for him to return to work. Not sure if he ever will...

Just not a priority over here. Nor a necessity.

I think mostly they are sick of hearing how I am not miserable like the rest of them. LOL.

Anyway, yesterday dh was still ill, but the kids went to preschool. After I picked them up we went by the store and picked up some chips and chili for my famous "chili, chips and cheese." The kids renamed it to "silly chips and cheese" last night.

I took pitty on dh and cooked the beef stroganoff he was going to attempt. (A new one in our cook book). He looked awful. As I chopped onions I told him I must really love him (oh my poor eyes - I just can't stand onions). But it didn't turn out half bad, and was rather simple. I'll have to scan the recipe and share.

Even with my horrid cooking skills, it was edible. LOL.

I think dh will draw the line at letting me serve dinner tonight though. I was not raised on fruits & veggies and wouldn't have a clue where to start. So my meals did lack well roundedness. Though I did serve the kids grapes with their hotdogs (they asked. LOL).

So dh is chomping at the bit to cook some real dinners and get us back on track. Hehe.

Oh anyway, we were going to go on a decent hike Sunday, but that fell through with the sickies. I guess we'll try weekend after next. Now I remember why we never do anything like that. Seems like there is always something!!!

Oh, and all that talk about gas. Dh's mom is IRish and she is coming up to cook us corned beef and cabbage tonight, late St. PAtty's dinner. (They are going up to their cabin 1 hour away because they got a large electric bill so think the heat was left on or something). So they will be driving by and know dh loves his St. PAtricks Day dinner. Spoiled guy. Plus all his family is coming up Sunday for Easter, at his cousin's house. Usually we do most of the driving, so this is nice for a change.

http://monkeymama.savingadvice.com/newusedfree-2008.html

Dh and I both allow each other $50/month to spend on whatever. No strings, no guilt, no questions asked. IT's incredibly freeing.

I think it is important to have that. Something just to not care or worry about. Even better when you are married and there are some things you just don't understand why your spouse buys!!!

Anyway, on my sidebar I have a page called "New/Used/Free 2008" where I just try to keep a compilation of what comes into the house and what goes out of the house. It is rather motivating for me to keep things flowing out. (We have some piles of stuff to sell and do need to go through and donate some older toys, etc.)

So I just updated the list for March.

I have a few totally unnecessary items, but those are my guilt-free allowance stuff. As dh has his as well (sure you will be able to figure out whose is whose.

This year dh has been spending a LOT on the kids. We are working through it. Well, it is not a lot of money and not breaking the budget. But it is driving me nuts in efforts to purge. So yeah - all the kids stuff is dh. (Except Elmo which I explained recently. LOL). & I think dh might cool it. (He also said he would return some of the Easter crap since he bought a race track for the kids last week).

I don't include groceries and consumable things. Just the other stuff, that stays around FOREVER.

Well, and a raise helps too. LOL.

I just had to say, knock on wood, everything is going so smoothly this year.

I think even I can take more credit than the raise, because a lot of our expenses have risen this year. Much more than my raise.

Anyway, I feel like the budget is a work in progress, and has gotten considerably easier with time.

So I just had to share. Keep with it, it does get easier.

Likewise, I don't think about it too much. Historically we have set up a budget when life changes, but we kind of fine tune things and buckle down, and then we mostly keep it in our heads. It works for us. I just don't think there has been ever been a time we had fallen so behind. So this round has taken considerable work. But I feel after a good 12 months that it has gotten considerably easier.

That's pretty much all I have been doing, and have been getting looser with time. Yet as we get looser our spending has gotten better. I know how much we have to spend on x, y, z. I don't spend a lot of time beating myself up if I was a penny over, or keeping track of each line item if I am under month to month. I just don't think overall it's good to spend a lot of time with this stuff. I guess I much prefer the "automatic" philosophy. I think your finances should really just be in the background. Not that you don't care for it and nurture it, but I don't see the point of thinking about it 24/7 either. Though I admit I spend way more time on it anyway because the whole thing is a hobby of mine. If I didn't like this stuff? Well I wouldn't be blogging here, for sure.

When discussing the benefits of HSAs, and 529s and ROTHs with dh he said the other day, "You make things so complicated." I had to laugh. I said, "No. The IRS does!!!" I just thought that was extra funny because I try to keep our budget and savings plans rather simplistic. I am sure they are complicated in an accountant sort of way, but likewise I am a very big picture person. I am not going to have 20 savings categories, I am just going to make sure we save enough for our long-term goals and our short-term goals. I am not going to count every penny either. The beauty I find with having cash is the flexibility it brings. If our priorities change and we want to go on a big vacation next year, we have the flexibility to say we will buy a much more modest car the next go round. I prefer that to saving x for cars and y for vacations and having 20 different things to save for.

So, I told dh I was actually quite simple. But he doesn't buy it. Of course I want to maximize the tax-deferred savings options, to our advantage. Which does make it complicated. But man, all that wasn't my idea - the government has made it all so complicated!!

Anyway, our finances are moving much more to the background and I think I am 10 times happier for it. This is the part I like to get across; that when dh and I both worked, and we just saved his income? We hardly thought about money, or worried about it, and didn't really need to. Well, my goal is to get back to that. Like I said, we will nurture and care for our finances. But they should be like a nice houseplant, not like an infant who needs 24/7 care.

Financial security can be quite relaxing!!!

I know personally we set the bar very high when we were younger. So I know a lot of people would read this blog and think, "gosh, that looks financially secure to me." But it's all relative I guess. I don't think we'll really "relax" until we get back to where we were a few years ago. But being so close I can taste it? The difference in how I feel is remarkable. I think my blog will take a much more relaxed tone as we get back to that bar. & as long as we can keep moving forward.

Which reminds me of something else I was thinking about the other day. Dh & I were raised quite frugally so a lot of what we do on a daily basis to save money is really just second nature to us. So I just had to add if you are new to this then maybe it will be a long while before a lot of it fades to the background. I have a good 20 years + practice, for the most part. But just another example of how practice makes perfect. If you stick with it? It does get easier with time.

& just to be clear we probably still do spend a lot of time on money saving endeavors. We just don't really think about it much. & that is the nice part.

-----------------------------------------

P.S. I saw this blog post a while back and thought it was really excellent:

http://www.freemoneyfinance.com/2008/03/how-to-be-wealt.html

There were quite a few things I have seen that I have not had time to post, and then forgotten where I saw them, etc. But this one was a standout.

I think this part was the most eye opening:

"Invest Second Salary:

I strongly recommend waiting six years before having children. By doing so, both husband and wife can work full-time. Choose to live on one salary and invest the entire other salary. In six years you will have $261,737 and a couple of choices.

You could choose to have a perpetual income of $39,261 created from the interest and dividends so you can stay home and raise your own children. What a blessing that would be for your family-and the nation!

Another choice would be to keep the interest invested and compounding and in 14 short years (20 years total), your investment."

Everything else in the article WE have personally done. & we even did the suggestion above to a small extent. But we put all that money into a house and a cash cushion. (Maybe $80k or so over 3 years working, before kids...)

If I had seen this article before kids? OR really thought about it? I think we would have paid off our house before kids, OR followed this advice.

However, on the flip side, I have no regrets today. Even doing this for one or two years can make such a difference. There is a lot to be said for having kids while young. So I had to throw out the other side as well.

Also, for when I hear the arguments against quitting a career, etc. Well, it's a lot easier to quit in the beginning and start over, than to build up a career and then leave for a decade, and then try to get back to it. I keep thinking dh might go back to school and/or start his career over at 35 or so. ????? HE didn't like his job anyway... A lot of people don't start a career until much later in life. I think we hardly feel worse for the ware. He'll still have a good 30 years to build a career and catch more money on the back end. IF we did the 6 year thing we would have just prolonged his misery at his old job. Likewise I wouldn't have had so much flexibility while the kids were so young. These days I just have so much responsibility at work. But it's easier to handle as the kids age.

Today if I could go back in time and save dh's salary for 6 years? I never would. I prefer where we are today. Though it sounds SO appealing. But my kids are everything to me. I wouldn't have these particular, awesome kids if I waited 6 years!!!! But saving it for about 3 years was key to getting us where we are today. So there is a lot of middle ground... Well, and there are always trade-offs.

Knock on wood, but we have been doing remarkably well with our budget.

I have also been listening to too much Dave Ramsey.

I had been long planning to divert $215/month come summer, from preschool, to IRAs. Then assuming an extra $100/month each year for raises, and another good $300 monthly come 2010, when LM graduates preschool.

This would get us to ROTH max in 2010. $10k/year...

However, it has also been bugging me that we were a tad behind on our mid-term savings. We have some catching up to do.

Anyway, so I had a talk with dh about it. We have a bad habit of me making too many financial decisions, though I usually keep him abreast. It works for us. But not necessarily the best. So since I was struggling with what to do, we had a chat.

I was thinking maybe we should bulk up our cash savings a bit more and then work on retirement.

I also started thinking maybe we should only focus on 15% to retirement, before focusing on maxing out. There really is such thing as saving TOO MUCH for retirement. I worry if we will suffer in other ways. My goal is to never borrow another dime again, for one. Likewise, we need some more cash cushion to achieve this. Anyway, I have been listening to too much Dave Ramsey and started thinking about this. Since he recommends 15% to retirement, then college and mortgage (though I mostly don't agree with that plan).

Anyway, dh and I found some middle ground.

I was concerned because we have NEVER made retirement a priority. I have been trying, but it seems like there is always somthing. IT's kind of harsh to put it that way, because I don't think there is anything better we could have done financially than made it a priority to buy a home while it was really inexpensive. (Likewise, not wasting money on rents for much of our 20s/30s).

So I feel that was a good move to help us in retirement. We plan to have a paid off house in our mid 40s. Most of our peers have $500k mortgages/ARMs likewise. (Or just insane rents). So I am really pleased in the spot we are in and how we have kept our housing costs considerably down. (Keeping in mind this is just how it is in the area).

But it seemed like we put a LOT of effort to getting into a house with 20% down. A LOT of effort to being home with the kids. & the last 2 years was just a LOT of effort to build back up our cash savings.

We have always had 10% of my pay going to retirement, and usually thrown a few thousand into the IRAs every year. But it's always been an afterthought, or a tax savings strategy. OR just something we're s'posed to do...

Not a lot of thought to retirement.

So I found myself thinking I didn't want to put more to retirement this year (than the 12% we already are). That I really wanted to build up some more cash.

But I worry if this is how I will always feel. Seems like there is always, well, "let's do this first, then we'll hit retirement hard!"

So I discussed with dh and feel we came up with a good solid plan.

Dh agreed with my fears and felt with the efund in cash that I am way too focused on cash. & that we need to change our mindset about retirement. Just put it a priority.

I argue that we need some cash savings on top of the efund though. That I don't want to touch it.

The middle ground we came up with is to contribute 5% of my salary to retirement, as a goal starting in August when BM is done with preschool. On top of my employer's 10%, will put us at a good 15% contribution rate. I Am going to consciously set aside 5% of every raise and bonus as well. (As my boss will set aside 10%).

We'll go with that for this year. Next year we will put away 5% of my raise.

The year after that we will raise our contribution to 6%. & raise it 1% a year until we max out. (Or perhaps more if we feel it is feasible, like the year LM is done with preschool we can up it an extra couple of percentages). But it sets a minimum goal if other things come up.

So basically, all that cash is going to retirement, and we are making it a priority. We agreed to make it a priority to always put 15% minimum to retirement, going forward.

It's kind of what we have been averaging the last decade anyway, but the difference is we now have the commitment. If we had made this commitments sooner, we could be contributing much more today. That I certainly feel.

This also means if my job situation changes, we will have to come up with 15%. Which we should be able to do.

For now we are taking advantage of my boss's "match" and bulking up our cash savings. For the long-term we have no plans to rely on his 10%. But in the interim we will certainly use to our advantage. IT will allow us to freedom to bulk up our cash a bit.

We also set a limit for our cash savings, at $30k. That would be a good solid 3-month emergency and medical fund. & would be a good $15k liquid cash, in addition, for our next car purchase. Likewise, if I Was out of work for 6 months with no income? We could forego the nice car next time around. So it would be a good, solid emergency fund.

Anything above that we will start to invest. Starting with a balanced fund.

Likewise, as long as we are hitting 15% to retirement, any windfalls will go to bulk up our cash to the $30k level.

At that point our focus will shift more to retirement, though I would like to fund a good $3k/year or so to taxable investments for my future car and stuff around the house, etc. I mostly plan to fund that from my overtime though, and our situation should lend us to also be able to max out our ROTHs starting in late 2010.

So overall, our goals are the same. We are just kind of prioritizing them, and also fine tuning some things.

We still won't give the mortgage a second thought until our retirement is maxed out. But any windfalls/extras is pretty much earmarket to retirement up to the max, and then the mortgage. It's exciting for me to think of paying down the mortgage faster. We hit it so hard up front, and it will be nice to get to that again. We haven't been able to justify extra money to the mortgage since we have been down on one income. So it's nice to see it once again on the horizon. In the distance anyway...

Anyway, mostly with what I have been struggling with lately, is just how to best maximizie our financial situation. There are probably 100 different ways we could approach things that would be just dandy. I find the sheer amount of options to be mind boggling. So that's why I say this is where it gets tricky!!!!!

Dh and I have always been very careful with our money and mostly savvy savers. BUT we have never really planned for much beyond the next 5 years or so. Seems like coming out of college we had so many short-term goals. & that would be my biggest regret, not thinking more big picture. IF we had, we would be maxing out our IRAs today and have little money whoas. But anyway, I really look forward to this next stage in our lives, thinking more about the big picture and planning forward for it.

So that is our plan for now. VERY subject to change....

I have mentioned many times before that we don't use cash for the most part.

Anyway, I roll my eyes at the idea that just because you have a credit card you spend more. Sure, may be true for many. But I find quite the opposite.

I earn 2%, on average, on every credit card purchase I make.

It is easy to track. When I spent more cash, I have to tell you I had NO IDEA where most of my money went. Now with the magic of online banking and Quicken I know where every penny goes. With pretty much no effort on my part. (That's the best part. I don't have to write anything down).

Likewise, we have a budget and we know how much we have to spend. Whether we use credit or cash, doesn't make a difference.

HOWEVER.

There is a BUT here.

I keep cash for my fast food/junk food purchases. My small luxury I guess. We don't have a lot of room for eating out, but I give myself a cash allowance of sorts.

I am just so used to guaging how much I have and how much I Can spend by the cash in my wallet.

Anyway, while we were sick dh ran to BK a few times for dinner/lunch. I saw all these BK charges on the card. I asked if he had paid through the drive thru. The thought had never occured to me, though I usually swipe the card when I go INSIDE a fast food place (generally only to let the kids play).

Anyway, so I tried it today. HAd leftovers all week and was in the mood for something greasy. Went to McDs and swiped the card.

Well, wasn't that easy?

It's just going to take a bit of mind shifting.

I think my best bet is to set up something in the budget. "Burn money" or something. Just limit it to the $20/month or so I usually pull out of the ATM. There's really not much need for cash any more. I could hardly think of anything else we need cash for. The occasional split lunch with friends or gambling money (poker/bunco). That's about it. Dh and I always carry an extra $20 in our wallet for this kind of stuff, or for emergencies.

I really enjoy handling cash less and less. Woohoo!

Plus, heck, I earned a dime of "interest" on my lunch.

P.S. It's 70 degrees here and beautiful. Neener neener (LOL).

The weather has been gorgeous and the trees are starting to bloom.



Makes me VERY happy. Did I mention I Was so over winter???

I can't believe Easter is in 4 weeks!!! It's always a fun family event. We don't host but it is in OUR city which makes it nice. & I have 2 new baby nieces to enjoy this year.

Dh spent a lot of money this week. He has been a bit depressed. I think I see a pattern. Depressed = spending. Just more crap for the kids. Like the NEED more crap. Ugh, I have to update my list big time.

I had an epithany when it comes to our medical insurance situation. I had totally forgotten that our deductible was $1500 per person. So even if we do get an insane/over blown bill, it will be $1500 max. It's $1500 per person, but $3k for the family. Which is much more reasonable. I had just forgotten about that part. As long as we have a boring week, I'll have a good $1k for the medical bill by march. Going to try to deposit an extra $250 since February is a short month. Our expenses have been low this month. We'll see. No medical bill yet. Buys me time.

Well, my first balance transfer is due back next month. It's due in April, so I am paying it back in March with the March payment. It's the shortest one. IT was 9 months. So at about $50/month interest, we will have earned $400. That was EASY money. This one was in dh's name. We'll pay it back and just have him close the card.

IT leaves 2 outstanding in my name. One I just started and will replace dh's money in our 5.7% CD.

I have a few thousand due back in June/July. It's with WAMU though and they send me my FICO score every month. As long as I get my FICO for "free," I am going to keep the card open. But the other one is due come December and I will close it when I am done.

HAving a good score, we always close old cards. I Don't care how old they are or how big the limits. IT has never made a noticeable difference to our scores. I mean it may have dropped from 800 to 780 or something, when I did close my oldest card because they started charging an annual fee. I think we'll survive. IF nothing else I don't like having old cards opened, rife for theft. Or unnoticed fees. Likewise, since they are old cards I Don't use or pay attention too, I am likely to not notice if there was some weird activity or fees, etc. That makes me nervous. I have always just closed all my cards, but kept open one extra one for backup.

Likewise, though it was easy money, I think we'll take a break from the balance transfer game. IT was very helpful to our emergency fund and all that. But it was a lot of juggling with the 3 cards, and I think it will be nice to give our credit scores a break for a while. Well, dh's score will get a break. My 0% is still good for another year. We'll see how I feel in a year I guess. I admit it was easy money and it will be tempting to keep playing the game...

I was having a discussion with my spouse the other day, about why debit cards are so inferior. We don't use them, and apparently he didn't know why not.

So I Was telling him some of the horror stories I had heard about drained bank accounts and little protection from the banks.

(Oh yes, I think the convo came up when I mentioned the foreign arm of a bank that was dropping "deadbeat" credit card users who paid in full every month. Dh said, "who cares, we can switch to debit if they start doing that in the U.S." Which put us off on a debit card tangent).

But of course then dh looked at me and said, "well if you hate debit cards so much, why do you have one?"

We have one for the ATM.

Now ask me how often we go to the ATM. We've always had it "just in case." How often do we ever use it? Since we don't really deal in cash? NEVER!

So, I had never really thought much about it. But he had a point. I did use it much when our bank was far away. But for the last year or 2 we have been banking at a branch down the street. Since I don't have direct deposit, I have found it convenient to just ask for cash when I make deposits. & even then is rare!

So yeah, I think we can live without our debit card. I think I am going to cut them up. Not sure why I didn't think about it sooner. If I have one ripe in my wallet for stealing, well, I am not exactly protected, am I?

------------------------------

In other news, LM went to the doc today. He has just been REALLY out of sorts though he seems fine overall. Anyway, they said it was just the flu. Yikes! That is one GRUMPY little boy. HE hasn't had a fever in a while either. But guess he still isn't feeling well. I understand. I am back at work and my symptoms are mostly gone. But I certainly do not feel 100%. I feel like I could go home and nap the day away. Tired. Icky... I guess LM is much the same.

Anyway, the visit was only $75. Not bad, not bad. Our copay before was $50.

We insure pretty much for catastrophe. & we pay a pretty penny for that. But I always assumed that these services would cost way more. For example, our emergency co-pay was $500 last year. I found a list of procedures and costs (under the deductible plan) and it says emergency physician is only $100. So our emergency bill may only be $100? Holy cow! & I was so resistant to switch to the HDHP for so long. (The reason we switched for '08 is it lowered our out-of-pocket by a good solid $5k. I Worried it was a little too good to be true, but instead I am really pleased now. I Can handle $75 doctor visits and $100 emergency room visits).

I don't see anything about ambulances. So we'll see when we get that big bad bill. But I am starting to not really sweat our medical bills. Hmmm, you mean we might get to keep a chunk of our deductible after all? Maybe!!!! Any given year we pay for doctor visits and minor surgeries. Our bill for BM will hinge on the ambulance, but I am starting to think it might only cost a few hundred dollars, instead of an arm and a leg. ??? We'll see... We were paying pretty large copays for all these things anyway, before. I am liking the HDHP!

Anyway, the only thing I don't like is not knowing what my bill will be. We have only ever paid insurance premiums and co-pays. Never surprises like now. But if this is cheaper in the end; guess I can get used to the it. We'll see.

Just an excellent blog post I saw this week. I think we have always kind of done this subconsciously. I would say this is much the approach we have always taken to balancing our wants/needs. MMND takes it to a very scientific level. So I was amazed when I saw it - what an awesome idea.

http://millionairemommynextdoor.blogspot.com/2008/01/craft-b...

It also likewise reminds me how annoyed I get when other people's luxuries are put down in the forums and blogs (often). When you go through this exercise you don't have to justify yourself to anyone. I always knew all the luxuries we chose were well worth it. Evidenced by not having any regrets when it comes to what we do splurge our money on. This is often our thought process when we decide where to spend our money.

Funny enough, you know what our biggest WANT is? According to this exercise? Our savings!! We save more than we really need to in hopes of future financial comfort. I would say future (& current) financial comfort is probably one of our biggest values. Everything comes easier after this basic building block though. It's not a "deprivation" thing. (I mean if this is a deprived life, LOL. We all should be so deprived). But it's more a "this makes life a lot easier" thing. It's a "you can have your cake and eat it too if you prioritize and manage your money well" thing.

Likewise, I am not going to retire at 40 on $1 mil like MMND. I value financial security way too much. Sounds very risky to me. LOL. (I might semi-retire at 40; which is really my goal). Comes across loud and clear when I do the spreadsheet. Most of our luxuries and quite minuscle. None of them are long term commitments. But savings was way up there. I just found that eye opening.

Anyway, this is just an excellent, excellent exercise. If you struggle with your wants/needs. Or if you just don't know where to begin. It kind of quantifies much my approach to my own finances.

I had my own post on the topic:

http://monkeymama.savingadvice.com/2007/01/19/priorities-fee...

But I think MMND's method is more useful/practical than my post. Mine is more commentary how we apply the same kind of idea in our own life. (I have to add though that I always whip out that calculator and determine how much I have to work to pay for anything we don't "need." ALWAYS).

I can't help but wonder if our auto fuel will go down this month. I filled up 17 gallons for $50 yesterday, which really wasn't horrid. (It's been worse). & I thought I could probably get away filling up once more this month. Dh does not to the preschool drive any more so should save him a tank. Plus no San Jose drives planned which will save 2-3 tanks over the last 2 months. I think he'll fill up twice which will put us at $160 for the month. Maybe $210 for a 3rd fill up at the end (not sure I can really make it to the first on 2 tanks). But we have been spending $300, so this is very preferable.

I also saw that post on driving for better gas mileage. My dh thought I was getting worse gas mileage than him and I rolled my eyes. I said since I drive to preschool and sit at a line of lights to get there, of course I get worse gas mileage. We generally don't do a lot of city driving otherwise. Freeway and little traffic, or just quick jaunts down the street.

Anyway, but I do have a bit of a lead foot in a sense and so I did think about it. I did try to drive really calm yesterday and cruise at 65 on the freeway. I have found setting the cruise at a slightly lower speed helps the gas mileage (in the past). Anyway, I couldn't set it any lower lest I get run over.

I was wary since the drivers around here are SO BAD. Our auto insurance doubled when we moved here and I quickly saw why. We used to pay $200/year each for perfect driving records. Now we both pay $400/year for the same thing. Blech. But god forbid you get in someone's way!!!! I mean I moved from the BIG city and so it was kind of a surprise. There are a lot of traffic issues here, and hence a lot more road rage. So I thought driving calmly might prove to be scary. It was okay, but I did see quite a few people make a point to zoom past me with a red light up ahead. Of course that might have been me last week. LOL. I am not going to do that anymore.

Well, making a bit of a game of it for now. My goal will be to only spend $100 on gas this month. It's pretty aggressive, but I'll try. At least stay as close to that as possible. Of course dh might get through the month with only one fill up of $30 (he has a much smaller tank). He has been getting out more, but most the stuff he does is quite local. Driving to work is what costs us more gas than anything. It's not a long drive; it just adds up, going there every day and all...

I have to add I am not feeling much pinch. I always leave a lot of room in my budget for things like gas and groceries. I was thinking future inflation (or gouging). As far as groceries, we have cut our bills 20% but I still leave the old budget. IT's a big round easy # to remember, and no doubt as the kids grow they will EAT more. My point being, when you do a budget, try to think down the road a bit more. Makes it easier to weather rising prices. We cut out diapers, formula, lots of milk, etc. this last year. But the kids also eat at preschool twice a week. So I leave that old big budget in place for when we have to feed them every meal again. They can eat A LOT now but I understand this will get much worse when they are teens. LOL. Luckily, have a long while to prepare for that.

Of course I have never been too wrapped up in "today" when it comes to my finances. I am always planning ahead, and it really helps. Of course I feel like I am still recovering from our medical insurance premiums. Those came out of left field and I was lucky to get some decent raises to cover them. This is the first year, since kids, that the increase wasn't astronomical (like 20-40%). So I am enjoying that (enjoying that they only went up 7% - how sad), but knowing it is better to prepare for what I know since often there is a lot you just can't foresee. I Feel like we may be getting this under control, but what's next? Likewise, a little gas or grocery increase doesn't scare me. More to the point, that's nothing compared to what we have been dealing with these last few years. Phew.

Which reminds me, they recommend full fat milk the first year, or something, after formula. Then 2%. Anyway, we have been buying less non-fat milk for us and I have just been taking to drinking the kids' milk (easier). Dh refuses to drink it (which is funny because he needs the fat. He is such a stick). & anyway, I was mentioning the other day. I said it probably wouldn't kill us just to switch to all non-fat and bulk up on sale, etc. I said we could add fat to the kids' diets other ways, I think they will survive.

Anyway, the non-fat was on sale for 60 cents cheaper than the 2% so dh switched when he went to the store yesterday. I have the feeling in the interim we'll drink whatever is cheaper. The kids and I really have no preference. I just worried because I resisted to switching to non-fat for SO long. I didn't want to get spoiled by the good stuff. Hehe. So far I think I am okay. I drink so little milk as a whole.

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I was pondering what the average payoff date is on a mortgage. I mean, in reference to age. What is the average age Americans pay off their mortgage? I was kind of curious but google did not shed much light on this question. I guess but show that more and more and more people are paying off their mortgages, well into retirement. (Or likewise, never pay off their mortgage).

My only frame of reference is our parents. They both paid them off when their eldest child turn 28. Interesting. Dh's parents are much older so put them in the 55-60 range for payoff. The funny thing is is we never prepay a dime, our mortgage will be paid when our eldest turns 28. No, we didn't plan it that way!

Which takes me to why I wondered in the first place. I am looking forward to refi-ing for a lower interest rate. I have no urge to stretch my loan out longer though. We would prepay the difference, keeping our old mortgage payment in the end. But enjoying the faster payoff with the lower interest rate. 'Tis the point.

Anyway, on these forums and in real life the reaction to an idea of refi is funny. I guess since the norm is to drag out the loan as long as possible and borrow more against it, those are the assumptions people make when they hear refi. Of course, knowing I am staunchly opposed to prepaying mortgage payments TODAY, I think that is much misunderstood.

Um, my goal is to pay off my mortgage at age 45! Likewise, I don't get the lure of extending it forever. But just because it doesn't make sense for us to send in prepayments right now, in no way shape or form means I am against paying off a mortgage.

So I wondered when the average age is. I figured 45 would be rather on the young side. I am starting to think being on the current track to 55 is most definitely on the young side. I just wanted to be clear I have no desire to have a mortgage in retirement. In fact we intend to pay of our mortgage WELL before retirement. But with youth on our side we really have the luxury to do both. To put the mortgage on the back burner for now, focus on our investments, and still pay it off quite young. So I am not inherently against prepaying a mortgage (not considering all the prepayments we will make in our life - and the ones we made when we had more means). I am also not against putting it on the back burner when it makes sense. As usual I fall rather square in the middle. There are benefits to both. In fact, we discuss dividing dh' future wage 50% to mortgage and 50% to investing. A lot of the benefit of investing is lost in that situation since our tax-deferred investments should all be maxed out on my income, by that point, and the rules change when you talk taxable investments. We could pretty much flip a coin, and decided we'd do both 50/50 for a while. & go from there. See what we were enjoying more, or if we should just hedge our bets by doing both. That's more how we do things. We aren't very "either/or," as a whole.

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I decided my $11500 ROTH conversion cost us $2600 in taxes. Bummer. I also double checked once again, but I think my withholding is really okay. Even with all the balance transfer interest, without the ROTHS, we would have been quite breakeven for the year. So I will leave my withholding as is.

Our effective tax rate in 2007, even with an extra $11,500 in taxable income, was 9% federal and 1% state.

I should look at that again. Honestly, it sounds quite high. I don't think we even paid that much. Now that I think about it I wonder if that rate is calculated before the child tax credit. We got a $2k. I think ROTH conversion and all our taxes were closer to $6k, not $8k. Something for me to check... (I really though the effective rate took into count tax credits though. So I will look that up).

Don't ask me what that rate is once we get the $1600 rebate congress is tossing around. IT will be rather low.

Anyway, our marginal tax rates are 15% & 5%. Even with the ROTH. That's crazy to me. Thank you kids and mortgage. & insane health insurance premiums (not sure I really thank that though. LOL).

I worried about my raise starting to bump us up a bit more to higher tax brackets. But we seen to be nowhere near it. Nowhere near it at all. So I am happy to leave my withholding as is, another year or 2.

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ETA: Well I guess I had to re-educate myself. The effective tax rate was tax divided by taxable income. Our taxable income is WAY below our actual income, so that makes sense.

Our effective rates per my calculation (total tax by TOTAL income) were 5.7% Fed & 1.6% state, with an extra $11,500 taxable income (ROTH conversion).

Which means out effective rate without that was 4% Fed & 0.9% state. Which means, yes, I can keep 90% of my paycheck still.

Actually, I Am keeping 86% of my monthly paycheck, but I have pretty much nothing more withheld when it comes to my overtime bonus in the spring. So it pans out. 8.5% payroll taxes (includes CA SDI) and almost 5% to fed/state means 13.5% of my wages go to tax. Not bad. Or keep 86.5% of it all. That's with all the extra interest we are earning now too.

My federal "effective" rate, ROTH conversion and all, will be 3.6% with this whole rebate thing. My tax return will show almost $90k income and my taxes of $5k will be reduced to $3400 post rebate. Crazy.

Does this seem fair to you? Do you see why it scares the crap out of me what my taxes will rise to down the road??? YIKES. Well, I am enjoying. Usually California does not get the fair end of the stick. Certainly not with AMT. Which I guess worries me more, what our taxes will be down the road. I have tried hard not to get terribly used to this. I am sure the short end of the stick will eventually appear. IT's been like this ever since my spouse stopped working. One year the government paid me to have kids. !! We sure had a knack for timing though. IT has been a tremendous help, the one income years, not paying taxes. We didn't really pay any 2-3 years. With all my raises we are starting to pay a little more. But not much...

Yes, still sick of the rain.

The gym has been horrid. Anyway, it was super extra crowded tonight. I figured it would dwindle down a bit as we get further from Jan. 1. Anyway, for whatever reason I braved the wind and rain and went to the gym and it was PACKED. Probably the worst I've seen. It didn't occur to me until my way out that maybe there was a direct correlation to the weather. Perhaps. I only really plan to use the gym in the extremely cold and extremely hot months. I much prefer to go for a walk myself. But it is rare the weather is just this bad. It has been a COLD rain all week which is really rather ware. So stormy windy and COLD. Did I mention cold? We usually get warmer rains. Maybe it will snow. IT does on occasion (pretty rare but happens).

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Anyway, I popped in to check my Net Worth for 1/31. After about a year of this I am starting to notice a pattern. The stocks always seem to jump up the last day of the month. So it wasn't so bad. Down $500 from 12/31.

Cash is up around $250 (mostly interest). Paid $307 off the mortgage. $675 to retirement.

Which means about $1600 in stock losses.

I also have no idea how much BM lost on his 529. I get random statements. So the loss is probably a bit more.

We'll be in a place to contribute more like $1k/month to retirement, come summer. So I say bring it down!!! We just don't have that much to lose at this point. No complaints here... I think these storms will be tougher to weather (emotionally anyway) when we have more at stake. I don't really look forward to that. But for now I look forward to a chance to buy at some lower prices.

I understand that my Net Worth goal is not very attainable at this rate. But I guess I am going for a long term average more than anything and I knew it was pretty aggressive. I am happy with the amount we put in to up our net worth this month. The stocks will work themselves out.

Even if we don't refi, we are SO CLOSE to getting our mortgage interest under $1k/month. woohoo. Just a few more months. We past the $300 principal mark not too long ago... It feels a little more substantial and reflects on our net worth. Still no prepayments here though, as long as we have 10 tax-deferred investment options (about how it feels with all the ROTHS, 529s, UGMAs, HSAs, and on and on and on...). Though if we refi we will most certainly jump on the prepayment train. I have no desire to extend our mortgage beyond the current payoff date. No desire to start my 30 years over and drag it out. Though I guess I can't promise anything. Our mortgage literally just gets cheaper with time and the opportunity to plump up all our tax deferred investments probably isn't the worst. I guess we'll just have to see.

Either way would help the net worth. I guess that is what is important. & why it helps to look at the big picture. Likewise, I really enjoy tracking our net worth. It helps me to see the big picture.

Well, um, we tried a new dentist, which I dread dread dread. But it went REALLY well.

Took LM in (he is 2.5) for his sharky mouth. He had a blast. Which for one, says much for their setup. BM has always loved the dentist but he is weird. LOL.

Anyway, LM was much more wary but he immediately fell in love with the plastic dolphin up front. (& fish).

Of course, dh went back with him and they were gone 1.5 hours. I Was trying not to fall asleep. Likewise, BM Was hungry but I Was there to watch him. Figured, we could have gone out to eat like he had asked. Then I worried worried worried what the hell was going on. (Apparently, a lot of paperwork. Whcih is another reason it is so tedious to try new dentists, but I have had horrid experiences since we moved here, myself).

Anyway, we lucked out. I think this place is a winner. I actually walked in expecting he would need work, and heard a "everything is fine, he doesn't need anything." What music to my ears!!!!

The x-rays showed no extra permanent teeth. YAy!!!!!!!!! They were concerned about crowding (oh sounds familiar, I couldn't even tell you all the work I had done from age 5 - 18, but I thought I had a few more years to save up for all the work I envision my kids will need).

But anyway, as far as extra tooth, it's just a baby and they don't want to do anything with it. "It will work itself out." More music to my ears. I am sure we could have found a more aggressive dentist, but I think this works for us. Phew!

OF course our dentist, who I know we have it good with (the longtime forever patient discount). We paid $125/each, dh and I for our last visit. BM a little more since he had flouride.

Anyway, they did charge $250 here but it was for consultation and full x-rays, as well as flouride and cleaning. Well worth it for all the fanciness; it was a great first experience for LM. I did not ask dh what they recommended, but dh said he did not book the next appointment. They only reason we made one was for his tooth. & well, I figure he will go back there in a year. Then maybe every 6 months until he hits 5 or 6. Then he can join us at the big dentist.

Oh yes, and dh sort of asked for a discount. Not really, but he did not know I Wanted to put it on the card for rewards. He asked if they could just send a bill. (BEcause he though that I Wanted to pay later for some reason). They said no, but that they would give him a 10% discount. He seemed to think he wouldn't have gotten it otherwise. IT was the cash discount but he did use the card. Score! So in the end we paid $225. We'll earn 1.25% rewards on that too. So we'll have to remember to ask for the cash discount next time. Or make sure we have the checkbook in case they aren't so nice next time. I think it helps the girls were taking payments and they always go gah gah over a guy with a small kid. LOL. The women just eat it up.

I am just so happy today that that is his only prognosis for now. Phew!!!! HE will get plenty of work on his mouth down the raod, I am sure. I know so many people getting so much preventitive work done on baby teeth and such. I always wondered if it was really worth it. Maybe it really is? But I am glad for now it is not something for us to worry about.

-------------------

Anyway, I don't think the kids have ever seriously asked for much, but today BM Asked for a trampoline, and whined when I said no. I told him he already had a mound of toys for Christmas. The FUNNY thing though was my first response was, "No, those cost a lot of money." So he immediately said, "Then why does Miss L have one???" LOL. At his preschool. The interesting thing is I knew Miss L was carless but apparently she is now homeless too. & BM seemed to grasp that meant she had no money. Wow. Anyway, I was asking what he meant it was hers, and he said she had moved in and it was her trampoline. "She doesn't have a house any more. She used to but now she doesn't." Well isn't that a lot of insight from a 4yo? I will have to ask my friend about that one. (HEr kid goes to the same school but since he is full-time she seems to know much more of the scoop).

All that from a kid asking for a trampoline.

Anyway, we were going to start the allowance/chore thing when he turns 5. So I talked a little about that and said that is the kind of thing he can save up for when he starts earning money.

& so it starts - the learning about money. My parents started really young with me and so we just will do the same. It worked well for us. I couldn't tell you when I started getting an allowance, but it wasn't the traditional allowance thing, so I don't want to hear how bad allowances are. It really worked for me. IT's not like we are going to hand him money for breathing. But for helping out around the house he will also get a chance to learn about how to handle money. That was always the point of allowance in our house, and I learned all about how money worked quite young. We just figured at 5 he would start Kindergarten which will be his "job" and likewise he will start helping more around the house too.

Which reminds me, Little LEague is starting up soon and they take 4yos. I think we may sign him up. IT's pretty inexpensive and he has been asking to do soccer. IT seems soccer is a fall sport and may fit our schedule better as a whole. BAseball is spring (tax season). But might as well let him try both, and go from there. We'll see. We didn't sign up yet or anything. Dh and I so do not do sports, but it has always been important to us to let our kids be who they are. I have the feeling BM will be a sports type. Too bad he got stuck with us for parents. We wouldn't have a clue. LOL. But he is SO excited about the idea -would be T-Ball for him.

& so it begins!

Kncok on wood, but LM has been sleeping so well lately (For months. Oh my, it feels so good and strange to get a full nights' sleep every night. It has been YEARS!!!). As a whole the kids are actually pretty good sleepers. I mean BM has not been a problem since he was 2. A friend was just complaining about her 5yo waking her up and I thought, "oh my!" IT's been years since sleep has been an issue with him. LM did not handle teething well at all but he seems to be done. !!!!! So I no longer identify with the idea of toddlers who don't sleep. My kids SLEEP. & it is heavenly.

Anyway, and with him going to preschool 2 days a week dh has been in such a better mood. This tax season is flying by and I think that might be part of the reason why. With a happy dh and a good night sleep it just seems to be skipping along quite well.

So we all breathed our collective sigh of relief and began to really enjoy. & now all I See is sports practice and homework in my future. Well we are trying to enjoy the peace and calm. I see a very busy future. Just seems like there is always something with kids. OF course I Am just excited to show them everything the world has to offer. I want them to emjoy being kids like I always did, but I want to expose them to the world too. I guess it is a fine line.

The other thing I would like to do about now is start teaching piano to BM. I am sure we will sign him up for lessons eventually. (The unwritten rule is never teach your own kids. & for the long term there is a reason. For the short term I am too broke to do otherwise). But I think I can get going on getting him interested and teaching basics. I taught piano for many years. Time to brush off the cowbebs and rememebr what I used to do for a living. LOL. I Always thought it was nice to have another skill to fall back on, but now trying to remember exactly how and what pace the program went, funny I Don't remember! I am sure it will come back to me...

Reminds me we need a piano tuning too. $$$

$420 at the dentist.

For the 3 of us.

Not bad.

I just made our next appointments. We only went once last year. It seems we were going every 7 or 8 months by the time we found appointments to fit in our schedule. Anyway, so I locked in a good Friday appointment in July. Will go back in December then - make it 3 this year. I can't do the long drive during tax season - just too much. IT was too much this weekend!

Oh and the pediatric dentist called back right before I wrote them off. Dooms day is the 31st. LOL. We'll find out what they say about Mr. sharky - LM. *sigh* I am scared of both the cost and the treatment (poor LM).

Well it was nice we all had a clean bill of health. No cavities. Yay. We usually don't but I did last time. So I Was nervous!

Oh yes and LM was JEALOUS he did not get to go in with us. So he is excited about his special appointment now. Well that is something. Last time I mentioned it he said he did NOT want to go to the dentist. We'll see how he feels on the big day. It could go either way.

Oh yes, dentist money is accounted for in our "short-term savings." So nothing to sweat there. I put it on the card and earned about $5 in rewards too.

It is super super crazy at work. BUT I wanted to go to aerobics tonight. I usually tend to go home at lunch on aerobic days. Then I can grab my stuff at lunch (since mornings seem so rushed) and I can feel less guilty getting home at 7:30pm (if I can see the kids for lunch).

Well, today the kids are at preschool. Both of them - all day! (BTW, LM is loving it. If we left him there all week and picked him up Friday I don't think he'd care. LOL. & I thought it might be a rough adjustment? I have been taking him to the gym daycare in the evening after a full day at daycare because he wants to go play some more. Well, okay then. He is getting accustomed to other toys and the company of lots of kids I guess).

Anyway, kids are gone, so I have a lunch date with dh.

This is kind of nice. We should start doing this. Well, the problem is I usually have to leave early to pick up the kids. Which rules out a long lunch. But tonight dh is picking them up since aerobics is closer to my work. Kids got to go to preschool today since Monday is a holiday. She always lets them come in another day when their day falls on a holiday, which is just awesome.

So dh and I get lunch date. I think I will make a deal that once a week we should have a lunch date if he will pick up or drop off the kids. That is one thing we would like more of, more "Date" time, but the babysitting expense is horrendous. But if we're paying for it anyway, might as well enjoy.

For today just going home for some leftovers. But I Don't remember the last time dh or I had any time for each other. Kind of sad. So it will be nice.

I am also working on my budget with my raise. Will look something like this:

+2,690 (1st)
-50 retirement
-450 short-term savings
-1,318 mortgage
-630 preschool
-200 utilities/gardener

+2,690 (16th)
-50 retirement
-450 short-term savings
-1,300 credit card (all other expenses)
-728 Health Insurance
-200 utilities

Leaves $0.

Ideally...

We'll see...

I realistically expect $5k/year in interest and overtime to fund more long-term savings.

& I have a 10% contribution to retirement (employer) regardless of how much I physically put away.

Preschool drops to $315/month come august. (Did I mention that yet? )

Which means I hope my budget to look more like this by the end of the year. & this would be pretty sweet:

+2,690 (1st)
-150 retirement
-500 short-term savings
-1,318 mortgage
-315 preschool
-200 utilities/gardener

+2,690 (16th)
-150 retirement
-500 short-term savings
-1,300 credit card (all other expenses)
-728 Health Insurance
-200 utilities

I am still lucky to take home almost 90% of my paycheck. Taxes are just nil with the kids, mortgage, etc.

This is one reason I am in savings mode. Certainly don't expect this to last forever. I feel blessed it was this way for us during our one-income years. Then again we will probably have to pay it back tenfold down the road. Which is exactly why we don't borrow money in the first place (as a rule). The whole thing makes me nervous for the long run.

Well, dh's car just hit 77,777. Is that lucky or what? LOL.

Since most of our cars we bought with far more miles to start, I never thought I would get terribly excited about the whole 100k thing. But this was also the newest car we ever bought. We bought it with around 15k miles. So anyway, it is 6 years old. I can't believe how much we put on it. It probably went years with little driving (when he had our babies). But the last year or so we have used it a lot. It gets such good gas mileage (average 35mpg on the freeway) that whoever is driving farthest gets it for the day. Which pretty much means it will be the main car driven going forward. Dh no longer has to drive the kids out to preschool. The van is good for trips down the street. I mean we will once again take the compact to LA. Not worth paying almost twice the gas. We just really did not think that purchase through very well. We knew it would get a lot worse gas mileage, but yeesh.

So yeah, we are putting a lot of miles on that car.

It's like super car though. (knock on wood). I saw the disdain for 2000 Ford Focuses on the board. But this is a 2001 Ford Escort. LOVE it. If it died tomorrow, who cares. $7888 to drive a car for 6 years with no repairs. Wouldn't have been one of our best car deals if it died tomorrow. (I paid $1500 for a car I drove 7 years). But I wouldn't have a complaint.

We will have to take it in, in April, for another look over. Before our drive to LA. We keep taking it in. Come one, SOMETHING must need replacing. Spark plugs? Belt? Anything? Brakes? I mean, it is a Ford after all.

It's a little super car. We have always had very old cars that need small work every few months. So it is weird to take the car in and say, um, does it need anything? Just never had to do that before. Usually it's, "the car needs something so check it over while you have it." I can't even say so much on the new van. We have been taking that on average every 6 months for something. (usually something stupid, but the mechanic checks it over every 6 months then). So no, never had a car that we went a year and went, "wait a minute, we haven't taken it in for a year. We should get a look over." We like to keep our cars well maintained so we can keep them "forever." So his car boggles my mind. LOL. We spent the most on it to have our mechanic tell us it doesn't need anything. So it goes. So we figure at this rate we will take it in April or May, before our LA trip.

We take it in for oil changes too so it gets looked over a couple of times a year. I just don't trust those people worth squat. But sometimes they find something real to fix. We always get a second opinion. I don't even think they have ever drummed up anything for dh's car, other than an air filter replacement. So even they can't find anything. LOL.

Reminds me, for LA, it looks like we will probably get to use dh's family's timeshare for a free room.

It also appears they are going to Australia this year. O.M.G. I guess lucky to say we weren't invited. We were going to say no to anything and everything this year. Australia would have been hard to say no to. I don't think we could! But I think that is super cool for them. Wow! We would have gone on our honeymoon, but it was the 2000 Olympics there and the airfare was INSANE. We had a free room anywhere in the world and we had a lot of money so we decided Australia. Really, looking back, should have gone. We had the money. Sometimes we are too cheap for our own good. Looking back knowing what I know now, I would do it. Now if we ever go we will likely have to pay for 4, or wait until the kids are grown. Missed opportunity. But as such, it's kind of in the back of my mind. Continents I haven't seen - Australia & Africa.

Well we have a relative there. So they are excited to go. I am relieved in a sense to kind of calm things down on the vacation front. Let them go and tell us all about it. If it is that great, they will probably take us some time. We can hope for that. Sometime down the road when we have more money to enjoy it a little more!

But yes, if we get free room... I am still not sure we will do much more than Disneyland for 2 days as originally planned. We'll just see how our cash flow is. We can add San Diego on our own dime more lat minute if need be.

The D-Land trip, if it was free room, would be $500 for gas and the park. Maybe $100 or more on food. We could budget $600 pretty darn easily though. So that is probably what we will do. I don't think we can justify spending more this year.

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As far as the ROTH efund thing. Still thinking about it.

I have about $1k cash sitting in my ROTH anyway. (Was waiting to have more money to buy a fund). I am thinking of leaving that there as part of my efund, and diverting $1k cash to T Rowe. So I can get the minimum in my ROTH there and not "have to" contribute every month.

Then I can add $4k to dh's ROTH - in cash. & add almost $2k to my ROTH cash. & max out our IRAs for '07.

That would put $7k cash in our ROTHs. Tax sheltered efund is what it would really be. If our liquid cash goes up though, we could easily convert that to mutual funds then.

I liked the idea of diverting some to T Rowe since I already had cash anyway.

I still project adding $50/month to that in 2008 and $50/month to dh's ROTH. Stock mutual funds.

Then I will have another $300/month come September or so. I foresee being able to max out $5k by next April 15th. (Though will likely be $2500 to mine and $2500 to dh's. I just look at as our retirement as one and diversify likewise. So sometimes add more to one than the other).

I think that is a pretty good spot to be in.

I am not going to sweat the second $5k this year. For '08 anyway.

This will be around 17% gross income to retirement in 2008 then. When you include my profit sharing. So nothing to sneeze at.

As for the challenge, I will keep it as is. I Was going to make it retitrement retirement retirement.

Since I will view my ROTH cash as an efund, I am not counting that for the challenge. Would be cheating quite a bit.

Will still go with it. I think part of me wants to focus on building up more cash. Leaving the challenge as retirement monies will give me extra incentive to throw our retirement funds a few extra bones. Otherwise I will likely neglect it.

Who knows, we might max our ROTHs out for 2008 too. Wouldn't that be awesome??? Way too early to say... I like the flexibility of waiting until well after year-end and seeing how we feel. IT means by NEXT April 15th (2009) who knows, we may find a way to max out again. Odds are good.

But I really want to get $5k for 2008 and start contributing the $415 or so a month to get there. Then inch it up until we max out. My goal is to max out by 2010. so when LM starts public school I can tell dh, work if you want, but we don't really need it. Kind of our long range goal. If we can start putting away $5k/year, that is pretty awesome. I am happy with that. We'll easily hit the second $5k once LM is out of preschool. (knock on wood anyway).

Regardless it is a hell of a lot more than we have done the last 5 years. But I like slow and steady... That's why I am going from $50/month to $100/month right now. & then divert preschool tuition to get to $415/month. Then next year maybe I can add $50-$100/month. Then the same the following year. Then we will free up $300/month at the end of 2010 when LM is out of preschool. Then we'll be 32 and maxing out our ROTHs. & then some. & that is how you do it...