May 2007: Mid-Month Review
Ouch.
Ouch. Sorry, had to say it again.
This time I’ve highlighted the negatives.The largest loss was due to the accident I was in this past weekend. I still haven’t heard yet if my insurance company considers it totalled, but until then, I’ll consider it a total loss.
Also relating to the accident, having to put a rental car on plastic, even just to get home, threw that all off track as well. In the coming week, I’ll also be taking a cash hit as I’ll have to pay my deductable on the insurance policy.
Not looking to be a great month financially.
On the flip side, the balance on the original home improvement loan continues to shrink.
I think we’re still on track to finish it off this month barring any additional unexpected expenses relating to the car accident.
I’m still overpaying the auto loan each month — and thankfully the automobile in the accident was paid for — but it’s not really beneficial as the rate is so low anyway.
Last week I also stepped on to the 0% balance transfer bandwagon. I applied for one of the CitiBank cards that boasts 0% for balance transfers for 12 months with no transfer fees.
Unfortunately they only gave me an insultingly low limit of $6800. I was hoping for more, and expecting more, but I guess it’s probably a better thing that it’s not a lot of money being tossed around on my first go around.
Right now, we’re thinking to just use $6000 of it and drop it into an ING Account until we’re ready to tackle phase two of our home renovation.
That way, we’ll have over $10k available in savings and some additional cash from my wife’s side to pay for the work. (I don’t include her finances in these reports as we don’t have any joint accounts, and, if we can manage to survive and gain wealth on just my income, well, the money she brings in is just a total bonus!)
When it comes time to pay back the roughly $5k balance on the 0% transfer twelve months from now, I’m confident we’ll have saved up enough to pay it off entirely and not have to pay a dime in finance charges.
We won’t make any money on the transfer like some people do, but it will give us the funds NOW and at no cost — which is exactly what we need.
Another scenario would be to pay down the credit card debt I’m carrying, but I’m reluctant to do that as it’s not reported on my credit report.
I own my own company and $7k of the credit card debt is on the company card.
My personal credit cards are used for gas, to pay the home internet bill, and the monthly fee for a storage unit I rent… oh, and unexpected car rentals! How could I forget those?
