Net Worth Update: September 2010 (-$9,854)

A nearly $10k loss is hardly a surprise after analyzing my recent spending of late.

I mean, duh, of course my net worth dropped!

Anyway, I still feel like I’m in pretty good shape considering all of the money spilling out to cover the cost of the renovations we’re having done.

Once that’s in the rear view mirror — likely later this month — I’m thinking I’ll recover pretty quickly.

Here’s the breakdown:

Cash:
This should be higher and I’d feel a lot more comfortable if it were higher but my fear of falling back into deep credit card debt lead me to dip a little deeper to pay off the balance.

Savings:
Think the roughtly $6k drop had something to do with a $6k check made out to a contractor? Yep, they’re related.

Gov’t Bonds:
I go back and forth with these. Some days I hate how inconvenient they are. Other days, I like that the money is a bit of a hassle to get at. Eitherway, the interest rates I’m currently earning are quite nice.

Home:
After the renovation is complete, well, I’ll wish this number was higher. At least I’m no where near underwater and never even came close.

Auto 1 & Auto 2:
My BMW still won’t start but its value went up. Gotta love those $6500 paper weights! (We’ll get it running again in the Spring, I’m thinking…)

Credit Cards:
Having paid off all of the vacation expenses that we charged already, this is just the remaining balance on that big cash advance we took. It’s at 0% for another 8 months or so…

Auto Loans and Other Loans:
Zilch. Zero. Nada.

Mortgage:
So I’m back to paying the mortgage. It feels so strange to only be making the minimum payment after years of overpaying two or three times as much as I needed to. I don’t really like seeing that the principle only dropped $125 but I’m going to try to get over it.

With a mortgage payment so low, following the re-fi, it just doesn’t make sense to overpay right now.

Posted on September 1st, 2010 at 9:40 pm by Brainy Smurf
Finance, Net Worth Updates | No Comments »

Spending Report for August 2010

Oh boy… Here we go…

Do I have to?

I mean, I’m just warning you, you know, before you read on, that this month was off the charts. I mean, totally out of control…

Here goes:

• $6000.00 : Contractor
• $600.26 : Alamo Car Rental
• $498.72 : Mortgage
• $448.84 : Cash
• $400.00 : Punch-Out!! Arcade Game
• $340.43 : Black Knight Inn
• $327.66 : Ramada
• $285.50 : Hockey Jersey
• $222.03 : Gas
• $217.36 : Radisson
• $205.86 : Hand Truck
• $191.26 : Pocahontas Bungalows
• $186.05 : Delta Hotels
• $183.60 : Best Western
• $168.95 : PODs
• $156.20 : Super 8 Motel
• $138.00 : Airport Parking
• $116.20 : Water/Sewer
• $116.15 : Cable/Internet
• $106.48 : Business Expenses
• $105.99 : Waffle Maker
• $97.77 : Clothes for Duncan
• $85.00 : Dentist
• $83.27 : Credit Card Foreign Transaction Fee
• $79.64 : Electricity
• $74.18: IKEA
• $69.86 : Home Depot
• $20.00 : Corporate Filing Fee
• $31.89 : Natural Gas
• $28.54 : Lowe’s
• $21.49 : Green Electrical Supply
• $19.61 : Chicken Wings

Added up all together, that’s $11,626.79.

Eleven freakin’ thousand dollars?! Can you believe that?

I started doing these reports, following frequent commentor DD’s lead over on Happy Rock, over a year ago now and I have never ever even come close to the five-figure sum I’m reporting this month.

I mean, I’m glad that I’m sitting down as I type this…

It’s almost comical that I’m going to do my regular breakdown and then try an justify the expenses line-by-line as if spending this much is “okay” but here goes…

I wrote a $6000 check to our contractor. So far, we’ve paid him $24000 total. I wrote a $3000 check back in May and my wife’s credit card offer took care of the other $15000. We still have around $10k to go but, hey, it’s looking great!

Up next are the vacation expenditures which I’ll group together. Quickly, and in order:

• Alamo Car Rental ($600.26) — What a freaking ripoff. Sure, the Nissan Sentra was nice and all, but holy crap?!
• Cash ($448.84) — 99% of this was just money taken out for “stuff” while on vacation.
• Black Knight Inn ($340.43) — Do not stay here. Do not *ever* stay here. What a freakin’ dump. An expensive dump.
• Ramada ($327.66) — Just north of Calgary, this was the same Ramada mentioned in last month’s spending report. We liked it so much, we stayed there again!
• Gas ($222.03) — It is what it is. Two years later, I still don’t think gas is overpriced.
• Radisson ($217.36) — I don’t even remember staying in a Radisson. Yep, it left that much of an impression. You’d think a nightly rate exceeding $200 would leave an impression, no?
• Pocahontas Bungalows ($191.26) — A last minute destination, this was for a night in a rustic cabin in the Rocky Mountains. Let’s just call it an “experience” and leave it at that.
• Delta Hotels ($186.05) — This was the hotel connected to the Calgary Airport. It wasn’t exactly where we wanted to say but with an early morning flight out, well, it was definitely convenient and it saved us an extra day’s worth of car rental.
• Best Western ($183.60) — I’m not usually a big fan of the Best Western chain as they’re mostly dumps on the east coast but this one just west of Edmonton was beautiful. When I checked in I thought it was overpriced but now comparing it to the other rooms we stayed in, it was definitely one of the best values.
• Super 8 ($156.20) — I broke one of my own rules on this one. See, I’ve often stated that I will never stay in a hotel with a number in the name. I would have stuck to that rule too had it not been 10 o’clock at night without another reputable hotel within a 4-hour radius. Let’s just say that the northern interior of British Columbia isn’t a hot bed of nice hotel rooms.
• Airport Parking ($138.00) — It’s funny how when you pull into the long term parking lot, the sign reads “$75 Maximum” but when you insert your ticket, the attendantless machine demands $138. Funny how that works.
• Credit Card Foreign Transaction Fee ($83.27) — I freakin’ hate these. You could have a TD credit card and you’d still get hit with these. For the record, TD stands for Toronto Dominion. Yep, they’re Canadian. And you’ll still get hit with Foreign Transaction Fees if you buy stuff in Canada. My card issuer isn’t TD, but I’m just sayin…

So, all together, the August portion of vacation cost $2563.27. More than we’d have liked but not too bad.

Now to fill in the gaps (while ignoring the regular utility bills), again, in order:

• Mortgage ($498.72) — This was the first mortgage payment since the refinance went through all the way back in June. I still can’t believe my mortgage is less than $500 per month.
• Punch-Out!! Arcade Game ($400.00) — I don’t care what anyone says, this purchase was so awesome that it warranted its own post. I don’t regret it for a second.
• Hockey Jersey ($285.50) — This addiction just won’t die. It’s getting there, though…
• Hand Truck ($205.86) — So now that I’ve got two arcade games along with a ton of heavy furniture in the POD, it only seemed like a good idea to go out and buy my very own hand truck. I can’t tell you how many times in the past we’ve said, “It’s too bad that we don’t have a hand truck” as we huff and puff some piece of furniture up the stairs. I didn’t skimp on this purchase either cause there’s nothing worse than an inadequate tool. This puppy is rated up to 1200 pounds and will make moving everything back into the house so much easier. Safer too.
• PODs ($168.95) — Yep, that portable storage unit is still in the driveway and full of stuff that used to be in the rooms being renovated. It’s looking like this could be the last month we have it but if things get tight, we’ll keep it around another month.
• Waffle Maker ($105.99) — Now my sister will probably think that we bought this because she got one as a wedding gift (while we were up there on vacation) and felt the need to rightfully gush about it. But the truth is, that Best Western that I referenced above had one of these and that sold us. It’s a nice one that makes two belgian waffles at once. Yep, I’ve had waffles for dinner at least 10 times this month.
• Clothes for Duncan ($97.77) — While looking at some of the pictures we took of Duncan when we were on vacation, I realized that he needed a more trendy wardrobe. Mission accomplished. He’s the coolest looking kid in the Toddler 2 room.
• Densist ($85.00) — I don’t think I mentioned here on PIAC but back in June I dropped our dental insurance. This $85 cleaning charge would have cost me double if it’d come directly out of my paycheck as an insurance premium…
• IKEA ($74.18) — This was for a few light fixtures for our renovation. They’re not great but they look neat.
• Home Depot ($69.86) — More light fixtures. These things can get expensive but obviously we didn’t buy anything too pricey.
• Corporate Filing Fee ($20.00) — Sure, it’s only $20 but it’s one of the reasons that small businesses avoid the State of Connecticut. I gave the state $20 for nothing. In April, I’ll give them another $250. Again, for nothing…
• Lowe’s ($28.54) — This was for a pair of work gloves. And one of the light fixtures that we bought at Home Depot had a broken globe. I bought a replacement at Lowe’s and it didn’t fit. Go figure. I’ll return it one of these weekends.
• Green Electrical Supply ($21.49) — But wait, there’s more. In addition to having a broken globe, the fixtures that we picked up at Home Deport are über green. I mean, they don’t accept Edison-mount light bulbs cause they’re too darn inefficient or some such nonsense so… it’s darn near impossible to find lightbulbs that are more powerful than a lightning bug in any store. Thankfully they’re available online though, so that’s what these are. I bought 4 bulbs that should be brighter than the sun itself. I only needed two but figured that ordering lightbulbs online was a wee bit risky. I all but expect two of them to be broken during the shipping process.
• Chicken Wings ($19.61) — You almost never see food expenditures here on PIAC because my wife usually buys all of it and her finances aren’t reported here. She would have bought this too, you know, had she remembered her purse.

So, in an attempt to make it seem as though I didn’t spend as much as I did, I’m gonna pretend that we didn’t go on vacation or have our house worked on.

Adjusted spending for the month of August now comes in at $3063.02.

Yep. That sounds good to me.

Posted on August 31st, 2010 at 9:32 pm by Brainy Smurf
Finance, Spending Report | 1 Comment »

AI: Pay in Full? Not this time around…

For the past couple of years I’ve been fortunate enough to have been able to pay my ever increasing auto insurance premiums in full each time they come around for renewal.

My 6-month policy next comes due on September 4. That’s only two weeks away!

The full premium for the next six months is $900-something. I don’t know the exact amount but it doesn’t really matter: I’m not in any position to write a check (or submit an e-payment) for that kind of money.

So what’d I do?

I signed up for their autopayment plan where it charges one of my credit cards each month — plus $3.50 per payment or some such ridiculous fee.

It’s not ideal — I prefer to pay things upfront and put them out of mind — and the fee drives me insane but I’m not going to dwell on it.

My insurance policy will be renewed and paid for on its own, like autopilot, and it’s not going to break the bank in the process.

I’ll take that.

Posted on August 21st, 2010 at 5:16 pm by Brainy Smurf
Finance, Insurance | No Comments »

Mostly Cloudy: A New Perspective

You know, though I’ve only made one mortgage payment in the past 3 months while also managing to cut the monthly payment by 60% (through the re-fi), the more I think about it, the more I start to see it as a lateral move.

I mean, this should have made a HUGE impact financially but the thing is, it hasn’t.

At least not yet.

It’s not my own doing — it all goes back to that pay cut that I took. It essentially cancelled everything out.

Sure, I’m paying less but I’m also making less. It didn’t get me anywhere.

On the other hand, I guess it’s been business as usual around here as I haven’t really felt the effects of the paycut — when most of my co-workers probably have.

I dunno, still seems awfully dark and cloudy.

Probably because I thought it’d be sunnier…you know, having a sub-$500 per month mortgage payment…

I guess it just hasn’t been as great as I’d expected it to be…

Posted on August 19th, 2010 at 6:59 pm by Brainy Smurf
Finance, Mortgage | 2 Comments »

Couldn’t Carry a Balance

Well, I couldn’t do it.

I just couldn’t allow finances charges to creep up and bite me.

I said I was okay with it, you know, so I wouldn’t tap myself out but this morning I made a big transfer from savings to my checking account and then a big old payment of over $3k to the fine folks at Mastercard.

Balance on my Citi card is now back down to zero.

Most, if not all, of the expenses were incurred on our nearly two week vacation.

Thankfully, the airline tickets were paid for months ago and most of our day-to-day spending money while abroad (like that juice box up there) originated from my wife’s checking account (which is never reported here) so the damage wasn’t as bad as it could have been but now it’s all behind me.

Vacation has been paid for in full.

It probably wasn’t the most logical financial move to make — what, with the likely finance charge being under $40 anyway — but with a number of purchases looming (like new furniture for our new rooms), I wanted a clean slate…and now I’ve got one.

Posted on August 18th, 2010 at 9:08 pm by Brainy Smurf
Credit Card, Finance | No Comments »

Spending Report for July 2010

I did a pretty good job last month.

Most of our vacation expenses will fall into my August report, which lessens the damage, and besides a big tax bill, well, I think I kept my spending in check.

• $2371.24 : Property Taxes
• $275.97 : Ramada
• $232.98 : Sears
• $168.95 : PODS Storage Unit
• $120.00 : Cash
• $116.15 : Cable/Internet
• $116.00 : Gas
• $112.18 : Electricity
• $110.12 : UPS
• $97.78 : Home Depot
• $94.95 : RunningShoes.com
• $80.37 : Clothing
• $74.19 : Luggage
• $47.31 : Natural Gas
• $40.17 : Lowes
• $49.98 : Business Expenses
• $8.00 : Car Wash

That all adds up to $4116.34.

Not that taxes don’t count as spending, but without them, the total is only $1745.10. That’s even less than June!

Granted, there wasn’t a mortgage payment in July and I didn’t write any of the checks to the contractor working on the house, but still…

Here’s the line item breakdown of the anomalies…

Property Taxes – I hate ‘em. Always have. Connecticut is one of those states where we need to pay local property tax on our vehicles.

This year it’s so high because it also includes the property tax on my house. When we re-financed a couple of months ago, I stepped up to the plate and deciced to pay them myself.

Reason being — I’d rather have a super low mortgage bill each month and a huge tax bill twice a year rather than have a high mortgage bill *every* month.

Ramada – I have rule when it comes to hotels. I won’t stay in one that has a number in the name. Ramada passes that test and this specific hotel — which I might mention if I do a vacation specific post — was top notch.

Sears – Of course, as luck would have it, the lawnmower died just before we went on vacation.

Combined with the fact that we’ve got some major sums to pay the contractor and had a vacation looming, well, I didn’t want to have to buy a lawnmower.

I settled on one of their returned/refurbished models. Hey, it was 50% off and it’s still new to me!

PODs – Things are progressing on the remodel (pictures soon, I promise) so it’s possible that we might need it for one more month.

On the other hand, we’re not sure we want to move any of our crappy old furniture back into the house. We’ll see…

UPS – Holy shipping charges Batman! This was the charge to ship a high-end baby carrier (one of the external frame backpack kind) to Florida so my parents could drive it up to Alberta (it’s complicated) where we could pick it up to use in the mountains.

It cost so much because it’s a pretty big and it’s not supposed to be disassembled — so it stays pretty big. That’s the main reason that we couldn’t check it as baggage on an airplance.

Well, upon arrival in Florida, my dad took it apart anyway so when we picked it up in Alberta, the confidence that we’d had in the sound and sturdy product (that cost a fortune to ship) was totally lost.

Major bummer — so we didn’t use it nearly much as we wanted to cause we didn’t want Duncan to slip out and fall off a cliff.

The good news is that he didn’t fall off a cliff. The bad news is that we didn’t venture near any cliffs, or even off of an over touristed well-beaten — borderline handicapped accessible — trail because of it. Sigh…

This one ended up being another expensive vacation expenditure that wasn’t worth the expense.

Home Depot – Related to the renovation, we decided to replace our old thermostat (remember that thing?) with one of those new programmable touchscreen ones. It even lights up!

RunningShoes.com – Back in 2008, I got a super bargain on a pair of sneakers from these guys. Back then, the shoes were for vacation.

So I thought I’d treat myself again — but this time, pay full price. So worth it.

Clothing – I bought myself a few pairs of shorts. Exciting, huh?

Luggage – No, this wasn’t a luggage handling fee from the airline. We actually didn’t own any luggage. I’ve always been the if-it-can-fit-into-this-backpack type of packer until now. Now we have real (el-cheapo)luggage.

Lowes – More renovation stuff. This was for a new doorbell. It’s not fancy but it sounds nice and it’s better than the wireless hunk of junk we’ve been using.

Car Wash – I’m not one of those that believes that a clean car runs better (one of my friends from high school seriously washes and hand waxes his car weekly cause he believes that — and it’s a Honda Civic?!) but I can’t stand it when a bird poops on the door handle.

Posted on August 15th, 2010 at 7:51 am by Brainy Smurf
Finance, Spending Report | 1 Comment »

Net Worth Update: August 2010 (+$10,838)

Back to muddling through my hazy financial funk…after a two week vacation (which is why this is so late).

With the renovation in progress and still not paid for — and not having to make a mortgage payment — I have too much money in some places and not enough in others and a constant fear of coming up short somewhere.

I’ve reassured myself time and time again that I’ve got the funds to cover everything but, well, let’s just agree that it’s very unsettling to go two months without paying the mortgage.

It just feels…risky. Like I’ve forgotten something.

That said, after a month where I dropped over $28k, I recovered pretty nicely with a $10k+ gain!

Whether up or down, five-figure months are always exciting!

Here’s the breakdown:

Cash:
My cash reserve is a lot higher than it needs to be but that’s just in case the contractor comes looking for another payment. I just like to be ready and not have to ask, “Can you wait a couple of days before you deposit that?”

I dunno, I guess I don’t want to give off the appearance that the money isn’t there thinking that he’ll do a better job knowing that the check isn’t going to bounce. Naive of me, yep, but that’s just how I am…

Savings:
This is where my padded cash reserve is coming from. I’m still contributing pretty heavily, though, you know, just to keep the weekly transfer routine going.

Gov’t Bonds:
Mmm…bonds…

401k:
Good month on the markets.

Home:
I wish putting $33k worth of work into it showed here but that’s okay…

Auto 1 & Auto 2
Eh, whatever… Sadly, the BMW won’t start for some reason but it still looks nice in the garage!

Credit Cards:
Ugh… Between the vacation expenses and the cash advance we took, well, this is tough to look at. Most of it is at 0% so there isn’t any urgency and the rest, well, I’m considering carrying a balance for a month or maybe two.

Hate to do it but it’s the wiser move. I’m not comfortable tapping myself out right now just to avoid some very small finance charges.

Auto Loans and Other Loans:
Zilch. Zero. Nada.

Mortgage
Feels like I’m going backwards and to a certain extent, that’s exactly what’s happened as closing costs pushed me $5600 deeper into the red.

It’s okay though — this month the mortgage payments start back up and the number will start to drop again.

Posted on August 11th, 2010 at 9:25 pm by Brainy Smurf
Finance, Net Worth Updates | 1 Comment »

Spending Report for June 2010

Well, you can throw consistency out the window…

Since the refinance went through, I’ve had money to burn. Seriously, when you manage to cut your mortgage bill by 60%, well, suddenly it’s as if there aren’t any big bills anymore. It’s a strange feeling.

But with the renovation still not paid for, well, I’ve chosen not to spend like crazy so as not to dig myself into a huge deep well of debt.

Either way, my spending pattern can hardly be called a pattern any more…

• $786.51 : Hockey Jerseys
• $414.56 : Clothing
• $245.01 : Business Expenses
• $168.95 : PODS Storage Unit
• $116.15 : Cable/Internet
• $101.65 : Gas
• $88.68 : Electricity
• $80.00 : Cash
• $57.22 : Baby Gates
• $57.06 : Natural Gas
• $25.00 : Mortgage
• $21.20 : Cell Phone
• $10.00 : Zombie Keychain
• $9.53 : Home Depot
• $8.00 : Car Wash

All together, that’s $2189.52.

One year ago, I spent more than that on the mortgage alone. Crazy.

At the top of the list are the hockey jerseys. It’s a hobby that’s tough to explain — and I won’t try to explain it.

I added two jerseys to my collection this month — both pretty difficult to come by and both that I consider worthwhile purchases.

One was a white New York Rangers Liberty jersey which was a style that they only wore for one season. Stuff like that adds to the collectability — kinda like limited edition beanie babies or whatever.

The other was a Swiss National Team jersey worn in the 2010 IIHF World Championships that I purchased direct from the Swiss Ice Hockey Association — an experience on its own.

First off — I’ve dealt with monetary transactions from Switzerland a few times but it’s always been money coming in. Sending money to Switzerland, on the other hand, is a royal hassle.

In short, Switzerland doesn’t do the whole euro thing — they want their payments in Swiss Francs. Not a problem, conversion is simple, but they also don’t accept checks.

You’ve gotta wire the money into their account which, obviously, is a Swiss bank account which, in turn, makes you look like you’re financing some sort of Al-Quaida operative when you’re trying to wire money from an American bank.

Would you like a DNA sample with that? Sheesh…

Yeah, the bank on this end of the bargain made it feel criminal. To say the least, it was a learning experience. And I’m probably on some sort of watch list as a result.

Up next, and somewhat out of the ordinary, is the clothing expenditure. I’d worn myself down to one pair of shorts last month. I *had* three pairs at the start but some poorly situated holes developed and put me in a position where, well, I needed a new line-up of shorts. I threw in a few shirts too.

I also found myself sucked into watching the World Cup in June and ended up purchasing a few soccer jerseys for me and my son. Sadly our team, Germany, didn’t make the finals but we’ll still wear our cool new jerseys regularly.

Business expenses were high this month as I finally jumped on the wireless bandwagon. We purchased one of those NetBooks last month (my wife bought it so it’s purchase not accounted for here) so it was time to make our home network wireless too.

The hardware wasn’t really that expensive but it did bump me over the $200 mark with all of the regular expenses thrown in too. The worst part about it was that I had to venture into Best Buy… Ugh.

The Baby Gates purchase was for a couple of those gates that you put in doorways to keep toddlers from, well, escaping. Duncan is walking around now so we kinda need to keep him outta the construction zones — not that they’re any more dangerous than the house was a couple of weeks ago, but still…

A ten dollar Zombie key chain? What is wrong with you? Actually, a friend has been getting into the whole arts and crafts thing and I was feeling generous. Besides, it’s awesome.

And the last non-regular purchase was that $9.53 purchase at Home Depot. It was for a HUGE screwdriver (that I’ll probably never see use again — much like that mandrill back in 2007) that helped me take apart (or destroy) the piano so we could get it out of the dining room. I’m just glad the stupid thing didn’t cost more.

Posted on July 10th, 2010 at 6:40 am by Brainy Smurf
Finance, Spending Report | 1 Comment »

Net Worth Update: July 2010 (-$28,466)

Well, I knew it was going to be one of those weird transition months. I didn’t expect to be down this much, though…

Anyway, while the numbers obviously indicate otherwise, my finances are actually in pretty good shape.

Yep, I tiptoed around it — Numbers do lie.

Here we go:

Cash:
Par for the course, really. I seem to be stuck in that $1000 to $2000 balance region.

Savings:
Plugging along here at a great pace. Most of this will end up paying for the renovation but I’m also putting much of my mortgage savings in here now too.

Gov’t Bonds:
No additions this month, just pure interest.

401k:
It was a rough week to close out the month. It’s starting to feel like I’m spinning my wheels here — especially knowing that there isn’t an employer match anymore…and hasn’t been one for over a year.

Home:
The minor fluctuation here is due the recent appraisal we had done. It came in a bit lower than I would have liked but high enough for the refi to go through.

Auto 1 & Auto 2:
Whatever…

Credit Cards:
Yikes! It’s like the good old days! This is actually the balance on my wife’s credit card that we’re using to finance the renovation project. We still have all of the money in hand as of right now but I’m still treating it like a liability.

Auto Loans and Other Loans:
Zilch. Zero. Nada.

Mortgage:
I’m not real happy about this… Sure, my new mortgage payment is less than half of what it was but my balance jumped $5600 worth… It’s as if I haven’t put a single dent in it since the start of the year… Lousy stinkin’ closing costs…

Posted on July 1st, 2010 at 6:02 am by Brainy Smurf
Finance, Net Worth Updates | 1 Comment »

Money to Burn…

Wow… My finances are in a total funk of late…

The good news is that the mortgage refinance did go through without a hitch — I finally received a bill from my new lender.

In all, I managed to eliminate PMI, lower my rate 2%, and cut my monthly minimum payment by $750. Pretty good stuff.

My day-to-day finances, though, are in total disarray. See — I’ve been doing the mortgage auto-payment thing, on a weekly basis, for years now.

That’s done.

Shut off. Might not even get it going again…

And, like most responsible folks, I also plan my monthly budget around my biggest bill — the mortgage.

Well, it’s not such a big bill anymore. And, my first payment to the new lender isn’t due until August 1st.

That’s still a long way off.

So, I guess what I’m saying is that I feel like I’ve suddenly got a lot of money to burn. And I guess I do…except that I’ve also got $30k more to pay the contractor working on our house and a fresh and new $17k credit card balance.

I feel “richer” than I ever have but I’m in deeper debt than I’ve grown accustomed to since I finally got myself out of the red…

It’s a peculiar situation…

Posted on June 27th, 2010 at 7:27 pm by Brainy Smurf
Finance | 3 Comments »

I Just Bought a House!

The headline is true — Thursday has come and gone and I’ve just purchased a house…from myself.

Yep, it was just a refinance but after signing my name 40 or 50 times I’ve now officially cut my monthly minimum payment by 60%.

That’s HUGE!

(For the record, I still won’t believe this actually happened until I get a new mortgage bill in the mail…in August, apparently…)

So, anyway, among all of the stuff I had to sign, there was this one sheet that listed all of the fees to be paid to Bank of America (my now former lender) to “release” the loan.

One of the “fees” was for mortgage insurance. It was for $170.30. That works out to exactly two months worth of PMI.

How messed up is that?

It was nearly two years ago that I’d paid my mortgage balance down to the point where PMI should have been cancelled automatically.

It never happened. Countrywide — at the time — wouldn’t let it happen.

I sucked it up and continued to pay $85.15 per month for insurance that I didn’t need *and* couldn’t cancel no matter how hard I tried even after they transitioned to become part of Bank of America.

The refinance was my way out — and it appears to have worked.

But they still got the last shot in with this phantom fee…

I can only shake my head…

Posted on June 10th, 2010 at 8:30 pm by Brainy Smurf
Finance, PMI - Mortgage Insurance | 5 Comments »

Spending Report for May 2010

With so many things up in the air (mortgage re-fi, mega pay cut), my spending this past month was far from ordinary.

• $3000.00 : Contractor
• $1346.10 : Mortgage
• $445.00 : LenderVend Appraisal
• $241.81 : PODS Storage Unit
• $200.00 : Cash
• $114.14 : Cable/Internet
• $112.19 : Gas
• $106.96 : Water/Sewer
• $102.37 : Target
• $100.00 : Capital One Bank
• $99.28 : Electricity
• $93.76 : Natural Gas
• $92.84 : Business Expenses
• $52.95 : Flowers
• $15.66 : Walmart

All together, that’s $6123.06.

Okay, so the total isn’t so out of the ordinary but the breakdown certainly is. If you took all of the renovation and re-finance related expenses out of the equation, I actually had a pretty thrifty month as they alone made up for over 60% of my spending.

Cash was as high as it was because I took a bunch out for the day we took Duncan to the zoo. Sure, it was supposed to be FREE but it wasn’t.

The Target trip also related to Duncan‘s big day. We bought him a leather easy chair, a pool, and some clothes.

I made a $100 payment to my wife’s Capital One account to ensure that her balance was $0 (or less) for when we wrote that $17k check to ourselves. While the card is in her name, I’ll be adding it’s balance to my net worth updates this coming month.

The flower purchase was for a girl that asked Duncan to go to the prom with her. He couldn’t make it but we ordered her flowers on Prom day anyway.

And I can’t believe I stepped foot in a Walmart but that purchase was for a wrist brace after I totally messed it up at the zoo wrestling a hippo…

June’s spending should be even wackier, I’m thinking…

Posted on June 6th, 2010 at 8:53 pm by Brainy Smurf
Finance, Spending Report | 2 Comments »