We’re well into the month of May now, and after my April in the clouds financially, let’s see if I’m on track again…

I ended up going back to my tried and true weekly payment system. I’d never done it with the auto loan before so I tested it out with a couple of e-payments initiated through my checking account last month. Success.

To meet my original goals for 2008, it basically came down the fact that I had to set aside $2000 per month in order to meet them all by the end of December.

I’m sticking to that plan, and though it seems as if I’m far ahead of schedule, having wiped out the credit card debt, I’m actually not far ahead at all. In truth, I’m actually behind.

There are almost 8 months left in the year and the total cost of my goals is still a little over $16k. It’s going to be tight.

The current strategy is to split the $2000/month right down the middle with $1000 going towards the auto loan and $1000 towards savings in the ING Direct account. Any extra I’m comfortable parting with will go towards the mortgage.

So, I’ve completely automated the auto loan side of things. Each Wednesday, I have $150 being transferred from the checking account to Toyota. In addition, I increased the regular $289 that Toyota pulls from my checking account on the 15th of each month to $400. Together, my monthly payment is now $1000.

At this rate, the auto loan will be eliminated sometime in the Fall. Not exactly as soon as I’d hoped, but it’s a sure thing at this point and I like that aspect.

For the other $1000, I’ve got $75 being transferred over to ING each week on Tuesdays.

True, this only adds up to $300 worth of automatic transfers each month but I’m transferring in the remaining $700 on a manual schedule based on when payments from my side business come in.

Of late though, the side business hasn’t brought in nearly $700 so the remainder is coming from my regular paycheck after the mortgage and all of the bills have been paid.

So far this month, if I include the $75 transfers already scheduled, I’ve accounted for $800 — partly in thanks to the economic stimulus check. Making up the remaining $200 from the paycheck I’ll receive on the 22nd shouldn’t be an issue.

That will put me right on track — and I should also have some left over to attack the mortgage principle as well (to eliminate PMI).

Hopefully, a month from now, I *really* will be ahead…

I can’t really say that I’m good at making money. I also can’t say that I’m very good at saving money either. Neither is one of my strong points.

I am, however, confident in saying that I’m very good at paying down debts.

Yeah, I know, making money, saving money, and paying down debt should all go hand in hand, right? For me, I’m not sure why, they just don’t. Yet.

Through my quest of paying down debt, I think I’ve mastered the secret of delayed gratification — I’ve put off a lot of things that I certainly wouldn’t have in the past. And now that I’ve got my debt under full control, I still find that I’m able to walk away from the things I want. That’s progress.

Where am I going with this?

Well, April was a pretty mundane month for me. I knocked just $1722 from my debts.

I know, I know, that’s a boatload of money but when you compare it to the previous 5 months (when I was still paying down my credit card debt), it’s not really very impressive:

NOV '07       -$3285
DEV '07       -$4798
JAN '08       -$4859
FEB '08       -$2521
MAR '08       -$3924
APR '08       -$1722

See what I mean? I’m hoping April was just a speed bump and that I can eliminate the last of the auto loan at a comparable rate.

And then, hopefully, I’ll figure out the “saving money” idea and see my savings increase by thousands of dollars each month…

On a related note, does anyone else look at their numbers and wonder where on earth the money comes from?

The idea that I actually have nearly $4000 of disposable income each month to send towards debt is unfathomable. My take home pay doesn’t even approach that?!

Granted, I’ve had at least one 3 paycheck month in the last 6 months, and I was still earning a decent income for my job with the hockey team back in November and December…. Add in the big refund from my tax return… I guess if I spread all of that around, it adds up…

Sure, the numbers don’t lie, but they certainly can be deceiving…

I’m definitely not in any position to set up a budget with $4k of monthly expenses though the number may indicate that I could…

Earlier this week I came upon a couple of acquaintances discussing some sort of financial matter. I didn’t get all of the details, but it was apparent that one was giving the other some advice.

It was sad to me in that it was the one who is openly terrible with money doling out the advice as if they had all the answers — and the receiver appeared to be accepting it as sound guidance.

I didn’t say anything. Though I wanted to, it really wasn’t my place.

But it did get me thinking…

Was this person seeking financial advice blind to the obvious fact that the “expert” advising them didn’t have their own financial house in order?

Sure, their exterior might look well-off, but it’s a paper thin veil. We’re talking onion paper. Yeah — it’s that sheer.

Perception is a strange thing.

Do they really want to follow such a lead? I know I wouldn’t.

Perhaps I was just over-analyzing the conversation…

So this morning I wrote and mailed the check for June’s mortgage payment.

Sure, it’s a little early but had it not been for the Tax Stimulus check coming in last week, I wouldn’t have been able to write that check just yet.

I’m not sure I feel stimulated by the experience.

Actually, I’m not feeling any stimulation. And I think that will be the case for most who receive these paybacks.

Though one could argue that by sending my entire stimulus check to Countrywide (a company on the brink of bankruptcy), I am doing my part to “save” the economy from a recession…

I guess?

Anyway, I still have my original plans for the payout on my mind, it’s just that, now, I’m gonna use the next coming paycheck to fund the frivolous spending…

That is, if the plumber doesn’t ‘up’ the bill significantly…

Thanks to Treasury Direct’s overly secure login sequence…

With a positive cash flow again, I seriously considered throwing some money at I-Bonds again, and with interest rates dropping like a rock, if I jumped the gun before the May 1st, when the fixed rates are adjusted semi-annually, I’d have surely been pulling in a better return than what ING currently offers.

On April 30, I decided to make a move. I logged into my TreasuryDirect account…

Or I tried to…

See, for a couple of years now, they’ve had this “virtual keyboard” login sequence. You have to click all over the place on a randomized keyboard to enter your password. It’s more of a pain than anything else. But a couple of months ago, they took it a step further and mailed everyone an Access Card.

I opened it, looked at it, and put it away. It looked like a Bingo Card. No joke, that’s it up on the right.

So now, in addition to the virtual keyboard, they make you play bingo. Again, with another randomized virtual keyboard.

Could they make logging in any more of a hassle? It’s overkill.

Needless to say, I didn’t have the super secret access card on me, so I couldn’t login. That evening, I thought, “Hey, maybe I can squeak in a last minute transaction before the rates change tomorrow…”

I logged in using my wacky bingo card, set-up a transfer for $1000, a click here, a click there… Things were going pretty smoothly — I didn’t even accidentally hit the “back” button (something you can’t do on their difficult to navigate website)

I was almost done, and feeling pretty good about this wise money move I was making. But then I read the fine print — my transaction wouldn’t go through until May 1st.

That was too late. I cancelled the transaction — and thank goodness for that!

On May 1st, the U.S. Treasury cut the fixed interest rate on I-Bonds all the way down to 0.00%. That’s not a typo. The rate is zero. Nil. Nada. Zip.

I’m sure glad I didn’t accidentally throw $1000 in that direction now — can you imagine being stuck with a 0.00% fixed rate? Now, I realize the real rate is 4.84%, but that’s just the inflation component that changes every six months. While that might sound attractive given that most online banks only offer something in the 3% range, it really isn’t, with the fixed rate at zero, you’re only keeping up with inflation — you’re not gaining anything. On top of it, you can’t get at the money for 12 months.

Not much of a deal there.

In the end, it makes me feel a little better about the little I still have invested in I-Bonds which are currently a rate of 6.27%.

Now *that* was a deal…

So last night I went to the IRS website and played with their new “Where’s My Refund?” script.

As is common for the IRS website, in my experience, it crapped out and didn’t tell me anything.

Seems most government sites have this problem — you know, a nifty calculator or pay online option where you enter all of your information, click submit, wait a few seconds, and then get an Error 500 — Internal Server Error.

Anyway, last night, the “Where’s my Refund?” script said my SSN and number of exemptions from my 1040 didn’t match their records…

Um, hello? Yes they do — my 1040 is right in front of me.

Anyway, I was out of luck.

This morning, though, I find myself $1200 richer. Thanks America.

Well, April 2008 goes down as a pretty decent month for me financially. It was my first full month without a credit card balance which sounds like it should be a good thing, but in actuality, it kind of left me in a haze.

I didn’t really know where to send my money at the start of the month, made a couple bad decisions midway through, and I’ll be correcting them this month.

I also found that I wasn’t keeping track of my accounts as diligently as I had in the past. For months — years even — I’d routinely log into each bank’s website each morning to check on my balances. Now, with so many of them just reading $0, I’ve lost interest. That’s not a good thing.

But the numbers don’t lie…

While not falling as aggressively as in the past, I still managed to knock another $1722 from my debts. In the coming months, I’ll begin to focus a lot more on the auto loan rather than the mortgage so as to free up more money each month (which will then just go towards the mortgage).

See, the mortgage payment isn’t about to change but by eliminating the auto loan, I can relieve myself of a $289 minimum payment each month.

On the assets end of things, though the total went dipped into the negative, everything that I can control was a plus. I’ve worked my checking account back up to $2000 and I’d replenished my savings account back up to $1000. Combined, that’s within $50 of where I started off the year (except now I’m not carrying $8k+ in credit card debt).

The markets were kind this month — my 401k balance jumped over 6% and I reached, then surpassed, my all time high.

The value of my house, however, dropped quite a bit. Maybe it’s the media’s housing crisis finally catching on in my neck of the woods and, honestly, even if it is, it doesn’t bother me in the slightest — I’m not looking to sell anytime soon anyway. I’m also not about to just stop paying the mortgage either.

The trade-in value of automobiles also dropped significantly this month, with my daily driver seeing a double digit percentage drop. I suspect that has a little to do with me surpassing the magic 30k mile mark. That’s okay though. As long as both vehicles are running just fine and I still owe less than they’re worth, it’s not something to worry about.

With the added padding of the Tax Stimulus check in May, I can’t imagine I’ll take a turn for the worse in the coming month…

A couple of days ago, the guy that wrote Living Rich by Spending Smart: How to Get More of What You Really Want, Greg Karp, had an article run on my local newspaper’s website.

The idea was comparing the spending habits of Homer Simpson and Mr. Spock (from Star Trek). You know, illogical vs. logical. I’ve cut out most of the article, but one passage really stood out for me:

If you don’t think you’re irrational with money, answer these questions: Would you mow your own lawn to save $10? Many people say, “Of course.” Would you mow your neighbor’s lawn to earn $10? Many people’s respond, “No way.”

Interesting, considering that from a money standpoint the questions are the same. A perfectly logical person would translate both questions as, “Would you mow a lawn to be $10 richer?” Answers to the questions should be the same, whether yes or no.

For me, if he’d up’ed the dollar figure to $15, well, I’d mow my own *and* the neighbor’s.

No problem. ;0)

After the past two favorable days in the markets, combined with my monthly contribution that was deposited earlier this week, I’m happy to report that my balance is *finally* higher than it was on January 1.

Now I know, it’s not really higher, since I’ve added thousands in contributions since the start of the year only to break even (and ahead) now, but it’s still nice (in a mental motivational sort of way) to finally see a number higher than where I started the year.

As of market close yesterday, I’m up $1230 since January 1 and at a new all time high! Woo-hoo!

I’ve been wanting to do this again since I eliminated the last of my credit card debt last month.

Should be interesting to see how things fall and how the credit card companies treat/tempt me now that I’m not carrying any balances.

For a recap, here’s how things panned out in previous roll calls:

  » June 2007 Roll Call : Limit = $98500, Balance = $13026

  » January 2008 Roll Call : Limit = $108400, Balance = $8125

I haven’t added any new cards since I started, and really, I haven’t gotten an offer sweet enough to even consider opening a new account. Anyway, here goes:

Bank of America Business MasterCard
Originally an MBNA account before they were bought out by Bank of America, I opened this account in March of 2005 when I started to divide my personal and business expenses and keep track of them separately. Turned out to be a great move as it was shortly there after I realized how much money I was bleeding on business expenses. I do not carry this card, but automatic payments are set-up for business expenses.
Balance: $0
Credit Limit: $26620 (up $2420 since January)
Rate: 9.9%

CitiBank AT&T Universal MasterCard
I opened this account in April of 2007 utilizing a 0% for 12 months offer. I wrote a $6000 check to myself, which I originally dropped into my ING Direct savings account to jump on the “arbitrage” bandwagon. Shortly afterwards, I pulled the money out to finance the siding project. Now paid off, this is the only card I carry in my waller for things like gas.
Balance: $0
Credit Limit: $8500
Rate: 13.48% 11.26%

Chase Bank Visa Card
This was one of my first credit cards. I opened the account in 1998 and it was one of the cards that I ran up a considerable balance on before I got my act together. The highest it ever went was $12905 and that was in October of 2005. By August of 2006, I’d eliminated the balance, but continued to use the card for gas and the occasional purchase. Balance was always paid in full each month. In June of 2007, I took advantage of a 4.9% for the life of the balance offer to fund the siding project. This was the last card with a balance that I paid off.
Balance: $0
Credit Limit: $19200
Rate: 17.27% 15.24%

Bank of America NHL MasterCard
Another of my original credit cards originally opened through MBNA in 1997 for a free t-shirt. This is also another card that I ran up a 5-figure balance on. In May of 2004, it topped out at $10915. By November of 2005, I had wiped the balance out. Now I have my internet service provider automatically bill to this card each month, and like clockwork, I pay back the $42.95 automatically on the same day using an autopay set up from the MBNA days. I do not carry this card and have not carried a balance since November of 2005.
Balance: $0
Credit Limit: $27400
Rate: 20.99% 18.74%

Bank of America Platinum Plus Visa Card
Originally opened in March of 2005 as a failed plan to use balance transfers to consolidate balances at a lower rate. At first I transferred $5000 to this card. Evidently, not having learned my lesson the first time, I transferred another $5000 to this card in March of 2006. Luckily the rate was only 6.25% for both transfers. I wiped out the balance, which topped out at $6925 in March of 2006, in January of 2007. I do not carry this card.
Balance: $0
Credit Limit: $15400
Rate: 18.24%

Bank of America LendingTree GoldOption Loan
This was a loan for $10000 I took out in December of 2002 to, again, consolidate a few balances and put some much needed cash in my hands. At the time, it was LendingTree.com that found me the loan at 9.9%, and when the big check made out to me came in the mail, it was from MBNA. After a couple years of paying it down in regular $226 intervals, MBNA sent me a credit card attached to the account and started treating it like a credit card. With each month, the rate would rise another half percent or so. Not cool. I made my final payment in March of 2005 when the rate had climbed to 13.24%. I do not carry this card and don’t plan to ever use this line of credit.
Balance: $0
Credit Limit: $13700
Rate: 24.99%

So, since January, other than a $0 balance, there isn’t really much to report. I’m a little suprised — I’d expected a little more movement.

My total credit limit increased $2420 and now totals $110820.

Apparently due to the Fed’s interest rate cuts, my card rates have also dropped around 2%. That’s always welcome even if I’m not paying finance charges these days.

Unfortunately, the cards that lowered their rate also happen to be the ones with rates so high that it’s unlikely that I’d choose to use them for a large purchase anyway.