Big Expensive Plans… in Order

Every now and then my eyes turn into dollar signs and I daydream of how awesome the future will be…

And then I look at my finances and realize, well, most of those dreams, while definitely possible, are a long, long, long way off.

First, we need a new car — a bigger car. I’ve already detailed this plan here and I expect it to come to fruition within the next 60 days.

Following that, I’d like to break ground on the detached 3-car garage — or at least tear down the existing garage — that I’d originally hoped would be happening right about now.

We’re down to three cars now and, I’ll be honest, I’m chomping at the bit to get a little bit more storage space. A two-story 3-car garage will get all of our cars covered *and* really de-clutter and organize the house while also allowing the boys to have their own bedrooms. Win, win, win.

Up next would be the kitchen. We had the rest of the first floor completely gutted in 2010 but left the kitchen as-is. This past winter, we noticed that the half-bathroom adjacent to the kitchen was at risk of falling into the basement…

Basically, decades of a sweating toilet (in the humid summer months) have rotted out the floor. While it’s a very high priority to get this taken care of, the bathroom isn’t in the ideal place (as the laundry room is also poorly placed) and both should probably be roped in under a complete kitchen remodel with a small addition as well.

I have a sinking feeling that we’ll have to spend a couple grand to band-aid the issue until we’re ready and able, financially, to do it the way we really should.

Up next would be our full bathroom upstairs. Plain and simple — it sucks. The layout is all wrong, it’s poorly lit, poorly ventilated, the sink is cracked, and the tub drains far too slowly… Sounds awful, right?

Well, it’s not as bad as I’m making it out to be but…it needs work. If we’re able to get the downstairs bathroom built out and converted to a full bathroom, well, maybe this could wait another 5 years or so. Maybe.

Lastly, we’ve got a large level and clear lot. I’m not opposed to mowing grass but, for the last few years, growing grass hasn’t exactly come easily. The yard looks horrible.

Now, the new garage will eat up a pretty good portion but in behind the new garage, I’d also like to put in one of those sport courts. Not basketball or tennis for us but hockey.

In a perfect scenario, synthetic ice will have become low maintenance and practical so that we could skate on it year round but deep down I know that a concrete slap covered with sport tiles are what I really should be envisioning.

A couple nets, maybe some dasher boards, and lights installed on the backside of the garage to illuminate it for those autumn evening games.

That’s better than a swing set anyday… Of course, I need to get this done before the kids get too old to make it worth it…

And I know, I know, why increase the value of your home like this and then drop a hockey rink in the backyard and destroy all added value?

Well, mostly cause it’s for me and my family.

And we’re not looking to sell.

And, when you really look at it, a sport court is little more than a glorified cement pad so, if it ever became an issue, one dude with a bobcat, a dump truck, and some grass seed could take care of it in less than a day.

So, how much money are we talking about?

Well, we’re expecting to pay $20k for a used minivan, the garage will be at least $60k, the kitchen/bathroom update and addition would probably be $35k, the upstairs bathroom would be $10k, and the sport court would probably be around $7k.

Anybody have $130k handy?

Pulling my head down from the clouds, we’ll likely finance the car, put the garage off for another year, put a $2k bandaid on the downstairs bathroom while continuing to dream of a full blown kitchen remodel, abandon the sport court idea, and keep on using our dismal upstairs bathroom.

Yeah, that sounds about right.

Posted on April 8th, 2013 at 6:56 pm by Brainy Smurf
Finance, Motivation | 1 Comment »

Can I Afford a… Lamborghini?

I’m not a gearhead by any stretch so car shows aren’t really one of my areas of expertise but I am sure of one thing — there is absolutely nothing impressive about a Mustang, Camaro, or Corvette manufactured within the past 50 years. Nothing.

What you have there is, well, it’s kinda like the sports car of the mulleted and moustached, sleeveless shirt wearing, tattoo’d arm trailer park crowd.

I know people will disagree with me and I can respect that but you can’t deny that the typical Camaro driver looks like they could have been featured on the “People of Walmart” website.

And Corvette drivers? Well, you can spot them a mile away…

That’s a fact.

So this past weekend, Duncan and I went to a car show — a real car show, for a change — where Fords and Chevy’s were turned away.

Just five different brands were allowed — Ferrari, Lamborghini, Masserati, Alfa Romeo, and there was one of those new Fiat Abarth models there too…

It was free admission (like all of the car shows we happen upon) but this crowd was…different.

I won’t say classy. I won’t say wealthy either.

Ferrari enthusiasts are their own kind of weird. Seriously.

But I will say that I felt a certain commonality to the crowd — none at all impressed by flame paint jobs, blowers jutting through the hood, or insane stereo systems.

These were just beautiful cars, as-is.

And there didn’t seem to be any outward one-upmanship amongst the owners like you see at the “regular” car shows. These guys (and gals) were all openly content with the knowledge that they had amazing cars — silly customizations not required.

One guy, upon overhearing Duncan’s high pitched voice exclaim that our Atlantic Blue BMW Z3 was “better” than his Tahiti Blue Lamborghini Countach offered to give him a “ride”.

Duncan was a little take aback by how the scissor doors opened but still climbed into the car before kinda freaking out a bit before the guy even had a chance to get in the driver seat so the ride never really did happen, but I still thought it was really cool (and modest) how the guy offered to drive him down the street.

His objective (based on his cheerful demeanor) was clearly not to prove to a three year old that a Countach was truly better than a Z3 but moreso to give me a story to tell (and a crappy cell phone picture to show) him when he’s older.

While I was clearly uneasy watching Duncan navigate his way out of the deep passenger seat, praying that the owner didn’t notice how sticky his hands were, the guy asked what kind of car Duncan was talking about.

I told him it was just a Z3 and the guy got down to Duncan’s level to let him know that he was right, “Definitely right — my blue car only has these tiny windows,” as he shut the scissor door to show him.

“Your car is a convertible!”

So after walking by a few more Ferrarris and seeing a bunch more driving around — either just arriving or changing their spot — we headed home and my mind started drifting…

Am I rich enough to have one of those?

I mean, I’ve always kinda wanted a DeLorean (a guy up the street from me had one when I was growing up) but I wouldn’t mind a Countach or Testarossa either…

A little online research proved that Italian super cars hold their value about as well as a Land Rover does… (they don’t)

Yes. I could afford one.

In fact, my hockey jersey collection alone is worth a really, really, really nice one.

It’s not so much about wealth, it’s more what you choose to spend your disposable income on…

It gives me a little more to chew on, you know, when I next decide to purchase a dirty piece of polyester…

Posted on July 4th, 2012 at 8:41 am by Brainy Smurf
Motivation | 3 Comments »

Credit Card Paydown…Winning!

Having done this a few times now, I’ve learned that it’s not so much about how large a balance you’re carrying but how able you are to make constant and consistent payments while keeping the credit cards in your wallet.

Here are the three puzzle pieces that determine success or failure: Payments Made, Interest Charged, and Purchases Made.

The total balance doesn’t matter one bit. $20 in the hole or $200k in the red, it doesn’t matter.

In hockey terms, it’s a lot like a player’s plus/minus rating.

For those that don’t follow ice hockey, the +/- is a statistic that doesn’t take into account how many goals a player has scored. If you’re on the ice when your team scores a goal, whether or not you’ve influenced the play at all, you get a plus one. If you happen to be on the ice when the opponent scores a goal, you get a minus one. Pretty simple, huh?

Well, sometimes the most valuable player on a team is the guy with the fewest points. Some players are just “good luck charms” for those around them and the +/- rating is what showcases an otherwise un-noticed talent.

Brad McCrimmon, who sadly died in that hockey team plane crash a few months ago, has always been the “stud” of this statistic.

He was a defenseman who never once scored more than 13 goals in an entire season. Thirteen goals isn’t very many.

Casual fans thought of him as a, well, just a generic and totally replaceable player. I know I was never “excited” to see him on the ice — really, just a boring player among the likes of an offensive lineman in football or the guy who bats eighth in baseball.

Simply put, no one was chanting his name.

But when you took into account the +/- statistic, well, he was second to none. It became crystal clear that his team scored often and the opponent pretty much never scored while he was on the ice.

So, even though he wasn’t on the score sheet very often, he was, in a technical sort of way, the best player on the team. By far.

Back to finances…

So, first and foremost, my payments for the month (goals for) must exceed the sum of my expenses and the finance charges (goals against).

It’s really that easy.

I don’t even need to address the total balance — as long as the above holds true, I’ll always be headed in the right direction.

Duh?

I know, this isn’t rocket science but so many people somehow manage to lose track of how simple it all is…

So far, in January, I’ve charged $399.06 and I’ve submitted $1473.95 worth of payments. There have been no finance charges as of yet.

That means that my plus/minus rating is plus $1074.89.
And we’re less than halfway through the month…

Winning!

(I know, I know, I’m 6 months late with the Charlie Sheen references…)

Posted on January 14th, 2012 at 7:43 am by Brainy Smurf
2012 Goals, Credit Card, Finance, Motivation | 2 Comments »

401k Contributions Halted

It only took an entire year but, finally, this afternoon, I submitted the paperwork to stop contributing to my 401k.

No, no, it’s not due to the recent ups-and-downs on the market and any sort of economic uncertainly.

And I know that I’m not following my own advice by making this move.

But you know what?

I’ve got more credit card debt than I’m comfortable with and I’ve been dancing around that fact for too long.

Fourteen months ago it was a zero balance. Since then, I’d been tap dancing around $25k — and now the finance charges are starting to kick in.

My first manoeuvre was to sell the I-Bonds.

Hitting the pause button on the 401k is the second.

My debts will most certainly fall now.

They’d better.

Posted on August 25th, 2011 at 8:34 pm by Brainy Smurf
401k, Credit Card, Finance, Motivation | 4 Comments »

When I Get Out of Debt I Want to…

Almost three years ago, to the day, I wrote a post with the same title as today’s post.

I stumbled across the old post by chance while trying to dig up that old chart for yesterday’s entry.

Anyway, since then, I’ve gotten out of debt and then right back into it again…but let’s ignore the second part of that statement for now.

So as I neared the end of my original debt paydown, I listed out a number of things that I wanted to do once the debt payments were no more.

This is that list:

• Quit my extra job.
• Start a family.
• Take a real vacation.
• Have the entire first floor of my house remodeled. We’re talking the works. New floors, walls, ceilings, electrical work, plumbing…
• Buy an all new living room set with a sectional couch so we can both sleep comfortably when football is on.
• Have some trees removed and then have other areas landscaped professionally.
• Tear down and build a new garage.

Reading it brought a smile to my face.

I quit my extra job — a few weeks before I even wrote the list. After 18 months off, I’ve since taken it back on but with a lot less on my shoulders so it’s no longer as maddening as it once was. It *is* however like being in the dentist’s chair when it comes to being paid in a timely fashion. Yep — they’re over 90 days behind. Again.

I started a family. Duncan was born in May of 2009 and we’ve got another on the way at the end of March.

Take a real vacation? Well… We did take one hell of road trip in the summer of 2008 but I’m not sure I can classify it as a “real” vacation. By “real”, we’re talkin’ about a Wheel of Fortune prize type of vacation. We’ve yet to take one of those.

We had the first floor of the house remodeled in 2010. I still need to have the kitchen done (and the associated plumbing) but everything else was done.

And at the conclusion of the renovation project, I bought a huge sectional couch for our living room back in October!

We had trees removed in July of 2009. And while we haven’t had any professional landscaping done, I’ve had professional landscapers rake my leaves for me since April of 2008.

And we still haven’t gotten to that last “wish” but I think I pretty much accomplished what I wanted to do when I got out of debt — and getting out of debt was the only reason that I was able to accomplish as much of it as I did.

Now to start putting together a new list, you know, as something to look forward to.

Posted on January 12th, 2011 at 2:46 pm by Brainy Smurf
Finance, Motivation, Success | 1 Comment »

Debt Repayment: After Two Years, I’m Back at It

From a pseudo defensive stance, over the past week, I’ve kinda felt the need to, I dunno, further respond to EnoughWealth’s comment regarding my ridonkulous spending last month — specifically the television purchase when, from their point of view, I should have just saved up for it.

In theory, they’re right.

Obviously that’s the case.

In reality, we’d been without a living room for 6 months during the renovation. Now, the room was complete and it was time to furnish it.

In the past, I’m sure you’ve all pieced together decorations for a room one-by-one but I think everyone can admit that taking that route, regardless of your personal taste, well, it usually ends up looking disjointed and cluttered.

Here we were with a brand new living space, completely empty, with an opportunity to do it right.

All at once.

And we did.

Could we have waited? Not really.

Have you ever gone 6+ months without sitting down on a couch to watch a little television after dinner?

We just did.

And we’d had enough.

But this isn’t really about a television or a couch or even a renovation — it’s about the money.

Did we take on some debt during this extreme makeover and subsequent redecorating?

Yep, we sure did.

But we can pay for it too…

Right now the total damage is around $24k worth of debt which we financed using credit cards — $17k of which is at a 0% interest rate.

My repayment/savings plan is currenty set to $570 per week -or- an average of $2470 per month.

It’s all on auto-pilot too utilizing weekly auto-transfers from my checking account. I’m not in a position to easily “skip” a payment here or there…

Further, the plan is actually conservative.

I could do more.

I probably will do more.

I guess my defense is that I know what I’m doing.

I’ve been in deeper debt before and I got out of it.

Best of all — my expenses are far lower than the last time I had to do this *and* the things that got me into debt were totally worth it.

Big difference.

I’ll be debt free again by mid-2011.

Mark my words.

Posted on November 16th, 2010 at 9:32 pm by Brainy Smurf
Credit Card, Finance, Motivation | 3 Comments »

Progress Chart Resurrected

See it over there?

That little chart right above the coffee cup all but begging you to subscribe to my feed?

Well, the last time I used a progress chart was back in 2008 — the year that I plowed through just about every single goal I’d set for myself.

Then, in 2009, having accomplished so much, I got a little fluffy and failed to accomplish much of anything.

I didn’t use a chart in 2009 and I think it might have been partially to blame for my lack of progress too…

So it’s back.

And hopefully it’ll work.

I’ve got a looooonnnnggggg way to go — roughly $26,266 — to accomplish my goals for 2010.

Posted on February 8th, 2010 at 6:55 am by Brainy Smurf
2010 Goals, Finance, Motivation | 3 Comments »

You Lost Me at $21k…

When I first came across a personal finance blog, which happened to be Jonathan’s My Money Blog, just over two years ago, my most anticipated post was the one that comes at the beginning of each month — the net worth update.

At the time, I was in 20-something thousand dollars in credit card debt and seeing updates like his — how his finances were on the up-and-up each and every month — really inspired me not only to start Pants in a Can but to get my own finances in order and start really keeping track of not only of my finances but my progress too…

I also felt that I could relate to his situation (and many others too) as it seemed that we were all in the same boat. A decent income, a nice retirement plan already in place, and some HUGE debts.

It got to the point where I started to think, hey, if so-and-so can knock down $XXX off of their credit card balances each month, why can’t I?

Just weeks later, I was doing the exact same thing — following their lead — and it took less than two years to wipe all of my debts off of the table. It was an awesome exercise.

Another blogger’s net worth that I’ve followed pretty closely for the past couple of years is Flexo’s over at Consumerism Commentary.

He’s been doing the net worth updates since 2003 and really started from scratch with a net worth bouncing around the $20k mark for the first few months.

That has to be pretty relatable for those just starting out.

His whole journey of building wealth from that $20k mark has been really amazing — each month he just kept plugging away.

It’s also been quite motivational, giving me the feeling that, hey, I can do that too…

Until recently…

You lost me at $21k…

See, Flexo’s last two monthly updates have listed “other income” of over $21k for each month. That’s in addition to his salary.

Yes, in February and March, he brought in over $42k of “extra” cash.

Our net worths aren’t that far apart but I’m not even close to having made even half of that this entire year — including my salary.

I can’t relate.

Now I’m not knocking Flexo’s site or even his success — it’s downright amazing and I’d like to shake his hand — I’m just saying that I can’t “personally” relate to his situation anymore and I’d bet that that’s the case for a lot of readers out there.

I mean, I’ve had a few great months here and there where I’ve brought in over $10k in the span of a month but… $21k consecutively? In a down economy? (I can’t believe I just said that…)

He’s doing something right, that’s for sure.

It just doesn’t feel like it falls under “Personal” anymore. More like, “Small Business” or something…

I dunno, maybe it’s just me.

Posted on April 12th, 2009 at 9:38 am by Brainy Smurf
Finance, Motivation, Success | 10 Comments »

Sensationalism: S&P Hasn’t Been this Low Since 1996!

It’s almost comical now that I stated that my 401k was tanking back on March 11, 2008.

That was almost exactly a year ago. I’m not sure that I imagined that it would tank this badly or for this long.

Or maybe I did.

The line I keep hearing on the news is how the markets “haven’t been at this level since Bill Clinton was in the White House.”

It’s almost as if they expect that little tidbit of info to stir up some dismal feelings or, at the very least, get some sort of reaction, but for me, well, first, the Bill Clinton presidency doesn’t seem that long ago (so it’s hardly a “wow, that was a long time ago” tingle that I’m feeling) and my memories of the mid-to-late 1990′s, financially speaking, are actually quite bright.

Things were good.

I was making a lot of money, I was living way beyond my means, and I didn’t have to worry about the “Axis of Evil” plotting against me just around every corner.

I think that most folks can say the exact same thing.

I dunno, from where I’m sitting, the media are going about this all wrong — you know, if they’re trying to sensationalize a non-story. Like they always do.

If my memory is correct, I’m pretty certain that the NASDAQ was just starting to ramp up with all of the dot.com start-ups in 1996. Politics aside, things were on the up-and-up…

I mean, if we’re really back “there” again, as they seem to be indicating that we are — if even just as a “number”, I’m really looking forward to the next few years.

The late 1990′s were very kind to me.

And I expect the next few years to follow suit — regardless of whether we’re “there” again or not.

Posted on March 3rd, 2009 at 8:36 pm by Brainy Smurf
Current Events, Finance, Motivation, Rants | 1 Comment »

Do I Spend too Much?

A simple yes or no answer will suffice.

Over at the Happy Rock, Debt Destroyer lists out his monthly expenses and every month I think to myself, “Man, that guy spends a lot…”

I’ve even left a comment a few times saying almost exactly that.

But does he really spend a lot?

Obviously, his numbers always seem high to me so I’m pretty convinced that he spends a fortune each and every month but, honestly, I’ve never really kept great track of my own spending — just my plus/minus.

In short, I’m going to give it a try.

I think I had a pretty expensive February, so these numbers might be a little bit higher than usual, but maybe not…

• $1350.00 : Mortgage
• $897.20 : Auto Insurance
• $498.00 : Hockey Jerseys
• $327.08 : Natural Gas
• $320.00 : American Cancer Society
• $154.72 : Electricity
• $123.62 : Business Expenses
• $109.26 : Cable/Internet
• $98.67 : Water/Sewer
• $62.00 : Clothing
• $60.00 : Valentine’s Day
• $59.40 : Phone
• $38.87 : Gas
• $20.15 : E-Filing
• $14.97 : Finance Charges (GRRRR!!!)

That adds up to $4133.94!

Holy crap.

DD’s tally for January was $4205.68 — just a tad more than me!!!

I’m actually quite surprised that I’m right there with him… and to think people gave him a hard time, myself included, over a $180 Pearl Jam box set and here I am dropping nearly $500 on hockey jerseys.

(In reality, I dropped over $800 on hockey jerseys as the American Cancer Society donation was in fact a charitable donation for, well, a jersey…)

It’s complete madness.

The only good thing I can take from this analysis is that, as I said, this was an expensive month for me.

It’s not like I drop $897.20 on auto insurance each month. And the $818 spent on hockey jerseys, as lame an excuse as it sounds, was a much needed splurge.

Subtract those two from the picture and my expenses for the month were only $2418.74.

I say that like it’s nothing… Crazy, I tell ya…

And, technically, I could even take it a few steps further and take out the water bill (it’s quarterly), Valentine’s Day, the e-filing fee, and the finance charges.

And really, with the weather warming up, the gas and electricity bills be be cut in half (or more) in a couple of months.

So I guess it’s all good news for the months ahead.

Either way, though, my short term goal for March will be to keep my expenses under $2500…

According to Microsoft Money, I haven’t accomplished this since April of 2001 — not even close. That blows my mind.

Posted on February 28th, 2009 at 9:38 am by Brainy Smurf
2009 Goals, Finance, Motivation, Spending Report | 11 Comments »

Break Over

Remember that list I put together when I decided to stop my automatic savings plan?

I claimed that I was “taking a break” from saving.

Yeah, it was less than a week ago.

In short, I stopped my weekly transfer into savings because my checking account was feeling drained.

That, and I also wanted to:

1. Pay my latest auto insurance premium in full.
2. Erase the remaining credit card balance from the baby furniture purchase back in January.
3. Be financially irresponsible and feed my addiction one last time before the smurfling is born.
4. Pad my checking account balance to $5000.

So here I am, less than a week later and I’ve already accomplished the first three items.

Insurance is paid, credit card balance is zero, and there are 5 new jerseys in my collection.

The crazy part is that my checking account balance doesn’t look too bad even after all of that! (This is due in part to my State Tax Refund coming in this week.)

So maybe I won’t be off the saving wagon for as long as I’d originally thought?

I think that all I really needed to do was break from the monotonous routine for a few days…

Posted on February 26th, 2009 at 8:42 pm by Brainy Smurf
Finance, Motivation, Savings | 2 Comments »

House Number Procrastination

Back even before we had the house sided, I was contemplating having custom house numbers fabricated.

The diminutive selection offered at Home Depot or Lowe’s just wasn’t cutting it and I wanted something that looked nice. Unique. Classy.

At the time, I blamed my hesitation on wanting to wait and see what the house looked like once the siding was up before making a final decision.

That was nearly 2 years ago now.

Hesitation has become procrastination.

Our house still doesn’t have a number on it.

I’m pretty sure that we’re breaking some sort of local law there but because the mail has continued to be delivered, well, I haven’t felt any sense of urgency to get the issue resolved.

Until now — though I’m sure this feeling will soon pass…

Posted on January 30th, 2009 at 7:25 pm by Brainy Smurf
Home Improvements, Motivation | No Comments »