What’s Your Credit Score? I’ll Tell you Mine…

The last time I pulled a credit report on myself was back in 2008 using one of those free websites.

It was enlightening and kind of disappointing too. I mean, there weren’t any negatives listed in the report and it was cool to see how many accounts that I actually had (and forgotten existed) but it never actually told me what my credit score was — you know, that magic number that’s calculated in total secrecy kinda like how college football rankings are set.

It’s a meaningless number that, for some reason, holds a lot of weight.

Well, while the defensive financial move we made earlier this week hasn’t really gone anywhere just yet — still signing all of the paperwork — the bank did provide us with our credit scores.

Now, I don’t keep track of my wife’s finances here on PIAC but I’m pretty sure she won’t mind me sharing here credit scores as well as my own:

Experian: (Range of Possible Scores: 340 to 820)
   ·Brainy – 821
   ·Wife – 792

TransUnion: (Range of Possible Scores: 300 to 850)
   ·Brainy – 809
   ·Wife – 804

Equifax: (Range of Possible Scores: 300 to 850)
   ·Brainy – 809
   ·Wife – 810

So, if you look closely, I’m apparently “off the chart” on the Experian one…

It’s probably a typo — the paperwork sent to us to sign was littered with them — but, either way, we’re perfectly happy with those scores.

Who wouldn’t be?

The one thing that I did notice listed under my scores is something that I think may have actually hurt my score a tiny bit.

All three credit bureaus listed “No recent revolving balances” and/or “Lack of recently reported balances on revolving/open accounts” as key factors for me but not my wife.

What’s the big difference between me and my wife?

Well, she’ll carry a credit card balance from time-to-time. I haven’t for the past 2+ years but based on this, well, maybe I should.

Or not — I’m still happy with the scores.

I mean, it kind of reinforced what I said earlier — right now we’re quite possibly in the best financial position that we’ll ever be in. Let’s take advantage of it.

Here’s to hoping that it’s enough to make the re-fi happen without a hitch…

Posted on May 1st, 2010 at 7:14 am by Brainy Smurf
Finance, Success | 2 Comments »

Six-Figure Threshold Broken

As of this morning, I officially owe less than six figures on my mortage!

Balance is now $99,623.76.

It feels like a weight off of my shoulders even though it’s a pretty meaningless milestone and, really, still a pretty staggering number too.

Even still, from my experiences wiping out credit card debt, every milestone reached seemed to bring me more and more momentum.

I’m not exactly attacking this balance quite as aggressively as I did on the credit card balances but I’m comfortably (relatively) on pace to have my mortgage paid in full sometime in 2014.

So, while I envisioned the day my credit card balances reached $0 as the day I could spend freely (and to a degree, I almost have, though under an unwritten no-debt-incurred rule), with this new 5-figure balance, I’m feeling that much closer to the day when I can obnoxiously spend freely.

Yeah, I know it’s 5 years down the road but I’ve got momentum on my side…

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PIAC Post Extension:
Yes, an entire year after breaking that 22% threshold (which is apparently a law with a TON of loopholes), I’m *still* paying PMI… Ugh.

Posted on August 12th, 2009 at 11:55 am by Brainy Smurf
Mortgage, Success | 4 Comments »

Breaking the Budget and Surging Ahead

I’m not really certain what prompted it but I’ve already committed to spending over $3300 this month… and we’re only one week in.

Ouch!

So much for the budget!?

Last month, I *so* wanted to increase my savings by $1000, decrease my mortgage balance by $1000, and somehow manage to pad my checking account with another $1000 too…

Doing the math (while keeping regular monthly expenses in mind), technically, that doesn’t even seem to be possible. But, man, I came darn close in May.

So far, the new baby isn’t costing us anything more than we expected or could handle.

Of course, with child care looming in the future, I’m well aware that that’s going to change in a hurry so I’m going to do my best to put the biggest dent in the mortgage that I can while I can still afford to.

So, this past week (I’m already one payment in!), I increased my weekly additional mortgage principle payment from $75 all the way up to $230.

Wow, Brainy! How can you afford $230 per week extra?

That’s a great question, and really, if you asked me if I could afford to send between $920 and $1150 extra towards my mortgage each month, I’d immediately say “No freakin’ way…“

That’s why weekly payments are the only way to go.

You can afford to deprive yourself of more than you think you can.

Doesn’t Suze Orman say something like that?

I’m pretty sure it’s her.

She’s right.

Though I’ll just be scraping by, I somehow can afford to send $230 each week to CountryWide, or Bank of America, or whatever they’re called this month…

While making this budgetary change, which all but ensures that my mortgage balance will fall by over $1000 each month, I decided to make sure my savings account balance would grow by at least $1000 per month too.

It just seemed like a good time to go all out.

Five minutes on the computer and another modification of weekly auto-transfers — an increase from $165/per week all the way up to $250 per week.

There are always at least 4-weeks per month, so I’m guaranteed to increase my balance by $1000 plus interest.

That wasn’t so painful…

So, putting it all together, I essentially increased my weekly outflow by $240.

Considering that I was totally accustomed to my previous outflow, this almost feels like I’m eliminating $1k worth of debt and amassing $1k in savings for just $240 per week.

That’s a pretty good return.

I know it’s not as simple as that — it’s actually costing me double — but it certainly feels like I’m getting a great deal.

The only spot that I’ll tank each month will be in my checking account. I can live with that.

Now I know what some are saying, “Must be nice to have a 14-figure salary… I could do that too if I made as much as you…”

I’ll be the first to admit that $240 per week is not a small number. And it’s certainly not an amount that everyone can afford — and that’s okay.

I started with a $25/week auto payment to Countrywide back in June of 2007.

Twenty five bucks.

At minimum wage, that’s just a half day’s worth of work. You smokers out there probably spend more than that on cigarettes each week. Think about it.

Point is, $25 is do-able.

And it makes a difference. A HUGE difference — see for yourself.

Whether it’s for debt repayment, savings, or even investments. Automatic weekly (not monthly) payments and transfers are the way to go.

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PIAC Factoid: Setting the record straight, I don’t make a 14-figure salary.

I may be a multi-thousandaire but I got there on a 5-figure salary…

Posted on June 7th, 2009 at 9:07 am by Brainy Smurf
Finance, Mortgage, Savings, Success | 3 Comments »

Spending Report for April 2009

Last month I proclaimed that I would keep my expenses for the month of April under $2500.

I should have been more specific but, even still, I’m happy to report that my expenses for the month totalled exactly $2500.00.

I’ve put my wallet away until Friday so this is where the number will stay.

Here’s the breakdown for the month April:

• $1653.90 : Mortgage
• $153.59 : Natural Gas
• $124.01 : Business Expenses
• $112.91 : Electricity
• $109.26 : Cable/Internet
• $99.99 : Frivolous eBay Purchase
• $66.05 : Phone
• $66.04 : Gas
• $47.67 : Smurf Dolls
• $40.00 : Cash
• $26.58 : Grateful Dead T-Shirt

So, after just three months of paying attention to my spending, I’ve taken my expenses (that were previously an unknown grey area) from $4133 all the way down to $2500.

That’s a difference of over $1600!

Basically, I was blowing $400 per week on non-essentials… and thought I was doing a great job.

And really, even this month, I *still* managed to “blow” roughly $175 on Smurf dolls, some eBay junk, and a tie dye t-shirt.

That means that there’s still room for improvement…

Posted on April 29th, 2009 at 10:26 am by Brainy Smurf
Finance, Spending Report, Success | 10 Comments »

Pants in a Can turns Two!

Wierd that it falls on April 15. Total coincidence, though…

It’s amazing how much things can change in the short span of two years, not just from a financial aspect, but all-around.

For now, though, I’m going to stick with the financial stuff.

When I started, I had $7215 in credit card debt, owed $4014 on a high interest personal loan, and I still had $9700 to pay down on one of my cars.

Total non-mortgage debt was $20929.

Though I said then that I could see the light at the end of the tunnel of debt, now, I can’t fathom how I was so comfortable with my finances.

My head was apparently in the clouds…and had been for quite some time.

Just a few months later, though, my credit card debt alone would swell to over $20k.

Talk about moving in the wrong direction…

But this site kept me in line. Just posting the numbers each month, even if no one was reading them, forced me to hold myself accountable so I kept at it…

Amazingly, at the one year mark, I was well on my way to being 100% non-mortgage debt free and proclaimed that by this anniversary/birthday, I would be.

Guess what?

I am.

Let’s hope that year three brings even more success.

And that I continue to feel shame everytime I overspend on something silly…

Posted on April 15th, 2009 at 6:05 pm by Brainy Smurf
Blogging?, Success | 4 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 »

Flashback: $28k+ Credit Card Debt Eliminated

One year ago today, following a $508.13 payment, I posed that I’d eliminated $28000+ worth of credit card debt.

I even included a neat little graph to show how awesome my progress was.

That’s right — I said “awesome”.

In a four month span, I absolutely destroyed over $13k in debt. That was awesome.

(In reality, it was just a ton of momentum… Once I saw the debts falling, things started moving faster than I ever could have imagined…)

The good news is that my total credit card debt is still $0.

The bad news is that I don’t feel like I’ve progressed very much since then…

Sure, I paid off my auto loan in full (no car payments! woo-hoo!), I knocked nearly 10% of my mortgage balance out, I finally secured conventional homeowners insurance, and I somehow even managed to grow my savings account to 5-figures but for whatever reason, I dunno, I thought that once the credit cards were under control, I guess I thought I’d have, oh, say, a couple grand each month to spend on whatever I fancied.

It hasn’t worked out that way.

I wonder if that’ll kick in when I polish off the mortgage? Hmmmmm…

Either way, that’s still a long way off…

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Fun PIAC Financial Factoid: Sure, the past week has been pretty kind to everyone’s investments but even without the recent uptick in the markets, my investments have done better in 2009 than they did for the same time period in 2008. Crazy, huh?

From January 1 through March 22, my investments were down $1098.85 in 2008.
This year, not even including this week’s gains, from January 1 through March 22, they were only down $120.40.

Perhaps that says something about my personal investment strategy but I still think it’s clear that things aren’t nearly as bad as they might seem.

Posted on March 27th, 2009 at 6:37 am by Brainy Smurf
Credit Card, Finance, Success | 2 Comments »

A Big Sigh of Relief…

Valentine’s day is over and I survived…

No, I’m just kidding… (I did survive, though…)

I’m actually breathing easier these days because I’m pretty confident that the dark cloud that I used to call homeowner’s insurance has finally blown over.

After 5 long years…

Yep, it’s officially been three months now with the new carrier — a conventional one, not a bottom-of-the-barrel State run one — and I haven’t been treated like a piece of crap or cancelled for no apparent reason yet.

This is a good thing. It’s new for me.

And, best of all, I’m actually covered should anything happen.

At least, I think I am…

Posted on February 15th, 2009 at 8:10 am by Brainy Smurf
Insurance, Success | No Comments »

Reviewing 2008′s Financial Goals

Well, 2008 is all but over so how’d you do?

I did pretty well on my goals for 2008. I mean, I certainly can’t complain.

In order of completion, I managed to increase my 401k contributions to 15% of my income, I eliminated all of my credit card debt, I paid down enough principle on my mortgage to have PMI removed (though it never actually happened), and I paid off all of my auto loans.

That’s a pretty decent set of achievements and I’m proud of every single one of them!

But there were a couple more goals on my list…

One, that I considered lofty, was to have $10k in savings.

Here, on the last day of the year, I’m finding myself in a bit of a grey area. I don’t feel that I accomplished the goal but by a technicality (my paycheck was deposited today instead of tomorrow because of the holiday), I actually have $10k at my disposal.

Just saying that blows my mind but, honestly, it doesn’t feel real.

And it isn’t all in my savings account right this minute, but it could be, so that goal was pseudo accomplished as well.

The final goal was to increase my passive income. That was a wishy-washy goal from the get-go and though my “side income” decreased by over $13k this past year, I managed to increase my 100% passive income… by just $63 over the entire year.

Hey, it’s better than nothing, right? It’s not like I “worked” for it…

So, with that, I can’t say that I accomplished all of my goals, but I think I took care of the big ones.

Hopefully 2009 goes even better — though my goals for the coming year are far less specific.

Posted on December 31st, 2008 at 1:14 pm by Brainy Smurf
2008 Goals, 401k, Credit Card, Finance, Mortgage, Savings, Success | 4 Comments »

Keeping Up with the Jones’

I don’t like to think of myself as someone who does this sort of thing, but I must admit, I’ve been in a pretty active “lawn-care” competition with the people across the street for a few years now.

Sadly, I’ve been “pwned” in the green lawn department. I just haven’t been able to recover from the damage left by the contractors and it’s driven me crazy.

But I totally destroyed them in the leaf raking department. This year, they tried the mow and mulch method. It was disastrous for them. I’ve tried that method in the past too with limited success… Not sure *what* they were thinking…

In the meantime, we blew all of our leaves into a HUGE pile and had them picked up by a lawn care service. We’re done. They’re not.

So for 2008, I guess we’ll have to call it a draw so far.

In a few more weeks, though, we’ll be right back out on the field, snow shovels in hand, jockeying to have the best cleared driveway…

Of course, all of these actions are more time-oriented rather than finance-oriented…

The reason I bring up “keeping up with the Jones’” today, other than to continue the “Jones” theme I’ve got going this week, is because one of my ‘friends’ on Facebook recently posted some photos of his new house.

He’s a few years younger than I am, living in a more expensive area (Boston — where you can spend twice what I spend on the mortgage to rent a place half the size), he was recently married in a lavish ceremony, and he’s also fresh out of school — he took a number of years off to, um, find himself or something… It involved a lot of skiing — if that means anything.

Anyway, here is the entry way to his “new” house:

I know, it looks more like the kitchen to me too… What’s with the green monolith in the middle of the room? Maybe it’s an apartment… I dunno.

But regardless, it looks pretty nice. Pretty nice…

Especially when you compare it to my entry way — and being that I know this guy relatively well (my rule on Facebook is that if I don’t know you well enough to remember your middle name or the street address of your childhood home, you can’t be my friend) and that we grew up with essentially the same standard of living, I can’t help but compare my living situation to his and ask, “Where did I go wrong?”

But did I go wrong?

I’m not so sure.

No, I don’t know all of his “financial” details. I don’t know where he works. I don’t know what the rest of his house, err, apartment looks like. I don’t know if his new bride comes from money. Basically, there are a lot of things that I just don’t know.

At the same time, since I’m not willing to put my entry way photo on Facebook, he doesn’t know how crappy my house is, but he also doesn’t know that I own my cars, I have zero credit card debt, no student loans, and that my house is on schedule to be paid for in full within the next 6 years.

Perhaps I’m just not competition for him… But I can’t help but wonder, is he really ahead?

It might seem that way now, but looks can be deceiving…

I mean, I even own an airplane… That’s gotta be worth something?!

But seriously, I’d like to revisit my friendly competitive comparison in 2015 and see where we both stand… I have a very good feeling that our roles will be reversed.

I’m not keeping up with the Jones’ — I’m preparing to leapfrog right past them…

Posted on November 18th, 2008 at 7:30 pm by Brainy Smurf
Life, Success | 4 Comments »

Okay, a Little More on this Economic Mess…

Watching the presidential debate last night, responding to a question regarding the current economic situation, Barack Obama mentioned something about businesses not being able to make payroll because they aren’t able to borrow money.

I don’t know, where I come from, if you need to borrow money to pay your employees, well, you’re not running a very successful business.

It’s as simple as that.

Even in a booming economy, a business like that certainly can’t be classified as profitable.

Earlier, on the nightly news, they highlighted a “small-business” owner in Florida. Apparently, due to the credit crunch, he’s having to close his 13 tile and carpet stores and lay off 40 employees.

Fair enough, but do you think he’d be fine if, say, he’d only opened 5 stores to begin with? You know, and operate within his means?

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure it out. It’s just like the folks that bought more house than they can afford.

They gambled and lost.

It happens.

Taking a risk or a leap of faith isn’t, well, it isn’t risk-free.

Hopefully the business owners out there who never overextended themselves will thrive in this “new” economy and find the fortune they’ve deserved all along.

And seriously, would it kill either candidate to actually answer a freakin’ question?

I was turned off by both…

Posted on October 8th, 2008 at 12:31 pm by Brainy Smurf
Current Events, Finance, Success | No Comments »

I’m in the Black, not just on Paper, but for Real!

I did it.

I’d claimed that I was going to finish off the car loan on a slow and steady pace but, this morning, I fell back into my old ways: Red Zone Finances.

It has been driving me crazy for a few weeks now seeing a $1k balance just sitting there waiting to be wiped out.

As today was a pay day, and there are no remaining bills for the remainder of the month, I had the funds available to take action.

This was the first car I purchased where I’d actually made a sizeable down payment. It was also the first car purchase that I had a car to trade-in too.

Even still, back in July of 2005, I financed $15210.32.

Wow — thinking about that now — Scion xA’s were/are really expensive…

But it feels good, you know, now that it’s paid for.

But it’s not just the auto loan that I can put in my rear view mirror…

The original snowball plan that I started back in November 2007, which had a total balance of $23085, and included the auto loan, can now be put to rest. All of it. Done.

I’ve had the “schedule” taped to my desk under my keyboard at work so as to keep it fresh in my mind five days a week.

This morning, I peeled it off and replaced it with a picture of my wife. She costs me *way* less money… And less worry too.

The original end date on my debt plan was set for October 2008. Two thousand dollars per month was going to go towards debt. I thought that was being a little too optimistic when I started, but I stuck to it.

Then, after a few months, I didn’t exactly stick to the plan…

I paid a few of the credit cards out of order…

I “broke up with” my highest paying client that was essentially funding the whole debt payment plan in the first place.

I started putting money into savings instead of towards debt…

I increased my 401k contributions when I couldn’t really afford to…

I even blew through tons of cash on vacation — and that was just a couple of months ago…

And who could forget all of the money that I foolishly threw at the mortgage (which was never even part of the snowball plan)? Yeah — that worked out well… Not.

But even though I strayed way off course, the concept of a year long debt plan got me pointed in the right direction, and look, here we are in September 2008 and I’ve already hit the target. A whole month early.

Okay, fine. A whole week early if you want to be technical about it… Sheesh…

Right now, Thursday evening, the only non-mortgage debt I’m carrying is an $824 balance at 0% on a Chase credit card. Yeah, the remaining balance from that ill advised birthday check I wrote to myself to further initiate the elimination of PMI from my mortgage. (more on that here)

But still… It feels good.

It’s like I’m coming out of the water or something. My top half is dry and warming up in the sun. That pig up in the top left hand corner of the screen, yeah, his snout is dry. Oink!

It blows my mind that, on short notice, I can get my grubby hands on over $5000 (checking, savings, and i-bonds) and the only money I owe is $824 total to a credit card company.

I’m not sure I’ve been on this side of the zero line before. Definitely not in the past 11 years.

I mean, I’m in the black, not just on paper, but for real.

That feels awesome.

I’m not sure I thought this day was even possible when I was carrying $32k in high interest debt on January 1, 2007…

Looking forward to when that $824 balance is gone too…

(Declining markets and home values of late aren’t bothering me in the slightest — neither affect my day-to-day, month-to-month, or even year-to-year finances… Sure, my net worth might be dropping like a brick, but my finances are in better shape than they’ve ever been!)

Posted on September 25th, 2008 at 5:47 pm by Brainy Smurf
Finance, Motivation, Success | 9 Comments »