2020 February Goal Review - Part 1

2020 Financial Goals

One of my intentions for this year is to check in on my 2020 financial goals monthly! Although I am horrible at finances, one thing I have learned over our last 10 years of debt, is that when I pay better attention to our finances, our finances do better...

I still believe that if these 20 financial goals are met we will drastically improve our financial situation by the end of the year! In all honesty, even if only some of these goals are met, we will be in a better place than we were when this year started. Please wish us luck as we try to do better and be better!

1.  Get credit card debt below $10000. This has been a monkey on my back for way too long!

Pass-ish: We are making progress. We had two unexpected windfalls and put half of each towards debt plus made our regularly scheduled payments. So, again, I would say on-track-ish.

2.Track our family spending every other month of the year.

Pass: We tracked January and it wasn’t pretty. I’m hopeful for March.

3. Increase contributions to envelopes and go “cash only”.

Fail: We have actually met 50% of this goal, but because 50% is an F, I’m giving us a failing grade overall. We did increase envelope contributions, but we did not go cash only. For February, I’m taking the credit card out of my wallet so this should help our goal.

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n4. Increase Christmas savings.

Pass: We increased from $200 per month to $300 per month. I still don’t know if it’s enough, but it is an increase of 50%. I have already spend then ENTIRE first month’s contribution, but at least it was there to use.

 5. Church Tithing. My goal is to donate $300 EVERY. SINGLE. MONTH.

Pass: So far so good. We donated $300 in January and have budgeted the money for February.

6.      Pay off car!

On-track: We haven’t done this yet, but we did make our January payment and have one payment left in February until we own the car outright!

7.      Once The Husband’s car is paid off, put $345 payment into savings each month towards a new car fund.

On hold: We are in a holding pattern on this one until the car is actually paid off, but we did budget the money in March to go into savings.

8.      Save $5000 above and beyond my “normal savings” or any car savings.

On-track: I have deposited the first 9 weeks into savings and budgeted for the next 5 after that. Additionally, we received to unexpected windfalls that we split between debt and savings so we deposited an unexpected $2600 into our savings, so over half of our total goal. Feeling confident about this one!

9      9.Meal plan 8 months out of the year.

Pass-ish: I did meal plan for January and I plan to do February too… We will see.

1     10. Assuming I can meet all of the above goals, my last goal would be to increase my savings rate.

Pass: I would actually give us a pass on this because we are putting our regular amount in savings plus working on completing a $5000 challenge, plus we put almost half of our unexpected money towards savings. Thinking good thoughts on this one!

As I think these posts are only going to get longer as the year progresses, I have decided to split them up into two posts. I will publish them during the same week but even half of them are a lot to get through!

No Charging!

I charge too much on my credit card. I always have the intention of paying off whatever I charge, plus extra, and it never happens like I want it to.  For that reason, I am going to take my credit card out of my wallet. Out of sight, out of mind. Hopefully.

It’s like a little mini-goal for February, not to charge anything, but subscriptions, that are signed up for autopay.

I have done this a couple of times in the past and somehow the card always made it back into my wallet. I have no self-control and I need to recognize that.

Right now I need to focus on buying what we need, not everything we want.

I have made a very conscious effort to fund our envelopes with how much money we really need, but I have not made the effort to use that cash or even stay within budget. Even when I had some cash, even if it wasn’t enough to cover the whole purchase, I pulled out my credit card and put the purchase on that. That stops now. I’m going to take my credit card out of my wallet so it will no longer be a crutch for me to lean on.

We make great salaries, even for where we live, but we have been living above our means. I’m hoping that by taking the card out of my wallet it will make me rethink my purchases. If I don’t have enough cash I will either have to wait and buy the items when I do or I will have to use my debit card, which means I will have to have the money to pay for said items. Or be willing to transfer the money out of savings to cover the cost. This will at least ensure that the items are paid for outright, not a loan from the credit card company.

This was all prompted because this morning I ran our numbers through a debt free calculator and the numbers weren’t good. In fact, they were abysmal. According to the calculator, at my current rate of payment, about $650 per month, we will be in credit card debt for the next three years. 33 months to be exact. That is NOT. OKAY. And that is assuming nothing else gets charged during that time… Ugh!

I hope by taking the card out of my wallet it will help me to pay attention to what I’m buying. I hope it will make me more aware of where my money is going. I hope it will make an impact on my debt.

Refinance Saga Revisited

When we signed the papers for our refinance, we were told we would be getting a small refund check of about $250 - $300.

The check came in the mail. Only it was for $2800+!

We weren’t sure why, but actually think we figured it out. I had already paid our first mortgage payment for the month. Our loan funded on the 8^th of January and, per the paperwork with the check, we got a prorated refund for our mortgage payment.

I know we SHOULD probably put the money in savings and bulk our savings back up, but I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY want to send the whole thing towards our debt! An extra $3000 payment would go a long way towards getting us back to where we were before my dad died and the holidays hit!

I’m going to have to mull over what to do with the money.

My options are:

·        All the money being paid towards our credit card debt.

·        All the money going into savings.

·        Splitting the money between savings and debt either 50/50 or some other percentage.

·        Putting the money in savings but earmarking it specifically for our family vacation this summer.

o   I was also thinking about using any tax refund for our family vacation. But that would obviously depend on how much of a refund we were to receive.

I just don’t know. Along with our normal and “extra” payments, we will pay $2600+ towards our credit card debt. (Due to the refinance, we get to “skip” our February payment. We put half of our normal payment into savings and the other half is allocated towards our credit card debt.)

It’s good to put our options in writing and to give myself an opportunity to sort the ideas out.

I will keep you updated on what we end up doing.

Refinance Saga

As I have been so MIA lately, you haven’t really heard the ongoing saga about our refinance. It was supposed to be quick. It was supposed to be easy. It was supposed to be painless. And it wasn’t any of those things.

Start to finish actually took 3 months! Can you believe that? It took us longer to refinance the loan on our house than it did to sell our old house and buy this house initially! We responded to a refi mailer we got from our mortgage company. They led us to believe that it would be super quick and fast if we went with them. They lied. The only thing we can figure is that once they get you on the hook, they don’t worry about finishing the refinance quickly because you already bit.

After about 2 months of (what we felt was) jerking us around, The Husband actually went to the mortgage office in our town and spoke with actual people. They were very kind and worked quickly and efficiently to get the ball rolling for us. However, at this time we were rolling into the holiday season so we knew there would be a natural slow-down.

Our loan then had to be transferred from their corporate office to our local office. And we had to start the process All. Over. Again.

To be fair, this was all happening during the final stages of my dad’s life and The Husband was so good about taking care of things and not burdening me with the details. In fact, he only told me what was going on with the refinance when I asked about it. He dealt with everything during that time so that I didn’t have to waste precious time or energy on it. I appreciated it so much!

Once we got the loan transferred “in-house”, things really did start moving along. We had to resubmit all of the necessary documents and re-sign some paperwork; but the biggest pain during the whole thing was actually our solar loan. We took out a 10-year loan on our solar. We have been paying on it for 1.5 years, with 8.5 more to go. Technically, there is a lien on our solar panels: not the house, not the mortgage, just the solar panels, but the lien on the solar equipment, makes it appear that there is a lien on our home. We had to contact our solar company and for the “low” price of $250 (plus a $30 wire transfer fee) they will release the lien on the solar for 25 days so we can refinance. We will have to do this every time we refinance our loan until the solar loan is paid in full. (We don’t plan to refinance again, but you never know what will happen to interest rates.)

To get a better rate on our loan, we bought a point. I don’t actually understand all the logistics regarding what that means, but I understand the end result. By doing this, we were able to get a slightly lower interest rate. The Husband did the calculations and the point will pay for itself in 23 months. Because we will have the loan for 27 years and 8 months, it was worth it. He also figured the math so we knew at what point was our “break-even” point for buying the point. For the first 23 months of our loan, we aren’t actually saving any money, but after that, and for the remaining 25 years, it will be worth to have refinanced and to have bought a point.

We bought our first house over 15 years ago and we have always had 2 mortgages. I am so excited to only have one mortgage payment every month! The bottom fell out of the market about 18 months after we bought our first house so we couldn’t ever refinance it. We were miles under water in that house for years and years. Once the market recovered and we were able to sell it, we didn’t have enough equity to put 20% down so we had an 80% loan and a 10% loan. In addition to paying on our current house for 2+ years, and pretty significant appreciation, we owed less than 80% of what it is worth and were able to refinance into one loan. I’m so excited!

Our previous loans were: 1^st mortgage at $2953 per month. We paid $3000 per month on this loan, so about an extra $47 per month. And our 2^nd loan at $279 - $375 per month, interest only. I paid a minimum of $300 per month but always tried to pay $50 over the minimum payment so at least something was going to principle.

With our refinanced loan, we have to pay $3003 per month… that is an increase of $50 over what we were paying for our first mortgage, but an overall decrease of about $250 - $275 as we won’t have to be paying a second anymore.

Hopefully we can send our “savings” towards our credit card. That would be $3000 extra sent towards the credit card over the course of the next 12 months.

As always, wish us luck.

20 Goals for 2020

Here they are, if a little late for the new year. I came up with 20 financial goals for 2020. Some are basic: pay off debt, save more, etc. and some are much more personal to us!

The last 8 months have been a roller coaster! My life was crazy and busy and I let finances fall by the wayside. I budgeted intermittently, I paid debt sporadically, and I transferred more money out of savings than into it. I want things to be different this year!

These are 20 financial goals that, if successful, will drastically improve our financial situation by the end of the year! In an effort to increase my chances of success, I want to check-in with my goals monthly. Even though I’m getting a late start, I want to get off on the right foot!

Please wish us luck as we try to do better and be better!

1. Get credit card debt below $10000. This has been a monkey on my back for way too long! Because of Christmas and my dad’s death, our credit card debt ballooned to over $20,000… again! I’m hoping to get it down in the $19K range before the statement actually hits, but it’s very depressing! I have a lot of work to do to get out of debt, but it’s not impossible. It will just take discipline and hard work. Pay on the credit card monthly and STOP charging on our credit card.

2. Track our family spending every other month of the year… which will help us with our next goal.

3. Increase contributions to envelopes and go “cash only”: In order to get out of credit card debt, I have to stop charging on my credit cards, therefore, I need to fully fund my envelopes. I want to increase contributions to my envelope so that I will not have to charge any of our daily living expenses: food, gas, toiletries, clothes, etc.

4.  Increase Christmas savings: Last year I budgeted $200 per month, and although it was great to have that money, it wasn’t enough come Christmas time. I want to increase my Christmas budget by 50% every month. By doing this, my hope is that I will fully fund Christmas and not have to charge anything for Christmas, including traditions, parties, foods, and gifts.

5.  Church Tithing: In July of last year, we started donating $200 per month to our church and then in October, upped it to $300. I want to continue monthly donations to my church. My goal is to donate $300 EVERY. SINGLE. MONTH. We have been married for 17 years and never in our marriage have we tithed every single month in a calendar year.

6.  Pay off car! This rolls right into our next goal…

7.  Once The Husband’s car is paid off, put $345 payment into savings each month towards a new car fund.

8.  Save $5000 above and beyond my “normal savings” or any car savings. Can be used for vacation, debt payoff at the end of the year, towards a down payment for a car, buying a car for The Boy, etc. I am using a 52 week challenge to meet this goal and I have already deposited the first 4 weeks into my savings account and have budget for the following 5 weeks in my February budget.

9.  Meal plan 8 months out of the year. I know 8 months is random, but it is really hard for me to do it every month and life gets busy. I’m starting with a goal of meal planning 2/3 of the year. This really cuts down grocery costs and I hope it will help me stay within budget.

10.  Assuming I can meet all of the above goals, my last goal would be to increase my savings rate. Right now, we only “save” $200 a month but I tend to transfer $500+ money out of savings every month, so currently we have a negative savings rate. I would like to get out of debt and add at least $500 a month to our savings account.

11.  Open, and use, a Health Savings Account for The Husband’s braces.

12.  Increase my 403b contributions by $100 sometime during the year.

13.  Increase The Husband’s 401k contributions by 3% by the end of the year.

14.  Have one billing period where I don’t charge ANYTHING (except autopays) on my credit card.

15.  Have a successful “No-Spend” September. Last year we had a horrible no-spend month. With my dad’s illness I was constantly shuttling between my house and my parent’s and it made life, and planning, difficult. This year, I want to be more prepared and truly see a difference in our finances.

16.  This one sounds silly, but I want to add it anyway. I drink… A LOT… of tea. I also buy a lot of tea. I want to drink the loose leaf tea I already have and not buy anymore until I am only down to 3 flavors. I could probably go for at least 6 months without buying any more loose tea. Yes, I have that much!

17.  Add all our “subscriptions” to our monthly budget. We budget, but I forget things like the pool cleaner, The Girl’s IPSY bag, private lessons for The Kids, etc. I want to get all those things actually added into our budget so we can see how much we actually pay out each month.

18.   Don’t spend any money, out of pocket, on supplies for my classroom. It’s so easy to buy everything I need myself. I want to utilize my classroom budget as effectively as possible and not purchase supplies for my classroom using my personal money. (This does not include lessons I might choose to purchase.)

19.   Keep current (monthly) with what I owe The Kids. Our children “work” for us sometimes and we pay them a wage. I keep track of what we owe them and pay them “whenever”. I want to keep up on this better and pay them monthly.

20.   Check in on my financial goals monthly. I know that’s more often than most people, but I need the motivation! And the accountability!

Radio Silence

I’m sort of back… and I can’t say I’m sorry for the radio silence. It came as a result of several different things: busy lives, the holidays, and (mostly) because my dad passed. It’s been a difficult and trying couple of months.

Our debt has been pretty stagnant the last two months and probably increased. I am currently burying my head in the sand when it comes to the numbers. I have paid minimum payments, but that’s about all I can say. Nothing has been paid late. We have continued to donate to our church, and our kids are fed. Right now, those things feel like winning.

I settled a couple of smaller debts that we owed. They were both small, one was very recent and one was from a year and a half ago. The new debt was for something we are sending our kids to, a live show in San Francisco. The older debt was actually from my trip to Japan and has just been hanging over my head waiting to be calculated out. There was some “I owe you, you owe me” that needed to be figured. I did that this past weekend and it felt good to get rid of that.

In other news, with both our kids in high school, it is an expensive time to be a parent. They both attended their Winter Ball last month and it was costly. The Boy went with a date and The Girl is going with friends. We had to buy tickets, and corsages, and dinner, and a dress. You get the point. To top it off, The Boy was invited to another school’s Winter Ball, too. We are definitely entering into the most expensive time in their lives. I hope we survive.

Our refinance, which was supposed to be quick and painless, is still not finished. It’s been over 2 months. We thought staying with the same company would be easier but it hasn’t been. I guess once they get you on the hook for a refinance, they don’t care how long you dangle. And dangle we have! At this point, I will be happy when it is finally finished.

That’s about it for our update… I will write another post when I have time… or inclination!

Christmas

For the first time ever this year, we created a sinking fund for Christmas, and it is one of the best financial decisions we have ever made! Truthfully, I don’t know why we never did it before!

Christmas is expensive. And it’s not a surprise, but every year we treated it like it was. Every year we would scramble to be able to pay for things and add to our debt. This year, it looks like things might be a little different. Every month we have budgeted $200 to put in an envelope for Christmas, then as we have needed it, there has been money for us to use as we have found the perfect gift or just the right stocking stuffer. It’s been wonderful.

We have a huge family and shop for EVERYONE. In total, including small gifts for co-workers. We shop for about 65-70 people. Most people think that’s ridiculous. And I get it, I do. But it’s how we do Christmas. Because of this, in order to augment our Christmas fund, we redeem our health insurance points for Amazon gift cards and any points we earn through our credit card get redeemed for cash too. This year, that worked out to an additional $700 to put into our Christmas fund.

In total, we have very near $3000 to use for Christmas. This is not only for gifts and stocking stuffers, but also for our Christmas party invitations and food, and our Christmas traditions.

This is the first year that we have ever had a sinking fund for Christmas, and it has been life changing. However, I don’t yet know if it’s going to be enough. For most people, $3000 would more than cover their Christmas expenses. I don’t know if it will cover ours. But I do know it’s a good start.

Seeing how we finish the year and get through Christmas will determine if we set aside enough money each month or if we need to increase our budget for next year. But any way you cut it, we are in a better position to pay for Christmas than we ever have been before. We have a little Christmas nest egg to draw from and some deposits still to be made towards our sinking fund before the end of the year.

Even with the myriad of ways we were derailed this year, we have managed to decrease our debt, create a sinking fund for Christmas, and contribute to our retirements.  It’s not perfect, but it’s progress.