Money, Love, and Change

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photo credit: Lisa Brewster

I know, it’s been more than a week, but it’s Christmas!  Time to break things down:

Oh no!  Despite making one student loan payment and putting $50 in savings, our interest accrued on our other student loans (bringing down our $80 payment down to $18) as well as one of our credit cards.  I also am including the $115 we picked up in American Express charges for the $180 in Walmart gift cards, since this was an extraneous purchase on a credit card we don’t normally use. When all is said and done, we are actually almost $100 MORE in debt. Yikes!

Things aren’t looking so great right now, but we do have a couple of things to look forward to.  First, I was fortunate enough to receive some money for my birthday, so I’ll be depositing that soon.  I also got a $15 rebate check in the mail.  Most importantly, however, will be my husband’s raise and yearly bonus that comes at the end of next week.

In terms of our “immediate future” finances, we really want another computer, and we were considering using part of the bonus for a new one.  However, after our truck scare, I would feel much better if we had some more money in the emergency fund first.  Time for a family discussion!

photo credit: Stuart Chalmers

This is one instance where I am so glad that I was wrong.  Yesterday, I was wondering if our truck had finally reached the end of the road.  It turns out that the rear brakes had iced up (it’s a pickup, which explains why warming up the truck for 45 minutes had no effect).

In addition to a free tow (thanks AAA!), our auto shop didn’t charge us anything.  Maybe they felt sorry for us, or are full of the holiday spirit, but I am so thankful that we didn’t have to shell out any money.

This did serve as a huge wakeup call, though.  I don’t like the fact that we don’t have a huge down payment saved up right now, especially considering the economy.  I’ve been thinking about our 2009 goals, and am reassessing our priorities based on yesterday’s experience.  I really don’t want any car/truck loan if we can help it!

photo credit: clspeace

I woke up this morning to find that the car was gone, but the truck was still parked in the street.  My husband always takes the truck to work, so I knew that this wasn’t a good sign.

I called the husband.  He thought that the truck just needed some time to warm up, since it was cold this morning.  He said that he couldn’t get it to move.

I went out and let the truck warm up for 45 minutes.  Basically, it will start and shift into gear, but it won’t move.  At all.  I called AAA, and it’s been towed to the repair shop.  According to the tow truck guy, “The transmission’s locked.  That’s never good.”  Hmmm….

My husband is in denial that anything serious is wrong, but I have a feeling that the truck may be at the end of its road.  After dumping $1500 into it earlier this year, ponying up for transmission work on a vehicle with about 200,000 miles on it falls into my “money in the toilet” category.

We’ll see what the auto shop says.  Luckily, we can easily do with one car until at least the end of January.

Anyone got a nice reliable car for sale?

photo credit: Dan4th

Financially, it has been somewhat of a depressing year.  Retirement accounts have gone in the crapper, home values have gone down… blah, blah, blah.

While these are more universal concerns, and are important to consider, my husband and I have some financial concerns that are on a more personal level.  First, we really need to start saving for a replacement vehicle.  His truck has had over $1600 in repairs this year, and has roughly 200,000 miles on it.  Let’s face it, the old beast isn’t going to last forever!

Second, and perhaps more importantly, my father-in-law may be in need of a “financial bailout” of his own soon.  It’s a really long story, and I am not sure if I want to talk about any details yet, but we need to consider the possibility that we are going to be responsible for another member of the family.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am impressed with how easy it is to breakdown our debt and savings using Mint.com.  I am going to use this data to post our weekly financial breakdown.  I am leaving out retirement accounts and 529 plans (we make regular contributions, but these funds are not going to be used in our immediate future).  I am also leaving out our credit card that we use for food, gas, and other monthly expenses.  We always pay it in full, and I am not concerned about it since we use it responsibly.  My immediate goal is to increase savings while reducing debt, and I like this simplistic view:

Loans (includes mortgage and student loans): $160,460
Credit card debt: $29011
Savings: $2072

I am interested to see how things shape up over the next couple of weeks!

photo credit: inoc

Wow – it’s environmentally friendly, and it’s free!  Treat yourself to a one year digital magazine subscription from The Read Green Initiative. All you need to do is pick your magazine and enter your e-mail address.

Then, sign up for an account with Zinio, which provides sales and distribution of digital content.  When I signed up for my Zinio account, all I had to do was provide an e-mail address and create a password (no physical address or credit card information was required).

Being a personal finance geek, I picked Kiplinger’s for my free magazine, but there is definitely something for almost anyone (US News and World Report was one of the choices, for example).

I also installed the reader so that I can download the digital issues to read at my convenience (sans internet connection).  If you’re really into supporting the green initiative, you can also purchase subscriptions from Zinio.

If you decide to try this out, please drop a line and let me know what you think!

photo credit: ArtemFinland

As the year comes to a close, it is always nice to take a look at the finances.  Although I love tracking our finances using Microsoft Money, the level of detail doesn’t always provide a clear look at the underlying picture.

For example, our net worth is approximately the same as last year, but this is due to losses in our retirement accounts, which I am not overly concerned about.  Since we are in our early 30’s, we make regular contributions and reallocate our holdings twice a year.  It’s pretty much on auto-pilot.

But what about our debt?  And our savings?  Are we doing better than last year?  Again, it is hard to tell with Microsoft Money.  I have all of my business accounts listed, as well as our credit card that we use to make our monthly purchases (and then pay off in full each month).  These accounts can give a skewed representation of our financial picture depending on the circumstances.

This is where Mint.com enters into the picture.  Basically, it allows you to track your financial accounts online.  This morning, I spent some time entering the login information for all of our accounts.  Then, I used the “hide” function to get rid of all the accounts that were causing “financial static”.  Now, when I log in, I can easily see the totals for the accounts which represent our true emergency savings, our credit card debt, and our student loan/mortgage debt.

As an added bonus, I am also able to quickly look at our credit cards that do not carry a balance to make sure that no mysterious charges have appeared.  Given our recent experience with this, this feature alone makes it worth taking a look at Mint.com.

I wouldn’t use Mint.com for making a budget or tracking our detailed spending – I have already spent too much time with Microsoft Money to tweak it to my liking, and our finances are tracked in the program from 1999.  But now I have another financial tool in my arsenal to help us keep focused on debt reduction, and I’m really excited!

Have you used Mint.com?  If so, what do you use it for?  Are you happy with your experience?

photo credit: Fosforix

There have been a couple of times where I have disputed credit card charges in the past, but they were relatively straightforward.  Once, I was charged twice for the same item, and could not contact the company via customer service.  I contacted the credit card company, and it was taken care of almost immediately.  The second time, I was charged 10 times the correct price, and had the original receipt.  Again, the process was relatively straightforward.

Once a year, I tend to make small charges to all of our cards in order to keep them active.  I did this last month, and starting paying our bills last night.  Imagine my dismay when I found that one card had a balance of $62.10 instead of $2.10!  There was a $60 charge for a subscription to American Quarterhorse.  Not only was I clueless about what an American Quarterhorse subscription entails, but I was surprised because the $2.10 charge is the first time I have ever used the card for anything except a balance transfer.  This particular card sits in a drawer at home.

I immediately called the credit card company, and they are going to look into it.  I hope it gets resolved in a timely manner like the others!

In general, even though some credit cards allow you to file a dispute online, I like to call and talk to a person.  Getting a name and specific information helps put my mind at ease.

Have you ever had a mystery charge on a card?  What did you do?

Everything seems to be in the crapper.  With election politics heating up (and not necessarily in a good way), an economic bailout that I am pretty sure no one has a real clue about, and the American dream becoming less achievable for many, things seem to be “not so great”.

Or is it?  I think that perhaps we’re really at a turning point — a sort of reality check where those that have not been realistic about what they cannot afford need to come to terms with the consequences.  While this is happening at a personal level, I am not really sure that it is happening on Wall Street and in the government.

I know that for us, things are a lot more tight financially because we are trying to rebuild our emergency fund quickly after some major truck repairs.  But we’re really coming together as a family, mostly because I am working evenings to generate additional income to rebuild our fund.  This is an added responsibility for my husband, since he has to come home from work and take over childcare duties.

Although initially it took some getting used to, I think that this is also a great opportunity for us to really evaluate what is important in life.  I think it has helped us develop a better appreciation for what the other person is doing, since now we are both working, and both taking care of the kid alone.

We’re also very thankful that we are frugal, and can currently handle our financial situation.  I don’t need to run out and make the big $$$, but can stay at home with the kid during the day.  At the same time, it has strengthened our resolve to get out of debt, and I am working harder to generate additional income streams.

How about you?  Are you keeping your head up in today’s economy?  Why or why not?

TransUnion is offering free credit monitoring as part of the settlement in a class-action lawsuit, since they violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act and sold consumers personal and financial information to marketers.  Good stuff!

According to the site:

“The Settlement Class is defined as: All consumers who had an open credit account or an open line of credit from a credit grantor located in the United States at any time during the period January 1, 1987 to May 28, 2008.”

This pretty much means that any adult is eligible!  Today (9/24/08) is the last day to sign up at listclassaction.com.  Note that the six months of free credit monitoring will not begin until the final approval in the courts.  After approval in the courts, you will receive an e-mail that will allow you to take action.

I haven’t discussed Prosper.com much on this blog, but it is a peer-to-peer lending site that I have been thinking about getting involved with.  I was looking into the tax implications of peer-to-peer lending before getting started, but I guess I don’t have to worry about that anymore.

This morning, I got an e-mail from Prosper – basically, if you’re a resident of PA, you can no longer lend money out or sign up to be a lender.  Seems kind of sudden, despite “ongoing discussions”.  I would be pretty ticked if I were more involved in Prosper.

Are you a PA Prosper lender?  What do you think of the announcement?