Sunday, September 27, 2009

The Bills Keep Growing

I've been looking at my bank accounts as I prepare to make my next extra mortgage payment. I have noticed that I have some extra money in there. Since my income hasn't increased I was wondering where that money came from. Then I got 2 letters in the mail. Yes, it's property tax time. No wonder I have extra money in my accounts. I subtract my property tax money out of my total budget at the beginning of the year and then I don't think about it until it is time to write the checks. Good thing I didn't' go on a shopping spree. Haha.

I totaled up my 2 property tax bills and got $1,036. This is for my 2 pieces of "vacant" land that my mobile home and RV are on, not my house in town. I divided by 12 months and compared it to last year. It went up $8 a month. This yearly increase is something I have not accounted for in my semi-retirement budget other than it would be covered by the income I hope to get from a part time job. I think I need to have a bigger savings account before I think about quitting full time work.

But that's down the road. Right now I am still focused on paying down my mortgage and this next extra payment is going to be a whopper.

4 comments:

Over the Cubicle Wall said...

Those bills you have no control over are the worst. Nothing you can do about property taxes. Except move I guess.

Daizy said...

They are still really low. If I downsized to one acre it would only be $400 until I built something on it...then the sky's the limit! Compared to rent, $86 a month is still good.

Sallie's Niece said...

Wow your property taxes are cheap! And congrats on the mortgage progress. What's your estimated payoff date looking like these days?

Daizy said...

Well, Sallie's Niece, that's probably because of the vacant land classification. Once I start improving it the tax will go up and up.

Mortgage payoff scheduled for 1 yr and 2 months. Yea!