We're All Graduated!

The week I have been both looking forward to and dreading is finally over. It has been the end goal ever since my nephew came back to live with me two years ago. GRADUATION WEEK! and all that went with it. It began with my birthday, then Mother's Day, the Choir concert, Honor's night, Choir Awards Banquet, Choir Lock-In, Graduation, my sister visiting, and celebratory dinner with nephew, sister and mother. Whew, done. 

My sister went home today after taking my nephew shopping for college clothes. We went to a final doctor's appointment for a booster shot and enough asthma and allergy medicine to hold my nephew over until he goes to Minnesota on Saturday where he will be magically cured of all that ails him. Well, at least, it seems that he doesn't have as many allergic reactions back there which is funny because "the desert" used to be the place for less allergies. But, his grandfather doesn't have pets except for the next door dog which visits and there is less dust although there is more mold. 

For the remaining days until he leaves, we will shovel through his room and make the appropriate piles for immediate use, college use, and storage. Then I will ship his things off to Minnesota including the golf clubs which were shipped here from Minnesota but never used because he lost interest. His grandfather golfs so hopefully they will get some use again.

It's an exciting time of change and possibilities for us. My nephew is excited because he has enough money to buy his own gaming computer now with no parental controls or screen time limits (I keep warning him that he still has to do his homework or reap the consequences). And I am excited to get on with the cleaning out of this house and selling of it so that the mortgage and home equity line of credit can be paid off before my mother and I buy a house together. The weather has moved in to the 100's this week so that puts a bit of a damper on my enthusiasm but at least I will have less to do on the weekends and less grocery shopping. It's time for super-saver frugal mode while I eat all of the leftovers in the house and get organized once again.

3-2-1 Contact

3-2-1 Contact was one of the few educational kid's shows I was allowed to watch when I was young.  I don't remember much about it except for the opening song.  If you were a child in the 80's you can re-live your childhood here:  321 Contact theme song  The song got stuck in my head today as I was trying to think of a blog post because I am working on a project for my boss.

Our company makes electrical contacts and sometimes companies send us their old switches to figure out why they failed.  My boss has decided that I should get experience in this so, on Monday, I came in to find a clothes iron on my desk with a sticky note that said "See me".  When I went to his office he said that his iron stopped working and he wanted me to find out why.  I was free to destroy it if necessary because he had already purchased a new one.

At first I thought about dropping it off of the roof or running it over with my car but that would have been extreme.  I asked our engineer for some tools and he was able to help me get the plastic cover off.  After that it was just a matter of unscrewing different parts.  I couldn't find anything wrong until I got to the tiny switch for the heating element.  It looked like this.

 
That is bad.  The contacts melted and stuck together.  It's a good thing my boss bought a new iron because this one was not repairable and, well, I couldn't have put it back together anyway.  The next step is to mount these contacts in epoxy and sand them so that we can see what the contacts are made of.  I was working on that today but I got tired of sanding.

So, the engineer was saying how great it is that I am learning new skills and becoming more valuable to the company.  I said yes, but.  And he continued, if I have more skills then if there are lay-offs then I won't be one of the first to go.  I said yes, but.  And he kept going because he had this whole speech that he usually gives to high schoolers about being a good employee.  He finally slowed down and I said yes, but eventually, when I have saved up and money is no longer a factor, I will look around at the people that I work with and ask myself if I really want to spend all day with them doing this job.  Of course, my answer would be no.  He got really quiet and then said "Before you got here they made me do your job as well as my job and it was horrible so I don't want you to leave.  Let me know if there is anything I can do to help."  Aw, that's nice, but he already does some of the work that I should be doing so he does helps me.  That still won't keep my from my early retirement (or shall we say career change?) goal.  Without that light at the end of the tunnel I don't think I would go back to work tomorrow.  Even if the tunnel gets longer and I have to add a few years on to my plan, as long as that light is still there I will continue to forge ahead with my plan.

Money Goals for My Financial Freedom Day

I made some money goals for my houses and 401k while I am paying off my mortgage.  The house values are from Zillow.com so they aren't exactly real.  The house down the street sold for only $120,000 last December.  I doubt I could get $150,000 for my house right now but it is encouraging to see that Zillow thinks it is worth that much and it is nice to see home values rising.

My timeline to reach these goals is 3 years.  If I pay off my mortgage before 3 years I can add more to my 401k but unless the stock market drops again my 401k will probably reach its goal without extra help.  Maybe I should make my goal total $500,000 just so it is a nice even number.  Can I quit my job and pursue other interests with $500,000 in savings?  I think I can if I keep my housing costs low and don't get too crazy with my hobbies.  It would be ideal if one of those hobbies brought in some income but I want to have enough money so that I don't have to be dependent on bringing in more income.

In other news, I decided to invest part of my savings in a fairly aggressive Vanguard mutual fund.  I might use it to pay off my mortgage faster in a year or two or I might leave it in the mutual fund.  It was languishing in a savings account and I thought I would risk it and see if I could do better.  Now I will try not to check it everyday and worry about dips in the stock market (but it is up $95 already!).  Patience and perseverance.  I will reach my goals, preferably before I am too old or infirmed to enjoy life.

First Mortgage Payment

Today the first $540 were sucked out of my bank account to pay for this new house. That's a whole lot less painful than the $860 that used to leave every month for my rental house.

I suppose you want to know if I will be making another countdown to pay off my mortgage but no, I won't do it yet. I want to do some other things first like save a large maintenance and emergency fund, do some improvements such as add air conditioning, dual pane windows and maybe even a kitchen and master bath remodel. On the other hand, I don't really know where my parents are going to end up. They might stay with me for a long time or maybe I will move to a different side of town with them and rent out this house. It is all up in the air right now.

Oh, and my other plan is to save my money for building on my property. I have too many plans and not enough money to go around.

Goals For 2012

Ok...goals. Hmm...

1. Buy that house I want. That is in the hands of the bank at the moment but I will do everything I can to get that house.

2. Clean out my RV and mobile home. Sell, give away and throw away as appropriate. When I get the house I can move my stuff there and this is my chance to get rid of everything I don't need.

3. Sell the RV. That's a big goal. I don't know if I will do it but if I don't do something the pack rats are going to move in and ruin it.

4. Work harder at my job. I haven't started working on the goals my boss gave me last year. One is to scan a large amount of records. The other is to learn some new software. I need to spend a little time each week on those tasks or else I will never get them done.

5. Save money for my next housing goal which is to build on my property. I think $15k a year should be reasonable. If I live at my (hopefully) soon to be mine house for 2-3 years I should have $30k-$45k saved and if I am lucky banks will be offering construction loans once again.

6. Take my dogs for more walks and reduce their food. My dog needs to lose 15 pounds. That's a lot of weight for a dog. I am hoping that having sidewalks to walk on will encourage me to take them out more. Also, living closer to town means we can go to the dog park more often.

7. Cook more! When I get that house I will have a full size kitchen again and I am excited to cook again.

That's it. I think those are realistic. Most of them center around buying that house in town so I sure hope I hear something good from the bank this week.

Unofficial Party

I checked my bank account today not expecting to see any change but then I looked where my mortgage balance should be and it was gone. I was kind of hoping to catch it when it said zero but it was just gone so I took a screen shot and wrote in Mortgage.....$0.00 for my own "closure".

That's where it used to be. Right under my credit card. Now it is just blank. My check got processed faster than I expected. I suppose they will mail me the final paperwork in a few days. Then I will really know that it is closed and gone and then I can have a party!

That was $102,000 paid off in 6 years and 8 months!

How Anticlimactic

Back to Chase bank I went today even though yesterday was disappointing. I was greeted at the door and I told the woman what I wanted. I got a less than enthusiastic response and then was told that wiring the funds would cost $30 and a cashier's check would cost $8. I went with $8 and was told to get in line. I filled out a withdrawal slip and waited and waited. People working there kept passing by and saying "Welcome to Chase. Welcome to Chase" but they did not offer any help. Finally the same woman who said "Welcome to Chase" when I walked in the door opened a window and helped me. I was trying to figure out how much extra interest to add since my payoff quote was for the 1st of the month and now there would be more days added for travel time. The woman said that transactions usually take 10 days so I just added an extra $20 to be safe. They will send back the extra.

I got my cashier's check and then had to make a detour to the post office before heading back to work. I estimate that my check won't reach a human until Monday at the best. Perhaps by next Friday I will see my account updated or maybe that is being too optimistic. Anyway, my checking account is a lot lower but my mortgage is still showing so I am not going to say it is paid off until the loan is officially closed. This is taking a lot longer than I expected. I would think with all the technology that they have now, that I could pay off my Chase mortgage with my Chase checking account a little easier, faster and cheaper than having to use the postal system.

Well, in a week or so it won't matter and I won't have to think about that mortgage any more. Next step...pay my surprise property tax bill, pay my 6 month car insurance, pay my HOA 6 month dues, and put $500 towards the Home depot card. One of these days I am actually going to get to do something fun with my money...I hope.

Mortgage Progress For May

May is long gone but I might as well update my mortgage progress anyway. I didn't contribute any extra to the mortgage so only the regular payment was deducted bringing the total to $3,398. The reason that I didn't contribute any extra was because when I stopped my automatic payments it said that it wouldn't go in to effect until July so I wanted to be sure to have enough money in my account for the June automatic payment. Well, I checked my balance on the first of the month and there was no change so I thought it hadn't gone through yet. A few days later I remembered again and checked but still no change. It appears that the automatic payment stopped for June.

I'm sure glad I checked. That would be pretty sad to miss a payment when I am so close to paying it off. The regular payment is not delinquent until the 16th of the month so I want to pay off the mortgage before then. I don't need a new payoff letter either because it says to just add 55 cents per day after the estimated payoff date which was June 1st. I am going to wait until I get my next paycheck on Wednesday and then...unless I get more mystery bills in the mail...I will pay off this pesky mortgage!

The Watermelon Is Cheap

Some days I think I earn my pay more than others. Today was a steady stream of urgent issues. Luckily I think I handled most of them with only one spilling over until tomorrow. Of course tomorrow there will be new urgent issues to handle.

I went to the grocery store on Monday and loaded up on fruit. I bought a watermelon, cantaloupe, grapes, cherries, apples, oranges and bananas. The watermelon was ok but not great. It was on sale for under $2 each because of the holiday weekend. The cherries were tasteless. Even the bananas were disappointing. I haven't tried the others yet. I miss good tasting fruit. Last Summer I went out to the Saturday farmer's market and all they had a some small apples. I could drive out to the farm an hour away and buy some real fruit when it is in season. I think peach season might be worth the drive.

Tomorrow is Friday and the weekend is almost here. Even though the days have gone by unnaturally slow, the weekend still got here fast thanks to the holiday. Only a few more days until payday!

Too Many Cooks In The Kitchen

As you know, the last email that I got from the property management company said that my partial rent payment would be paid to me with my next month's rent. Today I checked my mail and to my surprise, I got a $600 check for May. I like having a property management company but so far they seem to have too many people communicating with me and they all say different things. I sure hope my house doesn't have too many problems and I won't have to deal with the management company very often.

I didn't make a $2,000 payment today because I didn't really see the benefit of giving them $2,000 when I was sooo close to paying off the mortgage but not quite close enough. I'd rather that money stay in my account. If I had received the rent money sooner, I could have paid off the mortgage this month but now I have to deposit the check and I probably won't have time to do that until Tuesday. On the other hand, I could stop my automatic payment and just go ahead and pay the payoff amount on the payoff letter. Payments aren't late until the 16th of each month so I could wait for my next payday and then pay it off. Actually, that sounds like a good idea. That would save $170 from going in to the escrow fund and then I would have to wait 30 days to get it back.

Oops, there goes that idea. I just logged in and cancelled the automatic payment and it says changes will take effect July 2011. I cancelled it but it won't help me out for June.

That means I have to wait because I don't have enough money to pay off the mortgage AND give the bank an extra $800 just for fun. Oh well, I am going to wait until I deposit my check and the payment is made on the first and then decide how to attack it. For now I am going to enjoy my 3 day weekend.

Deflated

When I got to work this morning I checked my email and there was one from the property management company. It said that I had $600 in rent coming my way. Yay! Then I read more and it said that I would be getting the money with my NEXT MONTHS RENT. Wow...can you say disappointed? Next months rent won't be deposited until around the 12th of the month since they take a day to collect it, 10 days for the check to clear and another day to send it by direct deposit. Getting paid in cash by my last tenant was so much quicker...except she didn't always pay and I had to wait until she got her tax return to get the majority of it.

But anyway...now tomorrow is just another day instead of an exciting rent money and payday. I must be a patient little bunny for another almost 3 weeks. Ugh. Once I get paid tomorrow I can pay my regular credit card bill and then figure out how much I can contribute towards the principle without depleting my reserves too much. I forgot that I still have to pay the utility bills for the house up until the tenants transfer it over. I called the trash company and they said that the water company has to tell them to change the account to the new tenant. I called the water company and they said that they sent the notice to the trash and sewer company last Saturday. The trash lady called me back and said that she found the notice and will send me a final bill. I called the sewer lady back and she was all insistent that no one could notify them on a Saturday because they don't work on Saturday. I suppose she has never heard of email. She said I had to call the water company. Crazy sewer lady. I can't believe how expensive the sewer bill is. They base it on water usage and since I filled up my water tanks at the house I had to pay $34 in sewer fees even thought none of it went down the sewer. That's even more than the water bill.

Soon I won't have to pay any more of those bills but I want to make sure I have enough in my checking account to cover them. The rest of the day crept by slowly. I picked up one of my puppies from the vet at noon. She was pretty good and slept under my desk most of the time. My coworkers really like the puppies but I have to be so vigilant about potty breaks that I don't like to bring them because I can't get my work done. It is fun every once in a while though.

It Helps To Talk To A Human

I called my bank today and asked them about the methods for paying off a mortgage. My mortgage holder and my bank are the same so you would think it would be easy to do. The special recording set up for requesting payoff quotes said that I have to send a cashier's check and the payoff quote to a certain address. I called back and pressed "0" to talk to a human. I asked the Service Rep. if I could just pay down my mortgage and then let the automatic payment that is scheduled for June 1st, pay off the rest of it and then it would be done. He said that it would take much longer that way because the computer wouldn't be able to close the loan. The computer would have to recognise that no more payments were needed (probably when it tried to do the July payment) and then it would trigger the loan closing department (located at the special address where I have to send the payoff quote) to close the loan.

The Rep. recommended that I go to a bank branch and have them transfer the funds from my bank account and then (I am assuming) fax the payoff quote. That sounds better than mailing it because I was worried that it wouldn't get there in time and the automated payment would take another $800 out of my account for June and I really don't want to loan the bank $800.

Only 6 more days until payday and rent day!

Time To Request That Payoff Quote

I wanted to be sure I would have enough money to pay off the rental house mortgage this month so I went ahead and requested a payoff quote. The bank made me go through a long phone recording and finally I could pick between a faxed quote for an extra $30 charge or a quote by mail. Gee, I wonder which one to choose? The total came to $3,425 which is around $26 more than what I expected but that is not a big deal. They will mail the quote and then I will have to get a cashier's check from the bank and mail it to them with the quote.

Now I just have to wait for the quote to arrive and wait for payday and rent day to arrive on the 25th. Only one week from tomorrow and, if all goes well, I can finally finish this major step and move on to the next goal.

Birthday Today

I have one more year to be financially independent by the time I am forty. Not that it is a goal set in stone or anything, it's just a convenient marker of time. My goal was actually to be financially secure enough to change careers, not to retire. So my next step should be to figure out what job I want to do next.

It was a beautiful day outside today but I was stuck in my office again. Next year I should take a vacation day for my birthday. It will be on a Friday so that will make a nice 3 day weekend. I'm already looking forward to it (assuming I am still working there). I bought donuts this morning. There was only one other person there who eats donuts so there were a few left over. For lunch we walked to Carl's Jr. and they bought me a chicken sandwich. I can't really say anything else happened today. Having a birthday in the middle of the work week isn't too exciting.

The best part of the day was being able to check my bank account because it is payday and I am another $1100 richer. That was a very nice present indeed.

Mortgage Progress For April

Yes it is that time again. I haven't made any extra payments for a while but I decided to go ahead and add $502 to the mortgage. Why $502? Well, the total was at $4,501.95 and I wanted to get in to the $3k range so now my total is $3,999.95.

I added up all of the money in my bank account including the paycheck that I will get on Wednesday and I found that I could pay off the mortgage and still have $400 left over. As tempting as that was, I have a credit card balance of -$850 and I always pay that off every month so I didn't think it was time to pay off the mortgage yet. Next month I will have $1,000 more than my mortgage amount. If I don't have any expensive emergencies in the next 5 weeks I think I will go ahead and get rid of the mortgage. It has been hanging around long enough. That will free up $800 a month plus the $636 extra that I usually pay to the mortgage which will then go towards the Home Depot card. If the rental house ever gets rented then things will be even better.

Five weeks to go before I can make this decision. I want to make a paper chain or something to count down the days. It would probably be better if I just forget about it until the time comes. I don't want to get too disappointed if I doesn't work out.

Mortgage Progress For March

Another 100 gallons. Each load is making me feel a little bit more secure about the months ahead. I forgot how much my dogs drink in the Summer. 9 more trips and all my tanks will be full. Of course I hope the house gets rented before that. I'd like to get back to paying off the mortgage.

Speaking of the mortgage, I didn't pay any extra this month. The balance is at $5,150. Tomorrow, when the regular mortgage payment goes through, it will finally dip below $5k. If I don't make any extra payments, I will still have it paid off in December. Hopefully, I will get tenants soon and then I can pay it off by June. In the meantime, I still have $2,000 that I owe to Home Depot so I can't forget that. It is only no interest until August and I want to have it paid off before that.

Mortgage Progress For February

I was sitting at work today thinking about how lucky I am that I have a job and can pay someone else to tile. Just doing little things around the house has worn me out. Sometimes it is just nice to be able to do what I know how to do and let someone else do what they know how to do.

I didn't put any extra money towards the mortgage because I don't have the final cost of this house renovation yet. I paid the normal mortgage payment so the total now is $5,882.

If I don't pay any extra, I will have it paid off in 10 months. If I go back to my extra payment schedule in April then I will have it paid off in June. The end of the mortgage always seems to be just out of reach. One of these days I will get to the end though and it will be so nice.

New Furry Friends

You know when I am this late at posting it is probably one of 3 things...computer broke, out partying, or got a new dog.


Ok, I don't use the "out partying" excuse much. If you picked excuse number 3, you are correct. She is a little Schipperke mix. 18 pounds or so. Around the size of a large cat and very soft.

Tomorrow I am taking 2 dogs to the pet store for an adoption event and I really hope one or both get adopted, especially my large black puppy. She woke us all up at 5am wanting to play. I finally got up, kicked them all outside while I dished out the food, then let them back in. After eating they all settled back to sleep around 6am. At 6:10am my alarm went off. Boy am I tired. Building a secure fenced area is back on my priority list. I really need a place where they can play and I can hide. I have started asking friends for recommendations of fence builders. Hopefully someone will give me a good lead soon and if the tiling job for the rental house doesn't cost too much, maybe I can build a good fence...although I am supposed to be paying off the mortgage. Ack...someday I will be able to get past the mortgage and move on to tackling my other goals.

A New Year And A New Dog

Of course I had to start out the year with a new dog. They were going to put her to sleep because they said she got kennel cough, then got well, then got sick again. Funny thing is I haven't heard her cough once. I was hoping she was a little smaller since she is a 9 month old puppy but she must have some big dog in her because she is taller than all of my dogs.

I spent the morning leisurely cleaning my bookcase which meant dusting glassware, candles and cleaning supplies. I put the vases and candles in the back room after I cleaned them and then fastened a curtain rod to the front of the bookcase and hung a sheet so that my things wouldn't get so dusty. I thought about buying a cabinet to store things in but this is a cheaper option for now.

I also fastened a towel over the dog door because it was too drafty and the weather has been going down to the 20's at night. My water pipe to my mobile home was frozen until noon today. I put towels around it tonight since we are supposed to have another hard freeze.

And since this is a new year, I suppose I should have some goals or something. My goals are to PAY OFF THE MORTGAGE, save an emergency fund, and save more dogs. I haven't narrowed down my other goals yet so I will sort them out when I reach that crossroad. One thing that I do know is that I am not looking forward to going back to work on Monday and I really need to do something about that. Hopefully this is the year that it will all happen.

Planning For The Future

When I wake up tomorrow I expect it to be raining. That would be wonderful. Work was ok today. Our state minimum wage is going up to $7.35 so I was calculating if I could survive on that. With my rent money and a part time minimum wage job I could definitely survive but I would have to live in this mobile home forever. I still haven't figured out what I am going to do about my long term housing situation. Maybe I should start digging a hobbit hole.

I should also have an emergency fund to last a year at least. That would take me 6 months to save up at my current job. Let's see, pay off mortgage in March, save six months more...that's September, then there is the car fund, the health savings account, travel fund, home improvements (a fence for the dogs), and the housing fund. Gee, I'm not going to be able to retire for another 10 years! I don't think I can make it that long.