Health Insurance Changes - $$ Savings!

Photo credit: forwardcom

For the last 12 years, my employer has been providing health insurance to my family.  As the job (and employer) changed and our family grew, these costs steadily grew.  But it's health insurance and we needed to have it, so it continued to be withdrawn from my check at a steady rate.  It's just one of those things you assume will always be.

Well, starting last week, Chip went on full time duty orders with his National Guard unit and will be for about 18 months at least (hopefully more after that).  So we bit the bullet and signed up for Tri-Care, the military's health insurance program.  There are various details that go with it, but basically, we dropped all of the medical insurance that I carried at work and kept the vision and dental insurance from my employer (better coverage and quite cheap).

There is no premium cost for Tri-Care.  For Chip the program is completely free - he just has to use doctors on base.  No co-pays, no deductibles, etc.  For us (the family), we pay out of pocket until we reach the $300 family deductible and then standard care is free.  Procedures and hospitalizations and whatnot are 20% out of pocket for us. The pharmacy plan is very much like we have now.  And the kids and I can still use our current doctors, as they are in the Tri-Care network. Hooray!

And without premiums, we are saving right at $400 (pre-tax) a month; I'm estimating that's about $300 extra to my check (after taxes) each month!  So what if we have to meet the $300 deductible...that's still about 11 months (after tax) savings...or somewhere between $3000 and $4000 saved after taxes.

Wow.

I could seriously find something good to do with $300/month. For now it will go to debt repayment.  Then to building a sturdy savings account.  After that?  Who knows?

I noted that if for some reason the care is terrible we would go back to my insurance next January (when they have open enrollment at work), but otherwise, this is the route we're going for now.

What would you do with an extra $300/month?

It Will Be A Good Three Months for Debt Reduction Around Here

Photo credit: SailorJohn

I have been the most terrible blog host this week. Barely speaking with you, my faithful friends. I've just had a lot on my mind. At work. At home. In my sleep. But I felt I could at least tell you what is going on around here and I decided to brag about what the next two months SHOULD look like around here for our debt reduction plan.

This past month was great.  Scratch that.  It was really, really good.  But it could have been better.  You'll see how in a couple of weeks when I do my financial update/disclosure post.  We have spent far too much money on food - mainly on eating out - this month. It's our downfall. A true weakness. And you would think that knowing this, we'd try to make more of an effort in this area. This month, we have just thrown all caution to the wind and eaten out far too much.

So although we sent OVER $3500 TO OUR CHASE CARD this month (WOO HOO!), that victory is still slightly clouded by the fact that it probably could have been closer to $4K had we been more careful with our eating habits.

Sigh.

However, another good point to make - Chip was on orders for the National Guard two extra days this month.  We won't make any money in as take home pay seeing that we had to pay a babysitter those days which we were both at work, but it will automatically withdraw the extra amount to apply to our Army loan.  That should knock it down about another $200.  I'll take all I can get!

Additionally, we closed on our mortgage refinance.  So we have taken on slightly more debt (since there were closing costs that got rolled into the mortgage, our mortgage principle is now higher than it was last week), but at a lower rate. And it will take us about 18 months to save enough to pay for the closing costs.  Not too bad.

Why am I telling you this again?  Well, because of the refi, we will skip April's mortgage payment and that amount we previously were paying toward our mortgage ($1615) will go to our Chase card as well.  Booyah!  Another blow for the debt in April!

And lastly, we will once again have a mortgage payment.  We will also have the addition $250 that we are saving due to the refinance to send to Chase on top of our normal payment. What else will we have in May?  A three paycheck month which means another chunk (maybe $1800-$2000) to Chase. 

That's over $7000 to Chase in three months!  It should be down to right around a $5000 balance then. 

The original balance of this credit card was over $17,000.  That hurts to say, but it was.  And now, we are moving full speed ahead and I am LOVING it!  Soon we will be done with this card altogether!

Taking Advantage of Lower Mortgage Rates

Photo credit: danzo08 (loved this toy!)

Five years ago this June we purchased a new home in Savannah, GA. We had just moved to town and at the height of the real estate boom, locked in a decent mortgage rate of 6.25%.

Fast forward through the economic downfall and the real estate crash.

In January 2010, we refinanced our mortgage at 5.0% in a fixed 30 year mortgage.  It made us so happy to save about $156/month. Yippee!  The closing costs were not that bad and we found that with that $156/month savings, we would recoup the closing costs in 19 months. Less than two years?  Yes...let's do it!

Guess what?  Mortgages are even LOWER now.

So guess what we did?

On Tuesday night, we closed on a refi at 3.875%.  That's going to save us another $180/month.  Closing costs?  We'll pay for them in 20 months.

So there is no plan to refinance again once we've made up the closing costs.  Otherwise that would be a terribly vicious cycle.  But honestly, based on the current laws, the mortgage rate can NOT get much lower for a fixed rate loan.  So we're very pleased to be locked in where we are.

Could we get a lower interest rate with an ARM (adjustable rate mortgage)?  Sure.  In fact, we played with that idea. But the problem has already been stated.  It can't get much lower. In fact, I'd personally be surprised if it stays this low much longer (although I'm certainly no expert).  We could also go with a shorter term loan and come out better.

But right now?  We're in a load of debt and the focus is keeping our expenses as low as possible so we can get rid of this debt!  Then we will boost our emergency fund.  THEN we will start doubling up on payments to our mortgage and knock it out.

Immediate future?

We'll skip the first month's payment (April) because that's what you do with a refinance. The money we save there will be sent to good old Chase Mastercard. Sure, we could knock time off the mortgage by doubling up on May's payment, but the goal again is debt depletion.

We will get back money from our escrow account.  What is that for?  It will be sent to our timeshare company to buy our way out. Yep - that's what we're going to have to do and frankly, it sucks, but we aren't willing to be stuck with more maintenance fees for a property we aren't using.  So we're buying out of it.

Still, we're making headway.  And hopefully in the next few years, we'll be living the dream because of it!

What about you?  Have you thought about refinancing lately?  What would you do with a skipped mortgage payment or a refund of your escrow account?

Drumroll please.... Our Tax Results

Photo credit: LeoSynapse

So a few nights ago Chip did our taxes.

The results?  A refund.

A huge refund. 

To the tune of $4880 (I think that’s the exact amount). 

I am thrilled. 

The crazy thing is, after last year’s big refund, I changed my with-holdings at work.  Not so much that I expected we would break even but that we would receive a much smaller refund.

And yet somehow – our refund is larger this year. I totally don’t understand tax law.

So what will we do with this lump sum?

We have two options.  I originally had one thing in mind because it would make the most sense mathematically and it would give me the best feeling emotionally.  Sounds like the way to go, right?   This option would be to send the entire (almost) $5K to my credit card – you know, the one that I despise so much and am ready to kill the account as soon as it is paid off.  That would give me the most emotional payback and it would decrease the debt on the larger interest loan.  This seemed like the way to go at first.

But the other option is almost as good and gives a sense of completion and gives us one less thing to worry about.  This would be to send almost $3900 to a “loan” that we had from the Army from when Chip was prepaid to finish OCS and came home early. So we owe the Army that money back.  They aren’t charging us interest, so it seems like it would be good to pay this one off more slowly than the one with interest. Two things about that though – if we did this, we could completely cross this debt off our list and shorten the list; and the Army is deducting repayments at their own rate out of his paychecks.  It’s been going fine so far to do that, but when he goes for his long-term training in a few months (or whenever he goes – they haven’t told us yet), I won’t know how much of his check we’ll be receiving until it arrives and that makes planning difficult. And for this control freak, that’s just one more uncertainty I would like to avoid.

All in all, it will pay off debt.  All of it.  But how?  That is yet to be determined.

What about you?  Are you getting or anticipating a refund?  If so, what do you plan to do with it?

2012 - Plans for a Better Financial Year

So, as Wednesday's post indicated, 2011 was not a good year for us financially.  We made some headway. We didn't move in the wrong direction, but we really did not move forward a whole lot either.  We basically treaded water for the year as a whole.

And I was utterly depressed when I looked at the numbers.

So for the upcoming year I am making the following, hopefully more attainable goals for our family's finances.  This is assuming that the apocalypse doesn't really happen at the end of this year and make all of these plans worthless. =)

Reread Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover:
This is the book that kicked us into gear, and I obviously need to be kicked again. So I'm going to reread this for hopefully a new burst of inspiration

Figure out SOMETHING to do with the timeshare:
If you've been here for more than a month, you know how we own a timeshare and how I absolutely loathe it. We should have the deed in hand within the first month or so of 2012 and then we will start the process of getting rid of it.  I hope to resell it to the resort for a drastically reduced cost just to get it out of our hands. Yes...we'll still owe the money on it via the Lending Club loan, but at least we won't have maintenance fees and the burden of it hanging over us.  If we have to, we are willing to just deed it back to the resort just to get rid of it, but we'll of course get money for it if we can.  Anything we get for it will go straight into paying off debt. No rerouting of any of those funds.

Pay off $10K in debt:
Last year, I had HUGE aspirations for paying off debt based on some plans that didn't fall into place. This year, we're going with what we currently have and making plans based on current income remaining the same. If we get more, then that will just be a bonus and we'll happy dance all over the place (including this blog).

Cut up my hated Chase credit card:
I know...I probably should have already done this, but I haven't.  But I want to. This year. It's my oldest and largest credit account and that fact scares me regarding what it will do to my credit score. But I plan to build up the courage to do it and throw caution to the wind in regards to my credit score. I want to live like nobody else, right?

Tithe every.single.paycheck:
I know this shouldn't be hard, but it has been in the past, so I'm working on making this totally normal...even when it isn't comfortable.

What about you?  What are your financial goals for 2012?

Photo credit: svilen001

2011 - What We DID Accomplish

So yesterday's post was utterly shameful. It was embarrassing. It was humbling. It was depressing.

But 2011 was not a total waste. So today's I'm going to celebrate those things that we DID accomplish over the last year.

We paid off debt:
Okay, so $5500 isn't much to brag about, but in a society that is drowning in debt, this is not really that bad. We are at least moving in the right direction.

We refinanced our timeshare:
We chose to take out a Lending Club loan to use for the timeshare. It will allow us to get our deed in hand and hopefully get rid of it soon. As a bonus, the interest rate and terms are far more favorable for us and we're making real headway now. You can read more about the numbers game of it here. Seriously paying off for us!

Started an allowance system for Patrick:
It satisfies our desire to teach him hard work = money as well as "you're a member of this family and you're going to do chores without getting paid."  He's got his first savings account get up now and we're plugging away at it.  Financial lessons for kids - here we come! Details about the system are here.

Our Net Worth Topped $100,000:
This is a real reason to celebrate. I know it's a bit crazy to be stuck on a particular number, but that just seemed like a really nice milestone. Including our depleted home value and our mortgage, this is what we come up with despite our debt woes. Thank you, retirement plans!

So that's it.  What do you want to celebrate with me today? It can be finance related, or not. Just share.

Photo credit: calderilla

2011 - A Year in Review

Let's take a moment and review a snippet from a post from about a year ago:

I'm not going to call these my resolutions. Why? I'm notoriously horrible at keeping New Year's resolutions. And I want these to stick. So I'm psyching myself out by not calling them what they essentially are.

And then I gave you a list of non-resolutions.  So let's review how these turned out:

Pay down an additional $25,000 in debt.

Oooh...this was the big one.  And how did we do?

Paid off a whopping $5721.18.

Yep...that's it.

I obviously have failed at being a debt-paying-offer.

The non-resolution of paying off that chunk of change depended on a huge item that didn't happen.  In June, Chip left for OCS (Officer Candidate School) for the Army. It would be a full time pay (at a higher rank) for 2 months along with a housing allowance and travel pay. In other words...it was going to be a pretty sweet couple of months to pay regardless of him being away for 2 solid months with little to no contact with us.

After that, he had hoped to go for at least a few months of this year to his next stage of training, which would have been full time pay again. 

These things? Did not go as planned.  Chip was not ready for OCS.  And once he came home before graduation, he decided that he had gone for the wrong reason. He had gone for the paycheck. He really doesn't fee like he wants to be an officer or command other soldiers. He wanted a nice paycheck to round out his last eight year of military service that he needs before qualifying for retirement.

So that estimate of $25K was based on paycheck that never came. And now? He is at home taking care of our lovely daughter, which saves us a bundle in childcare, but does not add income to our household income. I'm totally okay with both parts of that, but it doesn't factor in well with paying off a huge amount of debt.


Maintain our $1500 starter emergency fund.
We actually have more in it right now because Chip was paid upfront when he went to OCS.  I put the excess money in our savings account so I wouldn't lose track of it and spend it or send it to debt repayment so that when the Army wanted it back, they could have it in one lump payment.

However, the Army has started taking it out of his monthly drill paycheck. I need to get him to find out if this is their plan going forward, because if so, we'll just go that route and I'll send the extra money off to debt repayment and up that balance down some more.

Continue tithing 10% each paycheck.
This is something I did really well for the first few months of the year. Then things got hard and honestly...my faith obviously wavered.  That's hard to admit, but it is the only explanation I have for stopping our tithe. I was scared when the money wasn't there for a few weeks, which is silly because God has always been faithful to make what we have work for us when I do tithe. But this controlling part of me panicked and this was the result. I will say that the last couple of months this year, we resumed tithing, so we are back on track.

Gift an additional $200/month toward our Relentless campaign.
This is an ongoing capital campaign at our church for various projects going on.  We made a faith promise of $200/month for two years. When my faith wavered (see tithing above), this suffered as well. So we have to get back on the wagon with this as well.

Side hustle $3000 this year.
This actually turned out okay.  We pocketed $4947.00 this year by selling stuff and in debit card rewards.  Some of that was due to my etsy shop, which ran really well the first half of the year (but I decided to close until further notice when Chip left for OCS so I could spend more time with the kids).

So 2/5. 

That's depressing. A 40% success rate.  There are not many people who would bet with odds like that.

But this year we're going to see what we can do.

Although we didn't eliminate $25K in debt, we did get rid of $5K. Which is better than nothing. And we've got a plan going forward. Tomorrow we'll talk about some successes that we not planned - mainly just to make me feel better about what I had to report to you today. Then on Friday, we look into the upcoming plan for 2012.  Maybe the goals will not be as naive this go around.

Photo credit: ilco

Time to Check the Credit Report

If you've been following along with me, you know that every 4 months I run a credit report to make sure nothing looks crazy or out of whack.  You are entitled to a free credit report from each of the three major reporting agencies every year.  So every 4 months, I run one from a different agency. That means within the year I have run all three and I can follow my credit throughout the year rather than just once in a calendar's turn.

So if you are playing along, it's time to run our Experian credit reports.

Go to AnnualCreditReport.com (the only truly free site to use and sanctioned by the government) and select your state.  Fill out the info your are asked and tell it you want only the Experian report (if you're doing the every 4 month plan with me).  Then....off you go!

For me?
I had 0 potentially negative items in my report
I had 20 accounts in good standing in my report.

When I read that 20 account bit, I was like, "Wha...?"  But as I look through them, 16 of them are old accounts that are already closed and have to appear on here until a set date (ranging between 2012 and 2020).   So that's 4 open accounts. 

What are those 4 open accounts? 

• American Express - Chip's credit card that I'm a joint account holder on.
• Chase - my "big" credit card that I hate and am attacking now. It will be the next to go for balance and emotional reasons.
• GMAC Mortgage - Our current mortgage.
• USAA - Our bank and my preferred credit card.  This will be the only one we keep when all are paid off.

Everything else looks all well and good.  So one more report done and I feel safe and sound about my credit.

How did you fare?

Photo credit: LotusHead

Update on Timeshare Saga

So a little while back I told you that we were applying for a Lending Club loan. I never really gave you a follow up to that though, did I?

Well, the loan went through with a 9.99% interest rate, which is significantly lower than the 17.9% rate it was at! If I solely pay the minimum on this loan (which I will do until the high rate cards are paid off) until the end of the 3-year term of the loan, I will pay $13,937.40 on our $12,000 loan. If I were to pay the minimum on the old loan, it would take 8 years and $19,906 to pay it off!

Now of course, the plan was never just to make the minimum payments, but until I have knocked out my Chase card (read my loathing for it here), I will be paying the minimum. And I can save a LOT in interest just by lowering the interest rate until time to pay more than the minimum arrives!

AND – Now we should be getting the deed in hand soon. Once that is done, we will be calling the manager of sales at the resort and attempting to sell it back to them at a discounted cost just to get out from under it. Whatever we sell it to them for, we will then be rid of it and its maintenance fees and we will apply that amount to our Chase card.

Win-win, right?

I hope so.

I’ll keep you updated on how selling it back to the timeshare company goes….

What do you think? What would you do with the money?


Photo credit: penywise

Taking Out a Loan with Lending Club

So – we bit the bullet last Friday and signed up for a Lending Club loan.

What is Lending Club?
Lending Club is a peer to peer lending network that allows people like me who have made stupid financial decisions regarding debt (and other people who have legitimate debt, but I’m focusing on my own stupidity right now) and are working to get out of our mess.

It allows borrowers to acquire loans at lower interest rates than banks can offer because there is no middle man to be paid. Just you and some investors.



It also allows people who want to invest to get high returns on their money. In fact, I signed up a while back and got $25 free to invest just for signing up (you can too). I invested that plus another $25 into two different loans that I got to hand select. I chose one mid-range “rate” (indicating their credit rating) and one lower-range rate. I figured it was only $25 each, right? Well, both have always been on time with all payments and I am averaging a 17.91% return right now.Yippee! The average return at Lending Club is 9.61%. Compare THAT to your typical CD.

You can gauge for yourself what you are comfortable with and shop around through the loans with whatever criteria you feel is important. You can see what the loan is for and ask a myriad of questions about the borrower’s financial situation before deciding whether or not to invest.

Why Did We Need on a Loan?
We have a timeshare that we owe around $10,000 on (I talk more about that here). The interest rate is currently at 17.90% and we’re going nowhere fast on it. I applied for a 3 year loan with Lending Club at 9.99% to save us money and knock this thing out.

Why the Timeshare Rather Than Other Debts?
First of all, it has the highest interest rate, so it makes the most math sense.

Secondly, we are going to take Dave Ramsey’s advice and once we send this check to the finance company currently holding the loan, we will have the deed in hand. We will then attempt to sell it back to the vacation resort business we bought it from at a loss to ourselves and a profit for them. They will be able to resell it for far more than we could, so they’ll make money on it. We’ll be out from under it and its maintenance fees. We hope they agree to this. If they are willing to buy it back from us (even at half of what they can sell it for), we will use that money to pay down our next highest interest rate (our Chase credit card).

So we hope to both get out from under this burden and get a little bit out of it to apply to our other debts.

Why Lending Club?
Well, as a (small) investor, I’ve seen that it works.  And I would rather give my payments to people who are making responsible choices with their money by investing rather than some big banks that are more and more the bane of my existence.

And the lower interest rate doesn’t hurt either.




So, if you decide to invest, check out our loan (#548511 or under the name Kaye_T - or do a keyword search for "Timeshare") and help us out. Of course, you are not obligated to do so, but I just had to throw that in there.

The links and banners on this article and on my sidebar are paid affiliate links/banners. I am taking out a loan, and I do have an investment with them. I have seen it work and these opinions, which I am sharing with you, are purely my own.

A Financial Victory! Celebrating a Net Worth Milestone.

If you've followed this blog long at all, you will know that our household has done some stupid things with money. I mean some really, really stupid things. We've been scammed. We're in far too much debt, and now we're paying for it.

But there is one area where we've actually been smart. And today I want to announce that those smart decisions made early on are worth celebrating today!

Stay with me for a moment here while I give you some backstory....

I graduated college and entered the workforce at the age of 21. I was young and stupid. It's okay...most of us are at that time in our lives. One of the wisest things I did though was to start investing in the company-sponsored 401k as soon as I was allowed by company policy. They had an outstanding matching policy and I fully took advantage of (I invested the full 8% that they matched dollar for dollar).

When we moved to Savannah and I changed jobs, we rolled our retirement savings into IRAs (Roth and Traditional) and I started a 401k here at my new employer. They have a match that is not as good as my previous employer, but is still free money that I wanted to take advantage of. They match 50 cents on the dollar up to 10%. I continued the 8% investment that I was accustomed to. Yeah...I was missing out on some free money, but that is the decision I made and it worked well for a while.

I am now 31 years old and still a long way from retirement, so that means that although now I've cut my contributions back to 1% (to avoid the stop/restart investment paperwork but to maximize what I could send to debt repayment), I have always invested aggressively, knowing that the market would fluctuate. I would lose money. I would gain money. I'm still young enough, though, to ride it out, so I do.

One year, I lost a LOT of money (was that 2008, I think?). Last year...gained it all back. It's still growing today.

So what does all of this mean today?

Well, because we have become wiser and started knocking out our debt aggressively and because those investments are still growing and providing passive income for (not much) later in life...


As of this week, our net worth topped $100,000!

$101,008.53 to be exact.

YIPPEE!!!

What does this include?

This includes the following assets: home, cars, retirement accounts, and cash.
It also includes the following debts: mortgage, timeshare, and 3 credit cards (one with $0 balance).

We have no car loans. We have no personal loans. We have no student loans. We have no medical debts. Those have all been paid off.

In the last 16 months, we have paid off $19,254.20 in debt and our net worth has increased by $39,287.85.

Did you notice that our net worth increased by more than $20K more than our debt repayment? That's our retirement funds working FOR us, people!

So if you haven't started saving for retirement yet, just because you're young...don't think it will not make a difference. It will make ALL the difference.

We're living proof!

Have you ever calculated your net worth? Were you happy or upset by what you found?


Photo credit: RambergMediaImages

I'll Admit It - I'm an Idiot

Welcome all who found this embarrassing story via the Carnival of Money Stories: August 2, 2010 at Money Beagle. I'm glad you stopped by to see why I'm an idiot. It's a long story, so get comfortable. And when you're done, feel free to stick around for a while.

So, last week I discussed why we had to unexpectedly send the IRS $1700 this month, which really put a damper on our lifestyle and debt repayment process. But, we were able to do it. No credit card needed. We did have to dip into our emergency fund a bit, but that's what it is there for, right? About a year ago it would have gone on the credit card because we had no choice (and we probably wouldn't have blinked twice to do it).

However, our financial life is different now. In such a good way. No, we don't do as much eating out, shopping, or entertaining as we did, but we also are knocking down our debt and spending with cash only. I can't wait for the day that we can feel liberated because we owe NOBODY!

That doesn't mean we don't do stupid things still. Correct that...I do stupid things. This one is entirely on me, and I won't even TRY to pass any of it off onto Chip.

Sit down...this is going to take a while. In fact...go ahead and get something to drink and go to the bathroom. Go ahead.

You back now? Good. Let's proceed.

One of our debts is a chunk of change that we owe to a timeshare company.

Yep...we own are paying for a timeshare. We bought into the idea when we were living in Mississippi and made a visit to Charleston. Chip is originally from Charleston and we got talked into the sales pitch with the idea that it would give us an excuse to come back to Charleston every other year. So we signed another note the papers thinking more about the monthly payment than about the overall cost.

Guess what? We now live 1-1/2 hours from Charleston, so we have no reason to visit for a week at a time. And yes, we can trade our points for another location, but guess what else? We have two small children and no money because we are trying to pay off debts like this one. So, no vacation for us.

So we aren't using this timeshare. But that's not the real mistake that I was planning to discuss with you.

We want to sell it. Not that we won't use it one day, but right now, it really isn't doing anything for the money we're spending on it, so I'd rather it just be gone.

There are companies all over the internet who offer to sell your timeshare. You know the idea that you aren't supposed to pay anyone up front to list it for you? Well, I did. On a credit card. I know...stupid. So we were out $634.00. Because this company did list our site on its site. But it doesn't do any active marketing. And there really is no need for them to because they already have our money.

Stupid, stupid, stupid, Kaye.

So a few weeks later I received a call from another company. I didn't recognize the name, but I filled out a few forms online to "contact me" while looking to sell it, so I didn't think a lot about it.

They wanted to actively market our timeshare to customers who were already interested in vacation rentals and purchases. They had professional presentations and all of the bells and whistles. Well, that's what roped us in when we signed the papers, so why not?

Then they told me that they would charge me to list it.

No. No, I said.

I've already done this with another company and got ripped off, and I'm not doing it again.

Then not just the hook...and line, but also the sinker...they would get me my money back from the other company.

How?

Well, they explained, they are a brokered company who is licensed (yes, they provided me with a license number and I verified it) to sell the timeshare themselves...not just list it. Because the other company is not brokered, by law in Florida (the state where both companies are located) the other company must surrender the fees I paid them because I now have listed it with a brokered company.

So I could get my $634 back if I paid them $400.

I know...I sound like a moron right now, don't I? I promise it sounded more plausible in real life.

So I paid them (via credit card...again). That's a total of $1034 if you haven't been keeping track so far.

And I saw the listing. And I called to check on my listing. And they send me emails talking about all of the marketing they were doing in their touristy town during touristy events. There were always people interested but no one making an offer. One lady wanted to make an offer, but her husband wasn't with her, so she couldn't (both parties required--typical in timeshare sales).

It was heartbreaking and could have been conceived as suspicious, but I knew the things weren't easy to sell, so I didn't think much of it. About 6 months has past since they initially listed it.

Then Wednesday, July 7th happened.

What was July 7th, you ask?

I tried to call them that morning to check on our listing. It had been about a month or so since I had spoken with anyone from the office and wanted to check in. I called and got a message that no one was available, and I needed to leave a voicemail. So I did.

Nothing by that afternoon. I called again and left another message.

You see where this is going, don't you?

On Thursday and Friday of that week I did the same thing, leaving messages on every extension I could. By Friday I was approaching livid and told them that if I hadn't heard back from SOMEONE by the following Monday afternoon I would pursue further action elsewhere.

Nothing on Monday, so I called again on Tuesday. Nothing this time, but it seemed that the voicemail boxes must have been filling up because I couldn't leave a voicemail...I just got a circular loop of messages telling me to leave them without ever prompting me with a "beep." So I found one extension where I could leave a message and did so. I told them that they would be reported if I heard nothing else by Friday of that week.

Friday came. I called.

Guess what?

Phones disconnected.

Seriously.

You know what I did? The first thing I did was called the city's police department. I was told that they were aware of the issue but were not involved because the state was running an investigation. Wow. I started getting in touch with the BBB of central Florida. I wrote the Attorney General of Florida's office. I wrote the Dept of Agriculture of Florida (which is where their consumer affairs division is located). I was FURIOUS! I filled out all of the forms and attached all of the documents and correspondence I had with the company to the Dept of Ag form (there was space to do so).

I was in tears. There is nothing in the world like feeling stupid. Feeling like the picture was obvious and you still didn't see it. Knowing you threw away money you didn't even have to throw away. All for the dream of getting rid of something that, in hindsight, you really didn't need in the first place.

On Monday following that Friday, I received a letter from the AG's office that was an affidavit. I filled it out and attached pages and pages worth of correspondence that would prove my case.

So, here we are. $1034 (plus interest) poorer. Feeling duped. Being duped. Feeling stupid.

It's amazing how naive and stupid a well educated professional can act.

That has been my financial heartache of the last few weeks.

We'll just wait and see if anything happens now.

In the meantime, do you know anyone who wants to rent a week in Charleston, SC? It's a really nice 1 or 2 bedroom (we can do either), fully stocked place that overlooks the open market in the historic district (seriously...the balcony looks straight down onto Market Street). Walking distance to anywhere in the historic district and lots of great food.

Since we can't use it, someone should get to.

We'll give you a good nightly deal.


Photo credit: kmakice

What a Mistake Cost Us

If you are visiting from the Carnival of Personal Finance at the Ultimate Money Blog, I just want to take a moment to welcome you to my humble abode. Feel free to stick around and check the place out. I'd love to hear your comments on any of my posts.

I mentioned in a previous financial update post that we were going to have to send some money to the IRS.

A few weeks ago we got a letter from the IRS telling us that we had failed to report some income in 2008. I immediately went to check on it, but our prior tax returns were locked in our firesafe and Chip was traveling with the key. So I had to wait for him to get home. When he returned, he checked into it and found...sure enough...we had neglected to claim one of our income sources. How is this possible, you ask? I'll give you the only scenario I can imagine to explain....

In 2008 Chip had a couple of different jobs. The problem was that two of his W-2s had very similar amounts on them. I mean...the "thousands" amount was the same down to the "tens" amount.

My only guess is that he picked up the 2nd similar-looking W2, saw the amount, and thought it was the one he had already entered into our tax filing software. He certainly didn't intentionally leave anything out.

So last Friday we sent the IRS a check. A whopping check for $1722.00. Ouch. Seriously.

What is worse? The reported tax withheld was like $395.00 and was probably close to right. That other almost $1500...fees for the omission and interest that has climbed during the year it took the IRS to find this problem.

And yet worse? We have to file an amended state return for that year and send them some money as well.

Chip was hating himself for it. I totally understand how the mistake could happen, and although I hate to see the money leave the account for something other than debt repayment right now, I know that there is nothing to do about it but send them the money. So I'm not upset about the fact that it happened.

What I have learned through this incident: We really can do this frugality thing. I mean, we lucked up that it happened in a month with three paydays for each of us but one of Chip's was not a full check because he wasn't on a full schedule yet. However, we cut back to just the minimum credit card payments this month and restricted spending to only the necessities.

And we are doing it.

So far, we have eaten out only once...the kids and I visited Chip at his Waffle House for lunch, which is a real treat for the kids (and Chip). It was $19 with tip, so not too bad. And our grocery bill (so far) has not skyrocketed. We are just spending much more purposefully now. And so far I have had to pull only a little out of our emergency fund to cover the IRS payment, and it was only as a precaution (so far). So it appears that we actually might be able to pay $1700 more than the minimums on our credit cards! That would rock if it holes true.

Funny thing is, the stress and frustration of this situation has caused us to realize that we can live like this (because we've had to) and it is not so bad! Maybe it will help us push through more months like this and really make some debt repayment headway!

I wish that has been our last financial mistake. But it isn't. In fact, there is even another one that has reared its ugly head lately.

The latest mistake that cost us money? Totally me. And I am hating myself.

I'll touch on that one next week when I have had time to be not as angry about it.


Photo credit: djshaw

Another Reason to Kill My Credit Card

Welcome to anyone visiting via the Carnival of Money Stories #69: Summer Vacation Edition hosted by Squirrelers. I hope you enjoy this post as well as anything else you find while perusing my blog. Please know that things are a little crazy right now because I'm hosting a huge series of giveaways, which is giving me twice the posts as normal right now. I promise you can find the "regular" stuff amidst the giveaways! Feel free to stick around and hey--go ahead and enter to win some stuff if you want. There are some great prizes to be had!

So after becoming listeners/readers/fans of Dave Ramsay, we began our journey to becoming totally debt free. We decided that we would take it to the limit and drop all credit cards permanently. That is still the plan.

Since October 2009 we have paid off over $15,000 in consumer debt. Absurd, right? (I mean the amount we have to pay off, not the fact we have done it; I rather love that part) I will admit (ashamedly) that we still have a long way to go, but we are making our way through it and killing off credit cards as they are paid off.


Image Source: Accredited OnlineSchools
The current target of our debt snowball is a Chase card that was my primary card since graduating college. It has the highest credit line and the longest credit history attached to it. It also had the highest balance on it. The snowball method would indicate that we would pay it off last (we have one other card with another high balance although not as high as this Chase one), but this one is getting paid off next because it will be a huge emotional win.

You see, I was a good customer of Chase's, as far as credit card companies define good customers. I had a high credit line because I would carry a balance for long enough to please them and then pay it off in full. Each time I paid off a big balance in full, due to the way credit card companies have acted in the past, I would get a credit limit increase. I finally asked them to stop increasing my credit limit when it reached $24,000. Yes. $24,000. On one card. Ridiculous. They obviously thought I should be able to purchase a nice new car on that card.

Last summer I got a nice letter from them telling me that my minimum payment amount would more than double. I was floored. Frankly, I couldn't make that payment because I was deep in debt with not only them, but with three other cards. I called them and told them so. They increased my interest rate and left my minimum payment percentage the same. It hurt, but I had gotten myself into that mess and I didn't have any choice.

Upon investigating this in anger online, I found that Chase did this to over 1,000,000 of their customers. What did these customers have in common? They had previously transferred a balance at a "lifetime low" interest rate, they were employed, and they consistently paid their bills as required and on time. So they were wanting to punish those customers who were most loyal to them and responsible as far as that word can stretch in the credit-card carrying person's dictionary. Yep...increasing the payments of those they were most certain they could get a payment from.

I was furious. After 8 years of carrying that card, this was my reward for using it the way they wanted me to.

I vowed then and there that once that card was paid off, I would never use Chase again for any of their banking products.

That's all back story. Here's the current deal:

So, I open my mailbox last week and I have a letter from Chase. It states the following:

Dear Kaye:

We are writing to provide you with important information about your account. In an effort to ensure the credit we extend is appropriate for each customer, we regularly review customer credit lines. Based on our review of the account referenced above, we have changed the credit line to $15,000.00.

The review of your account considered several factors including our assessment of information obtained from the consumer credit agency listed below. The primary reason(s) that led to our decision to change the credit line are:

• Balance owed on revolving accounts too high.
• Balance too high compared to credit limit

....

We understand that you may be disappointed with this decision, but we hope that you continue to find value in the benefits, protection, and payment flexibility your account provides. If you have any questions....

So. There it is, ladies and gentlemen. My credit limit has been decreased.

Why? Well, I agree that my balance owed is too high, so I cannot argue with that.

However, the crap about my balance being too high compared to my credit limit? Well, my ratio of balance to limit is higher now thanks to my limit decrease, so I don't really buy that.

You see...they see that I am paying this sucker off. In pretty hefty amounts. Every month. And they see that I'm not using it. At all.

So they are ready to close my account as soon as it is paid off. And you know what? I am too. That's the first thing I have agreed with Chase about in a while.

So why my feelings are not hurt by any part of this letter nor the actions associated with it, I find it humorous that Chase suddenly is concerned that my credit ratio is too high. They are concerned that I cannot pay my bills although they have NEVER not received a payment from me.

The dishonesty associated with most of the credit industry (I only say most because I can't lump absolutely everyone into the same category. I'm sure there are good people out there. Somewhere.) sickens me and further confirms and solidifies our decision to be done with them once and for all.

And Chase...by the way...I am not "disappointed with this decision," and I have not found "value in the benefits, protections, and payment flexibility" with my account in a long time now. So really...don't let that concern you.

By the way...I'm not trying to pick Chase out from the bunch. Most credit card companies are doing something similar these days. Chase just decided to do it to someone who would blog about it.

Time for Another Confessional - Our Mistakes

As you can tell already, I'm sure, I didn't have a plan for what to post today. I have an idea of something new on the horizon for the blog...something I'm pondering adding (as my Thursday regular post?).

On my mind a lot lately, though, have been our personal finances. They have been...let's just say...less than stellar for the month of January. Honestly, I've been watching them daily as the end of the month has drawn near. That's just how tough things have been this month.

In pondering the "whys" of January being so much more difficult than previous months, I consulted my Mint account. There are several reasons that stare me in the face. Reasons that we cannot excuse. Reasons that were decisions that we made during the month that strongly affected the monthly totals.

Here are some of our pitfalls for the month:

• We had to have the brakes repaired on the van. That repair went far above our monthly car maintenance budget (which covers a little more than one oil change a month). It went over by about $330. I pulled money from savings to do it. Thank goodness for a savings account, even if it a small one. We were able to do it with cash, but now need to replenish that money missing from savings.
• Restaurants. Yes...it has always been our downfall. But this month I had great intentions of it being so ON budget. And it almost was...save one GIGANTIC mistake. We had some friends visit one day and had a FABULOUS time with them. We had been given a restaurant.com gift certificate from some other friends because Chip helped them paint and get their house ready to move into. It was a great gift. So we went to a really nice restaurant downtown to use it at. We found out, after we had ordered and gotten our food, that we would not be able to use that gift card (long story as to why, but we're better educated now). Damage done? $72 just that night. Ouch. That made our total $76 over budget for the month (see how good we ALMOST did?!).
• Clothing. After Christmas there were some great sales going on online (you remember them, don't you?). Well, I took advantage of three of them (Children's Place, NY & Co, and Kohl's). At TCP I got some stuff for next winter for both of the kids at rock bottom prices. At New York & Company I got some great winter stuff for me and my post-baby body for work. At Kohl's I got some great deals for the entire family for this winter, next winter, and to replace some really tired and worn stuff from Chip's and my closet. I honestly saved over $800 in clothing in these combined sales. But I spent approximately $200 to do it. I'm trying to convince myself that I SAVED 80% and that's a good thing. But I'm way over our clothing budget now. I will count it as an investment.
• Our timeshare. This thing is just a financial drain to us. We paid someone just over $600 to sell it for us about 3 months ago and found out that we'd been taken for a ride. Yes...they listed it, but they are doing NOTHING to market it for us. We have now paid another $400 (after much thought, several emails of reassurance--and evidence--from the new company) to have a marketing company list it. They have brokers and the means to get our $600+ back from the other company (long story, but I have in email that they will be getting it back for us, so I'm holding them to it). This thing is just a thorn in our side. This new company will get huge realtor commissions if/when they sell it, so they actually have incentive (where the other company did not). Hopefully it will sell soon and we can eliminate this monthly payment and add it to our credit card payment. (and if it sells for the asking price, we'll actually make some profit).

There were some other, more minor, things that set us back, but these are the biggies. So...all of that to tell you...this month has hurt.

And here's my other confession. The truly embarrassing one.

We haven't been tithing. For about 8 months.

I am ashamed to tell you that, but it is the truth.

I'm not really sure why we stopped, but we did.

But now, even when the budget is too tight and we are in a financial hole, we are starting to tithe again. I am trusting God to provide where we fall short.

He has already been faithful to provide thus far, but now I am surrendering our finances to Him and letting Him fill in the gaps, because we're obviously just no good at it.

Last week was the first weekend that I put a tithe check into the collection plate in a while. It was 10% of Chip's unemployment check. So it wasn't much, but it was what we had for the week. And frankly, starting small like that, made it a little easier.

This week will be 10% of mine and his combined. And it will be difficult to let go. But I'm trusting Him to take care of it, and frankly, He already is. If I go into the "hows" of it here, this post will be 3x longer than it already is, and I'm sure I've already lost most of you. So that post will be for another day.

Sigh...that's my confessional post for today. It is utterly embarrassing to hit "publish," but I feel I need to do it. I am trying to get out from under my bondage to our finances and part of that means an emotional letting go as well...thus my letting go of my pride to tell you these things.

Next Thursday, since the month of January will finally be over, I will be posting my monthly results, as ugly as they are.