Monday, July 30, 2007

AUG is gonna be so cool!

okay... i need to breathe for a moment. and its a positive breathing thing... kind of like yoga... but way better

I was originally estimated that my 3rd paycheck of the month would be around $880... and if my raise still hasn't gone into effect when i get the check on the 31st then it will actually be at least $921.83 after taxes!!

So for the month of Aug, I'll be making at least $3,034.49 after taxes (not including overtime which i have 3 hours so far).

Now that's a nice chunk of change for a 21 year old College student!!!!! and that money will be doing a-mazing things!!! Things i can't wait to see in actuality!!!!!! I have no idea how its going to feel owning my car... not toyota... but me... it will be mine mine mine!!!

But back to racking numbers, after i take out the necessities (not car payments, dental, or unbudgeted money) that leaves me with $1357.49.

The Car will cost me around $870 to pay off... leaving $487.49
Invisiline will cost me $379 for the month.... leaving $108.49 before overtime for other stuff!!!!

my emergency fund should grow this month!

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Getting back on the band wagon

It seems with every rent check i write, I come to the realization that I wish the money i was sending somewhere every month was actually going toward the ability to own something. I always swore when I was little i'd never rent a place because its like flushing money down a toilet... but alas, at 21 i'm renting an apartment.

With the market the way it is, it looks like most mortgage companies are getting tighter and tighter with their good loans, or at least this is the opinion of MSN Money, where today i read an article on this very subject... So i poped on the good old internet to find out what was out there in my present area...

It wasn't anything to smile about... it looks like i'll be aiming to save $50,000-$67,000 to have a proper down payment of 20% to even get a 1 bed, 1 bath 500 square foot condo... Although there was a really cool place with a loft for $335,000 in RSM... and that's me dreaming here folks.

I guess this was reality smiting me in the face for a very spendy July... All my extra incentive stuff/cash i spent... which was a choice i think i needed... but now i'm reminded of what i need to accomplish first. and so, i've finally decided to set some true goal for where i want to be in a year from now.

By the end of the year:
  • Net worth $18,000 [currently 12,400]
  • Amount in my Roth IRA $2,000. If i keep the contributions as is, i'll have $1575 in there... so bring on the creativity]
  • own my Toyota
  • Bring Invisiline debt to under $2,000
  • Have at least 1 months worth of total rent in my "3 month emergency fund" [$1450]

i go banking dot come post 3

okay... i really don't like it... [i like the rate, but things take so long to post and update... i'm not really happy with it] so i'm going to stick with Emigrant for the most part.
  • I will leave my emergency fund over at IGO because the rate is higher and it is linked with ING... but i won't move everything else over there...
  • The inability to move $5.00 into an account pesters me a bit because i want to be able to and for a lot of my savings goals and plans, this is kind of a must have.
  • but i will take the time to link my IGO account to Bank of America... it will make things easier in the long run.
the second account i opened there will be labled "future retirement contributions"... who knows if i'll stick anything in it... maybe when i cash in those bonds i'll take the money and let it earn a better rate there or something... but it will probably just keep it $1.00 opening amount...

all these accounts seem to make me think everythings all up in the air and stuck in pending land... it will be nice to start fresh with a new month! Although Aug won't be anything resembling normal for sure. School starts again for one thing, its a 3 paycheck month so toyota will be paid off, the retirement contributions bump up, and so does the weather... all in all i sense craziness.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

update time

I found out my minimum monthly payment for my braces is $134.00 which means it can come out of either paycheck, so i'm going for paycheck number 1. I've set up automatic payments for the minimum balance. I also added wrong, so my allotments look like this:
  • Paycheck 1: $1056.33
    $140 Groceries, $110 Car Insurance, $50 3 month emergency Savings, $17 renters Insurance, $45 basic Necessities, $200 Gas and Auto Maint, $75 Roth Ira, $50.00 Utilities, $50.00 Cell phone Bill, $50.00 Fun, $134.00 Braces minimum. $102 to savings for braces.
  • Paycheck #2 $1056.33
    $800.00 Rent, $50.00 offering , $40.00 "money games", $143.00 goes to braces

$56.66 unaccounted for... and i'm going to leave it unaccounted for since i still need to pay off my car before all of that goes into effect.

I Go Banking Dot Com UPDATE

okay, flat out, In the beginning, its not as user friendly as Emigrant Direct. But i'm willing to over look this for now because the rate is a lot better. After i initially funded the account I had to re-verify the same checking account to be able to transfer money to and from... but i have to give them credit, they had the deposits in there when they said they would and the day i verified the amounts i was able to schedule a transfer. [you must transfer at least $10.00]

I also had to re-do the whole application... including the verification process for the initial funding ... for each sub account... I just verified the amounts for my second account. It was successful... so now i wait for it to be created... if all goes well my emergency fund and my wedding fund will be over at I go banking dot com by the weeks end... once those accounts are good, i'll choose another one to make the transition.

another bonus, i get to keep those little deposits... so far i've gotten 4 of them so far.

Friday, July 20, 2007

wahoo!!!

okay, i finally got a paycheck that was standard... no overtime... no extras... and i make more money then i thought a month!!!! wahoo!!!!
  • take home pay is now $2,112.66 a month after taxes!!!! woot woot woot

Budget After car is paid off:

  • Groceries $140.00
  • Car Insurance $110.00
  • 3 Month Emergency Fund $50.00
  • Renters Insurance $17.00
  • Basic Necessities $45.00
  • Roth IRA $75.00
  • Gas and Auto Maint $200
  • Rent $800.00
  • Utilites $50.00
  • Cell Phone $50.00
  • Offering $50.00
  • Fun money $50.00
  • Braces fund $379
  • "money Games" $40.00

unbudgetted money $56... hmmm now where to put this???

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Did it!

i finally called over to ING Direct and talked to the very friendly people there. I changed my retirement contributions.

on the 15th and at the end of the month I have 12.50 sent to one fund, and $25.00 sent to the other one. This will start in Aug!

I also called Edison and set up an automatic payment for my electric bill because their online payment was making me a little sketchy.

final damage to net worth

it droped 31.83% in one month.... i paid for tuition and some books for one of my classes.

for a few glowing moments... my net worth was above $17,000.00... now its under $12,000.00

and the tuition account was a huge interest earner too... so sad...

by December... i want my net worth back up to that $17,000 mark... no clue how i'm gonna do it... but hell i'm gonna try!

$50.00

Well, it came... for filling out a 15 minuet questionaire for my health insurance company... they sent me $50 bucks!!! how crazy is that??? and by signing up for a free 6 week program... i think i get another $25.00

they are attempting to pay me to be healthier... or to attempt to be healthier... its kind of fun!

now... what to do with that $50.00....

Monday, July 16, 2007

i go banking dot com round 2

i logged on this morning and the two trial amounts were all there... The process was much like signing up with emigrant but i think it was a little more efficient... but i feel like i have to keep giving out all my personal information a little too much for my likeing...

for those of you thinking about I go banking dot Com

  • i current can't log in right now... i have to wait to recieve my pin through the mail...
  • and my current user id... is my SSN for the moment... I'm hoping i can change this once i get my pin...

the verdict is still up in the air... but i did find them through Bank Rate dot com..... and they have never really steared me wrong...

Saturday, July 14, 2007

i go banking dot com

Apparently i'm taking a lot of chances lately in the land of finance... in the last couple of months I've cashed in bonds, opened a Roth IRA, got a new credit card, got an interest free loan for a year... and now i opened a new savings account online!!! cause i never do anything simple....

I was browsing Bankrate.com looking for a better savings account... and I stumbled upon igobanking.com ... since i've been looking for a way to have a high yield savings account connected to my ING ELECTRIC checking account [in an effort to one day only use Bank of america to pay my freeking rent only...] this means i needed to find a way to get away from Emigrant Direct because its linked to Bank of America... which sounds bad... because i've never had a problem with them and only problems with BOFA... but I can't add ING to emigrant because that requires a paper check to do so for verification sense...

So i'm going to try out IgoBanking.com.... no fee's, no minimums, FDIC insured... 5.30% APY... the only catch... 6 withdrawls a month... but i can handle that! I'm going to fund the account with $200.00 from Bank of America [leaving that buffer to only $200!] and slowly take my future emergency fund there.

If i like it and its user friendly enough, then i'll slowly withdraw my accounts at Emigrant Direct and move them to igobanking.com... if it works out, I will have found a way to increase the interest i earn from my own money!!!

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

net worth crashes!!!

My Net worth Crashed by 21%!!!! go figure right after i start comparing myself to others....... and in a few weeks it will drop even more when i upfront my tuition...
  • i'm now 153/343 for my age bracket.. i'm in the top 45% now

All due to my loan for invisiline... $4,450 @0.00% for 12 months...

it will be a sad day when i have to pay my tuition...

Braces are a whole lot more expensive then i thought!

OKAY. It looks like some major changes are going to have to happen with the budget inorder to afford invisiline... were talking a whopping $4,450.... with that cupond...

I have it at zero % for 12 months, so i need to put away 370 a month to pay the sucker off before any interest and back interest kicks in... so it looks like my roth won't be maxing out this year... maybe next year tho... and definently a new budget is in order!

I will still pay off my car loan in Aug with the extra paycheck... so i think this is the budget starting Sept 1st???....

Paycheck 1: 1023
  • $140 Groceries
  • $110 Car Insurance
  • $50 3 month emergency Savings
  • $17 renters Insurance
  • $45 basic Necessities
  • $200 Gas and Auto Maint
  • $75 Roth Ira
  • $50.00 Utilities
  • $50.00 Cell phone Bill
  • $50.00 Fun
  • [236.00] this should cover the minimum payment for the braces... the extra goes to braces fund

Paycheck #2

  • $800.00 Rent
  • $50.00 offering
  • $38 "money games"... leftovers to roth Ira.
  • [135.00 goes to braces]

Sunday, July 8, 2007

Networth... its all uphill from here!!!!

June: $17,241----------------------> July: $18,055 PrEtTy!!! WoOt!!!!!!!!!!
Paying my car payment alone this month reduced my debt by 29%!!! July is looking really good right about now... and were only 8 days in!!!!!

here's some stats from Net IQ
  • For everyone with an account, i'm number 1422/1969= top 73%
  • For people in my age bracket [Under 25] i'm number 128/334= top 39%
  • For people in my income bracket [20,000-29,000] i'm number 24/90 = top 27%
  • For people in my state i'm number 202/259 = top 78%

not bad for 21 right now. but to hell and high water when i purchase a house... lol

oh and because i had "beaucoup overtime" on the paycheck that i got on Friday... i only need $850 from my second paycheck to cover rent and church offering. which means i should have 150 bucks that i can use to pay down the car, or put towards the dental. I'll call on Monday to get a dental apointment for a quote. and then i'll decide for sure what to do with the overtime from paycheck one [which is on its way to emigrant direct come Tuesday to earn some interest while i wait for my quote]!!!!

Saturday, July 7, 2007

i took the plunge!!! i applied for the new credit card from American Express... Clear......Why did i need another Credit Card?
  • i shop at costco...
  • i get gas there...
  • they don't take Visa or MasterCard... unless its a debit card...
  • frankly... i like rewards points
  • i like my money to earn interest
  • O.00% apy for 6-12 months
If i spend 2,500... i get $25.00 American Express Gift Card... and i'm game with that! Plus there's no interest, so if i wanted to cary a balance and leave some cash in a high yield savings account... i can... it gives me a braces option too... and no over the limit fees so if i get it interest free for a year... i might as well stick the braces/invisaline on there..... and call it an interest free loan.

It gives me more options and its definently better then the nothing i was getting before!

So, starting in Aug... maybe baby steps in July... I'm going to try to earn more interest by leaving my money in my accounts longers.

I figure since i'm almost debt free... it would be smart to really look into savings and making my money really work well for me.

Friday, July 6, 2007

a day for Grins!!!!!!!


Well its friday!!! and i must admit i'm quite okay with being at work on a friday right now... besides the fact that its payday... the last day i was at work was Monday.... so i got to enjoy a much needed couple of days off to re-coupe from the 23 hours of overtime of the weeks prior... which i got on my paycheck... this morning. woot!!!!!

I sent $400.00 to my car this morning... (using $100 of the overtime) and i have 269.45 left from my overtime... so the question becomes... do i hold onto it and begin saving for my braces... or do i send it to the car and begin the braces saving in Aug....

i ask this because i only owe... $961.88 to toyota....

Sunday, July 1, 2007

Money Games month 1

You may remember a few days ago I mentioned I would be starting to play some games with my money???... well June is over, interest has posted... so lets see what month number 1 rounded up!

Future Wedding: I had 4.00 left in my "fun fund" for June, so i took half of that and sent it over... no special dinners or lunches out with the boyfriend... so the balance total is now at $3.00

3 Month E-Fund: i didn't have any money left over in any of my envelopes this month, so only the interest from my different saving accounts and checking account over at ING came in at $7.24

House Downpayment: thanks to my tuition account... i earned 11.87 in interest on all my emigrant direct accounts... so i matched the funds and transfered them all my my house downpayment. ontop of the 4.02 i had in there the new balance is now $27.76

New Car: just the 1.00 to open it... no extra gas money this month cause i had to buy new tires... which are partly coming out of next months budget too!