Starting this month, I’m required to pay more of my salary toward my pension. (An additional 1%.) I also have yet to receive my review and merit increase from last fiscal year (which could be around 6% if I was “good”). I also have my paychecks deducting additional money each check to go towards my retirement in the form of purchasing old service credits from when I was 16-18 years of age.
So I’m left to estimate. Here’s is what the August budget looks like:
1252.00 a check
Laundry $20.00
Gasoline/Car $100.00
Groceries & Food $120.00
Utilities (Cell phone, Water, Electric, Gas) $125.00
Car Ins $66.00
Rent $795.00
Unexpected? $26.00
Fun $50.00
Offering (LTG) 40.00
Offering (movement) 10.00
Chunch (lunch after church) $40.00
Kim’s Wedding $50.00
Condo Inspector Fee $275.00
House Down payment fund/Remodel Fund 787.00
Yup, I’m still putting money into the House fund. Why? I can always fall out of escrow, I don’t need the extra money right now, and frankly I’m used to it so why not? I want to re-do the kitchen in the new place, buy 2 ceiling fans (boyfriends dad will install them), and be able to paint the place. That requires extra funds. I’ll also need to pick up a few things that currently belong to roommate… and eventually those appliances will need replacing. so I’m still chugging along.
I’m not sure if I want to pay down the loan faster. I haven’t locked my rate yet since I’m still waiting for the agreement in writing… but it will be under 5.5% and I’ll be able to write that and my property tax off… but my property tax is really low and it might not be enough to itemize, so I may choose to pay down the loan faster because that will essentially allow that money to make 5.5% and I can’t find anything better then 3.5% for long term investing CD’s. So I’ll run the numbers once I close escrow to see how much interest I’ll be paying and what not.
I’ll be getting $8,000 from the government and I know I’ll increase my emergency fund to 6 months of my expenses and call it at that since my current job is stable. So the choice then becomes what I want to focus on next, paying off the mortgage fast… or begin to save money for my next real estate investment… or a long exotic vacation… hmmmm
after all the repairs, painting, etc. you'll want a vacation! :-)
ReplyDeleteI'm in the same boat as you....26, just bought my first house....(except that I missed the cut off date for the $7000 gov't loan last year by a week - blah!) my interest and taxes are low enough that I can't itemize, yet none of my investments are making the 5.75% interest i'm paying on the house. So i've been paying down the mortgage. I'll have the principal paid off by December (I know that's not how you're supposed to do it - separate the principal from the interest charged on it- but it helps keep me motivated to think that "the house itself" is almost paid off, then I'll move on to "paying for the loan".)
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