Thursday, October 31, 2013

My adventure with Covered California

My mom needs health insurance.

Her work cut insurance a while ago and at 62, it isn't cheap to have to find your own. She currently has a high deductible plan and pays northward of $300 a month for it.

Thankfully, the only good thing I will say about the Affordable care act, is that its going to make insurance a lot cheaper for my mom since she's low income.

She qualifies for a healthy subsidy because of her income, but with all the drama around the government website, I wasn't sure how I was going to get her to sign up.

I ended up having Monday off so she came over with her information and we began the process.

I tried to start out on the internet and created her an account with all the security questions and password... and then we got an error message and could not start the application. I was using Chrome, so I tried again in firefox and internet explorer 9 while waiting for the internet chat to open up to get someone who could assist me... I was originally number 21 in line... and after around 20 minutes, my screen looked like this:



Finally, after 40 minutes of waiting, I got a rep... and this was our conversation.






























Apparently there wasn't anything we could do online... I called the number...

Thankfully the wait was only 5 minutes until I got someone. I read them word for word the advice the gal on the website had given me and then we spent around 30 minutes on the phone with the application... My mom didn't know she needed to actually have the form that says she's a US citizen in front of her (she was born in Canada and came here when she was 5), so she ran home to get it while i wrote our application number down so we could call back.

First problem came when we called back 10 minutes later and the guy couldn't find our application. We were about to start a new one after he kept searching for a good 5-7 minutes when it finally popped up.

We then spent another 30 minutes on the phone while he plugged in that one number, selected my mom's health plan, and waited with us while the application submitted. Most of the time we spent just waiting because their network was running so slow. While we chatted I discovered he actually grew up one city over from me and like my mom, his mom was one of the original homeowners in this area when there was just dirt and no paved roads.

On an average day he told me he signs up around 10 people for health insurance. Eventually our application went through and we decided to get my mom a gold health insurance plan with Health Net because it will cost her around $130 a month and it does not have a deductible.

So in total, it took me 40 minutes on-line and an hour on the phone, but my mom should receive papers by Nov 15th to set up payment so she can have her new insurance on January 1st.

Monday, October 28, 2013

A big fat never mind

We apparently don't qualify for a refund from HUD.

I know what your thinking... My BOFA lender told me I qualified for a refund... and if i went FHA, I could even use that to offset some fees i'd have to pay....  and then there was the paperwork BOFA mailed me telling me I qualified for a refund for my initial pre-paid upfront MIP because the loan was less than 5 years old...

You can easily see why I believed good old HUD owed me a dime or two... but in fact, I do not qualify because they changed the law... back in 2004 and BOFA  apparently will not agree to stop sending their outdated "fact sheet" out "automatically" to individuals that refinance... (and apparently they don't educate their lenders either).

Yup, Big FAIL BOFA...  Big fail.

To credit HUD, I received both a phone and email reply back within a day of contacting them... so Kudos for being so quick and efficient, especially coming off that whole "federal government shut down."

I went back and checked HUD's website. Apparently I didn't read far enough down the page, or I would have been clued in that I probably didn't qualify. See, I assumed I'd find the hitch in the "exceptions" they had listed... but no. This is what it said:
Exceptions:Assumptions: When an FHA-insured loan is assumed, the insurance remains in force (the seller receives no refund). The owner(s) of the property at the time the insurance is terminated is entitled to any refund.
Claims: When a mortgage company submits a claim to HUD for insurance benefits, no refund is due the homeowner.
Statute of Limitations: HUD is not liable for a distributive share that remains unclaimed 6 years from the date notification was first sent to the last known address of the mortgagor.
FHA to FHA Refinances: When an FHA loan is refinanced, the refund from the old premium may be applied toward the up-front premium required for the new loan.
So here I am, thinking awesome! I should be good to go... But it was under the section, "How are refunds determined?" where they list the law change.

For any FHA-insured loans with a closing date prior to January 1, 2001, and endorsed before December 8, 2004, no refund is due the homeowner after the end of the seventh year of insurance. For any FHA-insured loans closed on or after January 1, 2001 and endorsed before December 8, 2004, no refund is due the homeowner after the fifth year of insurance. For FHA-insured loans endorsed on or after December 8, 2004, no refund is due the homeowner unless they refinanced to a new FHA-insured loan, and no refund is due these homeowners after the third year of insurance.
So I would have needed to go FHA... and I would have needed to do it 6 to 7 months sooner than I did. I think the change is kind of stupid, not because I don't get money now, but because it used to be up to 7 years for a refund.

Why 7 years? Because it takes that long for you to get enough equity to have 20% of the property paid off if you just make the regular minimum payments. Plus, they make you pay that monthly MIP insurance for AT LEAST 5 years, regardless of how much equity you do have in your property, before they will eliminate that payment...

So cutting a refund off after 3 years when you have paid to insure your place for 7 years is really bad business if you ask me.

Friday, October 25, 2013

Trying to get my refund from HUD

When I refinanced my loan back in June of this year, I had only had my original FHA loan from Bank of American for a little over 3 years.

With my original loan, I had to pay an upfront mortgage insurance fee, in addition to the monthly mortgage insurance payments I was required to make because I did not put down 20% when I purchased my condo. The upfront fee was to insure my loan against default and was amortized over the course of the loan.

Because I only had the loan for 3 years, i'm entitled to a refund from HUD for a portion of the fee since they no longer insure my mortgage.

  • After 24 months, you get 80% back. For 48 months, 39% back. For 72 months, 8% back. At the end of 7 years, you are not eligible for a refund. 

So i'm somewhere between 56 and 57 months into my loan when it was paid off, so I should expect a refund of some kind.

After refinancing, I received an FHA Homeowners Fact sheet to inform me how my refund would be processed.

  • My Mortgage company would notify HUD of insurance termination.
  • If I am eligible for a refund, HUD will either request Treasury to issue me a check directly, or I will be send an Application for Premium Refund or Distributed Share Payment... in which I would need to read the application, sign it, notarize it, and attach proof of ownership.
  • Then HUD would request a check from the Treasury, or ask for additional information on my part. 
While I called BOFA to make sure they sent the termination form... I miss read my FACT SHEET and thought I had to wait 120 days to contact HUD to follow up where my check was... not after I confirmed with BOFA that the letter was sent... (oops).

It's been 132 days since my loan was paid off. I called BOFA again today and they reassured me that the form was sent and received and they did (really quickly too). 

So I tried to call HUD and after pressing the buttons I was directed to an answering machine. I hung up and called again... only to get the machine again so I left a message. They I called back again and didn't press anything (like if you don't have a touch tone phone) and got the machine again. Then I just pressed zero a lot and that didn't get me a person either.

My next step was to hit the net. I went to the HUD.GOV website and searched refund and found this notice:


If you had an FHA-insured mortgage, you may be eligible for a refund from HUD/FHA.
Due to increased public interest, the Mortgage Insurance Premium Refund Support Service Center is experiencing a high volume of calls. Please be aware that the (800) 697-6967 number is up and functioning. In order to address the high volume of calls, the Service Center is in the process of having additional lines installed. Until the additional lines are in place we ask for your patience. Callers may continue to use the (800) 697-6967 number or email us at sf_premiums@hud.gov. 

Guess I'll be emailing today too...

Any tips?

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Mortgage Update October 2013

Principle paid down: $320.52
Interest: $349.44
Additional Principle: $0.00
New Balance: $111,501.18

The pay off date is June 2033. If I continue to pay the minimum on my loan, I will still need to pay $46,140.05 in interest (plus the $23,284.83 I've already paid). Before our refinance, we would have paid $116,404.23 in interest. 


Getting the Keys...

It took me $7,057.08 to get the keys to my condo and then I spent another $17,672.29 to remodel and repair it...  In short, I was -$24,729.37 in the hole on day one...

  • In 2009 I got the First Time Home buyer's Credit giving us $8,000.00. I also got to write off some of the property tax I paid in addition to taking the standard deduction. This gave us an extra $90.10... but then I had to pay an Electrician $95.00 to fix an outlet... We also got a refund from my botched tile job that gave us another $1,265.00.
  • In 2010 I saved $1,087.00 on my federal taxes and $461.00 on my State taxes from itemizing my homeowners expenses. (This is what I received ABOVE what I would have gotten back with just the standard deduction).
  • In 2011 I spent $12.97 at home depot and $72.29 on a kitchen door. When we subtract those costs from what we saved by living in our condo instead of renting, we came out ahead $494.04 (See Mortgage Update + Condo Costs December '11 for that break down.)  We also received a small $70 refund check from over paid closing costs. We didn't Itemize our taxes in 2011.
  • In 2012 we finished our Kitchen/Laundry door which cost us $103.24.. We also replaced both our glass slider doors which cost us $2,957.00... and repaired our dryer for $81.42....It ended up being $3,383.47 cheaper to OWN our condo than to rent an apartment on a monthly basis,  (See Housing Costs 2012 for the break down) so even after we subtract the windows and other minor repairs, we still came out ahead $241.81 by owning our condo instead of renting... 
  • In 2013 we got $52.53 back from challenging my property taxes in 2012. I also refinanced our condo, costing us $447.00 up front for our home appraisal... but we got a check back at closing for $747.20 and a check from my old escrow account for $489.74... We also got to skip a mortgage payment too! In addition, they automatically lowered my property tax value, giving us a check for $86.77

All of that "math" leaves us $12,186.18 in the hole. If we assume our home is worth at least what we paid for it ($120k), we have $8,498.82 in equity...

Leaving us $3,687.36 in the hole after 4 yrs & 1 month. 

For 2013, we will again assume our monthly mortgage payments are a wash since its cheaper to OWN our home then to RENT an apartment. Check out Housing Comps 2013 for how we figured that one out (and those rental figures do not yet include us getting a pet 6 months into the year and being subjected to a pet deposit and pet rent). For 2013 we have spent $9,698.21 to live in our condo, instead of $13,610 to live in the apartment.

  • Mortgage (including additional principle payments:) $7,488.45
  • HOA:  $2,655
  • Small Home Repairs/Improvements:$0
  • Earthquake Insurance: $187
  • Homeowners Insurance: $297
  • Refinance Charges: (-$789.94) This is what we "gained" from refinancing after out of pocket fees.
  • Property tax Rebates (-$52.53) & (-$86.77) 

The year isn't over yet, but so far we have saved $3,911.79 by not renting... and if that figure holds true, it looks like we might break even on our condo this year!

Current Housing Market:
One-Bedrooms Listed for Sale in our Complex:

  • Asking: $222,000.00 (Days on Market, 33)
  • Sold in last 3 months: N/A

Two-Bedrooms Listed for Sale in our Complex:

  • Asking: $295,000.00 (Days on Market 21)
  • Sold in last 3 months: $185,000.00 (August, 2013) | $257,000.00 (August, 2013)

Monday, October 21, 2013

And another one...

Yup. He broke another chair...

In case you have no idea what i'm talking about, my husband has a serious problem with chairs. He breaks them all the time.

His last victim was in August... wasn't even ours... and before that I did a post highlighting the other 5 chairs he's managed to kill in just under 2 years marriage.

It was the last of our blue chairs from Target... and it was on its way out because hubby used to "plop" sit in it to play video games.

We were at the locals farmers market and since we have been running out of folding chairs since we got hitched, we had to take the blue one with us. They plan was for me to use the chair because i'm gentle with things... and he's a bit more blunter with items...

Problem was, that blue chair was more comfortable then our last remaining camping chair that was donated to us from him parents who took pity on me and my husbands goal to slowly rid me of every last chair I own.

I told him if he sat in it, he would in fact break it.

Did he listen...

Nope.

The morning started out okay. I was sitting in the nice blue chair and SCB was rocking the "pity green" chair... but the mumbling began. I tried to remind him that he had already cracked the plastic on the chair from sitting in it too hard...

But making something "off limits" was just inviting him to try and prove me wrong.

He sighed and sat in the green chair... until I went and got up to walk our pup.

I came back to this:
Yup. The second he went to sit down in the chair he put his weight on the cracked arm and sat down too hard in it... and it snapped.

He tried balancing the pieces for a while... but then he gave up... and stole Roxy's make shift bed and sat on that instead.



Somehow he managed to lie down on the blanket and take a nap at one point... because he started snoring and the dog came over and licked his face.

Friday, October 18, 2013

Well, there goes affordable health insurance

This month we are paying two health insurance premiums... SCB will be going on his employer health insurance plan and they require you to pay a month in advance before coverage begins. We are so incredible grateful that he was able to find this amazing job with benefits... and he loves working there.

Why all the fan fair and love? Because his employer thankfully isn't sending employees to the exchanges.

I hate to say this because I don't talk politics on this blog, but because of the Affordable Care Act... AKA, Obama Care, his current plan with Kaiser will be eliminated... not because it doesn't meet the new standards as the booklet we got in the mail claims (which it does as you can see from below), but because they won't make enough money on my husband when they have to pay to help care for those that are not as well as he is for the same price. So they got rid of his plan.

The suggested new "KP CA Bronze" plan that is not sufficient for his needs and would cause our family a great financial mess. Plus, it's more expensive. Yup you read that right, more money for less medical care... in fact, 15% more money for less benefits.

His old plan was $178 a month. 

  • $3,000 Deductible
  • $6,000 out of pocket maximum
  • 1 physical exam free
  • Office visits $40 
  • Inpatient care 20% after deductible
  • Emergency room visits were $200 after deductible
  • and his prescription coverage was $10 Generic, $35 for Brand after a $250 brand deductible. 
What was great about this plan was his doctors visits were affordable since he has to go in a few times a year to renew his maintenance medications... we have generic prescription coverage from day one, and worst case, we had to pay $3k from our emergency fund before insurance kicked in to help us cover bills.

What Kaiser was trying to sell him for $204.87 a month.
  • $5,000 Deductible
  • $6,350 out of pocket maximum
  • 1 physical exam free
  • First 3 office visits $60
  • Inpatient care, 30% after deductible
  • Emergency Room, $300 after deductible
  • Prescription Coverage: $19 Generic, $50 brand.... all after deductible.
Despite the obvious other problems like a $5k deductible, on a practical day to day basis we'd have to pay 50% more to see a doctor from day one... and we wouldn't have any prescription coverage until we payed $5,000 out of pocket. Hubby needs his pills and while they are thankfully all generic now that singular is generic, that's still crazy. That gives us nothing and they would be charging him more money for it from the get go.

His new work plan is a little hard to read since I don't have the cheat sheet anymore but we pay 20% after a $1,000 deductible, $30 office visits, and more things are included like x-rays and there are standard fees for emergency rooms ($75) etc. Prescriptions only have $125 out of pocket before insurance kicks in (75% of the cost so we pay 25%)... which is way better than having to pay $5k out of pocket with no coverage help. 

Since we pay for it with pre-tax dollars and he also has dental taken out too, after taxes it only costs us $197.20 a month for both medical and dental for him.

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

I caught a shoplifter at Costco

I went to the Costco by my work the other day because SCB needed bread and goldfish for his lunch snacks. We normally go to the other costco but I was trying to get a few things done and had decided to patron this particular Costco that day.

In fact, I almost didn't actually go to the store because i missed the turn on the way home and had to circle around to get back on the right road and it was a little hassle for me... but I did it because I knew goldfish would please my hubby.

I was in a little hurry, but for some reason I kind of took my time hunting for things since the layout is different then our regular store... that and the samples were really good that day.

As I was almost finished with my shopping  (I was hunting for the illusive gold fish), a 60-70 year old man walked past me and dropped something between the pallets... 

I walk pretty fast normally, especially when i'm on a mission to find goldfish, but this 70 year old's pace was a bit brisker than mine which was off putting as he pushed his cart with just a few items in it..  

I kept walking and as I passed the pallet I looked to see what he dropped because it was heavy enough to make a noise (not like the trash some people toss between pallets), and that's when I saw it.

The clear packaging they put on the more expensive smaller items to make them larger and harder to steal. 

I had to get on my knees to fish it out and when I looked up I saw the old man tucking the blades into his back left pocket and fixing his sweater while he waited for enough space to clear up to push his cart through... It took me a second to realize the man was stealing.


After I got my wits about me, I grabbed my cart and followed him while hunting for an employee. He bee-lined to the checkout and I flagged down a lady. 

When I told her she started walking with me towards the front and helped me flag down another employee who could actually do something about it. When I told him the story and showed him the packaging and pointed out the guy who was now "checking out" with razor blades in his back pocket, the employee ran to get someone else.

Before the man got to the doors and the receipt checker they were able to speak with him and pull him out of line. He looked like he was denying it when they asked him about the empty container and asked to see his receipt... I couldn't hear any of the exchange, but from what I gather they asked him to go over to the entrance side of the store, because he left his cart and walked over there. 


At that point I went back to getting my goldfish since I couldn't see anything exciting. When I was heading back to the checkout line, they old man was being escorted right past me, holding the razors. I'm not sure why, but they were going to the back of the store where all the food was located.

On my way out I flagged down the manager the 2nd employee grabbed to thank them for being so efficient and fast with the problem. I think he was a little shocked that the person who turned in the old man was a 27 year old... when normally its the people "my age" and younger who steal... or that's at least what gets published. 

Monday, October 14, 2013

I'm still here...

The last couple of weeks have been pretty busy for us. We have been sitting down with a few people we know, trying to figure out a new financial plan for us... re-organizing our condo... and trying to find a new balance with a few things so the blog went on the back burner for me... But I hope to resume regular posting soon... In the mean time, here's last month's spending breakdown:


What we Spent in September
"Sally" - Car: $2,000.00
Utah: $152.97 (Clothes- SCG) $82 (clothes-SCB), $38.81 Eating out, $46.04 "Other", 172.06 Gas, tolls, etc.
-----
Housing  $1,525.99 ($187 +$297 Insurance)
Roxy (our dog)  $10.12
Groceries/House Items $391.07
Eating Out  $49.12
Gasoline  $226.52
Electricity  $62.33
Giving  $606.00
Cell Phones $203.99
Internet $28.99
Pocket Money  $80.00
Health Insurance  $178.00
Clothes- scg  $12.69
Prescriptions $40.00
Childshare: $50.00
ACS: $5.00
Sheets for our bed: $48.58
Birthdays/gifts: $65.00
Other: $62.18

What we spent money on in 2013:
  • Church Giving: $4,11.90
  • Groceries/Household Supplies: $2,593.67
  • Wanda and Stitch and Sally (our '91 Ford Escort & '04 Toyota Camry & '03 Escort):
    • Gasoline: $1,888.70
    • Car Registration: $189.00
    • Car Insurance: $520.34
    • Car Repairs: $1,536.74
    • Car Washes: $10
    • Car purchases: $2,000.00
  • Date Night/ Eating Out: $1,047.56
  • Cell Phones: $1,193.62
  • Internet: 268.70
  • Electricity: $489.75
  • House:
    • HOA: $2,385.00
    • Mortgage: $6,696.46
    • Refinance: $447.00
    • Earthquake and homeowners Insurance: $187 +$297
  • Clothes:
    • SCG: $599.41
    • SCB: $315.46
  • Medical/Dental/Dr/Prescriptions
    • Heath Insurance Premiums: $1,424
    • Prescriptions: $160.00
    • Dr Bill: $8.00
  • Holidays/Gifts:
    • Valentines Day: $8.50
    • Easter: $13.47
    • Birthdays: 385.31
    • Mother's Day: $23.73
    • Gifts: $16.02
    • Anniversary: $176.14
  • Roxy: Our pup!
    • Adoption fees: $165.95
    • Vet bills: $215.54
    • Food/Toys/Supplies: $241.67
  • Pocket Money: $270.00
  • Technology:
    • Portable Wi-Fi: $96.27
    • Computer Parts: $297.32
    • Tablet: $175.00 
  • Other:
    • Expungement Fees: $292.81
    • Tax preparation Fees: $56.98
    • Stamps, Toothbrush heads, Grill Hose $81.52
    • Resume Copies, Plant Container, Craft embroider, Relay For Life Fee: $43.25
    • Camping Backpacks (2): $113.38
    • Yarn for Relay For Life: $93.24
    • Disneyland: $115.00
    • Relay For Life: $20.00
    • Wall mount, and craft eyes: $46.78
    • Slicer and lint roller: $52.05
    • Hair Cut: $49.00
    • Kitchen Items: $39.70
    • Garden Hose, house key/car key copies... $49.26
    • Notary Fee + Birth Certificate $33.00
    • OC Fair: $60.00
    • Concert: $100.00
    • Couch $667.52
    • Fan $28.00
    • Make up $43.72
    • Costco Renewal Fee $55.00
    • Amazon (Dog bowls, belt, cables, tablet case)  $59.69
    • Alterations $58.00
    • Baby sitters $30.00 
    • Sealing Photos $200.00
    • La Brea tar Pit $31.59
    • 72 Hour kit Food $146.95
    • Childshare: $50.00
    • Sheets for our bed: $48.58
    • Other: $454.25

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

failed in the final stretch

We didn't make it through our no spend month. We still added to our savings which was good, and I think it helped us start to get back on point a bit more, but we didn't make it, and there's no way to sugar coat that.

You see the flu hit SCB towards the end of the month... and a few days before that he forgot to take his antidepressants so we had a bit of a melt down week... and i called it off for his sanity.

But we have officially decided to just live off my income and try and save his.

For October, our budget will be a little all over the place because SCB will be changing health insurance plans. He's now eligible for his work benefits and the plan they offer is much better than his independent plan with Kaiser, but we will have to pay 2 premiums this month because his new insurance requires him to pay a month in advance of coverage.

But our emergency fund is growing and we finally have the sticker we need to register our car in California, so hopefully we can do that next week.