Xtreme Thunder's Personal Finance Blog

Been a couple months so I will give an update on this around here!

DW is getting NYS Certified for the job she has been doing for the previous two years. After the course, she will be able to sit for the exam and get her full certification without being a trainee for two years as she has the experience. All that ran us $2100 and we cash flowed that.

My 2007 Honda Civic Si 4 Door Sedan, after 6 years of ownership, finally needed repairs. The suspension components were wearing out costing me $600 in parts and installed them myself. Brakes were changed, $300 in parts and had DWs grandfather's auto body shop to the work as it was cold outside for me to do them, $185. The major one is scheduled for clutch work. I sourced my own parts as dealership costs are ridiculous, all parts sourced were $860 and a shop to do the work at $75/hr x8 hours is $600. So $2545 in repairs we also cash flowed.

The IRS, also apparently wants money this year, Haha, so $1146 is set to be debited from our account April 1. I was messing with my W4 all year and DW also made about 15k more than previous year. I adjusted myself back to claiming zero allowances on both fed and state for 2013. We always set DW to zero for both, so no changes needed there.

If it wasn't for all that, DWs Auto loan would have pretty much been paid off! At least we didn't touch our EF!

So the last couple years, in Jan. we have decided to make a list of what home improvements we want to do for the year. We usually get a few quotes for projects if a contractor is required, or I spec, source and do the work.

The newest idea is a PVC fence for the rear yard, so I spec'd out the product and solicited bids.

- Contractor 1: $6,700 installed (high overhead)
- Contractor 2: $5,500 installed (low overhead)
- Contractor 3: $6,200 installed (high overhead)

Being I work for the City Engineering Department, I have worked with Contractor 1 and 2 before on City jobs. In addition, installing a fence is not really that difficult and a great DIY project, so I have been dealing mostly with Contractor 2 on a materials only price.

- DIY $3,350 + Sweat Equity! Sounds good to me!

Basement Windows - $2,500 installed
Electrical Upgrade from 100A to 200A - $1,800 installed, permitted, inspected
Central Air - $2,500 installed
Attic Insulation - Adding another layer of R30 for a total of R60 (max recommended in NY) - $300 - DIY

So we will see...

12/12/2012: Today we made a principal only payment of $600 to the Auto Loan.

12/12/2012: After work I will cash a check for $58 we received from Allstate and apply that to the Auto Loan.

12/21/2012: Pay day and will send another $200.

12/24/2012: Normal payment due which will bring balance to approximately, $6,875!!

Recap:
12/21/2011: $14,300 (Total Amount Financed)
12/24/2012: $6,875 (Remaining)

Total Paid in 2012: $7,425.
Total Percent Paid: 52% (In 12 months!!)

So this weekend I put the snow tire and rim set-up on my car and retired the summer tires and rim set-up for the winter. Back when I had the vehicle inspected in September it was mentioned that I was in need of brakes really soon. Well here it is December and when I made the switch, I had a look at my brakes, yup, extremely low in the front. So I logged on my favorite Honda site, (car enthusiast at heart beneath the frugalness), and ordered up some front and rear brake pads and rotors. The original Honda set finally wore out after 5 years, 3 months and 75K miles! I got some upgraded brakes for $269 for front and rear pads and rotors. The distributer is out of Connecticut and the parts should be here in NY tomorrow according to UPS tracking. I will be installing them some time this month with a friend. I called Honda and their billable book time for all 4 corners brake pads and rotors is 3 hours at probably around $95-$120 an hour. Excellent savings. I do a lot of my own repairs.

I may actually make my goal for 2012 for having auto loan at 50% paid off in 12 months AND $6,000 in th EF by floating my CC statements. Cheating?! Maybe, maybe not. Haha. I got the bill today and the statement balance was about $1,320 less than total charged. Obviously the various items overlapped the billing cycle. The next bill won't be due until end of Jan. 2013, allowing another month of savings etc.

So November 24 the auto loan hit and was at about $8,080. I could not stand to see it that close to being under $8K, so I transferred an additional $115 to bring it to about $7,965! Even with December interest it will not be above $8K ever again! So 44% paid off in 11 months!

Last post I wanted to be 50% paid in 12 months, but may be at 48%. We also wanted $6K in the EF by December 31. We can't have both though.

We have $600 budgeted for Christmas spending this year. We are on budget so far on that.

We did rescue a dog three weeks ago, our first dog at that. We have a cat we adopted 2 years ago as well. The dog is a 2.5 year old Pomeranian mix. She came spayed, micro chipped, up-to-date on shots. The donation was $250 and spend about $250 on supplies etc. That we did not budget for, main reason we can't have both $6 in EF and 50% auto loan payoff in 12 months. She is a cutie though.

The Phase 4 of 5 windows are installed and look great! Just the basement left for some time in 2013.

Only random (hopefully) expenses remaining this year is NYS auto inspection for $21 on my wife's car and NYS registration renewal on my car for about $120.

I expect the cc bill to be about $4K from all the above, so when I get it, funds will be transferred to pay it in full.

Every time I look at our EF, it reminds me that it is only 29% what is really should be. Sitting currently at 5K, we are hoping to have it at 7K by December 31, 2012. It should be at 17.1K for a FULL 6 month EF.

As I look back at the year, I can see why it has been stagnant, and I feel slightly better. This year we have paid for the following large purchases/ expenses/ prepayments in cash:

$10,400 = Windows for Phase 1 – 4 of 5 for the house.
$3,100 = Auto related, taxes, licenses, repairs
$3,000 = Additional total prepayments to auto loan.
$4,000 = Disney World Vacation

That is a total of $20,500 paid.

The auto loan was originated December 2011 for $14,300. We have managed to pay off 41% of that to date, yes, 10 months into a 4 year note! I hope to find some money to have it paid down to 50% by December 31, 2012. If we don’t add any additional to principal it will be at 47% by then.

The points on our Chase Sapphire Preferred card is ready to be redeemed! $459.16 is coming our way. That will go toward our Phase 4 of 5 window replacement install for the house.

So we got our home owner’s insurance renewal in the mail, and of course first thing I see is a $30 increase in our premium. Last year was also a $30 increase. So within the two years of owning the home, the insurance has increase $60. Each year it has increased an average of 6 - 7.5%. 2011 – $407.00, 2012 – $437.00 and most recent, 2013 - $467.00. So I further looked onto the description of the property and there were numerous things wrong. The square footage was greater than actual, deck square footage was more than double actual, a porch listed that doesn’t even exist and the amount of finished basement was double actual. In addition, the 100% replacement cost of the dwelling was about $25,000 more than actual. Using the RS Means books at work, I estimated the cost of replacement given our area to be $158,000. Given the updated information to the insurance company, they estimated 100% replacement cost to be $160,000, so not too far away from what I estimated using moderate – luxury replacement figures. So, our updated policy is now $406.00, I wish I had paid closer attention to this in the previous two years! …so…always go through your insurance policies with a fine tooth comb!

I finally was able to get the window company at the house again so we could order Phase IV of V. This order will be a total of $3,797. This will be the largest bill for the windows being it includes the large picture window in the living room area. I signed up for the Chase Sapphire Preferred card being they were offering $400 bonus cash after spending $3,000 in 90 days. I put the required 30% down which was $1,137 on that card. The remaining $2,660 will be placed on there when installed probably around beginning of October. This card has a yearly fee after year 1 and will be closed after we get our $400+ check!

I submitted our defensive driving certificates that we finally received in the mail to the insurance company. The 10%+ reduction should be returned to us in a couple weeks being we pay the premium in full. We won't have to renew that for another 3 years.

This Friday will be our "extra pay check" for August. I will send the $1,850 (Disney/ Universal Tickets) on our Chase Freedom card as well as the $1,137 on the Chase Sapphire Preferred card this Friday.

I haven't created an entry since the end of May 2012! I'll keep it short and sweet as not much has really happened since.

Current Mortgage and Car Loan balances are on my side bar. The car loan for August doesn't happen until the 24th, so I won't unpdate that until. Those two things have been on auto pilot since May 2012.

We have a FL vacation (12 nights) that includes Disney World and Universal Studios coming up at the end of September. We are going down with another couple and split the cost of the rental house. Being the theme park tickets and the rental house was within $30 of each other, we picked up the tab for tickets and they picked up the rental house. $1,850 for tickets, including taxes and a 4% discount! We purchased our flights from Southwest back in June when it was $99/ person, so $396 (round trip for 2) for flights wasn't bad at all. We will split the rental car which I booked for $260, for a full size vehicle. I put those on my Chase Freedom Card so I get a few bucks back, which will be paid in full as usual.

Went clothing shopping and did some at Sears with DW and we had $39 of items and they asked if we would like to sign up for their credit card for instant $35 savings. I did that, but I didn't know it would be between 3 different credit cards! The cashier asked my wife if she wanted the same, so she signed up and they put $35 on a gift card! Best part was, I did not need to put the remaining $4 balance on their credit card, so I used cash for that. I am still suprised on how they just "gave" between the two of us $25,000 in credit in 15 mins. I guess we earned it with great credit, but all 6 of those cards will be cancelled even before they are activated. We got free $70 out of Sears.

The second to last (Phase IV) of replacement windows will be ordered by the end of this month. The total on them will be about $3,800. I just applied for the Chase Sapphire card that is offering $400 bonus cash if I spend $3,000 in the first 3 months. Hoping I get approved between signing up for their Chase Freedom $300 bonus cash back after $500 in purchases earlier in the year and the Sears cards. I used the Chase Freedom $300 cash back on $500 spent on Phase II windows.

Auto Loan Progress:
12/2011 - $14,300 *Loan Origination*
01/2012 - $14,040
02/2012 - $13,750
03/2012 - $11,775
04/2012 - $10,987
05/2012 - $9,966 *Goal met; below 10K before June 2012*

Mortgage:
Stagnant, focusing on auto loan pre-pay. Remaining balance on side bar.

Home Improvement:
Phase 3 windows (West facing) should be installed within the next week or so. When that's complete remaining 70% payment will be due; $1,920.

Auto Repair:
Bent a rim, and put a nice tear in the sidewall of the tire. Tires wouldn't have passed inspection in August anyway. Got a new rim for $235, and a set of tires for $525 on line. Just need mounted, balanced and aligned. Total will be about $850.

Emergency Fund:
Stagnant at $5,000.

Well, being April is winding down I figured I would blog a spending and rewards update.

Today DWs car loan hit, $34.66 to interest, $287.04 to principal for a total of $10,987.10 remaining.

Chase Freedom - I paid the bill quite a bit early in full. I got the promotion that was spend $500 in first 3 months and get $300 cash back. I had the final 70% payment of Phase 2 windows, first 30% Phase 3 windows plus some other items we were going to purchase anyway. I ordered the check on Monday so $325 or so should be in the mail. That will most likely go to the car loan as extra principal. I may keep this card around rather than canceling.

JCP - DW was in desperate need of some new clothing. I am a guy, but is it me or does women clothing not last as long? She usually does a $250 clothing shop a year about this time. She got a few nice items cheap from a local consignment shop. We went to JC Penny for the rest, got a good amount of clothing. We saved 20% by signing up for their credit card. I got the physical card in the mail yesterday and will not be activating it. I will pay the $284 and close it.

Chase Bank - got a promotion for $150 for opening a checking account with them. I may move my EF there being I have access to two local Chase branches. Depending on the interest rate compared to the credit union we use I may keep the account longer then the minimum 6 months required without them taking the promotion back. We will not have a problem sticking to one of their three guidelines with out a service fee on the account.

Health Insurance - We should be getting $150 back of $200 ER copay from earilier this month. The MVP Difference Card is a pain sometimes the my job implemented 2 years ago, but if it means getting reimbursed, it works for me. Just need to put all the copay money upfront when we forget what we pay and what the Difference Card pays.

Well today I ordered what I call Phase 3 of window replacements for the house. These windows will be the West side of the house and consists of 3 windows. This phase will cost a total of $2,736, and we put 30% down, as usual, to get them ordered which of that was rounded to $836 for a total of $1,900 remaining after installation.

So far North, and South windows are complete and all phases are being cash flowed which is why they are being purchased in phases. Remaining are East and Basement!

I should be getting $300+ from Phase 2 from spending $500 in 3 months using the Chase Freedom bonus cash promotion.

Now I need to find something similar for Phase 3! Let me know if you come across a good offer!

So, I figured I would write this up now. A little less than a week early I know, but I may not have time to do so this weekend.

Auto:

2010 Honda Civic loan, purchased used 12/2011.

12/11 - $14,300
01/12 - $14,040
02/12 - $13,750
03/12 - $11,775

There was a total of $1,700 extra applied to principal only payments applied during Q1 2012.

Home Improvements:

South Windows - $2,450 Q1 2012 [x]
North Windows - $1,800 Q4 2011 [x]

West windows most likely Q2 2012. East windows most likely Q3 2012. That leaves basement for Q4 2012, or Q1 2013.

Mortgage:

Well, I stopped prepayments to focus on auto loan. May make a larger principal payment in December to bring it under 170K. Yeah, I want to see a 16x,xxx number!

My wife has been mentioning wanting an Apple iPad since about December 2011. So on Valentines Day I surprised her with a 16GB Wi-Fi only Apple iPad. I knew I was going to get one for her anyway and wait until the iPad3 was released, but the suggested features wasn't enough for me to wait. So I also purchased one for myself. Our laptops don't hold a charge for more than 15 minuets. Her HP has been serviced numerous times and finally after 7 years, gave up with it. I have a Sony VIAO that has given me more than 6 years of trouble free use, until it fell off the bed a broke 6 of the most used keys . The tabs that hold the key to the circuit board actually broke, so it was not as simple as snapping the keys back on. I used it like that for 3 months, but needed to press many of the missing keys like 10 times before it registered, that was getting really annoying! I mainly used it for Internet anyway. So now I charge it once every 3rd night.

I was able to do our taxes this past Thursday. I did them using the iPad, which worked flawlessly. I used HR Block online being doing NY State was $2 cheaper than TurboTax, Federal was same for both. They got rejected at first due to my wife forgetting to update SS with her new married last name. I had the option of resubmitting with her maiden name. 3 hours later, both federal ans state accepted the return. We are being refunded $2,349 from Federal and $208 from NYS.

We had two of our windows replaced October 2011 due to findings of the leaking during the two tropical storms lof late August 2011. The windows happened to be the two North facing windows in the house. Getting about 4 months of use out of them and seeing how they did in winter months, we were happy with their performance. We had planned on replacing all the windows being they are 1960 original wood windows with aluminum storms windows anyway, but the tropical storms fast tracked replacement. Having done months of research, getting quotes and testing windows we finally went with Marvin Infinity Fiberglass replacement windows. We added colonial grids between the glass, low e366 glass and brushed nickel hardware. Those two windows were $1,800 installed. Yes, a bit pricey, but when we compared them to vinyl windows, these were what we wanted. Knowing we went with the higher cost choice, we knew replacing the windows would be done in stages rather than one shot if we went with the lower cost vinyl windows. So, being stage 1 has been complete (All North facing windows), we decided to reinvest the tax return back into the house. We are replacing all South facing windows with the tax return, 3 windows, which total $2,450. Once those are installed, probably end of March, we should be ready to replace all 3 West facing windows leaving August time frame for all East facing and basement windows. All still continuing to save and maintain our EF.

So today I was reading a blog on here that linked to Chase Freedom card with a $300 sign-up bonus after spending $500, I applied and was accepted. So, stage 2 windows are really going to cost $2,150!

Well, just figures that we pay my 2007 Honda Civic Si Sedan off November 2011, a year early on a 5 year note the wife's car becomes a hassle with repairs needed.

We picked up a 2010 Honda Civic LX Sedan with 22K miles for $14,300. We paid cash for the taxes, licensing fees etc, so we just financed the price of the car, $14,300 for 4 years @ 3.49%. The payment is $321.xx/ mo. We could have done 3 year loan, but figured the lower payment would be nice incase something happened with positive cash flow. I already have a pre-payment plan of 18-24 months payoff my tossing an additional $300/ mo. toward the principal.

We also decided to sell the old car privately and hopefully get about $500 more then what the dealer wanted for trade.

I had to adjust the monthly budget to reflect the car loan and additional in auto insurance. Even with the extra $300 to the car and $600 to the mortgage a month we still have $800+ positive cash flow to savings.

Edited/ Updated:

Current Monthly Budget as of 02/2012:

Total Net Checks = $4,830
Mortgage = $1,300
Auto Insurance = $230
Auto Loan = $320
Electric/ Gas = $195
Verizon = $290
Water/ Sewer = $15
Groceries/ Gas/ Medical = $800
Total Net Savings = $1,690

*Mortgage includes P.I.T.I. and PMI.
**Auto Insurance is paid in full every 6 months.
***Electric/ Gas is budget billed every month.
****Verizon is Cell, Cell Data, Home Internet, FIOS TV, Home Phone. Looking to cancel home phone 11/2012, in contract so I can't cancel sooner. Also we are paying extra for 25mb DL/ 25mb UL speeds on our Home Internet, will down grade that to regular at that time too.
*****Water/ Sewer is billed every quarter.
******Groceries (incl. eating out) is $400, Gas is $300 and Medical (co-pays, vet etc.)is $100. Over estimates and any additional goes to savings at end of month.

Any additional to mortgage and auto loan gets taken from total net savings; $275 to mortgage and $225 auto loan.

The December 2011 mortgage payment will be a "milestone" in my grand plan to pay off the mortgage in 8 years or less, so that means 7 years remaining on a mortgage that was closed on 11/15/2010.

I created a spread sheet in Microsoft Excel that mimics the amortization table we received at closing, but added an additional column for "additional principal". I initially checked to make sure the functions I created jived with any random payment number to the original amortization schedule received at closing. I checked the interest, principal and balance and all were spot on. This spread sheet allows me to adjust any "additional principal" amount any time during the loan to see the effects on the duration and balance at any given time.

The plan I have set up is:

2011 - Additional $350 Dec only
2012 - Additional $350/ mo. w/ Dec 2012 $5,350
2013 - Additional $450/ mo. w/ Dec 2013 $10,450
2014 - Additional $550/ mo. w/ Dec 2014 $10,550
2015 - Additional $650/ mo. w/ Dec 2015 $10,650
2016 - Additional $750/ mo. w/ Dec 2016 $10,750
2017 - Additional $850/ mo. w/ Dec 2017 $10,850
2018 - Additional $950/ mo. w/ Dec 2018 $25,000

We will see how close to the dream we come...