Moving Day

It feels like moving day part 100 because every time we've gone up to the house for a service call or to work on it we've brought a car load up. Two nights this week Gameboy and I needed some alone time so we went to the house. Today the furniture movers will be here to get the stuff I don't want Gameboy and his friends to tackle on their own. We're also getting a bed for his dad and the appliances that didn't make it earlier this week.

Hopefully everything will go smoothly and we will only be left with the things in the closets and pantry.

What does financial independence mean?

Yesterday as I was driving up to get some work done on the new house* and stuck in traffic. It was Talk of the Nation** time on NPR so I decided to tune in. Melody Serafino, a New York twentysomething was discussing, was discussing her recent op-ed piece in Newsweek. The idea of 'adulthood' is something that many twentysomethings, myself included, seem to struggle with. The basic premise of the article is that financial independence is necessary to be an adult. Many of her friends seem to have parents who subsidize their rent, give monthly allowances, or still share credit cards with their children. She wonders when these twentysomethings will learn to budget, do for themselves, and what will happen if their parents suddenly can't help any more.

As I listened to Serafino's explanations and the responding callers I swung back and forth. The side of me that values responsibility agreed strongly. Parental wallets aren't something that should be tapped for every little financial need. Also, if Mom and Dad continually bail you out how will you learn to make things work on your own?

Then I thought about my friends, our situations, and the parental contributions I've gotten this year. Most of my friends and I are self supporting, but benefit from random influxes of parental cash. We don't rely on the cash but are generally happy to receive it.***

In my case my mom is there when she thinks I'm not taking good enough care of myself or something should be handled by parents. Every couple of months she sends me a check with a note like "Go get your hair done and take Gameboy out to lunch" or "It's time for sandals, go get a pedicure." Most of that money ends up going to debt repayment, but occasionally I oblige the request. Two months this year she has paid my student loans. She feels like paying for school is a parental responsibility and I had a full ride through undergrad. Without these funds the bills would still be paid in full every month, but extra debt payments may not have happened at the same pace.

Most recently we applied to the Bank of Mom for a loan to help our down payment. We got preapproval in April and decided on a loan program that required 8% down. We figured out how much we could comfortably put down and started looking in that price range. As we saw what was available we inched the asking price up, finally stopping at 20K more than our original figure. We found the house, put down money, and were informed that the loan program we wanted had moved from 8% to 10% down. We could have depleted our reserves or walked away (losing our earnest money). Without us asking my mom suggested taking a loan from her significant personal e fund to preserve fledgling e fund. Actually she offered to give us the money outright, but we weren't comfortable with that.

So my question is where is the line? And what does it mean to be financially independent? I've gotten enough money from my mom this year that I can't claim to be getting where I'm going without her assistance. But at the same time if her support stopped tomorrow I'd be fine. I may not move forward at the same rate, but my bills, and then some would all get paid. Does the fact that I get random influxes but can survive on my own mean I'm not financially independent? Or is it that I'm just straddling the fence of financial independence?

For any other twentysomethings reading along are your feet firmly planted on one side or the other?


*Meeting the garage door opener installation guy if you're dying to know.
**A show that discusses current events and controversial topics
***I'm the secondary on my mom's ING e fund. This is her preferred way of giving me money. In the past few years when I thought she wasn't in a place where she should be giving me money I've also transfered fund back.

We have a house!

We're officially homeowners! And I've made 5-6 trips to Home Depot and Lowes in the past 3 days to prove it. So far things are going well. Yesterday I got the air ducts cleaned, vacumed, and shampooed all of the carpets. This was when I realized how big the house is. In the first rooms I was doing salsa moves with the vaccum. By the end of the carpet shampooing I kept telling myself things like: just one more room and I'm not touching a box for the next week.

My father in law wiped down the walls, cleaned out the cabinets and put the pantry together as best he could. While I was at Home Depot math powers left me and I got boards that are too short- especially if I want to stockpile. Today or tomorrow I'll be making another trip to return and exchange them. I'm also working on keeping all of our receipts and warranties organized. I've missed the time for a morning lawn watering so I think I'm going to make some pancakes and chill out. This evening we'll try a mix the vent guy told me about to help bring the lawn back.

Closing

We finally have a closing date. Finally. A lot of the things that need to be scheduled related to the move (vent cleaning, movers for the big stuff, phone/internet/cable, appliances) couldn't be fully scheduled until we had a a date for keys. With each decision comes a lengthier list of considerations.

We've decided to go with a local family owned business for the vent cleaning instead of the local company that dominates the market. I asked about service similarities and liked what the owner had to say. A visit to my local Better Business Bureau's website confirmed my choices. The smaller company has had 1 complaint that they addressed. The larger company has had 4 that have not been addressed.

We're debating movers for our furniture. Really it's just the bedroom stuff. My concern is the folks that delivered it, guys who deliver furniture for a living, had a hard time navigating the stairs/ceiling/wall situation in our current apartment. I love Gameboy, but if professionals have issues I'm not sure how much faith I can put in Gameboy and a friend getting it done without damaging the furniture. And then there's the bed issue. My mom and I were here when they set up the bed but it all seemed a little crazy to me then, 2 years ago. The only other bed I've ever put together was from Ikea, and it had handy little instructions. Movers know how to do this sort of thing right?

Will Gameboy's dad (and I think this really means Gameboy) want to watch his local team while he's living with us? That means NFL Sunday ticket. Do we switch to the other company offering a 6 month intro rate? Or just stay put with a bill that I feel is too large? When it comes to the TV Gameboy's vice is football, mine is definitely our DVR. I like watching TV on my schedule and after 2 years I'm not sure if I can go back to recording with a VCR. It's not necessary for the decision, but it's a correlating decision.

The final thing on today's list is making a decision on where to buy appliances. We have the funds in the bank to pay for things but would not leave us much wiggle room. With all of the crazy changes going on I'd rather finance (no interest of course) put aside some extra money each month and earn interest on the money. The big question is do we buy it all from one place, without the best prices on each item, or go to multiple locations (and pay multiple delivery fees) to do the best on item prices. I'm going to call the one place that has everything on the list, see if they offer a deal for buying 5 appliances, get the details of their price guarantee (ie will they take prices from an outlet), and how long delivery will take.

I also need to unbury our couch b/c it will be the FIL's bed until we buy him one and start moving into the new place. Oh yeah, and do the work my employer pays me to do.

June Net Worth

Instead of working I decided to calculate my June end net worth. It's a good thing my month is light because I've been pulling this kind of move way too often. So far today I've made 6 calls about personal stuff.

Anyway, back to the net worth. Despite last month's lack of saving or extra payments my net worth increased just a bit. Looking at the chart NetworthIQ has with each month's assets and liabilities laid out I realized I'm just shy of a $10K difference in my net worth.

	Assets	Liabilities	Net Worth
June	$19,227	$35,874	($16,647)
May	$19,727	$36,548	($16,821)
April	$17,087	$36,937	($19,850)
March	$14,678	$36,753	($22,075)
February	$13,372	$37,488	($24,116)
January	$11,485	$37,710	($26,225)

If all goes well in the next week my net worth is going to plummet so I'm going to linger on that positive change while it lasts.

June

Our average house credit card bill, which includes groceries, gas, cable/internet/phone, prescriptions, cell phones and anything else that isn't personal spending, usually runs $800-1200 a month. I'd like to shrink that number, but with our income I'm comfortable with that range.

June, well June blew things out of the water. In a single day we put $1,964.61 on the card. This included what my insurance didn't pick up from a doctors visit, wheels for Gameboy's car, my wedding dress, and half of our wedding bands. That's also the day we put the offer on the house, writing a $1,500 earnest money check. The amount I paid the doctor (and will eventually be reimbursed through the FSA) kinda shocked me. The tires were unexpected but something damaged two and they looked ready for a blowout. The wedding stuff was expected, but if I'm honest not really planned for financially.

I'm going to put off looking at eating out on my personal card. I know I at least doubled (probably more like quadrupled) my spending goal on eating out. The 8 days I had jury duty I at lunch out every day and breakfast at least 4 days.

On the plus side we were able to cover everything without dipping into savings or the e fund. Groceries were also significantly below my goal of $150, thanks in large part to some unexpected gift cards. I ended up spending 106.13 on the card and $3o-40 in gift cards on groceries. While Gameboy was in training he got Target $5-15 gift cards as prizes which helped last month and earlier this month. The bad news is I do most of my spending analysis from my credit card (I probably spend $20/mth in cash) so I don't know exactly how much I spent on groceries.

Another plus was the unexpected windfall that brought the e fund to 70% or our most recent goal. With the new house I'm happy to have a cushion to fall back on. The auto-debits for my Roth also continued, so that account grew.

The one sentence version of all that: We spent way more than usual, didn't save much, but were also able to pay everything off without dipping into the e fund. I'd love to say that for July we're back on track, but I'd just be lying to you ;)

To Escrow or Not to Escrow

We're nearing what should be the end of the home buying tunnel. The other day we figured out home owners insurance and I called our loan officer's assistant to give her the info. At this point I thought one of the terms of the loan was that we had to escrow property taxes and home owners insurance. That means a portion of our monthly mortgage payment would get put into a non interest bearing savings account to save for the annual property tax and home owners insurance bills.

During the call she let me know that we have the option on whether or not to escrow home owners insurance. If you've been reading this blog for a while you can probably see my issue with escrow. It's that non interest bearing thing. I think the idea is to help folks who don't have the discipline to save every month and/or ensure that the money is there when the bill is due. Though I haven't been the best saver in the last 2 months my Roth IRA has continued to grow. Even with today's low interest rates I'd rather have the money in an ING sub account gaining.

Buying Smart

...or at least trying to. The house we're buying doesn't have any appliances. Like many foreclosures on the market the previous owner took everything that wasn't strapped down. This includes stove, fridge, dishwasher, washer, dryer, garage door opener, and shelving in the pantry and a closet. I've decided to look at this as an opportunity to buy appliances that work with our lifestyle.

The most important factor for me is energy efficiency. Everything that is possible* will have an Energy Star rating. To get the cheerful star label products have to be 10-50% more energy efficient than standard models. Though many of these models will cost a little more up front they will help keep our energy bills down. Since we hope to keep each appliance for a long time it's an investment we are happy to make.

When we started looking for appliances we headed to big box stores and talked to sales folks. I'd come home and look up models trying to discern the important differences. Then one day I remembered Consumer Reports. They are a nonprofit that rates everything from appliances to sneakers, to investment funds. It requires a membership, but we decided $6-12 ($6/mth) was worth having unbiased help in making our decisions. We've made decisions on everything but the stove, looking at the factors Consumer Reports rate and user reviews.

The next step will be taking our list of products to the big box stores. We'll see how much each item costs and what types of discounts we can get for buying 5 appliances at once.


*They don't rate stoves and dryers, which I think is kind of crazy since they use so much energy.

July Goals

I'll be figuring out my June wrap up over the weekend. I've been thinking hard about goals for July.

My first goal is to stay sane. Usually my goals have to do with financial matters but the past month has been interesting and the next month looks like it will be even more fun. Within the next few weeks* we will be closing on the house, moving, and adding another member to the household. No, we're not having a baby. My father in law is going through some stuff and we all agree it's in his best interest to get away from his current city and make a fresh start. The plan, at least for now, is for him to live with use for at least six months.

Financially all of these things have lots of repercussions. We've planned for a lot of the expenses associated with moving but I'm sure there will be things that have slipped our minds. The new place is much bigger- largely because we bought it with our future family in mind. This, and having to care for a lawn, will increase the utilities. We've know this all along, but I have no idea how to budget for it. The biggest unknown for me will be how my FIL's presence will affect everything. The grocery budget will definitely be moving upward. There is also a very good possibility that we will be helping him with legal fees.

Through all of this my goal is to stay calm. I'm not going to set monthly spending goals, other than my Roth which auto transfers. I think I have a good handle on keeping grocery spending low. I'm going to pull a yet to be determined amount of cash out (<$80) and use that for all of my eating out. Otherwise we'll continue to reduce. There's a good chance some of the FIL related expenses will dip into the emergency fund, but that's why we have it.

I hope everyone has a wonderful 4th. We'll be headed to a friends to barbque and then watching fireworks in our new neighborhood.

*I'm trying really hard not to call my realtor too early and get the latest details.

Jury Duty

I breifly mentioned serving on a jury last week. The trial was three days longer than expected and all in all a stressful not fun experience. It was a murder trial, where a 16 yr old visiting a friends house was shot. At the time of the shooting the defendant was 19. Weighing the evidence, with a young man's life in the balance, and a young girls life ended, was not an easy thing. Especially since the evidence was based on a lot of he said, she said.

Despite the fact that it was a totally draining experience* I'm happy to have done it. Mainly because I believe it's an important cornerstone of our society and if everyone cops out, and there were some interesting ways that people tried, then no one gets justice.

We finished up Wednesday and ever since I've been buried in a mountain of work. I told my boss I was extending my month end deadlines by a week but even that is seeming impossible.

On other burners we're researching appliances (have any you love?), trying to get ready for our still undetermined but soon approaching (in the 3 weeks) closing dates, and helping family with some legal issues. I'm sure I'll be writing about all of that in the weeks to come. Thanks for being patient with the hiatus.

*The first day I came home ready to get in a few hours of work for my job. Days 2-8 anything that required though or effort was beyond me.

Unexpected Windfall and the E Fund

Approximately 3 years ago I leant a friend $2,000. This was before I'd taken out any loans, lived without work for a year, and my savings accounts were flush. She was starting grad school, her mom had just moved across the country and was having a hard time fining a job. She ran into what I think of as a funding sequence issue. She needed to rent a place and get school supplies before her student loan and scholarship checks came in.

When lending money to friends my general outlook is that I'm giving the money away. If I get the money back, great. If I never see it again, that's ok too. Shortly after my friend has a bit of a breakdown and decided to withdraw, loosing all additional funding. She moved back east to refocus and after working for two years she started school again.

Last week I got an unexpected package with a card and a dvd of the work she's been doing.* Honestly the message in the card and the DVD was more than enough for me. I was happy that she's accomplishing her dream. Two days later when I went to put the DVD in, hidden under the disk, was a check for the remaining amount owed.

In light of the pending purchase contract on a home Gameboy decided to up the goal on the emergency fund and put the funds there. The inspector said the house is one of the cleanest inspections he's done in the recent years, but we want to have the padding just in case.

*She's in an MFA program.

I got a few checks along the way

Crawling out

I feel like much of last week I was under a fog. I've learned sickness + jury duty + attempting to work = worn out. I've decided to give up on the work part and am longingly looking forward to the end of the trial. The sickness has been tackled with a variety of commercial and home remedies.

The financial effect of all of these things has been too much money headed towards the restaurant industry and not enough time in my kitchen. I'm starting to feel better/ less overwhelmed and am planning a trip to the grocery store to replenish the fridge. We've gotten to the point where the things filling the freezer and pantry all need supplementation that we don't have.

Carnival of Snowflaking #9

It's June, a few days from the official start of summer, and in my world the snowflakes are smaller and farther apart than they have been in recent months. I may not be the only one feeling that way because submissions to the carnival this week were light. In fact we're just highlighting one blogger, Amy from My Daily Dollars who is looking forward to One Grand Snowflake

In my world surveys and saving money provide the base to my snowflakes. They steadily come in time after time. The snowflakes I love the most though are the contracting snowflakes. These snowflakes require a bit more thought but usually provide a much larger reward. On the downside they are also hard to come by. Word of mouth is my greatest ally so I do my best work and make sure that all of my professional (and sometimes personal) contacts are aware of the work I can do.

Juries, Addendums, and Life

I'm having one of those weeks where everything seems to be going wrong (or at least not the way I would like). Yesterday's jury summons has turned into a week long trial which will make meeting my month end deadlines really fun, if not impossible. The only real plus is the greatly reduced parking/free bus passes. I had to drive because of other commitments the past two days but will be spending some quality time with our public transport system.

In other news the bank we're trying to buy the house from keeps coming at us with crazy addendum. The latest of which could jeopardize our down payment plan. We're talking with our mortgage guy and trying to figure things out.

And because my body decided it should get in on the fun I have a cold. As a result I've been lazy this week, not packing lunches or making breakfast at home. I'm going to try to get back on track starting tomorrow :).

Hope your weeks are going better.

Hypermiling

Hypermiling, a way of increasing fuel economy, has been getting a lot of buzz in the past few weeks. I've heard stories from two morning shows, NPR, and somewhere else that I can't remember. Getting more out of each gallon is always a plus so I decided to give it a test run.

I've filled up twice since I heard the initial story and started hypermiling. On the first my fuel economy was up approx* 2 miles and on the second it was up approx 4 miles. Not super impressive result, but I only hypermile about half the time. On days where I'm on schedule or don't have a schedule I hypermile. Day's when I'm running later and have to be across town for a meeting I don't. Its somewhere around a 60/40 50/50 split.

What I've been doing:
Coasting down- when there's a hill I let gravity take its course. Instead of stepping on the brake to slow down I ease off of the gas- or just enjoy the extra speed.

Red coasting- whenever I see red (stop lights, stop signs, brakes) I take my foot off of the gas. When I need to I brake, but usually I can coast along for a while.

Keeping back- I keep a couple of car lengths between my car and the one in front of me. This lets me coast when I see red. Another way to think about it is not having to drive like the person in front of you.

Easing up- Letting the car start to roll (let up on brake) before hitting the gas. I played cards through HS physics (and somehow got an A/B) but this has something to do with the difference in effort to get tires moving from a full stop or a slow roll.

Feather feet- Lightly hitting applying pressure to the gas pedal. Manufacturers sell you on how fast you can go 0-60, but a slower start saves gas.

Slowing down- This is the hardest. According to this little chart above 60 there is a falloff in miles/gallon. The sweet spot seems to be in the 40-60 mile range.

This driving style takes though but makes sense when you get into it. Red coasting means you're not pumping in gas that you will then work against while braking. I've also found that just as I hit the stopping point for lights they tend to change.

I've read and heard more extreme things that include changing to neutral while coasting. I don't know if that would be a good idea with my automatic transmission and I feel like that's asking for an accident. Thought the tips above require thinking differently they don't make your driving dangerous.


*Approx because before I did the math in my head, stopping with a whole number, not looking at the decimals. So my last fill up could have been anywhere in the 3.4 and 4.7 miles higher.

Money Making- Surveys

A while back I wrote about making extra money through Pinecone surveys. They are my absolute favorite because they pay a set amount after each survey. My second favorite is MySurvey. The basic info:

• Most surveys last 1-8 minutes and give 10 points.
• Based on answers for base surveys you get slightly longer surveys worth more points.
• One account per household, but Gameboy and I each get surveys.

I never write about ways to make money until I've actually earned the money. Last week I cashed out my points and a check is headed my way. In the beginning (maybe Feb) the surveys were few and far between. I've found that the more surveys I do the more invites I get.

Another thing I love is surveys are usually available for a while. Other survey companies have surveys that are continually closed after the first day. I've never had that issue with MySurvey and I only check the email account 2-3 times a month.

If you have any questions I'm happy to answer them!


Other ways I earn extra income:
Babysitting
Pinecone Surveys
Mystery Shopping
Lending Club (not currently accepting new lenders)

How to Confuse a Customer Service Supervisor

There are times where I'm willing to pay a bit more for good service. I've banked online with ING since 2001 and though I thought about leaving them earlier this year I stayed because I've always had stellar customer service. I'm 'paying' by not having the absolute highest rate available, but the accounts never cost me any stress. It's a trade-off I'm willing to make.

Tonight I called one of my credit card companies to ask a few questions about the rewards and a weird payment thing.* The customer service rep on the other end of the line was amazing. He was exuberant, patient, and knowledgeable. From the moment he answered I had a smile on my face because I could feel his smile coming through. After I asked 8-10 questions (did I mention patient?) I asked if I could be transfered to his supervisor. He sounded a little hesitant and asked my if I would tell him the reason. I let him know I wanted to compliment his service.

After 2 minutes of bad hold music (really customer service places, what's up with the bad music) I got a supervisor who sounded a bit worn down. I let him know about my great service, giving details, and he seemed utterly shocked. He said thank you and didn't really know where to go from there. I explained that usually I'm letting managers know about problems but that in this case the service was so great I wanted to let them know. Again, he seemed a bit shocked, but happy enough to move forward and clumsily end the call.

What things are you willing to pay a bit more for?
And have you had great customer service recently?

*You can only pay once in 24 hours which is irritating but now I know my computer isn't crazy.

Baking Soda Love

It's been a while since I've talked about how amazing baking soda is. Today I have two of my kitchen favorite- in the dishwasher and cleaning veggies.

Those dual action tabs that you can buy are nice, but usually expensive. I got some powdered detergent through freecycle and on its own it wasn't that good. Dishes were spotty, sometimes with food stuck on. I decided to add a little baking soda to the pre-wash cup and the results have been amazing. Everything comes out super clean for just a few cents a load.

Cleaning fruits and vegetables has always been one of those things I hate to do. When I use soap it's hard to get all of it off but water doesn't usually seem like enough. Now, for things like apples, pears, zucchini, and cucumber I use a dash of wet baking soda. I wet the item, put a dash of baking soda in my hand and rub away. The gentle abrasiveness of baking soda strips away the dirt and wax, making me a happy girl.

Baking soda uses- drain cleaner and making baking powder.

Debt Payoff Milestone

This week I hit my first major debt payoff milestone and I'm so excited! The loan on the car has moved from the 5 to the 4 figures. I felt like I was hanging around in the $10,000 area forever and an happy to have moved down into the $9,000's.

I'm going to have a little milestone party, maybe with a free DVD from Redbox, and get back to earning extra money!

New College Grad Advice

Dear Recent College Grads,

Some of you undoubtedly have jobs by now. If you studied something that leads to a specific profession (engineering, accounting, etc) the chances that you have a job are even higher. This post is for everyone else.

The excitement of graduation and completing years of hard work can be marred by an unsatisfying/ unsuccessful job search. My tips to help you along the way:

* If you haven't actually moved/ put down deposits to live in your 'dream' city expand the net you're casting.

* Proofread, proofread, proofread. If after 4 years of papers you're not sure why that's important check out Not Hired.

* Know what you want and tell everyone. It's often easier to get jobs (or at least an interview) through connections. Let people know what field or kind of job would like to have.

My final tip requires a bit more space. If you're not living at home it's highly likely that every day you are incurring expenses. In six (or maybe five) months it will be time to start repaying student loans. How do you bridge the gap? Many recommend getting an internship in your field, but finding a paid internship may be harder than finding an actual job.

I recommend temping. The types of temp agencies abound. Legal, administrative, and entertainment a just a few that come to mind. This type of work give you the ability to earn an income while looking for the right job. It's easier to make a decision about whether a job is the right fit when you're not worried about how to pay next months bills.