Friday, April 18, 2014
OK, now what?
With the mission to pay off all but a few bills ahead of time in it's early adolescence, I'm now tasked with both cultivating the discipline needed to finish the job, and then left to ponder what to do next. If (and that's a big if) I manage to pull this off, I'll be left with a nice pile of money at the end of the year, for which I have a few plans. The first, and by far the most important, is to pay off the Corolla. I won't trade it in at this time, as I really appreciate the gas mileage and reliability. Yes, I'm a Toyota whore, bite me.
Just as the extra overtime I'm presently earning allows me to try this, the abundant overtime I'll be getting in August and September should allow me to cover the car. I can't decide if I should save the money and pay the bill in one lump sum or payoff 1500 per paycheck or something similar. In addition to freeing up the 330 a month, I'll be able to reduce my car insurance coverage, so that would save an additional 100 a month or so. The real goal here is to eliminate the car note by the end of September when my car insurance is renewed.
Beyond that, my two other goals are to finish paying off my retirement loans, and begin a Roth IRA. The Roth is more important than the loans by far, so I'll tackle that after the car. I hope to do both, but I should be able to do at least the IRA contribution. It's better to get the (hopefully) 10% return than to eliminate 4.25% in interest. There's also a potential trip to Asia in October, and a very likely trip to Germany come December, but with miles and cheap lodging, they shouldn't be more than a few hundred each.
With my money more or less earmarked for the rest of 2014, I must now figure out what to do with my time. By this I mean the summer, and that's the next post.
Just as the extra overtime I'm presently earning allows me to try this, the abundant overtime I'll be getting in August and September should allow me to cover the car. I can't decide if I should save the money and pay the bill in one lump sum or payoff 1500 per paycheck or something similar. In addition to freeing up the 330 a month, I'll be able to reduce my car insurance coverage, so that would save an additional 100 a month or so. The real goal here is to eliminate the car note by the end of September when my car insurance is renewed.
Beyond that, my two other goals are to finish paying off my retirement loans, and begin a Roth IRA. The Roth is more important than the loans by far, so I'll tackle that after the car. I hope to do both, but I should be able to do at least the IRA contribution. It's better to get the (hopefully) 10% return than to eliminate 4.25% in interest. There's also a potential trip to Asia in October, and a very likely trip to Germany come December, but with miles and cheap lodging, they shouldn't be more than a few hundred each.
With my money more or less earmarked for the rest of 2014, I must now figure out what to do with my time. By this I mean the summer, and that's the next post.
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Shifting priorities...
One can only obsess over the fate of the world (and yourself) in the abstract for so long before you realize you're accomplishing jack shit. I really enjoyed working on the prior post, but to only explore life in the macro sense is just mental masturbation. You need to accomplish something concrete at some point, and I finally found a goal I feel is attainable and correct. Like everyone else, I have monthly bills like car insurance, cell phone, homeowner's insurance, etc. As a rule, I like to pay off my property insurance in one lump sum to eliminate the annoyance of paying the bill online. It helps it's only around $50 per month. I wasn't able to do that last October, so every other paycheck I've been sending money to Traveler's Insurance, and continued until last month.
After getting my tax return, I took trips to Florida to hang with Scott and Greg, and Seattle to hang with Anya. Yes, that Anya, and it was a trip worthy of a blog post itself. Anyway, I spent a little too much on the Florida trip, but spent way too much on the Seattle trip. Nevertheless, I found myself mostly solvent, and not only current on all my bills, I was slightly ahead.
One of the reasons for this unexpected status was the increased overtime we've all been getting. As I live in Northern Westchester, I have dominion over the satellite campus in Ossining and Peekskill. The people who manage these sites wanted a financial aid counselor to join the regularly scheduled academic counselors, so I suddenly had extra hours in Peekskill every Wednesday, as well as coming in a bit early on Thursday. This is what kept me in the black, and finally gave the option of eliminating my home owner's insurance for the rest of the year.
Paying that small bill in full felt better than I thought it would. It's barely noticeable in the mess of my overall budget. Nevertheless, it just felt... responsible. That feeling gave me an idea; I needed to increase this odd but enjoyable sensation, and from that came a plan. The mission was, and still is, to pay off almost all my bills by July. The extra money from the overtime is making this possible. Every paycheck has a separate yearly bill attached to it, and to date I paid May and June's maintenance along with the remained of my car insurance along with the property insurance. As I normally pay bills with every paycheck, each eliminated bill frees up more money to tackle another expense. It ties up your capital in the short run, but yields huge returns in the long run. I'm pressing hard to get this done by July to insure that the overtime associated with the Fall registration period is mine to keep. The schedule is as follows: my cell phone and Internet gets paid on 04/24; my maintenance is gone 05/08; my car payment disappears 06/05, and my mortgage is gone on 06/19. The trip to Greece will take up my check on 05/22. My student loans, Warcraft, gym and credit monitoring service will remain, along with gas, food, entertainment, etc.
As I found out this morning, finishing by July is probably not happening. The overtime that made this possible will end in one month, not in three months. As such, I won't have the extra income to allow me to complete this aggressive schedule. I will get close, and that's enough. Much will depend on how much the trip to Greece will cost. I already paid for the plane tickets, and the hotel is almost nothing even if I'm alone. I have budgeted the worst case scenario, and if I do better, then I might make it. The best part of this plan? Of anything I could try, from visiting potential landing spots for the collapse to opening up an EBAY business to doing more work on the apartment, this is the only one that feels right and acquired its own momentum. It's also the most passive, which is probably why I believe it will be successful. Now, what will I do with the money? That's the next post.
After getting my tax return, I took trips to Florida to hang with Scott and Greg, and Seattle to hang with Anya. Yes, that Anya, and it was a trip worthy of a blog post itself. Anyway, I spent a little too much on the Florida trip, but spent way too much on the Seattle trip. Nevertheless, I found myself mostly solvent, and not only current on all my bills, I was slightly ahead.
One of the reasons for this unexpected status was the increased overtime we've all been getting. As I live in Northern Westchester, I have dominion over the satellite campus in Ossining and Peekskill. The people who manage these sites wanted a financial aid counselor to join the regularly scheduled academic counselors, so I suddenly had extra hours in Peekskill every Wednesday, as well as coming in a bit early on Thursday. This is what kept me in the black, and finally gave the option of eliminating my home owner's insurance for the rest of the year.
Paying that small bill in full felt better than I thought it would. It's barely noticeable in the mess of my overall budget. Nevertheless, it just felt... responsible. That feeling gave me an idea; I needed to increase this odd but enjoyable sensation, and from that came a plan. The mission was, and still is, to pay off almost all my bills by July. The extra money from the overtime is making this possible. Every paycheck has a separate yearly bill attached to it, and to date I paid May and June's maintenance along with the remained of my car insurance along with the property insurance. As I normally pay bills with every paycheck, each eliminated bill frees up more money to tackle another expense. It ties up your capital in the short run, but yields huge returns in the long run. I'm pressing hard to get this done by July to insure that the overtime associated with the Fall registration period is mine to keep. The schedule is as follows: my cell phone and Internet gets paid on 04/24; my maintenance is gone 05/08; my car payment disappears 06/05, and my mortgage is gone on 06/19. The trip to Greece will take up my check on 05/22. My student loans, Warcraft, gym and credit monitoring service will remain, along with gas, food, entertainment, etc.
As I found out this morning, finishing by July is probably not happening. The overtime that made this possible will end in one month, not in three months. As such, I won't have the extra income to allow me to complete this aggressive schedule. I will get close, and that's enough. Much will depend on how much the trip to Greece will cost. I already paid for the plane tickets, and the hotel is almost nothing even if I'm alone. I have budgeted the worst case scenario, and if I do better, then I might make it. The best part of this plan? Of anything I could try, from visiting potential landing spots for the collapse to opening up an EBAY business to doing more work on the apartment, this is the only one that feels right and acquired its own momentum. It's also the most passive, which is probably why I believe it will be successful. Now, what will I do with the money? That's the next post.
