The hub made it back safely to Alaska last night. He will be gone for 3 weeks. Since he was home the past two, there is no paycheck for his job this week. I get paid though. My pay is salary, so no OT surprises tomorrow.

I have created a few lists to help with the upcoming changes at home.
Must Haves
Wanna Haves

The Must Have list includes:

Repairing the living room wall
*New flooring throughout
unclog kitch/laundry room plumbing
*remodel upstairs bath
*repair downstairs bath
*replace broken window
*replace missing screens (argh!)
*paint entire inside
paint or reside external walls
*replace wood stove
*replace stairway bannister


* due to renter and dog's distruction and son's 'repair' jobs...

Wanna Haves:

Remodel kitchen
enlarge tiny master into master suite

It all depends on costs...which I am sure are going to eat up our budget very quickly.

My brother in law (from my ex) reminded me that he is a retired plumber with all tools and offered to take a stab at the plumbing issues. (yay)

I have found three contractors that specialize in remodeling- and will be getting bids in June.

The good news is that once this is done, we can put either or both homes on the market if we want, which is peace of mind for long term goals. I just need a good budget and the fortitude to stick with it.

The hub and I met with DD1 and her hub tonight to work out details for the moves. It will take planning and juggling, but I think we have a good plan. We will be moved out of the city house by Jun 3. The kids will start paying rent on the city house on Jul 1, which gives them a month break to pay transfers and deposits on utilities.

The kids are relieved to have a nice home to move into. There is much to do, but I DO feel it is a good decision. I just hope our fix it budget is sufficient to get everything done.

The hub leaves tomorrow, back to Alaska. I will have lots to stay busy with the next 3 weeks while he is gone.

The extra income will help pay the expenses of fixing up the country house and paying down debt. We are taking a huge step towards our bhag of being debt free except for mortgage, and retiring plans!

The battery on my car went kaput today. The hub is charging it tonight to see if that works. If not, he will replace it before he heads back to Alaska on Wednesday.

The wheels are in motion to move back to the country. DD1 and her hub are excited to move here, the hubs nephew actually already had a place lined up so this works perfectly for him and I have a few weeks to get my moms little place ready to move into.

Then, we will gut the country house and fix the MUST FIX items and decide what wish list items will make the cut.

Between now and ALL of that...I have to pack and figure out where all this stuff will go for the next few months.

Let the fun begin!

Life is funny sometimes.

A few weeks ago, DD1's landlord decided to move back into the house DD1 is renting. Rentals are very hard to find here right now. The landlord gave DD1 two months to find somewhere to move, but they are having zero luck. DD1's family includes her hub, GD (7), GS (4) and grandpa...who DD1 cares for, a fish tank and two dogs. I told her the chickens can't come...my city neighbors would grumble.

This weekend, the hub and I spent the whole weekend cleaning up the property (2 acres) at the country house. And it has made me miss country living. I also am tired of paying two house payments.

The hubs newphew has been staying in the country house, but I am frustrated by how run down everything looks.

So....

The hub and I have decided to make some changes.

Our plan is that I will move into my parents little park model RV that sits on the country house property.

DD1 and her family are going to rent my city home. This will help them, and will pay most of the mortgage while still giving us a tax break next year.

The nephew will have until July 1 to move. At which point we will start on repairing the inside of the country house-

If I end up regretting the move, I only have to make it one year. Next year DD1 is planning to buy a house, and at that point I can move back to the city or sell the city house. In either case, either house will be ready to sell.

The next two months will be super busy-

I am moving out of a 1600 sq ft 3 bedroom, 2 bath house...into about 400 square foot one bedroom, 1 bath. Needless to say, I will have to find a place to store stuff until the big house (1800 sq ft, 3 bedroom, 1 and a half bath) is ready to move into.

Tonight, I am sunburned, my muscles ache and my arms feel like jello. I wrestled with blackberry bushes most of the afternoon, but ultimately, I won.

DD1 is excited to have a possible solution to where they will live.

My head is spinning from such a fast turn of events.

We worked at the country house all day today. The hub rented an escavator to tear out blackberry bushes, move big-heavy stuff and to load the dump trailer quicker. After seeing how much we got done, it was money will spent.

I didnt get after pics yet, but I will tomorrow.

Being out there all day helped me realize how much I miss country living. I miss my clothes line and the open space. The house has 'settled' and there is some structural damage to two walls, so we will have to have a contractor take a look at it to see how much it will cost to repair.

In addition, we will need to paint inside and out, put new flooring in, update the kitchen, repair the repairs my son did or had done as they are not holding up.

ugh.

However, if I am only paying one house payment, there should be some extra money to do all of this.

And when we are done, the house value will hopefully increase, the hub will be back into the house he loves with his wood yard, and we will have lots of room for the kids, grandkids and future generations to visit and play.

The hub spent $600 on the escavator for three days. It cost $160 for two large dump runs. All of the bio-mass trips were no charge except gas to get there.

We have been stashing $500 a month aside for repairs on this home, so everything was covered so far with that fund. I will have to increase the monthly amount though, to cover upcoming expenses. I will have to play with the budget to determine how to best do that.

have been following housing values on Zillow, and both houses are climbing fairly steadily- which is reflective of what I am also hearing in the local market. If the city house continues on its current trajectory, I should be able to put it on the market within 3-6 months.

The country house value is also climbing. Fortunately, it is in the black already, since we have owned it so long. It just needs some TLC to return to its former glory. The hub and I will be spending this weekend at the house starting that process.

It is encouraging to see housing turning around. I would love to be able to eventually sale the city house without taking a loss...but time will tell.

The hub and I are discussing the possiblity of selling the city house in order to get the flywheel turning a little faster on our long term financial goals.

We went to the country house today, which I have not been to in over a year. I was sadly surprised at the condition of the house. It is not being cared for and it will take some expensive repairs to get it to a condition I will feel comfortable living with. Pets and carpets definately do not mix when pet owners arent being responsible. All of the carpets, and possibly the sub-flooring will have to come up. And the list goes downhill from there.

But for long term goals, it is something we have to tackle head on. The current renter is the hubs nephew. To his credit, he has taken care of the hubs 2 dogs for him (the dogs live in a 60 X 60 pen outside- the pet that has destroyed the carpets is the nephews lab). He pays $350 per month, which is often less than the electric bill- so we will offer him the trailer my parents lived in for free to care for the animals...and then empty and gut the house and start fresh witht he repairs. Once we have a good amount completed, we will put the city house on the market.

Thats our plan for now. First of course, we need to set some timelines and goals and a budget. DD2 stopped by with her kids while we were out there and it brought back REALLY good memories of the little ones having two acres to run around on. They were having a blast.

Nothing is set in stone yet. We are still just decidiong what is the right thing to do. I am ready to concede that one house payment is more realistic for our goals.

The amount of work to pull this off seems overwhelming today. But that is why I will break it down to step by step goals and timelines. And determine a budget that aligns with the goal.

Stay tuned. I am sure this is the first twist to a very wind-ey goal.

ZERO. CC#3 is finally at the magic number!

Now to work on the final debts. I was going to rebuild savings, but it stll does not make sense. The last unsecured debt I have is a visa at my job that is 100% accessible if there is an emergency...so I will apply all extra money there, until it is also PIF. Granted, putting everything towards this debt can give me a false negative (Christmas club $, vacation $, freedom acct $, etc..and the balance will vacillate accordingly...but every dollar saved there, means less interest charged to me in the long run.) It just means I have to TRACK every penny in and out of this account so that I stay on track.

While I am paying down this debt, normal payments will go towards the car...Speaking of the car, it will be about 8-10 days before I have it back and drive-able. Not having my car is no fun. The good news is that the bill to fix it will be under $200, which is well below what is in the car repair account, thank goodness!

I have been pondering cc#3 a LOT lately.

Why am I slowly paying off that debt, when I could pay it off with savings and then rebuild savings.

If I pay the cc off now, I will still have about $5k in the emergency fund, and I will have the savings repaid by year end by paying savings back with the payment schedule I had planned for paying the credit card.

So, I did it. The payment is all set for Tuesday.

Now, not to hyperventilate too much.

I picked up the taxes from our accountant yesterday. I will need to pay $6700 for 2012 taxes by tax day..and also pay $1630 in quarterly taxes for the rest of the year. *choke*..I plan to pay quarterlies in April and June and then sit down with the accountant again and see what we will really owe for the remainder of the year to pay accordingly.

CC#3 on my sidebar is still going to be paid in full by the end of the year, whether or not I have to pull from ING to do it. AND I will make a dent in the 2014 debt payoffs by the end of the year.

How?

I cancelled the cruise and eliminated the big vacation line from the budget altogether. Until debt is paid off, we wont take one. (I left the small vacation budget that provides a means of a long weekend getaway here and there...)

I reduced our allowance budget by 25%. I eliminated all but a small deposit to savings each month, since we have our emergency fund already. I shaved from just about every line item possible to come up with the $530 per month needed to pay the extra quarterly taxes. And, I am continuing the original snowball payment amount on the debt.

Thankfully, our original budget had wiggle room in it and it wasnt too financially painful. I am so grateful that we did. AND...I am extremely happy that I used all the added income last month to pay down debt BEFORE learning about the taxes. Otherwise, I am afraid I would have used this as a convenient excuse to use the money for taxes.

So...there is the plan.

I am so glad it is Friday. Tonight is date night and it is Z's turn. I am very much looking forward to one on one time with him. Gramma needs to enjoy him while I can...

I had my appointment this morning with the financial counselor. He is also a trusted co-worker, so I have full confidence in his review and evaluation.

The short version is that I explained our debt and repayment plan, he looked at the social security, 401k and pension statements and used his fancy program to come up with a plan.

Of course, life doesnt always go as planned on paper- but he had really good news. He said that if we keep doing what we are doing (he felt we live fairly frugally for our income- yay!) that my goal of retiring at 60 is very much possible. AND he said that, again if all goes as planned, the hub could retire by 60-62 if he wanted to!!! Hurray! We have to stay focused and frugal...but he was very encouraging that it can work.

He was conservative in projections- did not include any equity growth in the homes. Although at 60, we will need to rent the home in town for either close to the payment, or sell it. Which hopefully by then should not be a problem.

He suggested considering upping our 401k contributions to lower our taxable income this year..AND then after debt is paid off, opening and contributing to Roth IRAs.

He did recommend looking into a good disability insurance plan for the hub.

Anyway... THAT is good news!!

Woot! Happy Blogoversary to me!



Here are today's stats:

•Date Started: Mar 11, 2006
•Entries: 1,213
•Comments: 5,039
•Total Visits: 3,066,095

I want to appreciate all of the fellow bloggers here who have provided friendship, support, an occasional and much needed knock on the noggin, and lots of financial advice! Each of you have made this an amazingly interesting and fun 7 years!

I had to make a big girl decision today. Because of the tax situation and what we now owe to the state...I cancelled the cruise. There was a part of me that cried NOOOOOOO....but the realistic part won. It makes no sense to pull from savings to pay this debt AND still take an extravagant vacation. I will pay the taxes, budget for future year taxes, continue on the debt trajectory, and then save for a vacation. This is so much more in line with my BHAG of retiring at 60, if not sooner.

Because it was far enough out, there were no penalties for cancelling the cruise, but I will end up paying $75 on my airline ticket. I dont think there is a fee on the hubs since he is a MVP with Alaska Air.

Day one back at work is as insanely busy as I had envisioned, so this is my very short lunch break...just taking a little time out to woot with my SA friends! Thanks for making this financial journey so much more enjoyable!

One of my (long?) term goals....my BHAG actually... is to retire at 60, if not sooner.

I currently contribute 8% to my 401k, which is the max that my job matches. (I love that they contribute this much, so nice!) I plan to raise my contribution amount once debt is paid off...In the meantime, I am embarrassed to admit that I set my investment options up years ago and have never changed them. This is primarily because I dont understand them. However, our job allows each employee a few hours a year to talk to an investment counselor for this very purpose. I have just never taken advantage of it.

So today, I emailed my investment profile to the counselor and set up an appointment for next month to get a solid plan in place. He briefly looked over my current investments and let me know that they need updating... since they currently conflict with each other. At least he didnt laugh.

He asked a few questions and pointed out that with the hubs pension (he is fully vested from the union job he left to go to the slope), what I currently have invested plus an additional 8 years of investing...plus 15-20 years left for the hub to work and invest (the hub is 7 years younger than me), we are in a good position to meet our goals. (yay!)

So, debts are being paid and I am getting the financial house in order to achieve the retirement goal. 8 years feels like a long time, but I know it will go quicker than I expect...and I very much want to be prepared.

Feels good to face the financial details head on and learn that it very well could work as planned.

BHAG = Big hairy a$$ goal...

I woke up Saturday with a big lip...low and behold, a nasty cold sore appeared by noon. Thankfully, I have some Abreva in the medicine cabinet..but no matter what I use, cold sores are so uncomfortable.

Aside from the Perseid party Friday night, the rest of the weekend was pretty frugal. We watched my sons little ones yesterday afternoon and used some chalk that we had..out on the driveway for entertainment. I also filled a small pool for the little ones to play in, and we just hung out in the backyard.


This afternoon my job had the annual summer picnic. It was very nice. THe weather was perfect and all food, drinks and dessert was provided.

Tonight, we are just hanging out at home. I am getting laundry done with the week ahead.

I have a little bit of a sore throat to go along with the cold sore...hopefully I will feel much better by morning!! I dont want to get sick this week, but there has been a bug going around the family. My fingers are crossed that is not what I have!

The hub and I talked about finances a little today. He is supportive of my dream to retired at 60- so I want to get a financial plan mapped out to make it happen. I want to work on this soon, so that we have a good idea of what this goal will take to achieve.

We had a wonderful time camping this weekend. The campsite was only $16 per night and it is right on the river. Last night we had much of the campground to ourselves. I remember just a few years ago when, during the summer, the campground stayed almost full. A sign of the hard economic times that even $16 per night is too much for some...well, that plus the additional higher cost of gas to get there I suppose.

There was even a music festival going on in the area, so when we walked to the little ice cream shop we were able to listen to live bands while enjoying our cones. ($5) Music- free.

I talked to the hub about a BHAG goal I have been pondering, which is to retire in 10 years at 60. He is supportive of the idea..but I have some serious financial work to do to achieve this. I have some debt to pay off...and I have to build savings. We currently own two homes. One has equity; the other newer home, has lost significant value and is about $30k under the value I paid for it. However, it is in a very desireable location, so when home values turn around, I know this will recoup some of the loss. The question is, do I hold and wait....or not. A huge caveat is that I got the loan through my current employer. They sold it, but I will have to find out if it will affect my job if we decide to short-sale.

I intend to start doing plenty of homework on this new goal. Just thinking about retiring in the future is exciting. My hub is 7 years younger than I am, so he plans to work at least 10-14 more years, which will get us to my social security/medicare age ( if either is still around by then). Having stayed home for a couple of years to care for parents a few years ago, I KNOW I can live frugally and within our means....no matter what 'our means' is..

Suddenly, I have a clearer financial focus than I have had in a long time. Funny how BHAGs do that.

BHAG= Big, Hairy, Audacious, Goal!!