Tag Archives: finances

Gratitude

Posted on by
Reply

Yesterday I took the whole family to the Walt Disney World resort in Orlando, Florida. This was my second weekend in a row at the resort, as Krystalle and I had gone the previous week. My big gift for the whole family this year was the purchase of Florida Resident Annual Passes.

It’s already been worth it.

Due to the fact that I had to buy a new car over the weekend (something I’ll write about later today in a much more detailed “state of the Mike” post) money is likely going to be tight and future trips are going to have to be much more in the “bring it from home” category. Yesterday, however, I tried to be a bit on the relaxed side and we did all of our eating in the parks.

While there are many things I could talk about during the course of the day, one really stood out as being a shining example of how awesome my son is.

While we were walking towards the Pirates of the Caribbean ride he kind of pulled me aside and asked me how much money I had planned to spend today. It was kind of an odd question, and I told him so. “I’m sorry,” he replied. “It’s just that I know things are kind of tight and that you spent a lot of money on the tickets and I don’t want to stress you out by asking for things that you can’t afford.”

I damn near started crying right then and there. Not out of any sense of shame or sadness, but out of sheer appreciation for the fact that he was considerate enough of the household finances and their impact on my stress levels to take a moment and make sure that our family vacation wasn’t going to make matters worse. Maintaining a household is one of those things that you don’t often get recognized for – especially from the kids. This is not a dig on them at all. It is simply the way of the world. I had no appreciation for how hard my Mom worked to maintain the status quo around our place until I grew up and had to do it myself.

It’s nice though, every once in a while, to realize that they recognize what you put yourself through to make sure they have what they need and want.

Also? As much as it feels like hubris to me to say it I have to admit that when I see him do things like that I am filled with an enormous sense of pride over the job I’ve done with him as his Father. I look at things like that and I pat myself on the back for a job well done.

So, yeah…I’ve got that going for me. Which is nice.

Brain Dump

Posted on by
1

I started writing this post a few days ago.  I figure I’ll just go ahead and append on the end of it with the understanding that, perhaps, my head space is a bit different than it was when I first began this ramble.

Not only do I feel the need to break up the utter and complete monotony of posting nothing but my workouts here, I also have a compulsion to simply talk about a few things.  Get some stuff out of my head and out there in the ether as it were.  As a result this may end up being an incoherent post at times, so I apologize in advance.

Continue reading →

Summer Agenda

Posted on by
Reply

May 16th – 19th : St. Augustine with

[info]netgoth

 

June 5th – 9th : Denver with netgoth for Scott and Donna’s wedding.

June 20th – 27th : My sister Karen and her family will be visiting from Missouri.

August 8th – 10th : Convergence 14 in Tampa

August 13th – 17th : Gen Con Indy with Alex and

[info]ross_winn

 . Will get to meet

[info]haujob

  and hopefully see John and Random.

August 23rd : See Embedded

August 27th – September 2nd : Dragon*Con in Atlanta with

[info]netgoth

 ,

[info]etcet

  and possibly

[info]aishlynn

 . Hooking up with many of the Children ofMidian guild mates.

TBA : A trip to the Magic Kingdom with the family, compliments of my pay from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

I cannot even express how excited I am about all of this, or about how I’m finally able to afford doing this kind of stuff without putting myself in the poor house.

[info]netgoth

  and I have both suffered through a lot and worked very hard to get where we are. Hell, she’s been homeless and if it weren’t for Karen I would have lost this house after my divorce. It’s been really rough for a long time, and it’s nice to have finally gotten to a point where things aren’t quite so hard in the financial department. They aren’t perfect – I still don’t have any savings to speak of and pretty much live paycheck to paycheck, but I’m doing that because I’m putting lots of money on to credit cards and paying down certain ones to 0 every time I run them up again.

Progress is being made, and despite the downturn in the economy recently we’re in a pretty good place.

So…Yay. 🙂

A ray of light…

Posted on by
Reply

Hell, more than a ray.  The sun just came out and I’m whistling zip-a-dee-do-da.

A little backstory here.  I refinanced my home mortgage just over a year ago.  I did so in order to roll over a home equity loan I had taken out as well as a loan I had taken to get the windows put in.  At the time I did this, my credit rating was pretty crappy (thanks to late payments on the previous mortgage during periods of unemployment or crappy jobs) so I had to get into a credit fixing program.  It was basically a higher rate ARM that was fixed for three years. 

My interest rate on that loanwas 8.75%, and my payments did not include my taxes or insurance.  After three years my rate would have started to adjust.  As most of you probably know, I suck at saving money, so when the taxes and insurance came due I found myself in a bind.  I got the first payment made on the insurance (and got the friend who spotted me the 1k paid back), but I still have another $1000 to pay on the insurance and a $1300 property tax bill. 

Plus the need to start saving for this years taxes and insurance.

So about a week ago my loan company calls me back and wants to know if they can see about refinancing me again now that I’ve had some time to straighten my credit out.  I tell them to go ahead, and lo and behold they can!  My credit isn’t perfect yet, but it’s improved back to right around the “average” credit rating.  They tell me they can get me into a fixed mortgage at 6.5%.

Hook me up, fellas!

They wanted me to pay for the appraisal up front.  Told them I couldn’t do it, so they waived it if I “promised” I really wanted to refinance.  Then they said they couldn’t put the taxes and insurance into the loan, but I told them I really wanted them to do so if at all possible.

I just got the final details on my new loan.

They are putting the taxes and insurance into my monthly payments, which are going to go up by around $200.  I am TOTALLY ok with this, because it means I don’t have to worry about it (and as my payments are automatically taken out of my bank account it’s even less of a stress for me).  Not only that, but they are required by law to include any payments I owe within 60 days of the closing of the loan into the package.  So those property taxes I owe and the balance of my property insurance?  Part of my loan. 

My first payment is due in on May 1st, and because it’s closing at the end of March I’m still going to have to make the April payment so that I’m still on time (and really, it’s not worth the effort to go through all the trouble to stop they payment from the third party company I use just to have to call them again to tell them where to send the new ones).  So I should be getting that $1100 payment back somewhere in the first part of April.  I’m also getting $1400 back from the loan itself. 

So to sum up – Lower interest rate.  Taxes and Insurance included in the loan.  Back taxes and currently due insurance payment paid.  $2500 in cash to put towards credit cards sometime in the next few weeks.  Lower, and more importantly, fixed interest rate.

Oh yeah.  I’m a happy camper.  This whole situation was causing me quite a lot of stress.  Feel like a great big burden has just been taken off my shoulders.

Yay!

Cha-Ching!

Posted on by
Reply

First and second mortage have now been rolled into one mortgage, along with the financing I took out for the windows.

As of this morning, five of my credit cards are paid down to $0.

In the next week, I’ll be adding at least one more to that list. I’ll have until Mid-March before I have to start putting money towards the mortgage again, and during that time I’m paying off as much credit card debt as possible. Fully intend on knocking several grand off of the top.

It’s a start.

I’ve got 3 years to completely get my credit turned around again. At that point, I’ll be refinancing the mortgage and going to a 15 year. If my credit isn’t in shape by then, I’ll be hosed because at that point the interest rate I have becomes adjustable.

So yeah. That’s what’s up here.

Adventures in Home Finances!

Posted on by
Reply

So I spent a good deal of time today arranging a refinance of my home. I’m rolling my first and second mortgage into one loan, and also putting the financing that I did for the windows and the air conditioner into it. Unfortunately, I’m not saving a hell of a lot of money. About $150 a month. Why?

Well, my credit seems to have taken a crapper recently. One of the reasons? The second mortgage and the windows were both financed through American General Finance, which I have come to find out is bad for your credit rating.

Yeah, that’s right. Going through a finance company and not a bank hurts your credit.

I’ve also got far too many credit cards open right now. I guess 3 is the magic number you’re supposed to shoot for there?

One of the nice things about the company I’m refinancing through, though, is that they refinance again for free if you go through them. SO, the plan is to spend the majority of this year making sure that all of my payments are made on time, and eliminating some of the credit cards from my wallet. This will allow me to get out of the cruddy “you have bad credit” finance and into a more reasonable interest rate program. Maybe even one of those “interest only” loans that will allow me to pay directly on to my principal in amounts that suit my financial situation from month to month.

Ugh. You know, as easy as this has been (and it’s been VERY easy), doing this kind of thing still gives me a headache.