A Tale of Two Mamas
Trying to keep someone IN timeout
Archive for Finances
February 16, 2008 at 8:35 am · Filed under Finances
TAX TIME! I know this is sick, but I love tax time. But I guess it’s because I usually get a sizable refund, thanks to years of infertility treatment.
In spite of our dear PayPerPost stumbling on their 1099 distributions once again, I pulled the trigger and submitted my taxes–and crossed my fingers. Shortly after hitting “submit,” PPP did email me my final income–and I overestimated by $8.50. Not bad, Quicken! I’d rather overestimate than under, just to be safe.
The other joy of this time of year is my annual SEP contribution money from my employer. This is the only time of year that I can research new funds, since most have an initial deposit of $3000, and I never have that amount lying around. In fact, for Shawna’s contribution last year, I started her up on the somewhat ghetto Vanguard STAR fund because it has an initial deposit amount of $1000. It hasn’t been doing too well, but not terribly in spite of the economy. At least it’s something–and then I was able to make subsequent deposits whenever we had a little extra. This year I can max out our 2007 contribution using my tax return, and look at some new funds. We have to get Shawna into something better–the STAR fund we’ll keep as a moderate, long term growth fund.
Here are some ones I’m looking at (more as a list for me to remember, since come April 14th when I get my check, I usually forget):
VEIEX - Emerging Markets, since our combined portfolio has very little international assets
VGENX - Energy Fund, duh
VIMSX - Mid-cap Index Fund
VMGIX - Mid-cap Growth Index Fund
VMVIX - Mid-cap Value Index Fund
Anyway, I’m trying to diversify our portfolios, partially to reduce the total percentage that I have in the REIT Index (VGSIX). I still can’t decide whether I should dump it or not. While I had been doing a lot better on it before the subprime mortgage fiasco, I’m still ahead because I bought in so low. And I’m still beating all the market indices (not that they’re great)… so I’m even wondering if I should buy more while it’s low.
Maybe we should start talking to a financial advisor–I feel like I need reasonable goals to work toward for college and retirement, so it’s less ambiguous than “You need a ton of money,” or “You’ll be working at WalMart when you’re 92.”
I know, this is all so dreadfully boring amidst posts of 3D/4D ultrasounds and belly photos–but if you look to the right, in just over a week we will have less than 100 days (give or take 2 weeks) before little Emmy gets here. And I want to make sure we’re all set up.
February 12, 2008 at 11:38 am · Filed under Finances, PP
We’ve been wondering what’s going to happen with the mortgage rates and the upcoming economy. Thank God we have a fixed mortgage and purchased our house at the right time and locked in a wonderful rate.
However, with the feds cutting rates we aren’t beyond refinancing at a better rate and bringing our term to ten years! (Right now we’re three years into a fifteen.)
Commercial Mortgage is another topic all together because many lenders are not taking the big chances that they once were. In fact, I think if I were looking to get a commercial loan I’d probably look at www.earth.co.uk. They’re based out of the United Kingdom and offer really reasonable rates.
Plus, they offer great articles, statistics, and information for those of you looking to take out loans, mortgages, or make financial decisions in the near future!
January 6, 2008 at 10:19 am · Filed under Finances
I remember back in the day when we lived paycheck to paycheck…times were tough! There were some weeks where we just needed a paycheck a few days earlier just to get us by with food and making payment deadlines.
Many people rely on payday loans to get them through the week/month. ChristianFaithFinancial.com offers an easy to use website that gives consumers information in order to make educated financial decisions.
This post sponsored by: ChristianFaithFinancial.com
November 20, 2007 at 3:09 am · Filed under Finances
And retirement. The market has been doing woefully bad lately…so I just try not to look at my portfolio. It’s just so hard to ignore, especially when in the last few months, I felt like I was doing a good thing by investing a little bit more into both my and Shaw’s retirement, as well as Graem’s 529 account. All those additional investments have wasted away with the market downswing in the last few weeks.
My one brokerage account (what was I thinking??) has dwindled away to nearly nothing. I’m just trying to hold out on my regular mutual fund accounts.
November 12, 2007 at 3:47 pm · Filed under Finances, PP
Well, who would have expected a twenty five year old furnance just to poop out? Not us. That’s for sure.
However, we’ve are now the proud owners of a Carrier top of the line furnance with the humidifier option. They should be doing the installation within the next week or so. Until then, it’s space heaters for us.
When we found out our heater was gone we had no idea how we were going to pay for it. It’s not like we have tons of money sitting in the bank and we didn’t want to totally drain our savings. One option was to look at personal loans. However, we weren’t sure that was the answer since we can get better interest rates through credit cards.
We never had to look towards secured loans because we have really good credit. One website that offers some great information on loans is: ThriftyScot.co.uk.
The website allows you to compare loans and find the perfect one for your financial needs.
Fortunate for us, Sears was offering a 12 month no interest loan. So we took advantage of that and hopefully, we’ll be able to pay off our new furnance.
This, btw, was not a fun purchase!
This post sponsored by: ThriftyScot.co.uk
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