08 DEC 2007 - 7 Day Eastern Magic Part 4

[SeaSickPsycho]

Dennis sent ours UPS ground Wed to arrive on Monday for 20 something. USPS was 40 something, Fedex was also 40 something. OUrs was pretty heavy, it has 2 bottles of wine, Secret Santa stuff, my wench outfit, laundry soap packets and some other stuff. It is going to meet us at Wilderness Lodge.

Where did you get the laundry soap packets?

 

[SeaSickPsycho]

Well I think paying down your mortgage early will earn you untold savings in interest that does not have to be paid. That extra dollar paid towards your principal will never ever ever again have interest on it. We balance the expected long term return of say a strong mutual fund which will be taxable income.

I will gladly pay the extra in taxes no longer having the mortgage deduction rather than pay the interest.

Ramsey's baby steps are

Wow, all you guys could start your own radio show.
I have an emergency fund with Dave's recommendation but that wouldn't even cover our gasoline for the month. I need to work on the 3-6 months for home and business. Not a lot of fun, but I should be doing it.

What is the snowball thing? Winter time fun...I can do that!

 

[JoiseyMom]

Wow, all you guys could start your own radio show.
I have an emergency fund with Dave's recommendation but that wouldn't even cover our gasoline for the month. I need to work on the 3-6 months for home and business. Not a lot of fun, but I should be doing it.

What is the snowball thing? Winter time fun...I can do that!

The snowball is you pay off your lowest credit card first, then take the money you used to put to pay off that one towards the next credit card..etc..

 

[SeaSickPsycho]

Well I think paying down your mortgage early will earn you untold savings in interest that does not have to be paid. That extra dollar paid towards your principal will never ever ever again have interest on it. We balance the expected long term return of say a strong mutual fund which will be taxable income.

I will gladly pay the extra in taxes no longer having the mortgage deduction rather than pay the interest.

Ramsey's baby steps are

More about Dave's advice.

DH and I have not planned to save for kids' education. We both put ourselves through school and are all the better for having to work our butts off (not litterally, you'll see that when you meet us ). I think we are bitter that we didn't get any help. Neither of our families could afford to help. DH was first in his family to get a college degree. He now owns a place that fixes trucks. Two of our mechanics have college degrees but don't really use that info at work.

DD(18) started school this year and we had her attend an instate college. In GA her tuition is free with the Hope scholarship. DH and I agreed that if she wanted to go to another school, we would pay the amount the state would have paid and she get handle the rest. We also believe that she should not be in school if she can't maintain a B average and keep the scholarship. How hard can it be to make B's at a small state college?

I hope we haven't made a mistake. I wish DD(18) would get a job.

 

[SeaSickPsycho]

The snowball is you pay off your lowest credit card first, then take the money you used to put to pay off that one towards the next credit card..etc..

Lowest ballance? I guess lowest interest wouldn't really make sense.

Is it just for credit cards? We don't really have those. What about a car loan with 0% interest? We have three car notes with 0% interest...all cars died at same time.
We have our two homes each with only 20% equity. I think we really need to work on cash savings.

I would really like to see some type of chart on what percentage of your income should be spent on housing, food, clothing, medical care, and Disney. DH and I are never on the same page with spending. I buy all the household stuff and bills, he pays the mortgages and car payments. He thinks $200 is too much for a week of food for five people. He will only eat fresh vegetables and other really expensive stuff. Also, is it okay to buy realestate instead of a retirement account? The depreciation is really good at tax time.

 

[SeaSickPsycho]

Hello..

So today, I went to the Mall to check out some Dragon's for DS for Christmas. Well, I stopped in Build A Bear for my paycheck and my Best Friend, said, she has a Break, let's go to lunch..

So we get back to the store and the store is packed. So me, being the Best BAB employee they have, answered a few phone calls and helped out a customer.. AND... there was a sweet couple buying 60 Bears !!! They are donated them to the Elk's Club which hand them out to kids..

Sooooooooo my Boss says, I will pay you for an hour if you put a heart in each bear and stitch them up while he stuffs them.. I said, of course, not a problem, I have no where to be anyway *cough* Grocery Store *cough* can you tell I HATE grocery store shopping..

Well we are doing this WoW type of Friendly contest that BAB is doing for us.. Every WoW we perform, we get $5 on our paycheck as well as entered into a drawing for all kinds of Prizes.. So today I got 3 WoWs and I wasn't even "working" today

Congrats on the great day at work! You must have a really fun job. Do you ever have spoiled brats? Sometimes DD(4) gets upset if she can't get lots of clothes for her bear.

I found the santa outfits for the bears today. We will be dressing them all shortly. I am thinking of putting them on the tree. Several years ago I had a friend who did an entire beanie baby tree and it was great.

 

[pfishgirl]

Congrats on the great day at work! You must have a really fun job. Do you ever have spoiled brats? Sometimes DD(4) gets upset if she can't get lots of clothes for her bear.

I found the santa outfits for the bears today. We will be dressing them all shortly. I am thinking of putting them on the tree. Several years ago I had a friend who did an entire beanie baby tree and it was great.

Hi !!
and YES all the time
Sometimes we get Parents whom are worse then the kids

 

[SeaSickPsycho]

Hi !!
and YES all the time
Sometimes we get Parents whom are worse then the kids

Parents.

 

[SeaSickPsycho]

Everyone is in bed and I have packed swim/beach stuff and pirate costumes. Do I really need anything else?

 

[AmberDaClown]

Dave's debt snowball is to take the loan (Credit, car) with the lowest balance first and pay it down and do minimums on everything else. Then take what you were paying towards the lowest and attack the next higher one and so on. Clark Howard would say pay the highest interest rate first and on down.

Clark also says to remember that no one can borrow for retirement while kids can borrow for school (which Dave Ramsey is against any type of school loan). We had to scrimp and struggle to pay off DH's school loans so we are not investing in 529's for DD. We also know we can take out the contributions to a ROTH IRA without tax liability or penalty to help DD with college and just let the earning continue to grow if necessary.

FWIW, Dave Ramsey did declare bankruptcy when he overextended himself on real estate in the 90's and the notes all got called due. Both Clark and Dave do say real estate are good investments. Clark also said it will be about 2009 before the market picks up as he has been looking for his next rental property.

 

[SeaSickPsycho]

Dave's debt snowball is to take the loan (Credit, car) with the lowest balance first and pay it down and do minimums on everything else. Then take what you were paying towards the lowest and attack the next higher one and so on. Clark Howard would say pay the highest interest rate first and on down.

Clark also says to remember that no one can borrow for retirement while kids can borrow for school (which Dave Ramsey is against any type of school loan). We had to scrimp and struggle to pay off DH's school loans so we are not investing in 529's for DD. We also know we can take out the contributions to a ROTH IRA without tax liability or penalty to help DD with college and just let the earning continue to grow if necessary.

FWIW, Dave Ramsey did declare bankruptcy when he overextended himself on real estate in the 90's and the notes all got called due. Both Clark and Dave do say real estate are good investments. Clark also said it will be about 2009 before the market picks up as he has been looking for his next rental property.

So would Clark say to buy now or wait until 2009. I really hope realestate picks up before 2009. Well at least construction. Almost half of our business is linked to some aspect of construction. Then we have the landscapers, no rain, no work for them, no torn up trucks for us.

I found four duplexes I would like to buy in Athens. DH says no way. We started getting rental prop. after college. We mostly had single family homes which is what I think CLark recommends. We have only owned one duplex. It was not so good. We had a local police officer in one side who bounced his rent every other month. The other tenants were good but they did not speak English and it was hard to solve problems for them.

DH wants to spend same amount of money and buy a commercial property. It only has one tenant and I am afraid they go out of business and I get stuck with huge payment on the building. Then we would have to find a new tenant. Could take some time, not like duplexes in a highly sought after part of town. They have been rented almost all the time for the last twenty years.

Education: I find it really funny that Dave and Clark have such different ideas about paying for school. I also find it interesting that Dave lost it all in the 90s. Was he offering financial advice before his bankruptcy?

DH and I also have debate about getting overextended. I would like to only commit to what we could pay if he couldn't work and I had to go back to real work.

 

[SeaSickPsycho]

Anything good on television tonight? I haven't been around television on a Friday night since July.

 

[SeaSickPsycho]

Where is Brack? Anyone hear how his wife is doing?

 

[SeaSickPsycho]

DD(18) still thinks DD is designated driver. She is choosing an answer tone for me tonight. I can't decide, Christmas or Disney?

 

[SeaSickPsycho]

Just checked on rebate for three phones I bought last month. They have the info but must verify or something. I was hoping to get the check before we leave. Why do they not just take the money off the price of the phones?

 

[SeaSickPsycho]

Watching Grey's Anatomy from 11/22.

 

[SeaSickPsycho]

The place I bought my car from last month sent me a big box of car washing stuff. I think they saw me driving around town with an extra dirty car and didn't want anyone to see that much dirt near that cheap plastic frame they stuck on the front. I am not getting it washed until Tuesday. However, I am afraid they will issues some kind of water ban on Monday and I won't be able to get it cleaned on Tuesday.

 

[AmberDaClown]

Clark would say to wait closer to 2009 before buying. Unfortunately a foreclosure will be a buyer's gain.

Not sure when her started offering advice.

Clark and Dave differ on Debit cards. Dave is all for them, Clark calls them piece of trash fake Visas. We use American Express for EVERYTHING and pay it off every month.

Dave would say do the envelope system after you budget and pay cash or use the debit card. He says people spend about 18% less when they pay cash because laying out three $20s has some pain to it, where charging $60 has no emotion attached. We just do not want that kind of cash lying around the house but we are going to try it.

Our first goal is to get a will and life insurance. The people we want DD to go has changed but now that we are traveling without her we know a will is important.

 

[SeaSickPsycho]

We are walking with DS cub scout group in a Christmas parade tomorrow morning. I have to find some pants for him ASAP. He only has uniform shorts.

 

[SeaSickPsycho]

Grey's isn't very good. It just seems very silly this year.