Look forward to getting into the routine again!

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As I realized it was the end of the month already, I figured I better hop on and get caught up with things, or everything will end up slipping yet another month.  Luckily, I’ll be taking some time away from work the next week and will be able to do some writing and get caught up with paperwork.  Both are things I’ll find relaxing compared to the scatter-brained chaos I’ve been going through the last month.  There’s been an awful lot of things that have come up that I can’t wait to write about though.  From an awesome garage sale, to the run-away trampoline…things have been crazy.  Stay tuned and we’ll get caught up this next week. 

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After asking me my monthly mortgage payment and the value of my home I stopped her right in her tracks with a challenge.  "Listen, ma’am.  I’d love to refinance if that’s where you’re going with this, but I’m willing to bet you can’t do it."  I know it was a risky move, but I’ve already talked to two banks who said they won’t touch me for a refinance until I get rid of my 2nd mortgage.  (over 34K, yeah right)

Photo by Josh Michtom

So throwing this challenge out there seemed to peak her interest based on her facial expression.  She wanted more info because NOW she wanted to prove me wrong.  :)  So I gave her the nice 85K/yr income, the estimated credit score in the low-mid 700s, (which is a semi-educated guess) and the fact that we’ve been on a plan to reduce debt for about six months now.  I gave her a list of all the things we’ve done to the house since we bought it to try to justify as much value as possible.  I just let her have the facts as I knew them, 2nd mortgage and all.

She looked at me and said it still might work.  I couldn’t believe it.  Of course, she would have to get a review from some people upstairs before giving me a call back on it, but I think she had genuine interest in trying.  Probably some little bonus for her or something if it did work out I’m guessing.

Regardless, I got excited over the idea that someone may actually consider taking me up on a re-fi.  Here I am early in the next week without a phone call though…even though she said she’d call regardless of what she hears from them.  It’s still possible I could get a call, but I’m not banking on it.  (neat, an unintended pun!)

I hate getting my hopes up on this kinda stuff.  Especially with the way the housing market and loan situation is right now in the economy.  If people wouldn’t touch me a year ago…why on earth would they want to right now?  (aside from the fact that my income keeps increasing and the housing market where I’m at is actually pretty stable)

Anyone else think I’m just getting false hope here?  I’m not in danger of not being able to pay my payments, and I’m pretty sure I could survive a rate hike too.  I just wouldn’t be able to make any progress when that happens.  Only 15 months left to go before that happens.  *sigh*

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I was talking with the wife a few days ago, and the subject of performance reviews at work came up.  One criteria for her is how many store credit cards she opens for customers for the year.  This is usually the most difficult metric for her to meet, and she’s not aggressive with it at all because of our hatred for credit cards.  However, she’s already got 40 this year and she only works PART TIME. 

Why?  Because there’s just tons of people out there that still want to open up a credit card to get that measly little 10% discount!

My reaction?  I was dumbfounded.

Don’t people read the news?  People should be learning from the mistakes of the rest of us in this whole credit mess.  But NOOOOO.  They’d rather save $15 on a couple things they can’t even afford to buy in the first place!

It just never ceases to amaze me how some people just can’t wait to get their hands on another chunk of borrowed money.  The store cards are the worst.  They’ll give anyone credit.  As little as $500 for a credit limit, and they’ll toss in an automatic 25% interest rate right from the start.

It just goes to show that there’s no short supply of people wanting more credit.

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Account Review

Photo by thinkpanama

I have a number of accounts with USAA Federal Savings Bank.  This is my primary bank that I’ve used for just about everything from insurance to credit cards since I was in college.  With a military requirement to get membership, I’ve just yet to see a comparison in quality of service and value combined.  I use this for direct deposit for our jobs.  This bank is based out of Texas though, with no local branches.

I have a secondary account with USAA that I use for all web income and PayPal transactions.  I keep this account pretty low for the most part, and it’s the only account I’ll hook up to any outside organizations.  I never let any company have direct ties to my primary checking account because I want to be in complete control of my money.

I also have a local bank account wherever I live as well.  This account I use to hold my emergency fund, and I cash/deposit checks here as well.  I can transfer whatever balance I have over my $2000 emergency fund to my USAA account that I use to pay bills via the bank website very easily.

Then I have the ING account, which I primarily opened for the $25 bonus.  Though I’ll also start using it for saving toward big-ticket items once I have my debts lowered.

Any other accounts I have will be short term at best.  I’ve closed all of my unused accounts to simplify my life.

So, here’s my bank accounts:

1. USAA - Primary Checking:  Both jobs direct deposits, used to pay bills
2. USAA - Secondary Checking:  Web income sources linked here, PayPal, etc.
3. Local account - Checking:  Keep emergency fund here, cash checks, etc.
4. ING account - Savings:  Free bonus, referral income, sub-accounts for saving toward goals.

Why I’m Fed Up With My Current Local Account

Fees.

I’m sick to death of the little $1/month fee for just using a check card.  I hate the fact that if I go below $0 for a day, the "overdraft protection" system they have still charges me $25 for every single transaction that happens during that day no matter the amount.  (so if I write a $100 check, and have four $1 debits for whatever reason in a single day, when my account balance is $90…they’ll take the $100 first, triggering a $25 charge followed by four MORE $25 charges for the little dollar transactions.

Photo by Double Down

I have to fight them tooth and nail to take the charges off when this happens even though my deposit was SUPPOSED to be there already.  (They keep pending deposits a number of days before they let you actually use the funds.)  I get them to take off the monthly check card fees, but every year they start SHOWING BACK UP!

Enough already!  *pulls hair*

The Wells Fargo Deal

The deal is pretty basic.  If I open an account with at least $100, I’ll get $50 added to my account after 30-45 days.  It’s only for a basic checking account, and it can’t be used for any existing accounts.  Only one per household…and that’s the gist of it.

No monthly/annual fees.  There’s Wells Fargo ATMs EVERYWHERE in this country that I know of.  I don’t plan on using this for much more than cashing checks and housing my emergency fund anyhow.  So why not?

The deal is only good until April 15th, so I’m gonna just do it this week.  Once that’s done I’ll transition all of my money over to the new account and finally be done with the local bank.

I’m ready for the frustrations to end!

Anyone else have the urge to move accounts?  What put you over the edge and made you want to switch?

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Carnival of Personal Finance #147 - hosted by MoneyNing

Until next week!

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The site is called Revolution Money Exchange (aff), and the best way to describe it simply is that it’s a PayPal equivalent.  Since it was so easy, I thought I’d summarize it here for you guys.  Just like the ING accounts, you get a free $25 for signing up and I’ll get a $10 referral fee.  HOWEVER, there’s no deposit required.  That’s right, ZERO investment.

Here’s the first screen you get when getting started.  I kid you not, it’s only 3 more forms.

1. Name/email/etc.
2. Address/Phone/Contact
3. SSN/Password/reminder question

Once you’re done, you’ll end up on the confirmation page where you can go directly to your account profile page.

Once on the account page, you can see where you can connect to your bank account so you can transfer funds in and out of the account for no charge.

Then below the fold on the account page, you can see all incoming and outgoing transactions.  For new accounts, there is a $25 transaction waiting for your approval in the "Money that has been sent to you" section.  Simply click on the ‘approve’ button and the money is immediately in your account!

As you can see in the screen-shots, there’s a referral program.  Once you’re done, you can stick a referral link on your own page and make $10 from anyone who signs up as well!  There’s a $500 limit to income via this method, but every little bit helps!

I plan on using this in conjunction with PayPal if it gains enough momentum to become a payment type for most places around the web.  If not, I still got my $25 headed toward my account for 5-10 minutes of effort.

Let me know if you have any issues and I’ll be glad to help look into it!  Gotta love free money! 

I found this deal through Kevin at NoDebtPlan.  Thanks Kevin!

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Photo by pinprick

Fast forward to Monday morning.  Oh yeah!  Gotta pay the bills!  As you’re tearing into them with just minutes to go before you have to leave for work, you realize one of them was due THURSDAY.  Crrrraaap!  Now you remember that last time you convinced yourself that you’d look for that bill when it came in and pay it right away…but FORGOT TO DO IT!  Oh well, submit the payment that takes 3-4 days to get there and hope they process it before they impose a late fee on you.  (not a chance)

Any of this sound familiar?

There are many ways to pay your bills, many of which work well, and some that end up with scenarios like the one presented above.  The key is to find the one that works for you.  So what I’ve done is outline some of the different methods I’ve tried and explained the pros and cons of each so that you can find one that really helps you get in a groove of paying your bills on time.

Method 1 - Automate Everything

There’s a lot of tools out there at various banks that allow you to completely set up your bills to link up with your checking account.  This is possible with just about any bills I can think of with major corporations, and it’s possible to set up fixed-amount bills that are the same every month with anyone that has a billing address.  Some companies will even allow you to provide your bank information so they can just withdraw the due amounts instead of send a bill.

Method 2 - Pay Everything The Moment You Get It

Photo by Earl

Probably the easiest way to account for things is to just pay every bill the moment you get it.  When the envelope shows up, simply write a check that minute and put a stamp on the envelope.  (Or use your web bill pay system from the bank to arrange a payment immediately.)  Nothing will ever really be late if you’re paying everything the moment you get your statement from the company.

I think this may be one of the most difficult of the methods to follow because it takes the most discipline, but I also think it may be one of the most stress-free if you can manage to maintain a large enough account balance to pull it off.

Method 3 - Schedule Bill-Paying Sessions

Another method that I find to be the most common amongst the people I know is to schedule regular times every month or payday where all bills that are due get paid.  Different pay schedules will determine when you’re able to do this effectively, but there’s two variants that I’ve seen.

• Pay everything that you have in your stack of bills that’s due before the next payday.
• Pay everything that you have regardless of when it’s due.

If you’re on a bi-weekly pay schedule like me, then every payday you’d sit down and figure out what you need to pay to keep current.  The next payday you do the same thing.  If anything is due immediately after the next payday, you can just pay it now and make sure it’s not late.

What I Do

So which method do I use?  Well, I actually use a combination of methods 1 and 3.  Don’t forget that the above methods aren’t the ONLY methods!  There’s many variations in between them too.  I’ve automated all of my non-variable payments from my checking account web bill pay system.  For example: mortgage, student loan, credit cards, some utilities, etc.

Next, I’ve got my budget spreadsheet listing all of my bills due-dates in one column.  This is something I refer to as I’m planning which bills I need to pay every payday.  If the date falls within a pay-period, or even a few days afterward, I’ll make sure to pay it by the payday before that.  Aside from what goes in my envelope budget, I use this for everything that’s not automated.  For example: medical bills, electric bill, gas bill, annual bills, etc.

I find that the combination of automating things I know won’t change and scheduling everything else works best for me.  I only have to worry about the things that fluctuate from month to month, and I can work on minimizing those expenses where possible.

So what kind of system are you using?  Are you tired of paying late bills, or do you have a tried and true system you’re willing to share?  Let us know about it in the comments!

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BloggingAwayDebt is actually one of the very first personal finance blogs I stumbled onto before deciding to make one myself.  I’ve been a regular reader ever since and highly recommend you all subscribe to her feed.

And a huge WELCOME to all the BloggingAwayDebt readers stopping by for the first time!  Feel free to check out my about pages and popular posts in the sidebar to get started.  Also keep informed of my progress and listen to my family’s discoveries along the way by subscribing to my feed in the sidebar!

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Here’s the goals for this month:

1. Reduce overall debt by $1000.  Last month was $2000, but half of that was medical expenses that got paid from my flex spending account.  This month I only have about $200 of medical expenses outstanding.  I think 1K is reasonable, but not too easy.
2. Continue evolving our envelope system.  It’s going to take awhile to get our system where we want it.  Another successful month under our belt will simply strengthen our habits.
3. Finish my debt scales page.  Ok, I’ve put this one off long enough. Time to just get these out there.
4. Revive my daily journal entries again.  Starting with my next budget update to the site this weekend, I’m going to be doing journal entries again.  I did much better tracking incoming and outgoing money when I was doing this, and it’s taken a back seat to other developments for too long.
5. Release the forums!  Yet another development project I’ve been tinkering with too much.  They’ve been "coming soon" for almost half a year now.  Lame.

There’s lot of other things I want to do, but I’m going to focus on these main things this month along with keeping up with a regular posting schedule.  We’ll see at the end of the month where we are with it! 

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