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Archive for February, 2013

Feb Zero Dollar Budget

February 9th, 2013 at 05:43 pm

Income:

Hubby's Job (after tax): $5271
Hubby's Hobby Income: $550*
My PT-WFH Job: $670*
Hubby's Bonus (after tax): $5104
(*subject to change, though usually for the better!)

Total Monthly Income: $11598 (umm...holy crap!)

Expenses:

Non-Fixed Expenses:
Groceries: $861
Gasoline: $188
Misc: $500
Entertainment: $250
Gifts: $10 (Valentine's Day Treat!)

Fixed Expenses:
Mortgage/Insurance: $1509
Student Loan: $619
Utilities (water/sewer, gas, electric, etc): $349
Services (phone, computer backup, garbage, cable*, etc.): $285
(*reimbursed through hubby's company)
Leftover Leaf Cleanup Bill: $150*
(*he still has not billed us and I'm not calling again. This is his last chance.)
Auto Insurance: $73
Credit Cards (minimum payments): $299
Auto Loan: $198
Early Childhood Program (spring session fee): $120

Total Expenses: $5525

Difference (to be applied towards credit cards): $6073 (woo hoo!)


Still need to do an accounting for how we did in Jan but I think I'm out of time this morning so it looks like it will have to wait again.

Death and Taxes

February 9th, 2013 at 05:17 pm

I had this entry all written last week, but the blog site was acting funny that day, and when I submitted it, it just went off into the oblivion somewhere. Was too annoyed to retype something right away, but I am trying really hard to get caught up today.

So anyways, apparently our $8000 some dollar tax return was a bit too good to be true after all. You see, that tax form our DD said was from her school, the one we thought we already had, was really from her 529K that we just opened this year. Entering that form changed the picture a bit because apparently, you do not qualify for education tax credits if you pay for education expenses using a 529K. Huh? What the heck is the point then? Well okay, I get that they are tax deferred and gain interest if you start when they're young. Ours was more of a savings account tool that would penalize withdrawing funds for non-education expenses. A disincentive we felt our spend thrifty daughter needed. (To be fair, she's done quite well with it.) None the less, our tax return will be at least $2000 less than we had thought due to losing the credit. And I have to amend. Frown

Really, it hardly matters because due to our mortgage interest credit and congress's ineptitude, our pending tax return will be delayed until lord only knows when anyways. I just hope they don't realize our mistake and allow me to fix it instead of holding the fund until I do (or auditing us!) because who knows how much longer that will take then. Had originally thought that check would be coming late this month but now we're thinking more like April. Boo!

Eventually I need to figure out how to adjust our with holdings so that our returns aren't so big. Our tax situation has changed so much over the past 4 years though that its hard to sort it all out. Buying a home, starting a small business, getting married, changing jobs, promotions, having twins, sending a child to college (while still paying on my own student loans). Turbo tax informs me that due to all these things, our effective tax rate is only 4.4% right now. So our checkbook may have taken quite a hit from all that, but we're beating Warren Buffet's tax rate, so we must be good! Probably makes us part of Romney's 47% though. Wink

Hubby Got Promoted!!!

February 9th, 2013 at 04:55 pm

The day we have been waiting for all year is finally here! Many of you pointed out previously that in the future we should probably not count so many of our eggs before they hatch so to speak. And yes, I know what you mean. I tend to always be about 5 years ahead of myself. That works well for some things in life, though not for others. This one was particularly hard because we *thought* this promotion was going to happen last year. His boss had suggested as much. Then we came to find that the company likes to get new managers feet wet for a year by giving them most of the new duties they will have, without the pay increase until the following year, after they see how it goes.

I get the logic that they don't want to end up promoting people who aren't going to be a good fit for management. But man that was an annoying year. We had thought it was already in the bag. And Hubby worked his butt off and understandably felt uncompensated for it. But no more! He broke the six figure income ceiling in fact! Well, more like scuffed it: he's getting exactly $100K now. But he also got a sweet $8000 bonus, though that'll be about $5100 once taxes get pulled out. Additionally, he gets an office and a garage parking spot. And he will now be eligible for even larger bonuses going forward. Possibly as much as 15% if he keeps "exceeding expectations".

But okay, okay, let's not go there yet. Let's let next years chickens come next year. How 'bout them eggs this year though! Wink We should be getting the bonus check next week. And once we do, CC#1 and #2 that you see on the side bar there should finally be gone! And just in time too, one of our balance txfr promotions is about to expire.

It may seem like a simple thing to send in a big check like this to a credit card that needs paying, but for us, this in and of itself is a debt victory. We were never disciplined enough to make that much headway before. We *might* have ended up paying off the smaller of the two. But we certainly wouldn't have knocked out that second one also (with some spare to throw at the third as well). So this is a big money management win for us.

Additionally, we should start seeing about $250 more each paycheck after taxes, and that will certainly help as well. Credit Card Free 2013, here we come!