Author Archives: Mom

About Mom

A family of three living in the Pittsburgh area. We both work full-time and work on raising our daughter.

July 2014 Early Retirement Progress

2 Replies

We contributed $3,292.35 this month to our retirement accounts  We “lost” $7,215.19 in interest this month, pretty much wiping out the gains of June, but such is the market.

I put in $900 into our taxable account to sort of make up for the lack of contribution to a retirement fund, and of course, it was deposited and purchased stocks at pretty much the peak of this month.  We almost have enough in the taxable account to get into a mutual find vs the ETFs we’re in now.  There are short term trading fees on one of the ETFs (90 days), so I may have to wait a bit before selling to buy the mutual fund though – and I’ll take the capital gains.  Hopefully, I can get that in before the end of the year, so that we can offset some of those with deducting all of our moving expenses (estimated at 10k).

I won’t be able to contribute more to my Lending Club account (PA residents can’t buy new loans, but they can hold them and buy them on FolioFN).  I don’t want to mess around with buying loans, so I’m just going to let my existing loans run their course, and that’s that.  I haven’t considered whether I will sell the ones I have though (~$400).  Because the balance is so low, I’m not very diversified, but I’m also in mostly A and B loans, which don’t have a high risk of default, so I lean towards just waiting 3 years ’til they all “run out”

The markets have not been good to us this month, but for the year, they’re still doing pretty well, and I suspect we’ll still be able to “meet” our goal of just over 20k in gains this year.

2014 Totals

So far, for 2014, we’ve contributed $23,098.78 (57.75% of the new goal of 40k), and we’ve gained $15,183.43 in investment gains (74.94% of our planned total).

Temporarily Unemployed

11 Replies

Today was my last day at the office.  I have enough extra hours and vacation to cover until the end of July.  I’m owed about $650 in expense reimbursement, but my former boss knows how to get a hold of me, and the company has my forwarding address.  I don’t have to be at my new job until August 11, almost two weeks.

We’re “moving” to Pittsburgh on the 6th, when Daughter Person, the cats and I will begin living with my mom.  Dad will be going with us and we’ll be establishing residency on the 7th (to avoid Dad having to show up for jury duty on the 11th!) – getting our new licenses and getting the cars registered, inspected, etc.  I’m not likely to be returning to the DC area until our house here is under contract.  Dad will be going back and forth until we close.

Until then, I’m going to be doing a combination of relaxing, getting rid of things on craigslist/freecycle/facebook and packing.  I’ve had good luck getting rid of things on the local Facebook “yard sale” group.  It’s nice to not have to worry about work for a while.  I don’t have to respond to e-mails and I don’t have to go to an office – although I do have to wake up to take Daughter Person to daycare.

And the best part – I don’t have to worry about money while I’m not working!

Last Trip for Work

7 Replies

The rest of this week will be a little bittersweet for me – I’ll be taking my last trip for this job.  I’m going to Peru, so it’s not a “boring” trip by any means – just long flights.  I’ve been traveling for this job since 2005, and as a friend commented to me the other day, I have “more stamps in my passport than a post office has”.  I’ve flown all over the world – literally – over the last 9 years, and I’ve enjoyed it.  I’ve been to 6 continents, about 20 countries (and will be adding two this trip!), and according to TripIt, 288,157 miles since April 2008 when I started using it.

When Daughter Person was born, I started collecting dolls from each of the countries I visit – something preferably in the native dress of that area.  My father had created a similar collection for my aunt when he was in the Navy that ended up being mine, and I passed it on to a cousin – and it was damaged in a flood 🙁  Hopefully, I can take Daughter Person to see the world when she’s old enough to appreciate it and she can pick out her own dolls.

I’m not going to be making airline status in the future – not via actually flying anyway. I should have Silver status at least for next year, but after that, I’ll be on my own.  I’ll have to collect my points the “new” way of churning credit cards – after we’ve gotten our new mortgage!

Expected Budget Changes from Moving

12 Replies

I’ve talked about the benefits to us moving in general, but what are the real budget changes we’re expecting once we move?  I know the first few months will be all over the map on how much we spend because we’ll still be settling in, fixing things in a new house, etc.  But I have a pretty good idea of how much extra we’ll be saving.  This isn’t all of our budget, but the items I think will be changing.  The rest, like how much we spend on clothes or groceries might change a little, but not really drastically.    Our income isn’t changing significantly (I’m getting $2000 less per year – about $150/mth), and Dad’s is staying exactly the same.

Overall, we’ll be spending a little less in food and clothing purchases because of Pittsburgh/Allegheny county sales tax (0% clothes and basic food vs the 6% on clothes and 2.55% on food in VA).  We’ll also theoretically be paying less in income taxes,  VA has a 6% on Federal AGI tax, but PA taxes ~3% of all income (very few deductions), and 0.5-1% local income tax – depending on where we live.  We shelter a lot of income from the feds (and therefore VA), and it won’t be sheltered from PA income tax, so I don’t know how the raw numbers will work out. I don’t *think* we have enough sheltered to make up the 3% difference, but we might.

Bills that will go up:

VA PA Difference
Auto insurance 75 110 -35

Bills that will go down:

VA PA Difference
Mortgage (including property taxes & insurance) 2700 1700 1000
Daycare 1300 500 800

Just among those three things, we will be able to save an extra $1765 per month beyond what we’re saving now.

Definitely looking forward to seeing how all the expenses play out.  We are also likely to save more in fuel as I’m planning on taking the bus to work on a regular basis (and I get a free bus pass as a perk of employment, but I have to pay for a parking pass).  That’s a decision that hasn’t been made yet though, so we’ll see how it plays out.

We’re also going to have at least one month with no mortgage – just as part of the buying and selling process (and we’re living with my mom during that time).

Update July 21: I just found out that I’m also getting an $80 “communication allowance” per month to pay for cell and Internet service.  That’s about 90% of our entire family cell phone bill – an “extra” $80 per month 🙂

Have you ever made a significant move to lower your expenses?

We Have Too Much Stuff!

9 Replies

As we start to pack our life into tiny boxes for moving, I’m starting to realize how much “stuff” we actually have. And how much of it wasn’t being used much (if at all). Some stuff we have to keep for a prescribed period of time (like old tax returns), other stuff, we just need to get rid of. Moving is as good of an excuse as any. I’m more concerned that I don’t have time to seriously go through the stuff and separate between keep and donate before it needs to end up in a box for moving.

I still have a huge monster suitcase that my parents gave me when I graduated high school – that I’ve used maybe 3 times in the last 20 years – and at least the last time, I wish I hadn’t brought such a large one with me. I haven’t carried anything larger than my medium sized one for the last 8 years – and that was for 3 weeks of work clothes! It’s listed on freecycle, but no bites yet 🙂

I already have a rather large pile of things that are going to donation. The charity does pickups and they’re coming by today to take that away. Then we start a new set of boxes for donation, because I’m sure there will be more!

There is the pile of things that I would like to sell before moving, but it might have to wait until after we’ve moved: like our exercise bike and treadmill. No bites on the bike on craigslist, and the treadmill has stuff sitting on it so it hasn’t even gone up on craigslist yet.

Finally, there is the “trash” pile. As much as I hate throwing things out, there are just some things that aren’t worth donating or even giving away.

The Realtor came by last night to sign the listing paperwork, and we went over what should and shouldn’t get packed. All the stuff we really don’t use that often, like tchotchkes, that would be easy for us to pack up, are the things he wants us to leave unpacked for the stager to use. We’ll just have a *lot* of extra packing to do between going under contract and closing 🙁

Why is it that moving spurs you to get rid of things that haven’t bothered you for the last 5 years?

June 2014 Early Retirement Progress

4 Replies

We contributed $3,304.33 this month to our retirement accounts – my contribution was “left over” from my May paycheck, which didn’t get deposited until mid-June. We “made” $7,565.24 in interest this month.

My “new” job has an 8% contribution to a 403(b) plan – it’s not a match, but it’s contributed whether I contribute or not. I have to wait 3 years until it’s vested, but that’s OK. Depending on how difficult it is to change my contribution levels, I might start with 8% contribution for the first month or two until we sort out the moving expenses and anything we borrowed to move. Then I’ll contribute 20% from then on (which will bring me up to the legal max). Or, if it’s difficult to change, I’ll just start with 20% right off the bat.

Dad will continue working for the same company, so he’ll be able to completely vest in his 403(b). Things are looking good for being able to contribute our planned 40k this year – and possibly 50-55k next year. And with a $1000 less for mortgage payments, we should be able to contribute that to our taxable account (or maybe a Roth?).

2014 Totals

So far, for 2014, we’ve contributed $19,806.43 (49.52% of the new goal of 40k), and we’ve gained $22,398.62 in investment gains (110.55% of our planned total).

Detailed Financial Picture – July 2014

9 Replies

June’s Numbers

As of July 7, 2014, we are $430,877.74 in debt (that includes the mortgage).  Without the mortgage, we’re at $16,500 in debt.  That’s our auto loan.  We currently have $1,057,463.16 in assets (including our house).  Our retirement accounts are at $397,055.28. Our Net Worth is $626,585.42 (includes house and mortgage), up from $608,588.72 last month (2.96% increase).

The markets did really well for us this month – a 4.48% increase from last month.  I still don’t have the money from my paid out vacation.  I got the “pay stub” for it, but not the check.  A co-worker has gotten his check, so I should be getting it shortly – ~$7900, almost all of which is going to the emergency fund.   That’s not counted in our assets yet (since it’s not in the bank account).  I still haven’t been able to close out my 401(k) and roll it over to Fidelity – starting to get a little pissy about that actually.  I’d rather not be paying high expense ratios longer than I need to.

We’re expecting to spend down the e-fund again over the next few months (and/or probably borrow from our line of credit) as we get our house ready to sell and actually move.  We have two realtors (referred by USAA) coming by the house this week to “interview” for selling our place.  We’re hoping we can get at least 100k out of it after all the taxes, fees, etc are paid.  The sale will bring our net worth down because of the selling fees, but that’s OK – it’ll realign itself with “reality” as far as our house is worth and what we owe on it.

All debt except our car loan (at 0%) is gone – I paid a bit extra to it this month to make the numbers nice ($610 vs $490), but we won’t be paying much extra to it over the next few months.  Once we settle down with our new mortgage payment, we’ll re-evaluate what we can pay towards it every month.   We’re hoping to find a place where the mortgage payment is at least $1,000 less per month than we pay now – and it’s looking like that won’t be a problem.

Debt (in the order we’re paying it down):

  • Line of credit (8.75%): $0.00
  • Chase (4.99% for life): $ 0.00 
  • Student loans (aggregated 4.21%):  $0.00 
  • Car loan (0%): $16,500 (-610.00)
  • Mortgage (4.125%): $ 414,377.74 (-709.86)

Total paid off in June: $1,319.86

Federal Security Clearances – No Thanks!

8 Replies

I’ve (luckily) never had one – and after this week, never plan to either.  I was asked to complete the SF86 form to get a secret clearance for a company that liked my resume, but didn’t have any active work – and anything they had would require at least a secret clearance.  So, without being employed by them, they started the process of getting me a clearance.

I have now met the SF86 form, and I will not have a federal clearance for at least 7 years.  Why?  There’s one annoying question on it that makes my life practically impossible: “Have you provided support to a foreign group or organization in the last 7 years that was not listed as a previous employer?” (Or something along those lines).  Of course, I have – I am a consultant.  I have provided a *lot* of support and time to foreign companies – it’s kinda what I do for a living.  But trying to remember each contract and each contact at the company that I helped?  Not so much.

Almost all of our direct clients are US-based companies, but they do business with foreign companies that I’ve assessed, and some of them have offices in other countries (or have acquired a foreign company).  According to the security officer I was working with, I’d have to list all of those – over the last 7 years.  My best guess is that over the last 7 years, I have visited and advised at least 200 foreign contacts at foreign (and US-based) companies.  I could probably name the companies, but not the individuals at each companies.

While it severely limits me in the job search (especially in the DC area), I will not be taking any position that requires a clearance.  There are some things that are just not worth it.

We’re Moving!

7 Replies

I got a job offer in Pittsburgh yesterday.  It’s conditional on me passing a background check, which I don’t see as an issue, so really, I have an offer. I’ve verbally agreed to it this morning to start the background check process.

It’s a *very* good offer too – $2k less/year than I make here in DC, but with *much* better benefits and a lower cost of living area.  I’m basically getting a 20-30% raise given the cost of living difference.  There’s only a small stipend available for moving expenses ($1,500) – not near enough to cover what it’ll cost, but it’s something – and I can deduct the rest on my taxes.

There is a tax-deferred plan with an 8% contribution and it vests in 3 years.  I don’t have to contribute a dime (although I plan to). Health insurance will cost us about $200 less per month than it is under Dad’s plan, which we’re currently under.

Dad has already talked to his boss and his boss’ boss about it, and he may continue to work at his current job, just remotely – coming down to DC once every few months or so.  They are OK with it (they like him – and there is some precedent), but they have to check with higher-ups to confirm that it’s OK within the company. That’d continue to get us his DC-level salary and he’d be able to vest in his 403(b).

I’d start mid-August, so there’s time to get everything ready, and maybe even sell the house before I start.  I haven’t told my boss yet – but he’s on vacation for the next two weeks.  If I tell him when he returns, that will be two-week’s notice.  “Hi, how was vacation? – here’s my resignation”. More notice than the 24 hours he gave us on the company sale/acquisition.

Now to turn my efforts to getting the house ready and put together for sale!

$200 Grocery Challenge Results

6 Replies

With today being the last day of June, how did we do on our grocery challenge to spend less than $200 this month?  Not so great, but better than most months: $246.61  We had a few things come up that we weren’t expecting, but I think we did well.  We had to buy more scoopable cat litter after our radioactive cat was no longer radioactive and we had to toss out what we had.  Costco also had a sale on rice and flour – both of which we needed, so a bulk purchase was in order.   ~$250 is better than our normal $300-$350 though!  We also fed my mom for a weekend while she was here as well.

On the plus side, we only ate out of the house on our car trips to and from Pittsburgh (reimbursed), and ordered pizza in only twice in the month – bringing our eating out final to $54.34.  *Much* better than our normal $250-$300 of eating out.  We did buy some wine, but it was limited to only drinking on the weekends, and was mostly Aldi’s house brand (at about $32 for the month)

Except for the $2000 plane tickets that I needed to front the money for (and have since been reimbursed), we spent about $2500 less this month than we normally do.  Now, a good bit of “normal” month is/was debt payment, so that’s some of the difference (about $1500 of that), but the rest is us not spending money.  Good practice for the future since I know what our new take-home pay is: about $2000 less per month!