I'm baaaaaackkkkk!

Long time no see...

I haven't posted to my blog in almost 2 years. That is ridiculous. I am a "bad job!"

I actually couldn't even log into my account anymore and had to go through red tape to reset my password, etc.

No one reads this blog anyway, so it doesn't really matter. I'm going to start posting anyway.

I've been doing excellently with my financial goals, so I may as well blog about them.

April Goals

I'm a little behind in writing about my April Goals, but here goes.....

I accomplished all of my April Goals/Tasks!!
They were:

• Pay at least $600 to Dell (down to 1300)
• Increase automatic ING to $20/bi-weekly
• Increase Duke Energy Stock to $50/month
• Redo W4 to increase paycheck
• Increase Savings by $1400 (to $2300)
• Receive State Tax Return

I had a pretty good month overall.

I decided last month to bump up my emergency savings. I currently have it as my highest priority. I should have my goal of $5000 by July or August.

I am also concentrating on knocking out my dell debt. I currently still have no iterest rate for my debt account, but only if I get it paid off this year (which, I will, of course).

I continued to put 1% of my salary into the "parents" ING account I opened.

I was very pleased with my decision to increase my paycheck by decreasing the weekly taxes I pay. I sure do love having a bonus when I receive my tax return, but everything I have read suggests that this is just silly! It's a very smart move to make IF you make sure you save the extra money you receive that would normally be going to taxes. I am! I have increased my goals for the rest of the year to reflect this change. It made a huge difference in my goals by increasing my check $100 every two weeks. I'm fine with that!

My parents

Today is Mother's day. I went home and spent the day with my family. It was a long overdue visit!

We had a talk about finances. I know my parents are in bad financial shape. I've been anxious to find out if they are saving any for the future.

It turns out....it's not quite as bad as I had pictured. My dad has a pension from a previous job. There is, of course, social security, but my parents are on the young end of the baby boomers. I tried to let them know this means their social security could be less than it says it will be now.

They spoke of the desire to open a savings account. Also, my mom showed me that she has just recently started contributing to her 401K. 2% is a start....it's better than 0%! I talked to her about upping the contribution another % every few months.

Overall, it was a better conversation than I had expected. I know this still seems bad, but it is more progress than I thought. I wish them the best and will try to keep prodding them.

March is Over...My Goals are Accomplished!

I recently made a list of financial goals. I wrote them by month and they are very detailed.

I wrote them on March 20th, so my March goals were pretty easy to reach since the month was almost over.

My goals for March were:

• Receive Federal Tax Return
• Open extra ING parent account
• Pay off MBNA $1200
• Increase Savings to $1000

I received my federal income tax return towards the end of the month. It was for $1200. I used it to pay off my MBNA card which was down to $1000.

I used a small portion of my return to buy my parents a present. They're pretty down right now because of all kinds of problems they are having. I thought a present would be very nice, even though it's no holiday or birthday. I bought them the first four seasons of 24 on DVD. They were planning on renting them, so it saved them some money.

I used the rest of my return for savings. I increased my savings to $1025 by the end of the month, so that goal was also met.

And lastly, I opened another INGdirect account. I called it "parents." I'm not sure what I will do with it yet, but I plan on depositing 1% of my salary into it monthly. I would like to save it until they retire and give it to them as a present. We'll see what happens.

I have my goals written monthly for the rest of the year, but I'm sure I'll change them a billion times.

I Can't Believe I Paid it Off!!!!!!

Wow!

I'm done!

I have successfully paid off every penny of my Mastercard. I haven't used the card for about five years. It's taken a long time, but now it's done.

I got the card my freshman year at Clemson. It was one of those spur of the moment credit card applications to get a free shirt or a hat, etc. At first I used the card wisely, but then it took a turn for the worse. I began using the card to pay for summer semesters and books. At the worst point, I was actually writing checks from it to try and help my parents through some trouble they were having at the time. These checks are bad news. They have a much higher interest rate! At the time, it didn't seem so bad. I saw my balance getting higher and higher and I knew my student loans were also growing, but I had the attitude that I would worry about it later.

And worry about it later I did! At the final point, the balance on my card was $13,000 with a 19% interest rate. I have put sooo much money into paying off this card. And now it's done!

Yippy!

My 2nd Trip to France

I went to France week before last. This was my second trip to France. I went for work each time.

On my first trip, I went with Mieke and Marshall. Mieke took us to work for the first half of the trip and Marshall and I toured Paris for the second half of the trip. We stayed in Paris the whole time and took the trains or subways to wherever we needed or wanted to go. I'm so glad I got to go! I spend absolutely no money on ANYTHING while I am there (except for personal souvenirs). It's so nice. I eat there like I never eat at home. Appetizers, main courses, deserts, and wine....at almost every meal. So wonderful! We toured all over Paris....the Louvre, Eiffel Tour, many other museums, etc. Very nice trip.

This time I went with Scott, Melvin, Dan, and Dana. It was a completely different trip. This time, we had a car and drove everywhere. We had a GPS system that we named Ms. Suzie. Without Ms. Suzie, we would have been hopeless, helpless, and completely lost! This time we did "the tourist thing" first and then worked for the second half of the trip. We went to Normandy instead of Paris this time. It was wonderful. I really enjoyed it. We stayed in a hotel on Omaha Beach and we took the "Band of Brothers" tour. We went around a saw all the actual battlefields, etc that were portrayed in Band of Brothers. I had an excellent time.

PS - The American Express is not readily accepted in France! Carry backup!

ING Direct

Two weeks ago, I opened a new savings account.

I've only had my BB&T savings account for about two and a half months. I was getting 0.25% interest. I didn't really mind at all about the interest rate when I opened it. I knew it was low, but that wasn't really a problem to me. My only reason for opening the account was to have two accounts....one to use and one not to use. I was going to automatically draft $100 from each paycheck into the account. I've also placed $20-50 here and there into the account.

Two weeks ago my savings account was up to $700. I know, it probably doesn't sound like much, but it's very exciting for me!

I've been reading some financial blogs. I really like one called "I will teach you to be rich." The website is http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/.

Anyway, he had written some great information on starting out and the best routes to take. He told me the when's, the why's, and the how's.

One thing I immediately learned was that I need to open another savings account. He suggested either ING Direct or Emmigrant. I went with ING Direct. It's No fee and No minimum balance!!! And, believe it or not......the interest rate is 3.80%!!!! I couldn't believe it.

Also, for the next two months (it ends in April) they have a 4.75% interest rate.

I opened the account with $250 from my BB&T savings account. I put this much in because I got a $25 bonus for doing so.

I now have two savings accounts. I plan on keeping both of them with immediate money remaining in the BB&T account and the bulk of my emergency savings to go into the ING Direct account.

My Net Worth

Well, I've been calculating my net worth now for less than two weeks. I've become a wee bit obsessed about it. I'm just having fun though.

Currently I am at -33,603. When I started calculating it (only 10 days ago), I was at -34,940.

That's a positive increase of 1,337 already. I've only had one pay period during this time. How exciting!!

I know the graph at the top is not very clear. It's the best I can do for now. If you click on it, it's easier to see.

I'll be updating this blog regularly with the changes.