Share your money/life news...

[Pom]

Because I've been around since 2004 and you all helped us get here:

Houston house is sold and we got our funds Monday.

Movers arrived with our stuff on Monday, only 6 days late, and it all fit in the cottage, garage and storage. I felt very unsure about this! 

I paid off our second house/now our primary house today! We are still looking for a small lakefront cottage, but okay with being downsized for the moment. We had remodeling done last year. Talk about timing that right.

Mr. P likes his new job and with our downsizing, money does not need to be a worry.  He has time to fish, we can go to some great northern Michigan camp spots nearby or just across the bridge to the U.P.. His day ends at 3pm! No more traveling for weeks or even a month at a time. I won't say never again, but quite happy for now. He has insurance, is learning some valuable career transitional skills and has a 15 minute drive along the lakeshore with zero traffic. 

Whew. Busy spring. 

    

[Wallflower]

Congratulations, Pom!!! Lots of hard work, paying off!

Nothing much in news for me. I have a refinance on my house working its way through the process, slow as molasses. I'm cutting a 30-year to a 20-year, so even with the drop in % it's slight increase, but a net savings.

Otherwise, same-old, same-old.

[Susie]

That must be such a relief to have those lose ends tied up!

We're scheduled to close a week from today on our new house.  No surprises anticipated, we already have clear to close from our lender, draft statement of sale from the seller's attorney, and I'm settling up utilities/etc.  We locked 2.875% for 30 years back in March, but we have a float down option available in the 15 days prior to closing that might be able to take us to 2.75% or maaaaybe 2.625%.  Fingers crossed, but either way I'm ok with it.

      Fri ETA:  we locked the float down to 2.75%.  With 3 business days til closing, our broker doesn't think we'll see 2.625%.  I'm ok with that.  2.75% is amazing in any context whatsoever.

Our sale is still very much on the struggle bus, but we're working through it.  Contract issues, inspection issues, and still awaiting the outcome of the appraisal that was done Monday.  The appraiser spent a full 2 hours at our house, it was crazy.  If we can stay on track we would close on/around 6/25.  Our buyers still seem motivated which is the only thing keeping me sane.

I'm very much looking forward to getting to the other side and getting settled in our new house.

[ssmjlm]

Oh to have the workday end at 3! So jealous!

Nothing exciting here. Still waiting on DH to decide on a new truck. I hate having all this money in Cap360, but I know it's not worth putting it anywhere else since hopefully in the fall he'll decide.

[scout8]

May 19, 2021 14:29:34 GMT -5 Susie said:

That must be such a relief to have those lose ends tied up!

We're scheduled to close a week from today on our new house.  No surprises anticipated, we already have clear to close from our lender, draft statement of sale from the seller's attorney, and I'm settling up utilities/etc.  We locked 2.875% for 30 years back in March, but we have a float down option available in the 15 days prior to closing that might be able to take us to 2.75% or maaaaybe 2.625%.  Fingers crossed, but either way I'm ok with it.

Our sale is still very much on the struggle bus, but we're working through it.  Contract issues, inspection issues, and still awaiting the outcome of the appraisal that was done Monday.  The appraiser spent a full 2 hours at our house, it was crazy.  If we can stay on track we would close on/around 6/25.  Our buyers still seem motivated which is the only thing keeping me sane.

I'm very much looking forward to getting to the other side and getting settled in our new house.

2 hours??!! I've never seen an appraiser take that long. It's usually about 10 minutes.

[ellipses84]

For the first time in 5 years, I feel like we are able to get ahead financially (knock on wood) after some huge setbacks.

We are still in debt payoff mode but we aren’t super aggressive about it, just sticking to the plan and saving for other goals at the same time. I’m waiting for some large deposits between my consulting business and tax returns, so we’ll make a big dent in it. DH’s student loans were paid off last year. I checked mine last night and 2/3 are almost paid off. Our cars are much closer to being paid off and we won’t have daycare expenses starting in the Fall. DH is working more (seems like things are finally returning to normal after Covid). Our income went up from 2019 to 2020 and will go up significantly more from 2020 to 2021. I was laid off a little over a year ago and didn’t work for a few months, then worked like crazy for 6 months juggling 2 jobs. I’m finally on a normal 40 hour workweek although I’ll have the option do overtime in a couple months. I increased our 401k %s this week.

[sicilygirl]

We finally closed on our refi last Friday after over 2 months! We were super lucky to get a rate of 2.49% (on a jumbo, 30-year loan). Our house has appreciated $200,000 since we bought it one year ago, which... I have mixed emotions about. Obviously love to build equity but seeing more and more people being priced out of the market as home values continue to skyrocket makes me a little sick.

Once the refi was finalized, we put a deposit down on a new car, which we've been needing for a while so that's exciting. To make it MM, we'll be getting the $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicles on it, plus some state incentives too. It's supposed to take about 4 months to come in, so I'm doing my best to be patient.

[1yeartogo]

My brand new hot tub which was my gift to myself for surviving the awful year 2020 finally is ready and is heating up as we speak (We had to pour concrete, buy the tub, and then find an electrician who would do the hardwiring job which took forever).

I can’t wait to put on my suit and get out there in 2 hours.

I am 100% a saver and do very little that’s just for me, but sometimes spending $ is the right choice and I think this will bring me a lot of happiness. We have a wooded backyard so it’s going to be a nice peaceful view too!

[melmel48]

I have a vent.....



The siding on my building has needed to be done for years. There is water damage in all 5 units in the building. One owner refuses every year to agree and he literally argues with us about everything. He doesn't like the property manager, so he withholds his condo fees. That doesn't hurt her... it hurts the rest of us! We are yet again attempting to come to an agreement about doing the siding, and he is still refusing. 

So the other owners want to pay to have our condo docs changed to say majority rules, not complete agreement. I pointed out that even if we do that, and we do take out a loan for the siding... it doesn't mean he will pay his portion. If we agree that we all have to get out own funding for our portion of the siding; it doesn't mean he will pay his portion.

It is very stressful and I am angry that my home has water damage that I will have to pay to repair, plus each year we put this off, the more damage is done and it will cost even more $$.

I was talking with his daughter and mentioned her unit owed $$ in condo fees. She had no idea. She had been sending her Dad the $$ and he wasn't paying the fees! She must have said something to him, because he did make a payment of $600. She lives there; her Dad does not. 

[Susie]

scout8 , I know! Our agent met him at the house at 11, expecting she could make her 12 app't with no problem. Good thing H and I were WFH... He was here from 11am-1pm, and then hung longer in the car writing up... IDK what. Like way to drag out the suspense here, man! We had a $15k appraisal gap on our purchase, and we have VA funded buyers who are in contract to buy our house for well above both of two neighbors' asking/contract/sale prices from the past few weeks. We're pretty anxious.

[scout8]

May 19, 2021 20:33:50 GMT -5 Susie said:

scout8 , I know! Our agent met him at the house at 11, expecting she could make her 12 app't with no problem. Good thing H and I were WFH... He was here from 11am-1pm, and then hung longer in the car writing up... IDK what. Like way to drag out the suspense here, man! We had a $15k appraisal gap on our purchase, and we have VA funded buyers who are in contract to buy our house for well above both of two neighbors' asking/contract/sale prices from the past few weeks. We're pretty anxious.

VA appraisals do take a little longer, but still not that long! Maybe he is new. Good luck!

[mlkgls]

I’m not sure if this counts, but a close friend is getting married on the beach this summer and I decided to turn it into a mini Disney family vacation because we were already going to be nearby. I wasn’t anticipating paying for a Disney vacation this year so I’m having to reallocate money from my new car sinking fund. I don’t know why, because I’m not going going overboard and I have the money, but I’m still struggling with something close to guilt...like I’m stealing from my car fund. It’s irrational, but it’s always incredibly hard for me to spend money once it’s in savings.

I’ll be hanging out in all of the no spend threads fo the rest of the year! 🤣

[flatlan]

We started a business in 2019 which slowed down significantly in 2020 so we each got a part time job to supplement our income. In the past 2 months our business has increased so much and we are tired but grateful!

[minzy]

Congrats Pom! It is nice to see you in some calmer waters after a few choppy years!

There’s not much new here. My husband’s job is still more than paying the bills and now he’s got his first post covid trip coming up. After a decade of being at home with our kids, I have accepted my old professional job, though I was not looking at all (my old friend reached out and said they were hiring). I’m excited to again do what I loved, contribute to “making the world a better place” (and getting paid for it), and again use some of all that schooling, etc. It will be remote to start, which should make easing back in about as gentle as can be. My start date is pending the background check, and that is taking a long time. At this point, everything is up in the air about trips and camps for the kids for the summer. It’s kind of frustrating not having a timeline, but I’m also not in a rush. I *am* starting to stress trying to think how I will pivot from an already very full life of volunteer/community oriented stuff to just “squeezing in” 40+ hours of professional work. Heh. But, one day at a time. We are capable people and millions of families around the world do this every single day. And if it doesn’t ultimately work out, that’s okay, too. I’m most looking forward to outsourcing cleaning, having the kids out of my hair some of the time to actually feel like I’m accomplishing something, and giving away more money.

[Covergirl82]

Pom, welcome to MI (full time)!! Sounds like it's a great change all around. Northern MI is so beautiful. We go to Mackinac Island every year. I'm in the greater GR area, but my parents and a few generations before them are from the Mason and Oceana County areas. We own some land in Oceana County and the plan is we'll eventually build a retirement home there.

A lot of our "big" money-related stuff has been on hold until we know if my job is being eliminated in September (should know in July/August) and having a big Fed tax bill due to under-withholding from my paychecks. DH is also starting to casually look for a job as he's unhappy in his current job, so that could impact our finances if he takes a job making less than he does now. I'm glad that more jobs are being offered as 100% remote now, so the number of jobs we can both apply for is greater than before. (We both have jobs that can be done 100% remote - I'm a compensation analyst (function within HR) and DH is in Finance.)

What's on hold (using money from bonuses we received in March):
-Paying a 5-7k lump sum to our mortgage principal
-Minor home improvements: minor reno in main-floor powder room (new countertop and sink, new faucet, remove wallpaper, paint, new mirror, new light fixture), new countertops and sinks in master bath
-Small lump sum payments to each kid's 529 (was planning somewhere in the range of 500-1000 each)

We did a bump the kids' monthly 529 contributions from 100/month to 120/month after we got our merit increases. We're also still paying an extra 100/month on the mortgage principal.

[sometimesrunner]

There's not much going on here. We're getting a huge (to us) refund, so that will be nice to get. Our house finally feels "complete" after moving 3.5 years ago to a 1978 home that hadn't been updated. We reno'd our master bath last year and it is sooooo nice to have that done. It's a small bathroom, so it wasn't very $$. We are approaching a milestone amount of money in our retirement accounts. I'm so glad I found this place 15 years ago. We definitely would not be where we are today without this place.

[sadlebred]

2020 was year of fixing up the house with much needed maintenance.--painting it in colors *I* (not ex-H) chose, redoing a retaining wall, new hot water heater, and a few other things. It was also the year of myocarditis and open heart surgery as well as the start of a rough recovery from the surgery. I'm thankful for good medical insurance. My costs were very minimal.

2021 was supposed to be the year of spending on fun things, but we know how that goes. I found termites one day under a paver around the concrete patio. Thankfully, the pest guys determined that it was local. I now have a baiting system and a termite bond. I did buy an ebike (Specialized Turbo Creo for those that may want to know) that I've been racing gravel on. It's been so much fun! I've got a couple of long weekend trips planned this year but no major ones. I want to get back to Europe in 2022 for an equestrian holiday.

I've been with the same company full time for nearly 6 years now. I enjoy what I do, but there isn't much room for advancement. I could look for a lateral move when I'm ready (in a year? 3 years? I don't know.) The pay is not the best, but the benefits are decent (see health insurance above). Like melmel48 said sometimes it feels like I'm going backwards financially than forwards. Save up a little, something happens that it needs to be spent on. One of the difficulties of being a single income household.

[simpsongal]

I know $1 million doesn't have the spending power it once did, but the following is pretty cool:

We're on track to hit $1 million in 401K and investment savings by the end of the year (market dependent of course).

Our home is valued over $1 million.

Suddenly my measly $24K in student loans feels like NBD (it was an insurmountable, high interest $160K in 2008 when I was poor and had $0 retirement savings). I want them gone, but at 2.89% fixed, I'll just pay them off in ~4 yrs (maybe I'll chunk off the last $5K or something when the time comes...)

[janegold]

We closed on our refi last week. 3% jumbo, 30 year term. We just bought last year and this will save us $500/month so I'm thrilled. Plus our appraisal came in at over $200k more than we purchased for less than 1.5 years ago and our RE attorney thought it was likely low given the current market. We have no plans to go anywhere, but I'm glad we bought when we did.

ILs have officially decided to turn over the beach cottage to us fully (I've talked about this in one of my other IL drama threads). We need to figure out the best way to legally transfer it because it's in a trust and honestly the trust documents I've seen look like a mess so we need to proceed carefully. We've been semi-responsible for the cottage for a few years now, taking on most of the larger projects, but now we'll take on all the regular responsibilities (financial and otherwise) too. I'm partially glad because I think it's in everyone's best interest, but I'm also dreading one more thing to manage. It's in an area that has VERY strong vacation rental demand, and I'm thinking we may just do a full reno in the fall and turn it over to a property manager to handle for the time being. We spend a fair amount of time there during the summer, but I think even renting it out during the shoulder seasons would more than cover our costs.

[Gato]

It’s sort of crazy to me how much our financial picture has changed over the past five years. All my life, I was in the 50th percentile for HHI, roughly speaking, and while that was always fine, since we were careful with money. It just seemed like that was the way it always would be.

Suddenly, now that H is doing this fancy program in machine learning, which places its grads mostly with Silicon Valley companies, the salary numbers that are getting tossed around are double what he’s making now, which already is 25% higher than it was just four years ago.

It’s weird to go from a mindset of, “well, I’d like to do that someday, but it really wouldn’t be a good idea, money-wise” to “maybe we CAN do this. Like, next year.”

I’m still super protective of our time, which means maybe no Fortune 500 company will be a good fit for H. But I’m excited to have upped DD1’s education fund from $500 a month to $1K, and maybe even to be able to cash flow college in the future. She would be able to pursue acting or dance without having to worry about heavy student loans. That’s huge for me, as someone who didn’t get to fulfill that dream. I’m willing to keep driving my 2006 Camry forever, and maybe see H less if he gets a high-pressure job, to make that happen.

[flygirl]

We had some small renovations and a new deck built this year. We paid the bulk in cash and took out a loan for the rest but we’ve already paid 1/4 back so I’m feeling good that it will be gone by the end of the year and I’m glad to have the project done.

[aspentosh]

Goodness. We've had some ups and downs over the last six months or so.

-H lost his job and we had no income for almost 5 months. He started a new job and that was a huge relief. He's making more, has a similar commute, and hopefully he'll be happy long term.

-We continue to be debt free except the mortgage. And on that note, we refinanced to a 20yr at 2.8% in the fall. Our payments went down but we still overpay by ~$500, so we're on track to pay it off in less than 15 years.

-We signed a contractor to redo our master bathroom. Work will start in July!

-With this years contributions to 401k and IRAs, we will hit a pretty significant milestone.

[raangoli]

With crazy market returns the last year, we've hit a net worth number that seems ridiculous but is also pretty exciting. I remind myself that it is only on paper and can be dashed quickly.

Since I haven't commuted to work in 14 months, I have taken the money I save on fuel costs and have upped our charitable giving. Last year we likely doubled the amount we donated and I am trying to triple that amount this year.


@@@@@@@
We made it a priority to front load BB's 529 since birth. We're pretty aggressive with it and we may stop contributing to it next year when she turns 6. We'll take that money and throw it towards additional investments for ourselves.

[egishere]

Pom, glad to hear things are going so well and Mr Pom can slow down a bit!!

We've had a really good money year so far...DH got his highest ever bonus in March and his company sold some stock so they could take on some debt- I don't fully understand it but its European stock so he received a large payout from that and there will be more to come probably next year. We are using some of the money to replace our ugly granite in our kitchen- changing to quartz and we are going to have our basement finished. As our kids get older and with being home more it would be nice to have that useable space! We had a company come out last night to measure etc and I asked about the lumbar shortage and he said the prices are 5-10% per sq foot higher because of that but with only 1000 or so sq feet to finish it wont be too crazy. Not enough crazy cost for us to hold off doing it. This company comes highly recommended and can have it completed in 6-8 weeks and they can start at the end of june. We have someone else coming out in June but they already told me they can't start until oct so we might just go with these first people.

[wildrice]

Congratulations Pom! Enjoy northern Michigan! I went to college in Marquette and lived there for 6 years, and I'll always miss it. I know you're not in the UP but the scenery is great everywhere up that way, especially in the summer!

My biggest money news is that we signed a contract for new windows and sliding glass door earlier this week. Because we live in a townhouse, this isn't as huge of a project as it sounds (it's just 6 windows plus the door) but I am feeling really good about the fact that we can pay cash for this without any hardship. This year has been great for savings and I hope that even though we'll have higher expenses once COVID is completely over, we're in the habit now of socking away money each month and I hope it will continue. Also, I'm just excited to get new windows. One of them can't open at all right now, and I'm guessing another one is about to reach that point soon (it is REALLY hard to open and close).

There is also a not small chance that I will be switching jobs soon and will get a small (probably around 4k) raise, though the exact figures aren't 100% certain and I haven't been offered the job yet, so who knows. If I do, I'm going to increase my retirement savings with the difference.

[lilypad1126]

I got a new job this year that, at the moment, is basically the same salary wise. But the benefits are significantly better. AND this job has a bonus structure, so assuming I don't suck at it (so far so good), I will soon be making more than I was at my previous job.

We're moving in 2 months (for said job) and while it's stressful, it's not money stress. Whether I hire movers or plan to replace big items instead of moving them or whatever combo of a plan I go with, we can afford it. And while that's not exactly a new thing, I feel like we are in a much better place for this move than for moves in the past.

My students loans are nowhere near paid off, but over the past 5 years, the monthly payments have stopped stressing me out. And they aren't exactly small, haha. Even if it takes me another 8 years to pay them off, I can do that comfortably each month.

[niq]

We are trying to convince my mom to get knee surgery. She can still get in and out of her car, shop for her groceries, etc., but activities with mom are basically limited to sitting down at a park or at our house. She says she doesn't want to be in rehab during the summer. Hopefully we can do it in the fall.

My sister had her second kid! We are hoping "go see your other grandchilden" will help motivate mom to get knee surgery.

O (4.5) is now at daycare across from our house. It saved us some $, but of course V needed full time supervision for most of the school year, and the nearly full day aftercare he's getting now is expensive too. Once we're back to normal next school year, our child care costs will be a lot lower.

Money sitch is just sort of humming along. The Medium-sized company I work for was acquired by a Giant-sized company, and I expected it would be a "better job security but lower compensation" tradeoff. But ... compensation only went down a little bit. Plus there are some other perks, it's really about the same. It raises the chances I can semi-retire in 5 years instead of 10. Which is kinda bad, I'm daydreaming about semi-retirement a lot!

[dr.girlfriend]

I am a little embarrassed that I was so worried about DH going freelance ... we are less than halfway through the year and he has already made about 75% of his gross salary from when he was full-time salaried! (He went down to part-time salaried before he quit to freelance) We're still trying to figure out the tax stuff, but he's on track to make a bunch more than he did when he was salaried and he loves what he's doing, so that's all amazing.

We hit five digits owed on our house principal last year I think, and it's amazing to see how quickly the principal is going down now that we're far along in our amortization table. By paying biweekly I think we are due to pay it off around 2025-ish, which sounded ludicrously far away when we refinanced to a 15-year in 2012 but now seems just around the corner.

I know renovations are crazy right now, but for anyone who is on the fence I have to say we are SO thrilled we renovated in 2019. We LOVE our new space and can't imagine how we would have weathered quarantine without it.

In bad MM news, I think we have one more giant tree that is going to have to come down. I feel like we must be developing a reputation in our neighborhood as tree-killers, but it's looking really bad. :-(

[bdubs419]

We recently reached a big net worth milestone, which was exciting but I will admit it’s made us maybe too comfortable and we have been spending like crazy on house stuff and other things. Working on finishing our 3rd floor, adding $$$ plantation shutters, painting/epoxy our garage... the list goes on. We need to make sure to reign in the spending a bit. I am proud we made it to where we are at, however, we got here by being frugal so I don’t want to go backwards! I think it’s easy to keep spending once you get into that mindset.

[babsbunny]

Unexpected good news. I found out that MIL/FIL got lucky getting into a short-lived long term care insurance opportunity years and years ago, so it sounds like they have unicorn benefits should they need them one day. We likely will need to help my parents, as well as take care of ourselves, but it is so comforting to know that they are covered.

Lol, this is what's important as we reach middle age. In 20 years, I'll be deciding what state to move to and settle in based on their options for long term care and retirement homes.