Fabulous Financials

This makes year 3 and I can get used to this.  Same as last year, and the year before, I received a refund check from my mortgage company for a projected overpayment in my escrow account.  Based on my estimated taxes and insurance for the upcoming year, my mortgage company has estimated that I will pay them too much.  So they give it back!

• The 1st year (’06), it was $500+
• The 2nd year (’07), it was $300+
• This year, it is $500+ again

Woo wee!

But wait…

I can’t afford to make THIS mistake again, so I poked around a bit until I saw that my monthly mortgage payment will decrease by $16.  Not much, but I’ll take it!

Ok, celebrate now.

Woo wee!!

As usual, this refund will be used to pay for my annual HOA fees.  Great fun. [sarcasm]

I received a small pay raise of ~3% that will increase my bi-wkly net income by ~$80. I refer to it as “small” because I’m used to double digit raises, but this salary adjustment wasn’t tied to performance, so I can’t complain. However, I am looking forward to my first semi-annual and annual performance review like a kid on his way to the toy store.

Now that I have a little extra change, what am I going to do with it?

1. Tax Adjustment: This small raise forced me to do something that I’ve been putting off since July - oh just call me the Procrastinating Queen Bee. I’ve been meaning to adjust my tax exemptions because I’ve had zero rental income since June and more business expenses than anticipated. So the first thing I did was increase my federal exemptions to 7 [I'm not a tax professional so please don't ask me how many exemptions you should claim].

2. Savings: I also reinstated a payroll allotment that was previously canceled when I achieved my eFund goal. I was supposed to redirect all extra income to my non-retirement investment goal. Remember that $5,000? Unfortunately, this summer alone, I’ve spent almost the same amount on rental property expenses. Needless to say, I probably won’t reach that goal this year. *shrug* It’s ok though. I’ll keep my eye on the prize, but I can’t worry about it right now. I’m just thankful I had the money to cover ALL rental property expenses without incurring debt. Therefore, the reinstated allotment will deposit $100 bi-wkly to a savings account that is earmarked for future rental property expenses.

Based on the above, I expect my bi-wkly net income to remain the same as pre-raise. “Every little bit helps” has proven true in this situation. The small raise made a big difference because it will help me prepare for the financial unknown(s) associated with this rental property.

Wish it could help me deal with these psychos submitting rental applications. Pure comedy! LOL

This past weekend, I logged in to my computer and saw TWO “we received your deposit” emails from USAA. Hmm…

I have these little alerts set up to warn me of certain things - all deposits, withdrawals over $100, credit card charges over $1,000, payment due, payment posted, etc. One email said they received a deposit from xxx in the amount of x.xk. My employer depositing my salary. Expected, timely, and nothing unusual there. The second email said they received a deposit from xxx in the amount of x.xk. Hmm…this one was unusual because: 1) I wasn’t expecting this deposit, 2) the depositor was my PREVIOUS employer, and 3) The amount was a nice surprise.

Let me provide some back history for my new readers… Read more »

An old adage that has proven itself to me time and time again.

Back in May, I expected a significant increase in nonrecurring expenses. In this post, I noted:

Nonrecurring Expenses (current through July)

• $700 - Vacation(s) spending money
• $500 - Orthodontist
• $410 - Car insurance premium
• $200 - BabyGirl’s birthday
• $150 - Annual vet appt
• $100+ - Auto registration renewal
• $100 - Brother’s birthday
• $100 - Friend(s) birthdays
• $60 - Annual checkups
• $55 - Rental Ads

That’s almost $2,500!! Now how the heck am I supposed to pay for all of that? Oh yea, that funny thing called a pay check…[<--you know that was sarcasm, right?]

As I planned for these expenses, I thought we would have a tight budget summer - that is…until the unexpected cash flow began to show up. And not a minute too soon!

Last month, I received a $900 tax rebate/stimulus check. Despite having ~$2,500 in upcoming expenses, I chose to donate $500 to charity. Although I needed the money, I felt compelled to give, so I did without hesitation. And the blessings were returned tenfold.

FIRST UNEXPECTED CHECK

A few weeks ago, I received a ~$1,200 check from my previous employer for retro taxes. The whole relocation bonus and claim was new to me, so I was beyond confused. I had to claim the bonus as income, but I couldn’t claim the moving expenses as deductions. *confused* Anyhoo, I knew I was going to get something back from my employer, but I didn’t know when OR how much. The refund was more than I expected and the timing couldn’t have been better.

SECOND UNEXPECTED CHECK

This past weekend, I received another unexpected check. I can’t explain the details but it’s related to a lawsuit I filed last year. After the judge ruled in my favor, my attorney asked for restitution, which was granted. However, the defendant was given ONE YEAR to pay, plus I had to justify the amount of my claim with supporting docs to be reviewed by the court. So again, I knew I would receive something, but I didn’t know when OR how much. Imagine my surprise when I saw a money order from the DA’s office for the entire amount of my request.

In total, I’ve received over $2,000 in unexpected cash this month.

I strongly believe this is a testament of how everything comes full circle. Put others’ NEEDS before your WANTS, be a joyous giver, and watch it all come back to you.

Lots of random thoughts, so I’ll do a random update post:

Unexpected Money

When I filed my taxes this year, I had to claim the relocation benefits I received from my last employer as income, but I couldn’t write off the relocation expenses as deductions. Weird, I know, employer requirement, hard to explain. Anyhoo, because of this, I had to file a separate form with my employer and they have a process to evaluate what my tax liability would have been without the extra income. Any excess between what I paid and what I should have paid is sent to me via a refund from the employer, not Uncle Sam. Long story, short. I received the unexpected refund this week. Over $1,200.

Emergency Fund

As of today, I made the final transfer to meet my $20k e-fund goal! Because of the unexpected refund above, the balance now sits at $20.7k. I also set up a $100 bi-weekly payroll allotment for the e-fund. All extra above $20k will be earmarked for “non-retirement investing.” When it reaches $3k, I will open that long awaited Vanguard account, then redirect all extra money to to the new account.

Payday

My payroll problems were finally corrected. Benefits, tax exemptions, allotments, 401k match, retro payments/refunds, etc. - everything is kosher now. Thank da lawd! July has 3 pay periods and I plan to spend the extra cash on my rental property.

Medical Expenses

As of yesterday, the braces are completely off. BabyGirl was given two sets of retainers plus a night guard. I also made the final $250 payment, a total of ~$4,000 for 2 years of orthodontia care. Her teeth are beautiful, but with all the back and forth visits, I’m glad it’s over!

Precious’ vet bill this year was $248.69, which is $65+ more than previous years ($185 in 2007 and $177 in 2006). I’ve never had an annual vet bill more than $200, so I asked for a line by line itemized report of this year and last year. Although the secretary tried to explain the difference, I had to see for myself. About 10% was due to regular inflation that occurs every year, but one procedure was an additional $40 by itself. WTF! The reason? They send the culture to an outside lab for testing/examination and they have to pay extra for shipping/transportation expenses. In other words = FUEL!! I tell ya, this fuel crisis is hurting everything!

Car Insurance

Due to pure laziness, I didn’t research for better rates. My new 6 month (Jul-Dec) premium is $409.10 and it’s due next week. I thought this was a savings from the $468 that I used to pay, but I forgot it was reduced to $406.30 last December when I increased my deductible from $500 to $1,000. So in essence, this 6 month premium increased by $2.80. Not a lot of money, but it definitely shouldn’t be going in the wrong direction. That’s what I get for being lazy. I’m going to pay the premium in full this time, instead of the monthly payment plan. Other than saving the $1 processing fee, I just want one less bill to worry about every month.

Rental Property

My tenants are moving out this month and I’m meeting two potential tenants tomorrow morning for a scheduled tour. One is coming at 10 and the other at 11. It’s a 2 hour drive and I’m not looking forward to it. After the last tour, I’m meeting a girlfriend for lunch. She’s offered to show the property for me in the future, so I won’t have to drive down there again. But if the property isn’t rented by the end of this month, I’m turning it over to a property management company.

Edit to Add: Thank you all for bringing the blog problem to my attention. I appreciate all of the emails. I don’t know what happened to the rest of the post or why it was cut off HOURS after I published. In the original post, I provided a few updates about my summer vacation plans and my feelings about BabyGirl’s summer away, but it’s gone now and I don’t know how to fix it.

While I’m on the subject, I haven’t been blogging regularly because I’ve had quite a few computer issues lately. I don’t know if I have a computer virus or if my blog has been hacked - maybe both. So much for the Norton All-in-One Computer Protection, huh? My spreadsheets are damaged, which means all of my expense tracking and net worth details for the entire year are GONE. I’ve tried to do a system restore and file recovery, to no avail. I also keep getting “404 errors” when I publish or update posts on my blog. And some evenings, I can’t get online at all or the “high speed” connection is extremely slow. The latter may be attributed to the terrible weather we’ve had in the past few days, but trying to get online or attempting to write a blog post is challenging.

It’ll take weeks to get my spreadsheets back in order and I’ll need help with the blog issue, but everything will be fixed - eventually. If it aint one thing, it’s another. But eh, so is life. *shrug*

Blog wit’cha soon.