Inspired by Missing FinCon15
Starting today, a number of awesome people are descending on Charlotte, NC for FinCon15. I attended FinCon in 2012 and 2013, but have not been able to go the last two years. I miss the conference overall, but I really miss the people: Jana of JanaSays, Joe of Stacking Benjamins (and The Free Financial Advisor where he writes as Average Joe), and Kathleen of Frugal Portland (and now also Stacking Benjamins). Those are just three of the awesome people I have connected with, and stayed connected with.
I want to make a plan to attend FinCon16. At the same time, I wonder if I can really call myself a financial blogger anymore. I have written almost nothing finance related since I moved over to Dear Alien Anthropologists. And on some level, that makes me sad. You see, I first started blogging as a way to discuss financial issues, because I do not think money should be a taboo subject. And yet, knowing that this blog is read by more of my family and friends than previous blogs, I have been somewhat reluctant to talk as much about money, which is silly given my belief that money talk should not be taboo.
So, in honor of FinCon, and out of a sense of getting back to my roots, here are some quick financial bits from our life.
Buying a New House/Moving/ Selling the Old House. I did a series on house hunting for this blog, but I have really written nothing about moving or the process of getting the old house ready for sale. If I were still trying to maintain a blogging schedule on a financial blog, you can bet there would be a series on this.
We spent $1k on professional movers. It was worth every penny. If we ever move again (and this is a big if), I will be tempted to pay people to come in and pack for me, too.
We hoped to get the old house fixed up for around $10k. We budgeted for $12k. We knew we would be comfortable up to $15k. Instead, we will have spent around $17k, once all is said and done. This eats up all of our cushion. Normally, this would not be that big of a deal, but right now, when we are paying two mortgages, and have had to get some major work done on both cars, this is a little nerve wracking for me. Next month, for the first time in 5+ years, we may very well end up paying some interest on a credit card. In the grand scheme of things, that is not a huge deal, but dammit, it has been over 5 years since I have paid credit card interest, and I am bummed that streak will end.
At the same time, that money is getting us an excellent return on investment. When the real estate agent first saw the house, she gave us a $20k range for what it might sell for, assuming we fixed it up. After seeing the work that was done, she decided we should list it at the very top of that range. So that $17k should net us more than $20k (since the bottom of the range still assumed we would do some work) when all is said and done.
And we will make money on the sale of the house. We are actually listing it for about $40k more than we paid for it 10 years ago, and there was 10 years of paying on the house. It looks like we should walk away with around $85k, after taxes and commission. Some of that we will need to save for taxes, but that is still more than enough to replace our $10k emergency fund, pay off the credit cards, and do a few other things, and still make either a big payment on the new mortgage or do some retirement investing for C.
Pop Tart. We had a bit of suspension for Pop Tart’s activities over the summer, partly because she was visiting Grandma for three weeks. But now school is back in session, and we are getting back into the swing of things. Swimming lessons are restarting. We have not made a decision about gymnastics yet, but I expect they will be starting again soon, too. Plus she is now at a school that offers some really interesting after school opportunities, but they have costs. We wrote the check for the Culinary Arts class last night (as it is limited to the first 10 students to register). We are considering the Drama Club, and possibly language lessons, but we do have to fit all of that around her school schedule.
Luckily, there was not a lot of school shopping this year as her new school is “free dress” instead of having a uniform like the last school, and Grandma happily supplied all the new clothes Pop Tart could want when she went down to visit.
Pop Tart’s birthday is also at the end of summer. While we try not to go overboard, it is not a generally inexpensive event. This year, her big birthday gift was a new bike at $300.
And finally, there is Pop Tart’s new best friend. I will call her Croissant. We do not know Croissant’s parents very well, not more than to say “hello”, but we can make some guesses about their financial situation based on what we do know. And it would seem that money is tighter for them than we even realized. Kids have a way of talking about things with each other, and Pop Tart has a desire to help everyone, but especially those she cares about. What this all means is that we discovered earlier this week that when Pop Tart packs herself a lunch every day, she is actually packing two lunches, one for herself and one for Croissant. This is not an issue for us. Mostly it means we need to keep a closer eye on school lunch supplies because they are going to go faster than expected.
Cars. The cars are paid off. And while they both have over 100k miles on them, they have diesel engines, and with good maintenance should last us for quite a few more years. C even jokes that the sedan will be Pop Tart’s first car in 4 more years. The thing is, they each have more than 100k miles on them, and certain expensive parts now need to be replaced. We have had so much work done on the cars this year that it is almost like having a car payment again.
Good Financial Things. In April, while we were at Disneyland, I got a raise to help bring me even with what other people in my position, in my college, are making. I only got about half of it then (I had only been in the job 6 months, so I am not complaining), and will get the other half next April. I also just got a 3% merit raise.
With the new house, I am riding the bus most days. I am no longer paying for a parking pass, but instead only pay for parking when I actually drive. Yay savings (and not having to drive).
Now that the old house is fixed up, C is driving down there less. Overall, our driving has decreased significantly. That will save on both gas and wear on the cars.
We had met most of our medical deductible in the first half of the year, so what I owed after my surgery this summer was quite a bit less than I had been expecting.
So that is a current “financial” snap shot of our lives. As I go forward, I will try to discuss personal finances every once in a while – and not just our specific finances, but talking about resumes and job hunting, work place relationships and networking, and the other sorts of things I originally started blogging about.
