There’s a new study out now that says in 40% of homes where there are children, the wife is the primary breadwinner. According to some pundits, this apparently signals the end of the world as we know it. It will destroy marriage and families and is responsible for the downfall of this country. (Or something along those lines.) Since we added SP to our family one month ago, we are now one of those 40%. Iread more…
Maybe a month or so ago, I mentioned in passing that C and I got the CostCo American Express card. We had gotten by without one for over 10 years, so it wasn’t necessarily a need, but I knew I wanted to purchase the laptop and that we would be getting him glasses. We could have afforded either without putting it on a card, as long as we moved money from savings, and since they wereread more…
Shocker #1 – This post is going up ON TIME. Shocker #2 – The reason my posts have been late for the last week (and why my life is suddenly very crazy) is that there is now a small person living in my house. I cannot tell you much about Small Person (SP) other than that she is a girl and is about 9.5 years old, and is a foster child. There are legal limits, youread more…
Today’s post should have been my stock project update, but I haven’t had the time to do the analysis of it that I want to, so instead, you get to hear a little more about my lay off planning. I found out earlier this week that my current employer will be paying out bonuses related to 2012. Those of us whose positions have been selected for elimination will still be receiving that bonus. Through a bitread more…
The Conversation. There are so many conversations you need to have when moving relationships from one level to another, it can feel impossible to remember them all. There’s the kid conversation- do you want kids or not, and if so, how many There’s the debt conversation- how much debt do you have? How much or what kind are you comfortable with? The work conversation- what are your ambitions and goals? Do you want to be aread more…
Has it really been a year? It is time, once again, for Women’s Money Week. Let me be honest, everything I say in any of these posts applies to men as well as women, but I do think it is important to have events that focus on women and their relationships with money. Why? Because in a lot of ways, men are still seen as the bread winners and financial decision makers. It is less trueread more…
We bought our current house in late March 2005. The price was $242k and the interest rate was 6% (which was considered a good interest rate at the time). We had not quite $7k down and our original mortgage was for $235,250. It was cheaper for us to have the single mortgage and pay PMI than it was to have an 80/20, which is what we had on our first house. At the time, cheaper mattered,read more…
Please excuse that there is no post tonight. I’m working on our taxes. We itemize, and we keep all of our receipts to deduct actual sales tax, so it takes a while. In the meantime, here is some cuteness so that you’ll forgive me.
We have a house fund for a reason. And we add a fairly considerable chunk of money to it each month so that we can afford home repairs, whether they are scheduled or emergencies. Intellectually, C and I both know this. In reality? We both hate spending that money. The plan for this spring/summer is to replace all of the windows in the house. There aren’t many (9), but our living room window is of theread more…
Back in April, I wrote about why we weren’t refinancing– we’re not eligible for HARP, we were very likely underwater in our home, and we could afford the mortgage payments without hardship. Well, today, about 90 minutes before this posts, we will be having a phone conversation with a mortgage broker and likely starting the refinancing process. Why? What’s changed? Well, we’re still not eligible for HARP, and we can still afford our mortgage payments withread more…
