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Archive for August, 2015

Changing of the seasons

August 27th, 2015 at 08:36 pm

And, no, I am not talking about summer into fall (though I won't mind it when it arrives!).

Instead as Lucky Robin pointed out this month, once you get all your debts paid off, finding that push to keep you going forward is harder and harder for some. It is/was for me as well (check my 2/20/2014 entry). Instead I have decided to work on other pressing items. In my case, one of them has been my mother and her finances. A widow now, the only person to work with her on her finances will be me (only child), and now is the time to do it while she still has all her faculties (and is amenable to doing it).

So in that vein, in the past few months I have been working with her on taking care of things she has left go for way too long. Things like updating her will, removing her deceased husband from all her accounts and title to house and cars, getting me access to her accounts (in case I need to pay bills for her), rearranging her IRAs (from a bank to a brokerage), getting her paperwork in one place so I know where it all is, finding out who was going to be her estate's executor (She had me listed as such - Thanks mom for not telling me! Frown ), setting up power of attorney, and the list keeps going....

Its nice to see that while she isn't rich, it looks like she shouldn't ever be in poverty either. She's healthy, and given the age her mother died, it should be 20+ years before I will need to use alot of what I am setting up now. But knowing that things have been taken care of will certainly help going forward.

OK, I've taken care of her finances, dealt with the girlfriend's finances.... what do I need to work on next? Hmmmmmm.....

100% Pay Raise? Not really, though it feels like it.

August 10th, 2015 at 08:49 pm

I was going to call this "the most wonderful time of the year", though that seemed a bit pretentious...

This year, just like I have been doing since 2008 (or did I start in 2009?) I have been front loading my retirement plan contributions at work. This has been done with the assumption that more often than not the funds in my 457 plan will be lower at the beginning of the year and this will allow me to save even more for retirement. I know this worked well for me in 2009-2012, since then its been sorta iffy.

In any case, originally to make this be less painful I would back end my tax payments to try to equalize my take home over the year. Since I have paid off my mortgage, I've decided to cut back on this technique as I don't need as much to get me through month to month.

That all said, the past few years I have contributed at such a large percentage, that sometime in September my contributions usually stop (that is I have maxed out for the year), and my take home increases dramatically for the remainder of the year. This year is no different, my last bi-weekly paycheck in August (21st) will have my last contributions for the year (well.. there will be about $100 remaining, but lets not quibble). So how much will my take home increase? Well lets put it this way, my last 9 paychecks for the year will total slightly more than the total for the first 17 paychecks of this year. That's 100% more take home from here on out! Par-tay.

From the first 17 paychecks I was still able to save a nice amount and put that in my brokerage. Now for the last 4 months? Its time to enjoy a week vacation with the SG-GF and her son, a few long weekends together, and enjoy the remainder of the year. And time to start adding some serious coin to my brokerage account.

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Hey, that all said above doesn't mean I stopped being frugal (or will stop going forward). Far from it. Yard sales have still been good to me (though last weekend was abysmal). Lots of finds from hobby related items to keep and sell, household items that are serious upgrades, and lots of other things I can sell online have been coming into my hands this year. My withdrawals from Paypal have been $1,300 year to date, and I have lots more to list this week. $200 of the profits went to my SG-GF as some items were her's, but still its been going good.

I haven't reviewed my expenses, but I know they have been staying low. I made mulberry jam this summer, and am looking to do the same with the pears building up on my tree right now. And then there is the various food stocks I brought back from my visit to my mother. Canned meat she over bought, and other staples, that should feed me for my lunches for at least a few months.

And visiting with her there is a nearby "surplus outlet" where you can sometimes get very discounted food. I returned home with a dozen boxes of multi-grain chocolate cheerios for $0.79 each, a bag of whole grain flour for $0.25, a jar of mayonaise for $0.25, and some other odds and ends. Seriously, how can you beat those prices???

My investments have been so-so this year, but hey, you can't have everything, right? Though there will be more on that in my next posting....