After my very good and professional dealings with Scottrade I figured other stock trading companies would have similar (if not same) abilities and professional web sites. So when I went to setup a brokerage account, I decided to "play the field" and check out other companies, as it wouldn't make a big difference, right? Sheesh, have I found out wrong.

** Rant follows **

It all started a month ago when I signed up with Sharebuilder to take advantage of their sign up bonus. That worked like a charm, money went in, the web site showed the funds, and then showed the bonus money. Then I found out their "$4 trades" (originally a big selling point with me) are ... ummm... like what one poster said... "like a weekly blue light special available for a short time". Otherwise you pay more for your trade than you do with brokers that have manned offices. Not very impressive.

Next I find out they have bonus codes for free trades (of the cheapo variety). OK, I can live with that. I put in the codes, and sure enough, I get emails stating all of these free trades my account has accumulated (about a dozen). So what to do? Lets make a trade or two...

Or so I thought. I go onto the site, log in, and no where are the free trades listed. So thinking they show up automatically when you order, I go to setup a trade. When I get to the point where the final cost is listed, there is nothing about free trades, just their $10 charge. Here I cancel the order, and do some research. I look about the site more, and find absolutely nothing.

OK, well lets see... ok, there is a big help FAQ section. OK, nothing related to my issue (big shock there), but there is a place to write with your questions. So I write there, asking where I can determine my free trade balance, and... for good measure I copy along one of the emails from them indicating my account number along with the free trades I should have.

Today I get a email with a canned message cheerily directing me to the place to find this information listed. I was pretty sure I checked there, but I go again. Yep, they didn't bother to check, and there is still nothing showing right where they said it would show.

OK, so now I need to decide....

Either I go with company that has a web site that misses things, they only have canned help, and the trades are expensive

-- OR --

Start over with a company that has a site that has worked great with my Roth IRAs for years that shows up to the second balances, they have people (locally!) I can talk to for help (only happened twice), and less expensive trades.

I don't know... this could be a hard decision. (OK, maybe not :P) BTW, I should be able to get the money out no problem, so I'm not sweating this, but they have pretty much lost a customer with this fiasco.

So often I read how people want to declutter and how good it is to do that, and lord knows I'm no different. I shan't go into the details, other than to say that ebay and craigslist are my friends. Extra space and extra money to invest (or spend on hobbies), who can complain about that?

Anyway, I have decided to see how much I can "earn" this year from credit card (and savings account) sign up bonuses. The decluttering comes in as I need to start to kill off some unused credit cards so I have more "need" for credit. Once your credit lines grow large they start to stop giving you new cards (boooo). While I got a new credit card this week (as listed below) I was told I was nearing a limit on what they would give on the credit cards, so I need to start pruning back my collection.

In the past four months I have gotten 50,000 miles for signing up for a Southwest Airlines card (good for $500 in gift cards), $100 bonus from Capital One (arrived today in the mail), $100 balance credit from Citi (fullfilled that by buying Exxon gift cards that gave me bonus gift cards!), and now I just signed up for another Citi credit card with another $100 sign up bonus. Now if I can trim off some unused CCs (especially from Chase), maybe I can get another bonus or two in the next few months.

And locally I can get a $100 bonus for signing up for a checking account at a regional bank (hmmm... I see myself visiting the local branch this Saturday). Keep a $500 balance for 3 months - yeah I think I can do that.

OK, that gives me $900 in less than half a year, I need to see if I can keep it going.

Getting freebies is nice. Saving money is great. Converting freebies into money by combining both techniques - priceless.

With that said, here's the plan.

Step 1) I was able to sign up for a credit card associated with an airlines rewards program that gave me 50,000 miles for making my first purchase. Well I have the card, made the purchase, and now have the miles. Most of the things you can buy with the program are terribly overpriced, but you can get gift cards. OK, I shop about as much as the pope swears, but if I cash out that way I can get $500 worth of gift cards, which seems like the best bang for the buck (or in this case - mile).

Step 2) I have signed up at work for the flexible spending account (FSA) for medical expenses for years now. Usually in the past I have spent as much as I saved in this program, usually less than $1,000, so no problem. Its a nice tax saver, to say the least. This past year I ended up with over $400 still to spend. (BTW, my work gives you a grace period through 3/15 the following year). So I have spent some of the $400 getting needed glasses (at WalMart), and so now I still need to spend almost $300. Hmmmm, what to do?

Step 3) Here's where 1+1=3. I would love to get cash, not gift cards from the rewards program (cash always beats gift cards). And for my FSA I need to spend money, probably on more glasses (it seems like the best way to burn off the remainder). And it dawns on me --- Combine these together! The rewards program allows cashing out in WalMart gift cards. I need to check, but I should be able to use gift cards to get my glasses. If so I (1) get the glasses, (2) submit the receipts to the FSA, and (3) get paid back in cash. Voila! I turn gift cards into coin of the realm.

Yes, I love it when a plan comes together.

This year for the holidays it seems like all I can do is make money / figure out ways to save money. Its odd how this is working out. (ok, maybe bragging a bit)

A few weeks ago I decided to try and get rid of some of my excess hobby items (mostly electric trains). No sense in keeping them if I know I really don't want them, and in fact have better versions. So Craigslist here I come. In the past month I have sold: 4 HO (small) electric train sets, 2 Thomas Tank Engine lots, a large scale electric train, a large scale battery ran train, 5 books on Half.com, and a 40 year old football game(large). I brought in over $250 and probably made over $150 profit - and I cleared out space! On top of that money I won $45 in gift cards for Best Buy at work. I never go there, so this should be a new experience.

And now for something everyone can use.... I just bought $200 in Exxon/Mobil gift cards. Why??? If you do that by the end of this year and register them online, they will send you a $10 gift card for each $100 you buy. I'm already notified that they will be sending out my $20 GC soon. An effective 9% discount on gas never hurts.

However, I set it up better. I got a new credit card with the promotion of $100 back on your first $500 in purchases (if done in the first 3 months). I used this card to buy my $200 in gift cards. And now I will buy another $200 of the gift cards for me, but register them for my girl friend so she gets $20 in GCs, and after that I will only need to buy another $100. One or two utility bills on that credit card and I'm golden.

If I go back another month I see I sold my old car ($1000 thank you very much & save $300 on car insurance & now I can park my good car in my garage), and the warm weather of late has my utility bills coming in at about 1/2 of normal.

Finally a superior at work connected me with a local real estate agent / broker that is looking for someone that can upgrade his specialized software. We've talked and it sounds promising. It shouldn't take too long to do, but who knows, maybe I can make another $500+??? That would look good added to a dividend producing stock portfolio (ok, I need to start an account at a broker this year! I guess that's my resolution for the upcoming year.)

Once you hit the point of no mortgage payments life is so.... Oh I don't know.... relaxed. Oh I still have property taxes (boooo!), income taxes, and yes - I have yet to pay off a nice 2010 used car I bought this summer. Still, not sending out that big chunk of money every month still is so odd. Its like I work for me now, instead of others. What a concept!

This hit home when I left for a week's vacation to near DisneyWorld. Yes, I paid my mother to use her timeshare, but that was almost all of the expenses for the trip. There was gas (using gift cards I earned, the balance put on my credit card was about $100), food ($40 @ Aldi's in the Orlando area), eating out was nothing (used gift cards I got for free for Subway and Burger King), and the parks were free (excess tickets my mother had that she gave me and my girlfriend). And then when I returned home there were no bills, just a regular paycheck from work. I even had the power off for the week, so no expenses at all! Only bad part was returning to the office on Monday.

Yes, there will be expenses coming down the road (take down some trees, replace the driveway, replace the flooring in the house, and I'm sure there'll be more), but when you know you don't have to keep running on that hamster wheel you can live life in the moment so much easier - it's great.

Oh, and to make this a finance posting --- If you get to the point I am (no mortgage), seriously consider an umbrella insurance policy. I hate paying money for this but.... intellectually I know its a good idea, and for about $10/mo. its not going to kill me.

With all the uncertainty in the market, last week I decided it was the time to put some money in my Roth IRA for this year and see if I could get something on the cheap. Yeah, I know, the market could crater, but if it does it probably won't matter where my money is. And with the mortgage paid, its not like I will be thrown out on the street if I make a bad bet. So this Monday $2500 was put in.

In my efforts to be a more economical investor I have stopped using market orders, and instead have started using limit purchase orders, and Tuesday I put in two of them. One for an industrial company I heard good things about, and one for a REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust). 100 shares each, which took all but $20 of my free cash. For each I put in for a price I felt was really, really low, but plausable if the market had a major hissy fit.

Today I got home and found to my surprise one of the two executed today. Apparently there was a mini "flash crash" in the REIT market, and my selected stock just got low enough for one minute to execute my purchase order. Its back up to almost where it ended yesterday, so I got the stock at a 6% discount. And at this lower price my effective dividend rate is over 17% (assuming no decreases in dividends, which could happen of course). And long term, it could still go lower, so this euphoria may be short lived. Still... 17% return in a Roth with no tax hit, can you say Yahtzee?!!

I decided to make a quick check of my ROTH IRA accounts for an end of the month checkup, and at first I didn't notice it because it was sooooo far off, it just didn't register. Finally I noticed my account was a few thousand off what it should be. One stock I owned had dropped dramatically (say 40%!) in one day, and I had no idea what happened. (BTW, it is MRO) At first I thought it was a glitch, but I quickly saw it wasn't. After some research I found out they spun off part of the business and I should be getting some stock of the new company. So far my account isn't showing the new stock, so I added in what I should get for the new company, and my overall account went up slightly.

Man, I just don't need shocks to my system like that.

Whew, it feels like I broke the bank. I went out to buy a used car this weekend, went to a number of places, and finally settled on one (2010 Hyundai Accent). Another 0% credit card check was used to pay (mostly) for it. Sorta hurts to see the credit card debt increase, but now I know I have no more large purchases until next year (and maybe not even then!), and almost no monthly bills any more (just CC's and utilities).

Hmmm, lets see, if I add in the CD maturing in August, I will have more than enough to pay everything off by December. I have a paid for one week vacation for November set up already, another 2 week one ready to go in July, and I have $10,000 in CDs maturing next January.

Yard sales were good today as well. The visiting girl friend spent most of the money, but she is psyched about her purchases. And she was a big help in getting the car (Can anyone say good cop / bad cop in car negotiations???) Not sure if we got the best price we could, but if not it was pretty close. Man, I'm so glad that's over with! Now just 10 days until vacation starts.

I can go online now and see that as of Friday, the mortgage balance is now $0. For course they had to tack on some type of documentation fee of $65. Errrr, really??? Someone always has their hand grabbing for your money, don't they?

On my mystery medical bill, the doctor's billing person said it wasn't done right, and they will fix that, after I fax them the bill (which I did). Hmmmm, I suspect I'll have to contact them again - it never goes away that easy.

Today was nice weather, yet yard sales were sparse, to put it mildly. Is there a holiday I wasn't told about? I spent $2, yet I found a dollar bill near my car, so total outlay was $1. Yeah, I can afford that.

Went to the car dealership today, but they didn't have the cars they said they had in stock online. Almost felt like a bait & switch. Seriously, the lot out front looked half empty. I went to do a test drive on a used car, and as the saleman got the car to the side of the showroom for me to get in, another saleman comes out and says that car was just sold. WTF??!! Is this the new reality with car sales? BTW, this was a Hyundai dealership, so I'm not sure the Japanese problems should have any effect on them.

The $40 gas gift card arrived today. Unfortunately I needed gas yesterday (I was on fumes), so this will have to wait to be used for a week or two.

Oh well, if this is the worst of my complaints on life, I should be happy. Right?

... and not for what I found. This was the first time I had my girlfriend along, and she loves yard sale-ing like I do. I found very little for me (booo), but she found some nice items she had wanted, so that made up for me not getting very much. I did get a Pyrex cobalt blue pie plate and a Pyrex 1 quart measuring cup (all for $3). I had no idea measuring cups got that big.

After making me dinner, my girlfriend said how great that measuring/mixing cup was. She could measure and then mix in the same bowl. Very convenient.

On the finance front, I just got my first paycheck after (almost) paying off my mortgage. Its cool looking at the checking balance, and not wondering if I will have enough for my next payment. Of course now my retirement accounts dropped more than my paycheck - I guess I need to realize its just a temporary pullback.

Well the mortgage has hit the dust (more or less). I left a few hundred in to pay this coming month, so I would have time to contact the credit union and get from them the list of what paperwork I should be able to expect from them, and to know if I need to go there in person to get anything. I figure that late payment will cost me less than $2, so I can live with that.

What to do with the excess funds? Next month (July) I have the half year property taxes due, which if they are similar to last year... will be about $1,500. But I get 3 paydays in July, so that should make up for that expense.

And other news...

Markets look to be going haywire today. Shame I don't have a ton of money to put into a Roth IRA today, although I guess it would be a day until the funds cleared, and who knows, the market may go flying back up tomorrow.

Looks like summer has finally hit in the past week. I've been feeling drained most days by the afternoon, I guess my body hasn't gotten used to the hotter temps yet.

And lastly I changed the contributions to my 457 plan. Since they now have the option to have a Roth 457, I have split my contributions 2/3 traditional, 1/3 Roth. I want to see how much of a tax hit that causes, then I will adjust until I hit a comfortable split between the two. I figure I'll probably do a 50/50 split when its all said and done, but for now this is an initial test.

And nope, that's not a typo. I just got a 0% rate, $0 transfer fee offer in the mail from one of my credit cards. In fact I don't even have to transfer the money from another card, they sent me checks I can write to myself. Hmmmm, lets see... they are limiting it to $7,000, I have a mortgage balance of $8,850... you know, I think I can do this. In fact I *KNOW* I can do this.

The offer says I have to pay it back by April 2012, I have over $10,000 in CDs maturing between now and then, soooo.... pay off the mortgage this month, pay maybe $800 per month on the credit card until the CDs mature and then pay the balance at that time. Yep, that sounds like a plan.

Woohoo, more ways to save money. YESssss, I like it.

Sorry, the two subject items are not related (certainly would be interesting if they were).

I may as well start with the mystery. Its not medical, in that I am not sick, but the more common one now a days. That is: What the F*** is this bill I got from a hospital I never went to? Seriously, what is someone to think when they get a bill from a hospital they didn't go to, for a service that comes under the name of "Pathol/Hystol"? Actually, I have an idea what this is about, though it really is a surprise. On the "day of service", I had a cyst removed at a doctor's office about 30 miles away from the hospital. Could this be some test of what was removed? Perhaps, but the doctor didn't tell me that was going to be done, they never informed me of any results from this mystery test, and the hospital never informed me of any results of this mystery test. I won't get into my opinion of having these mystery providers bill you seperately instead of through who you went to see in the first place. I have a number to call if I have questions (and I *WILL* be calling).

Assuming what I am guessing above is correct, would I be out of line to insist getting a copy of the results otherwise not paying? This is why I want to stay in the best shape possible - crazy F bills appearing out of nowhere for who the F*** knows what. GRRRRrrrr.

I can afford it, but thats not the point. Are people supposed to pay every crazy bill that appears when there is no explanation for the bill? Sorry, but my brain doesn't work like that.

=====================================================

As for the garage door, I can't open it right now. I don't know about you, but I see that as a bit of a problem. (Thankfully my car was outside the garage when this happened) My door has these extra large springs to give an assist when opening - well one broke this week. It was probably the 1960 issue door spring that came with the door. The door is solid wood and super heavy. Oh boy. I know they sell replacements (I should go tonight and get it), but raising and keeping the door up by myself is going to be a challenge (I know - I had to repair the pulley system 2 years ago)

=====================================================

Another house payment is in the books. Now the total in my savings (not CDs, just savings and checking) is a match to my mortgage balance. I would pay it off, but I have car insurance payment this month, then a property tax payment in July, so its better if I keep some money liquid for a few more months. Still, its crazy to my mind when I compare my savings to my mortgage. Its like there is a mistake, it can't be right.

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Participated at a local church / community yard sale today. It was very disappointing - I probably brought in $60 for the day. I've done better doing it in my own driveway, and the prep work was much less. At least it was a wonderful day weather wise.

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And last (and in no way least) my relationship is still going great (ergo the change in my personal info). There have been a few rough spots, but each time we seem to work it out and make things even better. This is the part that is truly encouraging. The communication has been great, both of us have been trying to not let anything slide, but instead we let each other know what we're thinking about absolutely anything. That was something I never could get out of my ex, and it is really refreshing. We don't always agree, but we make sure to resolve it by communicating.

Hmmmm, I should go get that garage spring (and use my coupons that expire today at the grocery store). OK, gotta go!

I never knew it was so hard to blog when things were going well. Nothing to complain about, no struggles, I kinda like this. Having nothing to struggle with makes any post boring. Sorry.

With that said, what has happened in the past month?

I have scheduled another large mortgage payment for the end of April. After this one my balance will dive under $10,000, and my savings after that payment will be a close match. It'll be so weird without that taking a huge chunk of my earnings every month.

Yard sales have finally started. Last Saturday I was going to go buy a lawn mower after my rounds, instead I found a nice walk-behind mower. A couple of years old, it was a bit of a mess when I got it home. I needed to tighten all the bolts holding the wheels (they were wobbling awful) and the handle was at a height for someone under 5 ft. tall (really, what was the deal with that?). Once I figured out that reinstalling the handle backwards would fix this, it was a 5 minute fix. Self propelled craftsman model (not that I care), runs nice, all for $30. Nice score.

I got another $5 gift card (for Burger King) from the local phone company. All I had to do was call and listen to them for 5 minutes. I love easy free money.

Two of my stocks in my Roth IRA had huge jumps (~40% each) this past month after earnings were reported. Super cool! Of course the others are basically flat (but nice dividends!), at least overall they're going up.

And my biggest (and nicest) shock is I reconnected with an old flame from college, and we've gone from just talking to a relationship that is way better now than it was then. I'm trying to keep my expectations in check, but this had made me believe in life again.

And not that this is my ultimate goal, but I've increased my daily workouts and I'm down to "fighting weight", if you will. Basically a match to what I weighed in HS, only now there is lots more muscle. I don't cringe when I look in the mirror any more.

Life ain't perfect I suppose, but it almost feels that way right now. I really have nothing to complain about (ok, I need a new car, but I can survive my current one for a little while longer). And spring is here.

Life is good.

I was checking the retirement account website tonight (yeah, I probably go there too much), and I saw something that caught my attention. With all the "sturm und drang" in the financial markets the past three years, all the talking heads have said forget about 8% returns in the markets, that the with the new normal we would be lucky to get 6%. So what do I see for what they have computed for my "return since inception" (2003 in my case)? 7.75%

The majority of my deposits have been in the past 4 years too (basically during all the chaos). Not sure what this means, if anything. I'm a good and steady investor? I was smart enough not to bail when the market tanked? I lucked out on the right funds? I'm just average? Hard to say. Even at this rate I won't get rich, but with a pension and SSI, I think I will survive just fine. Anyway, I thought this was an interesting counterpoint to all the market gloom on the news the past years.

Well it finally came - the federal tax return - so the end of this month I am putting in an even larger mortgage payment. Years ago I would have kept the money in savings - when the rate of interest in savings isn't that far off of the mortgage interest rate, why force the paydown? But today, getting such miserable savings rates, I may as well push forward and get it all paid off, and save some money in the process.

On the frugal front, nice weather can't come soon enough. Paying less to heat the house will be nice, but being able to start yard sale-ing again will be nicer!

Well I did it, I put in an extra large payment for my mortgage this month. That dropped what I owe from $19k to $16.3k. When adding that payment to all my other bills, my outflow for the month was probably $750 more than my inflow. If I get my tax refund in the coming weeks, even with another large mtg. payment, my cashflow should probably be positive for March which would be nice (to put it mildly).

Other tidbits...

I get to enjoy having surgery next week to remove a cyst on my back (yuck). Needs to be done, I wonder how bad I'm going to feel after this .

I signed up for the discounted 3 months of eHarmony. My "matches" so far seem to be an interesting group. While I don't say "OMG" when I read too many of them, I have to wonder what I said that makes them think these are good matches. Do they let me review my survey answers? I need to check. I love how they recommend that you write to everyone - that its a matter of numbers. I understand the logic behind that, but still... doing that would just make me feel desperate. Perhaps my attitude will change with time.

And life goes on...

Not that I have ever had money designated as the "emergency fund", but I have kept money in savings (much in online savings) and checking accounts just because I liked to be flexible. Usually that meant I needed to pay for something large (read: car repair) with a credit card, and then I quickly paid it off (read: No interest). In the past days I have read a few blog posts where the issue of keeping or not the emergency fund has been discussed. Good arguments are made to not have one, as long as you have credit cards you can use in an emergency, and you have other less than 100% liquid funds you can access in a short amount of time. (CDs and brokerage accounts)

The above seems to describe me to a "T", and I have already been considering doing something like this. Plus I overdid paying taxes at the end of last year, so now I should be getting a refund of over $1,500.

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What follows is a train of thought going on as I mull this over. (oh, btw, I *was* a math major in college, so I love these type of math puzzles)

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After this month's mortgage payment my savings will be over half my outstanding mortgage, and unless my car dies I'm not going to have any emergency needs, at least nothing my credit card can't easily handle. Soooooooo... I have been putting $2,000 a month for a few months on the mortgage and it hasn't killed me. Maybe I should up that amount? I have a CD maturing in August. I have another one I could break - its only earning 2.3%. Those two CDs would give me another $2,500. Add that to the tax refund of $1,500, and that's $4,000. I have savings of $11,000. Together its $15,000, and I only need $19,000. If I go for a last payment at the beginning of September, that makes 7 more payments. Let's see, $2,800/mo. would just about do it. And doing this would save me another few hundred in interest payments. Oh man, I'm tempted. Soooooo tempted.

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When the mortgage payment is made for the begining of March, I will have to come back and indicate what I did

Hmmm, a new year - and maybe a new set of goals based on my prior year's goals? I'm going to list mine for this year, then a review of what I wrote last year and how I did.

First for the upcoming year (2011):

Financial:

•Fund Roth IRA fully. No date this year as I will be having some competing expenses I didn't have this past year. It may take all year to complete this.
•Continue max contributions to 457 plan (a 401k plan for gov't types) so that I max out contributions by end of September. I'm keeping this from last year.
•Be happy with spending once in a while (yeah, not frugal, but I need to have a life - so to speak). This is another good one I want to keep.
•Sell more books and other junk to help free up space at home (and make money!). I did well this year and I should be able to keep it up.

Personal:
•Finish cleaning the house - Part way there, I should be able to finish this year (Yeah, I'm slow, but I'll do it - honest!)
•Try the online dating again - I can't quit, can I?
•Continue to volunteer and donate blood. At work there is supposed to be some new program for volunteering - I will need to see what thats all about.
•Start / finish repairs & tasks about the house. - I already started one project today - if only I can keep it up.
•Continue my exercise routine at home. - hopefully the nagging ailments will subside.
•See if I can finish paying my mortgage by year end. This will be tough. I have CDs maturing Jan 2012, so if nothing else I will be able to finish the mortgage by then.
•Get a new (to me) car. - This is going to hurt my finances, but it can't be helped.

Long Term (Post 2011):
•Get my retirement savings to $250K by my 50th birthday (late 2012). My (401k, 457, Roth IRAs) are at $197,000 now so if I can put in $16,500 in the 457 and $5,000 in the Roth each year, this could happen.

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And now lets see how the goals worked out last year (2010) This should be interesting...

Financial:

•Fund Roth IRA fully by June 30 - I met this goal - finished by mid May
•Continue max contributions to 457 plan (a 401k plan for gov't types) so that I max out contributions by end of September. - Another one that worked out, I maxed out in mid September.
•Be happy with spending once in a while - hmmm... hard to say - I did get some great items at yard sales, and I didn't stress over the prices (much). So I'll give this one an ok.
•Sell more books and other junk to help free up space at home (and make money!). If I can get this year to at least be a wash it would be tremendous. - I don't have exact numbers, but I believe my ebay/half.com sales paid for all my ebay/yard sales purchases this year. If not it was close. And I have cleared out some room. So I count this as a success.

Personal:
•Finish cleaning the house - I did ok, but still have a ways to go.
•Try the online dating again, of course trying to keep more of a zen philosophy while doing it. - Ugh. At least I tried for the Zen. The rest - total failure.
•Continue to volunteer and donate blood. - Kept up the blood donations anyway.
•Start / finish repairs & tasks about the house. - Did some - so-so results.
•Re-start my exercise routine at home. - I did workouts at home, usually one or two nights a week - still not as good as I would like - but I see the changes - my body looks close to my high school years now.
•Look into applying for the team lead position opening at work at the end of the year. - That didn't fly - oh well I tried.

Long Term (Post 2010):
•Get my retirement savings to $250K by my 50th birthday. It was around ~$150,000 at the beginning of the year (401k, 457, and a Roth IRA). - I ended the year with my accounts totalling $197,000 - A very solid increase from last year. Barring a market downturn again, this looks like it may happen.
•Determine within 3 years if I want to finish my working career at my current job, and if so find a house to live in closer to work. - no change
•Finish paying off of current mortgage by 50th birthday. - I've upped the payment amount, now I hope to finish January 2012, possibly earlier.
•After the mortgage is paid, buy a new (new to me) car. My current one is getting long in the tooth, hopefully it can last to 2012. - The car had a bad year, its still running but I don't know how long, but I already have a replacement car in the wings that should be available by this spring. Hopefully it no major repairs will happen between now and then.

Whew. Sorry, that was a lot of stuff to read. I know its a lot, but if I can do that, I'll be pretty well set. But isn't that was being frugal is all about? Having a life you can enjoy without worries?

... well... pretty much just the best of times. At least it was today. One of those days that has "ugh" written all over it, and at the end it was a "wow, could anything else go right?" day. Well that was today. (If you read to the end, there is financial info - honest. Or just skip to the end if you like - it's labelled.)

I was supposed to telework today, but was asked to go in so I could attend a branch lunch. (I love teleworking) I wouldn't be able to workout at lunch due to this. Overnight the winds picked up, and by morning it was bitter cold outside. My body was miserable stiff getting up, as I had worked out last night, and was still feeling it. It was not a good start to the day. (I know what you're thinking: "Be happy you have a good paying job" - I am, honest)

The morning at the job was good, as I was having luck figuring out how to make the technology do what the users needed for their auditing reports. With that good feeling we went out to lunch, and I had a wonderful meal, quite relaxing. The afternoon was the same, good work was done. Since the day went well, I decided to workout at the gym after work. Then things started to pick up. First I saw a box I could use to send one of my ebay sales. It was an odd size and just what I needed. Next I was feeling better than usual while working out, and I see on the gym TV that my baseball team has amazingly signed the best pitcher available this off season. Super wow - but wait, it gets better.

(OK - financial part follows

And then it kept going. Once I got home, I see a UPS envelope at the door. I have no idea what that could be. Also in the mail I get a letter from one of my DRIP investments. After I get in out of the cold, I open the DRIP letter. My quarterly dividend notification has arrived, and it has a 7% increase - super! OK, the day is going great - it can't get better, right?

Nope, the best comes last. I see the UPS letter is from my old employer. I never get anything from them via UPS - what in the world is this? Inside I find a letter from the company saying they want to buy back the stock from all the employees (it is a small employee owned company - no public stock). It doesn't explain why (I seriously wonder about this), but they paid for a third party to be an independent manager and come up with a "best price" for the employees. Now the company is going to pay us almost double what they had been saying the stock is worth. Unfortunately I didn't work there too long, but they had been saying my stock was worth $4,500 for a few years, and now they will pay me $9,000 for it. I used profit sharing money of about $3,000 to buy the stock about 8 years ago. A nice ROI.

OK, I didn't win the lottery, get an inheritance, or find the love of my life. But short of those things, I wish every day could be this good.

I guess more accurately I rolled it over, but still... It being an old 401k plan worth near $11.5K. Not earth shattering, but its now into an IRA I have (that was empty). Friday I plan on stopping by the broker (Scottrade) and transferring it over to an existing Roth IRA. Then I need to figure on what I want to invest in with the funds.

With tax rates looking like they're not going anywhere in the coming years, this'll work perfectly. With my mortgage dropping off in ~1 year, I will have more money to pay the extra taxes needed in 2012/2013 due to this. I know there's the debate on whether the Roth IRAs will be a good thing when you retire, but I figure that having various sources of funds with different tax implications means I will be able to pick and choose each year how much to take from each pile of money to optimize what will be best for me.

In other areas I now have 4 book sales for December. I'm not sure of the "profit", but I should be clearing about $35 from the sales. Hey, it works for me. Three ebay sales left me clear another $45, probably $30 after I net out the cost of the items. A little less clutter is sure nice.

Over T-day I got my jacket fixed (from a prior posting here). Came out great, and its perfect on cold (but not super cold) days. Of course with the cold front that came in this week I'm using the winter parka instead. Still, its nice to have it back and useable.

Nothing special on my exercises - I am keeping up with them, and thats good enough. I think I have held my weight constant over the holidays so far, and maybe I'm a little stronger to boot.

This is strictly a financial entry. On Friday I deposited a small check at the credit union and noticed one of their advertisements. A Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) for 2.99% for 12 months, then 4.99% thereafter. In addition, if you get a $50 gift card, or a $100 gift card if you take out more than $10,000.

It turns out my mortgage is over 6%, and I was hoping to finish paying it off by the end of next year, or early in 2012. I looked at the amount of interest I would pay next year, and compared it to what I would expect to pay if I took out a HELOC for the amount of the mortgage, and used it to pay the mortgage off. The difference was around $500. Oh, and the tax benefit should be the same (as I understand it) as both should be tax deductable.

So that leads me to the question - Is there any reason I shouldn't get the HELOC and pay off the mortgage? Legal issues? Anything? Should a HELOC have some type of a setup charge? I never looked into it, so I don't know how that works.

About 2 months ago I picked up a Christmas Train set for $2 (originally sold for about $45 in the 90's). I took a chance on it, and when I tried to use it, the wheels weren't moving on the engine. After I took the motor apart (three times!) I found a gear was loose, so I superglued it back in place and it worked just fine then. Jump to today and I sold it for $20 (and there was lots of people writing for it too). A 'lil ingenuity and a dab of superglue, wait a few months, and some easy money comes out of it. Nice way to help pay for a little of my latest DRIP purchase.

Today was a annual leave day (for me), which makes it a good day. I mean, getting paid and not driving 50 min. each way and not having to sit in a cubicle, how can that not be a good day?

I stayed in all day (no sense going out in the rain here on the east coast) and got lots done (including a number of financial goodies).

Non Financial:
Made 2 apple pies from apples from backyard tree, made lunches for next week, survived a hard weghtlifting DVD routine at lunch, plus did the weekly kitchen cleaning. (Now I have nothing to do this weekend!)

Financial:
* Bought $750 more of my local utility DRIP stock. Currently it is giving over 4% in dividends and given the gov't wants to keep interest rates at zero for the foreseeable future, saving the money in a bank seems a major waste.
* Setup my monthly mortgage payment, setup my monthly credit card payment (only $310!!), paid my semi-annual car insurance payment, and setup a transfer of money to a higher paying online account (all done online of course).
* Called my local phone company due to their letter asking me to consider switching to their service. For a few minutes we discussed rates, and there was nothing they had that was nearly as inexpensive as the local cable company's service. For my time, I am supposed to have activated a $5 Subway gift card that came with the letter. We'll see if that happens, though they are usually good about following through.

Financial / hobby:
* I see a rechargable tool battery pack (still new) I bought at a yard sale last weekend and put on ebay is bid up over $18. Not bad for a $1 purchase. Hey, this will pay for my two slot car sets I got this past month ($10 & $4)!
* Also used for the first time today some weights I bought last weekend (yard sales of course). Got them at about 10% of their in store prices. Fancy brand name stuff - gotta love it

Random thought: I found something good coming from washing dishes by hand (other than the savings and cleaner dishes part). My muscles were tired / sore after today's workout, but doing the dishes seemed to help the shoulders and biceps by having them do easy work and helped loosen them up. I feel much better now.

Yard sales this year have been either a feast or famine situation (usually famine). Not sure if thats due to me needing so little any more, or the economy, but it is something I have seen this year. Last weekend I spent 35 cents total on a workout Tee-shirt, replacement vacuum belts, and a mid 30's lithographed American Flag shield that clamps to a car's radiator and can hold 5 flags (mucho cool - looks like you would use it at parades). I'll call that famine. Now the prior weekend I got only 2 things - a workout inflatable ball for $1, and a still new, still in the shrink wrap, slot car race set for $4. The set is one of these large scale sets made in Europe that sells for $200. That was my feast week.

And for those of you that like financial articles, this I think is a great series where they try to come up with just what has happened in the past 40-so years in America for the middle class. I don't agree with all of it, but it is thought provoking:

In a minor burst of doing something I should have done a year ago, I placed two items on Craigslist this past week. Nothing major (a Tonka toy and a grinding machine). The toy took up space, and really wasn't that great, and the grinder was now a duplicate, as I inherited a bigger one. The nice part is while I got a total of $11 for the pair, I paid $8 for them at yard sales 2-3 years ago. I really love getting money to temporarily own items. I really need to list more items for sale (hint to myself).

=== Other thoughts in my life ===

Yard sales were abysmal today - only bought two sweaters for my grandmother. Thankfully my pickups the past two weeks were above average.

Shoulder therapy is coming along. While not perfect, I barely ever think about babying the shoulder any more, it feels so good. Of course right after therapy it feels awful, but that goes away in a few hours.

Oh, lets not get into the stock market. I suppose it will be good in the long run that prices dropped so much now, but it doesn't make me feel better in the short term. This is why day trading wouldn't appeal to me.

Oh, and finally, I'm one month closer to my true independence day - the day I don't have a mortgage and even the oh-so-minor concern that "a job loss could cause me problems" will be gone. (BTW, its currently scheduled for July 2012) While barely having enough in CDs and savings to match what I owe on the mortgage, I really don't have the "just what mortgage worry are you talking about?" feeling yet. By the end of this year I think it will start to kick in though.

It was a year (or maybe two) ago I wrote how going to yard sales can give a very interesting view on how some people fritted away money left and right on erm... c!&p, and now don't have money for basic needs like utilities, or even housing. Of course this was while I was visiting with relatives living "in the countryside" as I like to call it.

Quite possibly (make that probably) in the past year I have come across people moving out of the area I live in due to financial issues as well. But yesterday I came across one, that while they didn't say it directly, must have blown some serious wads of cash, and now had nothing but bills to show for it. It was late in the morning, so I probably missed some interesting items, but lets see - what did they have?
* Padded chair with speakers built in
* Some really expensive looking furniture
* Brand new wrought iron curtain rods and unopned very nice curtains (these are what I bought and installed in my kitchen)
* Some type of mini electric arcade (like you would find at Brookstone - are they still in business?)
* Fancy glassware
* Nice dresses
* Lots more high end bric-a-brac.
* Nice jukebox
* And last but not least - *TWO* cars sitting on the front lawn for sale. Both very high end cars, one some type of sports car, the other I think was a new BMW of some type. New fancy rims, new tires, nice and shiny. They wanted $35,000 for each one. Whew!

And the house, for this area anyway, would probably sell for $750,000 now (make that well over a million a year or two ago).

While I was looking someone that was helping this woman sell things commented "Well its not like you're going to have room for these things when you move into your condo." Yikes. While condos can be extra nice around here, most of them are just glorified apartments. Just keep the money spent on the junk I saw (and buy one reasonable used car instead of the two there) and I swear you would have enough money to pay a couple *YEARS* of mortgage payments, even on a house that size. I guess they thought the good times would never end. She even talked like she was well educated, but obviously some common sense was seriously lacking.

Quite often when I try to enourage myself to do the "right" thing (financially anyway) I try to look at the finances from a different point of view. Which is sorta what I am doing when I answer the question in this post's title.

As I have paid my mortgage down, I have looked at how much of each month's payment goes toward interest, as the remaining amount goes back to me as it ups my "equity" ownership of the house. I am now at the point where the monthly interest is only $180, or just $6 per day. Of course there are other bills on the house (utilities, insurance, taxes). Those I estimate are monthly $75, $50, and $250. That totals $375, then add in the $180 and I get about $550, or about $18 / day. That's certainly better than renting a small apartment where I would pay at least $1,000 a month (around here anyway). Its just a different way of looking at how the extra payments on my mortgage help accelerate my payoff, and it makes the extra payments feel more worthwhile.

Now for extra items (if you're up for a long read)...

Physical therapy is going fine. Extra painful during the sessions, as my yelling out in pain at times can attest. Only two weeks in, and my range of motion is almost back to where it should be (ok, in some directions that's true, others I still have a ways to go).

Oooh, I just put in the last $2,000 for my 2010 Roth IRA. Its now maxed for this year (before May no less!). Not sure what I will put that money into, but I have an idea. Now I need to roll over an old 401k into a Roth, and I will be cooking.

In my efforts to eat better, and still eat cheap, I have started to use almond and soy milk in place of the skim milk I have used for years. Regular milk seems to go bad fast, too fast for me as I live alone and don't use it much. The other types of milk last much much longer. But these milks seem thicker to me, so I have been diluting them with water, maybe 25-33%, which tastes better, and brings the price down close to real milk. And with it not spoiling so fast, it may be just as cheap now. Something to consider.

Not sure if everyone knows this or not... but with all the changes coming in the next few years due to the health care overhaul, one thing that is going to look less appealing are Flexible Spending Accounts. I used to put in a certain amount, knowing that if needed I could spend on many over the counter items and stockpile if needed. Well this year is the last for that. Coming next year, most (or is it all?) OTC items will NOT be eligible for flexible spending. I'm not really complaining, I was surprised a few years ago when they expanded the elibility to include OTC items, so I'm just dissapointed now. With everything else going on with healthcare, costs are supposed to go down overall. I hope so, but we'll see. I'm betting my costs will go up, though not horribly. (Actually I'm fairly sure it will go up, since now I will have to pay taxes on my health insurance premiums - now this sucks!)

I've been watching for many months now my retirement accounts refill after last year's free fall. I never lost faith in the accounts, though I was surprised at how quick everything bounced back. With my plan to supersize my early year retirement account deposits (which I started in 2008), last year was a super year for my accounts (I deposited a lot early in 2009 when prices were at their lowest). My retirement sites show my "Personal Performance" for last year at over 50%. Oh, if only I could do that every year! (Can you imagine? You would only have to work a few years, then retire on your earnings. That would be crazy.)

The accelerated pay-down of my mortgage continues. I put in an extra $325/mo., and with the current payments already 80% principle, the end is in sight. The accelerated payoff date is currently mid 2012. I suspect if my finances are pumped up enough, I will probably just pay it off totally late 2011 / early 2012 and look at the payoff money like a short term CD earning the mortgage rate.

The Roth IRA is over half funded for 2010. When my 2009 tax refund arrives (any day now?) I will probably put the last $2K in. The refund is way more than I meant for it to be (I was aiming for a $0 refund), but due to the timing of my end of year paycheck I put much more into taxes for 2009 than I intended. Oh well, the overpayment was at year end, so its not like I gave the free loan to the government for all the year.

Finally - sorry for the rambling - this was more of a train of thought post. This is what happens when you write up something late at night.

Just a quick note from something I was pointed to online. Here is a link to a bank that doesn't want money. Seriously. If you withdraw money from your account (which by the way is earning 0%) and its a large enough amount of money, they'll pay you to just go away. Now that is just crazy.