Monday, June 28, 2010

cracking down on the budget

I've been warping my budget to fit my overspending in various categories for a while by spending the extra money. I've still been making my savings goals... but I could be doing better frankly.

Like today, since i paid the electrician and my friend and I couldn't get together for any piano lessons this month... I had an extra $80 in my account and my first reaction was that I wanted to spend it! I really want a new pair of shoes and it would be fantastic to go grocery shopping now that I have the time to do it...

Instead I transferred $40.45 goes to the emergency fund and while I was looking at my accounts I noticed that I'm close to having $600 in my car account, I transfer $12.30 to make it a nice even $600.00, finishing that goal for the year.

I transferred $25 to KIVA so I have money to make another loan for next month and decided to take the $3.10 and plop it into my extra $$$ account.

Tile construction update

So the tile is finally done... but the contractor yelled at me and slammed my door on the way out...

So not the best last impression I'll be getting from the company... and there customer service department definitely heard about it... so much so they are forwarding my calls to the corporate office because she was stunned to hear about it.

But after a crazy day of running around and cleaning... and a huge thanks to my EX who came over and helped me throw out all the old tile and everything from my shed... my house is finally clean!

Electrician really polite! and other things

He came out, spent 5 minuets... fixed my outlet and I got charged $95.00, and he was nice. didn't yell at me, gave me a business card and the rest of the day was mine.

he also gave me a quote for putting a ceiling fan in my living room (something I was considering since there isn't much light in there...) So if I get all my money back from The tile company, I might have a another ceiling fan installed so i can have more light in my living room.... maybe.

I need to repaint my kitchen baseboards first, i'd like some better patio furniture that's actually comfortable, and I want a door to close off the laundry room from everything the kitchen.

If i get a full refund from the tile company, these things might become a reality. =)

I also turned down holiday overtime at work... everything has been so chaotic around the homestead that I need my days off to get things done.

Have to take my car in for its check up
Have to get my teeth cleaned at the dentist
Have to schedule an appointment with my doctor for an annual visit
have to figure out the invisiline stuff with my orthodontist

Its going to be a busy July...

Saturday, June 26, 2010

TILE round 5

Ya, the grout between my tiles is now 2 different colors because they didn't regrout the whole thing... just places...

***gets on the phone and calls The Tile Company again***

UPDATE:
They are going to have to come back out and regrout the whole place...

and i almost finished all the cleaning!

I also went through all my phone records from when i bought my condo and am in the process of counting how many minuets i've been on the phone with The tile company and how many hours i've lost from crews coming and cleaning to use in negotiations for my refund.

UPDATE 2
Apparently they are coming tomorrow at 9:30am to regrout my tile again.

Check up time for my Retirement (were half way through the year!)

The first 2 quarters of 2010 are over… so it’s time to look back at my retirement levels and see the “big picture” of how my finances are doing.

401A Account:
• Benchmark Balance: $741.62
• 1st Quarter Balance: $866.40
• 2nd Quarter Balance: $892.50
o From the 2010 Benchmark, I’ve added $185.12 in new contributions. So while the balance is up, I’ve actually lost -$34.24 due to the market

457Account:
• Benchmark Balance, $1,032.80
• 1st Quarter Balance, $1,033.17
• 2nd Quarter Balance $1,033.82
o From the 2010 Benchmark, its gained $1.02 in interest

Roth IRA ING DIRECT:
• Benchmark Balance, $2,567.56
• 1st Quarter Balance, $2,585.80
• 2nd Quarter Balance, $2,604.21
• From the 2010 Benchmark, its gained $36.65 in interest

Sharebuilder Roth IRA:
• Benchmark Balance: $11,532.06
• 1st Quarter Balance: $12,575.89
• 2nd Quarter Balance: $12,786.10
o From the 2010 Benchmark, I’ve added $1,500.00 in new contributions. So while the balance is up, I’ve actually lost -$245.96 due to the market
Over all what have I learned?


2010 is the year of the slow recovery… if we can label it a recovery at all. I’ve watched my account loose $300 in a single day, and when you only have a small amount of money invested, that can really hurt your bottom line… at least my over all retirement balances are actually increasing (which couldn’t be said for last year). I’ve also decided to move my mutual funds into an account with lower fees and a better rating, so hopefully this will be a good move for me and my investments since I plan to be a buy and hold investor once everything is moved into Vanguard. I continue to, even though everyone keeps telling me not to because I’m so young, put $1,000.00 a year into Roth CD’s as it makes me happier because I’m not a huge fan of risk (and that’s actually the fund that’s earned the most this year... pitiful eh?)

Goals for 3rd quarter (July, August, and September)
Try and get the 457 account below 3% of my portfolio… it’s at 3.59% now (it dropped .08% over the last quarter).

Continue making $250.00 a month contributions to Roth IRA (July is extra Check Month and I’ll be adding my Annual $1,000.00 to my Roth IRA CD Account. Move Mutual Funds to Vanguard.

401a contributions are cut for the next fiscal year… and I’ll be paying more for my pension. =(

Continue doing my pension buy-back…. 26 more installment payments to go!

Retirement Perspectives

End of 2009 Balance: $26,529.33 | Current 2010 Balance: $28,769.74
Additional Contributions since 2009: $2,482.94
Growth: $-242.53 (-1.53%)

401 Account: Approximately 3.10 % of my portfolio
• Contributions: $870.14 (Employer Paid 1% of Salary)
• Worth $892.50
o Up 2.57% from inception, +$22.36
o VPRKX (Target date 2040) (84.5973 shares)

457 Account: Approximately 3.59% of my portfolio
• Discontinued Employer funded plan that I can’t close… interest=pennies
o Positive $1,033.82

ING DIRECT Roth IRA: Approximately 9.05% of my portfolio
$2,500.00 Invested| Worth $2,604.21
Up 4.17% from inception +$104.21
-CD’s ranging from 1.25% to 4.5%

ShareBuilder Roth IRA Approximately 44.44% of my portfolio
• $13,000.00 Invested | Worth $12,786.10
o DOWN 1.65% since inception… -213.90
o IDSLX $10,353.08 | I have 1,265.658 Shares
o ARDVX $1,283.02 | 150.766 Shares
o Money Market Cash: $900.00
o Not deposited Contributions: $250.00

I got the Vanguard application, but they spelled my name wrong so I’m waiting on a new one. I think I’ll open the account August 1st (after they charge the service fees for accounts under $10,000.00) I’ll initially buy $3,000.00 of their 2040 target date account, and then each week I’ll buy more until the whole amount is vested in there (but not in one large sum-the market is too volatile for that at the moment, and that will give me almost a year to get the account to $10,000.00.)

Pension: Approximately 39.81% of my portfolio
If I quit tomorrow, I’d just have the cash in the account (earning an automatic 6% until withdrawn).

Total: $11,453.11

• I’m currently buying additional time in my retirement accounts from when I was 16-18 years of age (Cal PERS service prior to membership). It’s less than a year’s worth of service credit, but I’ll be paying $33.06 for 26 more installments (made 26 payments out of 52).

My entire portfolio (if I cashed my pension out today) is worth $28,769.74

Friday, June 25, 2010

How did i get more clothes than hangers?

oh yes... that's right... my sister moved and i inherited a lot of new digs and a bunch of oh maybe i'll wear its.

Looks like besides going through the pantry i'll have to start going through the closet...

Normally i put stuff on one side of the closet and try and wear everything once in a year... What didn't make it I got rid of... but a lot of times i just wore something just to wear it in case I wanted to keep it. It made me keep a lot more items that were kind of iffy.

So I think this time i'm going to try and build a true functioning wardrobe.

I'm going to clean out my spare closet and move all my old clothes into that closet. As I wear things I'll move them to my real closet... but when i get dressed, instead of starting with the closet with the digs I haven't worn, i'll go to the closet with the stuff i've worn and see how much variety I really need and how many outfits I really have. (cause truth be told we have our favorite digs... and the then there is the stuff we settle for.) I guess its time to find out what I really wear all the time and what I wear occassionally.

I really need to pair down to a functional working wardrobe... not just stuff I can force myself to wear in a year.

since my house is covered in cement dust

I thought I'd be productive... and do some forced purging/cleaning.

Its amazing how things you weren't willing to part with before are suddenly a lot easier to get rid of when you have to clean them and everything in your house... most of which by hand... and were talking everything!

Things I didn't use in the kitchen and just kept because it was part of a "set" were tossed out. Things i didn't use anymore like old Tupperware that i had replaced at Christmas but just kept because i had the room... and you "just never know."

I shredded bags and bags of stuff that I was just too lazy to deal with (because I was stuck in my bedroom for 2 days straight)... and I started to organize a few things.

Since Ive been really busy this past week I haven't made it to the grocery store and i've been eating my way through my pantry (my food tastes have definitely changed in post boyfriend world... and I think a good pantry challenge is in order to clean it out... well see whats left when I finally find the time to go grocery shopping.)

Over 2 years ago i started invisiline

and sadly i'm still not done. I was promised things at my initial consultation and was not briefed the way I should have been briefed to put a long story short (frankly i've whinned enough in the past 2 weeks on this blog for another long sob story).

Half way through my first attempt of Invisiline (i'm on number 3) the idea of putting brackets on my upper teeth came up... and after a "discussion" where their misinformation became apparent, it was agreed and marked in my file that if we had to go with brackets at any point part of my money would be refunded to me because I was "assured" I was an Invisiline candidate.

I'm on my last "retainer/tray/aliner" thing... and i mentioned the stubborn tooth, how we thought i might need brackets at one point (and didn't mention the refund part)... so my dentist will be taking xrays in 2 weeks to see how long my routs are and if brackets are the best way to go.

If brackets are needed (once its admitted) i'll have her bring my file to discuss my refund because I've already been told the brackets will not cost me anything "since i've been a client so long."

Frankly, they should have been honest and told me I should have went with braces from day one... i would have saved half the expenses and half the time.

Since i've been complaining so much

I wanted to pass on a wonderful customer service experience I had with Cox.

My internet stopped working and I kept getting a proxy error. I called and told the woman on the line i had already disconnected the modem and rebooted it and my computer (and for once she didn't have me do it again.). After a few minuets and a few different tries of some tech stuff, I was up and running and I asked to be transferred to her boss to gloat about how fantastic she was.

At least I could make someone else day.

I really appreciate good customer service... Especially since i've been getting such bad luck lately

Tile update

my tile was installed Monday and Tuesday

Wednesday the grout started cracking... finally got a hold of someone thursday... Friday a crew showed up after i worked 10 hours today and started scraping up the grout.

there goes my friday night

___

Finally got Customer Service to call me back and i went ahead and told her the whole long story. I'm asking for a full refund. She said her boss authorized an additional 15%... but after my story she's going to talk with her again and explain it all over again. (I received 10% back on my tile for the 1st repair. so I have 90% left that i paid for and i'm going to fight for every dime of it.)

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Tile hell

ya... hell... My tile re-redo was supposed to take one day... quick and easy.

HA! my butt. They got here at 8:30 yesterday... didn't leave until 8:30 last night... and they are telling me "sometime in the later afternoon well finish."

They removed my baseboards without my permission and are "claiming they will put them back."

I've cried, screamed and yelled on the phone to managers, my sister threatened to call her lawyer and go to town on them... (i think the manager is afraid of her now) (and i love her all the more).

There coming back for day two in a few minuets (CORRECTION THEY ARE COMING LATE NOW) and not all the tile is even torn up yet... Half way through the demo I had to ask why they hadn't tore up the tile by the washing machine when they started to lay down the underlay stuff!

My house is a huge mess of a dust storm (Thankfully I closed the vent in my bedroom and shoved a towel under the door so my room and bathroom are fairly clean... nothing I can't fix in an hour or so... so I will fix it today while they continue to ruin and have dust cover EVERYTHING i own!!!!)

I had to take today off of work because they were going to "leave it" until I had availability.... yeah right... how am I supposed to live in a hell hole like this with everything everywhere but where it should be!!!

Oh and I'll be demanding ever dime i ever paid them back ASAP or there will be a huge complaint filed with the BBB!

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Retirement Perspectives

End of 2009 Balance: $26,529.33 | Current 2010 Balance: $28,998.63
Additional Contributions since 2009: $2,482.94
Growth: $-13.64 (-0.09%)

401 Account: Approximately 3.17 % of my portfolio
• Contributions: $870.14 (Employer Paid 1% of Salary)
• Worth $918.73
o Up 5.58% from inception, +$48.59
o VPRKX (Target date 2040) (84.5973 shares)

457 Account: Approximately 3.56% of my portfolio
• Discontinued Employer funded plan that I can’t close… interest=pennies
o Positive $1,033.77

ING DIRECT Roth IRA: Approximately 8.98% of my portfolio
• $2,500.00 Invested| Worth $2,603.61
o Up 4.14% from inception. Positive $103.61
o CD’s ranging from 1.25% to 4.5%

ShareBuilder Roth IRA Approximately 44.79% of my portfolio
• $13,000.00 Invested | Worth $12,989.41
o DOWN 0.00% since inception… -10.59
o IDSLX $10,530.27 | I have 1,265.658 Shares
o ARDVX $1,009.14 | 115.595 Shares
o Money Market Cash: $1,200.00
o Not deposited Contributions: $250.00

I’m attempting to close my share-builder account and move everything over into an account at vanguard (lower fees, better yield). If I think the market is going up for the day, I’m selling shares of IDSLX. If it’s going down, I’ll be buying more of ARDVX.

Pension: Approximately 39.50% of my portfolio
If I quit tomorrow, I’d just have the cash in the account (earning an automatic 6% until withdrawn).

Total: $11,453.11

• I’m currently buying additional time in my retirement accounts from when I was 16-18 years of age (Cal PERS service prior to membership). It’s less than a year’s worth of service credit, but I’ll be paying $33.06 for 26 more installments (made 26 payments out of 52).

My entire portfolio (if I cashed my pension out today) is worth $28,998.63

Friday, June 18, 2010

Confusion...

So I sold another $500.00 dollars worth of my Mutual Fund... but this time i wasn't charged anything...

So i looked back up the closing fee for 6/7 (the day I sold the first $500.00 worth)

It says it was $8.02 a share, and I sold 62.9720 shares (Which is only $505.0354) but $500.00 was deposited into my account...

Yesterday I sold 60.0960 shares @ $8.29 a share $498.1958 but $500.00 was deposited into my account...

???????

Cash Savings-

I got paid this morning and set up my transfers into each of my savings accounts. I had some holiday pay so i got an extra $137.99 on my paycheck, but i'm holding onto it because I need to have an electrician come out to fix my outlet and my contractors friend hasn't called me back yet, so i'll be calling him again when I get off of work today to hopefully set something up (i'm saving this to cover the bill). Next month I also have to get my car serviced. I passed the 50,000 mile mark on my car.

But since i'm focusing on building up cash, here's what my accounts look like with this paychecks contributions:

ING CHecking: $1,000.00 padding (Part of EF)
Bofa Checking: $1,200.00 (Part of EF)
Emergency Fund: $5,628.13 ($200.00 in a CD)

EF TOTAL: $7,828.13/$15,000.00 52.19% there.

Wealth Builder: $75.51 (interest from all my savings accounts goes here each month)
Extra Money $519.63 (money that was previously leftover from other months & some OT- for shopping and unbudgetted stuff or travel)
Car Emergency fund/new car fund: $541.88

Annual Bill savings accounts:
INVISILINE RETAINER: $600.00/$600.00
Christmas Savings $300.00/$600.00 ($50 a month)
Car tax 2011 $170.00/$170.00
AAA/Costco membership fees $50/$97
Insurance (Car, home, earthquake) $418.60 ($102.00 a month)

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

New focus-- CASH

Now that i'm moving my retirement funds and essentially making them more simplified and fee friendly...

and i've budgetted in a bit more than an addittional mortgage payment a year (almost an extra payment and a half)

My new focus is the emergency fund.

I need to have liquidity and cash. All extra $$$$$ at the end of the month is going 1/2 to my emergency fund, 1/2 to my unbudgeted $$$$ account. At the end of the year, half the unbudgeted account gets transfered into my emergency fund. I have this account for shopping, travel, and the small things i don't budget for on a monthly basis.

Current EF: $7,700.00 /$15,000.00

I shouldn't grocery shop when i'm tired...

I bought whole milk at the store on accident...

and didn't know i bought it until I was home the next day trying to drink some for breakfast.... NASTY!!!

I have 2 gallons of whole milk.... ewwwww

Monday, June 14, 2010

called vanguard!

they are sending me my packet of information in 8-10 business days... i fill it out and they transfer my sharebuilder account to them.

I also called about the fees too.

They only take .20% of whatever dividends and capital gains i get... not like when i sell anything or what not.


I think Vanguard is my new best friend.

=)

Saturday, June 12, 2010

TILE Update

After calling and calling and calling again, I finally called every manager and supervisors extention I could find and told them they had 5 business days to contact me before I was contacting the Better Business Buero and reporting them.

Guess what?

They finally were able to transfer me to the people I needed to talk with. On Monday, the head contractor and the crew that will be fixing my kitchen tile will meet with me and tell me exactly how many tiles they will be removing, how long it will take and we will walk through everything BEFORE they show up to actually begin the work.

They will also be crediting my account (we haven't decided how much yet) because i've been trying to get them to fix it for 6 months --and frankly after having their BEST crew come out to fix it the last time.... and having it take 2 days instead of the one i was told... which meant me having to re schedule my air conditioner installation... I asked for 10% credit on my entire tile puchase (so they credited my account $300). The extra day didn't bother me too much in reality land because i was told it was to insure that the tile would be the way I wanted it to be.

But it wasn't perfect... they have to come again... and they have been giving me the runaround for months. I want compensation... especially since i'll have to most likely take time off work for everything to get finished... I'll be asking for a 30% credit off the original purchase price when they call. 5% for every month they left me waiting for my phone calls to be returned. (does that sound fair?)

I have to call an electrician

yup...

The outlet and switch for my garbage disposal are giving me problems. And by problems I mean the garbage disposal won't turn on and I saw a spark when I pushed the switch in.

My contractor friend who installed my kitchen for free gave me the name and number of an electrician who won't rip me off. He told me it should be around $85.00. Looks like my first homeowner repair...

My "bother" is going to look at it first, cause he's free, but if not it looks like i'll be calling an electrician.

Free hotel stay

When I was in Utah, I had to move rooms at one of the hotels I was staying at. They promised to credit my account 25% for the inconvience... but the credit never appeared.

After 3 calls and 3 voicemails left, a woman finally called me and told me that because I booked through Priceline (to get points at MYPOINTS) that they didn't have my credit info to make the change (it would have been about $20 credited to my card), but were willing to send me a vouchure for a free night stay at any La Quinta, or their location. (It was an $80 one night stay and a really nice hotel) So I told her to just send me the vouchure for the free night stay as i'm sure i'll be heading to utah again...

Ya **blushes** since coming back from Utah i've been talking to my "friend" ever day via webchat or cell... sometimes more than once a day, and basically every night before I crash for bed... There are definently feelings on both sides, but a very complicated situation with his family (like orthodox mormon), the distance (almost 700 miles), and i'm right out of a serious relationship that's still causing drama and making me an emotional wreak. So... who knows... but ya.

Retirement Perspectives

The market rebounded a bit, but not enough to undo some of the damage. Over the next few weeks/months, i'll be selling my ING Strategic Allocation shares. I'm calling Vanguard on Monday to get more information about rolling my account over to them (WAYYYY lower fees, especally considering i'm a buy and hold kind of gal). I did buy more ARDVX with some of the $$$ i got when I sold $500 of ING. I've almost made up the $$$ I've lost on that one. Its only down $10.00

Work stuff is a little sketchy right now. Looks like were possibly getting our 401a contributions suspended and employees will be putting another 1% towards our pensions. (I'll know by July whats going on). It shouldn't affect take home pay as they are giving everyone a 1% raise because they really don't want to shrink people's paychecks right now, but this will save the city money in the long run.

End of 2009 Balance: $26,529.33 | Current 2010 Balance: $28,410.09
Additional Contributions since 2009: $2,157.16
Growth: $-276.40 (-1.74%)

401 Account: Approximately 3.11 % of my portfolio
• Contributions: $855.90 (Employer Paid 1% of Salary)
• Worth $883.67
o Up 3.24% from inception, +$27.77
o Milestone 2040 makes up 100%

457 Account: Approximately 3.64% of my portfolio
• Discontinued Employer funded plan (interest = pennies)… I get it when I quit… can’t invest it… can’t do anything with it.
o Positive $1,033.67

ING DIRECT Roth IRA: Approximately 9.16% of my portfolio
• $2,500.00 Invested| Worth $2,603.46
o Up 4.13% from inception. Positive $103.46
o CD’s ranging from 1.25% to 4.5%

ShareBuilder Roth IRA Approximately 43.99% of my portfolio
• $12,750 Invested | Worth $12,497.67
o DOWN 1.979% since inception… -252.33
o ING Strategic Allocation Moderate $11,308.54 | I have 1,385.85 Shares
o ARDVX 2040 $ 889.13 | 104.114 Shares
o Money Market Cash: $300.00
o Not deposited Contributions: $0.00

Pension: Approximately 40.10% of my portfolio
If I quit tomorrow, I’d just have the cash in the account (earning an automatic 6% until withdrawn).

Total: $11,391.57

• I’m currently buying additional time in my retirement accounts from when I was 16-18 years of age (service prior to membership). It’s less than a year’s worth of service credit, but I’ll be paying $33.06 for 27 more installments (made 25 payments out of 52).

My entire portfolio (if I cashed my pension out today) is worth $28,410.09

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

learning about retirement fees

I sold $500 dollars of my ING Conservative mutual fund the other day to see how bad the fees were and because i don't like the fund anymore... (so i've been researching where to move my money too in October... Vanguard is winning.)

It cost me about $4.00 for about every $100 i sold... basically 4%!!!!!!!! ya, i'm slowly dropping that fund ASAP!

I'm glad i'm learning now instead of later.

Based on Mondays closing numbers, i've lost $546.35 in that fund.

My ARDVX is down $36.02 so I'm buying $100 of that to try and get that account to break even and stopp the bleeding.

The goal is still $1,000.00 for CD's at ING and $4,000.00 for the year in mutual funds (I won't be purchasing funds with all $4,000.00, but I will be depositing it before the cut off deadline so I can use it in my new funds once everything transfers over.)

Saturday, June 5, 2010

It's not financially smart to go for a promotion at work.

With hiring freezes still in effect at work, I’ve been kind of assuming some of the job responsibilities of a position above mine… which could one day lead to a pretty promotion when the freeze is no longer in effect. The only problem is the job I’d love to have is currently just a 30 hour a week position. It still has benefits, but they are scaled based on the number of hours one works… and its a huge drop.

So I did the math. With benefits, if I took the job tomorrow my paycheck take home pay would be $1,086.79 a check (including current retirement deductions).

My current position $1,280.07 (including current retirement deductions) so there would be a Loss of $193.28 a check or $386.56 a month! Yikes!

Out of curiosity, I wanted to know if it ever made sense to switch to a part time job promotion over full time employment. If I were at the top of the pay scale for the part time position my take home pay would be $1,393.07.

At the top of my current pay scale now, $1,380.11

$12.96 more a paycheck is not worth the cut in benefits (especially considering how long it would take me to aquire raises to get to the point where the position turned a profit), plus i'd only be working 30 hour a week so my pension wouldn't get maxed (its prorated by hours worked per year with a little over lap incase someone has to take some extended time off without CAL to suppliment it.)

From a pure dollars and sense perspective, it isn't smart to make the leap... including the fact that the position is exempt from overtime.

Sure, i'd get to work less... get better hours... and love what I was doing far more than I do now... but the loss in pay would be so dramatic that it isn't justifiable at the present point.

Maybe one day they will make the position full time. I’d leap for that in a heartbeat.

Retirement Perspectives

Why can't we stabilize this economy? Because the government spends spends spends and spends some more...
End of 2009 Balance: $26,529.33 | Current 2010 Balance: $28,183.35
Additional Contributions since 2009: $2,157.16
Growth: $-503.14 (-3.17%)

401 Account: Approximately 3.07 % of my portfolio
• Contributions: $855.90 (Employer Paid 1% of Salary)
• Worth $864.51
o Up 1.00% from inception, +$8.61
o Milestone 2040 makes up 100%

457 Account: Approximately 3.67% of my portfolio
• Discontinued Employer funded plan (interest = pennies)… I get it when I quit… can’t invest it… can’t do anything with it.
o Positive $1,033.67

ING DIRECT Roth IRA: Approximately 9.24% of my portfolio
• $2,500.00 Invested| Worth $2,602.84
o Up 4.11% from inception. Positive $102.84
o CD’s ranging from 1.25% to 4.5%

ShareBuilder Roth IRA Approximately 43.61% of my portfolio
• $12,750 Invested | Worth $12,290.76
o DOWN 3.60% since inception… -459.24
o ING Strategic Allocation Moderate $11,619.55 | I have 1,448.822 Shares
o ARDVX 2040 $ 671.21 | 80.385 Shares
o Money Market Cash: $0.00
o Not deposited Contributions: $0.00

Pension: Approximately 40.42% of my portfolio
If I quit tomorrow, I’d just have the cash in the account (earning an automatic 6% until withdrawn).

Total: $11,391.57

• I’m currently buying additional time in my retirement accounts from when I was 16-18 years of age (service prior to membership). It’s less than a year’s worth of service credit, but I’ll be paying $33.06 for 27 more installments (made 25 payments out of 52).

My entire portfolio (if I cashed my pension out today) is worth $28,183.35

Friday, June 4, 2010

Started a flower garden... Mortgage... Etc

My little garden is so cute (especially since its tiny now). I "jerry-rigged" a planter to hang off my concrete wall on my patio and stuck some flowers in it. I'm planning on buying a few more to begin sprucing up my balcony (now that the HOA spent $4,000.00 to replace it), but I wanted to make sure the railings fit before I bought a whole lot of them.

I also had a little extra $$$ on my paycheck so I sent a bit more towards my mortgage. ($116.45 extra this month instead of just the $60.00 I normally send over there).

I'm contemplating opening up another online savings account at Sallie Mae so I can start putting some of my emergency fund into high yield cd's. 3% for 5 years with no minimum. I figure I have $7,000.00 of my emergency fund in Cash... that it might make since to start opening a $100.00 CD each month with some of the new emergency fund money... but part of this seems so counter intuitive since last year I simplified my banks and closed all extraneous accounts sans BOFA and ING... but i'm considering opening up some at sallie Mae because the CD rate is almost triple what ING is offering... Thoughts?

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Kiva Loan: June- Paraguay

Location: Ita, Paraguay
Repayment Term: 6 months
Activity: Food Production/Sales
Repayment Schedule: Monthly
Loan Use: Materials such as sugar cane, flour, sugar and coal

The La Esperanza women's committee was created on August 17, 2006. They have an excellent record for payment, and their treatment of each other is noteworthy. Because of this and their solidarity, they continue to increase their investments and are still working together.
One of the members sells honey. She produces sugar cane honey with a manual machine with which she wrings the cane and extracts juice which can also be consumed. Later this is boiled at high temperatures to create the honey. Once she has the honey, she jars it in various sizes to sell. She sells her products at various businesses in the area.
She will use the loan to buy jars, sugar cane and other necessities.



CURRENT LOANS IN ACTION
Iyunge Group
Location: Cibitoke, Burundi
Repayment Term: 8 months
Activity: Fruits & Vegetables
Repayment Schedule: Monthly
Loan Use: purchasing bigger quantities of beans but also new products to sell her customers

Obama Group
Location: Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania
Repayment Term: 7 months
Activity: Grocery Store
Repayment Schedule: Monthly
Loan Use: to start selling water, juice and sodas at wholesale prices
Repaid: $6.94

Siguikadi Group
Location: Kadiolo Sikasso, Mali
Repayment Term: 8 months
Activity: Retail
Repayment Schedule: Monthly
Loan Use: Purchase of selling items
Repaid: $8.33

Fight For Progress Group
Location: Makeni, Sierra Leone
Repayment Term: 12 months
Activity: Food Market
Repayment Schedule: Monthly
Loan Use: Buy palm-oil, rice, and oranges in wholesale quantities
Repaid: $6.39

Altantuya Lhasuren
Location: Tsetserleg, Arhangai, Mongolia
Repayment Term: 20 months
Activity: Butcher Shop
Repayment Schedule: Monthly
Loan Use: to purchase meat
Repaid: $4.17

LOANS PAID IN FULL:

Zenaida Daing- Farming, Sta. Josefa, Agusan Del Sur, Philippines

Elizabeth Aidoo- Food Market, Wiawso, Ghana

Mobateli Plus Group -Manufacturing, The Democratic Republic of the Congo

Paz y Amor Group -Fruits & Vegetables, Dominican Republic

Dustmatov Eralboy - Livestock, Tajikistan

Seccelambras Group -Food Production/Sales, Peru

Rashidat Mumuni -Fish Selling, Nigeria

Karla Vanessa Montiel Barahona -Housing, Nicaragua

Eal Nub -Fish Selling, Cambodia

Atim Irene's Group -Medical Clinic, Uganda


Like Kiva? Think its neat? then lend! KIVA!