The roller coaster's back on the up and up w/ +$7k this month!, Yup, that's what happens when you get mad tax returns and then you find out your other half had a bit more money than you originally thought ;)

I knew she was frugal, but good Lord! After brief convo's last month I assumed she had about $2k in her "do as i please" account. But nope, there was almost $9k!

Crazy impressive considering she's in Grad School and not making much from her Teaching Assistantship. Plus, she got it past her frugal husband! haha...good for her. Maybe next month I'll find another stash somewhere? I def. won't be complaining, that's for sure ;)

So that was the biggest "gain" of cash for the month, followed by our $6k back from taxes - of which most was split between the two of us. And what did I do with part of mine? Oh, I PAID OFF MY CAR LOANS!!! Aww yeahhhhhh, ZERO dollars on the ol' credit card now ;) It was pretty hard parting with $1,300 all at once like that, but the feeling from being back outta debt is freakin' awesome. Now just gotta work on those damn mortgages...

Here's how Feb's Net Worth breaks down:

CASH SAVINGS (+$12,300): So yeah....as I mentioned the Mrs. had even *more* money saved up that i missed on my last checkup - a whopping $6,500 more! Add that with a good portion of our $6k from taxes and some better budgeting last month, and it was a helluva good month. Most of this was a one-time occurrence, but I'm hoping we can at least increase our cash reserves by $1k every month.

EMERGENCY FUND ($0): Our $10k is still socked away in a Money Market just chillin' and makin' a little money on the side. It would be cool to see just how much extra it's bringing in every month, but we have some other money mixed in with it at the same time so it's a bit tricky to calculate. We'll be leaving this at $10k for quite some time as it's a great # for us.

ROTH IRAs (-$270): That would be MY part of it too since my Roth is invested in one of those Target Mutual Funds...pretty sucky over all, but I'm not allowed to complain about it ;) I would like to note, however, that my Roth is hovering @ $2800 down from $5400 a year ago...but that's all i'll say.

401(k)s (-$3,400): Yikesy Mama! Just keeps on a crashin' without a care in the world. Sadly, this even includes my $1,250 worth of new 401k $ that got sucked out before it had a chance to play with the others. Although I am still waiting for some deposits that still haven't been made... ho-hum.

SAVINGS BONDS (+$3): Every month brings a little joy into my life :) Haven't added anyting here for almost a year now, but you can check out the breakdown of them all here.

AUTOS WORTH (kbb) (+$400): Now THIS, I cannot explain. The only thing i can think of is that I calculated the Mrs's Toyota wrong on Kbb.com last month, but I'm usually pretty good about that stuff. Maybe gas-sippers are going up now? Guess we'll see what the next month brings...The breakdown of our car values are as follows:
- Pimpin' a$$ caddy --> $3,595. Holding this value for at least 6 months now!
- Toyota Gas-Sipper --> $11,010. An increase of $400 in "weirdo" dollars.

HOME VALUE (Realtor) (-$3,500): After some more thought, I decided to ditch the idea of averaging out Zillow's "Zestimate" with my realtor's estimate. This made sense for two reasons. 1) - Zillow's estimate kept fluctuating every other day! It would be $306k one second, and $318k the next (it's currently @ $324k!). While I'd LOVE to believe this, it just doesn't seem all that plausible. And 2)I took the advice of a commenter and checked out redfin.com which averages out 3 different home sites to give you a better idea of how sites value the homes. And out of these 3, Zillow was by far the highest, with the total average coming to just below $300k.

Sooo, for now I think it's wise to keep the value at $300k and hope for the best. I'll then hit my realtor up again later and get a better update since I know he'll continue to give it to me straight. Afer all, he'd be the one to help us sell/rent out the place so it's in his best interest to be upfront from the beginning.

CREDIT CARD (car loans) (-$1,600): ZEROOO!!!! Yup, the cards are finally paid off after 8 whole months of chipping away :) The last time it was at zero was back in August when we paid off all 3 store credit cards. A post will be coming out shortly on this, but this $7,500 basically came from picking up my Caddy and selling my Highlander (i owed more than i sold it for) last year. It was more of a "loan" rather than your ordinary consumer debt, but I just happened to use a credit card to finance it all.

MORTGAGES (-$14.22): This was due to just random timing of me checking the accounts - we didn't pay anything extra against any of our mortgages this month. Our 1st is still @ $288,000 (30 year fixed, interest-only @ 6.875%), and our 2nd Mortgage @ around $62,800 (maxed out HELOC w/ 2.8% interest). I do see us starting to pay them off though now that our budget is looking sexy again :)

That wraps it up for the sexy month of February. March should pan out pretty well too if all goes as planned (and if the market perks up on everyone's behalf). I'm looking forward to having a few extra hundred now that i don't have that $443 monthly car payment anymore! Oh and as promised, I updated my budget again to reflect how it all came together last month - I'll continue to do so during all the roundups. Happy Wednesday everybody!

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*The sweet & sexy side bars have been updated.
*And here are all the Net Worth Updates.

Labels: cash, net worth

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Guest Post: It's PRESIDENT'S DAY and your boy J. has the day off (don't hate) ;) Luckily though, my girl Trisha Wagner from DestroyDebt.com (a debt community featuring debt forums) hooked us up with an awesome guest post! Trisha's a freelance writer who writes regularly on the topics of getting out of debt and personal finance, so you're in good hands today. While I'm a firm believer of using credit cards to your advantage, it's always good to step back and remember about our good friend "Mr. Cash" as well. Enjoy the post!
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You've seen it at the checkout register. They even have a commercial about it. Everything runs smoothly while people are paying with debit or credit cards, but when someone stops to write a check or pay cash, the world comes to a screeching halt. (J: Oh hell yeah!) Well perhaps the commercial is a bit of a dramatization, but surely I have not been the only person who experienced frustration waiting for the person at the checkout register to figure out my change.

While many people blame technology for the increasing lack of ability to do simple math, perhaps as consumers we have contributed to the problem by not using cash. There has never been a better time than the present to get back in the habit of using cash for your purchases. If you are like the clerk at the checkout and aren't sure you remember how cash works, read the following tips for a refresher course.

Get your head out of the sand. When you begin the transition of using cash again you might be shocked at how much things cost AND how much you have been spending. The neat thing about plastic is it tends to have a calming, somewhat mind-numbing effect on its cardholders. Just as the commercial implies when you pay with cash you have to first stop and learn the total amount owed for your purchases, and then you have to count it out to pay for your purchase and wait for your change. You know immediately how the purchase has effected your budget just by looking at how much money remains in your wallet. It has been proven that people who pay with cash think twice before making a purchase and spend less money than those paying with credit.

Wants and needs. Credit cards made their first appearance in the 70's, that is the 1970's. Prior to that, people bought things with cash. No cash meant no purchase. While the extension of credit has undoubtedly helped millions of people with purchasing power, clearly it has also led the way to people forgetting the difference between needs and wants. If you adopt a cash only lifestyle you will quickly be able to determine what you need to survive and eliminate spending money you don't have on wants. If you think this is not possible, ask your parents or grandparents about life before credit cards.

Living within your means. This is a gentle reminder that your credit limit makes no difference in your salary. Just because you have the ability to make a purchase does not equal being able to afford to make that purchase. Being in debt is sometimes compared to being an indentured servant. You work to earn a paycheck that you then give to someone else. While recovering from overwhelming debt is by far one of the biggest issues facing families today, the first step to stop the cycle is to stop spending money you don't have.

Labels: cash, guest post

Cuz i gotta tell you - it feels AWESOME! and not because it's payday, which is nice, but you can actually see *how much* money you're earning in the purest form. It's an incredible feeling!

I usually just deposit it right away, but w/ some of the weirdness going on here at work lately, I figured better to be safe than sorry this round.

It's not that i don't trust our company, cuz i really do, but it's just annoying having to worry about your check bouncing every now and then. For once i wanted to know 100% that i have the money and it's safe and sound. Plus, i was up for the adventure ;)

So, i followed a fellow co-worker to the bank where the check was issued from (that way it clears %100 and you get cash right away), paid my $5 fee for doing so (i hate banks), and out we walked full of greenbacks!

It was the first time i clearly saw my paycheck - and i was mesmerized. I couldn't believe i brought in THAT much every 2 weeks!

We all know how much we make, but there's a HUGE difference seeing it electronically over piles of cash. A slew of feelings took me over, and it went something like this (in order):

• WOW, $1802.00 in pure cash sitting right in front of me!
• I'm so proud of myself, that's a lot of money!
• I wonder how many $50's are actually in there? (36)
• Man, imagine all of the stuff i can buy with this! (i daydream for a bit...)
• $hit, every last bit has already been budgeted for...
• I can't believe i go through ALL THIS every 2 weeks.
• How the hell do other people survive on much less?
• I REALLY need to figure out a way to keep more of this.
• How cool would it be to go 100% cash from now on and F the computer age?
• I really hate seeing this...it'll all be gone in no time.
• Damn, i hope no one jacks me on the way home!

My emotions really were all over the place, it's just so CRAZY how the mind interprets the money this way. I mean, it's still the SAME $1802.00, right? How can seeing it in actual dollars be that much different than seing the # up there on the screen?

I don't have the answers for you, but what i DO know is that it was quite majestic :) A feeling that has since come and gone, but a beautiful one all the same. I'm not sure if i'll try it again anytime soon - losing $5 each time and then carrying around all that money before re-depositing is pretty insane - but i'm willing to bet i'd find ways to keep more of that cash around!

Have any of you tried this? Or maybe get paid this way in your line of work ;) bow chicka, wha wha!

Labels: career, cash, paychecks

Or in my case, my money clip! I always enjoy these super personal questions. The idea of peering into someone else's life is just so incredibly interesting. It's not like i wanna find out some dirty little secrets or anything, although that would make for a juicy post! haha...but it's more for the feeling that we're all alike on some level. We all carry wallets, purses, money clips, etc, and we all have our own methods and reasoning for doing so.

I was reminded of this curiosity when i came across a post by Canadian Saver covering the simple question: what's in your wallet?

Here's what i pimp:
1) USAA Rewards MasterCard.....for personal spending
2) USAA Platinum Rewards MasterCard.....for all house related items
3) USAA Debit MasterCard.....only used to take out $ from atms (FREE by the way through USAA! any one, anywhere.)
4) Work swipe card thingie.....allows me to get into work...unfortunately.
5) Driver's License.....ALWAYS on me 100% of time cuz ya never know.
6) $28 buckaroos.....oh crap, make that $25! i've been forgetting to put my daily dollars into my cup. Cash is the one thing i continuously get on my friends for. I don't mind lending it, or buying a friend lunch every now and then, but it's really really important for safety reasons! I believe you should always have at LEAST $5-$10 on you at all times...you can't use a credit card for everything.

That's it! i know it's not as exciting as one would hope, but i'm a simple man :) I used to use a wallet but it would collect soooooo much junk. And these days w/ the whole "phone # as your rewards card" at grocery stores, i don't need to hang on to those crazy giant/safeway cards anymore. The only thing i miss having is a picture or two, but these days i can just log onto mySpace and see my crazy friends.

Labels: cash, randomness 3000, USAA