We have received a hefty check to help pay our grad school and mortgage costs!

And the timing couldn't be better. The Mrs. starts school on Monday! As in, 3 days from now. As in, WOOHOO for her, and BOOHOO for our money ;)

Unfortunately I have to remain pretty vague here, but we're talking about more than just a few hundred dollars. AND, better yet, we don't have to pay it back! ..... at least yet.

The person who gave it to us had been helped by a similar action years ago herself, and she's always wanted to "pay it forward" when financially able to do so. And now, lucky for us, that time has come :) Not only was it totally unexpected, but it really does go to show that my brother's crazy saying really DOES work. I better start paying even closer attention!

What this means to us is that we can push off taking out loans to make up for our loss of $50k in salary for now. I'm just thankful Mrs. Budgetsaresexy accepted the college who gave her a full ride!!! Or else we'd be out a good $100k PER YEAR at least. *shiver*

So this "paid forward" contribution will be saved into our money market account with USAA, where our Emergency Fund is (no point in opening up another, right?), and will be drawn upon monthly for $1225 - the amount the Mrs. usually sends over each month to help pay for all house related items. Per my calculations, this will keep us going nicely for a bit before loaning it up. (I almost slipped and said for how many months, but then you'd be able to figure out exactly how much we got! haha...sneaky sneaky).

This paying it forward idea is really damn cool, not to mention healthy for society. One person's sincere and loving gesture years ago, now affects our future together and will be continued for more years to come! It actually works out perfectly because we weren't going to accept any money from ANYONE without paying each penny back in full anyways. So this is even better.

NOW we get to pay it back on our own time frame, AND help out another great cause down the road. If that's not sexy, i don't know what is. Well, i do, but that's for another time and place ;) I gotta go out and watch that movie "Pay it Forward" all over again and start getting some pointers!

Labels: awesomely awesome, gifting, life, loaning money, money management, money markets

Ever since I was a teen I can remember having a USAA account for car insurance. I never really cared all too much back then, (i wasn't even paying the bills!) but NOW's a whole different story. I am completely proud to use USAA today, and thankful beyond words to my parents for hooking me up.

Why do I heart them so much? Well, they have mad offerings from almost every account imaginable! AND they're a credit union, so their rates are always up in the top.

Do you wanna guess how many accounts I have w/ them now? 12 15!

Here's all that I have through them:

1. Auto Insurance
2. Personal Property Insurance
3. Life Insurance (me)
4. Life Insurance (Mrs. BudgetsAreSexy)
5. Home Owners Insurance *new!
6. Personal Checking account
7. Personal Savings account
8. House Checking account
9. House Savings account
10. Credit card #1 (for personal stuff)
11. Credit card #2 (for house stuff)
12. Roth IRA (me)
13. Roth IRA (Mrs. BudgetsAreSexy)
14. Home Equity Line of Credit (heloc)
15. Money Market account! Newest one as of Monday, to be used as my Emergency Fund.

At this rate, i might as well WORK for them :) The best thing about it all, is that I can log into my online account and see all accounts on one page! This may not sound like a big thing, but i gotta tell you it has helped me tackle my budget a lot easier.

Then we have my favorite aspect, their Customer Service. I've been, and worked, around the block a few times to know when the service is a plus, or a big fat disgrace. USAA's service is A+, and they have plenty of awards to prove it. You rarely have to wait long to get a real live person on the phone (what a concept!), and once you do they are super friendly and actually ON YOUR SIDE. I can't tell you the number of times i've called w/ questions or for general advice, and they've been nothing but professional and competent.

I recently rang them up to check on a pending transaction, and not only did they give me clear and concise answers, but they looked at my accounts and hooked me up w/ a little financial advice that i cold actually use! Remember how i'm trying to get my Emergency Fund back up and running? Well...I have been putting the $ into my savings account and was planning on hosting it there, but USAA recommended using a Money Market account for my Emergency Fund. They have a "Financial Advice" dept. which advised me of the easy online deposits, unlimited withdrawals (unlike savings), and currently the 3.35% yield (also unlike savings). How awesome is that?

They very well could have answered my original question and quickly got me off the phone like any other place...cough cough COMCAST..cough cough...DMV...haha... but they didn't. Their service reps are knowledgeable and intuitive when "selling" their other services. But more importantly, they make my life easier.

USAA, will you marry me?

Labels: banking, emergency funds, money markets, USAA