Sunday, January 25, 2015

Debt Update

Here are my currently outstanding debts:

Student loans
 $3,589.00- paid up through March of 2020
$19,900.00

Mortgage
$227,295

Credit Card
$33.00 (alarm monitoring and an itunes purchase)


My tax return and an extra $1000 from my budget should cover the remaining dental work that I have left.  That's great because all of my extra income will be able to go to pay off that small student loan.  I am estimating that the small student loan will be paid off by April  of this year.  If I only paid the minimums the loan would not have been paid off until 2030!!

Saturday, January 24, 2015

2015 Goals

Okay, time for me to set forth some goals for 2015.  Hopefully I will do better than I did last year. 

1. Pay off $10,000 on my student loans.
2. Pay off the smaller student loan completely.
3. Cash flow the dental work I have left.
4. Be a better friend to my friends.
5. Read at least 24 books
6. Give more (time and money).
7. Lose weight = 30lbs. OMG!! Weight loss to date--3lbs. Sigh.
8. Find a new job.
9. Be more positive!
10. Increase online savings account to $3,500.

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

2014 Goals

So it's time to see how I did with regard to my 2014 goals---not so well.  Take a look.

1. Continue to cash flow all of the dental work-FAIL- I had about $2000 of dental work that remained on my credit card into January.  I have since paid off that balance. 

2. Pay down at least $2000 more on my student loans by the end of the year. I think PASS- I only get e-statements and I accidentally deleted.  Nelnet does not retain online copies for you.  But I know I made at least 2 $600 plus payments towards the end of the year. That $1200 plus my regular payments likely pushed me over the $2000 mark.  I will have to double check to be sure. 

3. Get my emergency fund up to $10,000 by the end of the year.- PASS I have $10,006 in my emergency fund.

4. Get my online savings account up to $2,500 by the end of the year. - FAIL- I only had $2200 and some change as of December 31, 2014.

5. Get all of the dental work done this year so hopefully I can take a deduction on my taxes. FAIL- I still have to get the 2 crowns put on at a cost of approximately $4,000.

6. Talk to my boss about my future at the firm and a raise. PASS- I talked to him alright, to no avail.  

Monday, January 19, 2015

Updates

Updates, updates, updates.

First here is my budget for January 16-31

$230 utilities
$100 groceries
$100 savings
$100 gas
$1,555 credit card
$200 spending
$33 home alarm monitoring
$100 car registration

I spent over $14,000 in medical expenses last year (mostly dental).  I believe the total is $14,097.00.  I will be able to deduct a good bit of that on my taxes.  I ran a tax estimator and it is showing that I will receive a refund of about $3000 (the medical expenses and mortgage).   Any refund that I receive will like go to fund my dental savings account so I can get the last bit of work done. 

I have not heard anything back from the law firm I interviewed with, so I can only assume that I will not be offered a position with there.  I don't think I'm upset about it.  My interview was a bit off kilter, so I don't think it would have been a good fit.

I paid off the last bit of dental expenses that I had remaining on my credit card so my credit card debt is back down to $0.  I had to pay around $20 in interest and boy did that hurt.  I am being totally serious, I had hoped to never pay another dime in credit card interest in my entire life.  Oh well.  Baby steps, I suppose.

Technically I made my last payment on student loan earlier this month instead of in December so the total principal paid on my student loan last year was $4,753.79.  The total payments (principal and interest) were $5,524.74.  Yes, it's pretty sorry.  However, between the medical expenses ($14,097) and student loan payments ($5,524.74) I cash flowed almost $20,000 last year and that's pretty good. I will take that into account when preparing my goals post for 2015. 

My boss continues to be in denial about the state of the law firm and my general unhappiness.  He continues to tell me that he knows that he needs to bring in more work.  (His paralegal had 2 billiable days in December.  Yes, that's all.)

I have consulted with a local attorney about my career and received some really helpful advice.  I plan on implementing some of the advice I received.  It was really nice to be able to speak with someone about my career who genuinely cared and was able to give objective advice.  (This local attorney knows my boss and has for years- so I had no need to give him any background).  I still owe you guys an update on the things I want to do to advance my career. 


Thursday, January 15, 2015

I'm back

I've been so busy since the Holidays that I have not had a time to post. I plan on doing my goals post and the results of last year's debt payoff efforts sometime in the next few days.  Anyways, here's my budget for January 1- 15. 

$1,447 mortgage
$275 student loan
$125 home owner's association dues
$60 pet plan
$80 groceries
$227 groceries
$100 gas
$100 dental fund