Second Quarter Update

1. Put a minimum of $11,000 to retirement.  ($6,000 to Roth and $5,000 to taxable). I am loving the increase in contributions to the Roth.  It's $6,000 this year, in case you have not heard!  The $11,000 goal is an increase of $500 from last year.

ON TRACK!!! I have contributed $5,193 to retirement this year. Only $5,807 left to go.  While I am a little further behind than I would like I am happy to have contributed as much as I have.  This has been an expensive year!! I plan to max out my Roth next month.  

2. Increase replacement car fund to $12,000.

This is at $11,549!! I am almost at my goal.  I may scale  the amount I contribute after I reach $12,000, but I will keep contributing.  

3. Give a minimum of $400 to charity. This is an increase of $100 from last year.


I have donated $278 so far this year!! Over half way done. 
 
4. Increase Emergency Fund to $20,000.
I have not contributed anything to my EF fund.  This remains at $17,916.  
 
5. Pay down mortgage principal so that the PMI can be removed.  I'm so close, only 5 or 6 months to go!

DONE!! My PMI has dropped off.  I was paying $115 a month for PMI.  My monthly mortgage payment has dropped to $1,377.  

6. Read 12 books

I complete 4 books so far this year.  I need to increase this. 
 
7. Lose 20lbs
I have lost 10lbs!! 




8. Increase social activities
I have made a half hearted attempt to do this.  I need to do better.  
 
9. Learn coding.
I have done nothing to effectuate this goal. 


10. Learn more about my family history.

I have done nothing to effectuate this goal. 
 
11. Meditate.
I fell off doing this early in the year. 
 


 12. Be kinder and more patient.
I have been trying to be kinder.  I need to re-up the patient efforts. 
 
13. Increase FI/FU fund to $1,200.
I have added to this and I am at $499 so far. 
 
14. Figure out my purpose in life.  

I have done nothing to effectuate this goal.

PMI is Gone!!

I finally reached 78%LTV (loan to value) on my home.  That means no more private mortgage insurance (PMI) and I cannot be more excited!!! My PMI payments were $115.37 a month.  My first payment on this mortgage was on July 1, 2013 and it took me 6 years to reach 78%.  I plan to use that $115 a month to save for expected home repairs such as a new AC unit (pretty much a necessity in Florida).  I am already paying an extra $448 a month extra in principal each month. 

The crazy part is that I reached 78% early.  I reached 80% LTV at the end of January 2019.  According to my mortgage payment, I was not supposed to reach 80% until September of 2020.  . I've already paid thousands for PMI since 2013. Imagine if I followed the schedule put forth by the mortgage company. 

The process for reaching 78% LTV was simple.  I just paid extra principal payments on my mortgage each month.  At the beginning of February I received a letter from my mortgage company advising me that I had reached 80% LTV and giving me options for how to have the PMI removed.  Once of which was to pay almost $5,000 to reduce the principal to 78%LTV.  I declined to do that and just kept making my extra payments each month.   I paid my mortgage as usual at the end of June and got my regular statement.  A couple of days later I received a revised statement with the PMI payment removed.  I have not yet received any refunds or pro rata refund for my last pmi payment.  It appears that it was cancelled by the mortgage company on 7/2.  The next premium would have been paid around 7/15.  I don't expect any refunds from my escrow account until maybe next year when the escrow analysis is complete.

Happy Friday!!

Crazy Expensive Summer

I am burning through money this year!

This year has already been super expensive.  I paid off my new bedroom furniture and mattress which totaled over $7,000.  This was super expensive, but I don't regret one penny of it.  My back used to hurt every morning when I woke up and now I get up in the morning pain free! My 15 year old mattress (I'm pretty sure I got that mattress in 2003) needed to go. 

In the past 2 month I paid:

 $110 for the dentist
 $338 for the eye doctor (exam and new frames)
 $160 for another dentist appointment
 $254 for car repair services
 $212 for contact lenses

Once I write it all out it is easy to see why I haven't even made half of my retirement contributions for the year. That is over $1,000 in expenses just for June and July.  It is expensive to live and work in this day and age.  I travel all over Florida so I need my car to stay in good repair and I will not sacrifice necessary car maintenance. 

Net Worth Update

Here's where the numbers stand.

Savings-
$12,916 Emergency Fund
 $12,721 Online Savings Account/$7,721 of that amount is for my Car Replacement Fund/$5k is for my EF
$4,282 Online Savings Account #2- all car replacement
 $32,885 Retirement- Roth IRA
 $7,966Taxable Brokerage (Retirement)


$865 Travel Fund (Work)
$875 pet fund 
$39 medical fund
$0 furniture fund
$0 Slush fund
$9 car repair fund
$467 Freedom Fund
$152 cell phone fund
$1,375 A/C fund
$11 Mom Fund



Home-
$294,334-per zillow

              Total (not including home): $74,563
              Total (including home): $368,897

Liabilities-
Mortgage $192,594


             
                   Total (not including mortgage): $0
                    Total (including mortgage): -$192,594
 


        Total Net Worth(not including mortgage): $74,563                                      
        Total Net Worth(including mortgage): $176,303

Net worth, not including mortgage, increased by $6,981 from April(last net worth update)
Net worth, including mortgage, decreased by $325 from April (last net worth update)

My home value decreased by about $10,000 from the last net worth update.

Overall still chugging along! 

Retirement Savings Update

Just a quick update on my retirement savings for the year.  I am behind, but I am surprisingly okay with it.  Well okay may be too strong of a word.  I'm not as upset about being behind on my contributions as I thought I would be.  I just believe that I will hit my goal (or close there to) by the end of the year. 

My contributions for 2019 are as follows:

1/15/19 - $1,000
2/18/19 - $500
3/15/19 - $800
4/15/19 - $1,100
5/15/19 - $750
6/15/19 - $443

All of these contributions have gone into my Roth.

I have achieved a milestone, my retirement account balances hit over $40,000!!  My balance as of today is $40,852!!! My goal is to hit $50,000in total balances by the end of the year.  I have $6,407 left to contribute to meet my goal of $11,000 in contributions for the year.  I don't think the market will cooperate with my goal, but I just plan to get shoveling the money into my accounts.  Each year I raise my contribution goal and I'm already thinking ahead for next year.  I can't decide if I should raise it to $11,500 or $12,000.  I'll probably go with $12,000...because why not??? The more money I put away the better.  I don't want to look around at 55 and wonder how I will ever retirement.