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In the Parade magazine from the first weekend of April there was a listing of the Top 10 Personal Finance Apps for Smart Phones. I’m dabbling with mint.com and we should all know Paypal and Turbotax by now, but the others were new to me. I thought I’d share in case some of you can benefit too. This is just a quick listing so if you want more info you can visit http://wearelivingonabudget.com/10-top-personal-finance-apps/.
-Mint Mobile
-Can I Buy?
-Debt Snowball Pro (Dave Ramsey plan)
-Doxo
-Paypal
-Manila
-Smartypig
-TurboTax
-Shoeboxed
-Yahoo! Finance Apps
Let me know if you are already using any of these and what you think!
The end of April will mark a full 4 months that we have been following our spending and putting limits on ourselves. We took some time to look back over those 4 months and are pretty pleased with the results. January was ugly–no two ways about it. We knew it was going to be but to look back and see that we paid “insufficient fund fees” is not only alarming…in many ways it is like looking at people we do not know. Now we are ending April in a much better place. As some of you read in a comment I made recently, we rent out the house my husband owned before we married. Before March 2012, we were in hot water if that rent check did not come in. Now, not only do we have breathing room that eliminates the panic around the first of the month—but we also learned that USAA offers “Rent Replacement” coverage on the homeowners’ policy if the renters skip town. Adding this to the policy was such a minimal amount (less than $90 a year) we figured it was worth it given our current financial situation. Our renters have been great but you never know what might happen. In addition to not desperately needing that rent check, we have an emergency fund that will just about cover the monthly mortgage (and that is our goal–to reach $1600 in the emergency savings so that we have that payment if needed). Additionally, we have erased a couple of petty debts and were able to consolidate obscene interest rate debt into a lower rate loan.
Now, before you think I’m throwing my shoulder out patting myself on the back–please know that I am painfully aware of just how far we have to go. I anticipate speedbumps along the way and pray that we have the fortitude to dust ourselves off and start again. I haven’t faced too many moments of discouragement because the adjustments to our lifestyle are yielding tangible results. While we are sometimes forced to deny ourselves in ways we have not denied ourselves before—with momentary discomfort—the rewards of finding breathing room and seeing a savings account grow are definitely worth it.
There is a long road ahead but comparing how we are living life now with how we were living life then is a good exercise. I do not ever want to have to worry about there being enough money in my checking account. I’ve lived life too long like that and the energy and time the worry of that has taken from me is already too, too much. Financial freedom is critical for our overall well-being. I can’t get over how long it took me to get that! I guess many people never do…and I’m thankful for seeing that reality while I still have time to do something about it.
As I learn to bear all for all to see my financial mess…I loved the timing of a post on a yoga magazine’s website. I should first fill you in on my journey to yoga. This is one of those times I wish the readers really knew me and what I am all about. For purposes of this post, it is important that you know I hate to exercise and for years people were suggesting I take up yoga. Call it my Type A personality that has to work to relax but a lot of well intentioned people saw the value that yoga could bring to my life. I resisted for years and in just the last six months, I finally took the plunge into this world that I knew nothing about and was sort of put off by to be truthful.
I am still not great at yoga. I’m not able to focus ALL the time as I battle my mind wandering to a to do list or things I forgot to do before getting to yoga. I feel completely silly most of the time (although…side note…I feel MUCH sillier in Zumba). But yoga HAS shown me in a very tangible way that slow and steady wins the race. This practice has brought me into an area that I’m not entirely comfortable in but where I do accept the challenge. I am not naturally good at being still and focusing and pretty much have the upper body strength of Kermit the Frog. HOWEVER, in six months I CAN see improvement in all areas…I can focus longer than I was able to in the beginning and I can do asanas that were completely impossible at the beginning. That is SO empowering.
And so today as the comments became very negative and anger and frustration started to creep in, I was able to go back to my thoughts on yoga. And then I saw this post: http://blogs.yogajournal.com/guestblog/2012/04/money-and-the-truth-practicing-satya.html#.T5Bjfhrb3WQ.facebook
Take a look when you have a chance–I know some of you will find something you can relate to in this article. I know my sharing here on the blog has led to my sharing with trusted friends–with no details being held back….and I cannot say I have done that before. The truth IS setting me free…one day at a time. Challenge yourself to tell one person about your debt dirt today. 
Namaste.
I made time today to call Discover in an effort to get that awful 18.24% interest lowered. There’s about a $7,000 balance on this stupid card but with a good pay history and a long relationship…I thought I might be able to get some interest knocked off. After making it past their first layer of defense I was sent to a “specialist.” I explained to her that we have implemented an aggressive financial plan as of 1/1/12 and lowering this interest rate will dramatically help in the debt reduction plan. She reviewed my account, praised me for my on time payments, advised that this card is best used for regular monthly expenses that are paid during the grace period so the cash back benefit can be best utilized. After the reminder of what I SHOULD have done was over, I let her know that my credit union had made a good offer on a balance transfer option–at 10% I threw out there–but I wanted to end things well with Discover so our future relationship could be protected (or something like that) and she politely said “no.” I was bluffing because honestly I didn’t think the credit union would extend any credit to us! Allrighty then. I reworded my request a couple of different ways but nada! This created an internal reaction for me that I can’t really describe—I wasn’t offended but I guess both frustrated and irritated! I likely would have been happy with 5% off taking it to 13.24% but to offer nothing simply motivated me!
The next thing you know I am on our credit union’s website completing a “signature loan” application! I double checked with the hubs of course. I’ve banked with this credit union since 1985 and my Dad since long before that year–the 1950′s I believe. My husband and I opened our joint account there even before we married as we saved money for our wedding trip with the kids. He had banked with traditional banks in the past and liked what he saw with the credit union. We have a very good history with them and they have always been very good to us—this doesn’t mean they’ve always given me the credit I’ve asked for (thank goodness!) but always very fair. We asked for $11,000 to pay off 4 credit cards. Within 2 hours we received the email letting us know we were approved!!! While not the 10% I envisioned, we did get 11.4%!!! It is a 48 month pay off but that makes the minimum payment $280 and we already pay $340 on those cards each month. Taking that $340 (and yes, we plan to pay more than that) this credit union signature loan would be paid off in 40 months. If we pay $500 per month (completely doable barring any unforeseen issues), we are looking at 25 months to payoff. We did some quick calculations–taking just the minimums on these 4 cards…if we had never started paying attention and just kept paying the minimums, we would have paid $26,230.46 in interest!!!!! Barf. If we go with the $340 “minimum” that would be $2,356.13 and if we do the $500 per month…that amount goes down to $1,485.15! That’s an approximate $25,000 savings!!!! And as I type this my husband is saying that we will do $800.00 a month and that means 15 months and only $893.14 in interest. UNBELIEVABLE!
We’ll finalize this loan this coming week. I am feeling very, very thankful for the options I DO have. Please know none of this is lost on me. I am so grateful that we have options—and so, so grateful that my path led me to this blog and that I was selected to share my story. Thank you to everyone who has nudged me via comments. While I may not be able to respond to all, I read every single one and truly take the advice to heart. Is there an emoticon for “beaming!” ??? Thank you!
I have a knack for seeing life as a series of “meant to be” moments. Here’s one that just happened that I must share.
I am currently in Houston on business. As I shared before I am up for a promotion and was told about 2 weeks ago that the position was not going to be filled until summer. As I was told this news, I asked for clarification on that decision in a sort of “charades without clues” manner. I asked my boss several questions as he explained that they needed to see more “leadership” displayed by their final choice. That puzzled me for several reasons so I pushed more with my boss asking him for specifics on what exactly needs to be seen. While he wasn’t willing to share specifics in the way I wanted to hear them, he was able to offer some form of “answers” to my very specific questions. My understanding of his responses were that the final choice needs to be more connected to the people we support in other parts of the state. I asked if an expense report would be approved for travel to other parts of the state even if not directly tied to a specific matter. He indicated that they would and that getting out and about would be a good thing. Much of what we do for these groups of people happens remotely and we often never meet the people face-to-face. I gathered through this question and answer session that the concern re: “leadership skills” had more to do with connecting with these people in other offices. That may be completely wrong but it is what I took away from the chat. Thankfully, relationship building comes easily to me and I set out to meet as many people as possible by calling/emailing/instant messaging to set up one-on-one chats to find out how I and, more importantly, my office could better help them in meeting their goals. That’s why I’m in Houston and why I’ll be in Dallas next week.
Here’s the lesson: I have no idea if this is what will get me this promotion. I am surprisingly okay with that reality. While I am a fierce competitor, I also understand that I may not be the right fit for this job at this time. What I do completely “get” is that what I am doing is a GOOD thing no matter the outcome. I am growing professionally and getting to know other parts of our business from a safe place. I am watching and learning and already see the benefit to the experience. For most of my life I’ve only done things that I know I will succeed at so this is sort of new territory and I’m enthusiastic about the calm I feel about it all.
After a long day of what I call “meet and greet” activities (some people in my life asked if I’d be shaking hands and kissing babies) I’m back in the hotel now and hopped online to take care of a few things. That’s when I remembered that a reader sent an email referring me to a blog she follows. It is http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/ and I just went and took a look it and loved what I found. The entry today is a guest post but it is so exactly what I needed to see after this long day! Basically, it is a reminder that we all have things to learn and unlearn in this life. The writer talks about how our childhood experience with money certainly impacts what we do as adults but she makes the point that while we most often think in the obvious way of “frugal parents raise frugal kids” or “spenders raise spenders” there’s another valid point to be made when we look at our view on finances. Basically, just b/c you were raised in a frugal household making do with what you had…be careful not to let this set you up for a belief that you can’t EARN more. Don’t let this prevent you from pursuing that promotion or asking for a raise is the message in the post.
This made me very thankful for my parents. While they may not have raised a frugal child–although they did live very frugally–I’m sure my financial woes started well after I left their household–they DID raise a child who (as evidenced today) is not afraid to take risks even when they are out of my comfort zone. That’s such a great realization for me! I may not get the job but I will know that I gave it my all–and that’s a great feeling to have as I call it a night!
Another long post! Will you all be shocked to know that I timed myself tonight and I just wrote this in 8 minutes? That’s why you see so many posts from me–when it starts to flow, there it is and I intentionally don’t read and reread and read again. It is what it is…free flowing, stream of consciousness…all me. And yes, I talk faster than I type…that should sufficiently terrify some of you!
The talk went well. There was good news and bad news. The good news is we are going to put the “found” money in savings…so our emergency fund should increase by $400 by the end of April. That keeps us on track for the goals I set forth back in early March. We decided on $1600 as our emergency fund goal. It’s a long story how we got to that number but we are both happy with that goal.
And now the bad news…as to our debt payoff approach, it’s a “snowball hybrid” of sorts. We have decided that we will pay off the second line of credit of $145 this week. That’s just to motivate us to scratch one more off the list. Then we are going to work to knock out the debt with higher payments–not the highest, but not the small $25 minimum payment accounts either. More specifically, we are going to snowball the minimums from the two we’ve paid off (the $60 something first one and the first line of credit= $45 freed up) to the Dad debt. That will pay him off in June. That will then free up $145 in minimums to go to that heinous 24.9% store credit card with the approximate $2000 balance. That card has a $105 minimum payment. By increasing the payment to $250 in June we estimate that one will be paid off in 10 months. Let me take a moment to express just how much that sucks! I was sure those calculations were wrong but that is the beast called “denial” creeping in again. Hello. It’s a 25% interest rate! What would I expect?! Totally stinks.
Next, we discussed tackling the Discover card that sits right around $7,000 @ 18% and with a $140 minimum payment. Using the snowball we’d be paying $390 per month toward that and using a very basic calculation that would result in a 1 year, 10 month payoff timeframe. That’s looking pretty far down the road but that is good to keep all of this very, very real.
On the upside now–digging deep to find an upside–these numbers do not reflect any additional income we can put toward this mess. We aren’t considering an income increase,we aren’t consider any additional money we free up by cutting monthly expenditures and we haven’t taken into consideration the $400 extra per month that we will be putting into the emergency fund for now. I have to keep those numbers at bay in the calculations but I can allow myself to keep them in mind so I don’t go running out into traffic! Good thing I’m a pretty upbeat person or I could see me spiraling into a very dark place!
Until next time…
…Will be coming your way shortly. Not a huge difference from the last update but every penny counts! I am very proud of our savings account. I cannot believe it has only been one month though since I started blogging! While every other part of my life feels like it flew by this month…I feel like I’ve been blogging for YEARS! I think that is the result of really paying attention to money for the first time in my life. Until that habit is built and solid–it is going to feel like work.
One accountability note–I’ve realized that I have an addiction to the “shell game.” What does that mean? I like the rush of moving money from one place to another and back again…often before I even have the money in my account. Case in point: The first $145 line of credit balance you see here…I initially put $0 there…not because I am a LIAR Sarah 
…but b/c I know I have money in my account that I can use for that right now (b/c it is earmarked for an expense later in time) and then I have money coming in that can replace that money I took out so I get the good feeling of paying something off EARLIER than I otherwise would….but…I realize in my frontal lobe (wikipedia break: frontal lobes involve the ability to recognize future consequences resulting from current actions, to choose between good and bad actions, override and suppress unacceptable social responses, and determine similarities and differences between things or events. Therefore, it is involved in higher mental functions) that this thing I do is ALL A FICTION! I’m a Dream Weaver! I don’t at all have an intent to be DECEITFUL but…do you see what I’m saying here? And so, my husband is RIGHT (yes dear, that’s in writing for the world to see)…I can’t do that anymore! That’s a bad, bad habit that must stop and I feel super charged that I’m stopping it today with the posting of these new numbers! Woo-hoo!
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About This Site
My Debt
- Original Debt: $97,293.06
- Paid: $1,927.89
- Remaining: $95,365.17
- Emergency Fund: $1100
- Broken Down
- Line of Credit 2: $0.00
- Line of Credit 1: $0.00
- Credit Card 1: $0.00
- Credit Card 2: $245.00
- Credit Card 3: $405.00
- Credit Card 6: $1,785.00
- Credit Card 7: $2,381.17
- Consolidation Loan: $11,000.00
- Credit Card 10: $14,519.00
- Auto Loan 1: $16,093.00
- Credit Card 11: $23,873.00
- Auto Loan 2: $25,064.00
Finance Blogging Buddies
- Beachgirl’s Budget Blog
- Becoming and Staying Debt Free
- Boston Gals Open Wallet
- Debt Free Hispanic
- Debt Kid
- Debt Reduction 101
- Dual Income No Kids
- Everybody Loves Your Money
- Financial Hack
- Free Money Finance
- From the Brink of Bankruptcy
- Generation X Finance
- GRACEful Retirement
- Grad Money Matters
- It’s Your Money
- Josephsangl.com
- Kick Debt’s Butt
- Lazy Man and Money
- Low Income Life
- Make Love Not Debt
- Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge
- Mighty Bargain Hunter
- Money, Matter and More Musings
- My 1st Million at 33
- No Credit Needed
- One Million and Beyond
- Personal Finance Advice
- pfblogs.org
