Irregular Payments

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I’ve had a fairly decent mind funk going on - probably thanks to all those out of town visitors bringing their foreign germs to invade my poor immune system - so my end of the month quasi-balance sheet ended up a few days late.

I know, I know… your week just couldn’t go on, and you were feeling lost without it.

I’m sorry. I’ll due my darnedest not to let it happen too often in the future!

So, here we go, a bunch of raw numbers to throw at you:

	Nov30′06	Dec31′06	Change
Assets
Liquid Assets
Checking	$151.16	$29.58	($121.58)
Cash	10.00	1,350.00	1,340.00
ING Orange Savings	10.92	10.96	0.04
HSBC Savings	3,587.06	3,196.17	(390.89)
Total Liquid	$3,759.14	$4,586.71	$827.57
Semi-Liquid Assets
Firstrade ROTH	$183.24	$196.74	$13.50
Firstrade SIMPLE	6,304.16	6,388.43	84.27
Wife’s Rollover IRA	45,397.61	45,626.63	229.02
Total Semi-Liquid	$51,885.01	$52,211.80	$326.79
Illiquid Assets
Our Home	$54,000.00	$54,000.00	$0.00
Our Vehicles	5,250.00	5,250.00	0.00
Gifted Property	45,000.00	45,000.00	0.00
Total Illiquid	$104,250.00	$104,250.00	$0.00
TOTAL Assets	$159,894.15	$161,048.51	$1,154.36
Liabilities
Credit Card Debts
Chase	$6,234.83	$20,625.00	$14,390.17
American Express	0.00	0.00	0.00
Total Credit Cards	$6,234.83	$20,625.00	$14,390.17
Other Debts
Home Mortgage	$39,524.72	$39,480.21	($44.51)
Low Energy Loan	16,814.63	16,700.03	(114.60)
Line of Credit	10,503.43	2,571.55	(7,931.88)
Total Other Debts	$66,842.78	$58,751.79	($8,090.99)
TOTAL Liabilities	$73,077.61	$79,376.79	$6,299.18
NET WORTH	$86,816.54	$81,671.72	($5,144.82)

And of course, a note or ten:

• Our HSBC savings took a little hit. No emergency occurred; just taking out the money set aside for buying our Xmas gifts along with another scheduled bill or two. It was fun watching that slowly creep up, but I see more non-monthly bills coming up on the calendar. So I imagine we’ll see some more retreat on that front. But then, that’s precisely what that fund is for…
• Early in December, I decided to take my chances and, in order to save a little interest expense, rolled that used portion of the line of credit over into a 4.99% interest for the life of the transfer to the Chase card. Yes, I know, it will only save a few hundred a year, but a hundred here, a hundred there, and pretty soon you’re talking about some real money. It was as painless as writing out a balance transfer check, and if Chase starts messing around with the terms, I’ll just transfer it back out.
• Received two bills from the grand renovation for just under $4,000 and, in almost the same breath (ok, not really, unless you take incredibly slow breaths… but not separated by more than a couple days), received a $5,000 bonus. People really light up when you slap down a wad of hundreds. I’m going to call it debt repayment because, well, I can and really, that’s what it was… So, four days into the year, and I’m a fifth of the way to my debt repayment goal. Good progress so far! Now if I could somehow just convince the boss to give me a big bonus every month, I’d really be cranking away at this debt!
• Yeah, that was a pretty big jump up in total liabilities, wasn’t it? Especially considering I just got through telling you I used up most of my bonus on debt repayment (or that jump would be even bigger). I warned you there were bills coming up, and right I was. C’est la vie. I’m not thrilled with the increase by any means, but I knew they were coming. And I’m expecting a few more…
• Just as a note to myself, I’m going to have to set up an alternate way to track debt repayment for that goal I made a couple days ago rather than Debt Balance on 1/1/07 less Debt Balance on 12/31/07. That way won’t quite be accurate, because the 1/1/07 Balance is missing several outstanding amounts that presumably will be arriving soon. I’m thinking I’ll just adjust that beginning one as the bills come in for anything done pre-January 1, 2007. (Thinking aloud, excuse me… ;))

Tagged:
 » debt, report card, credit cards, mortgage, investments, assets, liabilities

Yes, I know, this is barely personal finance related. It’s my party blog, and I’ll cry vent if I want to…

I was reading through the Real Estate Journal this afternoon (while waiting on a few stragglers to bring in the last bit of info before the tax extension deadline ends) , and stumbled across an article titled Finally, the Contractor Will Take Your Calls. And felt my blood begin to boil a little more.

As a whole, most of our contractors in our grand remodeling project have been nothing short of excellent. We let them know what we’d like done. They give us a date that they will have it done. And, amazingly, several days before that date, the work is generally done.

But we’ve been dealing with one contractor who has been especially adept at delaying us, apparently just to make up for the others being so easy to work with. And honestly, if they weren’t a local business that also does business with us, we would have long ago let them go. After looking through my notes Tuesday, I realized that a job of theirs that was given to them almost six months ago - and that should have taken an utterly inept contractor a month - still wasn’t complete, nor been worked on for at least a month (I’ve been taking pics to send to an interested relative, and the date tag on one showing their last progress is 9/9).

This job, if not done by the end of the next week, will delay a whole line of the other excellent contractors. So, I called and told them the job absolutely needed to be done by Friday. Late yesterday afternoon, what do I find but a message on my cell that, umm, well, we’ve got a few projects that came up that need to be taken care of immediately, and so the job can’t be done by Friday. Followed by a chorus of a vast array of loud, choice words to noone in particular in our (thankfully) empty office by yours truly.

Now, let me be perfectly honest, I’m a bit of a pushover - I generally go out of my way to not be confrontational. But I’d had enough. I called them back, found no one in, and left my final missive to them on their answering service: Finish the job by the end of business Monday. Or my Tuesday would be spent finding someone who actually wanted my business, and the business of anyone who would seek my opinion, from that day forward. Honestly, with this crew, I didn’t think even that would motivate them…

What I didn’t realize is that my wife had been talking with the next contractor in line, expressing her frustration with our delaying crew. And he was going to be having a conversation with them this morning to see what he could do.

Meanwhile, and unbeknownst to either of us, my mother-in-law was sending in my father- and brother-in-law - who not so inconsequentially do a fair amount of business with these guys - in to have a chat about our delay as well.

I’m guessing their entire Friday morning was spent dealing not only with my warning that they were about to be fired, but also with groups of people none too happy with the way our job was being handled.

I just received a phone call from one of the partners over there. After months of annoyance, it looks like action is finally going to get taken on this big delay.

This weekend.

All weekend if necessary.

While I really am not at all thrilled that it’s taken this kind of effort to get some action, I’m cautiously optimistic. I just won’t be holding my breath. Wish us luck!

Tagged:
 » contractors, renovation, construction, customer service

Well, it took the state what felt like forever, but yesterday the Nebraska Energy Office finally approved a good chunk of our total renovation budget for a low interest energy loan. A quick call to our local banker, a signature or 400, and a big deposit is dropped into our savings account. Along with a matching big debt added to the ol’ balance sheet, at a comfortable rock bottom interest rate of just 4.85%!

Mind you, the remodel/renovation is going to be pretty substantial, with most of it being done to get the home up to what I would consider modern standards. For instance, getting rid of the scary, room-filling, long-since-converted coal to corncob-burning(!) to fuel-oil furnace and replacing it with a significantly more efficient electric heat pump central air system. Throw in several new efficient windows. Maybe even a door or two. Then insulate essentially the entire first floor. Am I forgetting anything? Oh, without a doubt - it’s been some time since I filed the paperwork…

If you’re planning on doing any serious renovations in the future (or even if you’re just considering buying some new large appliances), it’s definitely worth your time to check out what’s available in your state. It looks like most states have similar programs set up, and the rates offered generally kick the heck out of what you get for a home equity loan or line of credit.

Tagged:
 » renovation, low interest, energy loan, efficient, heat pump, home equity loan, line of credit, loan, efficiency, insulation