October 2006 - Posts

Paying for things you only think you need
Lately, I've been looking for some ways to trim our expenses a little here and there. I was mainly thinking of canceling my Netflix subscription, and my Vonage phone service. I don't use Netflix much anymore since the new TV seasons have started, Read More...
Posted 29 October 06 07:53 by spender | 1 Comments   
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Non paying Ebayers suck
In order to help get some more funds for our debt reduction, I've been planning on selling some stuff that I don't really need on Ebay. Last week, I posted the first item. I decided to only do one to keep it simple, and it was going to be a nice ~$400. Read More...
Posted 24 October 06 10:39 by spender | 272 Comments   
Paid off another card!
Today, I submitted the payment for the remaining balance on my Chase credit card! It felt good to select the option for "Pay current balance" instead of "Pay current minimum" or "Pay other amount" and enter in some small fraction of the balance. This Read More...
Posted 20 October 06 11:55 by spender | 1 Comments   
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Fell a day behind in my blog reading
I fell behind a day on reading new posts, and after my earlier post about mortgage tax savings, I find that yesterday, JLP at AllFinancialMatters posted a tidbit on mortgage deduction and taxes . Read More...
Posted 19 October 06 09:00 by spender | (Comments Off)   
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Buying house may not save us as much
I had previously posted about how I was thinking that the end of this year might be thebest time to buy a house to help keep us in a lower tax bracket. Today, I was running some more numbers and realized it may not save us as much as I had originally Read More...
Posted 19 October 06 03:17 by spender | 2 Comments   
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Campbell/Verizon Wireless settlement a joke
Recently, my wife got a notice that she was part of a class action lawsuit against Verizon Wireless having something to do with prepaying on a build and canceling service/being terminated and not receiving a credit prior to some day in 2003. I don't know, Read More...
Posted 17 October 06 02:44 by spender | 218 Comments   
Feels good to pay the balance
A few days ago, I received my new statement for my Chevron gas card, which I had just paid off last month. It felt so good to open it and know the total balance it showed was precisely what I'd pay, and the amount owed is less than any of my payments Read More...
Posted 16 October 06 11:39 by spender | (Comments Off)   
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More unexpected expenses to expect
May have some additional unexpected expenses that now need to become expected expenses. First, I knew I was going to be needing to buy new tires for my car, and it was likely to cost $600+. However, it seems that now my wife's car has developed an oil Read More...
Posted 16 October 06 11:21 by spender | 1 Comments   
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Impact of how you calculate returns
Previously, I'd posted about my 2045 retirement plan to have $4 million in funds. A few days after I made the post, I realized that the way I calculated my deposits and returns accounted for only yearly deposits, and also returns only once a year. In Read More...
Posted 11 October 06 01:13 by spender | (Comments Off)   
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Festival of Under 30 Finances
Been getting a little into the different festivals/carnivals, as there are some good personal finance ones out there. Today, the new installment of the "Festival of Under 30 Finances" was posted on Debt Had Made Me Its *** . The Under 30 festival is all Read More...
Posted 06 October 06 01:24 by spender | (Comments Off)   
Credit score bump
Have been trying out the 30-day trial of the credit tracking at myFICO.com . Yesterday, I got a email alert that both my wife and I had our scores increase. My wife's score jumped 6 points to 632 and mine jumped a nice 33 points to 596. My score is still Read More...
Posted 06 October 06 12:00 by spender | (Comments Off)   
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Sacraficing for goals, where to draw the line
I know sometimes when you are working for your goals, you need to make some sacrafices. Maybe you eat ramen for a while, avoid going out to movies/bars, etc. But where is the line for sacraficing for a cause and sacraficing too much? One situation we Read More...
Posted 04 October 06 03:14 by spender | 1 Comments   
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My wife's FICO score
Last week, I had posted about my reaction when checking my FICO score. Since then, my wife has been wanting me to check to her FICO score to see how it compares to the last time we checked her credit score. We'd checked her report through TransUnion at Read More...
Posted 04 October 06 01:45 by spender | (Comments Off)   
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Mortgage Debt Reduction Goal Revisions
I decided to make a few changes to my mortgage debt reduction goal. First, I realized a flaw with how I was counting progress. Before, I had looked at it, said I wanted to pay off $10k, and then any payment I made was being counted against that total. Read More...
Posted 03 October 06 05:27 by spender | (Comments Off)   
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Reasoning vs. justification
When you are looking to making an important financial decision, one important thing to do is to separate reasoning from justification. For instance, with us looking to buy a house, some of the justifications include: Owning something Building equity and Read More...
Posted 03 October 06 02:16 by spender | 2 Comments   
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Change can be more than you think
Don't confuse "change" with the "act of changing"... I am talking about those coins you get whenever you pay cash for something that then end up in your change drawer, never to be seen again. Change can pretty influential, especially Read More...
Posted 02 October 06 08:34 by spender | 1 Comments   
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September 2006 Networth
Now that September is over, it is that time of the month for all the personal financial bloggers to post their networth updates. It is interesting to see a flood of these networth reports at the beginning of the month, though I always find them interesting Read More...
Posted 01 October 06 05:15 by spender | (Comments Off)   
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