Djudah's Personal Finance Blog

Here is an update on my current account balances:

Checking - $2,421.86
Gas CC - $0.00 (currently no longer in use)
CC 1 - $57.10 (not due until 8/2/12; Not in use)
CC 2 - $40.46 (Scheduled to be paid off 7/23/12; Not in use)
CC 3 - $976.70 (Current balance of $537.22 to be paid 7/6/12; BofA cash rewards card)
Target Card - $106.38 (not due until 7/29/12)
Savings - $1,411.20 (recurring $50 payment every 2 weeks)
Mortgage - $135,034.21

I plan on keeping up with my expenses to try and curb spending. July will be an expensive month though. Gfs b-day is this month and will be taking a day and night away. Payment for grad classes will probably be due as well this month or early next. Will also be buying plane tickets to AZ for a hiking trip I have already planned on taking and am saving up for. I can't wait for soccer season to start back up for the extra income.

I haven't updated in a while, so I figure I should. All CC's are up to date. I have 1044 in Savings with a lot of income coming in shortly. My self directed IRA has some good yielding dividend stocks which are also well positioned for the economic turnaround. I also have an Emerging markets ETF, which at the time was yielding nearly 5% on the Div as well. The rest of the accounts aren't doing as well (though who can really blame them). I continue to put $50 to my T Rowe IRA, just working on dollar cost averaging right now. The other 2 I still can't do anything with seeing as how I'm still employed at the same place (screwy rules).
I'm still paying on my son's Pre-paid college tuition.
I'm hoping to boost savings to around 1300 by the end of November. Will keep updated.

Anybody currently or formerly used the Keep the Change offered by BOA? They round up purchases to the next dollar and transfer the difference to their "High Yield Savings" (high of 0.5%). Anyways, they match your contributions. 100% for the first 3 months and 5% there after, up to $250. Was just wondering if it would be worth opening the account just to have the match, after all, free money. Any thoughts on this would be welcomed. I would not plan on transferring all my savings there because of the low APY.

Today is payday. That put 245 into my checking and 61 into my savings. I also checked my CC balance. Big 'ole goose egg. Wonderful, no more payments to the CC, other than what is taken out auto month to month. Also, I received another check in the mail from college, says it is an accounts refund. I have no idea but I was told not to worry about it, so that is an extra $200. Will deposit that check today and immediately transfer to Savings.

I'm looking for opinions. I have Savings and Checking accounts with JP Morgan (formerly WAMU). My main CC's are with BOA. My question is this, would it be beneficial to move my savings and checking to BOA? Only reason I ask is because they offered me a $75 to open a checking and fund with $25 min. I feel it would be beneficial because it would put all my accounts in one place (all FDIC insured). Any thoughts?
*** Just looked at the BOA site. The checking looks good but the savings sucks. Min balance of $300 for no charge and the Int is pitiful at 0.20%. Right now the WAMU/Chase savings is at 3.0%.
*** Ok, so I just opened up the Checking with BOA. I couldn't pass up the free $75. I've been looking at the Chase accounts and don't like them so I may move all my checking to BOA and move my savings to ING, which i already have an account with. The only reason I would move the savings is if Chase changes the terms of the online savings I have now. Will keep posted.

So, I received 2 checks over the weekend. One for $245 and the other for $60. This puts me at $305. I have $261 left on the card (because I have my cell bill auto pay to it). So, Monday I will deposit the checks and have the money sent to the card. That will give me $44 extra. Unfortunately I had to use some of my savings this week because I sent more to the Card than I should have. I have $150 in there right now. Pay-day is on Friday, and with no other bills, should be able to replenish my savings up to $300, we will see. I still have to get groceries, hopefully I can do what I did last time and get them for under 120 (for 4 people might I add), it helped that we had extra meat left over in the freezer.

I cashed my checks today, total of $840. I transfered 125 to my savings because I had to use 100 early in the week. So that puts me at 715 total to send off. If you remember, my debt was 898. Payday is Friday, I have 244 coming my way (with 61 to my savings automatically). So combined with the 244, I have 959 to pay with. 959-898=61. That is how much will be left in my checking. My savings will be at 299. I know 61 isn't a lot of spending money for 2 weeks, but I have a lot of work coming this weekend, going to be a good payday, and most in cash. That will give me more spending money for the 2 weeks. I'll be debt free and everything else will be heading to my savings. I still have my monthly debts, such as gas, Pre-paid tuition, cell phone, money transfer to my IRA. So that will be 150+gas per month. Should be taken care of in one paycheck from normal work, everything from independent contracting will go straight to savings, or maybe my other IRA, prob a mix. I'll keep things updated.

Finally, I got a couple checks with the sum total of 390. Wonderful. Come Monday, they shall go in my account and be sent off to the CC on Friday, along with some of my paycheck. I'm hoping that I will have another check to deposit along with the other (which should be to the tune of 300 or so). So, with the two check in hand and some of my paycheck, my CC will be down by about $600, leaving me with 548. If I get the other check, then it will go down by more, but I will leave that to when it actually comes in. Well I'm off, till next time.
***Update***
I don't think I posted that I sent 250 toward my CC, so balance right now is 898. I also forgot that I have to send in a deposit for the people who are going to come to my son's b-day party and give a reptile presentation. That amount is around 100, so that is 100 less that I have to send to the CC. So the amount to be sent Friday is closer to 500, but will leave me only 400 or so in debt. Will update later.

Wanted to update on holdings for my self directed IRA. I have purchased WIN, ACAS, and GE. I have an average yield of 11.37% (because of ACAS's outstanding yield). GE I have a yield of 5.03%, ACAS is 21%, and WIN is 8.09%. Add them together and divide by 3 is how I got average. Weighted average isn't too far away from that 11.37%. I don't have much in there, but all the dividends are being reinvested for free (thank you broker) and it only cost $4 to buy. I'm at their mercy as far as entry price, but seeing as how I'm going for yield with a long horizon, I'm not worried about that. I plan on building on these positions before I venture to another company. BAC is looking good, assuming they don't have to cut their dividend. As it stands, they are around 9%, but with the buyout of Countrywide earlier and their recent buyout of Merrill Lynch, who knows if they will have to cut it in order to help finance it. In any event, they seem to be in a good position once all this has past. (please don't take as a recommendation, these are thoughts of analysts I have read)
As always, any comments are welcome.

So, the part that sucks about being an independent contractor is the payment time period. What I mean by that is how long it takes to receive payment. Usually it doesn't take this long, but for some reason, they are being really slow. I'm sitting on about $700 in unpaid earnings. I could use that to pay down my debt, which right now stands at about 1150. I know it went up. I have had automatic payments put on it for my class ring, which has been running 150 ish a month. This should be the last month I have to pay on it. Also, I had another 25 put on it for E-pass (which is electronic payments for tolls, just in case anybody was wondering). This was put on because work has taken me to more distant places and I had to get there fast. I've also been spending more in gas, because of more work. I'm still making a nice profit after factoring in gas and food so no worries there, plus the mileage is a tax break, as is half the food. I will talk more about things as they come about.

Ok, so I've mentioned in a couple posts that I have IRA's and that I will expand on them later. Well, it is later. I have 2 IRA's, both Roth. One is with T-Rowe Price. It is a mutual fund and I contribute $50/month towards it. I opened it November 30 of last year with $2000. I plan on keeping this up until they switch Portfolio Managers, then I may be shopping around.
My other IRA I just opened. I took the proceeds from a failed stock trade (failed as in I lost money) and decided to put it into a self directed IRA. The premise for this IRA is simple, buy solid companies, with a history of raising dividends. The plan is to never sell the shares, but to reinvest the dividends in order to build up positions.
I realize that this strategy is a little conservative, especially for my age and time horizon, but it is a strategy that I can keep up with. I have realized I don't have the patients to research and do homework every week or month per position. With this strategy, I can buy and hold, the only time to sell is when the company can no longer raise the dividend, or cuts the dividend.
I also have 2 different retirement accounts from work (which I am no longer allowed to contribute to based on my position at work). One is in a general money market account (it's only $50). The other is through AIG. It has about 1300 in it. I can't remember where it is allocated, and I can't remember the username/. Oh well. I will figure it out. I have contacted them about switching to my IRA with T-Rowe, but they said because I am employed still, I cannot move it to an IRA.
I think that is about all I have to say.

Ok, so I decided to change plans a little. With the check that recently came in, I decided to send that to my new Roth. I don't see this as a big deal because I know the money is coming in (2 games today, 1 on Friday, 5 on Sat and 4 on Sunday.) So for the weekend I'm looking at roughly 200 coming in. Like I stated before, I will dive more into my IRAs (yes plural) more in another post. I don't have a lot of free time right now (I'm at work working hard (roll of the eyes)). I'd like to hear your thoughts on this change of plans, if you have any.

My check from my work over the Memorial weekend is in, a little more than expected. $402.50 All of this will go towards the CC, putting another huge dent in it. With all these dents, it is bound to shatter shortly. Not sure when I will be able to deposit it, I have work and school all day tomorrow, work and more work all day Friday, Saturday, Sunday. We shall see.

Ok, so I took 200 of the Fin Aid and sent it to my savings so I can have some in there. the rest is heading to the CC. I had 1665 or so on the CC. Since I have my cell phone bill automatically sent there, it is up to 1711 or so. I sent 748.01, which will completely pay off one CC. that leaves me with just under 1000 left. Pay day is Friday, so that's another 217. With that, I can send another 250 to the remaining CC, leaving around 700-725. I am still waiting on my check from Memorial weekend, just under 400. I have had some extra work this past week, so those checks should start coming in shortly. All in all I'm probably sitting on about 600 in checks waiting to come in. I shall keep you all updated.
Just one quick thing, if you refere to my first post, I have some goals and things to buy. All of that will be paid in cash and will come after I have a minimum of 1,000 in my savings.
Also, opened up a new IRA. I will post more on that at a later time.

My Financial Aid check came in the mail on Saturday. I haven't had a chance to deposit it just yet. Ok, that's a lie, I had a chance today and forgot to do it on the way home. I won't have a chance to do it until Wednesday. The good news is that it is more than expected, which puts a very good dent in the debt. Also, Friday is pay day, which will help with the debt. By the time everything is deposited and sent out, I will be almost debt free. I'll keep you all updated.

Check came in for money I lent. Good, now I can deposit it and send it to the CC company. Hoping my Financial Aid check will come in later this week, that will help tremendously. Didn't spend any money today, other than gas to and from work/school. Tomorrow will be the same, although more gas, to and from work/school and to my sons's soccer practice and back. Received new contracts for games for Thursday, Saturday (also UCF football game), Tuesday as well as Next Saturday. Will keep everything updated. On another note, can anyone tell me how to get those cool gadgets I'm seeing on other people's blogs?

This was a good weekend for being able to pay down the debt. Made just under $400 for the weekend, 12 games (and close to 26 miles of running). Pretty darn tired, but not feeling too bad. Back to school tomorrow. Once I receive the check I shall update further.

Ok, so today was payday. Thanks to the pay period having ended prior to classes starting, I received more of a paycheck than will be normal. I also too out my savings and put all of that and the paycheck toward my CC. Having done that, once it clears, I will have reduced my debt by $455. (2120-455=1665) It's a start. This weekend will be a good money making weekend, lots of work starting tonight and ending Monday. That whole check will be put toward the CC. I am also waiting on a check for $116 for money I lent out, this will also go toward my CC.

Well, this is my first blog. Any and all suggestions are welcome. Right now I have $2,120 in debt on CC @ 9.99%. My goal is to get rid of the debt before the end of the semester (December 11 or so). The goal after that is to save up for several different things. 1) New DSLR camera with lenses (roughly $2400 total), 2) New PC (to be able to play the new PC games coming out, roughly $1100), 3) Week long trip to Vegas for spring break (unsure how much that will cost). I have financial aide coming in soon to the tune of about $1400. The entire check will be sent to the CC companies. I work 20 hours per week @ $8.25/hr ($165ish a week before taxes). I also have a second job, which is more unstable due to the nature of it. Until all debt is paid off, I will put all income towards the CC. I also have $50/month going into a Roth (PRWCX) as well as $55/month going to College Pre-Paid for my son who is 4. Along with the goals, I also need to save up for gifts for the holiday season, I don't plan on spending much, but I'd like to pay cash for it. I will keep an update to this as much as I can, I have a bad habit of not following up so if you all stay on my rear I'll be good