People might be shifting their debt to home equity lines of credit, or getting their liabilities reduced or dissolved, but I like this graph. I like to think that every day, hundreds of people are fleeing from the "we raised your credit card rate to 27% because that's the major way we're getting revenues" banks.
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My COBRA premium has been approved for a subsidy. This returns $250 in my pocket, which needs to go for a new stock pot and a skillet with a lid. I will check out Lodge, Emile Henry and Le Creuset.
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For Breast Cancer Awareness month, which for me was an investigation into hidden and lesser-known carcinogens in the food supply and electromagnetic field, I had a thermogram done. I got a "questionable, but not abnormal" result, so I am scheduling a mammogram. I am not scared. Thermography detects 83% of cancers earlier than mammograms do, and without the radiation risk. I've had callbacks because some cell patch stuck out its tongue on photo day, nothing serious.
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If you believe my, my cousin's and my brother's abilities to feed our families are for the highest good, would you direct some divine energy flow into a brief intention for us? Light a candle, imagine my paystub in a pink bubble. For those who are detail-oriented, I want a job I can take one reliable bus to and from, where my skills are used for the greater good, with smart and affable coworkers, with benefits, that pays enough for me to manage the mortgage, my IRA contributions, charitable gifts, and HELOC payments, plus $400 on top of that. I started a prayer three days ago (ten more to go) and I'm feeling its power already: since I started it I had a second phone screen for a brief assignment, and I have a job interview on Friday. If you want the text of this, or to share something that worked for you, give me a private message.
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Several readers have likely seen the New York Times article about Samantha Smith, the children's dance teacher who ate an Angus Beef Patty with Bacon and Cheese, processed by Cargill, and had food poisoning so awful she was in a coma for nine weeks (doctor-induced, to stop her convulsions) and became a paraplegic.

I had stopped buying commercial meat, except for the Public Market or local butcher shops, two years ago, without knowing of Ms. Smith's horrific experience. My fear that companies don't fess up to unsafe additives or practices until hundreds of thousands of people get sick or die, combined with Food Labeling laws that allow food manufacturers and processors to limit listing ingredients to what they want the customer to know, led me to limit my supermarket shopping. Now I find that Costco has its own meat processing plant so its private label ("Kirkland") products have stringent safety standards, although they probably don't control for what the animals and birds eat before they get slaughtered. Still, better than Cargill's shoddy food safety practices. In a deregulated market a company can get away with pretty much anything. I might try buying meat again from Costco, although we've had some success opening up our protein choices to include more fish and chicken. Once a month, though, my iron needs replenishing, and a 6-8 oz. steak from a pasture-fed martyr does the job nicely.
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Eight-Week Home Cure

I am eager to try this. Slowly we are changing our house so it more closely resembles a restful retreat. Now it looks like all three of our ADD-afflicted minds exploded. It's the Toxic Brain Dump. We've replaced our child's curtains that he's had since infancy with blackout shades, my husband has painted most of downstairs, and we're visiting the dump to discard our accumulated waste. Soon I hope to suppress or eliminate the bioelectronic urge in my head to borrow 18 books, 3 DVDs and 2 CDs from the library. I think my brain must be bulimic. Gorge Gorge Gorge info and new ideas. Hwaaaaaaaugh: no nutrients (good ideas put into practice) stay in the head.
I am hoping to stick with the Green Cure, like I hope to start a novena and a regular exercise program.

Slowly coming along to organizing. I may be able to plan dinner entrees by the week. One complication/pitfall I have is that some seafood I like to buy demands to be prepared/cooked as soon as possible, so I am unsure about buying mussels, for example, on Saturday and waiting until Tuesday to fix them. Yet mussels and clams can be economical and very nutritious: Vitamin C, iron, phosphorus, Omega-3 fatty acids, manganese and Vitamin B12.


Reading a great book on parent-child attachment relationships by a psychologist and a physician, both from Vancouver: Hold On to Your Kids. I recommend it for people with kidlets or planning to have kidlets. It's made me reflect on our attachment behaviours, and has given me new ideas for corrective, natural discipline.

The good news is that I'm 10% up over 2006's year-end. I lost the December 2007 data when my iPod was accidentally reformatted. More good news: I have a positive net worth.

My pessimistic estimate is that my net worth will go down by 7.9%, even though I will do my best to save 25% of our gross income in retirement funds, HELOC repayment, mortgage prepayment, and something my inner doomsayer is calling "Seattle Skedaddle." Gash and gollars.

I've identified six charities and non-profits, two non-profit advocacy groups and four publicly funded radio stations to fund in 2009.

Happy New Year to you, dear reader. Be well, do good work, stay positive.

I bought some Procter & Gamble in one retirement account, just for something to do.

I have next to no fish in my freezer. I haven't been in the mood to go out to buy any, but rather have been focusing on eating on what we have. We do seem to run out of bread, butter and eggs frequently. My challenge is to run out of fresh fruit and vegetables by Thursday. Considering our CSA box sat outside for two days waiting to be picked up this will indeed be a challenge. Another challenge: finding Worcestershire sauce without high fructose corn syrup. I gave up Kellogg's cereals, Ritz Crackers and non-kosher Coke because of HFCS -- it makes me sad to have to give up Lea & Perrins too.

I bought the dress to wear to my brother's wedding for under $100 at Nordstrom. I rule! It won't make me look old or grotesquely flabby. I won't be able to do much about towering over the bride's family though (sigh).

We lost electricity in our house a few hours after my penultimate Saving Advice post. I have got to add "oil lamp" to my savings goals. It was not fun trudging outside looking for a restaurant that would be open, an not fun imagining what it would be like to wake up Christmas morning in the freezing dark.

I have a budget but am nervous about it as we still need two incomes for expenses, or one income with a fixed 30-year mortgage, a coupla more exemptions and no 401(k) savings plan and no family insurance. The food and the mortgage are what do us in. Next month our amortization schedule shows us paying more in principal than interest without prepayment, so there's something to be glad for.

The Real Change (local newspaper sold by people in need) vendors are branching out -- there were two on the main arterial. One of them sold me a mid-November paper (!!) claiming she was sold out of the current ones. I guess times are tough. I did pay her a whole dollar, same cost for a current paper. I saved fifteen cents as the library was not stocking any current New York Times papers, so no crosswords. Fortunately I have the frickin' impossible Atlantic Monthly puzzle book I bought sixteen years ago.

Off to read some Iris Murdoch and Salman Rushdie. Gotta cleanse early 1990s Manitoba and Peoria out of my head.

I was warned to stock up on foreign exchange, or international currency in other words, in a dream, because "inflation was coming" and I "needed to be prepared." The currencies? "gosh" and "gollars" (gold, cash, and CDN/US dollars?)

Restored most of the money I borrowed from my son. We have been selecting recipes from Leanne Ely's Saving Dinner book, and downloading winter squash recipes from the internet. I feel most cost-effective when we eat out of our pantry and incorporate grains and legumes I bought months earlier into our entrees. I also feel cost-effective when we use our slow cooker.

I am creating a new set of goals and rewards for 2009. 2008 was superexcellent for me finance-wise, so am reducing my income expectations by 45%. I will not be saving 22% of my income for retirement, nor 20% of my income for home improvement in 2009.

I am tempted to invite my female friends and fellow goal plotters to either my fave cafe or fave chocolate palace to toast our achievements this year and plan for the next.

Old Joke:
Person #1 to Person #2: "Do you know the difference between labour and capital?"
Person #2: "No, I do not know. What is the difference between labour and capital?"
Person #1: "If I lend you $10, that is capital. If I try to collect my $10 from you, that is labour."

Thank you! I'll be here all month! Try the tuna fusilli!

I'm all aflutter about what's happening in Ottawa right now, and sad about the much-too-early loss of Calculated Risk finance blogger Doris Dungey ("Tanta"), but here are some preliminary notes, cribbed from last year:

Goals

Savings:
45% of annual gross income, to be distributed among:
mortgage payoff: $1200
emergency fund: ideally $15,000
long-term savings: ideally $5,000
replacement car: ideally $14,000
home improvement: ideally $10,000
garden: ideally $800
kid's stock plan: $1200
Roth IRA: $5000

How much to save:
Somewhere between $6000 and $50000.

How much to pay down
This might sound counterintuitive, but I want always to have at least 55% equity in my house. I want to be above average in how much is owing on the house, and how much equity I have. Currently I am at 59.59%. With luck I will be back above 60% by March.

What upcoming expenses do you need to plan/save for

trip to Japan
car

What to buy, what not to buy
2009 will be a year of frugality, with the exception of a laptop and emergency replacements.
Limiting number of cash charity recipients to six this year, and political action groups to two.

What accounts do you need to open/close/consolidate

The taxable E*Trade account might eventually be sold. When I read about its eventual sale, I will transfer it to where I have my other accounts.

The Save Yourself Suze Orman Plan: close after April 18
Add personal chequing account to PayPal: remove dead account.

What do you need to teach your kids/spouse this year about finance
the glory of compound interest. 0.075 > 0.0025.
trickle-up economics
what to do or invest in in a depression/recession
dividends

What do you want to educate yourself on more
bookkeeping
organic gardening
Elliott Waves and Kondratieff Cycles
the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights
developing Web Parts for SharePoint 2007
nutrition
not really education, but Iris Murdoch and the rest of the Rabbit Angstrom novels and many Philip Roth novels I have not yet read, and I'm not proud of that.
MCSE

What do you want to do better in 2009 then you did in 2008

reduce my waist size to 28
stick to a frequent exercise routine
develop and stick to a cleanup routine and schedule that includes the family
track expenditures
eat more raw food
network locally
avoid bad drivers -- OMG! I have my Zune/PDA/GPS/DVD: what do I have to pay attention to traffic for? -- I don't need these people. Insurance companies do.
volunteer or give more
declutter my house -- Freecycle, sell on half.com and craigslist

P.S. I express gratitude for my inner oracle for counselling me five months ago to wait until December 1 to buy stocks. I doubled up on PAYX and took a stake in JNJ.

We ordered appliances yesterday for the kitchen: $1710. We'll be paying for those with credit card, and then from savings when the bill is due.

I reread the HELOC terms and conditions, and saw a condition about suspending the credit line when the market value of the property is significantly below its appraisal value at the time of borrowing. That hasn't happened yet -- we borrowed just before our property received its highest ever assessment, but unless the County decides it doesn't need as much of our property taxes, the assessment will go down. By how much remains to be seen.

I should do some reading about the conditions that urge a lender to REDUCE the HELOC, and conditions that urge the lender to SUSPEND it.

Considering goals for 2009 -- I see some planners are mulling theirs over already. My goals shift from month to month, it seems: something always happens. Nebulous nice-to-haves would be getting the hubby to save for his retirement this year, having an equal amount saved for the replacement car as there is owing on the HELOC, and return of automatic investment into boy's Coverdell account.

Links du Jour:employers suspending 401(k) matching

American Express seeks cash advance -- considering its credit record, and ability to pay, how much APR would you assign to AXP if it came to you for money?

12/01/2022 look at those lovely twos, and zeroes, and ones. Eight months shaved -- [insert Sesame Street Count laugh]. Do you think the Count loves to do his taxes? "Four lovely Schedules! Uh uh uh uh aaahhh! Ten terrific itemized deductions! Uh uh uh uh aaahhh! I do not fill in... 1040EZ forms." Do you suppose he approaches paroxysms of ecstasy calculating the Alternative Minimum Tax and annualization of stock option gains?

I suppose you're going to tell me the Count works for the IRS, bloodsucker that he is.

My goal next year: to surpass in retirement contributions what we spend on principal, interest, insurance and property tax.

Coming up next: Grover and Elmo as daytraders.

My mid-1990s cookware is past its warranty. I've just read Mad as a Hatter and am considering gradually replacing my cookware with Le Creuset, which can be pricey. However, I will use eBay when I can.

As I pushed $4000 to the chequing account for the kitchen remodel, I thought about everything else I wanted: Osaka for the lads, maximizing my Roth IRA contribution, paying off the kitchen within three years if I decide to stay here, a car within twenty-four months, and wondering if we're really saving enough to make that happen. I have to get through my head that this is not a normal month for expenses: who buys appliances, fixtures, tiles, flooring every month?

Maybe it's time to put 1/4 to 1/3 of my savings in laddered CDs or TIPs to handle debt repayment. Maybe I should start amortizing, and stop dreaming that I'm going to afford a new car. Or, gasp! horror! slow down the debt repayment because the interest rates are low and build up cash to buy the car and for the lads to, it is hoped, follow my weak lead for dollar-cost averaging and buying low.

My stepmother told me it was a sweet feeling to know there are no more payments to make to the bank. At my dental examination this morning the hygienist told me she was one year away from ending her mortgage.

Mind you these two women are numbers-oriented: one had a career in insurance (she is NOT happy with the scooter), and another invests much the way I do (she rides a Harley-Davidson). Neither of them are of the "oh, I was just a housewife while my husband brought home a well-above-average salary" type either so I think this is really doable.

It seems so far away from where I am: five years ago we started out with $175,000. I know the principal is incremented with each passing month, but only by $2.63 with no prepayment. Just three weeks away from getting to the magic $140K. And that seems still very large to me. I don't know how my friends with larger mortgages manage -- they must have greater patience.

Oct. 1
$60 -- prescription
$5.44 -- Consumer Reports ShopSmart special publication
$1640 -- mortgage

Oct. 2
$89 -- Chess Club for tot
$6.49 -- Katsu Chicken
$1.25 -- Dasani Water
$100 -- partisan contribution response to an appeal

Housing: 30%
Food: 10%
Auto/Trans: 7%
Insurance: 3%
Cons. Debt: 7% (kitchen remodel payments)
Recreation: 9% (includes travel -- remember, I'm flying to Osaka)
Investments: 20%
Clothing: 3%
Med/Dental: 2%
Miscellaneous: 6%
School: 3%

Food is easily the hardest one for us to cut back on, psychologically; Entertainment/recreation would be second; miscellaneous is third. It's hard to schedule for the sudden:
oh this event came up, we won't have time to have dinner at home.
Oh this is a concert we'd really like to see.
Oh my only surviving immediate relative is getting married in a country that's foreign to him.
Oh someone came in from out of town.
Oh someone I know had a stroke and needs cheering up.
Oh I got rear-ended and want a massage so my back doesn't seize up.
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I did not get the job I interviewed for, which is just as well. Someone else with lower expenses can truck it into no man's land on a daily basis in his or her Chevy Tahoe or Hummer H3: I will look around some more and maybe I'll find something bus-accessible or even walkable. Or I can look for opportunities in Toronto, Vancouver, Kamloops or Victoria.
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Cranky as of late, but a silver lining is that my city's Noise Abatement crew understands that penning two Great Danes in a 20'x40' run and leaving them unattended all day so they can bark out their frustration is a violation of the city's noise ordinance. We're logging the incidents of the dogs' owner's pet abuses. The dogs wouldn't bark in excess of 20x/daily if they were happy or satisfied with attention. Our neighborhood is simply not that dangerous to justify 20x/daily dog barking. Maybe their owners are unaware of the abundant doggie daycare businesses in the city.
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I wonder why my questions are not being answered on the forums. Gailete responded to my search for a 25-day grace period w/no mandatory arbitration card question, but I thought the 'household interest ratio' question was legitimately financial.
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Every time I check my Roth IRA balance I am reminded of the film Groundhog Day: even though I add $400 to it monthly, and have diversified positions (cash, ETFs, Vanguard funds, bear funds) my balance seems the same as it was the last time I checked (three weeks ago).

Paid $139 extra toward the mortgage, and $200 toward the Roth IRA.

or is it lacking payment stamina? These past two weeks have been the fiscal equivalent of having three pints of blood withdrawn.

We made our last payment for childcare. I signed up for some community education courses: Japanese, Yoga, decluttering and kitchen remodeling.

Mailed the cheques out to the contractor, although he's on vacation.

I showered in our new bathroom. I love the light in it. Everything gleams so brightly, I suddenly note the rust on our shower rod. Guessing $3300 addition to the house value. Bathtub may need a new enamel job: its beige tint doesn't go well with the bright white gleam.

Considering a dawn simulator for the fall and autumn months. I had pondered a big full-spectrum therapy light box but they're expensive, and I haven't had a proper diagnosis of Seasonal Affective Disorder. The dawn simulator would help us both. I should start on the St. Johns Wort now, I reckon.

A new Yamaha battery would set me back a mere $70 on eBay. Considering... one thing I really like about my city is that there are many scooter and motorcycle riders who are generous with their advice. If I get the job in the city 20 miles north I'll lean on the spouse to sell one of our scooters, and consider blowing my car fund. Or -- gasp! -- lease a car. If I knew for certain I'd be back in the home country for keeps within 24 months, I would lease. Ideally, he'd get a ZipCar membership for taking the kid to appointments.

$5000 away from having 67% equity in the house. Watch this happen five years from now.
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Link du Jour: Home Equity Frenzy Was a Bank Ad Come True -- "The Debt Trap" series by the New York Times: banks' advertising campaigns to promote home equity loans and home equity lines of credit.

I don't have to use it right away, this is true. I do have my goals stretched thinly at the moment, maybe because I'm breathlessly scrambling to catch up from daycare expenditures.

If I chose to be influenced by Liz Pulliam Weston, I would use most of it on the Roth IRA and the emergency fund.

If I chose to be alarmed by my home's dropping value, I'd replace the garage door or pay someone for weeding and mowing.

If I chose to be motivated by sustainability, I'd buy a new refrigerator, and a chest freezer, and some bicycle accessories.

If I chose to be rewarded by instant gratification, I would divide among the bathroom, garage door, and IRA contributions.

If I chose to be governed by the PC, I'd buy a new printer, personal finance software, firewall software, and a flat panel monitor.

Decisions, decisions...
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I have a garden. I mailed a cheque for $822.20.

My MMA is down to 2.5%, bummer. I know there are online accounts -- I need most of my MMA available and liquid at present, owing to bathroom renovation.
What this means is that my best savings accounts right now are: my son's account (up to $500), the Save Yourself Account, and the house. Fortunately my credit unions and mortgagor are promoting the "let's talk about the equity in your house" deals... perhaps a raise to $40K in the HELOC isn't out of the question. My line of credit has risen by 20% though, without any prompting from me.

In happy mortgage news, I am twelve payments away from the point where I pay more principal than interest.

I may put more money toward General Electric's direct purchase plan: it's trading at a low, and has a nice yield.
Today I pretended my boy has a future and put $100 in his college fund, and I pretended I was going to live to see 68 and put $280 in my Roth IRA.

So I thought I'd try the Dave Ramsey Baby Steps, starting on #4. Except I have some problems:
• My brother expects me to be in Osaka to see him get married next February

Partial Solution: go solo and save 60% in projected expenses. Do I really want to bring a seven-year-old with me on a lengthy flight? Or rationalize that a once-in-a-lifetime combination of seeing my only surviving sibling marry in a country/continent I've never visited is very worth getting into a bit of temporary debt

• I have planned to update my upstairs bathroom, and would prefer not to go into debt to do it

Partial Solution: get into the mindset of "it's not really debt if I put half down and pay the remainder within six months, knowing that I have four times the remainder in my emergency funds"

• Distribution of the cash flow would be optimized if I pushed as much money toward the Roth as I can before my current contract expires -- it doesn't offer me a 401(k) plan, whereas I am instantly eligible to participate in the next contract.

Partial Solution: Start contributing $150/week to Roth until contract starts, then start putting 10% in 401(k). With the first thousand deposited into the Roth, increment the percentage contributed to the 401(k) by 1, and cut the Roth IRA contribution down to $100. It's harder this year, getting that extra thousand. Also, according to two retirement calculators, one at choose to save, and the other at MSN Money, I DON'T have to save 15% of my pretax income. I need save only 9.46%, so that lets me maximize my Roth IRA and lower my 401(k) contributions to 9%. The 15% must be for people who are starting fresh, yet still expect to see Social Security.

• I have gone over my budget several times, and whereas many people in reasonably-priced cities might gasp and point fingers at what we pay for in Gloomtopia, it is a considerable challenge for the overscheduled and underorganized to knock down expenses by 10%. I have to wait for the cell phone contract to expire, cats to die, garden yields to increase, boy to mature out of requiring supervision. I might even have to cut down on my health regimen.

Dave Ramsey doesn't know my life. He doesn't know how haphazardly I've hopscotched along the retirement/pay off home/big childcare/college funding/home improvement/energy savings mosaic of financial planning. People don't get married a whole ocean away, don't buy homes so antiquated Lucy Ricardo and June Cleaver would feel right at home in because that's all they could comfortably afford (3x gross income, mtg pymt 25% of gross) at the time (which was two years after the very best time to purchase in the 1990s), don't develop life-threatening pregnancy complications that later rob them of their eyesight, don't save up for replacement items and landscaping and sustainability and inflation all at once.
They don't parachute into environments where bubbles are the norm, nor do what everyone else is doing because they don't know any better or haven't ever had disposable income before.

I don't like debt, maybe I don't loathe/hate/despise it as much as Ramsey does. Maybe I've dipped into the HELOC, gotten a vehicle loan at 2.9% APR. But I haven't intentionally missed a payment, nor carried a balance on my credit cards since 2002.

Maybe when it comes to improving the value of an asset or leveraging for a greater gain I put down my mace and shield and learn to love my liabilities. Or do what I can to increase my salary this year. That might mean stop volunteering at my son's school.

I fear the myriad of financial goals means making difficult choices, or learning to prioritize/plan down to the hour my money-saving healthful financial moves and household activities. Sometimes I feel enmeshed in a web of my own devising, only I had thought everything I did was a good idea at the time, or thought I was doing the best I could. No. Taking eleven years to complete Ramsey's baby step #3 of building four months of expenses because I was trying to do #2, #4, #5, and #6 all at once in a frantic race to catch up to the middle class is not doing the best I can. Even if my net worth went up thirty-six times in those eleven years.

Ratios to Aim For:
Assets: Liabilities 4:1
Liabilities: Liquid Assets 4:1

Where I am now:
Assets: Liabilities 3.75:1
Liabilities: Liquid Assets 4.66:1

From WiseBread.com

I have procrastinated putting things on eBay. I don't know how to go about getting packing supplies cheaply, wonder if I have to go to Value Village or Freecycle for a scale, procrastinated funding a PayPal account.

I doubt many will take the majority of our books or CDs (alternative 1990s).

I hope an eBay seller will convince me that even an issue of WIRED magazine circa 1994, or a Zamfir LP would sell. Unlike the husband of the article author, I don't mind selling my WIREDs. The only book I managed to sell online was Sheilah Graham's The Garden of Allah and that was through Amazon.com's zSellers. Would half.com be better?

And how do I sell a big item, like a wedding dress, or a homemade booze cabinet? Is Craigslist my best bet?

How do I choose among Amazon.com, half.com and eBay to declutter my goods?
How would I streamline postage purchases, figure out what to charge (I suppose the scale would help)?

What would sell better at a garage sale? Mugs, glasses, spare kitchen items?

So far, so spiffy.

The multitude of accounts and savings goals mesmerizes me. Minus the tax payment due in a little more than two weeks we are almost at $30K.

Hubby is actually planning a vacation. This man rarely plans, so I feel very loved and special because it's on my behalf (birthday) that we are sailing out of the country (you read right) for a weekend.

Updated Content: I have now a sixth account at TD Ameritrade, the Suze Orman "Save Yourself" fund that a handful of my friends have. I am not proud. I did it for the RETURN.
Fils: 4 accounts
Mari: 4 accounts
Moi: 10 accounts

I also have some ideas for putting the 401(k) noncontributory fund to work, supported by up-to-date research from industrial analysts and current market outlook, and filtered by risk/reward and expense ratios. For the trading account, I'm looking at AAUK; for others: RPIBX, BEARX, and GLD.

Goals I'd like to try for next quarter:
1. Wheedle/coax for return to World's Easiest Contract Job of Adequate Lucre and Awesome Lunchmates.
2. Take a Cascade Bicycle Club Traffic Safety Course.
3. Outfit my bike with blinking lights, buy ugly neon jacket to promote visibility.
4. Remodel bathroom -- boy will be irked; apparently I am the only resident guided by visions to believe there is another bathroom downstairs.
5. Get bicycle tuned up.
6. Apportion equal amounts of savings to Home Improvement, and Mortgage Reduction.
7. Install garden. I am cutting back my initial garden plans by half: this will allow me to pay it off faster and to start on the landscaping.
8. Order cistern: find space for it in the back.
9. Consult with a local rainwater harvesting/plumbing dude about greywater filtration system.
10. Apportion some savings to Swiss Francs, Canadian Dollars, Euros, Yen, Silver.
11. Apply for Passport renewal.
12. Apply for Disability insurance.
13. Learn Japanese.

I invited the Realtor who helped us buy our home in 1999 to come over and give us ideas for what we can do to "upgrade" our house for the cost of what we would have spent to sell (about 11% of the current value, which she sees as higher than what Zillow tells us). Our house and property are a mess, thanks to years of child-tending, depression, laziness, distraction, full-time day care and retirement money-growing. But now, of course, with the market in a tailspin, and credit markets seizing up, I have an emergency fund and some cash to invest in the house. Score one for timing Ms. Goddard! That's up there with giving birth three weeks after 9/11!

I am so glad I invited her over: she was honest as a real estate professional could be, yet optimistic that we'd have s shorter recessionary/depression stint given our state's export strengths and tendency to be last in/first out in economic downcycles (except for the dark Boeing years of the mid 1970s?). Inventory in the county is at near ten months, but in my price range it's more like three months. She gave us names of the professionals she uses for remodeling and landscaping. This will be a multi-year project, which means that relocating is probably out of the question this year. Maybe in 2011...

In the meantime I'll see if I can raise our HELOC to $60K or as low as $40K. I read on Mish's Global Economics blog an article excerpt where a woman with a $168K HELOC on her Newport Beach, CA property had found it reduced to $10,000. She had never used the HELOC and found her limit cut to 6% of what it was formerly. I myself would be irritated/squawking like a wet hen if my HELOC was reduced to $1,071, and yes entitlement has a mighty squawk to it. I'm wondering if Citigroup's nervous condition has anything to do with the 94% pruneback.

Mish supports Citigroup's stunning move:
Look at this from Citigroup's point of view.

• She has decreasing home equity, most likely no equity.
• California is in decline with a long way to go before houses can be considered affordable.
• The US is in recession.
• People are losing jobs.
• She does not know the difference between money and credit.
• She does not understand the difference between her money and someone else's money.
• She spent $55,000 trying to "make a baby" (mentioned in the article).
• She is about to adopt a child instead (also mentioned in the article).
• Her cash went down and her expenses are clearly going to rise as a result of the last two points. (Yeah, if FT daycare is now 105% that of a mortgage payment, not to mention diapers, and baby food...)

Yet she had $300K to put down on a home and rental properties. How do people with this kind of thinking get money? Stock options? Inheritances? Rich partners?

What will I do if I can't raise the HELOC? Probably just renovate the bathroom for now, pay it off in four months, see if I can get my MSFT contract renewed for another 12, and if yes, then I'm doing the kitchen.

There's my cue to go get disability insurance, because I can't count on using the HELOC for an emergency fund. Truth be told, I had been doing exactly that since June 2006, using the money only for the windows, which added at least as much in value to the house as I had spent on them, and paying it back at the rate of $1400/week.

I dug holes for two strawberry plants purchased this afternoon: Shuksan and Tristar.

I'm going to restrict the garden beds to two for now, and try some garden ovals in the back and in the front, and move the roses somewhere sunny. Maybe the roses can have an oval to themselves in front -- they do a good job at getting me out in the sun and talking to the neighbours.

Maybe it's a hormonal fluctuation, but I've been anxious since Wednesday. Perhaps I should sip some chamomile tea, do a crossword, go out for a walk.

I did prune my roses today, in the sun. A local media gardening expert said this was the time to do it (The All About Roses book I have said April was the time to prune). Seeing all those thin, reedy, large, canes with red leafy growth was initially daunting, but I picked up some momentum and energy and went to it. I think there are some stragglers that might be shovel-pruned soon. The grandifloras did very well indeed (Lagerfeld, and Queen Elizabeth, for any rose enthusiasts reading).

Sharp observers will note that I have shaved one month off my the actual term end-date for my mortgage. I have learned, from looking at the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Price Inflation Calcula..., that our new mortgage payment, in inflation-indexed dollars, after taxes, is cheaper than the principal and interest was when we first purchased! And that's AFTER a 127% rise in assessment values since purchase. So I don't know who these people are who complain about property taxes in our county: hard to believe that they'd be homeowners in my city. They should try living in the states of New York or New Jersey.

Also went to the Farmers' Market today -- talked with a honey farmer who told me that in the next few months we could expect a 150% price jump for honey. Good thing we have a cool place to store it. Next week I'll bring a cardboard box and my credit card.

I bought a Canadian Maple Leaf gold coin today, as I do at the end of any week where the Dow drops over 500 points, and adjusted my Savings Tracks. I also deposited my first cheque from my current position.

Causing me some consternation is my whack at a budget. I have read Consumer Spending Patterns in my metro area and used the inflation multiplier of 1.26. People are/were, in 2004-2005, still paying less for rent and shelter than we are/were. In our city, expenditures are 20.3% greater than the U.S. average. Why, I don't know. Greyness, misery and self-absorbed PDA-twiddlin' drivers can't be worth THAT much... why do I stay? It's close to where I used to live and still have friends and family, and I don't have to drive in snow, and don't have mosquitoes or cockroaches to contend with, and the jobs are pretty easy to come by.

We lost someone in our debt support group, but for good/happy reasons: she took a job in another state that paid better, and had a lower cost of living. She gets to live near her ailing parents, and will soon have a 4-bedroom house with a swimming pool, in a sunny location. I'm thrilled that she's happy. It would be nice to have some new faces in our little social group, but I guess we're the only people in a population of 600,000 who are freaked out enough by our debts to meet and share goals and work through plans over a social breakfast.

I looked at About.com's Food Storage Calculator. I don't know that I need to keep food for a year: I'm thinking perhaps three months, maybe six at the most. I'm not a member of LDS, but still, getting the idea of building an ark in one's head is just as good as Divine Providence telling one to build an ark, right? And for the agnostics/atheists out there, I'm well aware that the man who kidnapped Frank Sinatra Jr. also believed the Lord told him to do that too. Perception is reality.

The itch for a new car is temporarily overshadowed by ideas of a cistern (less expensive than I thought) and a greywater harvesting/recycling system.

I realize I'm six months behind or ahead in prepping for a garden and filtration system, but better now than never, huh?

Oh, and I was reminded of the $20 challenge. Through unanticipated discounts and savings, I'm up to $173-something, so I bought two shares of BNI stock for my li'l tycoon, in his UTMA.

A. Gardening
1. Bought one start of English thyme. Why? Because it can be grown year-round.
2. Bought one start of Cupani sweet pea. Why? Because I like the smell of it.
3. Bought one bag of potting soil. Why? To start potting some herbs.
4. E-mailed Seattle Farm Company to help me with my urban farmscape.
5. Am sterilizing my plastic pots with a vinegar-water solution.

I am not kidding myself so much to believe I can tend a backyard garden by myself. But I would like to grow tomatoes (I've read your comment, lostindebt: last May at Mother's Day I got two tomato plants, and they were pumping out succulent fruit like it was nobody's business).

B. Exercise
1. Reserved my spot for an introduction to yoga class.

C. Being sociable/good neighbour.
1. Agreed to donate blood. Now must go buy some iron and some Vitamin C tablets.
2. Paid for tickets for school auction.
3. Strongly considering attending an ice cream social at a community club.

Learned through the Hsh.com calculator that we need an income of $63925.57 to afford our mortgage payment. This is some relief.

Counted forty-four homes for sale as we arced from the Fremont neighbourhood back to our home. Who knew Fremont, Phinney Ridge, and Greenwood areas to be so crappy that people would be rushing to sell early in the year? Or are the looming ARM resets responsible?

Had a nasty dream this morning: in my dream I had a memory of us as a family doing something fun and leisurely in July 1978, and the bills accumulated and came to me in payment this year, as my mother had passed on almost a decade ago. "$16,000? Okay. $37,000? For one little trip? That's pricey, but I can manage." and then a third bill for $310,898. "Holy moly! I can't pay that!"

I think $314098.92 might be very close to what we would eventually pay for our house, with principal and interest. Blood rushes from my head to think about what bill my son would be looking at for our collective short-term fiscal myopia... he might never leave our house.

Nice to know there are still lots of local homeowners out there with lots of money. We went to the Home Show, taking a free local special bus, and had a fun time. However, I was a little bothered by the expectations the booth and seminar presenters seemed to have:

"You want granite countertops, right? Stainless steel appliances?"

"The National Association of Realtors says that you get 3 dollars back for every 1 you put in your kitchen." (This I believe to be false, not just because it's the NAR originating this, but because the payback is more like 88.4%, and that's if you pay in cash, and sell within a year of the remodel.)

Pictures of remodels featured suburban McMansions with two-car or three-car garages.

So much that was outre, and status. All I want is a kitchen with a new ventilator hood that meets code regulations, and space for a dishwasher and a larger refrigerator. I don't need the island or recessed lighting. That should be about $33K-$36K.

We'll see what I can save up by August. Either I'll have finished my contract by then, or I'll be back at my old contract. My credit union had a booth at the show, and I asked about upping the HELOC to $45K. I'd have to reapply for that.

Edit: I saw that a Habitat for Humanity second-hand shop for home remodeling has opened this past week. I might visit and scout.

My 1099 form from last year was mailed to me, one week away from the state sales tax deadline. I underestimated my earnings by $2100. I spent most of the remainder of my evening redoing my taxes, and gathering forms for the energy efficiency credit. Weirdly, I overpaid my city business license tax. I have to explain the situation before the 31st of January -- I am confident that I will not be assessed a penalty for the city tax, as I paid ten times more than I should have. But I do need to explain to them my over and underpayment predicament tout de suite.

I am so relieved to have an accountant this year to help me. Even if it means having to be organized and making copies of my forms. The extra expense of having a competent, clear, objective calculator can be budgeted under "Peace of Mind." I try to do my taxes but it seems to be trickier every year -- education credits, energy credits, home business deductions, dependent care credits, blah de blah de blah. It was more fun to do taxes when it was just the 1040EZ and we'd have a bag of potato chips, some fizzy Aqua Libra, and some 80s synthopop music to help the time pass. Now I can't get ten minutes to myself to do any calculation and the house is littered with papers "yet to be filed": how can I get forty-five minutes to myself to work through the taxes for a first draft, and then for a second draft in which I seem to owe more money, and then the third draft which is typically and foolishly attempted under the influence of a martini, because the amount owing has been incremented from three digits to four?

business taxes
$338.26 - state taxes
$80.41 - city taxes

The biggie, federal tax, is looming... I am thankful I had the foresight to save some money for that.

allowance for him and her
I included an allowance for the young one, who hardly ever asks for it. I had the money in my pocket but the father and I spent it on hot chocolate and cappuccinos. Call Child Protective Services. On the other hand, I've included my kid in the "profit-sharing plan" of a budget surplus.

donations
So many worthy causes, so few dollars.

I've been reading elsewhere about people considering replacing their mid1990s vehicles. I've been considering replacing ours. I'm angsty about the complexity of scope and enormity of costs for updating our home and the looming car replacement. I might get into consumer debt again, but I plan the maximum amount of debt to be $16700 at a time.

Our water bill is lower than it was last year, by about 11%.

A question on another forum is: "What are you willing to sacrifice for financial security?" At this point I would not sacrifice my good, real friends, nor my health. I don't know that I'd sacrifice something that took 2% of my budget, like education or car insurance. I would sacrifice my animals, but the spouse wouldn't go for that. We turn down the heat, the animals come onto the bed. I'd sacrifice fifteen-twenty minutes of my day for some spiritual peace of mind, and sacrifice an additional twenty minutes getting exercise. It's true I'm not willing to make any further cuts in my lifestyle to reduce my expenditures. I might seek alternate actions to paying retail/full-price for necessities all the time, but that's it. Maybe sacrifice an hour a week in some simplicity circle.

Maybe the question isn't worded appropriately. Here's what I would do to create more time for myself, time invested in improving my quality of life.

• Do a time budget.
• Study who and what you are investing your time in.
• Identify who and what wastes your time.
• Look for opportunities to achieve more energy for yourself with your time.
• Look for opportunities in collaboration with other members of your immediate family.

I read Carolina Bound's entry today and used my search engine of choice to find this article about Jeff Yeager and his suggestions for a financial detox. Refraining from eating out is something we're gently working into. We haven't gone to a "cloth napkins and tablecloth" restaurant for two weeks -- that's notable for us.

I was dopey-morose reading the Refrigerator forum threads... last month we went to a warehouse sale for refrigerators and did not find an EnergyStar refrigerator that was short enough to fit beneath our 1940s-era built-in cabinets. I refrained from making snarky comments on the forum about remodeling a kitchen for $30,000 so I could buy a larger, energy-efficient refrigerator -- for frugality. I am glad that I refrained, for now I have found one:
GTH16BBSLWW. I'll probably end up paying $700 for it, but running it will take $3/month. Our current 1980s-era fridge is a little off with the cooling: freezing some areas and wilting some vegetables. The gasket seal leaks cold air. In a month I will have the money for replacing the fridge (from the home improvement budget).

Also, a link to an interview with Benjamin R. Barber, whose book Consumed I am, uh, consuming...

I keep meaning to write something and then I'm dissatisfied or the topic degenerates. Let's keep this realistic but bright. I compared my 2006 and 2007 end-of-year statements. Most striking to me was that I had paid 9.4% of my mortgage principal. I also have mortgage payments in CDs coming due for the next six months.

I can't and won't try to beat the astounding $60,000 increase in retirement assets. The imaginary $40,000 home property increase over the past twelve months will disintegrate as I project, dourly, a 7.8% decrease in home value on account that my "developmentally delayed" metropolitan area has just arrived to the housing bust. My challenges will be to live creatively on less and to generate other streams of income. Maybe Prosper.com will be in my future with Treasury Direct. A hand to the government and a hand to the people.

And my other challenge: treating myself if/when I meet certain milestones with my monthly budgets or meeting a savings goal: Wise Traditions membership, hair colour, massage, Amazon.com wish list item, aromatherapy oils from The Herbalist, a concert, lessons, a CD, a trip to a restaurant I've been meaning to try...