Due to recent events and the never ending unexpected expenses, I’m in a bit of a funk and doubt I’ll be posting much until it passes. What a shame, too, since I felt like I was starting to get back in the swing of things. Hopefully this will pass soon and I can finally get to post some on the joys of small business ownership and the trials of going from a service-only business to one with product for sale.
My assumption was correct, the repairs my car needs exceeds the value of my car. The estimate came up just short of $4,000 and is a “total loss” on the car. So now I wait for the insurance company to call with their offer. I’m a little unsure of how to proceed from this point forward because I want to be sure that I am properly compensated for my car.
This afternoon I’ll spend looking up the receipts for the recent repairs done on my car. In January I made the difficult decision to complete a major repair on my car based on the decision that I would be driving it for the next 5 years – or that the daughter would be driving it within that time. After 155,000 miles, my car finally needed a new clutch! I am very proud of the fact that the clutch lasted that long, especially considering that I learned to drive stick in this car and my first year of driving probably took a toll on it. At that time, I also replaced the front breaks and rotors, in addition to all new spark plugs and wires. All of these repairs added up to about $900, I think. I fully expect that to be part of negotiation for my car – because the blue book value alone for a 10 year old car with more than 155,000 miles in average shape probably doesn’t factor in these recent repairs. I also have relatively new rear tires on the car, though finding documentation on that might be harder since they were replaced during our previous move and papers got shifted around a lot. This is a good reminder to file papers promptly and properly!
We’ll certainly keep the car because it gets better gas mileage than the other two vehicles we own (and we just don’t throw out cars, I guess). Hopefully the repair needed on the rear wheel that was slightly damaged will be simply, maybe just a bent rim, and we’ll still have the car and the cash value of it as well. The partner is willing to drive it to work on his 60-miles-a-day commute and enjoys the fact that beat-up cars get the right of way in most situations. I won’t drive it because the passenger door is not functional and I have vanity issues that won’t let me drive something thats looks as it does.
My only concern is if there are any traffic/vehicle safety laws in Maryland that restrict your ability to drive a vehicle with more-than-minor body damage. I’ve always heard things about properly functioning tail lights, safety mirrors, and such, but is there laws that define when a vehicle is unfit to drive? Luckily, Maryland only does safety inspections at the point of title transfer – versus other states that do them on a regular schedule. I certainly don’t want to attract any unwanted attention from state troopers. Luckily, with the partner driving, the risk is less because he is much more diligent and consistent with driving within designated limits than I am.
I’ve written about my car many times with a somewhat bittersweet emotional attachment. I thoroughly love my car and had I never moved away from Wisconsin, I would never have a reason to complain about it. It’s one fault is terribly obvious during Maryland summers – it doesn’t have air conditioning. Even when baking in July, I still realize that I am very passionate about my car and our adventurous 9-year relationship.
I’m afraid that relationship has come to an end – all that the fault of an outside party. I was in an accident today that caused significant damage to my poor car. I was driving towards home, almost at the stoplight near my house, when a truck ran into me as he was turning left out of a parking lot. Since the light was red, a large work truck had left a gap so that he could make his turn. He didn’t see me coming along in the left-turn lane. I can say that I was probably fortunate that there was no oncoming traffic and I was able to swerve somewhat when I saw him heading toward me, this probably save me some additional injury and more sever damage to my car, but it was still enough that the car is no longer drivable.
We got out of the way of traffic, called for a police collision report, and exchanged all the necessary information. It wasn’t until I got home (just a mile from the accident) and further contemplated the damage that the impact of this accident struck me. My car is 10 years old and has 155,000+ miles on it. I’m certain the damage exceeds the value of my car and I’m already preparing myself for the fact that the other driver’s insurance company will most likely claim that my car is totaled and just offer me the value of my car (which is only about $2,000). This won’t be enough to fix the car, nor will it be enough to replace it either.
So, right now, I’m taking it easy as my body is starting to show some aches and pains from the impact. And I’m trying to not totally fall into despair over my car. Also, I’m trying to figure out what I need to know to get the maximum value for my car as well, since I’m 95% certain that the insurance company will total it out.
Other posts on the fun of owning your vehicles outright and making decisions based on that.
Do you remember my life insurance calculations? Probably not, because I posted these back in September 2007 when we started the application process to get life insurance. Can you believe that it’s taken until April 2008 to finally complete that process? It’s insane that it’s taken this long and I’m surprised I had that much patience to wait it out.
In September, we placed an inquiry with SelectQuote (SQ) to help us select a life insurance company. After looking at the options and quotes provided, we went with Banner Life Insurance company. In October, a mobile medic came to our home to collect basic physical data and blood samples. It took another month, maybe longer, to get our blood lab results back – we were healthy. At this time Banner rejected my coverage due to additional information I provided on the final application. I was disappointed, but not surprised, by their decision and realize that I’ll probably never be able to get life insurance – thats just life. Then the marathon wait to complete the partner’s application began.
The partner is a cross your t’s and dot your i’s type of person – he fills everything out in detail. And, for life insurance purposes, this is probably a good thing. On his application, he noted visiting a doctor within the past two years. These companies like to know you are indeed healthy, so they follow up with your doctors and will review your medical records (you have to sign a release for this). We should have known this might cause a problem – not for medical reasons, but because of issues with the doctor’s office. He went in for a test based on a concern he had and then never heard back about the results. For a couple weeks, he would call and always be told the results were not in. This went on for a month or so, life happened, and then when he called again several months later, they said his records were moved to off-site storage. So, we never found out the results and didn’t worry about it.
When the life insurance company tried contacting this doctor’s office they ran into similar problems. From November through April, they called and wrote repeatedly to get a copy of his records and was always put off and told the records were in storage. Finally, last month, the partner stopped by their office in person, after the SelectQutote agent had called up for what seemed like the millionth time to follow up, and the office claimed to have never received any requests or anything. Finally, Banner sent us a notice saying that the application was canceled for lack of information. Our SQ agent was still working to help us get this completed, even after the application was closed. Within less than a month of the partner’s visit, we got notice from Banner that the application had been approved – guess they re-opened it – and payment is due. Upon review of the paperwork from Banner, I think our SQ agent finally convinced them to drop that requirement and the doctors office still hadn’t responded.
So, now we finally have life insurance for the partner, at a rate less than what were originally quoted, and I can rest better knowing that if something happens to him, I won’t be drowned financially. I am not upset over the fact that I don’t, and probably never will, have coverage and will simply need to make financial plans knowing that life insurance is not an option for me.
Also, I’m not sure what the going rate for health insurance is for many people, but in light of putting real numbers out there, we’re paying a little less than $500/year for a 20-year $750,000 term life insurance for a healthy, never-smoked, forty-year-old male. Based on the quotes provided by SelectQuote, this seemed like a good price, but I’ve never talked life insurance with friends since most are not supporting anyone else. I also like the fact that the rate will not increase over the next 20 years, a nice comfort when starting life insurance at 40.
We filed our taxes late this year – just a few days before tax day. This is a freak occurrence for me, normally I’ve got everything filed before February. This year was no exception, except that just before filing, I realized that I was missing a w-2. It’s a good thing I remembered this because it was another $10K in income and it changed a lot of things with our taxes.
Dealing with my old payroll office was a bear – the first time I called the woman said that she couldn’t mail me the duplicate request form (“I’m not really good at doing that”) or email it to me either (“I don’t understand how email works”). I was flabbergasted at these responses and feel she really was clueless and not just trying to get out of helping me. About a month later I called again and got someone new, thankfully, who had no problem emailing me the form. But, the duplicate W-2 just sat in the mail pile for a few more weeks until I realized that tax day was quickly approaching. But, procastination did have one good benefit in that I won a free tax gift from Money Smart Life site.
I’m pretty sure we filed on April 12 and by April 16, Maryland had already deposited our state refund. The timing was perfect as I knew this week was going to be a a near hit-or-miss in covering all our bills and spending. Thanks to the timing of some of our larger monthly bills, including the mortgage payment, and the next paycheck deposit, our buffer was being hit pretty hard. Then we had another major bill show up (life insurance premium) and knew that it was going to be a very scary week indeed. I initiated a transfer from savings just to fluff the buffer a bit more but wasn’t sure if it was going to be deposited in time (one downside to online savings accounts). I wish I’d reviewed our checking account balance first and seen the tax return, because now I don’t need the transfer from savings to get us through the next week. But, having a bit more cash is much nicer than being short.
For some reason, I’m sitting here dreaming about what I’d do if I won the lottery. There is a lot of irony in this situation, mostly due to the fact that I don’t play the lottery but still spend lots of time thinking of what I’d do if I did. A good friend of mine, of sound financial means, plays consistently because he finds that spending $1 to dream about what he’d so with the winnings is worth it. I guess I’m taking the more frugal route and dreaming for free. :)
I spent some time looking over the net at lottery winning stories – these are mostly news stories that love to focus on the many winners that have lost their winnings. The articles would have been much more interesting if they didn’t all refer back to the same handful of people. I appreciate the point they’re trying to make, though, that small lottery winnings ($1 million dollars) doesn’t last long if you’re not prepared and that if you were unhappy before winning, money probably won’t solve your problems.
So, since I spend so much time dreaming about what I’d do, I thought I’d write it out as a handy reference in case it ever does happen. Many of the steps I have in mind coincide with the popular advice given by financial advisers.
Now, my plan of action and my wish lists are two separate things. Since I’ve spent so much time dreaming about winning the lottery, I find it worthwhile to chart out some of those ideas. Plus, I like the idea of having this list already in order before visiting financial professionals so that we can better prepare for how lottery winnings will fit in our current plans. I know that I would want to keep the majority of my simple living practices intact, but I also know a huge influx of cash would have a very big impact on that and recognize that it may have a bigger impact on me than I want. So, my wish list is as follows, not necessarily in prioritized order.
In all, I still like to think that I have fairly simple wishes. I would give up on improving our current house and would probably sell it “as is” because the work it needs is more than we could ever recover in renting or sale. Being able to buy a farm with a substantial amount of property (100+ acres) would be my biggest goal so that I don’t have to look over at the McMansions going in next door and can provide for our family’s food needs. Sustainability would still be a major factor and we’d be in a position to install alternative energy systems to allow us to live 100% off-grid. The bed and breakfast/traditional arts and craft school would be a wonderful thing. We could then continue working, doing what we love – working with our hands.
In my reading and social circles, sustainability is a huge topis – from being personally sustainable to supporting agricultural and business practices that are sustainable. I’m not sure if there is a general shift in U.S. socio-consciousness that is focusing on these issues or if I’ve just surrounded myself with fairly “crunchy”, earth/environment conscious folk at this point. But for brevity sake, I’ll focus on personal sustainability in this post.
For us, it is a combination of financial and ethical motivation that prompts us to incorporate more sustainable practices in our life and support other’s doing the same. From an ethical standpoint, we’ve read and watched several books/movies lately that have really helped us define our previously unsubstantiated reasons for making a difference in our ecological footprint and fully utilizing our land. These experiences helped us shape the sometimes incoherent thoughts, ramblings, and reasons we’ve given for our view points that come from a fairly deep-seated personal and ethically motivated response to the current conditions of the world.
Financially, increasing our personal sustainability is a step in reducing financial unknowns and variables. This year’s plans include growing as much food as we can and learning about raising chickens for meat and eggs. One of the requirements for buying a house was that there be enough land to raise as much of our own food as we could and our little one-acre plot provides a good start in that direction. With food prices on the rise, this couldn’t come at a better time.
Currently, we have four garden plots dug and plans to dig up 4 more plots and add space for 4 vertical-crop plots. We’re currently using the Square Foot Gardening method developed by Mel Bartholomew. Anyone interested in growing their own food (whether to supplement your weekly grocery shopping or to replace it altogether), I suggest checking out Bartholomew’s Square Foot Gardening book. For those who are going this route, I like pointing out that we’re using an older addition of the book and method, and are planting everything the ground as opposed to the raised beds he now recommends. The older method is a little more work, but also uses less material resources and makes use of the land we purchased for that purpose.
We started seeds indoors about five weeks ago to get a jump start on the season. Last week, those items finally made it outside and in the ground – just in time for two overnight freezes. Luckily, these are cold-hardy plants and they did just fine. Each weekend, we’re busy adding more and more crops to the plots or starting them in seedling trays with supplemental heat (because I only heat house at 58 degrees during the day) and light. I need to add up how much we’ve spent so far, but I’m pretty sure it’s still less than $100 and half of that was on seeds.
In addition to fruits and vegetables, we’re interested in raising our own meat and eggs. We’re not even slightly interested in becoming vegetarian and I happen to live by the mindset that if processing animals for my table is too gross or offensive, then I shouldn’t be eating it in the first place. We currently have 10 baby chicks that are living in our mudroom, waiting to go outside in chicken tractors. We got the chicks when they were just one day old and have really enjoyed watching them grow. We’ll keep 4-5 of them for egg layers and the rest will be harvested for our freezer. The goal is to start small, in terms of processing them, as we learn what we’re doing and get the hang of it. Financially speaking, raising your own meat and eggs isn’t all the cheaper than buying from the grocer – but you have the reassurance that you know exactly what they’ve been eating and how they were treated. I do plan to sell excess eggs and will probably take a few orders for meat chickens on the next go-round.
While raising our of food reduces the impact on soaring grocery prices on our budget, we trade the financial variables for natural ones. Several things could take our crops, from drought conditions (we live with a well and that is a very real concern for us) to predators. Our chickens could get sick or attacked by a neighboring dog. While we’ll take all the necessary precautions to protect our food investments, it is somewhat more risky than relying on super market convenience. But, when we sit down to dinner, we’ll know exactly how things were grown and that it didn’t take much oil consumption to get it to our table. Separating ethical and financial motivations for increasing sustainability seem impossible at this point, but I appreciate that individuals interested in either motivation can take steps to reduce their environmental footprint.
Every time I run the budget numbers, I have to face the reality that I’m making poor choices. You’d think a month or two of doing this would prompt me to change habits, but it hasn’t. It’s all about food, actually, and eating out far more than I should. 75% of our dining out budget it my fault and its often just the daughter and I. We’re talking about $300/month that could be saved just by staying home and eating at home — we could really use an extra $300/month.
I need to do some serious personal reflection to figure out where this constant eating out obsession is coming from. It is basically a daily occurrence, usually between the hours from noon – 4:00 p.m. This month it could be contributed to the fact that a $50/month for groceries is a pathetic attempt at saving money — if I don’t feel like there is any food in the house, I go out to eat. The most likely reason is that I’ve been moderately depressed the past few months and haven’t been taking care of kitchen duties – like keeping the kitchen clean enough to cook in and grocery shopping.
Its time to get food spending back on track and also own up to the fact that I’m really hurting our family’s finances. Steps to fix this, off the top of my head, include:
1. Tell the partner about my eating-out spending — he knows that I eat out a lot, though I still try to obscure the fact and will give vauge answers about whether we’ve eaten or not. Also, because I manage the budget numbers, he usually doesn’t really see just how much I’ve spent eating out or doesn’t realize how it impacts our budget. This isn’t a good pattern to be in and it certainly doesn’t lend to a trusting, honest relationship that we try to maintain. And it adds to the guilt I feel about eating out in the first place.
2. Make a food plan for the week — I do this about once every other month. It really helps us keep spending in check and the house stocked with food for a week or two. However, I always dread this task, even though it can be so simple. So each week, by grocery shopping day, I must make a plan for that week. If I don’t have one, I need to just pick a week from my Saving Dinner cookbook and use that.
3. Make a grocery list and go shopping — This may sound silly, but the grocery store is the most stressful place in the world to me. For many years I avoided it altogether (difficult to do as a single parent). The past several years, I’ve mostly gotten over it, but I still drag my feet when it comes time to go shopping. Also, when were short on funds, it’s very difficult for me to go and spend money on food when I feel like we don’t really have it. Of course, not doing that just means I’ll send twice as much, or more, eating out when the cupboards are bare.
4. Make sure there are easy lunch and snack items available – I’m home all day, most days, so I need to be sure that I don’t just buy food for dinner. If I can’t instantly find lunch in the kitchen, I’ll run out and get something. The majority of my spending is on lunch or pre-dinner meals (around 3pm).
5. Find a way to hold myself accountable — I’m still not sure about how to do this. Perhaps I’ll just post a weekly report on how often we’ve eaten out (including how much was spent) and whether is was a family meal or just me avoiding the kitchen.
6. Keep snacks in the car at all times — I just bought several snack items that I can keep in my car for the moments that I’m suddenly starving. Rarely are my trips away from the house that a snack won’t tide me over until we get home. The partner has always been good at this and it’s time I follow his lead.
I expect to see positive progress in April that will encourage me to make even more progress in the following months. I also expect to see a slight increase in our grocery spending as I’ll probably buy extra convenience foods that will make eating at home easier until it’s a settled pattern.
Reading other personal finance sites is starting to paint a rather ominous airs about our near future. These ramblings have been going on for a while now and seem to be hitting near crescendo effect. I’ll admit that the more I hear, my nerves prickle just a little. I try not to get too worked up over popular media reports, especially because of their sensationalist nature, but money is a very touchy subject and the thought of tough, lean times is a little disconcerting.
All the doom and gloom feelings aren’t just from popular reports regurgitated by bloggers, I’m facing the commentary from the partner which leads to even more ominous second-hand observations. The partner works at a small start-up firm that is quickly approaching that magical sink or swim timeout-point for most new companies, and the waters seem to be pretty deep right now. Their recent financial struggles and budget trimmings has made me nervous. At first, I was confident that the partner’s position wasn’t in jeopardy because his position is essential to the company in terms of getting in more money — they can’t pursue contracts if they don’t have the engineers to develop items. I felt that all the other staff — overhead, prototyping, and production were in a much more vulnerable position because, while they’re needed to complete contracts, they don’t help bring them in.
Things have been quiet on his work front, but he still brings home occasional comments that send my panic sensors flying. The biggest concern is that the new contracts are running dry. In fact, there are no new contracts waiting for current contracts to build before progress can continue — this is a scary situation as many current contracts are reaching the end of their terms. The partner’s primary project for the past few years ends this month, after that, there is nothing waiting on his desk to take his attention. Also, he has made comment that he’s been getting help from other engineers eager for something to work on… a year ago that wouldn’t have happened as everyone was so buried in their tasks.
The other major stressor is that the partner’s supervisor will be leaving the company in a few months. This is a serious job-security blow because this person has made the past few years of new company growth bearable and is also, from my limited view point, the partner’s biggest advocate in the workplace. While I like the partner’s company, I find myself liking it a lot less when I picture it without this person present because he seems to help balance the overall energy of the company. Losing him will have a huge impact on my comfort level with the partner’s continued employment, and probably with his as well.
So, things are felling a little sticky at the moment and I’m getting a little nervous. Our continuing financial struggles aren’t helping, though I’m constantly just repeating how it’s just a temporary house-poor adjustment that will be a faint memory in a year or so (please, don’t burst my bubble on that one little, though not guaranteed, comfort I have).
Update: After writing this article and before posting it, the partner and I had a long talk about these concerns and for once I feel like we’re actually on the same page in terms of his employment prospects. It looks like he’s feeling motivated to make some steps, though tentative, at checking out greener pastures – what a relief from my perspective.
So, boston gal posted something about 2.25% interest rates — and it got me wondering at what point does it become worthwhile to refinance the house? What if you’re currently locked into a 3 year no-refinance clause that will cost you about $7,500 to break? I’m sure there is still a point that it becomes worthwhile, though whether or not we could qualify for the rate at which it becomes beneficial is a different story.
Possible or not, it still seems like a good number to know. Looking at the online calculator comparing 7.35% to 2.25% showed savings of about $600/month and that’d make each month much easier on us – but it’d take more than a year of that type of savings to recoup closing and penalty cost. Hmm, guess I should take the time and learn what that number is and what the out of pocket impact would be.
Edited to add: I did get the part that boston gal’s 2.25% rate was hypothetical mortgage rate — it just got me thinking that I don’t know at what rate it is worthwhile to consider refinancing our house and that is something I think responsible home owners should know.
Maryland
Under thirty, fiscally obsessed woman, recently married, mother of one, living in Maryland.
My money obsession focuses on sound financial decisions, balancing debt, budgeting, savings, investing, retirement planning, intentional living, frugality, maximizing income, and educating/enlightening others.
