Search Results for “three-alternatives-to-a-budget/budget-lesson-part-5/debt-burnout/subscribe-by-email/budget-lesson-part-2/573/Clearing Up Social Debt in 3 Steps/budget4/garage-sale-manual/budget-lesson-part-1/contact-me” — Page 46

Delayed Gratification

I work daily to raise my kids to be more financially responsible than I have been. One of the most difficult pieces has been to explain the benefits of delayed gratification to my children. It’s hard enough, as an adult, to take delayed gratification to heart. For a child? It seems to be almost impossible.

My son wants an XBox 360 Elite. Good for him. He wants to renegotiate the terms of his allowance to get it faster. Currently, every other time he gets an allowance paid out, it goes into his bank account, to be mostly untouched. The other times he can do as he pleases with his money. We are enforcing a 50% long term savings plan. Now, with a medium-term goal in mind, he wants to keep all of his money, and only put gift money into the bank account.

Should we let him tap his bank account for a shiny new bauble? It’s been building for a while, so it’s delayed, right? I don’t think that would accomplish much. Like any other 10-year-old, his interests change often.

Should we let him change the terms of our agreement, speeding a medium-term goal at the expense of his long-term savings? My wife and I haven’t had a chance to discuss this, but my initial reaction is not to allow it. His savings has the potential to turn into a decent car in a few years, if he wants. That would be a car he knows he earned.

Last week, when we were at the store, he asked if he could borrow some money to buy a game. I don’t expect him to carry his money around everywhere, so I would have allowed it, if he would have had the money at home. He didn’t. His plan was to pay me what he did have as soon as we got home, then work his butt off for a few days to earn enough extra to pay it back. I won’t be a credit agency for my kids, so I said no. He was disappointed, but, by the time he had earned the money, he no longer wanted the game. I consider that a win, but I don’t know that he learned any lesson other than “Dad’s a jerk.”

Someday, when his life launch is smooth due to a lack of debt-dependence, he’ll look back on these lessons and smile.

I hope.

Net Worth and other stuff

Misc

This was not a good year for our net worth.

Over the summer, we remodeled both of our bathrooms. At the same time.

1 out of 10: Don’t recommend.

We love the bathrooms, but–as with any project–it went over budget. Sucks to be us.

Then, towards the end of the year, we decided to push hard and pay off our mortgage in 2015. Part of doing that meant paying the credit card off slower than we’d like. It wasn’t the best long-term decision, but we’re mortgage-free now.

Those decision, coupled with a small slump in our investment accounts means we are worth $7650 going into 2016 than we were at the start of 2015.

Disappointing.

I’m also disappointed that our credit card discipline slipped last year.

New plan: No debt before tax day. Every cent of Linda’s paycheck, every cent of my monthly bonus checks, and every cent of any extra money we make is going into the remaining credit card debt. My math says that last debt will die on April 1st.

Then we get to talk about what to do with out money when there’s no debt. But never fear, I have a plan. A boring, boring plan.

We’re going to save for college at a rate we should have started 10 years ago.
We’re going to max out both of our retirement plans.
We’re going to take some nicer family vacations.
We’re going to buy a pony.

So not that boring.

And when our kids all decide to become certified sign-spinners, we’ll have a huge nest-egg in the college fund savings account to spend on lottery tickets.

Back to Cash

Finance

It appears that I can’t be trusted with a credit card.

At least, not a credit card that gets used for our regular shopping.

Over the past few months, our spending has slipped past our budget by more than I like. The problem appears to be that it’s really easy to toss “just one more thing” in the cart when there’s no hard limit on how much is available to spend at the register.

If you do that a few time, it’s easy to find yourself $1000 over budget.

Ouch.

If it weren’t for my side hustles, we’d have been growing our debt recently.

As of the beginning of this month, our credit card has once again been relegated to automatic bills, the gas station and online purchases.

No more groceries, no more scrapbooking stuff, and no more restaurants.

I would have done this sooner, but we were so far over budget that I didn’t have the cash to yank out all at once to cover our month’s expenses. We ended last month at a good place, so I went for the clean break and withdrew all of our day-to-day spending on the first. When I got home, it went straight into envelopes so we know what we’ve got to spend this month.

Bye-bye, credit cards!

Living On Credit Cards

Finance

About 2 months ago, Linda and I decided to go back on the envelope system for all of the parts of our budget that we aren’t able to automate.

English: Money seized during "Project Cor... — English: Money seized during “Project Coronado” by the DEA. Going in “La Familia Michoacana” article. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The reason we’re doing this is because we’ve been consistently over budget when we do all of our spending on our credit cards.

The reason we switched back to using our credit cards is because it’s a royal pain in the butt to always make sure we’re carrying enough cash for groceries and gas and date night and fundraisers and cover charges, etc.

It’s still a royal pain in the butt, and we still suck at it.

But one of our envelopes is labeled “This went on a credit card” and is used for those times we forgot to grab cash before heading to the store.

In the last two weeks, that’s $500 that we forgot to bring with us.

Cash sucks.

I’m tempted to go back to using the credit card for our primary spending. Yes, we are consistently over budget, but it’s not terrible….for some odd definition of “not terrible”.

We generally seem to have about $1000 left on the card after making our last monthly payment every month. Every month. The overall balance never grows, it’s just hanging out $1000 over what we have budgeted to be paid automatically on the card.

That’s a bad thing, but….

Since I make a payment every couple of weeks, the interest is never assessed on that balance. In the last year, we’ve paid exactly $0 in interest, without any funny balance transfer deals.

By my calculations, that means our credit card has given us $1000 for free.

If we pay that off and get strict about using cash, won’t that mean our free $1000 would have to evaporate?

I like free money.

That also means that the total interest we paid in 2014 is $672.91, all to our mortgage. Even if we have a small balance we carry, we’re not paying interest on that debt, and–worst case–we could raid our savings to make it vanish tomorrow. I’m tempted to make that happen, but our savings goals are more important to me that paying back the free money.

Saturday Roundup

Finance, Life, Misc

: Image via Wikipedia

Don’t miss a thing! Please take a moment to subscribe to Live Real, Now by email.

Holiday weeks are supposed to be short, aren’t they?

I’m 11 days into my 30 Day “Compact”. So far, it has gone well. Unfortunately, there have been a couple of books launched that I’d love to own, and a friend keeps showing me new gadgets that I’d love to get. Not shopping at all is harder than it sounds.

The Best Posts of the Week:

Brian Wood, without a doubt, understood the responsibility he took on as a father. The story makes me get all misty.

On Wise Bread, they asked if you are saving too much. Don’t save as an excuse to stop living your life.

Free Money Finance will help you save money on travel.

Parent Hacks has a great use for a Google Voice number. I have a spare, so I think I’ll start using it.

I’m a big fan of selling on Craigslist. I’ve never sold a car there, so this was informative.

Finally, a list of the carnivals I’ve participated in:

5 Reasons to Quit Saving and Start Living was included in the Carnival of Personal Finance.

Bonding Relationships was in the Carnival of Wealth.

Hippy Month was the Editor’s Pick in the Festival of Frugality!

If I missed a carnival, please let me know. Thanks to those who have included me!

Saturday Roundup – Welcome to Halloween

Finance, Life, Misc

: Image via Wikipedia

This weekend marks the beginning of Halloween at Casa del Myhouse. We’ll start setting up our yard display tomorrow. If we’re lucky, we’ll be featured on TV again.

Don’t miss a thing! Please take a moment to subscribe to Live Real, Now by email.

The Best Posts of the Week:

Bill and Ted is coming back for another sequel! I don’t know how they can top Bad Robot Ted or the Grim Reaper playing Battleship, but I’m looking forward to it.

Here’s a summary of the first stage of the new, overpriced, under-understood health care plan.

I keep thinking about signing up for a CSA. Here’s some details on how they work.

Frugal Dad talks about “my money“.

Finally, a list of the carnivals I’ve participated in:

Cheap Vacations was included in the Festival of Frugality. Thanks!

If I missed anyone, please let me know.

Search Results for: three-alternatives-to-a-budget/budget-lesson-part-5/debt-burnout/subscribe-by-email/budget-lesson-part-2/573/Clearing Up Social Debt in 3 Steps/budget4/garage-sale-manual/budget-lesson-part-1/contact-me

The Best Posts of the Week:

Finally, a list of the carnivals I’ve participated in:

The Best Posts of the Week:

Finally, a list of the carnivals I’ve participated in: