Health Insurance Costs

Both of us are fortunate enough to be able to get group health insurance through our employers, and we've been able to pick from a variety of options each year. 

We just found out that, for the upcoming year, the cost will be increasing yet again while benefits will decrease. If we want to stay with the same carrier, we will need to pay $750/year more for the two of us, and $1000/year more if we need to upgrade to a "family" plan. 

We can switch insurance companies and our out-of-pocket cost won't change, but I'm hesitant to chance because the new company is one that I've never really heard of. I looked online and it appears to be a national company, and a pretty big one, but it's not that commonplace in this area. 

We have a HMO plan, where we have to see our primary care physician and get referrals for everything, and it seems to work well enough for us. Both of our doctors can get us in for appointments in a reasonable amount of time, and they accept several different insurances. 

New furnace?

I've been thinking about replacing our furnace & air conditioning unit next year, in 2010.  Although ours aren't that old (they are currently 11 years old), they are low-efficiency and result in much higher gas & electric bills than we should have for such a small house. 

The federal energy efficiency tax credits will reimburse us 30% of the cost, up to $1500, for a high-efficiency replacement furnace & AC unit.  I'm not sure how much a new unit will cost, but I would imagine it would be in the $5000 range.

Trying to Make More Money

I've been tossing around a few ideas to earn some extra money. While working overtime at my job is the easiest (and probably the most profitable & least risky) way, it's rather unreliable. My bosses generally dictate whether I'm allowed to work overtime or not, and that's based on company workload. 

A few retail stores around here are actually starting to post for seasonal jobs, for the upcoming holiday season, but it really doesn't seem worthwhile. If I can even find somewhere to hire me (which is a big if, since I already have a full-time job with set hours), I'd have to give up my nights and/or weekends for probably $8/hour. My overtime pay is more than triple that! 

So I'd really like something more flexible, that I can just pick up and work on whenever I feel like it - so that if overtime is available, I won't have to turn it down to "get to my other job" (and when overtime is mandatory, I won't have to worry about getting fired from my other job!). 

I have a few hobbies that I'd like to take to the next level, and perhaps start turning them into a small Etsy shop. I enjoy working with textiles (yarn, thread, fabric) - but I'd have to put more effort into making things that would have more mass-appeal (more neutral colors & patterns). I also love photography, and have some ideas to start selling some specialized/custom items. 

Maybe this afternoon I'll have to put some time into business-development, and see if any of these ideas could actually be feasible (and profitable!)

Debt Status, as of 10/23/09

STUDENT LOANS ($50,048):  

#1 -  $ 0 

#2 - $ 1106

#3 -  $ 24,355

#4 - $ 24,587

AUTO LOANS ($15,464): 

#1 - $ 5,195

#2 -  $ 10,269

 

CREDIT CARDS ($21,733): 

#1 -  $ 47 (I pay this card in full each month)

#2 -  $ 870

#3 -  $ 6,000

#4 -  $ 14,816

Some Extra Income

I've had a busy few weeks at work, so my next couple paychecks should be a bit higher than usual. Because I've been working longer hours to finish up on some projects, I've also been getting home rather late... leaving less time to shop for sales on groceries, to pack my lunch, and to cook dinner. We've been eating meals out a bit more than usual - I've gone out for coffee every morning and lunch everyday this week! 

Even so, I should definitely come out ahead. I'm expecting Friday's paycheck to be about $250 more than usual, and the following paycheck (in another two weeks) will be about the same. I will also have a mileage reimbursement check coming in a month or so, and that'll be about $250 (with about $100 of that being actual out-of-pocket expenses for extra fuel). 

It's perfect timing and will help take the bite out of the auto insurance and quarterly sewer bills... 

Employer Education Assistance

We received a notice today that additional taxes will be withheld for the next three months, approximately $300/mo. 

My husband's employer has provided a great deal of education assistance this year, but the amount they've contributed has exceeded the federal tax-free limit of $5250. Any amount over that is subject to tax, and so they are going to estimate the tax and then split it equally between the remaining 2009 paychecks. 

We're already pretty tight financially right now, especially since we're having the $275/mo extra withheld to cover self-employment taxes, the $500/mo increase in minimum credit card payments (effective since August), and the auto insurance renewals ($500 in Oct & another $400 in Nov)... losing an extra $300 would be really tough! 

We'd possibly have to dig in to the emergency fund to cover the shortage for the time being. We'll have to adjust our withholdings, perhaps by stopping the extra withholdings on the self-employment money, and then just take care of it when we go to file our taxes in the spring. 

It's a juggling act. We need money to pay our bills now, and we should be in a better financial position in the spring, but the economy is still rather precarious - so who knows if we'll even still have our jobs then. But at the same time, I don't want to withhold too little now and end up having to pay penalty & interest when we file our taxes.  

I think we'll be able to get most of it back when we do our tax returns, so I really need to find out more information on the tax implications of employer-provided education assistance. I'm hoping that we can claim a tax deduction for some of the tuition and fees that the employer paid (only the amount in excess of $5250, so just what we're getting taxed on). 

Income vs. Net Worth

Yesterday afternoon, while my sister was visiting, the subject of debt/net worth came up. I mentioned that we had a negative net worth, and she couldn't figure out why- by her reasoning, I make far more than her and her boyfriend combined, plus we have a second full income... so Hubby & I make about 4X what they do.

Not counting the money we've sunk into repairs and improvements (about $30k over the past 3 years), we've lost quite a bit on the house due to fallen property values... around 20-25% from what the purchase price. The house has dropped over $40k in value, and we're currently upside-down on the mortgage by $25k. Our monthly mortgage & utility payments are roughly four times greater than their monthly rent & utilities... so having a higher income hasn't really helped to give us a greater net worth in that area.

We owe over $50k in student loans currently, all locked in at low interest rates. Since we have so much other debt, it's not worth paying this off quickly - but it's a huge hit on our net worth. By comparison, they have less than $10k in loans... though they're still in school, and that balance is rapidly growing (while ours is slowly decreasing). We are paying on three out of four of our student loans, whereas theirs are all deferred right now.

We have two newer vehicles that we're making monthly car payments on, costing us nearly $800/mo. Since we have loans on both vehicles, we also are required to carry full coverage auto insurance, which adds about $100/mo in expense (solely for collision & comprehensive) - we'd still have to pay at least for basic liability if the cars were paid off. They own both of their vehicles outright, saving them on monthly payments and on insurance, but their cars are high-mileage and have numerous mechanical problems. They both function reasonably well, but I certainly wouldn't feel comfortable relying on either vehicle to get me to/from work daily, at least not without several thousand in repairs and maintenance.

And finally, we have far more consumer debt. It's down quite a bit from it's all-time high, but we still owe over $24k. Our minimum monthly payments are currently over $900/mo. By contrast, they owe less than $5k in credit card debt, and are seriously delinquent on it. They're planning to save up some money and offer the credit card companies a settlement for about 50% of the original balance (before all the late-fees, over-limit fees, and interest were tacked on). If they can convince the card companies to take it, they'll pay less than $1500... but in the meantime, they aren't paying a dime.

Google Ad-Sense

When I started this blog, I debated whether to put ads on the site or not. This is meant to be my personal-finance/money-stuff blog, and not a "business", but I've always been curious about how much money I'd be able to make off ads. 

With just the side-bar of ads, through the Google Ad-Sense program, I've earned $16.84 so far. I've had 800 page impressions on this site, and only 8 "clicks" on the ads (so a 1% conversion rate).  While I'd love to start earning a decent amount from ads each month, to provide a small but steady stream of extra income, it certainly isn't going to happen from this blog! 

I earned absolutely nothing during the entire month of September, and I haven't earned anything so far for October either. It seems like the amount they pay for page views is nothing (or practically nothing), but that the amount they pay for "clicks" on ads is pretty decent. 

Most of my ads appear to be related to debt-elimination (not a big surprise, since most of my blog entries discuss credit cards and debt), and it seems like most people who would read this blog are smart enough to avoid most debt-counseling or debt-consolidation services. Based on other articles I've read, it seems like websites with very specific uncommon subject matters earn much more revenue (especially hobby sites and adult-type sites). 

I guess if I really want to earn money from ads, I should set up some weird fetish website or something...  (kidding!) 

Unmotivated to Save

I haven't been feeling very motivated to write lately. Money is still a bit tighter than I would like, and we've continued to splurge on (small) items. 

The car insurance bill for our second vehicle arrived today. Six months ago, it was $320. This time around, it's just shy of $400. That's a HUGE increase, percentage-wise. A state-mandated increase accounted for a small portion of it, but the rest was just due to the insurance company hiking premiums (our credit scores haven't changed, we haven't had any tickets or accidents, etc.). Between both vehicles, we've had to pay $150 extra this month... and that's going to be a recurring charge, every six months. For now, we're just going to pay the bill - but Hubby is going to shop around to a few other places and see if we can bring the bill back down to something more reasonable. 

We went out for a nice dinner last night, $52. Then we stopped for dessert afterwards, $15. 

Today we went bowling and then out for pizza, $30. We also picked up a new pair of bowling shoes on clearance for me, $22. Hubby is still deciding which pair of shoes he likes best, but his will likely be around $50, since they didn't have any of his size on clearance. Even so, at $3 to rent bowling shoes, it definitely makes sense to own rather then rent (and if you ask me, the concept of renting shoes is just rather gross). 

Feeling broke

For quite awhile, it seemed like I was able to put nearly $1000 towards paying down the principal on my credit cards. But lately I just haven't been able to get much traction. 

With my husband's credit card payment nearly tripling in August, and our monthly take-home decreasing by $275/mo in July, we haven't had nearly as much wiggle room in our budget. Our income is down due to surgery and minor illnesses. And we've also spent quite a bit on home repairs & improvements. 

Last month I was only able to make the minimum payment on my credit card, a measly $98... it was no fun to update my tracking spreadsheet and see the balance only decrease by $60, when it usually drops several hundred dollars. 

This month it'll be more of the same. With some upcoming & recent social events, we're spending quite a bit on gifts for others. Auto insurance renewal will eat an extra $500. Next month we have insurance renewal for our other vehicle, quarterly water/sewer bill, and the start of our holiday gift shopping. 

Upcoming Parties

The next few weeks are filled with social events. We've got a housewarming party tomorrow, and a small birthday gathering on Sunday. Later in the month, I've got a bachelorette party to attend, and then a wedding later that same weekend. 

I've purchased a small item for the wedding, and I'll probably end up buying the rest off their registry. I'm leaning towards not bringing a gift for the bachelorette party, since it's just a small group of people going out drinking. 

I have no clue what to buy for a housewarming gift that's nice yet inexpensive - we never had a housewarming party when we moved in, and none of our friends (or extended family) brought us any gifts. I know there's always a bottle of wine or houseplants, but I wanted something other than those.