Finance and Fat

Normally we have have the taxes done in February, but we procrastinated badly this year- mostly because we knew we would have to pay some money. Fortunately, the amount owed turned out to be about half of what I had estimated with some rough calculations in my head.

Between State and Federal, we have to pay about $1,100. I was expecting about $2,000, so while it’s more than I would like to pay, it is a sort of pleasant surprise. I earned a lot more freelance money last year and I lowered my withholding from my regular employer to help pay off debt so it’s not a surprise that I owe money. I’m going to try to make better estimates this year and be a little more prepared, but I am also planning to keep my withholding low until the credit cards are paid off. I’d rather have those out of my life and have to scramble a bit at the end of the year to handle the tax bill.

So…if you are still waiting to file, you only have 6 more days so don’t wait too much longer! By the way, we use Turbo Tax to do our taxes. We have used it for at least 5 years or so. It gets the job done and helps to find some deductions that you would likely miss on your own. However, I am likely going to try using a tax professional next year. I want to see how good or bad a job we are doing with finding deductions and using Turbo Tax. I expect to do more and more freelance work as time goes on, so I think the cost for a tax professional will likely be well worth it. That being said, it’s hard to beat $20 for Turbo Tax (we had a rebate, I think it is closer to $40 now)!

If you have yet to file, be sure to check these helpful posts from the Personal Finance blog world for some last minute tips and tricks.

• Attention all tax procrastinators!
• Free filing for your economic stimulus check
• About paying estimated taxes

Best of luck to everyone with your taxes this year. If you had to pay like we did, at least you’ll be getting your money back soon thanks to those silly sub-prime lenders! 

I just saved $24 on my car insurance! Okay, that really isn’t very exciting, but I always wanted to write about saving money on my car insurance. 

We actually didn’t change insurance companies or change our current coverage. Instead, we got smart about managing our money and stopped paying a stupid tax.

In the past, a semi-annual car insurance premium was a surprise event that we never had the money to pay for. Yeah, it wasn’t really a surprise, we were just so bad with our money that we couldn’t save enough to prepare for expenses like this. To solve that problem we switched to a monthly payment plan, but that cost us an extra $2 per month.

Now that we actually have the ability to look 6 months into the future (amazing isn’t it) we have changed to a  semi annual payment plan (saving $2 per month) and I set up an automatic transfer to a savings account with ING, which will be used to make the premium payment when it is due. Not only are we saving the $2 each month, but we will now be earning interest on our money. We are actually getting paid to plan ahead and pay our insurance now!

I know this isn’t a novel concept for most people, but for people who were completely out of control with money and unable to plan ahead, we are entering new territory. I’m sure there is someone else out there who can benefit from our mistakes.

Think about your insurance or any other irregular payments for the year and start setting aside the cash now. You won’t regret it!

Today the Federal Reserve cut the federal funds rate 50 basis points to a new rate of 3%, the lowest since 2005. Personally, I think it is an overreaction, but I do like that the fed has remained proactive under Bernanke.

This doesn’t mean a lot for the average person, though if you are looking for a new mortgage you will likely see better rates soon. It does make holding cash less attractive, but I don’t have any cash ‘investments’ so it doesn’t matter much to me. I would like to look at maybe getting a better mortgage rate, but my credit is pretty weak right now so it may be too soon for that anyway.

In spite of the fear-inspired naysayers, there was no conclusive evidence that we were headed for a recession. However, with these rate cuts and the proposed stimulus package it would be really hard for me to believe that we will see a recession at all. On the other hand, we may already have entered a recession, the data lags behind and can be revised after the fact (FYI- a recession is defined as negative GDP growth for 2 quarters). Yes, that is confusing and a good reason why I don’t concern myself with macro economic factors. I am taking care of my budget, working to eliminate my debt, earn more income, and dealing with things that I can affect rather than becoming fearful of things that are not in my control.

If you are holding cash on the sidelines, this is probably a good time to start moving it into the market. I definitely would if I wasn’t focused on my debt.

I have some big goals and I have some small goals. I write about my big goals on this site all of the time, but I think it would be good to list them here along with some smaller goals for the calendar year so I can look back next year and see how I did in 2008.

Big Goals for 2008:

• Pay off all Credit card debt — $18,504.78 as of January 1
• Get body fat percentage under 25% — 39% as of January 1

Small Goals for 2008:

• Increase our emergency fund to $5,000 — currently about $1,200
• Earn $20,000 (gross) from side businesses
• Start a Roth IRA with at least $1,000
• Buy life insurance
• Write a will

How to accomplish these goals

Pay off all credit card debt - If we look at 12 months, we need to average $1,542.06 of principal paid on our credit cards each month. That is just about $100 more than we have averaged since starting our debt reduction plan, however in our first two months of the plan we only paid about $1,000 total. Given our current rate, this should be easily achieved. My dream is to have it done by September.

Body fat percentage under 25% - My current number varies a bit with the scale I am using now. I think the real number is closer to 37%, but whatever the case it is way too high. 25% is on the upper end of the ‘normal’ range for a man, so that is my first goal.

You may wonder why I focus on pounds so much on this blog. I guess I’m not exactly sure myself except that I started out that way and it makes for an easy to track number. I chose body fat percentage for this goal rather than pounds because body fat is a more realistic indication of health and fitness. I can only achieve this by committing to regular exercise and making a complete overhaul of my diet. I need to do this if I want to live a long and healthy life, so there is no excuse for me to fail this year.

Increase our emergency fund to $5,000 - My first thought was to fund an IRA to $5,000, but given the weakness of a $1,000 emergency fund and the fact that I actually want to live without credit cards, this needs to be my top priority. If possible, I will fully fund an IRA as well. If we can pay off the credit cards by September, it will be easy to shift that money to the emergency fund. If not, we are going to need alternative income sources to make this happen.

Earn $20,000 gross from side businesses - I have half of that number expected already through a web maintenance contract in ‘08, although that is not a guaranteed contract so I need to be working on adding other projects anyway. My wife will make a little money doing standardised test grading a couple of times during the year and some occasional tutoring. Since she is a teacher she will have the summer off, but I’m not sure what sort of income opportunities she will be able to pursue then. I hope to make a little money from this blog some day, but until then I will be focused on growing my freelance web development business.

Start a Roth IRA with at least $1,000 - I really want to get started on this ASAP. I know I have neglected it for too long, but I am also in the difficult position of being buried by debt so I have to balance the timing of this. If we have a great year, I will fully fund at least one IRA in 2008.

Buy life insurance - long over due, should have been done ‘yesterday’. I need to set aside a few hundred bucks and get some quotes. Need to get on this ASAP.

Write a will - I don’t think we have to rush out and do this today, but it should definitely get done this year. We have no assets and no children so if both of us die things wouldn’t be too complicated (though I do admit that a will would make life easier on our loved ones who have to deal with the mess). It will get done this year! 

That’s it for the plan in 2008. I will be thrilled if I can look back 12 months from now and see all of these things accomplished.

I have to admit that I started this blog with dreams of getting rich and becoming debt free simply by writing a blog about getting out of debt. Seems silly, I know. Well, it turns out that writing this blog has become very valuable to me, but in an unexpected way.

I have learned a lot, I have made some great friends and contacts in the ‘blogosphere’, and I honestly credit this site with keeping me motivated and keeping me on track with my finance and fat goals. Most of that credit goes to you, my readers. The comments, advice, and ideas that have come from many different people are very valuable to me and I appreciate every one. It’s because I value that relationship so much that I want to share with you how I am compensated for my work here.

No one pays me to write any of the content on this site. I do not accept ads from products or companies that I can not personally endorse (why I dropped my ads). I will never write paid posts or be otherwise compensated directly for writing anything on this site (if someone sends me a book or product to review I will state how I received it, give my opinion, and give the item away when I am done).

I don’t want to ask for anyone’s money, but if you find yourself in an excellent financial position and would like to donate, of course I would greatly appreciate your generosity. However, please do not send me a donation if you are in debt. That being said, don’t forget about me when you become debt free thanks to the great content on this site.

There are a couple of other ways you can help support this site. If you visit regularly but have not subscribed to my RSS feed yet, please do so. RSS subscribers are very valuable when it comes to selling ads (I do intend to sell a few ads some day, but only for products I believe in). You can also help me if you shop at Amazon.com. Just follow this link and I will earn a commission based on what you buy (no personal information is sent to me).

The other Amazon.com links you will find on this site are ‘affiliate links’ meaning I will earn a commission if you click the link from the site and buy the item. However, you will not find me promoting these products in order to earn money. I am simply sharing information about products that I have tried or recommend. If you feel uncomfortable using affiliate links, simply type the item names into a search engine and find information about them on your own.

Thanks for taking the time to visit my site. Blogging doesn’t pay much, but that won’t stop me from putting in the time to write content and do my best to help others who are struggling with the same things I am.