Pot of Possibilities December - Best YEAR Yet!

Time for the final Pot of Possibilities report for 2020!!

Here are our December contributions which include excess funds from two of our YNAB categories, Emergency Fund and Car Maintenance. 

12/1 Paycheck $310

12/15 Paycheck $310

Interest earned $81.74

USAA reward $3.16

Amex Reward $38.71

Chase reward $19.83

US Bank reward $3.50

Subscriber USAA $151.06

FB Sales $50.00

Pinecone Surveys $9.00

Venmo Bonus $5.00

Subtotal $982.00

Excess EF $4,314.00

Excess Car Maint $2,591.00

Excess Subtotal $6,905

December Total $7,887.00

YTD Total $20,003.44   

POP Total $92,087.37

Our best year yet with contributions, where we exceeded $20,000 saved in one year towards our Pot of Possibilities! Yes, yes, I did squeeze a couple extra categories for another $75 to get this number over $20K. We have now also reached a milestone of over $90K saved. Just under $8,000 to reach the $100K milestone. 

We have three years until my husband retires from the military and we have a move expected to take place in 2021. What will be our final Pot of Possibilities total be at that time? Stay tuned for the progress!

More Savings?

The goal for us is always saving as much as possible while we have the income, so my mind is often contemplating how to find more cash to add to our Pot of Possibilities. Saving now, will give us options later!

Two balances in our YNAB budget caught my attention this week. I am considering bringing them both to zero. The funds would get allocated to our Pot of Possibilities. 

Car Maintenance:

Begin 2020 Balance $1,623

Saved $275/mox12 $3,300

Total Spent in 2020 $2,332

Ending 2020 Balance $2,591

We were able to cover the expenses with the amount we save normally. Plus we saved nearly an extra $1000 over of what we spent. We didn't zero out last year, so we have an accumulated balance that is more than what we spent in 2020. We can adjust several ways. 

Option one, we simply don't save in this account for 2021. This would be $275 a month we could set aside, saving $3,300 in 2021. 

Option two, we could zero the account and continue to save monthly. We could keep saving the same amount or we could adjust the amount down to the average spent in 2020 which was just under $195 per month, that would allow another $80 set aside monthly adding another $960 for the year. 

I'm leaning toward Option two with lowering the amount we save monthly. There is a possibility we would have expenses that exceed the annual savings, but we do have money elsewhere if absolutely needed. 

Another line item in the budget I'm looking at: 

Emergency Savings

Begin 2020 Balance $686

End 2020 Balance $5414

We have other savings contributions we make regularly, but this account is a place to cover months where spending exceeds what we budget or if we spend less than we budget. Overall we spent less than we budgeted in 2020 by $4,728! I have already eyed this account as a place to pull some cash to cover some of our daughter's spring tuition in January. Specifically, I will move $1,375 to the tuition balance. This will leave $4,039 we can move to the Pot of Possibilities. And it's possible that at the end of this month, I will have a little bit more to add to that as well. 

To wrap up, we will move $2,591 from car maintenance and $4,039 from emergency savings to our Pot of Possibilities. That is a total of $6,630! 

I will also lower the monthly car maintenance contribution to $195 and save an additional $80 monthly to our Pot of Possibilities in 2021. 

So very thankful for more savings! 

Cash Flowing In

A mid month update with some money flowing in...towards the Pot of Possibilities of course!

It's that time of year where our auto insurance company, USAA, sends us a subscriber distribution. This years amount was $151.06. It seems larger than usual, but I may not be remembering right. It's never the same so doesn't really matter. 

I sold several things on Facebook and have an additional $50 into our pockets! There has been lots of decluttering here this month, much of the items just given away off the front porch. I figure it gets the items in to the hands of someone who wants it the fastest! 

I also figured out the new cash payout system for Pinecone Research, a website called Wallet. I had $9 in survey rewards from November than I finally figured out how to get into our bank. Not really a fan, and this may keep me from participating in the future. Yes, little amounts add up, but is the time and effort worth it any longer. 

I also redeem our monthly $3.50 in rewards for making our AT&T internet payment with US Bank. It's the only thing I charge with them to get the 5% rewards. I need to double check I don't have another card I could use to get an equivalent reward. 

My husband was promoted last Friday in a ceremony with a quick cake reception and then a smaller dinner party later in the evening. We had the best time. Promotion means increased pay. The earliest we will see it is January 1, but we don't have a lot of faith that they are going to process the change within 30 days after watching several others not get paid on time. It will show up eventually, and I will attempt to trust that it will be timely. 

Everyone likes money flowing in right? How is your cash flow this month? More out than in or the opposite? 

Retirement Milestone Reached

My husband's promotion order was published and effective on December 1. I will pin on his new rank tomorrow at a ceremony. The paycheck should be reflective by January 1. Fingers crossed as some in this unit have had delays of months. 

On the same day, our retirement accounts hit a new milestone of $800K. Specifically, the total was $801,476.16. There's something about that number that gives me faith we will eventually have $1,000,000 in retirement funds and possibly by the time my husband retires in three years. 

He tells me his retirement paycheck will be about $60K a year. A million dollars or more should supplement that quite nicely! I predict he will end up with a full or part time job within the first year of military retirement, he gets really antsy not having something to do. It's either that or dive into some expensive hobby! I could get him busy with things to do around the house, but I'm not sure that will be satisfying enough. 

How are you feeling about your retirement savings progress? Do you need to make some adjustments? 

POP Contributions November 2020

These are the contributions to our Pot of Possibilities for November:

11/1 Paycheck $310

11/15 Paycheck $310

Interest earned $80.10

USAA reward $6.00

Chase reward $6.71

US Bank reward $3.50

2 Chase settlement cks $150.00

Wells Fargo refund $5.00

Ibotta reward $20.30

November Total $891.61

YTD Total $9,716.44

POP Total $81,800.37

I made a prediction last month that we will get to $82,500 by the end of the year and we are still on track to do that. Who hoo!

I'm still pondering a way to get to $85K. We have the $2,400 we received as stimulus money in April. I set it aside to potentially assist with our daughter's education. I have other money to use first, so it seems silly to not add it. That alone will get us to the $85K goal. 

Okay, let's add it!!  Revised list of November POP contributions. 

11/1 Paycheck $310

11/15 Paycheck $310

Interest earned $80.10

USAA reward $6.00

Chase reward $6.71

US Bank reward $3.50

2 Chase settlement cks $150.00

Wells Fargo refund $5.00

Ibotta reward $20.30

Stimulus $ (April) $2,400.00

November Total $3,291.61

YTD Total $12,116.44

POP Total $84,200.37

Now look at that! Just under $800 to make it to the $85K goal. We seem to average close to that in contributions every month, so I expect we will make it. Even if short by a little bit, I will add to it and make it happen! 

See you in January to report the end of 2020 POP contribution results!

November 2020 Interest

November interest report!

NFCU $69.56

FNBO $10.37

USAA $0.17

Total $80.10

That interest is piddly for the amount of money we have in cash. I expect in 2021, we will start diverting future cash flow to stock investments. Income is increasing and to keep that money in cash will not serve us long term. 

Interest is added to our Pot of Possibilities!

2021 Financial Planning: College, Promotion and Taxes

I've been running lots of numbers over the last couple weeks to help us plan for college and to adjust for my husband's promotion which should be effective on December 1. It remains to be seen how long it will take to get the correct pay. 

Just a little update, slightly unrelated, our oldest daughter graduated college in May with about $5,500 in student loans. She starts her first full time job on November 30. She has been preparing a budget and asking about things we pay for that she will take over, which is primarily auto insurance. Her paycheck in comparison to ours which has grown over time is stressing me out and giving me flashbacks to our early married years! I'm proud that she is thinking ahead and trying to figure it all out. I reminded her that some of what she has saved was a housing refund from the spring and should be applied to her loan. While I don't think she wants to see her savings go down, she seemed to be relieved about a much lower balance to work on! 

Our youngest daughter just took her last final of the semester. A few weeks ago she signed up for spring classes and determined that she can't keep up the 18 credit hours per semester as an engineering major. This means she will be extending her time at the university by one semester. For us that means four full semesters of tuition and housing left to pay. She has just under $12K in an Educational Savings Account (ESA), around $4K in a UTMA and 8 months of Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits to use. We also save $500 a month for college expenses to cover at least $4000 in eligible expenses so we can take advantage of the American Opportunity Tax Credit(AOTC). We do seem to find a way to spend the full $6000 we save each year towards her expenses. 

The current plan is to pay out of pocket for tuition in January, using her ESA to pay for housing. We will begin using the Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits in August 2021. It will cover all of January 2022 and possibly a small portion of her final semester in August 2022. The final semester will be a larger bill as her scholarship will have run out, but we have figured out that we will have the money on hand to pay it as we continue to save the $500/month. We might have extra funds that we won't use, but that will be determined by how much tuition rises over the next two years. I started the process to start using the GI Bill benefits this spring, but when we realized she was going to need an extra semester it made sense to wait, primarily so we could also get benefit of the AOTC in 2021, very helpful as we adjust to the raise my husband is getting. In 2022, we will no longer be eligible to use the AOTC, but the Lifetime Learning Credit is an option and also provides some tax relief. 

In reviewing our taxes for this year and next, I had to calculate my husband's future pay and how taxes would affect the increase which is significant as he is being promoted to the next rank. We have maxed out our Roth IRA for quite a few years now, including the catch up amount for my husband because he is over 50. We have been in the lowest two (I think) tax brackets and it made sense to pay the taxes now knowing we aren't likely to be in even lower tax brackets at retirement. Without any deferred retirement we most definitely hit the 22% tax bracket. However, I am considering putting the amount he puts into his Roth IRA all into a Traditional IRA or adding it to his TSP (Thrift Savings Plan). We save on taxes now and will likely be in a lower tax bracket when these funds are withdrawn on these funds and their earnings. I think that is the plan anyway. I may go back and see if I can figure out a smaller amount to add to the TSP to keep the taxes low, but also put some into the Roth. Just takes time to figure out and I do feel good that I have a plan for now at least! 

The next step is to determine what we do with the extra income. Do we just save it? Should we save it in a mutual fund or look for a great CD rate (do those exist?!)? I feel like we are in a new place with our income, so it's time to start dreaming what this extra money could do!

Have you made any adjustments to your finances as you look ahead to 2021?

Chase Claim Checks

 My husband and I both received Chase settlement claim checks in the mail yesterday for $75 each. A very nice surprise. I'm not sure this is one we ever submitted a claim for. It may have been automatic, since we have Chase military benefits and it had to do with overpayments of some kind. 

As you might guess, we have added these funds to our Pot of Possibilities! 

I also received a $50 Target gift card from my parents. I do plan to spend it hopefully on a want, rather than needs. If I can't find anything I will spend on needs and add another $50 to the Pot!

I'm doing a big declutter before the end of the year, primarily going to pick 20 days where I focus on something or some area in the home and let more things go! We will most likely be moving next fall and I don't want to take stuff we don't use or need. I'm to the point of selling less and less things, and tend to just give away to someone who needs it. We have been blessed. 

An Expense Going Away

We have good news! Our oldest daughter who graduated college this spring has accepted a full time job! She has a few weeks until she starts and can telework from her current town, but will need to move when the office is done with teleworking. 

We are excited that she will be self sufficient, but more excited that she will be able to obtain health insurance from her company. We have been paying a $228/month premium for her to be on our military health plan. We will put in the cancellation request as soon as her new plan is effective.

The monthly premium was essentially equal to my husband's raise in January 2020. It feels like getting a raise. We tend to save all raises for retirement and now also our Pot of Possibilities!

I expect January might be the earliest we could cancel, but may depend on the effective date of her new plan. 

POP Contributions October 2020

These are the contributions to our Pot of Possibilities for October:

10/1 Paycheck $310.00

10/15 Paycheck $310.00

Interest Earned $82.46

Oral Surgery Refund $140.08

USAA Reward $3.00

US Bank Reward $3.50

Chase Freedom Reward $5.15

Amex Reward $55.09

Birthday Gift $50

eBay Sales $13.24

Army Travel Payment $213.05

October Total $1,185.57

This are the official contributions we made this month.  It became apparent that we actually spent a lot less this month compared to the last few months, by a total of $629.07!!! We are adding it to the Pot of Possibilities this month. We have far exceeded our contribution from September.

New October Total $1,814.64

YTD Total $8,824.83

POP Total $80,908.76

The goal last month was to exceed $80K, and we did that and then some! We feel confident we can get to $10K saved into our Pot of Possibilities this year, we need just $1,175.17 to make that happen! We will easily do this with our regular paycheck contributions. This will put us over $82K for the year. I am confident we can get to $82,500, but the real question is can we get to $85K? I'm going to see what we can do! Only two months left in the year. Stay tuned!

Interest Earned October

October interest earnings report!

FNBO $10.52

NFCU $71.81

USAA $0.13    

Total $82.46

Slightly more than last month...by a entire $0.73! We will take it and add it to the Pot of Possibilities!

Refund From Oral Surgery

I am happy to report that an unexpected snowflake came in the mail. A check for $140.08 from our daughter's oral surgeon. It appears that their estimate for what insurance would cover was low, putting the amount we paid upfront high. The end result is a refund to our bank account!

I will count this as a contribution to our Pot of Possibilities! 

Interesting to note my last post about getting our Pot to an even $80K by the end of October. I indicated that we might likely be $115 short assuming very similar contributions to previous months. It looks like I found that money without any real effort on my part! Who hoo! 

I suppose I could still make the effort to add another $115. I will keep you posted!

POP Contributions September

These are the contributions made to our Pot of Possibilities (POP) in September. 

9/1 Paycheck $310.00
9/15 Paycheck $310.00

Interest Earned $81.73

USAA Reward $3.00

Amex Reward $63.80

US Bank $3.50

eBay Sale $6.01

Pinecone Surveys $9.00

Chase Rewards $3.64

September Total $790.68

YTD Total $7,010.19

POP Total $79,094.12

Look at that! We have less than $1000 to go to reach the 80K milestone. I think this will be the goal for October, I'm going to stash some extra funds in here and make it happen. I know I can come up with at least what we added this past month, plus another $115 to make it happen. We just need to spend a little less this month. I'm actually excited...maybe I will exceed it!

Interest Earned September

It's that time again to record the interest earned from our cash savings.

FNBO $12.13
USAA $0.16
NFCU $69.44

Total $81.73

We appreciate all that we earn, but would sure like to see the rates of last year back!

Estimating 2020 Taxes

I'm watching some college football on television this Saturday and decided to do some preliminary estimates on our taxes this year. I'm not sure if I ever did any estimates around the time 2019 taxes were due or not. I know that things have been in limbo not knowing when my husband would get his promotion. He is on the promotion list as of late May. Now we wait for the military to get to his sequence number for actual orders to promote. It will not be October, so at most he will have two months of increased pay. 

We do qualify to take the American Opportunity Tax Credit for our youngest daughter in 2020. Our credits are a $500 dependent credit, a $1500 non refundable credit (AOTC) and a $1000 refundable credit (AOTC). 

Without the raise we will owe approximately $228. With two months of increased pay we will owe $270. I'm assuming the withholding will increase, otherwise the amount we owe will be more. 

I did all the math by hand looking at last year's return and finding all the numbers and tax charts for 2020 to make it all come together. My notebook is full of all sorts of numbers. I could have looked for a potential calculator. This way, I feel like I know it was done correctly, using our real situation and numbers. It is still an estimate, but I can definitely handle owing less than $300 next spring. 

My next task is to do some tax planning for 2021. The raise is significant enough to put us into a higher tax bracket. Withholding will have to be adjusted, so we don't owe a significant amount. I need to consider what tax education tax credits we may take, maybe none if we use Post 911 GI Bill funds. This means I need to figure out our plan for paying tuition next year, which is only a few months away. I also need to decide if we put more into retirement to offset taxes. I'm leaning towards a yes on this one!

Payroll Tax Holiday

My husband's paycheck next week is slated to have the reprieve from the payroll tax deductions. This reprieve is temporary through the end of the year. At this point anyway. We know that things can change. The unfortunate part for this holiday reprieve is that this is money that we don't need to use or spend and it will need to be paid back during the first half of 2021 with double the amount of payroll tax. 

Because we don't need the funds, we will simply save them in our savings account, earning a little interest, and plan to pull from the savings in the early months of next year if we are short. In the best case scenario, these funds will not have to be repaid and it will have been some forced savings! I would like that since we are diligently adding funds to our Pot of Possibilities. 

One help for us may be that my husband will finally get his promotion orders this fall which would put him above the income where the payroll tax holiday kicks in. That would mean less payroll tax to repay ultimately. I feel for people who really need this money and will likely use it, but may not do well when the taxes have to be repaid in early 2021.

Is your job participating in the payroll tax holiday? Do you have plans on how you will handle the lower income during the repayment period?

Here's an article from Forbes that explains the Payroll Tax Holiday if you need more information. Also might be wise to check with your human resource representative on how your employer is handling this payroll tax holiday. 

Reflection on August Spending

I think August has to be our spendest month so far this year. As many, our spending came to nearly a complete halt earlier this year with less travel, eating out and shopping in stores. We did a little online shopping as usual. August was the month that found us traveling across the country to drop our youngest daughter off at college for her junior year. 

Our daughter was pretty well stocked with the necessities, but there are always things that need to be replenished. More shampoo and laundry, and a replacement razor for the one left at home. Because we drove our van, we had fuel, meals, snacks and hotel costs to cover. 

The biggest expense was tuition for our youngest daughter. We wrote a check (actually sent it electronically) for $9011.72. Most of that was from cash saved, including our tax return. We did take a little more out from her ESA (Educational Savings Account), too. Because of the way the school did billing for books and a couple other things we owe another $947 later this month.

Our cat was diagnosed late in July with reduced kidney function and was put on prescription food. She did not like that change, so we were buying other canned foods that were more kidney friendly to mix in to get her eating the prescription food. At this point, I think we have been pretty successful and may be able to return some cans of food we stocked up for a refund. We also had another vet visit to have her numbers checked. BUN returned to normal but Creatinine levels went up slightly. We go back again later this month to have them checked again. This is becoming a $150 increased cost to our budget each month.

We live in a hurricane prone areas of the country. Thus this time of year we always start stocking up. This month we decided to add a portable griddle to our household to create more self sufficiency. The griddle was $130 shipped. After using it on a plastic folding table and noticing some heat damage, we have now invested in a stand for it, another $85. We also bought some grilling tools that we didn't have on hand either for another $20. We actually may grill out more with this purchase than we originally thought when we bought it. It will serve at least two purposes this way. 

How was your August spending? Was it your most expensive month this year? 

POP Contributions August

 These are the contributions we made to our Pot of Possibilities (POP) in August.

8/1 Paycheck $320.00

8/15 Paycheck $320.00

Interest Earned $87.58

Pinecone Surveys $9.00

USAA Reward $3.00

US Bank Reward $3.29

Chase Rewards $3.64

Amex Rewards $79.28

August Total $805.79

YTD Total $6,219.51    

New Big Goal Total $78,303.44

Making progress! Quite thankful. 

August Interest Income

I make a point of tracking the interest we earn every month. This month I noticed that I had tracked interest here, but not in YNAB. YNAB stands for You Need a Budget and it is a financial software used for budgeting. I corrected that error of course! 

Our interest comes from three banks, FNBO Direct, Navy Federal Credit Union and USAA. Most of the money is in certificates of deposits (CDs) at NFCU.

Here is what we earned on our cash last month:

FNBO $15.71

NFCU $71.68

USAA $0.19

Total $87.58

Thankful for all interest earned...but yet still sad that rates have dropped so dramatically at the same time. 

Details Matter

I just saved myself some cash by being a bit more curious to look at the details. 

My left eye has been irritating me the last few days. Originally, I thought it was my contacts and allergies not agreeing with each other. This sometimes happens, so I wore my new glasses (haven't mentioned that expense from last month). However, the irritation on my left eye continued. 

I could tell it had been a bit irritated, but figured in another day it would feel better. In fact that didn't seem to be the case, it still felt like something on my lower lid was rubbing up against it. Multiple times during the day I was looking at my eye to try to figure it out. 

Finally, the light and the angle of my head aligned just right that I was able to observe that an eyelash was growing towards my eye and rubbing up against it! My poor eye. I sure wish I had seen it earlier. But it has been plucked from my face and my eye is still irritated, but it will heal very quickly now that it isn't being rubbed everytime I blink!

I was about to make an appointment with my eye doctor. The fee for her time would have come out of pocket for around $80. I saved myself from spending that money by being just a bit more curious and looking at the details of my eye. 

I share because this can translate to so many areas of life, including finances. I know that when we were in the midst of our debt payoff, that every dollar spent and earned related to how fast we could achieve our goal. One less dollar spent, was one dollar more we could put towards debt saving us future interest charges. And it's never a one and done look for those extra dollars. I found I was always looking for ways to cut expenses, that over time added up. I kept looking at the details of what we were doing with our money and how we could make a shift to keep more for debt payoff. 

The details matter. Keep looking and digging. Keep asking the questions to find the answers. It's very rewarding when the answers reward us in ways we weren't expecting! 

POP Contributions July

Contributions to our Pot of Possibilities (POP) for July! 

Paycheck 7 /1 $310    
Paycheck 7/15 $310
Total Interest $$97.87
US Bank $4.00
Chase Rewards $28.00
Amex Rewards $67.69
USAA ATM refund $3.00

July Total $820.56

YTD Total $5,413.72
New Big Goal Total $77,497.65

Interest was up slightly. Amex rewards were also up slightly. 

At the rate of $820/month, we will likely add another $4100 to the Pot by the end of the year, bringing our total to around $81,597. I might find some extra cash to round that to $82,000 or throw some other money in that could have been added earlier this year but didn't for various reasons. It's all in the same bank accounts, just a matter of how I am tracking it really. 

Did you find some extra funds to put towards debt or savings this month? 

July Interest Income

Interest rates are dropping, but the funds at NFCU are all in CDs locked in for another 11 months. I moved some cash sitting in a checking account to FNBO in June so that money is earning more interest. 

FNBO $26.06
NFCU $71.76
USAA $0.20
Total $97.87

Interest earned will be added to our Pot of Possibilities!

Side Hustles

I have been thinking about side hustles lately. I can just imagine as things change in our world, that the side hustle is going to be a help for many simply to survive. Making masks this spring was a side hustle for many people, however, I expect this will slow down over time. 

Reselling our household goods and clothing has been my primary side hustle since late 2001! Prior to that I did a few garage sales and the big seasonal consignment sales of children's clothing. I have no idea how much I sold. I tracked some of it at different times, but since I was reselling items for less than purchased I never tracked for tax purposes. I'm sure it has to be a few thousand dollars, as one year I made a goal to sell enough on eBay to cover our Christmas gifts which which we generally budget $600. I also had a goal for a few years to sell make an average of $100 on eBay sales. I never made it to the goal, but I did get close to $1000 one year. 

I sell on eBay much more sporadically and make an occasional FB Marketplace sale a few times a year. My guess is less than $150 per year at this point. I admit my efforts have lagged. The items we have to resell are also less, as the girls have grown. I would sell gently used clothes they outgrew, as well as toys, which are in high demand for young families. 

I plan to create a few more side hustles in the next few years as we transition out of the military. All sorts of things come to mind honestly, and it will probably take some trial and error to figure out which ones add value to our family and are worth the effort. As I write that I realize that is a bit of a luxury...to get to decide what side hustles to do, but at the same time, if it isn't lucrative and one needs the cash, that side hustle gets dropped in search of something else. 

I do admire people who have a knack for finding a side hustle that is lucrative. I see many on YouTube that seems to have built something that their family can live off of, yet, I know they work hard making it all come together too. 

Do you or someone you know have a side hustle for extra income? What is that side hustle? How much income does it bring in? How did you figure out it was right for you? 

Vet Expenses

Our cat, Liberty, was diagnosed with reduced kidney function this week. She has been vomiting more, drinking water more and eating less. And at the age of 15 it was definitely something to check out. Her numbers are not severe yet, but higher than normal. She is now on prescription food and a supplement which appears to be probiotics. Our cost at the vet was $302.

We paid with our American Express card and received a $5 credit through their Shop Small promotion. As we always do, the card will be paid in full on payday.

We do not specifically set money aside to cover vet expenses, as they are usually manageable just through cash flow. In this case, I did pull a little bit from our emergency fund in the budget to allocate towards the payment. That's what it's there for, to cover expenses that we could not foresee.

I know some have pets with chronic conditions and must plan for larger vet expenses by setting aside funds specifically to cover the expected cost. This is definitely a good idea! We will shift our budget slightly now to accommodate for the higher cost of prescription food, and more frequent vet visits.

We go back in one month to have her condition evaluated and we hope to see good results.

Do you have a pet? Do you set aside money in your budget monthly for vet expenses?

Cash Plan for Fall Tuition

Our youngest daughter is in college and will be going back to live in the dorm this fall. Classes start a week earlier than last year and the semester ends the day before Thanksgiving. The exciting part financially is that the Board of Regents did freeze the cost of tuition and housing for the upcoming school year. It is still higher than we paid last year because our daughter bumped into the higher tuition differential for engineering majors, but it would have been even higher if they didn't make that freeze. We are grateful for that and for her continued scholarship that is $2,250 a semester.

It takes diligence and effort to pay tuition in cash.

After the scholarship we will owe $9701.50 for the fall tuition, room and board.

Here's where we found the cash:

Saved $500/mo x 7 months $3,500
Spring housing refund $2,291
Tax Refund 2019 $1,308
ESA Funds $2,602.50

We bought a couple used textbooks this summer that I purchased out of current income. She has a few others that are immediate access books, technically ebooks, and ones that are loaded into her account and she is automatically billed for them because she is enrolled in the class. Those books will add another $200. I expect this will be bill by the University in September, which I will pay from current income also.

After this semester, assuming her plans do not change and she stays on track, we will have just three more semesters to pay! We think we will use her portion of the Post 911 GI Bill for the upcoming spring and fall of 2021. It feels like light at the end of the tunnel since we starting paying college expenses for our oldest daughter in the fall of 2015.

Are you saving for college, paying for college, or changing plans for college? Tell me about it in the comments!

Simplifying Finances

On many levels our finances are not complicated, but I started thinking about how to convey our accounts to my husband and it sure sounded complicated! I'm not ready to make big swift changes, but I think we have some room for improvement.

The first change has already occurred. I transfered over $7,000 we had in second checking account with our bank, USAA, to our money market savings account. There was really no reason to have that amount of money sitting in a checking account earning nearly no interest when we could have it combined with other funds at a second bank and earning closer to 1% interest. I'm scared to check rates right now since they are dropping! But I do know it will always be better than what that checking account earned.

This account at the second bank is primarily our emergency fund. It is money we want access to at any time, but don't regularly need or dip into. So while two banks (we actually have three) doesn't seem simple, the way we use them is. And since I mentioned it, the third bank is where we have more cash parked in a few CD's (certificates of deposit) earning even more interest. So each bank has its purpose and reason for being!

A few other things we are considering for finance simplification, is closing some credit cards, paying off our daughter's car loan and moving two accounts with one mutual fund company into the other one where we have most of our investments.  Quite a few years ago now, credit card companies were offering rather large cash incentives to open cards. We did our fair share of taking advantage of those and the number of cards we have is more than needed. It will take a little time to make all the decisions, but I sure like the idea of simplifying things.

What could you do to simplify your finances? Cut some expenses and or subscription services? Combine investments or cash savings? How about debt? Not making debt payments is so freeing!

Everything Is Up for Review

Everything is up for review these days, financially and health wise. 

In fact, if you found me from Saving Advice, you may have noticed I'm not posting over there. Even where I spend my time on the internet is up for review. I recently removed the Facebook app from my phone, to avoid spending as much time there each day. I need less stress, and seeing others lives and hearing their opinions on any topic was adding to my stress. I'm not sure how long I will stay away or if I will ever return. Time will tell. 

Today, I decided to change our internet plan with AT&T. We didn't need increased speed of service, but I noticed that they charged $10 less per month than our current plan if we signed up for a faster plan. Ten dollars savings per month is $120 a year. I think it may only last 12 months, but I'm okay with that and can downgrade to a lower plan next year when it comes around.

While I was on the website making the changes, I noticed we have access now to HBO Max included with our service. This would normally be $14.99 per month. We honestly don't need more media to watch. We just got Disney+ for free for a year for change our Verizon Wireless Plan. We already have Netflix which we pay $12.99/mo and Amazon Prime Video! The options are now endless. 

We are still working with our oldest daughter, who just graduated college in the fall, about her car loan. We want to pay it off in full and have her pay us back with interest. I'm working on a proposal. I know she is aware of interest, but I'm not sure is understands how it is calculated so I want to educate her at the same time I make a proposal. I think a Google Doc with a basic amortization schedule would be helpful, maybe one I could edit as she makes her payments. 

Everything is up for review! Are you making any financial changes? 

American Express Small Business Offer 2020

Hello! 

Just a heads up to any American Express cardholders, American Express is offering $5 Cash Back on some of their cards if you spend more than $10 at a designated small business. You can earn up to $50 Cash Back in this Shop Small promotion happening through September 20, 2020. If you have an American Express card, you will likely find the promotion advertised when you log in. The offer does require activation before you are eligible. Go sign up now!

We recently took advantage of this when we had a small business do a repair on one of our vehicles. We spent far more than $10, but it was nice to get a little bit back and help a small business at this time when potentially others are struggling to keep their doors open.

We redeem all of our credit card rewards for cash when possible. This works well for us as we never pay interest on our credit cards, using it much more like a debit card than a credit card. We are paid twice per month and on payday log in to our accounts and pay the balances in full. We do not recommend using credit cards for rewards if you cannot pay off your balance in full each month. The reason is that most rewards are only1% of the purchase, if you are also paying interest for any interest rate above 1% you are not coming out ahead by using the card this way. These rewards are only beneficial if you pay the balance in full by the due date each and every month.

As usual, I will post our credit card earnings for July at the beginning of August. 

If you are new to following our journey, I will attempt to bring you up to speed in future posts, but for now I will say that we are currently on a big savings journey that we used to call our Big Goal. We now refer to it our Pot of Possibilities. Some day as my husband nears military retirement we will start using our pot of cash to start a new adventure!! 

The Four Walls

I know many of you reading are regulars and for the most part I think you are all still employed. However, if there is anyone out there who has lost their employment, or has reduced hours I want you to know about the four walls that can keep you fed and in your home for as long as possible.

The Four Walls is part of Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. There are six additional baby steps, but first you must take care of your four walls before you pay anyone else.

These four walls are:

1) Food, you must use any money you have to first provide food for you and your family each time you are paid, or receive money.

2) Utilities, you want to pay your electricity, gas and water bills, so these basic services are not turned off. Television subscriptions and internet service are not considered must have utilities. If you are behind in making payments you should attempt to get caught up if possible. At a minimum be speaking with the utility service to make sure you are meeting the minimum payments that will keep services going. They may be able to work with you on a payment plan.

3) Rent or Mortgage, you want to continue making payments in full if possible to make sure you are not evicted or foreclosed on. Catch up if possible, but also contact landlord or mortgage company to see what options are available to you. They need to know that you have had reduced hours or are now unemployed. Generally, the more honest you are the better.

4) Transportation, fuel to put in your car, the car payment and insurance. You would much rather have a default judgement on your credit card than have your transportation repossessed and you cannot get to work. You may have to at some point make sure your vehicle(s) are not more than you can afford.

This is not all encompassing for every situation, but it's a place to start when you are in overwhelm with your bills. Unemployment is hard. You may have to try other types of jobs, find a side hustle, sell some of your belongings, but make these happen first. All other debt can be handled once you get a handle on these most basic necessities.

And you can get more information about Dave Ramsey's and his financial advice by doing a search online, there's a website, books, a radio show and YouTube clips of his show. I'm cheering for you!

Is anyone in this situation or know anyone who is? What questions do you have? What advice would you give?