December Snowflakes

This is the final report of 2024 on our interest, credit card rewards and other extra income! 

NFCU Rewards $50.00

Amex Reward $55.79

Chase Reward $2.96

Amazon Rewards $14.73

USAA Subscriber Distribution $171.47

USAA Interest $0.09

FNBO Interest $78.58

NFCU Interest $81.33

Total $454.95

YTD $3,385.86

As expected, the final tally for 2024 exceeded $3000! The average amount is $282.16 per month. 

Earlier in the year, the credit card rewards money was going to the van loan. That loan is now paid off! Now all extra income is being saved. In 2025, we will be accumulating as much cash as possible as we prepare for my husband to transition out of employment with the military. 

September Snowflakes

I'm tracking money coming in this year from interest, credit card rewards, and other miscellaneous places. Reward money is going towards paying down our van loan. Each month I calculate the total and send it in towards the principal of the loan. Interest is just accumulating in our bank account to add to cash savings this year. 

Chase $39.73

Ebay offer $0.20

Amazon Rewards $8.92

US Bank $40.64

USAA Interest $0.14

NFCU Interest $77.79

FNBO Interest $109.01    

Total $276.43

YTD $2,386.49

On track to 'earn' over $3,000 this year in rewards and interest. 

Snowflakes Incoming

Snowflakes is a term I used years ago to refer to 'found money' to put towards our debt pay off. I don't specifically used them towards debt, but throw them into the pot of possibilities (our bank account).

Our insurance company just informed me that we will be getting a payment of $101.13 to our checking account. This is a return of capital or they call it a Subscriber Distribution. It happens nearly every year and yet I rarely remember, so it always feels like a Christmas surprise! 

Yay for snowflakes and found money! Do you have any snowflakes incoming? 

Pantry Eat Up and More

Hello friends! Yes, I actually have a post that is not a Pot of Possibilities update!

Our oldest daughter came for a week long visit last week. That causes extra spending. Groceries and some expenses to enjoy the town. As a result of that and just a few days left before my husband's paycheck, I decided to keep the grocery shopping on Sunday lean and use up what we already had on hand!

This week we have used up:

2 buns

frozen corn and edamame

fresh blueberries

cilantro 

hummus

green onions

2 apples

shredded carrots

tomato

can of black beans

steak fries

tomato sauce 

half a can of refried beans

three frozen everything bagels

3/4 lb ground beef

skirt steak

I meal planned around these items and made several of them into my lunches this week. I did have to supplement at the grocery store for a few things and to stock up on some normal needs. I spent less than $50 on Sunday and will go back for a full grocery run again on Thursday! It does feel good to use up things already purchased as well as to shop from the pantry. 

In other news, we received a check from USAA for $538.48. This is apparently a refund for a extended vehicle protection plan we purchased on our used truck. We made the purchase of that in 2011. USAA did a quality review and found their EVP products did not meet member expectations. I don't believe we ever made a claim with them and the vehicle was paid off a long time ago. Interesting business decision on their part. We are grateful for any money we weren't expecting. 

We should probably put this money into the Pot of Possibilities, but we are traveling by car next month and don't have a lot set aside for gas, food and hotels specifically, so just might use this money! Once the trip is over any extra we didn't use could go into the Pot! 

Have you received any unexpected cash recently or eaten down your pantry stores? 

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? 

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?

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!

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!