The process was similar to a normal residential sale.  Buyer submits a purchase agreement and gets a home inspection.  The difference is there is a lease option, which states the option fee aka down payment, and a rental agreement.

The pros for the seller are for the term of the lease

1. Mortgage payments paid.
2. Hopefully a monthly profit.
3. Continued tax deductions.
4. Typically a higher quality tenant, since they do want to buy the house.
5. Tenant is responsible for maintenance and repairs.

Cons for the seller can include

1. Having to be a landlord.
2. Tenant could trash the place once they realize the still can’t afford the house.

The rental agreement for our RTO is 2 years, at which time the buyer has to obtain financing or lose the option fee.  From what I’ve read the buyer never ends up purchasing the home for most of these RTO.  Check back in two years to see if this is the case for us ;ob

The race for the tenant to move in was fraught with drama, but that’s a topic for another post…

Since I had been making us save for about 3 years and keeping our expenses low, we were able to live off of half of Mr. Thrifty Femme’s salary while I was laid off.  Ah, those were the days!  I should make it a goal to get back to that!  These days I think we could live off of one salary alone.

Boring events include

1. Saving money.
2. Opening a HSA.

Big events include

1. Toddler!Thrifty Femme entering the world.  I will not be posting pictures even though she is very cute :o)
2. Purchasing a new home in 2014.
3. Potentially renting our former home 2015.

Yeah 2 and 3 don’t exactly square, but ya live and learn!  That’ll be a topic for future post ;ob

The search results are sorted by grocery category (i.e. Baking Goods, Beer/Wine/Spirits, etc) by default, although you can also view by store. There are options to find coupons using Smart Source and there is an option to view the nutritional information for each search result. You can also make a grocery list and it will keep a running total of your savings and the amount you will spend as well as organize the list by store. You can either print this list or email it to yourself.

Although the user interface could use some web 2.0 bells and whistles, My Groceries Deals will definitely could streamline the time it takes peruse the weekly circulars and compile your grocery list.

• Transfer Roth IRA, old 401Ks, and old pension to discount brokerage firm
  Done 03/2008!
• Contribute maximum limit to Roth IRA for 2007 by April
  Done 04/2008!
• Become credit card debt free by July by paying off credit card #1 before the 0% intro rate ends – on target Pay off credit card #1 before the 0% intro rate ends
  on target* Done 06/2008!
• Pay down car loan by 90% by December 31
  on target slipping Blown!

  Well, the original plan was to triple car payments to pay the car off by April 2009. In order for this to happen I had to stop contributing money to savings. I couldn’t hack not contributing to savings, so I came up with an alternative solution to triple payments on the months and double payments on the even months and contribute the would-be third payment to savings, resulting in a May 2009 payoff.

  This has been working well, but now I am considering transferring the loan balance to a credit card at 0% until October 2009. I would save $450 in interest plus earn interest on the money that would have been used for two or three monthly car payments. The hitch is the application form doesn’t have a place for loans only credit card balance transfers, so I’ll have to call or visit a local branch to see if a loan balance transfer would be processed as a cash advance which would be a deal breaker. The other option would be to do a balance transfer to a credit card with a low balance and then request a credit refund. I’m still mulling this over.

• Continue to contribute 401K to employer match percentage
  on target, might consider contributing more.
• Research long term investment options
  gotta get started I’m reading the Booglehead book. I suppose that is progress.

*This got revamped because I remembered I have another credit card balance with a 0% interest rate that ends in Feb 2009, so I won’t be credit card debt free until Feb 2009.

Short Term Goals

• Determine personal net worth – in progress – Done 04/2008!
• Track aggregated expenses for 2007 – in progess, gotta create more meaningful subcategories to get the unreconciled percentage down – Done 04/2008. I used this budget template from Microsoft to determine better categories and subcategories.

Family Goals 2008

• Rebuild family emergency fund to 20K by December 31 24.5K by April 2009 25.5K by May 2009
  On target

  Well, this keeps changing because I keep finding stuff I should be taking into account the eFund. The original goal of 20K by December is actually on target for successful completion.

• Pay off credit card #1 before the 0% intro rate expires in October
  On target with payment scheduled
• Budget for 2009 vacation(s)
  Currently on target, but will likely have to continually adjust to anticipate increasing airfare prices.

Short Term Goals

• Determine family net worth
  In progress – Done 04/2008!
• Track aggregated expenses for 2007
  In progess, gotta create more meaningful subcategories to get the unreconciled percentage down – Done 04/2008. I used this budget template from Microsoft to determine better categories and subcategories.

  Tentative 2009

  • Pay off credit card #2 before the 0% intro expires in February
    On target with payment scheduled

  Long Term Goals

  • Make some!!
    yeah, still gotta make some…
  ]]> https://thriftyfemme.wordpress.com/2008/06/23/mid-year-goals-review/feed/ 1 Thrifty Femme https://thriftyfemme.wordpress.com/2008/06/23/sorry-for-the-unexpected-hiatus/ https://thriftyfemme.wordpress.com/2008/06/23/sorry-for-the-unexpected-hiatus/#respond Tue, 24 Jun 2008 01:00:40 +0000 http://thriftyfemme.wordpress.com/?p=50 Real life has been a royal pain and rather depressing. I will be posting regularly beginning tonight.
  ]]> https://thriftyfemme.wordpress.com/2008/06/23/sorry-for-the-unexpected-hiatus/feed/ 0 Thrifty Femme https://thriftyfemme.wordpress.com/2008/06/12/thrifty-thursday/ https://thriftyfemme.wordpress.com/2008/06/12/thrifty-thursday/#respond Thu, 12 Jun 2008 10:24:30 +0000 http://thriftyfemme.wordpress.com/?p=46 Continue reading Thrifty Thursday: The Discounts Edition]]> Bank of America has expanded it’s Museums on Us program. This program provides free admission to select museums across the nation on the first weekend of each month all year long with a BOA debit or credit card, although there may be other associated fees.

  $10 off orders of $60 with Google Checkout for select stores, including Buy.com and TigerDirect. This promotion is good until June 23, 2008.

  Starbucks has kicked off a card rewards program. Join before July 14, 2008 to receive a coupon for a free drink.

  ]]> https://thriftyfemme.wordpress.com/2008/06/12/thrifty-thursday/feed/ 0 Thrifty Femme https://thriftyfemme.wordpress.com/2008/06/11/things-on-my-mind-lately/ https://thriftyfemme.wordpress.com/2008/06/11/things-on-my-mind-lately/#comments Wed, 11 Jun 2008 19:43:30 +0000 http://thriftyfemme.wordpress.com/?p=44
• Whoa, I come back from vacation and find I have feed subscribers! Hello to both of you!
• Wondering how it is possible to spend 7k on bingo in a year. There’s definitely a post coming on this one.
• Life insurance
• Refi postmortem
• Mid-year goals assessments
• Estimating expenses for next year’s vacation(s)

A word brief about debt
Let’s talk about debt for a moment. Debts are not the same as bills. A credit card or a loan is a debt, while your electric bill is not. Missing single a electric bill will not show up on your credit reports; however, if you stop paying your bills altogether, they become debts because you didn’t pay them and the fact that you didn’t pay in a timely manner will eventually show up on your credit reports.

What factors determine my FICO scores?
FICO scores range from 500 – 850, the higher the better. The pie chart below illustrates the weight of the factors that determine your score.

As you can see Payment History is the most important factor of your FICO scores, so at least pay the minimum payments for all your debts and bills.

From where does the information behind FICO scores come?
In the United States, three consumer reporting agencies are Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. These for-profit corporations collect information from credit card companies, financial institutions, and collections agencies to build your credit report. Since there are three consumer reporting agencies, you have three different credit reports and three different FICO scores.

Where can I get my credit reports?
The best place to get your credit reports is from Annual Credit Report because you can get all three credit reports for free once a year. Notice I said credit reports for free not credit scores for free. You are entitled to view your credit reports from all three consumer reporting agencies under Federal laws (long pdfs warning). Since there are three credit reports I recommended checking one every four months. This way you can look for errors or identity theft all year long instead of once a year.

Unfortunately the Federal laws don’t include free FICO scores, and the three consumer reporting agencies don’t sell FICO scores anyway. They each sell their own proprietary scores known as FAKO scores. FAKO scores are basically fake FICO scores that have a numerical range similar to FICO scores. Basically the three consumer reporting agencies are trying to oust FICO in favor of their proprietary scores by making it difficult for consumers to access their real FICO scores. Regardless of these shenanigans, lenders look at FICO scores and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

Where do I get my FICO scores?
The only place you can reliably get your Equifax and Experian FICO scores for a reasonable price is from MyFICO.com. For your TransUnion FICO score MyFICO or TransUnion Consumer Solutions are your only hope.

Lending Tree does offer a 30-day credit monitoring trial that provides an Experian FICO score and credit report, but then it’s $12/month until you cancel. MyFICO offers a 30-day credit monitoring trial that provides an Equifax FICO score and credit report, but then charges an annual payment of $89.95 if you don’t cancel.

FYI, it is highly unlikely all three of your FICO scores will be exactly the same, since all three consumer reporting agencies use their own slightly different rules to build your credit reports. Don’t freak if they vary rather significantly. Potential lenders will pull all three scores and take the middle score.

Controversy Time
Ok, I’m going to be fairly controversial for a moment and say don’t worry about your FICO scores. There is no reason for you to shell out money to track your FICO scores unless you are applying for a loan or seeking employment that requires a handling money or a security clearance. If you aren’t doing these activities, who cares what your scores are? You won’t get any prizes. The most you’ll get is bragging rights on personal finance blogs Note I said FICO score and not credit report.

If you have been consistently paying your debts (mortgages, credit cards, other loans) on time for several years, your FICO scores will be in decent shape. If you want excellent FICO scores, continue consistently paying your debts on time and reduce the amount of debt you have.

Let’s recap:

1. FICO scores represent the likeliness you will pay your debts in a timely manner
2. Payment History, Amounts Owed, Length of Credit History, New Credit, and Types of Credit in Use are the factors that determine your FICO scores ranked in order of importance
3. FICO scores come from information contained in your credit reports from the three consumer reporting agencies
4. Always obtain your credit reports from the Annual Credit Report website
5. You can only get your FICO scores from MyFICO.com or TransUnion Consumer Solutions
6. Don’t worry about the scores if you aren’t looking for a loan or seeking employment that has to do with money or security clearances

Executive Costco Members will receive

• a $90 account bonus
• 25% quarterly transaction charge rebates*

Gold Star and Business Costco Members will receive

• a $70 account bonus
• 10% quarterly transaction charge rebates*

in addition to ShareBuilder‘s normal account benefits

• No account minimum
• No inactivity fees
• Invest any amount

*Be sure to read the fine print.