Mr. Grump and I have been trying to figure out insurance for me for a while now.  I had been paying for my own insurance at my last job (one major reason why I left: I was paying $150/mo. because they wouldn’t offer insurance), and since working at the restaurant, I have been paying about $100/mo. for a rather crappy plan.  Basically the plan I have with the restaurant will cover a broken or sprained ankle, that’s about it.

We figured that when we got married, I would just get covered under his healthcare plan.

WRONG.

His healthcare plan is pretty good - but in order to add just one dependent, it costs between $70-90 per pay period.  Wait - did I mention that Mr. Grump is paid every week?  The total cost of adding a dependent is actually $280-360 PER MONTH.

Now, as a relatively healthy female of average height and weight, I was paying $150/mo. for individual insurance.  Seems pretty screwy right?

Well, in any case, since the insurance at the restaurant will obviously not a stop-gap measure make, because there is no stop once we’re married, I’m going back to just paying out of pocket for a much better plan.  One that I know will cover me in almost any instance (except maternity).  So until kids are a worry, I’m fine, and I guess I just have to pay more for a better service.

October wound up being a pretty good month. We stayed (more or less) within budget, and we managed to reduce our debt a little bit. I wish it was more, but we had spent $700 on auctions for the antique store and eBay in September. So basically, we finally paid that back, and are now getting ahead. 

Look at the progress bar to the right… 10% paid off!!!

We put a 50% off sale on the Antique store, and we’ve sold about $150 worth of stuff out of it. The way we have everything priced, that should probably help us at least break even; on some pieces, we’ll still have some profit at least.

Also, we finally had a big month from Squidoo.  Broke the $100 barrier!  So from Squidoo and CJ, we’ve probably earned about $300 this month so far, which is basically a full week of me working at the restaurant.

This week was pretty good, over $500 in income coming in from all the sources.  Things are finally seeming to get ahead.  Feels good.

As I am sitting here cradling my head (allergies are NOT fun) and thinking about how much I need to get done before I go to work at 4pm to - maybe - make $100, I start wondering if this is worth it. I don’t mind hard work, but at the same time I’m not the pseudo-masochist (not sado, pseudo) that Mr. Grump is, either. I do enjoy being able to relax every now and then. He has to be constantly moving and doing.

I’ve been doing this *on the side* stuff from about 7am-3pm or 4pm every day, then going to work at night from 4-10 or 11. Then on the weekends I work at least Saturday night 4-11 and Sunday from 10am-8pm. So really I’m working about 60 hours a week for not a whole lot of money.

I figured out that if I hit my target, I am getting paid about $0.80 per hour.  As depressing of a statistic that sounds, it really isn’t the thing that bothers me the most. 

The worst part of it for me - I have no time to paint.

I keep telling myself that this stuff *should* eventually be basically passive income.  (Honestly, I still think I’d be spending about 20 hours per week on it, regardless).  But to get to that place, it looks like I’ll be doing this 80 hours and working at the restaurant for another year or so.  Wouldn’t be a bad thing - if I had time to paint.

This is exacerbated by the fact that I’ve recently done some pretty kick-ass paintings.  I really think I’m starting to finally “get” it.  And my teacher and close artist friends have told me they think I should be able to get into a gallery - and that much closer to my dream - pretty soon.  So theoretically I should be pouring all of my energy into art.  I feel like something’s gotta give.  The happiest two weeks of my life since I quit my job were when I got to paint for 3-4 hours for two weeks and make some of those paintings.  This is not an easy path.

Anyways, so here is the weekly wrap-up:

Restaurant: $350

eBay: $178

Squidoo: $0

Antique Store: $0

CJ: $161

Weekly Total: $689

I’m glad that we made extra this week (almost $300 extra!) because Mr. Grump is taking me to a wine tasting Saturday night for my birthday. As a result, I won’t really be working this weekend. Of the $350 I earned from the restaurant, $200 of it came from two nights on the weekend. The other $150 came from three shifts during the week. Anyways, have a safe and happy weekend!

Let me repeat this: Just because something is deductible, that does not mean you should spend the money.

Why in the world would I say this?

Because I think that many people have lost sight of what exactly a deduction is. First of all, a tax deduction is simply a REDUCTION of your income in the eyes of the IRS. So, if you are in the 30% tax bracket, and you can deduct $1,000, you will only receive $300 back. With a deduction, you only receive the amount by which you reduced your total tax burden back, not the (your) cost of the whole deduction.

We forget this, and go out and make a decision simply because it is tax-deductible. For example, you roll your capital gains deferral from your primary residence into a newer, bigger house because the interest is deductible. Your old house had a $180,000 mortgage at 5% for a payment of $966. The total yearly deductible interest from that note is about $9000. Now, this does not mean you get a check from the IRS for $9000 at the end of the year. Rather, you reduce your income by $9000, which if you are in the 30% tax bracket comes out to a $3000 check back from the IRS. Not nearly as cool.

Now, your new house has a mortgage of $240,000 over 30 years at 5%, and a payment of $1395. You can deduct $12,000 for the year from your income, but the check from the IRS will only be $3,600.

Wait a minute. You only get $600 more back from the IRS, and your cost of owning a home is $5,148 more per year. So, your decision has cost you a $4,548 reduction in your cashflow a year.

Not such a great deal, now is it?

My birthday is on Sunday, and I’ll be 24. I’ve been frustrated this week because it seems like it is going to take forever for us to get out of this hole - and get back to just being at $0. We’re not even at the stage where we can accumulate wealth.

The fiancee and I talked last night about some options. Because, really, we should be totally knocking this thing out. The kicker is really the car payment (his). If you add up the car and house payment, we are effectively paying the payment on a $300,000 mortgage, which if you have 20% equity - would be a $375,000 house. And here in Houston, $375k gets you A LOT of house. That thought was incredibly sobering.

But unfortunately, there is not a whole lot we can do about it at the moment, because 4×4 trucks (required for work) are pretty freaking expensive. A ten year old truck with over 200,000 miles on it was still worth $7,000. So at least we know the resale will stay high - but in the meantime, we just have to tuck in even more.

Please take a look at The Carnival of Twenty-Something Finances, hosted by USAinDebt.  Thank you for hosting the carnival; there are some great articles hosted this go-around.  I’ll post some of them later today.  Until then, have a great Monday!

We’ve pretty much run out of notches in our proverbial belt. Dang. Truthfully, we should be more than fine, but this is definitely a precautionary measure.

I spent a good portion of yesterday trying to figure out how to skim from the budget, which we already thought was pretty bare bones to begin with. The reason? Our roommate will be closing on his first home November 8th, so we will no longer have that income stream. Having a roommate has definitely mad the financial road a little easier for us, and without one, I don’t think I would be able to be making the major life changes I am right now.

So how much did I have to try and cut out? About $800, because we also wanted to lowball what I am making. Here’s what we had to cut:

Gym Memberships: $60, net $40 <— we didn’t use them much, and there’s a local racquet club with a gym for $20 a household

Art: $100 <— this hurt a lot, I keep my sanity through classes

Eating Out: $100

Power: $100 (finally lowered our electric bill!!!!)

Cable: $30

Credit Card Payoff: $388

Reducing the credit card paydown hurt the most, but really, November is a five pay-day month, bonus month (which will help with December), and January we *may* have a roommate for a month, the February is another five pay-day month. So every bit of extra we have will go towards 1) our reserve, and 2) credit card payoff. Plus, by the end of February I should be up and running enough to give up the restaurant, or just have some mad money.

This is definitely not easy, but having everything paid off will be so exhilarating!!!

Restaurant: $65

eBay (net): $24

Squidoo Payout: $34

Antique Store (net): $200

Total: $323

So, not the $400 I am supposed to get every week, but remember I had a surplus last week. I also will have listed about 60 items on eBay by the end of tomorrow with anticipated sales of about $1,300, and a net payout of $500 or so (these are consignments, so I get commission from them.)

Also exciting is that we got our first commission from the sale of an item on our website, www.dorkgamer.com. We are having a ton of fun building these. I know all of you guys out there who like off-line gaming just might get hooked. Okay kiddies, time to wrap up. I’ll probably post again about us readjusting our budget for the anticipated moving of our roommate - no fun. Have a great weekend!

Right now in my life I crave a certain amount of security.  I would prefer to have a large amount of security.  However, security can be just as damaging to your overall financial health as risk can.

If you save too much of your money without growing it, and you have a fear of the “risk” associated with higher yielding accounts or even the market, you may see a decrease in your buying power due to inflation.

True story, I swear, but when I worked with the bank I remember I had a client who distrusted banks and anything financial.  Well, instead of putting her money into investments and higher yielding accounts, she put it in a drawer of a table.  No joke, one day her house was hit by a tornado.  Her money flew throughout the neighborhood, raining down on her joyous neighbors.  Well, she thought she was doing something safe and secure, but she wound up losing a good amount of savings in the process.

I feel that If you never take any risk, you will never move forward.  These “risks” you take could come in almost any form – asking for a raise, moving to a better neighborhood, starting a new company, investing in the market, selling your home.  Because you do not know the outcome of any of these events, they all have inherent risk.

If you never ask for a raise, will your employer likely give you the value that you create? 

No.

Why not?  Your employer is most likely a smart businessperson.  They will pay you the least amount possible to keep you happy and productive. 

Nevertheless, if you walk into any of these major decisions lightly, and without thought of the possible various outcomes, the events can be disastrous.  For example, take the person who decides to begin flipping homes – with no previous experience, and without considering current market conditions.  I think the increase in foreclosures paints the picture of those who went into a speculative market uninformed.

What is the solution?  Balance.

In order to move forward, to truly succeed, you have to take risks.  Otherwise you wind up burying all of your savings in the yard and perhaps losing its location at worse, and at best, seeing a vast decrease in your buying power.  However, you do need some security, some soft landing for the hard times.  I really believe a good reserve fund will give you that security, as well as the capital and flexibility to take other financial risks without devastating yourself if the results are not as favorable as you hoped.