Jessie's Money and Jordan's Too

Income Tax

2012-01-16T08:13:00.002-07:00

Who's excited to file their income taxes this year?

I am!

In fact, I've already done a 'dry run' and come up with a net return of about $1,000 (just for me, not including J). Now I just have to wait for my T4 to get it done properly.

Question for you all - do you use online tax return software or do you do your taxes by hand and mail it in?

Thank You!

2012-01-15T13:01:00.001-07:00

Both my mom and Jordan's grandma gave us cash this year for Christmas. Traditionally I haven't always appreciated that sort of gift, but it was truly spot on with what we wanted this year.

Jordan and I have been really itching fr a new kitchen table. We bought and refinished the one we have about three years ago for $50. It's done the job and while the table is in decent shape the chairs are getting really wobbly.

I wanted a table that would could extend to 90 inches in length so that we could host a really big family dinner and everyone could sit at the table, together.

We the cash gifts from our family and returning one of the gifts from another we were able to get exactly what we wanted!

Below are pics both extended and without the leaf - its a beut and fits in perfectly!

Thank you do much to Momma and Baba!

Property Taxes

2011-12-30T12:52:00.000-07:00

Up until today, we have been going on the assumption that our property taxes would be about $2,000/year - this is based on what our builder had been telling as about property in the area - so our budget has reflected a monthly amount of $167. Thinking about it, this was probably a good guess based on the house before upgrades and on the 2010 tax rate.

I had some time to call the City's tax office today and learned quite a bit about how the taxes are calculated/adjusted.

When a new home is built, the taxes are based on purchase price of the home (including GST, down payments, and upgrades - not including CMHC insurance) - that would make our approximate tax bill for 2011 $2,104 - that divided by 12 gives us monthly payments of $175. I'm not sure what the 2012 tax rates will be, so this is the value we've used to sign up for monthly payments to the city.

Because we only owned our home for 6.57% of the year, we we owe approximately $138 for the 2011 year - the payments above are for 2012 while we wait for the adjustment notification that we and our home builder will have to sort out.

When the new property assessments come out in the spring, we'll find out the City's assessment of our homes value and adjustments will be made for payments from June through to December. That could mean that for the remainder of the year our tax bill goes up, or down, depending on if we over or under guessed when signing up for the monthly billing cycle.

You might asked why we signed up for the monthly payments instead of paying annually. Unlike vehicle insurance, there is no interest charged for setting up a monthly payment program vs paying in a lump sum - the only drawback is that we lose out on a very slight amount of interest if we had been putting the money away in a savings account when the annual bill came due. For us - with home ownership being so new, we thought the monthly plan suited us best.

If you are a homeowner, do you pay your property taxes annually or monthly? Why?

The Credit Card is Paid Off!

2011-12-29T11:58:00.000-07:00

It feels amazing to have this debt wiped out for the second time...and I hope, the last time. I'm not sure how many of you caught my guest post on Krystal's blog a while back, but it described how we wound up here ni debt again and more importantly a theory on why it happened again. I would like to re-post my thoughts here:

When I first started blogging, I wrote from a single person’s financial perspective. And I struggled to stay committed – not to the end goal, but to the process. I found it easy to come up with goals and to write about them, but I had a very difficult time tracking my spending. So while I could check my debt balances, I had no clue if my spending was in line with my budget. I also spent a good part of the first year of my blog worrying about job loss. Thankfully I survived three rounds of layoffs, and I continued to get recognition and pay increases – which helped the progress on my debt goals.

A year or so ago, Jordan (my now husband) and I merged all of our finances. We got a joint credit card that we used for all of our spending. We were able to start tracking where our money was going, and it was a huge eye-opener for us. We found out that we spent a lot more on eating out and alcohol than we had imagined – including our groceries, we were putting an average of $1,000 in our mouths every month! That realization brought us to a place where we were more focused than ever and we progressively curbed our spending in those categories each month.

We were able to pay off not only my debt, but his as well. Merging our incomes provided us with opportunity to re-think our spending and saving strategies. It also provided us with the financial power to pay off our debt.

We enjoyed being debt-free for about four months before we started to fall into the debt hole again.

We had convinced ourselves that because we had good jobs. And because we were not afraid of a job loss, we told ourselves we would be ‘fine’ no matter what came up. On top of that, we were both really really tired of thinking about, talking about and writing about money. Then, Jordan and I bought a new vehicle together, adopted a dog, got engaged, purchased a home (through a new home builder) and got married – oh, and we just adopted a second dog. With the wedding planning underway and having to make decision after decision about our new home purchase, we became – quite simply - exhausted.

Most of us have heard of debt fatigue. Gail Vaz-Oxlade describes it as the mental state that occurs when you have been in debt for so long that it feels like you’ll never get out – so you stop caring and just continue buying. She believes that it is at the three year mark when debt fatigue tends to sit in. The description never really seemed to fit for us; we certainly got debt paid off the first time in less than three years – so why were we so tired? Why did we stop caring?

My mom found an article in the New York Times that talks about Decision Fatigue which seemed to describe what we were going through. Here is how the article describes it:

No matter how rational and high-minded you try to be, you can’t make decision after decision without paying a biological price. The more choices you make throughout the day, the harder each one becomes for your brain, and eventually it looks for shortcuts, usually in either of two very different ways. One shortcut is to become reckless: to act impulsively instead of expending the energy to first think through the consequences. The other shortcut is the ultimate energy saver: do nothing. Instead of agonizing over decisions, avoid any choice. Ducking a decision often creates bigger problems in the long run, but for the moment, it eases the mental strain.

Wow! That described Jordan and I to a T.

I don’t want to use “decision fatigue” as an excuse, but it certainly helps explain so much of our behavior. We had been making so many huge decisions that our capacity to make small ones has been diminished.

I’m hopeful that understanding this type of fatigue will help us to avoid getting in debt a third time. Come November, we will take possession of our new home and we will be debt free again – aside from our mortgage and car loan.

It’s the awareness of our money and our energy levels with both paying off debt, and with the mental energy it takes to make good decisions, that will keep us on track. Combine that with the love and support we have for each other, and a couple of good spreadsheets – and we should be just fine.

Organized for the New Year

2011-12-26T13:10:00.002-07:00

I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas/Holiday celebration with friends and family - I've enjoyed having a week off and am looking forward to another. I spent some time this morning finalizing the transfer of all of our accounts to our new house and getting our 2012 budget confirmed. Jordan and I, unless an unforeseen disaster strikes, will have our credit card totally paid off by the end of the year and we are both so looking forward to entering 2012 being consumer debt free (aside from the vehicle loan).

We have settled on the following as our monthly budget:

Our utilities won't be that high - but it was the average of the bills in the rental. While our home was built with some upgrades in the windows and insulation and we also have six months free of our phone, internet and satellite tv services - we haven't received our first bill yet and just want to have a bit of wiggle room.

Our insurance has been a huge win, we had further discounts when we actually moved and so this payment includes both of our vehicles as well as the house.

I have increased our gas budget because our commute is a bit longer - we don't have a good gauge on what it will be, but if it's more - the overage in the utilities guess should cover it.

I'm not really concerned if we spend more or less in either booze or eating out/entertainment categories - as long as the three combined are equal to or less than $450/month.

We have started our allowances up again so that we have a bit of personal spending freedom. It's so nice to be able to treat someone to lunch without having to check in with each other first.

The Joint House account is a planned spending account that includes everything from clothes, shoes, hair cuts, pets, annual expenses, vehicle and home maintenance as well as large household purchases.

The majority of the Joint Gifts account is for Christmas, but it is also intended to include birthday presents/housewarming gifts and that sort of thing too.

The Joint Emerg and RRSP accounts are pretty self explanatory - although last year we only put $100/month into each of these and we've increased it to $200/month for each of these categories.

Financially, I'm feeling a lot more positive as Jordan and I embark into the new year as a married couple in our own home. I'm looking forward to staying positive in the rest of my life too!

think..think..think...

2011-12-05T20:50:00.001-07:00

I feel a bit like Winnie the Pooh tonight - always had a lot going on, but had troubles focusing.

Financially there's a few interesting things going on, I'm getting a Profit Share from work and we got part of our damage deposit back from our landlord - but I've talked so much about it with Jordan and I'm not really motivated to go into great detail about it.

Emotionally I'm pretty drained. My Maid of Honor has made it really easy to settle in at her place, but it is her place - not our place and so I feel a bit out of place.

Family wise....My brother just got a promotion at work - so we're really excited for him and he's starting to take a pretty keen interest in his finances which is awesome. My dad is sick, and while most of the time I'm pretty okay, once in a while I hear a song or think of something and just have to have a little cry. Jordan is pretty amazing thought, I get hugs whenever I need them.

Work is super busy right now. We are completely understaffed and don't appear to have a training or hiring plan in place...we're not meant to work any over time, but I am and am hoping that the axe doesn't fall on me for that. I feel like my team is spinning a bit out of control and I'm doing what I can to hold it together, but I really don't feel like I'm doing a good enough job (I'm not a supervisor, am one of two intermediates on my team).

I'm really looking forward to Christmas, but am starting to put a lot of pressure on myself to get the house totally unpacked and settled before the holidays, but I'm not sure how realistic that is. It's like I can't help but to put pressure on myself where none really needs to be there.

I asked Jordan what we were going to do with ourselves after we get settled in - it's been a pretty big year with buying a new vehicle, adopting two dogs, getting married and building our first home. We had some jokes about it - but I really am not sure what I'll do with all my energy.

Will I put more into work? life? family?

I hope to put a bit more time into family and friends and maybe, just maybe, a little time for myself.

Unexpected Laptop Issues

2011-12-04T19:29:00.000-07:00

While my computer is packed, we kept Jordan's laptop out and available for our transition period of homelessness. Unforutnatly, a couple of days ago we realized it had shifted in the vehicle (read dropped) and unforutnatly the hard drive crashed. In to Memory Express we went - $250 later, we have a new hardware and new operating system.

The good news is that $250 is a lot less money than a new laptop!

The next couple of days should be pretty quiet as we had our last house related meeting, prior to possession, on Saturday. I'm hoping to get caught up on blogging and go visit the pups a few times while Jordan is studying for and then taking an exam this week.

I hope you all had a great weekend!

Officially Homeless

2011-12-01T07:15:00.000-07:00

We handed over the keys to our rental last night to our landlord and don't have possession of our new home until December 8th - we are officially homeless.

My gracious Maid of Honor and Best Friend has opened her doors to us and we've now taken over her spare bedroom - we brought more items that we had planned on because the weather dropped into freezing temperatures and we didn't need exploding/frozen bottles of cleaners and bulk kitchen goods in the truck...good thing she's such a gem!

Jordan and I are both mentally and physically exhausted and are looking forward to resting for a few days.

We have our orientation of the new house this afternoon - wish us luck!

Tracking Bars Updated

2011-11-28T08:28:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update this morning -

We are now permitted to spend the funds we had been required (by our bank) to allocate to closing costs. While Jordan and I knew that our closing costs would only be beer/pizza/uhaul rental (so max $500) we were required to have 1.5% of the value of the mortgage available for closing costs.

Jordan and I have moved some money into our emergency fund, Christmas fund, and new home furniture fund as well as made a large credit card payment.

yay!

Spending Update

2011-11-24T07:52:00.000-07:00

Below are September and October spending recaps (I get the bills in the first week of the following month - that's why I have Oct/Nov below). The October bill was a bit horrific...oops, but November was back on track with spending of just over $1,600.

Our gas bill has gone up significantly as we've been driving out to see our new house every couple of days, monitoring the progress of the build.

I did some early Christmas shopping which shows on the October bill and Jordan and I also bought a few pieces of new furniture for the new house (home maintenance) that were on an amazing sale.

eek Hardwood

2011-11-23T07:43:00.000-07:00

Hardwood went in yesterday and carpets are tomorrow! So exciting!

Home & Debt Update

2011-11-22T08:28:00.000-07:00

If you follow me on Twitter you know that Jordan and I have our possession date - December 8th! You also know that to save money we gave notice for November 30th, which means we're pretty much going to be homeless for eight days. At first we thought we might stay at a hotel because even that would be less expensive then rent and utilities for the full month of December but then both our Maid of Honor and Best Man offered their homes to us and while smaller, we chose to stay with my Maid of Honor. She lives in a quieter place and also has a free parking stall that we can use for one of our vehicles.

Here's a few pics of the house:

We've been purging and packing every night for the last few weeks so that we're only bringing things into our new home that we want to have there - everything else has to go - including everything that old roommates have left behind. So far, we've filled our recycling and garbage bins three times (full!) and sold $460 worth of goods. After a late night delivery last night of a few items, we stopped by the bank to make a deposit - it felt soooo good!

Here's an update on our joint credit card debt after making a payment this morning - unfortunately, it's gone up a bit but we are still on track to have it paid off at the end of December - where is this extra money coming from you ask? It's an assumption that I'll get a bit of profit share from my company, some of our damage deposit back and will pay out some banked overtime hours if I have to.

I hope to get back to posting a bit more regularly soon - but for now I imagine it will continue to be sporadic.

Miss Me?

2011-11-18T07:40:00.000-07:00

Life has gotten hectic lately!

Work has been extremely busy and life has been a roller coaster.

We have our possession date for the home - December 8th! I'm far to frugal to have paid a full months rent for December so we're going to be homeless for 8 days - we'll be couch surfing and our dogs will be in a kennel.

My dad is pretty sick so that's caused a bunch of stress too - he's responding well to treatment so we are all very positive.

I'm planning to get back into the swing of things soon; however, I really don't think I'll be settled into routine again until the new year.

Yellowknife

2011-11-01T07:47:00.002-06:00

Is where I'm working for the next couple of days:

All Time Top Referring Blogs

2011-10-28T06:00:00.000-06:00

I just want to say a big thank you to these inspirational blogs. Not only do they provide amazing advise and support they have welcomed me into the personal finance blogosphere family.

Thanks!

Christmas Budgeting

2011-10-27T06:00:00.000-06:00

Can you believe that Christmas is right around the corner? Don't believe me...check out the Christmas Countdown Clock....at the time that I'm writing this post...

wowza...only 62 days!!

Jordan and I are going for an even more frugal Christmas than we normally have - trying to focus on thoughtful versus expensive. We make this plan every year - but it's so hard to stay true. I just keep seeing things that I want to share with my loved ones.

We're going to try to stick to about $50 a person - so if we're getting a gift for a couple our budget would be max $100. We have 16 groups of people - for a total of $1,150 - which is more than we have saved so we'll actually have to try to shave the budget in some places.

What do you all try to do?

House Update Wednesday

2011-10-26T05:30:00.000-06:00

Wow! So it's been a few weeks since I've given you an update on the house...what a slacker.

Sooo much has been done since my last update when I told you that the plumbing rough-ins were being done. Since then the insulation and siding has been installed, the drywall has been installed and mudding and taping is nearly finished! The basement floor has been poured and they have prepped to pour the sidewalk/stairs leading up to the house.

Here's some pictures from the last few weeks:

August and September Spend Report

2011-10-25T06:00:00.000-06:00

I've been a bit of slacker lately with keeping up with my regular posts - so without further delay here is our spend report for August and September of 2011.

I've cleaned up the categories a bit and made them more colourful - but other than that - it's the same basic spreadsheet.

You can see that we're already spending more in gas then normal - we've been driving out to our new house a few times a week which is bringing this up a bit.

We've been really good about eating out and buying alcohol so I'm really pleased with those numbers.

Banking is annoying - it's interest.

A Financial Year in Perspective

2011-10-24T06:00:00.001-06:00

A little more than a year ago Jordan and I had merged our finances and were learning about each others money management styles. There was one particular conversation that we had where we were both feeling a bit exasperated. I felt like money was going down the drain and Jordan felt like we saved too much - we both didn't understand where all the cash was going.

It was in the weeks following that frustration that we decided to stop using personal debit, credit and cash sources and use a single joint credit card account - that way, we would both have access to it at any time and we could both see exactly where the money was going.

I started doing monthly spending recaps as we learned where are budget leaks were. You followed along as Jordan and I battled our addiction to Wendy's Fast Food and Coors Lite. You saw us working to keep our wedding budget in check and stay on top of annual expenses too.

In our most expensive month - a whopping $4,585.36 - went down the drain. In our least expensive month we spent $1,515.15.

Below is a re-cap of our financial journey from the last year - thanks to everyone who followed along and provided us with such wonderful support and insight.

We're looking forward to another year long journey as Jordan and I embark on home ownership - which is sure to be a financial game changer.

A, B, C's of Me

2011-10-20T06:00:00.000-06:00

I've seen a few bloggers with this post, so I thought I would join in the fun!

A-Age: 27
B-Bed Size - Queen
C-Chore you hate – Folding Socks
D-Dogs – We have Two!
E-Essential start to your day – coffee!!
F-Favourite Colour- purple
G-Gold or Silver – white gold
H-Height - 5'10" (always dreamed of being 6 feet, but never made it)
I- Interests – reading, baking, finances, work
J-Job Title- Human Resources Generalist
K-Kids – soon!
L-Live – In Alberta
M-Mothers Name – She responds to posts as 'Jessie's Mom'
N-Nickname - not tellin'
O-Overnight hospital stays – so far, none!
P-Pet Peeves – loud eating & dirty soap
Q-Quotes from films – I don't really remember movies...I just enjoy them, while I'm watching them
R-Right or Left Handed – right
S-Siblings – one older brother and two women that I have chosen as my 'sisters'
T-Time you wake up - usually get up around 6:30
U-Underwear – umm...weird question but yes I wear it
V-Vegetables you hate – none...that I know of
W-What makes you run late – staying at work too long
X-X-Rays you’ve had – just teeth
Y-Yummy food that you make – I love to cook all sorts of things
Z-Zoo animals – Lions

Prioritizing

2011-10-19T07:56:00.000-06:00

With possession of our new home about six weeks away - it's hard not to dream about all the things that we think would help turn our place into a home. Some things we feel we need, others we know can wait - it gets a bit fuzzy in between when you're walking down the isles of Home Depot, Ikea and others.

So..Jordan and I made a list - we wrote out the item and the approximate cost...very approximate.

Then..here's the big part, we actually prioritized those things together (I felt so grown up).

We chose, as a team, what we wanted as soon as we got settled into the new place, then what we wanted to do in the spring, the fall and then as we can afford each item. In all practicality - it may take up to five years before we are able to save and pay for each of these items...but we will be assured that we have a plan and everything we want isn't a 'no' it's a 'where does it fit on the list'.

Christmas Draws

2011-10-13T06:00:00.010-06:00

I have a guest post over on Krystal's blog today, Give Me Back My Five Bucks, if you've come my way from there - welcome! If you haven't seen my post there yet, I hope you check it out.

It is that time of year where quite a few of us will start thinking about Christmas (if we haven't already). With Jordan and I buying a house, and getting out of consumer debt for the second time - I'm more aware than normal about our upcoming Christmas budget.

We have already pared our list down from the usual 20 or so people to about a dozen and are trying to come up with creative, thoughtful gifts that are budget friendy.

There is one gift giving opportunity in my family that is really non negotiable as far as I am concerned and that is the gift draw that my cousins and I participate in every year. We all grew up very close and Christmas reinforces our relationships - when we can reflect and spend time together. There are ten of us and quite a few of us are in long term relationships and our partners have started going in on the draw as well - so Jordan and I now buy two cousin gifts each year.

Well, this year, instead osf purchasing gifts I through up an idea on Facebook and tagged all of my cousins in it - I asked if they might want to put a hand made only rule on our draw.

I was so so surprised, everybody is excited for it and said yes!

So out Christmas cousin budget just dropped from about $150 to very economical.

Now....does anyone have any homemade gift ideas?

School Lenders

2011-10-12T06:00:00.001-06:00

Have you heard about Gail Vaz Oxlade's School Lender's Campaign?

If you haven't heard of it yet, now is the time to find out what she's talking about. She's asking everyone she knows, through her blog, twitter and facebook - to get involved. She asserts that the lending system is broken and we all need to take action to implore our MP's to make a difference.

You can - Join the School Lenders group on Facebook to stay tuned for announcements and you can write to your MP (Gail's got a nifty pre-drafted letter for us) to demand a change in legislation. Finally, during School Lenders Week (Nov 13 - 19) she wants Canadians to commit to not using credit for anything during that week.

It sounds pretty powerful to me! While I only have about 200 hundred visitor's a day - I know that some of you have blogs that are far more widespread then mine. Do you agree with Gail's message, will you help spread the word?

Accelerate - Vehicle or Mortgage

2011-10-11T06:00:00.034-06:00

Over Thanksgiving I had the opportunity to talk to my family a lot about our upcoming Mortgage commitment - fixed or variable and accelerated or standard - there are so many options! What we're stuck on right now is once everything is settled in the new house and we've paid off our credit card debt - should we put any un-allocated money we have on the mortgage or on the Escape payment.

I was originally thinking that we should go with the higher interest rate and smallest debt - the Escape. It would free up $388.62/month which we could then add to our RRSP's or Mortgage or life..or some combination.

My mom suggested that we consider putting any extra money towards the Mortgage because of the effect of compounding interest over thirty years. Making additional principal payments have the biggest impact the sooner they are made into the mortgage (the same rationale is used when contributing to RRSPs).

Have you ever had to make this decision, which way did you go and how did you decide?

Jordan just heard me talking about this post with my mom and he voted for the higher interest rate...and while that was my initial feeling to - I'm going to give my mom's idea a chance and put the math into excel.

This first chart shows the savings after three years, but does not account for the long term savings of paying off mortgage principal early on - unforutnatly, I can't figure that out so maybe you can help?

Insurance!

2011-10-10T05:00:00.001-06:00

I have a guest post over on Krystal's blog today, Give Me Back My Five Bucks, if you've come my way from there - welcome! If you haven't seen my post there yet, I hope you check it out.

For the last few years, I haven't had much luck when seeking out new insurance quotes. I, unfortunately, do not have a stellar driving record and so I have just accepted a big insurance bill each month. That said, each year I call around a bit to see if I can get a better price.

As my vehicle insurance for the Ford Escape is up for renewal at the end of October I started playing the insurance game recently. Given that Jordan and I just got married and we will take possession of our new home sometime in the next six to eight weeks - I thought that we might have a bit more negotiating power. So when I started making my phone calls, I got quotes for our two vehicles and the house.

I called AMA as that's who I use currently and TD because that's who Jordan uses. We also called a broker (brokerlink) who give rates for Insight (though I'm told I might have heard wrong and it's intact) as well as Peace Hills and Economical. As a last ditch effort - I heard TD Meloche Monnix has good group rates for alumni so I have them a call too.

Here are the rates they gave us:

I'm astonished at the difference - even in the house quotes alone there were huge variances which is something I wasn't expecting at all. The choice - is clear.

Switching to TD Meloche Monnix is going to save us $107.91/month - nearly $1,300/year - plus we'll have house insurance too - pretty incredible I'd say. We've got everything to switch over on my renewal date and then once we take possession of the house we'll call and formally add the house to the insurance plan too.

...next step, life insurance!