Medicated Money

2006-10-16T20:40:00.000-04:00

Thanks for stopping by Medicated Money! Unfortunately, if you are reading this here, then you may not know that we have moved! Come check us out at our brand, new site:

Medicated Money

Another Damn Good Question

2006-10-10T21:08:00.000-04:00

JLP over at All Financial Matters posted another great question of the day.
Should home equity be included in figuring net worth?

As some of you know, I recently had a post that discussed what should and should not be included in one's net worth. Unfortunately, we currently do not own a house, so we do not face this question on a daily basis. However, if and when we do own a home, our plan is to not include the home equity into the equation. Why? Well, I'll answer that question with a question: How do you determine that number?

This is posted on our old site! To read more, please come visit us at our new site: http://www.medicatedmoney.com/!

Here's To You, Mr. EBay Buyer!

2006-10-08T09:45:00.000-04:00

Being in the medical field, Mrs. Medicated and I have spent a few Ben Franklins on books that we needed to study with while in school. While in school, we were just dating, not very financial savvy, and poor students living off student loans! We didn't spend much money, but we did spend a lot on different medical textbooks. We both needed to purchased the same books for the same classes to learn the same material. Why do I bring this up? Well, fast forward now years later and our bookshelf in the office is filled with medical book after medical book from top to bottom.

This is posted on our old site! To read more, please come visit us at our new site: http://www.medicatedmoney.com/!

Getting Back To Work!

2006-10-07T14:45:00.000-04:00

We are happy to announce that Mrs. Medicated has found a job and is planning on starting this Monday. As you may remember, we moved from Texas to the Northeast so Mr. Medicated could take a new job. This job has been going extremely well.

This is posted on our old site! To read more, please come visit us at our new site: http://www.medicatedmoney.com/!

Determining One’s Net Worth: Honey, What’s The Dog Worth?

2006-10-04T21:17:00.000-04:00

So, honestly, what should be included in one's net worth? Just the basics? How about everything and the kitchen sink? The reason I bring this up is that I love reading the net worth postings (like here, here, and here) that always come in at the beginning of the month. When we decided to start posting our net worth, we wanted it to represent not only our financial status, but a monthly reminder to get our ass in gear and clean up our financial mess. At least this is what I would tell Scott if I was asked "why do you post your net worth?" The thing is, the more and more I read, it seems like many people count everything when they calculate their net worth! However, Mrs. Medicated and I are a little different. We do not tally everything when it comes to our net worth. Why would we do that? Well, there are a couple of reasons, but let's first talk about what we do and don't count.

This is posted on our old site! To read more, please come visit us at our new site: http://www.medicatedmoney.com/!

Net Worth - September 2006

2006-10-01T14:15:00.000-04:00

After a rough hit to our Net Worth in the month of August, we were determined to make up the ground lost and then some. Our net worth this past month did extremely well due to 2 main factors.

Instead of paying for unexpected expenses (not completely unexpected in knowing that we were going to move, but still cost more than expected), we were able to get back to paying down our debt and saving money.

Even though I am the only one working (Mrs. Medicated starts her new job in 1 week, but more on that in a different post), we did receive extra pay from our old employee based on our PTO (paid time off) which off-set the fact that we received just one new check in the month of Sept.

With that stated, let’s take a look at the numbers:

This is posted on our old site! To read more, please come visit us at our new site: http://www.medicatedmoney.com/!

Auto Insurance: Unfortuanely Revisted

2006-09-27T18:00:00.000-04:00

“You know, somebody actually complimented me on my driving today. They left a little note on the windshield that said ‘Parking Fine!’ -Tommy Cooper

With the move from Texas to Pennsylvania, we knew that we were heading into a increase in cost of living from one to the other, and we would need to adjust our monthly budget due to this. With that being said, we needed to switch our Texas auto insurance to a Pennsylvania policy to complete the registration of our cars. Needless to say, many people warned me to be ready when I saw the rates jump considerably between states.

This is posted on our old site! To read more, please come visit us at our new site: http://www.medicatedmoney.com/!

The Price Of Higher Education

2006-09-26T20:30:00.000-04:00

In the latest version of CNN Money's 'Millionaires In The Making: The Marchbanks,' a young couple very similar to Mrs. Medicated and I in age and salary are featured. To be honest, I love reading these articles as do many other pf bloggers. The Marchbanks are kicking ass and taking names with their financial status, and worth this, they should be commended for this (hence the article).

If you are unfamiliar with this series, these articles are a nice little recap of people doing it right and how they do it. For the most part, it is the same basic pf advice stated by all. Yes, you know that one should save as much money as possible. Yes, you know on should max out retirement savings. And yes, you know I should own a home to get the equity created from home ownership. Very basic advice plus very basic financial commitment equals millionaire status, right? Wrong and here's why!

This is posted on our old site! To read more, please come visit us at our new site: http://www.medicatedmoney.com/!

Hasta La Vista, Car Loan #2

2006-09-23T12:45:00.000-04:00

This past week was another crazy week at work, and with that, we did not have the chance to get around to posting. Yet, riding on the coattails of lamoneyguy, we also have great news. We have finally finished paying off Car Loan #2. This car is Mrs. Medicated's car, and she swears that it has been driving different since we paid off the car. A little more smoother and comfortable!

This is posted on our old site! To read more, please come visit us at our new site: http://www.medicatedmoney.com/!

Are You Missing Something?

2006-09-20T21:15:00.000-04:00

After 3 weeks of working at my new job, I forgot about something very important. You see, at my last position, I was paid twice/month and only on certain days of the month. To be honest, it was definitely annoying at first, but after almost 4 years of it, it became so normal that I barely thought about it. I would know that money would be deposited in the account on these 2 days, and I knew to always check our accounts a few days before and then a day or two after. Well, one of these days came and went this week and with my mind still processing the normal routine, I did what I normally do on this particular day.

This is posted on our old site! To read more, please come visit us at our new site: http://www.medicatedmoney.com/!

I Think I Just Heard Our Budget Scream

2006-09-17T20:00:00.000-04:00

Do you ever have your budget set with everything in place and are doing so well by the middle of the month, and the next thing you know, the budget is blown to pieces from an unplanned event? Well, this weekend, we had one of those experiences!

This is posted on our old site! To read more, please come visit us at our new site: http://www.medicatedmoney.com/!

Rolling Over Our Retirement Accounts

2006-09-14T20:00:00.000-04:00

Today I completed the paperwork needed to complete our rollover to a IRA. We both our rolling over our 403(b) accounts as well as our Work-Retirement accounts into a IRA account.

This is posted on our old site! To read more, please come visit us at our new site: http://www.medicatedmoney.com/!

We Are Moving!

2006-09-13T20:59:00.000-04:00

Well, after 6 months of blogging on Blogger.com, we have decided to make a change! We have enjoyed blogging so much; we decided to take it a step further! Unfortunately, here at Blogger.com, we felt that we were limited in everything that we wanted Medicated Money to be. Because of this, we are proud to announce that we have moved!

Our new website is: http://www.medicatedmoney.com/

We are extremely excited about this new change and would love if you stop by and pay us a visit. After much hard work, we are finally up and running!

So, with that, we would like to thank Blogger for hosting us, and look forward to continuing on at our new site, http://www.medicatedmoney.com/

New Retirement Plan

2006-09-07T17:45:00.000-04:00

With the start of my new job this week, I needed to attend 2 days of orientation. For the most part, it was your standard ‘this is how we do this’ orientation. I did my best to pay attention to all of the speakers, but to be honest, after a couple of hours of hearing about hospital protocols and procedures, I was lucky I didn’t fall asleep. I did perk up though when retirements and benefits were discussed.

Overall, I am both happy and disappointed with my new company’s plan. They offer a 4% base plan and a 50% matching plan on employee money contributed up to 5% of your salary. On the whole, one can receive up to 6.5% of their salary from the institution. The bad news is that you become eligible for these plans after one year.

Due to the one year waiting period for enrollment, we have decided to not make any retirement contributions in the 1st year of employment. We plan on completing our debt repayment plan, and then banking enough money for a down payment on a house. As for the wife, she is currently still looking for a position. We hope that after a very good interview this week, she will have a job offer early next week. If that stands true, her position does offer a 3% matching rate on contributions to a 401(k) that starts immediately. We definitely would take advantage of this offer and contribute just 3% and put the rest of her salary to the plans already mentioned.

Expenses For August 2006

2006-09-05T21:15:00.000-04:00

I think for the record I am going to just erase the month of August 2006 from my memory. Not only did we get killed from the expense of the move, but our general expenses were out of control. But you have that monthly budget, right? Well, the monthly budget was put through the ringer because we didn’t even come close to staying on budget. Here are the numbers:

As you can see, our spending was out of control. Hard to believe this statement is coming from this couple that was making so much progress the last couple of months. We are planning on creating a new budget for our new home, hopefully something around the $3k mark. We should be able to do that once the dust from everything settles. As for explaining this month, let’s just forgot that we even brought it up and move on!

Net Worth - August 2006

2006-09-02T23:30:00.000-04:00

We knew that this month we were going to take a serious hit in our Net Worth. With our move across the country, we decided to stop our debt repayment schedule and just pay minimal amounts. We also decided to tap into our emergency fund to help pay for the move. Even with these financial moves, we still took a serious beating to our net worth. We were hoping to not lose too much ground; hoping to maybe stay where we were at. After completing the calculations this afternoon, it looks like we lost roughly about 1 good month’s progress. Here are the numbers:

As you can see, we had a nearly 9% negative loss in the month of August. Granted, if you remove the moving expenses that are a one and done expense, we actually had a positive net worth of 2%. Unfortunately, we have to be fair to ourselves, and we wanted to include this to get the whole picture, even if it meant, taking a negative hit!

We only paid $1,000.69 towards our debt repayment plan. We have been averaging closer to $4,000/month. We hope we can get back on track in the month of September with vengeance.

As occurred in the month of July, negative change in the Work Retirement– Wife account is due to a recent inquiry which resulted in a wrong amount being calculated. The value now is the correct amount.

The negative change in the Student Loan #1 as well as 0% credit card are due to up-to-date statements instead of just using Quicken software. The 0% credit card also was affected thanks to Bank of America.

The Debt Repayment – August 2006

2006-09-01T16:00:00.000-04:00

We knew coming into the month of August that we were going to suspend our repayment plan and just pay the minimal amounts on each bill. It still was disappointing to see that we only paid $1,000.96 to our bills. I was getting use to seeing the total debt get smaller and smaller each month. As for our goal of paying off $36,500 by the end of the year, this will definitely make it even more difficult.

In the month of August, we paid $1,000.96 to our repayment plan lowering our total goal to $17,547 left to pay off. This means we need to average $4,390/month to reach our goal! My guess is that we will not be able to reach this goal due to the expense of our move and we are running out of time. However, I am optimistic that we may be able to complete this goal. We'll just have to wait and see!

A Little Vacation!

2006-08-30T08:15:00.000-04:00

After driving 1,500 miles, the last thought on my mind would be drive another few hundred miles. However, like always, Mrs. Medicated was right in saying that I would definitely look forward to it after the move. Why would she say this? Well, we are planning on driving to the beach for a 3 day mini-vacation. After the stress of our move, the Drive, and the unpacking of the past 3 days, we are ready to just sit back and relax. So thinking ahead, Mrs. Medicated planned this small vacation before the stress of the move really kicked in 3 weeks ago.

Yes, financially speaking, it may not be the smartest decision to go and spend money on a vacation after spending close to 5k to move across the country, but you know what, we need it! After doing this blog since March, I have realized that you can only worry about money so much, after that, it is time wasted. Sometimes you just have to live a little, and if that means spending some money on yourself instead of waiting for a rainy day, so be it! So, I apologize if this goes against the grain on the personal finance advice, but we need some time to just unwind and get ready to start a new job! I promise we’ll kick it into financial ass-kicking gear starting next week!

The Expense Of Moving Cross-Country & Getting Back On Track

2006-08-29T17:15:00.000-04:00

I estimated that our move would cost us around $2,500. Boy was I wrong! All in all, by changing jobs and moving 1,500 across the country, our bill was around $4,000. Add in the fact that in this month we ended up paying 2 different rents for the majority of the month, we are looking at roughly a $5k bill. For the majority of this bill, we put most of it on credit cards to be able to buy some time in paying for everything; however, we need to pay it this CC bill to avoid interest. We are going to take a serious hit in our net worth and debt repayment due to this move.

As of right now, I am planning on starting my new job September 5th. Mrs. Medicated is still currently looking for a position after having a couple of leads fall through. We are not worry about her situation, though we would like her to find something sooner than later. We still have 2 paychecks each coming from our old employer that we will help for the month of September, as well as receiving our security deposit back from our old rental house. All in all, we are planning to pay off the credit card as soon as possible, place the remaining money from these checks in our debt repayment, and hopefully be back on a dual income by October. From there, it is our goal to try to finish paying off our remaining balance on our debt repayment plan, and then beginning saving for our house down payment.

Our goal is buy a house in the next 12 to 18 months depending on the location, price, and amount saved for the down payment. We are extremely happy with the decision that we have made to move, but as you can see, it has changed our financial progress. We need to just get settled into our new house, new job(s), and then determine how fast we can get the train back on track! Thanks to all of the well-wishers especially D over at Divorce To Financial Freedom for the encouraging words and support!

Home Sweet 'New' Home

2006-08-28T22:14:00.000-04:00

“What is more agreeable than one's home?” -Marcus Tullius Cicero

We made it to our new home yesterday and are happy to announce that everything went safe and sound. We have spent the last 2 days unpacking, unpacking, and some more unpacking! I did take a time-out today to get the computer set-up and get back to being online. Definitely need our internet access!

So the big question of the day for us is: How did this move affect us financially? Well, to be honest, the hour is late and the day is almost done, but we will answer this question over the next couple of days as well as get our ‘financial house’ in order as well.

Moving Day!

2006-08-23T13:00:00.000-04:00

We finished packing up our stuff and crammed everything in the truck to head out across the county. Hard to believe that moving day is here! We probably will be out of commission for the next week with the move and everything, but we hope to have the blog up and running shortly after we move into our new home. Until then, thanks for reading.

-The Medicated’s

You Got To Roll With It!

2006-08-21T23:04:00.000-04:00

With this past Friday being our last day of work, we spent today finalizing everything with our now previous employment. We had meetings with HR, Payroll, Benefits, and underwent exit interviews. We are planning on signing up for COBRA, but this will not occur until September 1st due to our health insurance continues for the rest of the month. We plan to discuss this in another post!

One important item from today’s meeting was to decide what to do with the money we have invested into our pension fund. With our employer, one becomes vested at 5 years of service. Unfortunately, we did not reach the five years; therefore, we have decided to roll the money into an IRA. I contacted our financial institution that we invest our 403(b) into, and because we like their services, we have determined to stay with them. We plan to roll our pension money into an IRA as well as take the money from our 403(b) and roll that in as well.

I must say that I was very impressed with the service our financial institution provided. They spent the better part of an hour going through the online application and answered every question that I had. I am unsure what financial institution options we will have with our new company; however, we are hoping that our current group will be an option.

As of right now, because my new company does not match any contributions for the 1st year, we are currently of thinking of not investing any money in order to fund our housing account that we plan to start after we complete our debt repayment plan. Yet, that topic is for another post!

Pack, Pack, Pack

2006-08-20T23:55:00.000-04:00

After a long 2 days of packing, we are about 75% finished with our preparation for the move. Our to-do list was filled with tasks and things that we need to complete before we move, and unfortunately, we were unable to make a dent in it due to the never ending packing of boxes and bins! It truly is amazing how much stuff you have when you start going through it!

However, I just wanted to say thanks to the members over at the Money Blog Network Forums. I thought I would be able to do a little Medicated Money site updating this week after a discussion with members on the Network, but alas, it was not to be.

I really appreciate the advice given and plan to implement it when I have the time! Thanks again to Flexo, Kewee, My Money Forest, Tricia, Pfblueprint, and Financial Reflections!

More Preparation Before The Move!

2006-08-16T22:45:00.000-04:00

In preparation for the big move, I decided to take our car into the shop for its 30k tune-up. We are planning on renting a 24ft truck, towing one car with the rental truck, and driving our second car. All in all, 1,500 miles of open road lay between us and our new home.

It definitely will be an exciting trip, but definitely a long one. We are figuring that we will be able to manage around 50mph with the truck, and our goal is drive 500 miles/day. This means we are looking at most likely 3 days of driving. The car checked out fine, but more outflow of our money to pay for this. $600 all said and done! I keep telling myself that it is better to have the car checked out and ready to go then hit a problem on the road that could possible cost us not only much more money but more importantly, time!

Thanks again to D over at Divorce To Financial Freedom for reminding us to not get too stressed out from this entire ‘move’ thing!

Medicated Money Is Hemorrhaging Money!

2006-08-14T19:49:00.000-04:00

"Finance is the art of passing money from hand to hand until it finally disappears." -Robert W. Sarnoff

With our upcoming new employment and move across the country, we are currently hemorrhaging money from all possible gaps. We knew going into the month of August that things were going to get a little tight, but this is ridiculous. I am constantly online checking accounts, sliding money from here to there to still try to maximize interest rates (why try!?!) As of right now, the blood loss is somewhere around $5k with everything. Include our normal monthly expenses; it seems that everyone has their fingers in an almost empty cookie jar.

From paying 2 rents plus security deposits to buying supplies to move, the damage is mounting! The good news is that we are still afloat, but we are taking on water fast! Hopefully, we can dig ourselves out before we completely sink!