Tried four times now to add an entry.

Gaaa! It keeps evaporating into thin air.

Anybody else having troubles?

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I missed my blogoversary yesterday!
Well!!!!!!!!

I added $367.00 this month to my retirement account from gar. s.
Taking it to the $20 Challenge. Ran it to the bank this a.m. & moved it to retirement account as soon as I got home.

$20 Challenge
$014.71 August balance
+367.00 g.sa.
_______
$381.71 August MTD

In thinking about moving this becomes important to me:

Improve America's Walkability:

http://www.walkscore.com/transportation-bill.shtml

No, not a dumpster! (not yet at least)

I went yesterday on the way to the bank to deposit my $14.71 and stopped in at a place I've been wanting to get to for some time.

In my town there is a lady financial planner (referred to her by my Dad's friendly banker friend). We had a nice visit and if she passes a few more of the Frugalis Frustration Level Tests (ha - I won't turn over my money for someone else to manage nor will I just follow all the advice just because someone tells me it's a good idea).

I mean...

...if I don't frustrate HER too much, we might just be hooking up to let her assist Hubster and I with so many of the issues we have right now with facing retirement, downsizing, making a large financial contribution to a charitable 'entity', a possible trust to insure one of my sons is always taken care of, etc., etc., etc. plus all those icky 'end of life' estate planning issues that will likely be soon forthcoming? I need help. I want to hear educated pro/con arguments based on OUR financial picture, not the universal 'average'.

So, looks like I may be diving into the deep end with the big boys.

So far: PRO-
1)She's appears to be - not a snob. Important to me.

2)Hourly fee based.

CON-
1)She ???might??? be really tuned into annuities and maybe even sells them, I'm not sure, but it'll be a hard sell if that's the case as I'm very leary of them.

Nothing is firm yet. Hubster has yet to meet her. He'll have to come away with the same positive feelings (his spidey sense) or it'll be a no go.

We live in a small town. There is another planner in town, but he's a he. heheehee! Anyway, since I'm projected to be the longer liver, I want to start and stay with some one for the long haul (fingers crossed) of my future financial lifetime. I'd rather go with a female who understands finances from a woman's security point of view.

Okay, folks that's all the news that's fit to print so far today.

No-spending has transpired today.

I did come home yesterday and moved that $14.71 out to earn interest and just now updated the $20 Challenge log (a bit - I'm still not done) over to the left.

Thanks to all of you at Saving Advice dot com I was very comfortable in my discussion with her and she was impressed with my knowledge base. She doesn't know I have all of you smarties in my back pocket!!

Would you ever use a financial planner? When?

I checked Pigger and find $14.71 to add to the $20 Challenge. Will have to come back in later to do totals & updates. Wanting to go to bank now and get it moved to interest bearing account this afternoon!

NJDebbie commented on our low mortgage balance. We bought on a 15 year mortgage, a somewhat smaller house (ie not a McMansion) with lower pricing than most folks do, but it needed lots of elbow grease. And, we've done the work and added a lot of value to our place. There is a good deal of equity tied up in the walls.

I'm ready for it to be paid off, and even as that is about to happen we are thinking of selling! We keep tossing it around.

I love my house, but the acreage it sets on will likely be problematic for us as we age in regards to lawn-care. Two and a half acres of rolling yard that has slopes and cross fences and creeks and LOTS of trees to be weed-eated around. I don't want to have to rely on my kids and grandkids to keep up the yard as I grey.

The latest discussion is just how many months of lawn-care we could have done for us with the amount we'd pay for a realtor's fee if we sold and rebought elsewhere.

We're doing a lot of talking, going back and forth on keeping cash out of a house vs. paying off early. The experts all disagree and we can't make up our minds!

Meanwhile we are doing a lot of getting rid of stuff now so that our kids don't have to go through it like we did on Hubster's parents house. We have way, way too much stuff! Much of it inherited from an admited pack-rat. We've been busy craigslisting and ebaying it.

But first you must sort, clean, investigate pricing, discuss all the finer points, etc. Me? There are days I just want to call the Disabled American Veterans and tell them to send their biggest truck and a couple of hefty workers to haul it all OFF!

Yet my frugal side butt-puckers and then we go back to trying to rid ourselves of 'stuff' and be good stewards at the same time. Being good in this train of thought is a lot of work!! Being charitable and just giving it away sounds ever so much nicer! Having depression era parents that harped the lesson home makes for a tough-row to hoe when the ease of just letting stuff go raises it's head.

How to hack our frugal dna strands?

Any one have a creative idea? thoughts?

...or is slogging through our only option? We've discussed having an auction, etc. There is just so much STUFF!

Today I'm updating the left side-bar as I've got a few minutes.

Grrls (Lux's Personal)Just Wanna Have E-funds!-w/Fidelity

On 2/18/09 this fund was sitting at $1,391.56. Since then I've been putting $10 a month in it, adding the itty bit of interest in it as well. Some of you may remember I got a nice big gift from parental units and a bit of that went in here as well, some of that went into my Roth IRA - some to municipal bonds, etc. Anyway I've also been hitting the Grrls Fun e-Fund with some portion of my junque' booth sales. Today it sits at $2,662.81 updated 8/15/09.

This is my own private emergency fund that is seperate from our household e-fund.

Hubster and I having major conflabs the last few days about whether or not to pay off the mortgage. If we paid it off today it would be $13,470.06 which is 32.27 more in interest from 8/1 to now plus a $13.00 legal recording fee. Not too shabby. I must say that it takes a lot less fees to get OUT of a mortgage than it does to get in one!

I just updated the sidebar with the mortgage balances over there on the left. I've been quite remiss about keeping all those doo-whatch-a-doodles over there updated. I was nigh on to six months late keeping the mortgage portion over there updated. Of course, all the payments have been made on time.

Today was a no spend day.

We are getting ready to downsize since the kids are all getting on to independent adulthood. So, earlier this week on Craigslist we sold our big dining room table that took up so much room in our tiny little dining area and then went on the prowl to find another.

BEFORE

It took awhile of missed connections and a bit of people overstating what they had for sale, but we were able to buy a nicer, better table, more suitable for our area now and will fit nicely in most any new place we might buy in the future. It has a leaf to increase/decrease size which our old one did not. That's it leaning against the door for now - I've got to clean out under a bed to find a good spot for it.

AFTER


I'm hoping this helps show the house a bit better with a smaller table in here. (When/If we get around to listing it for sale. We aren't there yet, much stuff still in basement from FIL's estate to go through.)

And, we came out ahead.

I paid $265 for my old table at an auction years and years ago. Got lots of use out of it. Sold it for $250 and bought a replacement for $180 and came out with a nice table & $70 left over. I also found a nice comforter set on craigslist for $60 that I might go for and then will take the left over $10 to retirement savings. (...and then? I'll clean my old comforter set and list it for sale too, so possibly there'll be that cash too, to add to the retirement kitty!)



Oh yeah, earlier this week I made my final 2009 IRA contribution! YEAHHHHHH ME!!!